Blizzard & GeForce Now

Community General Discussion
1

I don’t know why Blizzard pulled out of the deal with Nvidia, I’m sure they had their reasons, but am I missing something from how this service works?

I’ll be honest, I played WoW on GeForce Now, the day it went live, I signed up, and I played WoW and OW and it was amazing - granted I didn’t realize it was against the ToS until after the fact from seeing headlines on google and other locations after blizz pulled the plug.

I guess I could understand…like Shadow or Stadia? or another platform where you are remotely connecting to a server, downloading the game on that server, and playing remotely to that server, because there is a way someone can cheat the game? easily hack the system? I honestly actually really don’t know…

but with GeForce Now, it seems different, the game is still on my computer, I’m just accessing the visual aspect of it through Nvidia? like I don’t have a desktop when I’m using their service, heck I can’t even use addons while using the service, and I’m willing to play without addons, to be able to play, when I couldn’t before!

Look, here’s my thing. I can’t afford a “gaming” PC let alone a PC with a graphics card, it’s just out of my price range, right now I’m playing on a laptop with a i5 and no gpu, and it sucks not being able to play games unless you crank them down to the lowest setting and play with 20 fps, but when GeForce Now released, I saw it as a way to be able to play more games without the costly expense. I was able to play BFA on high settings with my laptop sitting around 75-80c I can’t even play classic on this laptop without getting close to 95c

I have no plans or even knowledge of how to hack or break or cheat the system, and I want to say is there not some way there can be special approval because that turns into a well then we would have to approve everyone and you don’t know who is gonna cheat the game and who isn’t, but at the same token, doesn’t blizz have the chops now to be able to tell if someone is cheating? if a lvl 1 randomly pops in with a couple mil gold and is trading it willy nilly, that’s a red flag, but if someone is just playing…I don’t know "/

It just sucks because I used to only be able to play WoW and OW when I was at a friends place, or someone let me use their PC for a weekend or such, and I’ll be honest, I was, and still am really excited about classic, because while I have to keep my settings low if I want to stay at 60fps, guess what - I can play WoW! and I really enjoy it, and finding out I could play OW and BFA on my own PC was something I was even more ecstatic for and yeah, there is a cost to it, but I don’t have the ability or means to buy a computer or laptop that can handle any newer games, but I can spare 5$ to be able to play those games.

I don’t know, I feel like I’m just putting my two cents in, but really…I’m just trying to figure out, why is it against the ToS? what is it that playing WoW on GeForce now breaks? does it make it easier for people to hack it? I mean I don’t know how? I dunno, just a bit bummed out to hear blizz pulled the plug "/ was really excited to get the chance to play some games (even some outside the blizzard universe - which some I still can) without needing to buy a new PC

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It’s like due to the language added to the EULA regarding cloud computing, sadly CS will not be able to completely answer this for you. CS is more for billing questions, and pointing out where to find in game or billing help.

But the line reads.

V. Cloud Computing: Use the Platform, including a Game, in connection with any unauthorized third-party “cloud computing” services, “cloud gaming” services, or any software or service designed to enable the unauthorized streaming or transmission of Game content from a third-party server to any device.

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It’s all good, I appreciate the response, I don’t know, I feel like I more / less made the post because I’m bummed out over it and wanted to say something. Rules are rules, and like I said, I’m sure from a technical standpoint their IT guys are way smarter and know more about it then I do, but I just got too excited over being able to play those games, and kinda got that feeling of the rug being pulled out from under me "/

I’m not saying I’m in any standpoint a super know it all IT guy, but it seems like on anything anyone could do to the game on a cloud service they could do as is on their own PC? maybe it’s just easier on cloud?

ehh, like I said, I appreciate the response, I think I was just more posting to vent because I didn’t / don’t understand why we aren’t allowed to do it and because I don’t get the chance to play video games, and here I thought I had an opportunity - just need to keep putting money aside so I can get a PC in a couple years and get to finally really play some games :slight_smile:

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Not knowing your financial situation, I don’t want to make too many assumptions. However, a computer that can play WoW shouldn’t be too expensive if you want to get something for WoW. The minimum requirements aren’t terribly ornerous; for example the recommended graphics card is 4 years old, so a computer containing it shouldn’t be that expensive.

I’m not familiar enough with the hardware that’s available right now to make any budget recommendations, since I don’t really follow that stuff; when I upgraded my computer last fall, I just went with a list that someone gave me. If you ask in the Games, Gaming, & Hardware forum, though, they should be able to steer you straight. :slight_smile:

Granted, if you’re in a financial situation similar to mine a couple of years ago, even a computer that can run WoW can be a stretch. Been there. Done that. Burned the t-shirt. :tired_face:

In any case, I wish you the best of luck at finding something that you can use, now or in 2 years’ time!

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I haven’t looked into it too deeply so I could be missing something but at a glance it looks like GeForce Now is still a cloud computing service. The games are still hosted on NVidia’s servers. That’s most likely why you can’t use addons, for example.

My guess of why Blizz doesn’t like cloud services is because it could limit their ability to monitor things. Cloud services generally want to minimize anything unnecessary to save resources and could have been be set up to block Blizzard’s tools. It could have been that they were in talks to keep that opened up but they fell through for some reason (eg. Nvidia wanted too much money to allow it).

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Cheapest way to get a good budget gaming computer is to go on ebay and get an old 3rd or 4th gen i5 or i7 desktop and a new low-mid gpu. Total cost around $300. Many “budget gaming pc” videos on youtube that can help.

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7

Is this the reason that I have weird lag in Boralus and have a warning sign that saying my graphic card is not up to date?
I’m using GeForce and never had this kind of things before.

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8

Buzzard has been doing this to alot of company that doesn’t want to give them moni.

They pulled their esports from twitch as well.

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Yeah, I’m without knowing it, I’m in that situation similar to yours, when your down here, you get it and know it when someone says it x,D but I’ll check out the forum, ty for the tip :stuck_out_tongue:

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10

There’s a stunning endorsement of cloud gaming streaming services. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Then save up, and when the time comes, just get a cheap gaming PC, or put one together yourself with some cheap but will workable parts.

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Sounds like a poor decision by Blizzard. My friend’s computer can’t handle few games on Steam, he paid for Geforce Now and we had tons of fun playing what we couldn’t before. Another friend is getting it now, so he can join us. I feel like denying players who use that access to ActiBlizz games is just… less people playing ActiBlizz games.

This is also one thing Blizzard seems to not understand. Friends are 90% of reason to play a game, and yet they focus on designing game to be chore focused. Not a single one of my friends who hasn’t played WoW is interested in trying it, and probably biggest reason I rarely find reason to play WoW.
I guess it’s also partly due to subscriptions, most common reason why not I hear is “I’m not paying every month to play a game”, but that’s another topic.

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None of us will know the reason, but one plausible explanation is simply put that it would make it incredibly easy to circumvent protections like Warden. Pay a few bucks a month, bot without worrying about ever being caught.

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It’s just not that, it’s extremely practical for many reasons. I would have assumed the service was junk until I tried it myself. It was surprisingly good but it had some annoying issues.

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Or you could drop $350 on a nice card.

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Like they aren’t already doing that. There are bots everywhere and it seems to take around half a year before blizzard does any action against them(because reasons they explained years ago). We regular consumers get stuck in between. It’s just like copy protection, it makes it a lot more annoying for legit customers.

Sadly it’s the way it is and there isn’t anything we can do about it. I’m sure in the future cloud gaming will start gaining more ground because like I said earlier it is the future(I know it sounds really stupid).

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IT Person here. It doesn’t actually make a lot of sense and it’s partly why nobody know why Blizz pulled out. The only logical reason I can think of is Blizz either just wants to go all in on Stadia, or they are planning on their own streaming service in the future and thus don’t want people used to Now. That’s pretty par the course, streaming TV services are being broken up into several services for that exact reason. Everybody wants all the cake and are unwilling to share some pieces. This however, is pure speculation, and really only Blizz themselves know why.

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It’s all cutting edge until the host server gets knocked out, or you get your internet bill after marathoning on the platform for a weekend.

Or hosts start raising prices.

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My money’s on this.

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Well first they signed some kind of deal with Google/YouTube, lol.
So that kind of doesn’t work when google is trying to launch they’re own game streaming service.
also there was some security issues with running the game on a streaming service. GeForce now had a lot of potential for me. Guess I’ll just play WoW a whole lot less, thnx Blizz.

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I look at cloud gaming like this: it’s basically like owning a console. It’s very flexible as you can stream the game on pretty much any device. There are flaws of course. I personally don’t think the technology is right there yet but for some of us it is. If you live out in the bush it’s going to be dreadful or if you for some reason have capped bandwidth.