What do people have against the battle.net launcher?

[Kuntantee]

Yet another origin/steam like thingie that thrashes your registry, might not be resource hog but it adds up. So yeah less programs I have on my pc the better.

Are you seriously blaming Blizzard for Windows' registry mess? If I were you, I would blame Windows.

[luckystone]

I actually have a rare but real case against the Battle net app (must say that I love it otherwise).

I have two copies of WoW installed, one for US, the other for Asia region (w/ old friends). Normally I can just run the wow.exe from either folder and get to play the version I want to. However, once the Battle net app is installed, it takes over.
1) battle net app does not allow you to specify two copies of WOW from different regions;
2) no matter which WoW.exe I double-click (not in battle net app, but the wow.exe directly in wow's folder), i always get re-directed and the battle net app opens instead.
3) as a result there's no way i can start the other copy of wow now.

In the end i have to delete battle net app.

It's a shame really, as I said, I love the app but this issue is a deal breaker for me.

[Csnyder]

they have a need to complain about everything....everything.
normal people call them idiots......they think they are the only ones who matter, they think they are the king of the world
but it boils down to them having nothing in their lives but whining about everything
pretty sad but good news is they stress so much in life that they will die young
and dont worry no woman will ever hook-up with a whiney lil bitch like them so they wont be breeding

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People don't like change, they especially don't like forced change for what they feel are arbitrary reasons.

Don't get me wrong, I love the launcher and enthusiastically encourage everyone who isn't using it yet to switch, but I can at least empathise with the people who are wary.

actually people love change
no one wants to do the same thing day in day out, look at the same things everyday
and if they do then they will soon rot away...thankfully

[Veritus7]

I actually have a rare but real case against the Battle net app (must say that I love it otherwise).

I have two copies of WoW installed, one for US, the other for Asia region (w/ old friends). Normally I can just run the wow.exe from either folder and get to play the version I want to. However, once the Battle net app is installed, it takes over.
1) battle net app does not allow you to specify two copies of WOW from different regions;
2) no matter which WoW.exe I double-click (not in battle net app, but the wow.exe directly in wow's folder), i always get re-directed and the battle net app opens instead.
3) as a result there's no way i can start the other copy of wow now.

In the end i have to delete battle net app.

It's a shame really, as I said, I love the app but this issue is a deal breaker for me.

That's odd, because my launcher lets me pick my account from above the "Play" button.

[Tziva]

actually people love change
no one wants to do the same thing day in day out, look at the same things everyday
and if they do then they will soon rot away...thankfully

People like novelty -- which is what you're referring too -- and in this context the distinction between it and "change" is important.

When we're talking about something like this, people want that novelty within the content of the game. They don't want it in things like logging in, account settings, and things of that nature (that should be obvious from this thread). Stuff like the new launcher and the switch to battle.net a few years ago are met with heavy resistance because people were/are content with the way they are doing things and don't think it is necessary to change and feel inconvenienced by being forced to. Too much change like this and people get frustrated and overwhelmed.

[Eroginous]

People don't like change, they especially don't like forced change for what they feel are arbitrary reasons.

Don't get me wrong, I love the launcher and enthusiastically encourage everyone who isn't using it yet to switch, but I can at least empathise with the people who are wary.

Yes, let's just write off everyone's legitimate concerns as 'don't like change.' Change isn't even part of the problem. It's the fact that uniting the launchers affects ability to play games when the launcher is down (which will happen). Right now, Wow, D3, and SC2 have their own launchers, which are optional, and are never down. At worst, the games themselves are down for maintenance and people can still play other Blizzard games when they are not.

Let's say for instance, D3 and HS are down for maintenance, but SC2 and Wow are not. Right now I can launch both games independently because there is no mandatory launcher, even when other Blizz games are down. In the future, when the launcher is down (maintenance, server issues, ect), ALL Blizzard games will be unavailable with no possible way to bypass the launcher.

THAT'S a problem, and it's not a 'dislike change' problem. Most people don't give a shit that Blizzard is adding this launcher, they care that it will become mandatory. Right now, you can't even launch Hearthstone without it (which also ends up preventing you from launching multiple instances of Hearthstone from the same PC).

So please, don't patronize people with your perceived oversimplification of a problem.

[Stonecloak]

I it's a bit buggy. I'm assuming that's why people don't like it that much.

[Deleted]

So consider not having to type in my pw and code every time a huge gain in both convenience and speed.

I don't use an authenticator and wow64 launches the game for me in ~2-3 seconds (2xIntel 530's in R0 on a Mac Pro's SAS controller) and I don't have to type my password either thanks to some "creative" external application trickery.

In short; I want to be able to choose how I launch my application and whether I want to use a launcher or not. Apparently this is too much to ask and instead everyone should be forced to use some unnecessary launcher which, to me, has no meaning, function or benefit.

Nothing the battle.net launcher has is of any benefit to me. Nothing. Zilch. Zip. Nada.

[Skarzog]

I it's a bit buggy. I'm assuming that's why people don't like it that much.

No, we are all a bunch of idiots who play on toasters.

I might be in a very small minority, but launching Blizzard games has been a challenge this week. I've wasted so much time, between the launcher not opening at all, getting stuck on updating, or not launching the games.

[Deleted]

Yes, let's just write off everyone's legitimate concerns as 'don't like change.' Change isn't even part of the problem. It's the fact that uniting the launchers affects ability to play games when the launcher is down (which will happen). Right now, Wow, D3, and SC2 have their own launchers, which are optional, and are never down. At worst, the games themselves are down for maintenance and people can still play other Blizzard games when they are not.

Let's say for instance, D3 and HS are down for maintenance, but SC2 and Wow are not. Right now I can launch both games independently because there is no mandatory launcher, even when other Blizz games are down. In the future, when the launcher is down (maintenance, server issues, ect), ALL Blizzard games will be unavailable with no possible way to bypass the launcher.

THAT'S a problem, and it's not a 'dislike change' problem. Most people don't give a shit that Blizzard is adding this launcher, they care that it will become mandatory. Right now, you can't even launch Hearthstone without it (which also ends up preventing you from launching multiple instances of Hearthstone from the same PC).

So please, don't patronize people with your perceived oversimplification of a problem.

The launcher can't be 'down'. It's a local application. If for some reason it can't connect to the net, hitting play just launches the game as normal and you just enter your credentials from the in-game login screen.

[Deleted]

Because it doesn't really do anything? It just means that you have to wait a little longer to open up your games, and gives you an unnecessary program using up resources in the background. Showing online friends is kind of cool, but essentially it's meaningless, since you'll find out once you've logged on.

Once it has built in chat, it'll be great, but until then, it's just a program stopping me from loading a game straight from my desktop.

[arcaneshot]

Because it doesn't really do anything? It just means that you have to wait a little longer to open up your games, and gives you an unnecessary program using up resources in the background.

I rarely have to type in my password or even the Authenticator code (happens like once a month). That's good enough for me.

[Zaqwert]

It should be optional. Maybe I don't give a damn about all those other games.

It's just a level of advertising you have to go through really.

[Kilperch]

It doesn't work on my six month old Asus laptop. All I get are error messages when I try to play WoW or Hearthstone. I don't like it because it doesn't work.

[Tziva]

Yes, let's just write off everyone's legitimate concerns as 'don't like change.' Change isn't even part of the problem. It's the fact that uniting the launchers affects ability to play games when the launcher is down (which will happen). Right now, Wow, D3, and SC2 have their own launchers, which are optional, and are never down. At worst, the games themselves are down for maintenance and people can still play other Blizzard games when they are not.

Let's say for instance, D3 and HS are down for maintenance, but SC2 and Wow are not. Right now I can launch both games independently because there is no mandatory launcher, even when other Blizz games are down. In the future, when the launcher is down (maintenance, server issues, ect), ALL Blizzard games will be unavailable with no possible way to bypass the launcher.

THAT'S a problem, and it's not a 'dislike change' problem. Most people don't give a shit that Blizzard is adding this launcher, they care that it will become mandatory. Right now, you can't even launch Hearthstone without it (which also ends up preventing you from launching multiple instances of Hearthstone from the same PC).

So please, don't patronize people with your perceived oversimplification of a problem.

It's not intended to be patronising, it's intended to be sympathetic. Don't get defensive because you assume I'm implying things I'm not, and I'm sorry if I said anything that sounded dismissive.

Anyway, as far as what you're saying... I don't really know how else to say this, but you're pretty much wrong about how it works on every count. The app launches each game just fine no matter what games are down and what are up. The launcher itself doesn't go "down" because it's a local application. I don't know what you've heard or from whom, but none of what you're describing has ever been an issue and I've been using the client since the start of the closed beta.

Furthermore, you can still access all of the games direct through their executable files in their respective folders just as you could with the original launches. The only thing the desktop app really changes is using one consolidated launcher/patcher instead of several unique ones. The games are still independent, you can still use the app even if all the games but one are down, and it shouldn't cause any issues when one is patching, one is down, and one is running like normal.

[Mule]

Really my only gripe with it is that I can't configure it with multiple copies of WoW. I have my Live install and one or two addon development installs that I'd like to be able to launch on the fly with it.

Apart from that, I think it's brilliant and once they enable the chat function it'll be even better.

That's odd, because my launcher lets me pick my account from above the "Play" button.

Which is nothing to do with what they were talking about. Refer above.

They can't select a different WoW install (in their case US vs Asia, in my case US Live vs US Addon Development) which is not the same as selecting a different WoW account on a single Battle.Net account within a single region which then launches WoW from a single installation.

[Deleted]

I rarely have to type in my password or even the Authenticator code (happens like once a month). That's good enough for me.

Authenticator should do that anyway, but yeah password's a good point.

[blackblade]

Anyway I still think launcher is better than no launcher because I no longer need to enter my password every single time I log into wow.

ding ding ding.

This is where it's at. Doubly so if you're running with an authenticator.

I agree that it feels like an extra step, but in this day and age, virtually any on-line oriented title is going to come with a launcher that screens for updates; and it's highly prevalent in offline titles as well.

[Eroginous]

The launcher can't be 'down'. It's a local application. If for some reason it can't connect to the net, hitting play just launches the game as normal and you just enter your credentials from the in-game login screen.

Right now, sure. In the future, you won't be able to just hit play and log in manually. 'Can't connect' is the same as 'down,' and when it's down, you won't be able to play ANY Blizzard games.

Just try playing Hearthstone right now without the launcher. That's what it will be like in the future for all Blizzard games.

Do you see the problem yet?

It's not intended to be patronising, it's intended to be sympathetic. Don't get defensive because you assume I'm implying things I'm not, and I'm sorry if I said anything that sounded dismissive.

Anyway, as far as what you're saying... I don't really know how else to say this, but you're pretty much wrong about how it works on every count. The app launches each game just fine no matter what games are down and what are up. The launcher itself doesn't go "down" because it's a local application. I don't know what you've heard or from whom, but none of what you're describing has ever been an issue and I've been using the client since the start of the closed beta.

Furthermore, you can still access all of the games direct through their executable files in their respective folders just as you could with the original launches. The only thing the desktop app really changes is using one consolidated launcher/patcher instead of several unique ones. The games are still independent, you can still use the app even if all the games but one are down, and it shouldn't cause any issues when one is patching, one is down, and one is running like normal.

Everything I've said is from personal experience, using the app since it was available for use. Just last Tuesday HS and D3 were down, and the App was not connecting to Bnet. Therefore, everyone who wanted to play SC2 or Wow had to manually log in.

In the future, manual log ins won't be possible.

[Tziva]

Well, I don't know what to tell you dude. Maybe your settings somewhere are borked. I've been using the launcher for months and months and I've never once had that happen and I play some Blizzard game or another pretty much every day.