Only if they want their maps to be sold and the maps are on a tremendous scale.

And have to pass Blizzard's quality check. Not a lot of Warcraft 3 maps passed that test.

Oooh it comes with the first game? Plus a thumb drive, plus a shitload of stuff, I think it's worth it.
Unfortunately my wallet doesn't agree with me.

Apparently, Russians will have to pay monthly for Starcraft 2...
Kotick, fucking die already!
Link: http://www.incgamers.com/News/21948/starcraft-ii-monthly-fees-confirmed-in-russia

Well that will be Battle.Net down for a week at least due to DDoS attacks. If you thought they were angry about AC2 you have seen nothing yet.

That's actually a pretty interesting pricing scheme. Note that the DVD version will cost less than half of what it will elsewhere, and the "jewel case" version (dunno what the difference is, to be honest) will cost half that; the former gives a year of BNet, the latter 4 months.
So, at that point you can either "pay the other half" or switch to monthly fees. The question is, will you be using BNet after a year? It seems like a pretty good deal to me, although I don't really know how much 25 bucks is in Russia.

I'm just thankful I don't like Starcraft -- that said I'm sure they'll pull off some other scam with Diablo 3 in a year.

Diablo 3 will be divided into 5 games, so each class will get its own standalone game.

I heard they were going to use micro transactions pay per monster you kill.

Naa, they would never do anything like that.... it's per potion you use. ;)

1 cent per health point healed, 2 cents for each mana point? Rounded up to the nearest 25 cent increment?

Sounds good. Also Bobby will absolutely love this idea. Maybe you will get a nice job at Bobby's side.

Precisely my idea, strike when I've gained his trust.

SC2's release date: July 27, 2010. ;)
http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?100503