StarCraft II Rages On With Custom Maps Free-For-All

There's an update coming to the long-standing multiplayer game of epic proportions called StarCraft II called Patch 2.1. This release of the second +.1 patch of the game allows the StarCraft II free Starter Edition to move up to three races right out of the box, in a manner of speaking. More importantly, it allows all custom games to anyone and everyone that wishes to play.

While previous releases of the game included a bit of a block for the customized-map-playing world for those that hadn't payed for the game in the first place, now the game is all but free-to-play for all. This is important because of Blizzard's continued willingness to allow people to play online on their servers for free, as well.

Users out in the wild are able to work with a collection of customization tools in the Blizzard Arcade. Now with this update, users are able to play these customized maps with complete freedom. Blizzard Entertainment made the video above to let you know how simple and enjoyable the whole process really is.

This push – in the video, even – is recognized with the user-created modification for World of Warcraft called DoTA, or Defense of The Ancients, a customized World of Warcraft III map originally based on a map from StarCraft. That Aeon of Strife map is now nearly drown in the power of the finalized game – the game that you, the developer in the wild – made with Blizzard's developer tools.

Sounds like the folks at Blizzard are aiming to expand their network in a big way – one not unlike the developer-friendly Valve, yes? We'll see how this all plays out once the update goes live for all!