A lot of RTS games that came out in the late 90’s and early 2000’s had the Local Area Network (LAN) function, which allowed the player to physically connect with other computers with an ethernet cord to play mulitplayer. (I’m probably not doing a great job at describing it to be honest). Overall, with LAN multiplayer people could play with each other without needing to play over the internet.
With more modern RTS games, I have not noticed the LAN feature being included in games. Which is understandable, as more players have better internet access today. However, I think LAN offers a great accessibility feature for players that want to play in big groups together.
In addition to the accessibility, I’d say LAN is almost mandatory for competitions/tournaments. While it’s nice to assume that the internet will never have issues in a competitive match, there is the possibility of a high-stakes game being ruined due to technical difficulties. This isn’t a problem for me, the matchmaker is just fine. But for international tournaments with the best players in the world it’s more important. Whether there is prize money on the line, or just the prestige of being the best player at the tournament, LAN multiplayer is much better than over the internet.
Again, sorry if something similar has been posted before. And it’s possible that LAN is already being developed. I just wanted to add a voice to the opinion that LAN is important