Being able to access and play a free version of Starcraft II is quite the gift from Blizzard to give, but what if you wanted to share your gaming experiences with a friend as well. Entering today is a thing called, “Spawning”; a brand new feature that essentially brings free co-op options to those who don’t own the full game themselves.
“Spawning” is for those of you out there who have Starcraft II and want to bring friends who don’t own it to play with you. This is a pretty old-school feature that Blizzard wanted to bring back for Starcraft II, having already been implemented in games like Warcraft II and Starcraft I. But how does it work? It’s simple as this: players who don’t own the game need to download the “Starcraft II: Starter Edition”, free off of Battle.net. After that, the friend with the full game invites that player into his/her party, which will upgrade the non-owner’s version into the “Spawned” version of whichever highest expansion is being played (for as long as your partied up).
Obviously, there are a couple of drawbacks to being a “Spawned” player, such as:
1). You won’t have access to the single-player campaign.
2). You can’t join any clans or groups.
and
3). You are currently only able to play as the Terrans race.
Still, it’s a great way to play with your friends and experience most of what Starcraft II (including Heart of the Swarm) has to offer. A whopping total of 14 players can do this at once, so there’s no reason to not have your friends all join in the Starcraft II action. If you’d like more information about the feature, do check out the instructional video from Blizzard below and check out the official “Spawning” page:
A final incentive to try this out for yourself is that there’s a new achievement and portrait available for unlocking. Quite the cute and cuddly picture, no?
Source: Us.battle.net