Diablo III Patch Restricts Access for New Players

[Hevva]

Diablo III Patch Restricts Access for New Players

Patch 1.0.3 means that new players may have to wait 72 hours to access the full game.

In a move made ostensibly to combat credit card fraud, Blizzard has announced that one of the updates included in Diablo III's latest patch is a mechanism that restricts initial access to new copies of the game which have been bought online. In practice, this means that any newly-bought digital Full Edition copies will be restricted to Starter Edition content for up to the first 72 hours of ownership.

As a Blizzard support agent explained [http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5889089807], players using Starter Editions are bound by the following restrictions:

- Act I up to the Skeleton King is available

- Level 13 cap

- Matchmaking available only with other Starter Edition players

- No Auction House access (Real Money or Gold)

- Global Play is not available. Players attempting to connect to Diablo III Starter Edition in a region other than their Battle.net Account's home region will receive Error 12. See the Global Play support article for more information.

Another support agent [http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5888808976?page=1#4] explained the situation by saying that, "[Blizzard] apologize for the inconvenience, but it is a necessary step to combat fraud and other malicious activities that can weaken everyone's play experience...The delay is no longer than three days, and is often much quicker than that. Hang tight. ."

Blizzard has yet to comment on any possible relation this update has to reported post-patch 1.0.3 situations where some players found themselves unable to gain XP [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117978-Diablo-III-Patch-Prevents-Players-From-Gaining-XP] or level their followers beyond Level 13. Only digital copies of the game were affected.

Is making potential new customers pay the price for cheats, thieves and other such undesirables really the way Blizzard should be handling this? (I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that most of you would answer that with the word "no" or a colorful variant thereof.) Maybe the company will release a report in a few months detailing how restricting access to something a gamer bought fair and square has helped reduce credit card fraud and cheatery to such an extent that the scheme is worth it, or something? Maybe?

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5920234/if-you-buy-diablo-iii-online-you-may-have-to-wait-72-hours-to-play-the-whole-game]







Permalink

 

[Duckman]

So right after the shitstorm that was the launch week, Blizzard is really pulling shit like this?

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

Only digital copies of the game were affected.

And thus the cries of joy for thousands of standing retailers were heard throughout the land...

Is making potential new customers pay the price for cheats, theives and other such undesirables really the way Blizzard should be handling this?

At this point it is the lesser of two evils. Odds are a real player who hasn't bought Diablo III at this point can probably wait the few days to access level 13+ content, and, given the real cash auction house, tighter restraints on CC fraud are warranted much more.

Capcha: "one hit wonder." That does not bode well for Diablo III

 

[toomuchnothing]

Is making potential new customers pay the price for cheats, theives and other such undesirables really the way Blizzard should be handling this? (I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that most of you would answer that with the word "no" or a colorful variant thereof.) Maybe the company will release a report in a few months detailing how restricting access to something a gamer bought fair and square has helped reduce credit card fraud and cheatery to such an extent that the scheme is worth it, or something? Maybe?

In this same recent patch they removed the chance for items to drop from destructible scenery such as barrels/vases etc despite the fact you can find a video in which the games lead dev, Jay Wilson, says that he wants people to see legendaries drop from barrels as it was something always fun in the previous games. The reasoning for this is because bots were gold/item farming areas with high concentrations of these objects so the idea that they'd make changes to the game affecting legit players to discourage some botters is not only not surprising but seems par for the course at this point.

 

[Eri]

People will continue to bash Blizzard over forums, blogs, their own forums, any number of things. If you look at these threads on all the forums and blogs you'd think the game was a total failure and now no ones playing it and it is further dying.

For all the whining, people still gave Blizzard their money, and they voted with their wallets. You know what those votes said?

I'LL SIT HERE AND TAKE IT LIKE A MAN.

Over 7 million copies sold.

Yeah, you sure showed them.

 

[porpoise hork]

So right after the shitstorm that was the launch week, Blizzard is really pulling shit like this?

yep... apparently Blizzard thinks buying a digital copy of D3 is like buying a gun..

 

[Evil Smurf]

People will continue to bash Blizzard over forums, blogs, their own forums, any number of things. If you look at these threads on all the forums and blogs you'd think the game was a total failure and now no ones playing it and it is further dying.

For all the whining, people still gave Blizzard their money, and they voted with their wallets. You know what those votes said?

I'LL SIT HERE AND TAKE IT LIKE A MAN.

Over 7 million copies sold.

Yeah, you sure showed them.

They got shown for sure!

 

[DEAD34345]

This whole "always online" thing keeps getting worse and worse. I hope the many horrible results of this practice have been made clear enough that people will avoid them more in the future, and maybe then it won't catch on. We should always look on the bright side of things, you know? (Though admittedly, that's probably much more difficult to do when you're personally affected by these issues...)

 

[ScruffyMcBalls]

Deciding that this game looked like ass a couple weeks before release is really starting to pay off it seems. I do find it funny that people who jump down my throat for bashing on digital distribution almost always push the "convenience" argument (rather than the cost argument for some reason) and then stuff like this happens. I guess I gotta take my mini-victories where I can, ey?
For fuck sake Blizzard...

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

Only digital copies of the game were affected.

And thus the cries of joy for thousands of standing retailers were heard throughout the land...

Is making potential new customers pay the price for cheats, theives and other such undesirables really the way Blizzard should be handling this?

At this point it is the lesser of two evils. Odds are a real player who hasn't bought Diablo III at this point can probably wait the few days to access level 13+ content, and, given the real cash auction house, tighter restraints on CC fraud are warranted much more.

Capcha: "one hit wonder." That does not bode well for Diablo III

but wait, wasn't the Online Only point of the game to stop people from pirating, commiting fraud, and cheating?

The constant connection requirement only deals with piracy and cheating. Fraud is an entirely different problem with far more disastrous consequences. Combating CC fraud and identity theft is very difficult once the initial theft has occurred.

As for me, I still haven't touched D3 and probably won't until the fall if at all. I'm not against the game, I just want them to work out all the kinks (and maybe wait for an expansion) before I hop on and get my ass kicked.

 

[phantom495]

why diablo, WHHHYYY!?!?

 

[Charli]

So after an extremely lengthy Beta, in which players played the first act to death, it turns out not even half the aspects of the game have been properly tested and checked for possible ways to exploit or defraud it internally and yet the entire game seems to hinge on these features. And now the people they want to 'draw into' the game have to play with gimped access... Er sorry who is PR manager at the moment and how hard are they taking it in the bum?

Yeah ... okay then.

So glad D3 only counted as a fun freebie to my current WoW subscription because I'm having more fun farming gold in WoW at the moment than playing that circus.

Blizzard you are the KING of MMO's. A game that is always ONLINE.
How have you cocked this up so badly. How.

 

[Tanis]

All you PC gamers mocked folks like me who said always online DRM would hurt D3.

Guess who was RIGHT.

Here's a hint:
NOT YOU.

 

[gigastar]

Never have i been so glad to not buy a game that i was interested in.

 

[antipunt]

[Blizzard] apologize for the inconvenience, but

if I got a penny for EVERYTIME I heard this phrase for the last month..

 

[LorienvArden]

For all the whining, people still gave Blizzard their money, and they voted with their wallets. You know what those votes said?

I'LL SIT HERE AND TAKE IT LIKE A MAN.

Over 7 million copies sold.

Yeah, you sure showed them.

What do those votes say ?
That consumers are sheep that will joyfully accept a 30 inch rectal probe up theirs if somebody promises them cake and baloons.

Seriously - this is the worst kind of business practice I've seen in years, and it isn't getting any better, it is getting worse and worse with every headline I read about Blizzard. The obvious solution would have been to enable access to the game once the payment has been confirmed.

If CC fraud is so rampant with this game, examine WHY it is: Because there is real money to be made. Didn't it strike ANYONE during the development of the RMAH that the same goldsellers and account phishers that haunted D2 would leap on the RMAH like a pack of rabid wolves ? So now they are doing it in-game, ripping off Blizzard instead of the players by buying the game with a fake CC, making some trades and leaving the game once the Fraud has been detected. What a twist !
Now Blizzard has to shoulder the cost of a quite beafy server farm because everyone needs to play alone online, the cost of games beeing purchased with fake CCs and the cost of developers having to deal with security problems, hackers, botters and cheaters. What for ? To make the game more enjoyable through limiting our access to the game, the chances of finding loot and making it more difficult to actually buy the game ?
Thats not enjoyable, thats painfull and aggrevating. There is a difference.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

the real money auction house seems less and less of a good idea as time progresses.

...corrupting it from the inside...