Always On-line is Not a Deal-Breaker for Me.

[Aeonknight]

But, like Battlefield games, it's strength and replay value are in multiplayer.

As Yahtzee stated very sagely, a game should be able to hold up on its single player alone.

Yahtzee also hates multiplayer, so his view is a little biased in this case.

"I don't like playing with the rest of you, so it should cater to my tastes!"
Sorry yahtzee, some games aren't created with the loner in mind. And he knows this I'm sure.

 

[Vuliev]

On your MMO's example. 90% of the content can be enjoyed by yourself.

That is one of the biggests loads of bollocks I've ever seen. In no way is 90% of the content in WoW single-player. Raiding, dungeons, Arathi Highlands, the arena, and even just general PvP all require significant amounts of players. Without players, the game loses a huge chunk of its enjoyability. Have you ever tried playing on a server that's become a ghost town? It's not very fun, is it?

There's a reason we call them MMOs: they're massive, multiplayer, online games. Says "online" right in the freaking description.


Also, when D3 has been heavily pushed by Blizzard as "single-player focused," the argument for always-online falls immediately flat. If it's single-player focused, why the honest-to-goddamn-assjesus does it require an online connection?

 

[Vuliev]

I thought so too. Here's there stupid thing about the offline button. You have to sign online first to go offline. That's right. To make it so you don't need an internet connection to play, you have to sign on (I guess to show steam that all the games in your library are actually yours), then click the offline mode. If you aren't able to connect to the internet, you aren't able to connect with steam.

Thing is, though, that Steam saves your profile to your machine on that first time. If you so chose, you'd only need to sign in once to download/patch the games you wanted. That's it.

EDIT: I should clarify this to say "once per shutdown cycle." If you shut down your computer, then Steam forgets your login and you'll have to regain internet before you can boot straight into offline mode, but that's pretty easily circumvented by just hibernating instead of shutting down. Of course, a forced shutdown through a power outage can still mess that up for desktops, but you probably have more important things to worry about if your power goes out for any significant amount of time.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Snip

Diablo 3 out for nearly 12 hours now, I've had it in my possession for about 14. I've hardly been able to play it, not because of my internet but because of their servers.

Also I like how you continually changed your timeframes for when servers should be good in my thread. "It'll be ok in an hour. A couple of hours. A few hours. A day."

What next? A week? A month? If they weren't ready (as they clearly weren't) why release the damn game? It was already delayed for over a year.

 

[shrekfan246]

Snip

I'm probably saying something that has already been said before, but I don't mind "Always Online" so much as I mind "Absolutely NO WAY for you to be offline!"

Being strictly prohibited from playing the single-player portion of a game because my internet decided to crap out is fairly frustrating. It won't be a deal breaker for me (I've been playing WoW for five years now, and I got Diablo III for free because of Blizzard's promotional year-long sub thing so why shouldn't I have fun with it) but it certainly puts me off the idea of actually investing a lot of time into the game when after I've installed it, it still has the chance of not even letting me start the game because the servers are down.

Captcha: Never give up. Hm.

 

[Frostbite3789]

i'm actually feeling kinda of 'meh' over all, not good, but not bad

as to the rest of the your post.

why? its more then likely the same crap people have been bitching about every time the games comes up 'there's no offline' 'the AH is pay-to-win' 'there's no mod support' and a few more that just sound like whining cause your not getting D2 with better textures

boo, whoo.

i don't care, Diablo never interested me before, so i don't give any kind of crap about what they 'took out' for this one. but feel free to keep whining, some one might care, just not Blizzard, or me.

So you posted. Then acted all snarky when somebody responded to you, saying how much you just don't care. On some level you clearly do, or you wouldn't have posted in the first place.

 

[Thandran]

I will not buy Diablo 3 because of a simple reason:

- I could enjoy Diablo both offline and online
- I could enjoy Diablo II both offline and online
- I can enjoy Diablo III only online

I DO NOT like it when companies take options away from me. And it seems like the big ones are doing so in a grand manner.

What was once the norm today has become a luxury. That is why Ubisoft, Activision, EA are not going to see my hard earned money. There are other games to enjoy. God damn do I like having options.

Capitalism, ho! :3

 

[xPixelatedx]

But I don't see why people are so mad about this.

If you have an unstable internet connection, I get your frustration, but the internet is the future, and I'm really sorry if your government doesn't support stable 24/7 connections, but the rest of us shouldn't have to suffer for it.

Suffer? Everyone will suffer if a game doesn't have ridiculous DRM? I am afraid your logic is beyond me as well as beyond most common sense.

As for you being so endowed with fortune you cannot fathom any living conditions below your personal standard, that's your problem... and it's quite a big one that isn't going to make you many friends in life. Consider yourself fortunate that you are an individual who can readily access the internet so easily. People who don't have so much money to blow on yet another monthly bill often have to choose between games or other luxury items; like the net. Whats worse, it's not even a choice for everyone. There are some places that don't have the broadband service you would need to play always online DRM games. And then there is me, who has a shitty ISP and no other options available. I have been through MONTHS without internet service before, and it would have really sucked not to be able to spend that time playing video games.

You might as well have said: All those homeless people who get caught in rain should just walk into their house so they don't get wet! It's easy enough or me!

 

[Vuliev]

I said MMO. Not WoW.

WoW isn't the only MMO you know. With Guild Wars you can go 100% so the 90% would be wrong there as well.
Speaking of bollocks.... please direct me to a single session of Blizzard talking about D3 being single player focused. Since they have heavily pushed that notion then it shouldn't be hard finding one.

WoW is an MMO, thus your previous statment is immediately invalidated. Besides, there are plenty of other MMOs that are heavily multiplayer focused.

As for the other bit, I guess you got me--I guess I misconstrued their attempts at assuaging all the always-online ire (which included a decent amount of "single player is still here!") as a focus on single player. Still, Diablo was as much about offline play as it was Battle.net, and I don't see why they couldn't just have just made the distinction between the two very clear upon first starting the game.

 

[Aeshi]

Suffer? Everyone will suffer if a game doesn't have ridiculous DRM? I am afraid your logic is beyond me as well as beyond most common sense.

Pretty sure he meant it in the sense of "Having to wait for laggy players to catch up" because always-on DRM naturally dissuades the people in question from playing it.

I myself can name more than a few memories of playing multiplayer only to have a nice big "WAITING FOR [PLAYER] TO RECONNECT" notice come up and sit there for about 3 minutes, or sitting in the "All Party members must be here to proceed" area watching some guy walk into a corner, which has helped dampen any sympathies I might have had for the poor-internet crowd (this thread has indirectly obliterated the rest.)

 

[Kriptonite]

You say that the game was clearly not made to be a single player experience. I say, the way, within reason, one plays a game is completely up to the gamer. Games are made-yes, primarily, to make the most money possible most of the time-to entertain but being entertained by a game in a way not wholly intended by the developer is nothing new. Now, it's completely within reason to make a non-online singleplayer only mode. Personally though, I couldn't really give a shit as I've never played any Diablo games nor do I have the intention to start so it appears that my opinion is moot. Also, if you don't want to have to be online every time you play the game, just don't fucking buy it...

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Ya know, I'm just gonna say this.

I personally don't have a problem with the always online, BUT most people do. The people that don't have a problem and have a stable internet connect, I belive, are the minority, and very vocal bunch.

If I'm in the minority, then I feel like I shouldn't be catered to. I get the reasons that Blizzard is doing this, I totally understand, but I wonder if they knew this was going to be a major problem knowing that people may not have a good connection.

The internet may be the future, but you know what else is? Having a perfect infrastructure so everyone has a stable connection.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Not me. My console is offline. My phone is old and offline. All this connection online just makes people less connected to others. I rather be living in the real world and not let the online bullshit rule everything i do. Actually, any technology rule my world.

 

[Fanboy]

I don't see how anyone can claim that always online is something desirable in a single player experience. If I end up purchasing the game and enjoying it, it will be despite this unnecessary and undesirable feature, not in any way better because of it.

I'm going to wait for the demo and player feedback before I pass final judgement. I will say that nothing so far has convinced me this game is worth my time other than its namesake and the developer behind it.

 

[Vuliev]

And Like I said. I said MMO. Not WoW. If I had said Guild Wars wouldn't you have had a problem?

Champions online? I have done 90% of things there is to do in that game and I did it by myself.

DC Universe? Almost every instance you can group can be soloed and the difficulty changed for multi.

I said MMO. I meant MMO. Not WoW. A general term. I vent with what I believe to be an average. If it will make you feel better Ill be generous and go 60%. That is still more than half. Doesn't that justify a single player?

No, because that's not the overall focus of the game--simply because a multiplayer-focused game can be played alone doesn't mean that it has to have an offline option. Now, before you ask "well how is that different from D3," here's why it doesn't work for D3:

Diablo is, and always has been, about the single-player. Nothing else. When the overarching focus of a game is in its single-player experience, it makes no sense to force the player into being always online. None!

Why should the people that didn't give a toss about Battle.net in D2 have to sacrifice for the few people that didn't understand why you couldn't port characters into Battle.net?

 

[Woodsey]

Because most people don't have particularly great connections. Because it results in a whole host of unnecessary problems. Because issues with their servers are impossible for people to do anything about whilst a shit porting job can at least be patched up to an extent. Because it treats paying customers like criminals. Because it puts the publisher's wants before their customer's. Because people won't be able to play a game they'd paid for and would otherwise if their internet is down for an extended period. Because what you consider the game's killer-app is not what everyone considers the game's killer-app. Because they could have just created two single-player modes but didn't because this is obviously about DRM and not user-benefit.

I mean really, this is how things go tits up: because people lube up their arse cheeks and spread 'em wide as soon as someone sticks some glitter onto their big, black, invasive dildo.

You are very lucky that you have an internet connection made out of pure, solid gold - mine's not far behind - but your view of the state of most other people's connections is naive to the point of embarrassment.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Yes it is a big deal I do not have internet all the time if I am travelling, on the bus, on a plane, etc. I also do not have a stable connection in my room so it is a big deal. Also I can't really see a solid argument that you have. I shouldn't need to be online for single player. I don't even bother to connect my xbox 360 to online.