Blizzard Apologizes for Diablo III Launch Troubles

[nodlimax]

"ONLINE DRM CREATED PRIACY"

^^ i wonder how many people will say this before threads end.

It didn't create piracy but it's going to drive more potential customers into the arms of the pirates.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

So, so, so, so glad I decided against buying Diablo 1 and 2 the other day. Drop the DRM bullshit and I'll consider ever giving you a cent, Blizz. Until then, you'll get nothing but bad recommendations from me to anyone I know.

 

[PingoBlack]

None of my friends have been able to play more than 2 hours since release. Reported amount of users that have been unable to play the $60 game they purchase? According to Yahoo and their report this morning, more than 70%.

Link please. 70% not able to play is absolutely made up statistic unless you substantiate it.

I can only say that yesterday on EU realms there were no mayor delays logging in or loading character list. So after 2 days of consistent log in issues I saw mayor improvement. Given my absolutely unremarkable connection (as in freaking average for EU area) I can assume server side does indeed perform much better after 2 days.

I have absolutely no issue in good reporting, look up my comments on relevant post two days ago. Blizzard have indeed and no question about it, underestimated the required capacity.

But once that is said, we also have to say what you see above. They have reacted and at least in EU results seem to be there.

 

[PingoBlack]

So, so, so, so glad I decided against buying Diablo 1 and 2 the other day. Drop the DRM bullshit and I'll consider ever giving you a cent, Blizz. Until then, you'll get nothing but bad recommendations from me to anyone I know.

Again this same misconception that bad press keeps propagating.
Diablo 3 uses server ran game system.

It doesn't mean I'm saying it is not DRM, quite the opposite, DRM is a feature of server ran games. Among many other things. But there is one mayor distinction.

DRM in server ran games is not an optional requirement, it is pretty much mandatory. Blizzard has clearly explained that Diablo 3 is a server ran game. So you really have no basis in hoping they can "drop it". You have to decide weather a server ran game is for you only.

But removing the log in requirement ... Pretty much not gonna happen. It would compromise RMAH and no company is dumb to actively cause fraud in real money systems. That crap is real and has legal consequences, unlike fake gold.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

DRM in server ran games is not an optional requirement, it is pretty much mandatory.

Only, pirates managed to crack the beta and play without the servers thanks to some emulation work.

You're free to do as you like. Me? I'm not giving a cent to people who want me to log in to their servers and remain online at all times to play my single player game.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Shitty, rushed game made by soulless corporate drones who have no concern about the quality of the game they make or consumer satisfaction is shitty.

Personally I can't wait till they release Diablo III Gold which, for a nominal monthly fee, will allow you access to a higher quality server with better drop rates and exp multipliers as well as two new classes only available to Gold membership holders.

Did you play the game?

No?

Then shut up and don't say it's shitty without having played it. Rushed? It took 10 years to release, and was announced in... 2008 or 2009? That's not rushed.

I remember problems Half Life 2 had after release. Game was unplayable not for the first few hours, like D3, but DAYS.

D3 was unplayable for the first 24 hours for the majority of people.

 

[Maze1125]

As much as I don't have sympathy for big business, there's no real sense in building double the number of servers for the launch, when, given a week or so it'll have calmed down to 'normal levels'.

Agreed, which is precisely why they should have let people play off-line.

 

[Random Fella]

Well Blizzard
Maybe you should have just not made a connection required to play single player, than you wouldn't have such a large problem
Jeez, they waste all that money doing it, and it won't stop piracy at all, what was even the point?

 

[shintakie10]

Shitty, rushed game made by soulless corporate drones who have no concern about the quality of the game they make or consumer satisfaction is shitty.

Personally I can't wait till they release Diablo III Gold which, for a nominal monthly fee, will allow you access to a higher quality server with better drop rates and exp multipliers as well as two new classes only available to Gold membership holders.

Did you play the game?

No?

Then shut up and don't say it's shitty without having played it. Rushed? It took 10 years to release, and was announced in... 2008 or 2009? That's not rushed.

I remember problems Half Life 2 had after release. Game was unplayable not for the first few hours, like D3, but DAYS.

D3 was unplayable for the first 24 hours for the majority of people.

It wasnt even remotely 24 hours. The servers were up for Asia and EU less than 3 hours after launch and stayed up for the rest of the day. The Americas servers took a bit longer, but once they were up they were up the rest of the day.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Snip

Except the part where Battlenet NA itself went down about midday (a bit earlier) and was not back up again until 11:45pm Blizzard time. 15 minutes short of the 24 hour mark.

 

[BENZOOKA]

I knew there would be problems. From the moment it launched, it still only took about 2 hours of paste-enter-ok(repeat) smashing to get into the game. In the meanwhile, getting twice in to the character screen, followed by a sudden disconnect were kinda morale breaking though. And the next evening, there were similar problems, but not for as long. Seems like Europe didn't have nearly as much trouble as people elsewhere though.

And after finally getting the game. After 12 years of waiting, and then counting days for the release, playing through the beta with all classes, and having ridiculously high expectations. The game itself:
I LOVE IT

 

[PingoBlack]

Only, pirates managed to crack the beta and play without the servers thanks to some emulation work.

You're free to do as you like. Me? I'm not giving a cent to people who want me to log in to their servers and remain online at all times to play my single player game.

You don't seem to understand my point. Cracking and emulation are just not the same thing.

Cracking will give you the exact same game, just without DRM limitation. Emulation, on other hand, gives you a completely different game. Because emulator has to provide game mechanics, rules and item data.

World of Warcraft on emulated (private) servers is crap, mostly because it has no rules. Same goes for Diablo 3, emulated game has no set rules.

That is why I dislike people using language while ignoring the meaning of words. It completely breaks communication when you equate emulation with cracking or at least badly oversimplifies the reality.

 

[DaRigger420]

I used to play Diablo III....... then I took an Error37 to the knee!

 

[Scarim Coral]

As long they stop the sever full, queue in to wait and the disconnection during gameplay then it's all good but I hardly doubt they will fix those two problems.

 

[Seydaman]

Looks like pirating a game these days gives you a more pleasurable experience then dropping the dough for it.
i bet johnny pirate has none of these issues.

Doubt it, with games like D3 the crack is probably a bit finicky, if it works at all.

I find it weird how much people are hating the game based on server issues. People are so hateful of something they haven't played

Enjoying it, I am.

 

[Seydaman]

Shitty, rushed game made by soulless corporate drones who have no concern about the quality of the game they make or consumer satisfaction is shitty.

Personally I can't wait till they release Diablo III Gold which, for a nominal monthly fee, will allow you access to a higher quality server with better drop rates and exp multipliers as well as two new classes only available to Gold membership holders.

Did you play the game?

No?

Then shut up and don't say it's shitty without having played it. Rushed? It took 10 years to release, and was announced in... 2008 or 2009? That's not rushed.

I remember problems Half Life 2 had after release. Game was unplayable not for the first few hours, like D3, but DAYS.

D3 was unplayable for the first 24 hours for the majority of people.

It wasnt even remotely 24 hours. The servers were up for Asia and EU less than 3 hours after launch and stayed up for the rest of the day. The Americas servers took a bit longer, but once they were up they were up the rest of the day.

I can attest to that, when I woke up on the 15th I played without problems, only was off for a few hours because of patching.

 

[Marowit]

I was just surprised they had so many server issues after having WoW running for all these years. All jokes aside, their expansion-launches are usually pretty smooth in terms of millions of people all clicking login at the same time.

 

[Wertornion]

I had no issues at all, and I logged in at 5 pm EU. No disconnects at all, just that my first session had no achievements. For me that's no problem I'm going to plan again anyway.

I finished my first playthrough yesterday and I'm loving it.

 

[Baresark]

Meh. My buddy played all day at my house till I had to go to work, then went home and was not able to play at all. That sucks for him. But it did confirm one thing for me. They made no improvements since I played that open beta weekend, meaning the game was still boring.

Again this same misconception that bad press keeps propagating.
Diablo 3 uses server ran game system.

It doesn't mean I'm saying it is not DRM, quite the opposite, DRM is a feature of server ran games. Among many other things. But there is one mayor distinction.

DRM in server ran games is not an optional requirement, it is pretty much mandatory. Blizzard has clearly explained that Diablo 3 is a server ran game. So you really have no basis in hoping they can "drop it". You have to decide weather a server ran game is for you only.

But removing the log in requirement ... Pretty much not gonna happen. It would compromise RMAH and no company is dumb to actively cause fraud in real money systems. That crap is real and has legal consequences, unlike fake gold.

It's not bad press propagating this information, all gaming press has posted articles on this particular subject since D3 came out. This was an article about their apology to their customers. But the author is making a valid point. A lot of people had problems and they are problems that never need even exist.

As far as compromising the RMAH, a lot of people feel this should not even exist either. And it wouldn't compromise it, it couldn't happen without it being exclusively online. The issue is that a lot of people feel that it should not have server side elements when you are not playing it online (not online in the sense that you are not playing with or against other human beings and only following the story). There are no advantages to this system what so ever, though they did talk a big game about the "advantage" of this when they first announced it. But peoples bullshit alarms started going off immediately. I'm sure you recall this, but they said the big advantage was not having to keep separate online and offline characters separate. So you can always jump online with your character. Though, last I checked, not too many people care that much about this.

I guess my point is that there so far has been no advantage at all for it hosting elements such as loot drops and monster spawns server side. To the contrary, there have been disadvantages for many people. All they are really doing is collecting consumer bad will, which is too bad. One day in the future they may release a game that is not boring and it would be a shame for people to miss it.

All of that said, soon enough they will have all the issues solved and this conversation will disappear. Though it will show up occasionally when Blizzard announces something in the future.

 

[Andy Shandy]

all the beauty and grace of a wildebeest careering over a cliff. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117262-Server-Issues-Mar-Diablo-IIIs-Launch]

I can't have been the only one hoping that this was a link to a gif to a wildebeest carerring off a cliff, was I?

Damn you Escapist,
When you have a hyperlink titled "wildebeest careering over a cliff." I expect, nay, demand a funny video to that effect.

Yours Sincerely,

Happy_turtle

Obviously not. High five! =D

Thought this picture was well done by the way