Blizzard CEO Responds to Diablo III Controversy

kortin

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FelixG said:
kortin said:
More tears about Always Online DRM. Continue crying, friends, your tears sustain me.
damn, almost made it to page 2 without a fanboy!

OT: Yeah, its obvious he is a lying shitbag when he says the RMAH wasnt about making them money.
Fanboy? Lol, you misunderstand me. I stand fully behind all Always-On DRM. With the prevalence of high speed internet and ease of access with it, I see no reason for it to be utilized to the fullest. It's a lot better than the alternative DRM.

Also, go ahead and flame me all you like, I really don't care. I won't be responding to responses.
 

LawlessSquirrel

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"however, Diablo III was designed from the beginning to be an online game that can be enjoyed with friends, and the always-online requirement is the best way for us to support that design."

Uh, that's not so much 'supporting' it as 'forcing' it. It allows for some neat extras that some people enjoy, sure, but the people who don't consider them critical are stuck with something that works against them for the entirety of its lifespan. 'Support'ing that goal would be to add incentives and benefits, not to force everyone to play the way you envision (even if they can't).

It's pretty typical of what went wrong, in my opinion. The game is a developer's game, not one built for the player. I'm sure a lot of love went into making it, but that's the end result.
 

Thoric485

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An open letter? It's a fucking video game. There's a problem, it's bothering a lot of people, you make a patch, you fix it.

Look at the customer support CDPR have been offering since day one. That's developers listening to players, and acting upon it. This here is just corporate bullshit.
 

Canadamus Prime

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dogstile said:
canadamus_prime said:
Azuaron said:
canadamus_prime said:
I'm aware of that. My question is, why do they need to have an isolated single player campaign? Why not have it exactly like it is now, except only have the login prompt come up if you try to use any of the features that require Battle.net (RMAH, Chat, Friends list etc.). Or have a button on the character select screen that says "Login to Battle.net"
They would have to isolate "offline" characters from "online" characters, just as they did with Diablo II, to prevent character tampering, item modding, gold spawning, etc. from working its way into the online ecosystem.
Since I'm fairly certain all that stuff happens anyway, I have to ask "Why?"
Azuaron said:
Your character? Not stored on your computer. Blizzard has that character on a server, and you can't touch it except by logging in through their system.
And again, how difficult would it be to change that?
I'll save you his response. Not much, all they have to do is change where the file saves to. They wanted to do this on purpose, you don't program a game this big from a company that big without meticulously planning it out.

Goddammit blizzard i'm onto you.
That still doesn't address my central question, that being how difficult would it be for them to change it now considering all the negative backlash?
 

anthony87

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kortin said:
FelixG said:
kortin said:
More tears about Always Online DRM. Continue crying, friends, your tears sustain me.
damn, almost made it to page 2 without a fanboy!

OT: Yeah, its obvious he is a lying shitbag when he says the RMAH wasnt about making them money.
Fanboy? Lol, you misunderstand me. I stand fully behind all Always-On DRM. With the prevalence of high speed internet and ease of access with it, I see no reason for it to be utilized to the fullest. It's a lot better than the alternative DRM.

Also, go ahead and flame me all you like, I really don't care. I won't be responding to responses.
"I HAVE ALL THE INTERNETS! THEREFORE EVERYONE ELSE MUST HAVE ALL THE INTERNETS! I'm so totally right. In fact, I'm so right that I don't even need to respond to anything indicating that I may be wrong because I'm so totally right".



You goddamn child...
 

Octorok

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LawlessSquirrel said:
"however, Diablo III was designed from the beginning to be an online game that can be enjoyed with friends, and the always-online requirement is the best way for us to support that design."

Uh, that's not so much 'supporting' it as 'forcing' it. It allows for some neat extras that some people enjoy, sure, but the people who don't consider them critical are stuck with something that works against them for the entirety of its lifespan. 'Support'ing that goal would be to add incentives and benefits, not to force everyone to play the way you envision (even if they can't).

It's pretty typical of what went wrong, in my opinion. The game is a developer's game, not one built for the player. I'm sure a lot of love went into making it, but that's the end result.
THIS. BLOODY THIS. I can't actually 'Like' your post, but I'm trying my hardest to mentally message you a Psychic Like.

Hidden behind all the smoothy PR-speak is this fundamental, enormous issue with Diablo 3; Nothing was left in the hands of the player. From Always-On DRM, to having to use the stupid Auction House system due to loot drops, down to game design that gives you no choice how to level up or allocate skill focus, all the way through onto not ever allowing mods, ever, because of "online balance" the whole debacle reeks on one problem - Blizzard making decisions and forcing them onto every player.

Also, greed and stupidity, but mostly that first thing.
 

GAunderrated

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I'm a huge blizzard fan and I went into diablo 3 with good faith and that was my mistake. Blizzard was on par with valve in terms of quality with me and I thought they were not affected by the merger with activision. Sadly I was proven wrong but I have quickly learned not to make that mistake again.
 

rembrandtqeinstein

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They lost my business for starcraft 2 when I couldn't play on LAN with my friends. They lost my business for D3 because I couldn't play offline.

And I'm glad I didn't spend the money because nobody I know who has it lasted more than a month. Unlike D2 which we all got years of gameplay out of.
 

thereverend7

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To me, the big turn off from this game was the always online aspect. It just annoys the hell out of me. If you enjoy the game, great, more power to you, but that's my opinion on it. So when you say...

"However, Diablo III was designed from the beginning to be an online game that can be enjoyed with friends, and the always-online requirement is the best way for us to support that design. The effectiveness of the online elements -- including the friends list and cross-game communication; co-op matchmaking; persistent characters that you can use by yourself, with others, and in PvP; and some of our customer support, service, and security components -- is tied directly to the online nature of the game."

....Applies only if YOU WANT THOSE FEATURES IN YOUR GAME. this isn't world of warcraft, where everyone is seamlessly together apart of, indeed, a WORLD. if you have no friends who play diablo, and always play by yourself, how is that giving you more enjoyment? it isn't. it is directly causing you to not enjoy the game you spent your hard earned money on because if the game goes down, or needs to update, well too bad. Your stuck waiting. In world of warcraft, if I play by myself, I still see other players in the cities, and towns, and battlegrounds. If I play by myself in diablo I'm... by myself. it brings me no immersion, or efficiency to always be online.

Call of duty was designed to be a multi-player game (the later ones, anyway) but you didn't see them requiring always online when you wanted to just play the campaign. It really doesn't bother me that much, so I don't want to come across as a rager, it bothers me enough that I will never, ever buy Diablo 3 but it's just frustrating to think about the example this is setting. Diablo 3 was one of the best selling games ever and it led the way into the "always online" way of thinking. I can see the need or desire for it, as im sure it makes designing games in this fashion much easier. but I think separating online with offline play is also very, very crucial.

TL;DR: I am unhappy with Blizzard still but continue to enjoy their products and services outside of the newest diablo game.
 

Skeleon

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Absolute nonsense. There's no reason for those online features to require always on. Updates, community, friendslist etc., many of these can be done by logging in and logging out (see Steam or, HELL, Battle.net 1.0 in D2; optionally!) and things like having the friendslist active should be optional anyway. But I'm speaking from the position of a D2 gamer who mostly played solo and mods, so... yeah, of course I disagree strongly.

I know it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things because Blizzard games will still be very popular and make a lot of money despite the hoops people have to jump through, but I at least won't support their newer business model anymore. Frozen Throne was the last game I bought from them and unless they change back, it will probably remain so.
 

Signa

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Ok, that settles it. They could offer an off-line single player option and I still wouldn't buy it. They are dicks, and this letter proves they are dicks.

It was actually my plan to either buy it at the unlikely event of a single player option, or their inevitable Battlechest at an affordable cost, but I will just keep my money now. I may, may play a friend's copy if it comes to that, but I'm not even interested in playing it now.
 

Bad Cluster

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Funny to think, I used to be the one who tried to defend RMAH and AH ideas before the game launch, I could not even think that they are really going to balance the game around using them, I was naive.

I wasn't so much against always online requirement, until I found out that its impossible to play with anything less than 150 ping during normal times. I thought, that this will improve, it actually got worse with time.

I really wanted to like Diablo 3, I tried hard. But ever since I got into inferno difficulty with my friends, experiencing all the sloppy difficulty scaling, poor class balance and outrageously poor loot tables, I disliked the game more and more every day. Beating the game on all difficulties made it pointless to continue playing. Playing to get more money in order to have a chance at upgrading your character through the auction house is not the Diablo I'm used to.

There is however something positive in all this, Torchlight 2 is getting lots of attention now. All my friends who played Diablo 3 with me (over 30 people), every single one already preordered it.
 

Atmos Duality

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Open letter huh?
Well, maybe I'll try to respond as though I were writing a letter.

Mike Morhaime said:
On the flipside, we are also committed to ensuring you have a great experience with Diablo III without feeling like the auction house is mandatory, which was never our intention.
Pay-to-win exists regardless of what you do. That is true.
On the surface, the inexperienced or uneducated gamer would automatically assume that this releases Blizzard of all blame; they cannot control the whims of enterprising third parties.

But then you look at how the game is actually designed. The higher difficulties are only that difficult because they are based on grind.

I've already had friends scalping people online for hundreds of dollars real cash.
While I do not fault their appetite for opportunity, this sets an extremely worrying precedent for the future of the game. It's one step shy of online gambling.

Pay-2-Win is something that should not exist, period. But the intense grind that goes into playing the game ensures that it will not only survive, but thrive.

Of course, you know this already. You would have to be stupid beyond compare to not draw the correlation between grind and profits after milking WoW for 8 years.

One other common topic we?ve seen in the forums is the always-connected experience, and the perception that the online requirement is nothing but an ineffective form of copy protection that has already been cracked. While we?ve never said that this requirement guarantees that there will be no cheating or game cracks, it does help us battle those problems
It isn't mere "perception", it's cold hard fact.
Obvious contradictions exist to disprove that, but I'll get to that later.

(we have not found any fully functional cracks).
*does a casual Google search*

This is technically true.
As of this time, I found no functional cracks that fool Bnet 2.0.
But for playing the game offline? I already see progress.

More important to us is that the online requirement is critical for the long-term integrity of the game experience. I fully understand the desire to play Diablo III offline; however, Diablo III was designed from the beginning to be an online game that can be enjoyed with friends, and the always-online requirement is the best way for us to support that design. The effectiveness of the online elements -- including the friends list and cross-game communication; co-op matchmaking; persistent characters that you can use by yourself, with others, and in PvP; and some of our customer support, service, and security components -- is tied directly to the online nature of the game. These and other online-enabled features are essential to our design for Diablo III.
Yes, completely hand-wave the argument for Offline mode out of the way and claim "It was meant to be this way."
Why bring it up if you aren't going to address it logically?

While it's their right as a company to design their game as they see fit, that line, as a means of rebutting criticism, SAYS NOTHING.

This all goes back to Diablo 2, as it contradicts every single claim Blizzard has made beyond "We feel this is the best choice" (which is subjective anyway).

D2 had the model that allowed for everything.
Online and Offline play. Solo or with Friends. On Blizzard's Servers or Abroad.

Diablo 3's online is more convenient to jump into an online game, yes, but functionally it is strictly worse than Diablo 2, simply because it HAS LOST FUNCTIONALITY FROM DIABLO 2.

There is absolutely no way to disprove that.
You can try to hype and up-sell the features and convenience of your Only-Online game, but the fact remains that Diablo 2 had all those modes, and Diablo 3 essentially has one mode.

So really, that isn't responding to criticism at all, it's recognizing that the issue exists, and then ignoring it entirely because logically, you don't have a fucking leg to stand on.

When combined with the claim that the Online-Only component isn't Copy Protection (DRM), this becomes particularly insulting. At some point, there exists a lie.

So either the PR at Blizzard are bumbling oafs who don't comprehend the issue at all, or they're talking out of their ass because they know the masses will buy into their game no matter what.

Given how things have turned out, I know which is the truth.
And it saddens me greatly.

As always, we appreciate your candor and passion. Your constructive feedback and thoughts are valuable -- they will continue to help us be a better company. I just want to reiterate that while we can?t claim to have ever shipped a perfect game, we are committed to supporting our games relentlessly and making improvements where we can. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Mike Morhaime
The community gave you constructive feedback, and you ignored it.
Feel blessed there are so many spineless/ignorant sheep out there to feed you money.

Perhaps the gaming market has grown so much, that old fans like me who remember Diablo 2 are the tiny, vocal minority. Maybe the market has outgrown me.

Whatever the reason, I have seen better from you Blizzard, and it pisses me off to see you resort to such obvious lies and strong-arm tactics when you've seen naught but roaring success before. Wherever come this sense of paranoia, I do not know for certain.

I am perfectly willing, nay HAPPY, to pay for quality games even in the face of cheap and convenient piracy, and my requirements for delivery are few but simple.
And you fail to even allow that.

As for me, I won't be buying another Blizzard game as long as it retains such restrictive DRM practices, and such a nonchalant, dismissive attitude towards legitimate criticism.

Sincerely,
An Ex-Blizzard Fan
 

Sheo_Dagana

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Yeah, I'm sure they'll be able to put a patch in the game that will INSTANTLY relieve the boredom I am already feeling with this game.
 

thespyisdead

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i'm sorry, i can't hear diablo 3 over the sound of how awesome Path of Exile is.

that game has nabbed quite afew d3 playes in the past months... wait until it enters open beta! i think blizz will see a significant drop in player base
 

Lovely Mixture

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Atmos Duality said:
D2 had the model that allowed for everything.
Online and Offline play. Solo or with Friends. On Blizzard's Servers or Abroad.

Diablo 3's online is more convenient to jump into an online game, yes, but functionally it is strictly worse than Diablo 2, simply because it HAS LOST FUNCTIONALITY FROM DIABLO 2.
Pretty much this. A sequel is supposed to add-to or maintain a game's functionality, not remove it. I was intrigued with Diablo III until I learned that I was forced to play the game on their terms.