Blizzard CEO Responds to Diablo III Controversy

[Ultrajoe]

I enjoyed Diablo 2 and enjoy Diablo 3 with my friends. I even like the always online features.

I think the auction house is rad. Did any of you even play D2?

I didn't even read the article, just checked to make sure the train of gawping hate was out in force and thus popped in to remind said train that not everyone is a joyless sod.

 

[GAunderrated]

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.

Welcome to the club, although I am very much inclined to ask - have you not noticed something was terribly wrong with Starcraft 2?[/quote]

Actually since you brought it up no I didn't notice something terribly wrong with SC2. Now before you got up in arms I only played SC2 in single player or against computer. I really wasn't into the competitive multiplayer or LAN aspect. Obviously D3 being a single player really does get affected though.

 

[Skratt]

So, my options are:

-Farm Forever (the drop rates for the good stuff has been SEVERELY reduced over previous games)

-Pay real money for the REALLY good stuff

-Quit


I would ask if anyone wants my stuff, but I don't have shit that anyone that would want.

I loved you before Blizzard, but I have been really disappointed by you recently. I think I just dropped off of the Blizzard fan boy Christmas card list. I'm one person, I don't matter, I get that. They've got my money and millions still play it.

I'd sell my copy of D3 to someone, but oh wait, you can't do that anymore either because apparently used game sales fuck the devs out of a job. *gag*

It is what it is I guess.

*wanders off to find other games to play*

 

[Something Amyss]

You want people to enjoy with friends? PvP seemed to work quite nicely FOR YOUR OTHER MAJOR FRANCHISES!
The ONLY reason you made it always online was so you could implement the Auction house, and the only reason you implemented the auction house was to charge real money, and the only reason you charged real money is so that YOU COULD TAKE THAT MONEY.

Not to mention, they could have protected the integrity of the AH by allowing you to create a single player character separate from online. I liked the way Dungeon Defenders did this. You can play online, even solo. You can also, if youchoose, play offline without your persistent characters.

OMG SO HARD.

And you have NO RIGHT to deny refunds because YOU made it impossible for your customers to play this game.

Yeah, this is a total dick move.

 

[Azuaron]

Forgive my ignorance, but couldn't Blizzard just copy the necessary functions from the server programs and input them into the player client?

Well actually I don't know... how big a folder is the actual number crunching of the mechanics compared to the texture packs and GUI players already have installed? Just ball park, I realise you don't work for the company Kind of curious how big a patch it would take to make it single player.

That's the "hack" way I described. But they still have to go through all of the code and make sure that it's connecting to your computer instead of failing to connect to a server, AND make sure they don't break any of the multiplayer. The hack way would probably add something like a gig to the player's computer.

The right way (which is the only way they'd even consider doing it) would maybe add a few hundred megs, since it would be properly integrated into the game engine and would eliminate a lot of duplicate and extraneous code.

(I am, obviously, wildly speculating.)

 

[Easton Dark]

Blizzard... stop, please.

I told you before to accept your failure, learn from it, and move on.

Doesn't look like you're doing that. Looks like you're making excuses and self-congratulating for ruining one of your franchises.

 

[JasonEllis66]

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.

Same here, I went from a pre-order any blizzard title customer to not even sure if I will buy at all. Might buy SC2 when it comes out as a complete game (with the two expansions as a battlechest) and will likely just go for Torchlight II and replaying Diablo II for my Diablo needs.

 

[Carrots_macduff]

funny how nobody has anything to say about d3 but complaints, yet it's still the best selling thing since the bible. way to go responsible consumers!

 

[Snotnarok]

None of this makes any sense.

The always online bit enrages me because it's total bullshit. Look at Dungeon Defenders, it has both a PC based character and a server based one so one is only playable online and the other can be played offline and on non-member servers. It's just fucking bullshit and this whole growing trend of not owning the games is dumb. I have games that are over 20 years old that I can still play, but these are just going to be dead, sorry server is gone, so is the game.

For a game you have to pay 60 bucks for permission to play is a lot to ask given for the same 60 bucks you can get FOUR copies of Torchlight 2 that also come with 4 copies of torchlight 1. A game that doesn't require you to be online to play single player.

Tell me which one is the better value here, which one gives you more. I mean hell for the 60 bucks for D3 you don't even get a CD/DVD case, a paper sleeve and the cheapest packaging you can find, nor do you really own the game.

 

[Scyla]

Oh Mike how very sweet of you! I forgive you... everything!! Please let me buy your next games!!!

Well actually I don't.

And every one who got to Inferno difficulty knows that the RMAH statement is BS. Of course, the high fees and the inferno game mechanics (i.e. gear requirements) are all a coincident.... yeah sure.

I'm really sorry for all the Diablo fans who waited so long for a (worthy) sequel.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I came here expecting to see lots of negative posts. I got 2 and half pages worth. I've known for a long time that gamers can be fickle and get upset easily but to see just how much bile there is here, I feel like killing myself. Even if a company is doing its best and trying to be nice and is actually a good company like Blizzard, its obvious that the customers can still come to be extremely negative when upset. Almost makes me not want to go into the games industry. Almost. I wonder if this kind of thing happens on every forum and every company deals with this stuff? Human nature or gamers? Ah well. Anyways, Blizzard made some poor decisions here and they happen to be in a place where they cannot bring there angry customers back. Now if you'll excuse me, all the negativity in this thread is making me depressed.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Anyways, Blizzard made some poor decisions here and they happen to be in a place where they cannot bring there angry customers back. Now if you'll excuse me, all the negativity in this thread is making me depressed.

I stopped bothering with this site for a time, cut back despite my increase in spare time because of the growing negative element.

On the other hand, this topic in particular, Blizzard really brought this on themselves.
It's an open letter that actively avoids addressing the issues it allegedly was supposed to address. I find it difficult to maintain a purely-positive mindset when the letter in question is basically a load of lies and PR bullshit.

Well, hope you find brighter subjects ahead.
Cleanse the palette.

 

[Nimzabaat]

Yeah he acts like he's never played Diablo, or Diablo 2, or Starcraft, or Starcraft 2, or Warcraft, or Warcraft 2, or Warcraft 3... (just mentioning titles that you could play offline or online or in a LAN party (do people still do LAN parties? I know my friends wanted to) that worked just fine without always being online).

Sigh. I wish I had more money so everytime Blizzard made a stupid statement like this, I could buy another copy of The Witcher or The Witcher 2. CDProjekt has the right idea.

As someone who's met some higher ups of blizzard including Mike... he's probably played all or most of those games. When I met him and others, they would mostly talk about experiences they had in game amongst themselves.

That doesn't change that this was spin doctoring.

Nimzabaat used SARCASM. Dunam used OBLIVIOUS. It was super effective!

 

[Zer_]

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?"

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?

At this point? Unlikely. There are several reasons why Blizzard coded Diablo 3 to be online only. Assuming we listen to their official reasoning, they did it to reduce the prevalence of hacking, because Diablo 2 did indeed have a lot of that going on. Unfortunately, Blizzard took a something that is their problem, and made it everyone's problem by forcing an online only policy on Diablo 3.

Could they have offered both offline and online play while securing the online component from hacking? Absolutely, it could have been done. Unfortunately for us, Blizzard coded D3 to be online only right from the beginning, that means that it just takes that much more work to implement an offline component.

Whatever, fuck Diablo 3. I enjoyed StarCraft II, I don't even mind that they split it into three games because let's face it, SC2's campaign is every bit as long as SC1's, so that doesn't bother me. The lack of LAN play did bother me some, but not enough to keep me away from the game. After all, SCII's servers were pretty stable at launch, and you can play it offline if you must. They went too far with D3, so fuck that.