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
