Blizzard Cleans Up GAME's Mess
- Thread starter The Wooster
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Not everyone has a great internet connection and people should not be punished because of it. The same exact thing happened when Assassins Creed 2 was released. People had to be connected to the internet to play the game. I believe AC2 was patched later on though so people could play it without having to always be connected to the internet.tony2077 said:
If someone wants to play the campaign by themselves by making their session private why should they still have to be connected to the internet? Hopefully Blizzard patches in an offline mode in the future.
Guess I just find effectively pay-to-win options disappointing to say the least, since it basically cuts out the feeling of achievement you get from finding/unlocking everything on your own. And while yes people like me don't have to use the money shop, it will effect us none the less, and make the trading scene more frustrating. If you can tie real money value to an item (legitimately), people are going to more often compare items based on those prices, and there is going to be less wiggle room than the more barter or alternative currency method originally employed.John Funk said:
However I can't argue that this isn't the best choice to do from Blizzard's perspective, it does reenforce some (imo) unfortunate trends in gaming.
captcha: easy as cake; well yes, I do think people being able to buy the best items ruins the fun of the game.
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The order of these instructions is curious. Buy the game again, play our awesome game *thumbs up*, THEN submit your receipt eventually whenever you feel like it, then we'll give you a credit. Ok, what exactly is a credit? Sounds like credit to be used in the auction house. And what if something derps? Well fuck you you bought the game twice, can't return it because it's a PC game.
4. Receive a credit from Blizzard, for the amount you paid in advance to GAME Australia for Diablo III. This credit will be applied to the payment method used for the digital purchase.Fr said:
This last line implies that it's a straight up 'refund' to the cost you paid to preorder the game.
Blizzard's Customer Service are generally very good about these kind of things, no matter what personal opinion you have about their games. Were I an Aussie pre-order customer, I wouldn't be concerned.
Good job Blizzard, you guys just earned yourselves a decent amount of credibility. Considering the shitstorm that followed some design choices they could definitely use this.
While this certainly SOUNDS like a generous offer on Blizzard's part, I don't believe it's that much of a loss, if any, to Blizzard's coffers.
Firstly the player must buy the game directly from Blizzard (thus Blizz gets the full amount). They're likely making more than enough off those sales, now that they don't have to split the money with the retailer, to more than cover any pre-order fees. For example, if the retailer sales the game for $60 with $20 going to the retailer and Blizzard only getting $40 and there was a $10 pre-order fee, this means than NOW Blizzard gets the full $60 and only has to refund $10 back to the player. As long as the fee was low enough to fall within the retailer's portion of the profits Blizzard will actually make MORE than if the GAME sales actually went through.
AND, much like mail-in rebates, the key here is making that "money back" conditional on requiring the customer to mail in their receipts and giving them a month and a half to do it. Most people are lazy. They'll forget to mail it in, or put it off till later, and then one day they'll think about the refund and look at the calendar and OOPS, it's already past the deadline. Too late. That's why mail-in rebate sales are so profitable for companies. The number of buyers go through the roof and most forget to get their refund so the company actually ends up paying out very little but has the increased profits of all the extra customers who've essentially paid full price.
Plus, as mentioned above, it's good PR. A win for Blizzard no matter how you look at it and only a win for those few customers who remember to actually jump through the necessary hoops in time.
Firstly the player must buy the game directly from Blizzard (thus Blizz gets the full amount). They're likely making more than enough off those sales, now that they don't have to split the money with the retailer, to more than cover any pre-order fees. For example, if the retailer sales the game for $60 with $20 going to the retailer and Blizzard only getting $40 and there was a $10 pre-order fee, this means than NOW Blizzard gets the full $60 and only has to refund $10 back to the player. As long as the fee was low enough to fall within the retailer's portion of the profits Blizzard will actually make MORE than if the GAME sales actually went through.
AND, much like mail-in rebates, the key here is making that "money back" conditional on requiring the customer to mail in their receipts and giving them a month and a half to do it. Most people are lazy. They'll forget to mail it in, or put it off till later, and then one day they'll think about the refund and look at the calendar and OOPS, it's already past the deadline. Too late. That's why mail-in rebate sales are so profitable for companies. The number of buyers go through the roof and most forget to get their refund so the company actually ends up paying out very little but has the increased profits of all the extra customers who've essentially paid full price.
Plus, as mentioned above, it's good PR. A win for Blizzard no matter how you look at it and only a win for those few customers who remember to actually jump through the necessary hoops in time.
Because here 35 minutes after the servers went live and 2 hours and 35 minutes after I should've really been playing the game, I still cannot play the game because those servers I need to connect to are busy. That's the goddamn problem.tony2077 said:
Pretty simple fix there, then. If someone wants to play offline or on LAN, let them, then just disable the auction house during that session. They're very deliberately not having this feature in the game for DRM reasons, it has nothing to do with design decisions.Amnestic said:
They do know people have already worked out how to pirate the game and crack it, yeah? Nice DRM, Blizz. Forcing your customers to be online, even those who do not ever wish to play multiplayer, sure did stop them pirates.
I love when the excuse is given, that they don't want offline people cheating and then entering online, thus unbalancing the game, ruining multiplayer and, most importantly in their minds, making their little money grabbing auction house obsolete. Because making it so offline characters can't enter online play is so hard, right?
This is why I will never spend a single cent on a Blizzard game -- they are assholes.
I love when the excuse is given, that they don't want offline people cheating and then entering online, thus unbalancing the game, ruining multiplayer and, most importantly in their minds, making their little money grabbing auction house obsolete. Because making it so offline characters can't enter online play is so hard, right?
This is why I will never spend a single cent on a Blizzard game -- they are assholes.
Well, it's better than nothing, I guess. Course, if it was me, the ONLY reason I'd buy retail in Australia is:
a) Game is available in retail ONLY, or
b) I want the CE/LE version with the artbook or whatever, otherwise I would've bought digital anyway.
It's a shame that instead, if using this process, I'd just be getting the digital version without the extras.
I didn't preorder Diablo III (my internet is unreliable on a good day, inaccessible on a bad one), but I live in Australia, so I know what it's like to be fucked over when buying a game. Just a shame for those people who wanted the CE, but are ending up with just digital instead.
I know that Blizz is just doing this to help their product and get more money from a direct sale, but I still think it's good on their part to offer the refund, when GAME's demise is clearly not their problem at all.
I wonder if Rockstar will be doing something similar for those who preordered Max Payne?
a) Game is available in retail ONLY, or
b) I want the CE/LE version with the artbook or whatever, otherwise I would've bought digital anyway.
It's a shame that instead, if using this process, I'd just be getting the digital version without the extras.
I didn't preorder Diablo III (my internet is unreliable on a good day, inaccessible on a bad one), but I live in Australia, so I know what it's like to be fucked over when buying a game. Just a shame for those people who wanted the CE, but are ending up with just digital instead.
I know that Blizz is just doing this to help their product and get more money from a direct sale, but I still think it's good on their part to offer the refund, when GAME's demise is clearly not their problem at all.
I wonder if Rockstar will be doing something similar for those who preordered Max Payne?
The Blizz hate is rather out of control, when it comes down to it, Blizzard have always made quality games, most of the ire on here comes from when they merged with Activision, and I think most of the blame can be laid at Mr Kotick's door, preferably in a paper bag, with some poop in it, on fire.
You lot realise that if Blizzard had done fuck all, there'd not be two pages of complaints about them? I actually was cynical myself, when I read the post about GAME cancelling preorders, no refunds, I thought 'Blizzard could step in here and get some PR, but I bet they won't.'
In the end, I imagine many of the people who want D3, really want it, and they feel screwed by GAME, not Blizzard, and probably would have purchased it again eventually.
To me, they've done a good thing, of course it's good business sense too, but that doesn't detract from them not leaving a bunch of potential customers screwed over by someone else.
Even if you only put down ten or twenty bucks, it's probably made it cheaper to buy from them than anyone else. If you paid up front in full, however, then I imagine Blizzard just made your day and you can't believe a massive corporation is bothering to care.
Oh and I played D3 for a while last night, one disconnect, but immediately got back in and carried on. Got a Barbarian to 9 and Witch Doctor to 8, firstly with a REAL ID friend from WOW, and then by just opening my game to the public.
Everything is much smoother and simpler than D2 in terms of connecting to a game and to people. Also, they seem to have really sorted out any loot issues, in that when enemies are killed, it generates loot for each player in your group, so you can loot everything, knowing you're not ninjaing, yet at the same time, if you're feeling nice, and a bow drops, you can trade with the Demon Hunter and offer it to them
You lot realise that if Blizzard had done fuck all, there'd not be two pages of complaints about them? I actually was cynical myself, when I read the post about GAME cancelling preorders, no refunds, I thought 'Blizzard could step in here and get some PR, but I bet they won't.'
In the end, I imagine many of the people who want D3, really want it, and they feel screwed by GAME, not Blizzard, and probably would have purchased it again eventually.
To me, they've done a good thing, of course it's good business sense too, but that doesn't detract from them not leaving a bunch of potential customers screwed over by someone else.
Even if you only put down ten or twenty bucks, it's probably made it cheaper to buy from them than anyone else. If you paid up front in full, however, then I imagine Blizzard just made your day and you can't believe a massive corporation is bothering to care.
Oh and I played D3 for a while last night, one disconnect, but immediately got back in and carried on. Got a Barbarian to 9 and Witch Doctor to 8, firstly with a REAL ID friend from WOW, and then by just opening my game to the public.
Everything is much smoother and simpler than D2 in terms of connecting to a game and to people. Also, they seem to have really sorted out any loot issues, in that when enemies are killed, it generates loot for each player in your group, so you can loot everything, knowing you're not ninjaing, yet at the same time, if you're feeling nice, and a bow drops, you can trade with the Demon Hunter and offer it to them