Blizzard Surprised by Reaction to Online-Only Diablo 3

[Vuliev]

Sigh. Just because you've been doing Battle.net for 15 years doesn't suddenly make it acceptable to require Battle.net for your game to function. Hell, the wireless phones in my house have a really irritating tendency of disrupting my router's carrier signal, and it's frustrating enough when I'm playing League or any other online multiplayer--I sure as shit don't want that happening to my SINGLE PLAYER experience.

 

[Mercsenary]

Sometimes its about playing BY MYSELF.

Sometimes its being very disappointed by the incredibly amount of ignorance and self importance.

Really? If I want to play YOUR game on a plane flight I should go play some other game?


Well fine then. I wont play your game. AT ALL.

 

[Catalyst6]

I guess that they assumed that something like the internet would just be universal for gamers.

I guess not.

 

[FallenPrism]

My immediate response to that is partially fueled by the ridiculous amount of trouble I've had with my internet lately. I hope that my problems are over for the time being, but while it was out my gaming options were definitely limited. Some games I couldn't play. Others I could, but the online component is the main draw. Still others, the game is single player, but (and this is silly I know) I didn't want to make progress in the game because I possibly wouldn't be credited with achievements.

But I still had a decent library of games that I could play, without any such worry or concern. If this trend continues to the point of being totally integrated into the mindset of developers, how many games, new games, will be out there to tide us over while our ISP sends out the repair guy, or when we move and are waiting for the internet to even be connected in the first place. Or while we are sitting in an airport with a laptop but no wi-fi waiting for our flight? How long before the old games we have from back before "online-only" are just a little too old, whether from graphics disillusionment or just already having played them enough that there's no surprises left, and we wind up spending our time doing something else? (Don't get me wrong, such a break from gaming here and there to go outside or read a book is a good thing to do regularly, even if infrequently, but I don't appreciate it when it's not on my terms.)

I haven't played the Diablo series yet, but I've been looking into trying out Diablo 2 to see if 3 would be something I'd like to pick up, seeing as I love the other Blizzard games. In the long run this probably won't affect my decision (might delay it though, if I decide to get it anyway) but I am a bit disappointed.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

Damn it, I was at the airport the other day, playing Diablo II while waiting for my flight. Hell, even playing Diablo II -on- my flight. OF COURSE I don't want a game to be on-line only, THERE ARE STILL TIMES WHEN YOU CAN'T BE CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET. Hell, even those times when I'm back home in Alaska and the power goes out or sommat--laptop, Diablo II! Dorks.

 

[Aggieknight]

Way to keep an ear on the industry. *clap*
Its the same issues we saw with the removal of Lan and in the end I doubt it will affect the games sales in a negative way.

It will impact game sales in at least one way - I won't buy it. I game on a notebook and am all too often in places without internet connections.

Sure, playing WoW or SW:TOR, I'm signing up for an experience that is limited to always online, but in a single player game? Screw that.

I've bought every single game Blizzard has produced, including Lost Vikings and Blackthorne. But this...no. Not w/out an offline mode.

This guy is being disingenuous like they were with the Real ID fiasco. They knew this would piss people off, just underestimated it.

 

[Twad]

What actual benefits do i have to be connected 100% of the time when im playing alone in SP?

None that i can think of.

Is it because of the auction house? I dont care a single bit about that auction house and im not going to use it. Ever. The game is already expensive enough (likely 60$, more with inevitable expansions), im not going to waste more cash for items that are already in the game to begin with.

Especially with my unreliable ISP. I want to keep playing even if my connection dies at random times.

That definitively put the game on "not likely to buy" category. Thats too bad, since i liked D2. The gameplay worked well and the story was nice (but hell difficulty was too much for me)

 

[night_chrono]

Also why the fuck is LAN play absent from Blizzards games now? Seriously every LAN party I got to has AT LEAST Warcraft 3 being played, usually Diablo 2 or Starcraft as well.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Quite frankly if he was genuinely surprised by the negative reactions then he is possibly one of the dumbest people I've ever heard of. The fact that people reacted this way was inevitable the moment the 'always online' part was mentioned, especially after Ubisoft got so much flack for the exact same crap.

This.

Who the fuck came up with this forced-online DRM anyway? Why is it being pushed so hard?

 

[Woodsey]

What an idiot. Live in the real world. Plenty of people in the States and the UK have terrible connections through no fault of their own, let alone other countries where you'd probably think they'd have poorer coverage.

Even my connection is perfectly fine but will drop from time to time for a few seconds. Single-player stays offline. I see no reason why they can't just segregate the two things.

 

[night_chrono]

Wrong tab, ignore me

 

[ZombieGenesis]

He wasn't surprised, not in the least. Anyone who can't expect a bad reaction to a stupid idea has no place making big decisions.
He's not a dumb guy. He knew.

 

[Xannieros]

They shouldn't be surprised. What I think is you should not be able to import a single player offline character to online.

Offtopic:What I really want to see is a response on the Real Money Auction House. They provided a FAQ and some responses to posts on forums, but they are defending it so fervently.

 

[C117]

I get the impression that somewhere along the line, Mr. Bridenbecker traded in his common sense for some shiny objects...

 

[leady129]

Ok. I want to reasonable here so I'm gonna ask the same two questions I always pose when this issue comes up.

I am on dial-up so;

A: Can I play your game? (Or do you require a high speed connection)
B: If my net drops out, as it seems to do every few minutes these days, can I continue to play your game, or is it a case of "Well, I hope you saved recently"?

If the answer to either of these questions is no, then sorry Blizzard, love your company, but you're losing a sale.

 

[robert01]

Clarify this for me: The always connected thing is similar to Ubisoft's DRM, and not how they have Starcraft 2(no internet means campaign only play without achievements). If they trule are going down the always connected a lá Ubisoft of course people are going to complain it is essential the same damned thing.

If it is to prevent cheated/hacked/duped items from appearing on the auction house there is other methods that could have been used besides always online. Of course they would require a lot more work, but it would be a better alternative anyways.

 

[Reaper195]

How didn't he? Didn't D1 and D2 both have offline?

Yeah, they did. But that's because Diablo 2 came out in 2000, back where DRM was pretty much a licencee key on the back of the cd case.

 

[Fearzone]

Diablo 3 is by Activision-Blizzard.

No surprises. Disappointment maybe. But no surprises.

 

[Atmos Duality]

"if people dont like it, dont play it" is only half of the story when in addition it is accompanied by whinges.

No. That really is the whole story: People don't like the changes being made to the game, and they have perfectly logical reasons to complain. This isn't just hating for hate's sake, these are serious restrictions being forced on the player that didn't exist in previous installments.

Fact is, there is absolutely ZERO reason Diablo 3 couldn't have an offline or LAN mode...EXCEPT as enforcement for full-nelson-DRM.

Clarify this for me: The always connected thing is similar to Ubisoft's DRM, and not how they have Starcraft 2(no internet means campaign only play without achievements). If they trule are going down the always connected a lá Ubisoft of course people are going to complain it is essential the same damned thing.

If it is to prevent cheated/hacked/duped items from appearing on the auction house there is other methods that could have been used besides always online. Of course they would require a lot more work, but it would be a better alternative anyways.

Except you can't even argue that in this case: The old Closed Battle.net kept your characters on their servers and shit was STILL hacked beyond reason!
It's the SAME SETUP as Closed Battle.net, only it's now MANDATORY for you to use "Closed Bnet" for no good reason.