Blizzard Surprised by Reaction to Online-Only Diablo 3

[Traun]

Ugh. And no benefit in single player. I can run AIM, IRC, MSN or Steam instead.

Imagine you are playing your copy of Diablo 3, suddenly a massage from your friend xXx1337xMLGxQucikscopeSasukexXx pops up and says "Found this item "Epic Shield of Bullshitium", click here to get it", you click and it pops up in your inventory. You play a single-player game AND you are connected with your friends.

Is it likely you're going to be doing that during the game?

Some people do.
They usually play EVE online though.

That would be a nice idea, if anyone took any notice of it. Valve are the masters of this, and they've still overloaded the Soldier with thousands of weapons while leaving the Engineer/Spy/Medic/Heavy to rot.

Seriously, how is this a good idea. It just guaratees that the most played class/race etc. gets the most love and everyone else get's the boot - a.k.a your example. One of the reason I didn't get DA2 was because I couldn't play a fantasy race. I don't like playing Human in fantasy.

But anyway, for defending it - most companies are subtle about it, which is why you don't see it force on to you.

Most events I've ever been in run at 2 fps when you have 60+ people in a small area.

You have a large event with lots of people in one place and you're far more likely to lose your connection.

Or maybe they'll be on private servers with 10-20 men in every server.

 

[AsurasFinest]

For one thing, my connection is too unreliable to make it practical (one of the reasons I loathe Steam) and two, I'm not willing to financially support a system that so openly disregards me as a gamer.

Hold the phone, don't 99% of steam games work just fine w/o an active connection (once they're dl'd and installed?)

They seem to work for me??

I don't mean to be daft, but could you expand on where you encountered this problem on steam? I've only ever seen it on some of the 'always on' Ubisoft DRM titles. Is it also on Valve's titles? Or...???

CORRECTION!

When I play Dawn of War 2 and my steam goes down I can't even touch the single player without reconnecting my steam first.

Steam is the bane of offline single player gaming.

Wrong, Games for Windows Live requires it of you, not Steam.
They changed this in Retribution so you only need Steam,meaning you can play it withot having to go online

 

[A-D.]

I have played both, primarily single player initially.
It did not take me long to come to the conclusion single player was silly and I had very little reason to play it offline the second online was an option.

That is fine and perfectly valid as a Point. However we cant really assume that everyone plays solely for the Online Factor. I mean lets face it, no game has a perfect Community. Diablo 2 is a big offender there. I have seen stuff thrown around in Channels, which are not even remotely moderated, that would even cause the CoD Community to be offended by it. That says alot....Actually its kinda the same in that respect.

well have fun bitching and complaining its not going to change anything. i'm going to leave this shit storm i need a shower

Just going to ask but, whats your Point in this Thread? At least the last 3 Posts i have seen from you here are simply to insult anyone who in any shape or form argues against "Always On"-DRM Measures of any kind.

Dont like the Topic? Dont click on it. Whats so hard to grasp about that one?

it not the topic i hate its the stance that some people are taking i hate and also find pointless and stupid and don't stick your nose where it not wanted or it make get bitten off

Calling you out for not making a valid Argument against the people you disagree with but insulting everyone who has posted in this Thread and is against the Online-measure actually warrants me "sticking my nose in" because for all intents and purposes i may as well feel myself being insulted by your previous Statements. Also dont start threatening over the Forums, even in a joking manner its a bit silly.

 

[SixWingedAsura]

They're SURPRISED by this? How stupid can you get?

They probably AREN'T surprised. We all know what it is. It all boils down to the damned AH. They want to squeeze every last drop of change from consumers and they know that if they can keep forcing players closer and closer to the AH, most will try to use it and will end up being a steady flow of income in Blizzard's already infinite pockets. Single player would allow players to outright avoid that line of BS and that's NOT what Blizzard wants. And as far as the reasoning that Single Player would cause a massive influx of items for AH, that could be VERY easily avoided by making it where you cannot use your Single Player characters online. I'd have no issue with that at all if that's what they did.

But nope! Auction House! Auction House! AUCTION HOUSE! AAAAUUUUCCCCTTTTIIIOOONNN HHHHOOOOUUUSSSEEEE!!!!1111!!!1!!1!!

 

[ImprovizoR]

Some people just want to play the game alone. Like me. If they won't let me do that I'll just buy Torchlight 2. I was planning on getting both, but I will never buy a game with always-on DRM. Not even if it's primarily a multiplayer game.

 

[EvilScoop]

Ugh. And no benefit in single player. I can run AIM, IRC, MSN or Steam instead.

You need to be online to use any of those, just sayin'.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Imagine you are playing your copy of Diablo 3, suddenly a massage from your friend xXx1337xMLGxQucikscopeSasukexXx pops up and says "Found this item "Epic Shield of Bullshitium", click here to get it", you click and it pops up in your inventory. You play a single-player game AND you are connected with your friends.

Again. Ugh. If I'm in Single player mode, I like to be alone in the world. If multi, then I just use chat.[/quote]

Some people do.
They usually play EVE online though.

I've done it in DDO, but it's a pain, and a quick Alt-Tab, Firefox, Paypal is just as easy.

Or maybe they'll be on private servers with 10-20 men in every server.

Which they could have done with mods and dedicated servers.

If you've got a connection that never drops out...whoop...you've got no problems.

The rest of us though, you're talking about crippling our games so that they don't get pirated as much.

Which will last maybe a month.

Yet the Always on lasts forever.

Ugh. And no benefit in single player. I can run AIM, IRC, MSN or Steam instead.

You need to be online to use any of those, just sayin'.

True, but you don't need to be constantly online. YOu can still break connection and come back to it with no real loss.

 

[EvilScoop]

Ugh. And no benefit in single player. I can run AIM, IRC, MSN or Steam instead.

You need to be online to use any of those, just sayin'.

True, but you don't need to be constantly online. YOu can still break connection and come back to it with no real loss.

And if you are playing online on single-player and everything is saved server side, you can come back to it with no real loss.

 

[Lunar Templar]

o.o wow .... he DIDN'T see it coming -.- he's ether stupid or naive, maybe both

"You're introducing a separate user flow, a separate path that players are going to go down," he explained. "And, at the end of the day, how many people are going to want to do that?"

me, that's who

"We've been doing online gameplay for 15 years now... and with World of WarCraft and our roots in Battle.net and now with Diablo 3, it really is just the nature of how things are going, the nature of the industry.

>.> right ... me thinks he needs to get out more, or pay better attention to more then the blizzard line up there still a lot of single player games coming out that are offline, and while there s technically no mention of DMR, that's what 'so we can verify your character' means good job morons, your killing your game before its even out

 

[ImprovizoR]

So why not just make an offline mode for people who want to play that way? "You're introducing a separate user flow, a separate path that players are going to go down"

Ah, I get it. They don't want us to play how we want to play.

And, at the end of the day, how many people are going to want to do that?

How is that even important? Offline option is easy to make. Pirates are gonna do it anyway. It's better to put it in the game than to risk losing sales.

 

[Nesco Nomen]

My only surprise comes from the fact that Diablo 3 senior producer used wording like:

"I'm actually kind of surprised..." [http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2011/08/04/blizzard-vp-surprised-over-fan-reaction-to-diablo-3-online-requirements/#more-64490]

therefore giving a sense of accomplishment to this cave-dwelling, Curtis LeMay Tokyo fan-club kind of minority,

who will ***** about money AH, complain about all this new MMO aspects,
claiming they are here basically for internet free single-play because their connection sucks,
then moan again how money AH is unfair for Arena Ladders


ALL this in the same whine spree!

Can someone please explain to me what the big deal is?

I mean, a high speed internet connection is like a standard living need for any gamer. In my opinion, anyone who has heard of Diablo 3 or is interested in playing it will have a fairly stable internet connection.


What's the issue here?

Blizzard isn't known for it reliable servers.

11 mil. WoW population and all those SC2 leagues are done with unreliable servers?

You actually believe that SP Diablo 3 will be HOSTED from battle.net servers.
That you will crash if u D/C?

And that all these UNRELIABLE SERVERS are really a SINGLE play problem? HAHAHA

 

[Greenstripe0]

My ability to care about Diablo 3 tanked the moment I hard about no offline and their inability to comprehend why just lost my purchase. Sorry guys, but you just lost a paying customer

 

[TK421]

"And, at the end of the day, how many people are going to want to do that?"

Idk, thousands of people everyone except for a select few?

Seriously, who wants to be connected to the internet just to play a single player game? It's a huge inconvenience for everyone who doesn't have a perfect internet connection, and for those on the go as well.

 

[alinos]

So why not just make an offline mode for people who want to play that way? "You're introducing a separate user flow, a separate path that players are going to go down," he explained. "And, at the end of the day, how many people are going to want to do that?"

I want to do that and until i can i will not be providing Blizzard with any money.

I refuse to pay for a game that i will pirate to play.

I have decent enough internet when i'm at home, however i'm not always at home, and i like to play stuff like this which is perfectly playable with a trackpad when i am on the go.

If i want to play games on my home network, the one's i am going to play are going to be the ones that actually warrant a Internet connection. Not just because some company decided that they won't provide an offline mode(haven't played any of the other Diablo's online(LAN yes)) So i am already in that separate path offline or not.

 

[Tony2077]

blizzard may change stuff if enough people say something in a place they can see but i don't think there is enough people willing to or even care about saying anything they just want to play video games end of story

 

[thetruefallen]

everyone i know (about 8 people lol) was excited about D3 coming out, but now after learning that you require the internet to play less than half of them said they would still be getting the game for sure.

My dad wont be able to play it on the train like he still occasionally does with D2 and a few of my friends can only afford pre paid internet dongles if at all, and if you need the connection to play then goodbye credit.

 

[Breywood]

They say that laughter is the brain's reaction to absurdity. Mr. Bridenbecker's statement has had me laughing for the past five minutes. Since I had heard of this project's development, I have had nothing but edification to avoid buying it. The always connected is pretty much the last nail in the coffin. I said to others before this that I would not buy this without playing a decent demo of the game.

This will not be necessary. I won't be buying it, period.

 

[Ranyore]

Good point - but you're looking at Blizz as a group that understands the real gamers behind it...hell even online groupings of game sales like Steam have 'offline mode'.

 

[alinos]

While I'm an opponent to constant connection there are benefits to it.

1. Constant access to the community - you are always connected to your fiends and various community groups.

F the community, i have enough community in the MMO's/Online Games i play i don't need or want another.

2. Access to online content - the AH is a prime example of this, you can always go and buy the item you wish (for gold or cash or whatever).

While i can see the AH is nice for some, again i don't give a shit as someone who plays Singleplayer i have no intrest in magic shield of bullshitium with +1 more strength than the shield i have

3. Helping make a better game - while you are online you constantly send data to the company so they can analyze the performance of gamers, see what they did and didn't do and work off that (why do you think Dragon Age 2 has only human as a race option? Over 50% of the gamers chose a human origin in DA:O. This is why the new class in ME3 is combat-orientated, instead of magic or engineering).

Commonly referred to as spying since i don't want these companies to know how i or others played. As for the Dragon Age 2 reference, seems to me like an even better reason not to allow these companies access to data. They will remove things that don't get mass appeal so they can cut corners.

I finished ME1 6 times, i finished ME2 once. Yet the change in ME2 comes from those complainers/data that said more shooty less anything else

4. Events - you can participate in events.

Don't care about event's, if anything this is the weakest on the list.

Yet i've sacrificed on the go gaming, Mods, Lan, how many characters i can create, because of my region i'll get bad ping to either the US or the SEA servers if for some reason i did want to go online.

As well as loosing my privacy, and ensuring that while playing i wouldn't be able to download other things because they might spike my connection for .1ms and fuck the D3 connection.

No game should ever require an internet connection for any segment of the game that doesn't necessitate an internet connection.(essentially only leaving MMO's/MP components)

If they are worried about me fucking the economy, Make it so that offline chars can't use the AH(wait thats there money source no wonder we aren't allowed offline) and that we can only play any sort of MP(LAN) with other offline characters.

That way we can have mods and hackity to our hearts content, without fucking with the so called competitive segments of the game