Blizzard Surprised by Reaction to Online-Only Diablo 3

[Harlief]

Not true, before I bought it, I had a cracked version of AC2, the crack involved having a program emulate the DRM server allowing me to play AC2 offline (until a convenient Steam sale at least).
More elaborate DRM = more elaborate cracks
Better customer service = better satisfied customers who then recommend a game unreservedly to their friends rather than bitching about the DRM.

In principle you're probably right but this isn't strictly DRM, at least in theory. It's a whole different ball game to what AssCreed2 does. Asscreed2 just dumps and retrieves data to a server, it's a pain to redirect the traffic and crack the security protocols but that's all you'd have to do. Here you'd have to expect the entire item and map generation system to be done at a server level just to maintain security of the item system. It's not just spoofing server calls you actually have to write a small chunk of the game.

Wow, that's a big F.U. to anyone who wants to buy the game but has a limited cap or a dodgy internet connection. That's be a right turn off from buying the game in the first place for people in that position. On top of that you've got the people who won't buy the game on the principle that DRM is just getting more and more ludicrous.

 

[ark123]

Jesus people just download the cracked version, which will be available like 3 hours after the official launch. People can be such babies.

That's illegal, if I'm not mistaken. And quite a few people here respect the law.

It's not, if you bought the legal version. This is why ROMs are controversial.
Quite a few people here throw their ignorant opinions around too, apparently.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

Jesus people just download the cracked version, which will be available like 3 hours after the official launch. People can be such babies.

That's illegal, if I'm not mistaken. And quite a few people here respect the law.

It's not, if you bought the legal version. This is why ROMs are controversial.
Quite a few people here throw their ignorant opinions around too, apparently.

I've been corrected, but thanks. I wasn't aware of that.

Regardless, I didn't see a very good reason why not to allow offline play, other than "We won't make money off of an AH this way"

EDIT: And I no longer feel sorry for all the stuff you have to put up with in the WoW forums now. Sorry, but that's just the way it is. Also, Penny Arcade, no need to make a strawman argument out of this.

 

[Tony2077]

don't you need a internet connection to pirate it and doing it in a pubic place the risk is too high and getting from a friend works but in the end isn't it just easier to buy the game. if you had a good enough connection to make it worth downloading wouldn't it still be easier to get the game and install it and save the few hours or so that pirating it would take. buying it just so you can crack it seems a waste since you'll be supporting them anyway and even if a friend gets it blizzard is still getting money

bottom line play it legally or not a all

 

[JoshuaMadoc]

Or rather, "Do you have a stable internet connection? No? Then kindly fuck off and stay in your little shithole. "

At least that's the vibe I'm getting from Blizzard and D3 evangelists anyway.

 

[Gindil]

don't you need a internet connection to pirate it and doing it in a pubic place the risk is too high and getting from a friend works but in the end isn't it just easier to buy the game. if you had a good enough connection to make it worth downloading wouldn't it still be easier to get the game and install it and save the few hours or so that pirating it would take. buying it just so you can crack it seems a waste since you'll be supporting them anyway and even if a friend gets it blizzard is still getting money

bottom line play it legally or not a all

Read about EA and Spore. Also, read about Ubisoft's DRM with Assassin's Creed. See why people revolt. Then look at Blizzard who should know better.

 

[Tony2077]

don't you need a internet connection to pirate it and doing it in a pubic place the risk is too high and getting from a friend works but in the end isn't it just easier to buy the game. if you had a good enough connection to make it worth downloading wouldn't it still be easier to get the game and install it and save the few hours or so that pirating it would take. buying it just so you can crack it seems a waste since you'll be supporting them anyway and even if a friend gets it blizzard is still getting money

bottom line play it legally or not a all

Read about EA and Spore. Also, read about Ubisoft's DRM with Assassin's Creed. See why people revolt. Then look at Blizzard who should know better.

well you are right about that but still the bottom line stands. they'll still get money so why not play it legally unless you know you wouldn't like the game-play in the first place

 

[Akukaishi]

This is all just yet more confirmation that the video games industry doesn't care about the games or the gamers. It's all about the cash, now. Face it, people. Video games is the new Hollywood.

 

[Warachia]

Funny, not that I need another reason to not buy this game, but people still haven't learned consumers want to use what they bought when they bought it. This is less of a game and bore of a contract, which kind of describes blizzard lately.

 

[Warachia]

don't you need a internet connection to pirate it and doing it in a pubic place the risk is too high and getting from a friend works but in the end isn't it just easier to buy the game. if you had a good enough connection to make it worth downloading wouldn't it still be easier to get the game and install it and save the few hours or so that pirating it would take. buying it just so you can crack it seems a waste since you'll be supporting them anyway and even if a friend gets it blizzard is still getting money

bottom line play it legally or not a all

My problem is I travel a lot, if I was to get the game, it would be nearly impossible for me to play the legal way, a crack is no excuse because there should be no need for one in the first place.

Off Topic: Great Avatar by the way, love that game.

 

[Judokast]

I play Diablo 2, and the single player and Battle net is completely separate. You cannot take a single player character to Battlenet, or vice versa. When you start an online character you have to start over, from scratch. So obviously he is talking out of his ass, doesn't even know his own franchise and hopes most people are too young to remember how Diablo 2 really was. Idiot.

 

[Tony2077]

don't you need a internet connection to pirate it and doing it in a pubic place the risk is too high and getting from a friend works but in the end isn't it just easier to buy the game. if you had a good enough connection to make it worth downloading wouldn't it still be easier to get the game and install it and save the few hours or so that pirating it would take. buying it just so you can crack it seems a waste since you'll be supporting them anyway and even if a friend gets it blizzard is still getting money

bottom line play it legally or not a all

My problem is I travel a lot, if I was to get the game, it would be nearly impossible for me to play the legal way, a crack is no excuse because there should be no need for one in the first place.

Off Topic: Great Avatar by the way, love that game.

i can agree with that but since i don't travel enough to make it a problem i can't jump down blizzard throat about the always on internet. all i want is a good single player game which this will be since the followers are sp only as far as the info i got says. so i know there will be a single player unless they decide to fuck that part over. i tend not to get mad about games as long as i can have fun playing them only about getting killed a lot which tends to end with my hand hurting like hell but i still punch the desk anyways

off topic: i rarely get anyone who know what the avatar is from or even likes the game

 

[Kae]

Well I guess that means I'm not getting it since I always leave the Internet for half a year, and then come back

 

[Judokast]

Really

Do people still not get it, it's not intended to be a single player game, the comparison with AC2 is false.

It's always online for the same reason guild wars 1 and 2 will be when it arrives, same as world of warcraft or the upcomming star wars the old republic.

If you avoid this game then i must insist that you avoid all thoses others because they are no different.

Yes, because Diablo 3 is an MMO.

yes that is exactly what they have made, people are thinking that diablo 3 was just some graphical update/remake of diablo 2 which clearly is not the case.

everything about this game screams guild wars, mmo, instanced player groups, single one time payment and subscription free.

soloing a mmo is not the same thing as a single player game

Its actually called Blizzard trying to shoe-horn their "Battlenet 2.0" into everything they are making now. That's why you have to always be online to play Starcraft 2, that's why you can only have ONE account per CD-key for it. That definitely ain't an MMO though.

Diablo 3 is about as much of an MMO as Diablo 1 or 2 was. You're just confusing unnecessary bullshit with "features".

battlenet 2.0 a single profile cross-title xbox live style system for blizzard titles much like the single account that hold your characters in an mmo

no starcraft is not an mmo but thats fatuous when the comparision i made was with guildwars which diablo 3 clearly is 99% the same

i'm still baffled why people are soo confused by greater online intergration in an industry moving towards non-local machine rendering (cloud) from one of the most online focused developers on the planet.

No one seems willing to take me up on this point because their simply is no difference between diablo 3 and guildwars 2 which a ton of people are hyped for.

This man knows what he is talking about. D3 is an MMO, only not an open world MMO. Its a cloud based fully instanced world. That, by definition, is an MMO. People are morons buddy. That is why they are not taking your point.

D3 is about as much an MMO, as StarCraft was a turnbased tactical roleplaying game. The Diablo series was always about a single player game, with mulitplayer added for those that enjoyed online, or Lan, for those that enjoyed playing with friends. Guild Wars..jeez.

 

[Daemonate]

I am traditionally a Blizzard apologist, having purchased every single release and sub-release from the company since 1994, and put up with WoW forums whining insanity for 5 of those years.

But I think my defense of them ends here. I won't be pre-ordering D3, and there's a reasonable chance I won't be buying it, penny-arcade to the contrary.

The issue at hand is quite relevant to me: I spent several thousand hours of my life in Diablo II and its expansion. I have purchased both several times over the past 11 years. Well over 90% of that playtime was in an off-line community, or in mods of one form or another.

While I have been playing D2 this year a lot with my friends in the form of the amazing Median XL mod, even my traditional D2 play archiving and messing with character and item files, editing them to experiment or to restore items lost in a HD failure, and using Plug-Y, which while only technically a mod, allowed me to do things with the game that kept me playing it well past when it would have frustrated me too much.

Also I have been LANning D2 recently with my gf and some friends of hers in regional australia, and they have terrible Internet connections.

Further more, I tried Blizzard's way with Stacraft 2. And it wasn't good. I am constantly lagged out, unable to access profile and friends functionality or even load the game at all, because my Australian 100 mbps broadband cable connection doesn't route well to the overseas servers. My experience with SC2 has been horrid, and this was a game in which I only played online opponents - if my lag was bad, I couldn't play anyway. Imagine my frustration if the same is to happen with a single-player, or worse, a game I do nothing but coop with my friends with.

I was open-minded about always-on requirements, but now I am totally burned, and will not purchase such thing ever again. Even Steam gives me occasional hassles, and it has local servers.

But leaving all that aside, I was independently appalled at the official responses from Blizzard. Really, guys? You are surprised? Really guys, it's about stopping hacks? Stone of Jordan duping did way less damage to D2 than not being able to click on menu items in Starcraft 2 because of PACKET LOSS to your bloody servers.

I have to ask - is this really the same company that gave me spawn copies of War2, Diablo and Starcraft so I could play with my siblings?

No, no it's not.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I'm way, way late to the party, but add me to the folks who aren't buying D3. The Auction House is fucking stupid. The always-online is fucking stupid. But worst of all, and the straw that broke this camel's will to purchase D3? Some dumbass CEO ************ opening his goddamn trap and trying to spin me on why things need to be a certain way for him to make more money.

I've got a better idea: Torchlight 2.

 

[Tony2077]

it still has single-player it may be online but who cares i get to kill demons and other baddies

 

[hyperdrachen]

Sigh this is as bad as politicians now, get out there and hold a position so ridiculous that everyone knows it's bull and keep a straight face. It would have been better had they simply said "this is the most effective means of anti-piracy we could come up with, we know it's become a taboo but we think most customers will deal with it, and it will cut down on pirates".