Diablo III Has Single Player Online
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
Hi Samus, long time no see.
Of all the stuff I dislike about D3's online only functionality, what makes me nervous the most is more the auction house, where you can buy and sell ingame items for real money, with Blizzard taking a cut of the sale. This has so much potential for abuse by cashiered players and goldfarming companies that it will leave honest not-so-well off players in the cold. True the items should still be attainable through time and sweat, but this is also time and sweat that those players may not be able to afford to get the most out of their game.
There is potential here where the Auction House of Diablo 3 is going to end up held in control by mafia practices, and Blizzard won't care since they still get a cut.
If this doesn't catch the interest of the FTC within a year, then I have to figure that it is only a matter of time before games are only going to be for the wealthy and the rest of us can just go play jacks and streetball.
Of all the stuff I dislike about D3's online only functionality, what makes me nervous the most is more the auction house, where you can buy and sell ingame items for real money, with Blizzard taking a cut of the sale. This has so much potential for abuse by cashiered players and goldfarming companies that it will leave honest not-so-well off players in the cold. True the items should still be attainable through time and sweat, but this is also time and sweat that those players may not be able to afford to get the most out of their game.
There is potential here where the Auction House of Diablo 3 is going to end up held in control by mafia practices, and Blizzard won't care since they still get a cut.
If this doesn't catch the interest of the FTC within a year, then I have to figure that it is only a matter of time before games are only going to be for the wealthy and the rest of us can just go play jacks and streetball.
This is actually the first I've heard about D3 requiring a constant internet connection.
Nevermind, there's plenty of other games for me to buy.
Thanks for the info Shamus.
Nevermind, there's plenty of other games for me to buy.
Thanks for the info Shamus.
The thing that bothered me the most about all this is the lag in single player issue. It gets me the most because to have a "fair" loot system and lag-free single player are not incompatible with each other. I've played free-to-play games where the loot system was based on a server-client process where the gameplay is largely detached from that process (each instanced battle is run on a host computer which other players connect to directly, which has it's problems, but in a single-player only environment, is not an issue. You're maintaining a connection to a server (at least nominally), you are ensuring players get a fair enough experience, with no lag.
I may not be the most internet impoverished here (according to the recent study that was posted here, I'm right about average, with little to no dropped connections), but above passwords and pause issues (I've probably played more games without a pause than with) are nothing in comparison to the idea that my ability to succeed in the game is dependent on my ISP not deciding to throttle my speeds because I'm playing during "peak hours".
Always on internet for single player, though, as a whole is dumb. Mind, I only ever played D2 in Bnet, but that's because I never saw the benefit of playing a character that would never see others or join in with friends. But requiring everyone to be online really excludes a lot of situations outside of the "sitting at home" situation. Well, glad I got the laptop for not Diablo reasons, huh.
I may not be the most internet impoverished here (according to the recent study that was posted here, I'm right about average, with little to no dropped connections), but above passwords and pause issues (I've probably played more games without a pause than with) are nothing in comparison to the idea that my ability to succeed in the game is dependent on my ISP not deciding to throttle my speeds because I'm playing during "peak hours".
Always on internet for single player, though, as a whole is dumb. Mind, I only ever played D2 in Bnet, but that's because I never saw the benefit of playing a character that would never see others or join in with friends. But requiring everyone to be online really excludes a lot of situations outside of the "sitting at home" situation. Well, glad I got the laptop for not Diablo reasons, huh.
I have not played a single RPG that did not feature some kind of pause function. Even games like Oblivion have the decency to pause when you open a menu or your inventory. You do realise that the entire point of having a pause function in the first place is so that you don't have to inconvenience yourself by running or TPing to a safe spot every time the phone rings? People have every right to complain about the loss of this functionality. Would you rock up to a crowd who were angry about a bus not coming and tell them, 'You still have legs, start walking'?Twilight_guy said:
Let's see...
First problem: Internet connection. Mine's a cheap ass satellite connection (It's this or dial-up!) that gives me 200 MB/24H. Over exceeding this limit causes the "FAP" (Fair Access Policy) to take control, reducing you download speed from 512 KB/s to 24 KB/s. FYI: Dial-up is roughly 56 KB/s.
Second problem: Internet Connection! My Internet's about as stable as a refrigerator balanced on a coke bottle on a 45 degree slope...made of Teflon. (Where the hell did I hear that from?), which means it tends to shut off...if a cloud passes over the satellite dish.
WELL BOYS, NO DIABLO THREE FOR HILLBILLIES LIKE ME, hurr hurr hur. I guess I'll just move away from my farm, abandoning my family, friends and work to go live somewhere with high-speed.
Oh! WAIT, one final kicker. You know my satellite internet connection? Yeah? 3 year contract, bi**h. At 79.99$ a month. Terminating the contract costs roughly 900$, plus any remaining months. Only two years to go! Whee!
Edit: My internet provider is Hughes.net, fyi.
Double Edit: 56 KB/s. Whoops.
First problem: Internet connection. Mine's a cheap ass satellite connection (It's this or dial-up!) that gives me 200 MB/24H. Over exceeding this limit causes the "FAP" (Fair Access Policy) to take control, reducing you download speed from 512 KB/s to 24 KB/s. FYI: Dial-up is roughly 56 KB/s.
Second problem: Internet Connection! My Internet's about as stable as a refrigerator balanced on a coke bottle on a 45 degree slope...made of Teflon. (Where the hell did I hear that from?), which means it tends to shut off...if a cloud passes over the satellite dish.
WELL BOYS, NO DIABLO THREE FOR HILLBILLIES LIKE ME, hurr hurr hur. I guess I'll just move away from my farm, abandoning my family, friends and work to go live somewhere with high-speed.
Oh! WAIT, one final kicker. You know my satellite internet connection? Yeah? 3 year contract, bi**h. At 79.99$ a month. Terminating the contract costs roughly 900$, plus any remaining months. Only two years to go! Whee!
Edit: My internet provider is Hughes.net, fyi.
Double Edit: 56 KB/s. Whoops.
Single player has lag and you can't pause?
Not only are they hinging the game on feeble unreliabilities but taking away the very basic functionality.
Well truly this must be the way forward in game design innovation...
Not only are they hinging the game on feeble unreliabilities but taking away the very basic functionality.
Well truly this must be the way forward in game design innovation...
once they decide to make this one into a real singleplayer game and excise all the bullshit aka "features" i'll cough up the cash. until then they can choke on my schlong. there's enough games out there to occupy what little free time i have.
Hmm, okay from all the responses here complaining that there is no pause I feel the need to explain things. In a nutshell, they turned Diablo into Guild Wars. That's it, they've decided to change genres and go the MO (as opposed to MMO) route of gaming. I don't agree with this decision but I was never a big fan of loot whoring-dungeon crawlers. Now, could the player pause in Guild Wars? No. Could the player pause in Phantasy Star Online? No. From what I recall the player could not pause in Monster Hunter Tri either even when playing offline.
Now as for their reasons for changing to this genre. I like to think it's a form of keeping control on "their" product. (I won't go into the whole software ownership, EULAs, and the rental for life policies that are rampant in gaming right now.) The other glaringly obvious reason is as a form of DRM. I think it will be quite difficult for crackers to make a server emulator if all the loot tables and possibly mob AI are stored online. Just look at AION's emulation servers right now. To this day there are still mobs and NPCs with only basic AI, broken quests, and loot is still missing. That game was released quite some time ago and it is still difficult to get a full featured, just like retail, experience.
All I know is that I won't be purchasing it and I want to see more people bringing up these complaints and emailing the company. Let them know why you won't be purchasing the game. I don't think it will help for Diablo 3, but if they get enough of a backlash perhaps in the next title they will include a proper single-player experience. Ah who am I kidding, they're going to make a mint off of this release anyway to our detriment.
Just to clarify; I won't be purchasing this title.
Now as for their reasons for changing to this genre. I like to think it's a form of keeping control on "their" product. (I won't go into the whole software ownership, EULAs, and the rental for life policies that are rampant in gaming right now.) The other glaringly obvious reason is as a form of DRM. I think it will be quite difficult for crackers to make a server emulator if all the loot tables and possibly mob AI are stored online. Just look at AION's emulation servers right now. To this day there are still mobs and NPCs with only basic AI, broken quests, and loot is still missing. That game was released quite some time ago and it is still difficult to get a full featured, just like retail, experience.
All I know is that I won't be purchasing it and I want to see more people bringing up these complaints and emailing the company. Let them know why you won't be purchasing the game. I don't think it will help for Diablo 3, but if they get enough of a backlash perhaps in the next title they will include a proper single-player experience. Ah who am I kidding, they're going to make a mint off of this release anyway to our detriment.
Just to clarify; I won't be purchasing this title.
