Diablo III Has Single Player Online

[Twilight_guy]

The points about can't pause is kind of bullshit. Lots of games don't take place online don't let you pause (for various reasons from it being counter to gameplay to bad planning). If an emergency happens and you haven't got a physiological problem where you value bits more then real life then you leave the game and say "fuck this I've got an emergency." If its not an emergency, then open a town portal go go someplace that has no monsters. This is Diablo, there are safe spots.

The one about username and password is also kind of bullshit. Remembering your password and name is handy nut not necessary. Unless your superlazy then its an extra 30 seconds. That's not really a valid argument since there are other far more egregious issues that could be noted. Also, security and convenience are at odds with on another you sacrifice one to get the other. It's up for debate weather this is a worth sacrificing but I'm not going to complain for minimally invasive security feature add-on after the shitstorm that Sony and other went through not that long ago.

I wonder how many people actually play using mods and how many make them? It'd be interesting to see the numbers. I suspect most people don't have the gumption to make mods but I don't know about people using them.

I also want to know how many people in Blizzard's potential customers don't have a reliable connection to the internet. Lots of people throw around that there internet sucks but I want to see what the numbers are and also see what connection speeds are tolerable. I really want to know whether this is the vocal minority or some notable portion.

You sure are expecting others to provide numbers only a google search away. But I'll show you what I have to put up with on a light week of internet bullshit.

Spoiler: click for image

Somehow I doubt if there is a reliable source of news on percentage of gamers who use mods or the specific quality of their internet that can be found so easily. Aside, from that. I know some people's internet connections suck what with poor service and all. I don't care. one case does not a statistically significant group make. I want more then just some angry people saying that their individual connections are not good. Also, why the heck do you think logs form... 5 days of various interruptions mean anything to me. That gives me neither percentages nor the generally reliability of the connection. So it gets disconnected. Does that ell me general bandwidth does that tell em what kind of bandwidth Diablo 3 needs? I know you might get dropped but I have no idea what that means. Will you be dropped for a day? for a week? for 1 minute? The concept of "bad" here is as nebulous as the percentage of people who have "bad".

On top of that. Yes, yes I do expect numbers, sometimes. In an argument if someone claims X its there responsibility to show me evidence of X or to prove it. This article is not about those numbers per say so I don't expect it to have them but when I do hear such an argument I would like to see numbers. This was just an idle thought though and if I were inclined enough I'd go looking for them. When this argument is thrown around and there are no numbers I have no idea if people are talking out of their asses or not. Being the internet, I'm suspicious of every claim.

 

[JesterRaiin]

What to say... All i can think of is this.

 

[Low Key]

Also this is an interesting article about the deeper reasoning why they are doing this, albeit somewhat long: http://www.the-ghetto.org/content/the-creation-of-battle-net-2-0-part-one

Holy shit, I can't believe I just spent 2 hours reading that. "Somewhat long" isn't a very good description. Good read nonetheless though. Too bad my expectations of the future of gaming has dropped dramatically because of it.

 

[RikuoAmero]

Okay, Blizzard, I've been playing World of Warcraft and there are several things that annoy me.
1) Disconnections. If my internet drops for about a minute, I'm booted back to the log in screen. Although, to be fair, this is more the fault of my ISP.
2) Lag. There have been times when my internet is behaving itself but I still get atrocious ping times. Enemies ten meters away get a free attack against me, and once the lag dies down, sometimes I'm hit about six or seven times simultaneously, sometimes resulting in instant death.
3) Lack of true mods. I have heard about UI mods but there are no total conversions or anything of the like.

I am willing to put up with that, because its an MMO. By nature, an online multiplayer game has these problems.

Now you want to throw these disadvantages into a single player game? What am I getting in return to counter these negative points? For example, if I buy a game on Steam, I can't re-sell it, but in exchange, Valve allow me to play it on any computer and re-download it as many times as I want.

What you're doing here Blizzard is giving us single-players all of the disadvantages of a MMO but without anything positive to balance it.

 

[Twilight_guy]

The points about can't pause is kind of bullshit. Lots of games don't take place online don't let you pause (for various reasons from it being counter to gameplay to bad planning). If an emergency happens and you haven't got a physiological problem where you value bits more then real life then you leave the game and say "fuck this I've got an emergency." If its not an emergency, then open a town portal go go someplace that has no monsters. This is Diablo, there are safe spots.

The one about username and password is also kind of bullshit. Remembering your password and name is handy nut not necessary. Unless your superlazy then its an extra 30 seconds. That's not really a valid argument since there are other far more egregious issues that could be noted. Also, security and convenience are at odds with on another you sacrifice one to get the other. It's up for debate weather this is a worth sacrificing but I'm not going to complain for minimally invasive security feature add-on after the shitstorm that Sony and other went through not that long ago.

I wonder how many people actually play using mods and how many make them? It'd be interesting to see the numbers. I suspect most people don't have the gumption to make mods but I don't know about people using them.

I also want to know how many people in Blizzard's potential customers don't have a reliable connection to the internet. Lots of people throw around that there internet sucks but I want to see what the numbers are and also see what connection speeds are tolerable. I really want to know whether this is the vocal minority or some notable portion.

As for pause. I is annoying to have your character die every time you need to handle something. And it trains people to play "marathon sessions" to get anything done.

On to the password. Great that you know buzzwords like "egregious," "At odds," and "shitstorm." But it doesn't matter. This is a single player component of a game we are talking about right? Why do you need a password on a save game file that could be stored on your hard disk. In fact asking for a password to play offline is asking for more trouble from key loggers then there needs to be. No hacker is going to hack into your computer to steal you level 35 wizard single player file, they want your online password and you juicy online niblets.

Honestly 30 seconds? Its established you might get logged off a lot. so lets say you need to log back in on average 6 times a day. that's 180 seconds or 3 minutes each day. Lets say they sell only 5 million copies. That is 15000000 million minutes of life bleed from the earth each day. Each day they would be wasting over 10 thousand days of paying customers time. And that is a low estimate I have spent a long time looking for lost passwords.

If someone wants to play single player there is already a good chance they are not playing online because they cant. Why punish them by forcing them to be online anyway?

Personally I never had a problem with Diablo 2 where you couldn't pause either and I think pauses are kind of unnecessary because Diablo has towns. Also, Marathon sessions in a blizzard game... haha, WoW. It's certainly annoying to not have pauses and something they could have improved on but it's far below the kind of thing an article like this should comment on. He's using this as fodder for an argument that should focus on major issues. "They don't have pause" is going to chop down a tree and wading trough the forest to find the smallest one possible then complaining there are no good trees.

I also know words like "ad hominem." The issue of whether or not online requirement for single player is stupid (it is) is not the topic the issue of this article using the fact that the program lacking a minor convenience feature as a major talking point is at issue. Like the above I see it as a huge nit-pick and using a minor feature to try and say and say that the game sucks.

I'm sorry but you're really stretching yourself with that last part their. First of all, your conflating the argument that the reliability sucks and sneakily replacing an argument with a strawman. Even as such, the minor amount of trouble caused to end user is measures in minutes or seconds, something that barley registers on most people's minds. It's up for debate but if people are playing the game then there likely going to spend the vast majority of their time actually playing. Aside from that, stop trying to circumvent my argument by distributing it over a set of numbers you just came up with. Stop trying to make my argument about total lost time and not individual inconvenience. Stop trying to have to both ways by arguing that you need to enter your password a lot and looking for lost passwords is hard (if you type it in 6 times a day its going to stick in your mind).

Also stop trying to make my argument about something that its not, mainly that online single player is bad or not. I pointed out two parts of the article I took issue with because I see them as nit-picks. I have an opinion, go deal with it.

 

[RikuoAmero]

Lets add a point here.

Diablo 3 costs a finite ammount of money. Running online servers so that I can play my game for the rest of time costs an infinite amount of money. You don't need to be a math genius to see how that is going to work out.

The moment it stops being profitable is the moment they release a patch allowing offline single player and start shutting down servers.

Why would they release the offline patch? Once its not profitable anymore, there would be no money coming to pay for development of a patch. They don't need to release it, after all, the games would already have been sold, so there's no gain for them.

 

[Twilight_guy]

The points about can't pause is kind of bullshit. Lots of games don't take place online don't let you pause (for various reasons from it being counter to gameplay to bad planning). If an emergency happens and you haven't got a physiological problem where you value bits more then real life then you leave the game and say "fuck this I've got an emergency." If its not an emergency, then open a town portal go go someplace that has no monsters. This is Diablo, there are safe spots.

The one about username and password is also kind of bullshit. Remembering your password and name is handy nut not necessary. Unless your superlazy then its an extra 30 seconds. That's not really a valid argument since there are other far more egregious issues that could be noted. Also, security and convenience are at odds with on another you sacrifice one to get the other. It's up for debate weather this is a worth sacrificing but I'm not going to complain for minimally invasive security feature add-on after the shitstorm that Sony and other went through not that long ago.

I wonder how many people actually play using mods and how many make them? It'd be interesting to see the numbers. I suspect most people don't have the gumption to make mods but I don't know about people using them.

I also want to know how many people in Blizzard's potential customers don't have a reliable connection to the internet. Lots of people throw around that there internet sucks but I want to see what the numbers are and also see what connection speeds are tolerable. I really want to know whether this is the vocal minority or some notable portion.

Do you have Stockholm Syndrome from exposure to Ubisoft or 2K? Tell us on the doll where the bad GamesforWindows touched you.

Seriously, why do you come up with weak "it's not THAT bad" defenses for what are clearly an erosion of convenience and customer support? Why should WE put up with bullshit just because people like you don't mind having their time wasted?

And about the Internet, I tried Blizzard's Great Online-Only Experiment with Starcraft 2. I wouldn't touch Ubisoft's bull, but with SC2 I excused the online DRM by the fundamental degree to which the game's online integrity is vital to its survival as a competitive game.

That was before I found myself waiting up to several minutes for menus to load, stuck with 500-600 ping to my 'local' servers (which were in Singapore, apparently), and unable to play my single player game during 'maintenance' nights, which fell during my prime playing hours - and often just having the game lock up randomly and drop me out coz my ISP sneezed.

Since I have fibre-to-the-node Cable net access, with 20,000 kb/s downstream, I'm really not going to give them a second shot with Diablo 3, especially since ith as no epic online tournament scene to excuse the DRM.

I was going to write an angry comment here. Something along the lines of "That's my opinion" or maybe something about the antagonism to large companies, or maybe how I never made an argument for it not being wrong and instead saying I thought these were minor issue that were being nit-picked. Then I remembered this song and that you're entitled to your own opinion and it made me feel too happy to post anything else.
Shake... shake...

 

[Twilight_guy]

The points about can't pause is kind of bullshit. Lots of games don't take place online don't let you pause (for various reasons from it being counter to gameplay to bad planning). If an emergency happens and you haven't got a physiological problem where you value bits more then real life then you leave the game and say "fuck this I've got an emergency." If its not an emergency, then open a town portal go go someplace that has no monsters. This is Diablo, there are safe spots.

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'?

I still think it's a minor issue for the article to complain about. Shamus generally has far better arguments. This is only annoying not the kind of "system is broke" argument that usually characterizes his articles.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

The points about can't pause is kind of bullshit. Lots of games don't take place online don't let you pause (for various reasons from it being counter to gameplay to bad planning). If an emergency happens and you haven't got a physiological problem where you value bits more then real life then you leave the game and say "fuck this I've got an emergency." If its not an emergency, then open a town portal go go someplace that has no monsters. This is Diablo, there are safe spots.

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'?

I still think it's a minor issue for the article to complain about. Shamus generally has far better arguments. This is only annoying not the kind of "system is broke" argument that usually characterizes his articles.

In the grand scheme of things, it's a minor niggling annoyance. But those minor annoyances add up and create a system that causes multiple frustrations for the audience.

 

[Twilight_guy]

The points about can't pause is kind of bullshit. Lots of games don't take place online don't let you pause (for various reasons from it being counter to gameplay to bad planning). If an emergency happens and you haven't got a physiological problem where you value bits more then real life then you leave the game and say "fuck this I've got an emergency." If its not an emergency, then open a town portal go go someplace that has no monsters. This is Diablo, there are safe spots.

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'?

I still think it's a minor issue for the article to complain about. Shamus generally has far better arguments. This is only annoying not the kind of "system is broke" argument that usually characterizes his articles.

In the grand scheme of things, it's a minor niggling annoyance. But those minor annoyances add up and create a system that causes multiple frustrations for the audience.

That'd be fine if there were more then 5 points here. Showing an overwhelming number of minor annoyances becomes a major issues is hard to do if I can count them on one hand.

 

[Sean951]

Lets add a point here.

Diablo 3 costs a finite ammount of money. Running online servers so that I can play my game for the rest of time costs an infinite amount of money. You don't need to be a math genius to see how that is going to work out.

The moment it stops being profitable is the moment they release a patch allowing offline single player and start shutting down servers.

Why would they release the offline patch? Once its not profitable anymore, there would be no money coming to pay for development of a patch. They don't need to release it, after all, the games would already have been sold, so there's no gain for them.

I meant it wouldn't be profitable to keep the servers up. Releasing a patch to make offline mode available means they can keep selling the game, keep a few servers up, and still make a profit.

 

[Vhite]

I can't see why everyone is bothered by no pause. Have you ever played Diablo 2?(dunno about the first one but I think it was there as well) You could just make a portal to town that cost you 1 penny and no one could do anything to you there and then you could just go back.

 

[Sir Broccoli]

I don't really see why the 'no pausing' thing is such a huge deal. Just create a town portal and you'll have all the time in the world.
Unless Diablo 3 has no town portals, in which case you can ignore this post.

 

[Continuity]

YAY Blizzard!!! innovating shitty end user experiances since Starcraft 2... we love you guys!

 

[Hugga_Bear]

Man, I love the look of this game, want it pretty bad but no pause/always on is just irritating, I still play D2 sometimes because I can whack it on and just doss around, I can play it while I'm baking some stuff or waiting to go out or something. Just pop it on, play around for a bit and then quit.

No pause is hugely irritating, granted we have towns but even if TP's are as common as in D2 it's still an annoying little thing to have to do. Always on is worse, I have a poor connection here and it can go through phases of dropping out over a couple of hours, fine for internet browsing etc but with D3 it would mean waiting for it to clear for a few hours, by which time I'll likely be off anyway because despite Blizz's best intentions we don't all sit on the computer all day every day.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Ok am I missing something (granted I haven't been reading every singles info on this game)? Yes I can get how not pausing in a single player online game can be quite inconvenient but again you can't pause in MMORPG (due to it being real time with other players). I guessing anyone who does buy the game would simple adopt "away from keyboard" scenario unless the player character is surrounded by monsters.

I'm abit confuse how does one save in the game due to if you leave the game, it won't save your progress? Is there a save/ check point or anyway to save inside the game at all?

By all means I'm NOT defending this game since I only buying it for the multiplayer purpose only although I wonder if this recent info will deter my hardcore mate from buying it which in term I won't get it as well.

 

[Jumwa]

Whenever I am playing a game I am never just playing a game I am always doing multiple things and getting interrupted by something.

Same here.

I find myself picking what games I play in large part based on how easy it is to get other stuff done during play. It means: can I pause at any time? Can I alt+tab out to answer this urgent work/personal email whenever I need to? Can I throw my attention to whatever random thing that comes up in real life in a moments notice without having to loudly shush someone or losing my progress?

There was a time when I used to be able to play games without considering such things, and I could even dedicate myself to a MMO for a while. But not anymore. Every time I try a new MMO I get quickly frustrated by the lack of forgiveness they have for my real life, and quit.

 

[Realitycrash]

All I want to know about Diablo III is this; Is it horribly short, as Diablo 2?
I don't buy games to play online (WoW not included, but I'v given that up as well), I prefer singleplayer, and when I ran through Diablo 2 (plus the expansion) in around 16 hours, I got pretty pissed.
So, is Diablo III restricted to five worlds as well? Five tiny, fucking levels that feature little to no variety? Or is it more "open world" (dare I say "Sandbox"?) that encourages exploring?

 

[AhumbleKnight]

I have been trying to convince myself for a while now that "online only" is something I could live with. Sure I have a connection that is sometimes a bit shitty, but thats not often... I can deal with that...
But no ability to pause is frelling huge. I am an adult gamer with a wife who would also love to play this game but a 13 month old baby who don't seem to understand what this whole Computer thing is and why the hell are Mummy and Daddy not giving me attention?

Life comes first, games second. Any dev that doesn't understand that needs to get their priorities sorted.

Blizzard, for shame.