Diablo III Has Single Player Online

[Realitycrash]

It might allow for "infinite permutations", but doesn't give me any NEW INFO. Instead of the road going left, it now goes right, but both takes me to the Temple of Doom, and both roads had the same amount of enemies and the same environment. It's like 7+5=12, and 8+4=12. It's the same goddamn result and it doesn't impress me. If levels actually get longer in the higher difficulty-levels, then the game gets longer, sure, but it really wouldn't impress me much. More of the same, more of the same.

And of course, random dungeon #232 in whatever sandbox game you like (that encourages exploring) is completely different from this because it has two levers to pull instead of one.
I mean, I have no problems if this is what gets you to enjoy the game. But you have to consider the hilarity of that statement.

Even though you can beat every game in only a few hours (or minutes), if you set yourself out to do it, some still take longer, and Diablo II isn't long from that point of view.

So your argument is "if I completely ignore the point of this game and go straight for the finish line, the game is too short for me". Well, yes, it's that type of game.

"Objectively a bad thing"? Have you any idea what "objective" means?
Sigh. No one can ever have an OBJECTIVE opinion, then it wouldn't be an opinion.

Of course I have an idea what "objective" means. It comes with general statements about a game that can be right or wrong. Such as the ones you implied: lack of variety, not encouraging exploration.
Now I'm not the one to keep arguing what your words sounded like instead of what you meant, but if you really meant it as personal opinion you should have said so.

I'm about go out and get drunk, so I don't have time for a "proper" reply, all I can say is: Too few sidequests, not enough dialogue, not enough varied environments. Had they made about twice the content (twice the amount of "levels" you can go to) I probably wouldn't be complaining.
For me, the game is short. But I'm sure it's excellent to grind online.
Glad you enjoy it, I sure did not.

 

[CaptDom]

I bought a PC to turn my back on consoles and their shitty narrow-minded shoot-first-ask-questions-later DRM policies.

Battlenet for this, Origin for that; makes me think of Steam almost a positively positive light... when they let me log into 'my own' games that is. My entire library is online only *sadface* (if only steam had an proper offline mode instead of a sick joke using those words as its name)

am I alone or do the words USER-NAME and PASS-WORD often look like GIVE-UP and GO-AWAY?

All those people who were looking forward to WabloIII that are now crying into their preview articles and keyboards, I can think of maybe one positive thing to say; AT LEAST THERE WON'T BE FEELINGS GUILT AND HEARTACHE ABOUT PIRATING IT SEEING AS HOW IT'S NOT EVEN WORTH IT.

BLIZZARD - Y U NO RESPECT ANYTHING?

 

[Paradoxrifts]

Whenever my government approves the construction of a private toll road the surrounding transport infrastructure will often be strategically altered from its original layout into a different layout. The purpose of the change will enviably be so that more traffic is channelled or encouraged to patron the new toll road and they do this at the expense of reduced functionality for non-users. It is complete utter bullshit and while I certainly won't be buying it, there is a strange sort of inevitability of the game's success and the continued erosion of player privileges. Post release I can see a lot of players shrugging their shoulders at what the big deal was when they stop playing Diablo 3 and trade in their gear at the online store for a small discount on another Blizzard game.

But as Lando Calrissian said, "This deal is getting worse all the time."

 

[RA92]

Dear me, point-and-click adventures are quite the rage these days!

 

[Twilight_guy]

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.

Yes you could. Playing in single player you couple press the 'Esc' key on your keyboard (top left) and the game would pause.

Hum guess I had that wrong. I distinctly remember getting killed during a pause screen must have been mutliplayer.

 

[Umenrakh]

What about town portals? Are they taken out? Always thought they were the "pause" mechanics in the diablo games.

Town portals have been supplanted by the Stone of Recall, an infinitely reusable item that takes up no inventory space and provides essentially the same functionality. That said, as I understand it Stone of Recall has a cast time and is interrupted when you take damage, so it doesn't work in combat. If you have to go pick up a phone in the middle of a horde of monsters, you're shit outta luck.

 

[jpoon]

This game quickly went from a "must-have" to a "bargain bin" game. They definitely lost their $60 sale from me with the always online BS. I just won't support this crap at all. Last week I lost my online connection for a few days, if that had happened when I was playing a game like this man that really would have pissed me off.

Steam pisses me off enough already since you have to continually make sure your games are up-to-date or their offline mode just refuses to work. Screw blizzard and their crappy tactics. I'll still laugh when their game is hacked day 1 (maybe day 2, if they're lucky).

 

[roastbeefy]

Originally, I thought that people who said they weren't going to buy the game because of the always online were overreacting a bit. It seemed stupid to be, but not so stupid that it made the game not worth buying. After looking at this, I've changed my mind, and I probably won't be getting Diablo III, at least not very soon after its launch. Looking at the comments here, this looks like an atrocious business decision on Blizzard's part.

 

[Dastardly]

Experienced Points: Diablo III Has Single Player Online

Shamus shares his thoughts on the Diablo III beta.

Read Full Article

And so it is when a company becomes so big they can profit from showing pure contempt for their playerbase.

Blizzard is so used to having minimal piracy issues with WoW, due to the login/subscription model. They want that in all of their games. Or, more accurately, they want to prepare all single-player games to become microtransaction oriented, so they can control the game and sell people add-ons that used to be free.

(Allowing player-made mods is a major threat to the profitability of downloadable content, after all.)

 

[Dastardly]

Whenever my government approves the construction of a private toll road the surrounding transport infrastructure will often be strategically altered from its original layout into a different layout. The purpose of the change will enviably be so that more traffic is channelled or encouraged to patron the new toll road and they do this at the expense of reduced functionality for non-users. It is complete utter bullshit and while I certainly won't be buying it, there is a strange sort of inevitability of the game's success and the continued erosion of player privileges. Post release I can see a lot of players shrugging their shoulders at what the big deal was when they stop playing Diablo 3 and trade in their gear at the online store for a small discount on another Blizzard game.

But as Lando Calrissian said, "This deal is getting worse all the time."

This.

Developers are listening to their players, and listening very well. And then they're using that knowledge against us.

They learned, for instance, that little player-made mods and add-ons can keep people playing a game for many, many years past its prime. And now they've found a way to monetize that knowledge: the always-online DRM ensures you have the stock, unmodded client, which ensures that free player-made mods won't distract you from our very affordable DLC.

Players used to get a game that was also a self-entertainment tool kit. But apparently we were just participating in long-term market research that allowed these guys to figure out what we love doing, take it away from us, and then sell it back piecemeal.

 

[ionveau]

This game quickly went from a "must-have" to a "bargain bin" game. They definitely lost their $60 sale from me with the always online BS. I just won't support this crap at all. Last week I lost my online connection for a few days, if that had happened when I was playing a game like this man that really would have pissed me off.

Steam pisses me off enough already since you have to continually make sure your games are up-to-date or their offline mode just refuses to work. Screw blizzard and their crappy tactics. I'll still laugh when their game is hacked day 1 (maybe day 2, if they're lucky).

Wont happen, skills/monsters HP/MP Money/Items are all tracked by the server, they turned This game into a tiny MMO, on the plus side movement is controlled on the side of the client making speed hacking possible from what i see.

 

[eventhorizon525]

This game quickly went from a "must-have" to a "bargain bin" game. They definitely lost their $60 sale from me with the always online BS. I just won't support this crap at all. Last week I lost my online connection for a few days, if that had happened when I was playing a game like this man that really would have pissed me off.

Steam pisses me off enough already since you have to continually make sure your games are up-to-date or their offline mode just refuses to work. Screw blizzard and their crappy tactics. I'll still laugh when their game is hacked day 1 (maybe day 2, if they're lucky).

Wont happen, skills/monsters HP/MP Money/Items are all tracked by the server, they turned This game into a tiny MMO, on the plus side movement is controlled on the side of the client making speed hacking possible from what i see.

Won't happen *quickly*. Always the chance someone will spend the time to either get into their server and find the equations, or start to extrapolate them based on data that can be collected while playing.

Are either of these likely to happen anytime remotely soon (or even sane in the case of the latter)? I'm pretty certain not, but that doesn't make this "always-on" DRM invulnerable.

Side note: Was so hyped about this game since my first time beating Diablo 2 (many years ago), and I'm still sad to think I will pass this one up until it either gains an offline single player or is $5 (very unlikely). I still think single player felt like a more "legit" mode of play (given there was no backup, it was harder to rush/skip content, and finding those special items meant so much more [this all based on my experiences from playing both online and offline heavily] )

 

[eventhorizon525]

ick double post

 

[Paradoxrifts]

Whenever my government approves the construction of a private toll road the surrounding transport infrastructure will often be strategically altered from its original layout into a different layout. The purpose of the change will enviably be so that more traffic is channelled or encouraged to patron the new toll road and they do this at the expense of reduced functionality for non-users. It is complete utter bullshit and while I certainly won't be buying it, there is a strange sort of inevitability of the game's success and the continued erosion of player privileges. Post release I can see a lot of players shrugging their shoulders at what the big deal was when they stop playing Diablo 3 and trade in their gear at the online store for a small discount on another Blizzard game.

But as Lando Calrissian said, "This deal is getting worse all the time."

This.

Developers are listening to their players, and listening very well. And then they're using that knowledge against us.

They learned, for instance, that little player-made mods and add-ons can keep people playing a game for many, many years past its prime. And now they've found a way to monetize that knowledge: the always-online DRM ensures you have the stock, unmodded client, which ensures that free player-made mods won't distract you from our very affordable DLC.

Players used to get a game that was also a self-entertainment tool kit. But apparently we were just participating in long-term market research that allowed these guys to figure out what we love doing, take it away from us, and then sell it back piecemeal.

Blizzard have not given the consumer a real choice on whether or not they wish to have their time monetised in this fashion, effectively turning the player's time into a form of currency without their direst consent. This is a dangerous & dehumanising shift of how certain sections of the gaming industry have started to envision the leisure hours that consumers pump into their products. I can't get behind the idea of any design philosophy that treats my time as the money of somebody else.

Once upon a time if a player wanted to cheat the game in order to get a particular item then they loaded up a trainer or entered a cheat code and got the item that way. In Diablo 3 you'll use the shop to achieve exactly the same result but you will be spending real world currency to do it.

The last straw for me will be when they go after somebody for modding the game that I payed for in such a way that threatens their ability to properly monetise my time.

 

[SonofSeth]

I played WoW a long time, none of these issues affect me in the slightest.

Will buy on midnight launch.

Exactly what I was thinking. Apparently were missing out on something, cause we should be furious about this.

EDIT: Ops, seems Ive entered territory where my positive opinions towards D3 probably will create some hostility... *town portal*

Nothing to see here, internet as usual, you either scream or it's like you aren't talking at all, I know it, you know it and you can bet Blizzard knows it too. In the end, when the reviews start coming in, only thing that will be important is how good, how fun the game is.

When i buy a game, I NEVER EVER buy it because I want to support the way a dev studio conducts it's business, only relevant factor is, is the potential amount of fun i can get from the experience equal or greater to the amount of money spent.

I don't see how this is any different.

 

[karloss01]

Well, in that case, I can only conclude that like From Software, the people making Diablo 3 are completely incompetent. After Demon's Souls, no pause button for single player (even if you want me to be online) = no buy. Pausing is something we mastered in the 1980's, and if you can't handle today, screw you and screw your game.

key the differenc here is that Demon's/Dark Souls was designed for multiplay, Diablo is a single player primarily. having a no pause in a multiplayer game makes sense, single player doesn't.

 

[veloper]

Heh. I thought Blizzard already went all out with their DRM when they released SC2, but I was wrong.

So now on top of mandatory online login, the SP game will fail when the connection drops in game and you can have lag in SP.

The lack of pause is just a minor insult on top of everything, since you could prolly use a town portal anytime and nothing ever happens in diablo towns.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Maybe Blizzard think we are like those parents that would let their kids die of starvation rather than being able to pause the game. I wonder what the penalties are for dying in game, they would have to be pretty severe for parents to risk their kids welfare for.

 

[jpoon]

This game quickly went from a "must-have" to a "bargain bin" game. They definitely lost their $60 sale from me with the always online BS. I just won't support this crap at all. Last week I lost my online connection for a few days, if that had happened when I was playing a game like this man that really would have pissed me off.

Steam pisses me off enough already since you have to continually make sure your games are up-to-date or their offline mode just refuses to work. Screw blizzard and their crappy tactics. I'll still laugh when their game is hacked day 1 (maybe day 2, if they're lucky).

Wont happen, skills/monsters HP/MP Money/Items are all tracked by the server, they turned This game into a tiny MMO, on the plus side movement is controlled on the side of the client making speed hacking possible from what i see.

Won't happen *quickly*. Always the chance someone will spend the time to either get into their server and find the equations, or start to extrapolate them based on data that can be collected while playing.

Are either of these likely to happen anytime remotely soon (or even sane in the case of the latter)? I'm pretty certain not, but that doesn't make this "always-on" DRM invulnerable.

Side note: Was so hyped about this game since my first time beating Diablo 2 (many years ago), and I'm still sad to think I will pass this one up until it either gains an offline single player or is $5 (very unlikely). I still think single player felt like a more "legit" mode of play (given there was no backup, it was harder to rush/skip content, and finding those special items meant so much more [this all based on my experiences from playing both online and offline heavily] )

Actually I would bet my life on it being hacked. The fact that it is mostly server-side certainly hasn't stopped hackers from hacking almost every MMO that is worth hacking. Take WoW for example, you can get on hacked servers if you did a bit of research. I'm almost positive that it's going to be the exact same for this game.

The act of telling hackers they will never be able to hack a game is only fuel for the fire, it's going to happen eventually. Especially for a game of this "magnitude".

 

[snfonseka]

"You Can't Pause the Game" -- This is a major drawback.