Diablo III Has Single Player Online

[Worgen]

Ahh blizzard, they are setting themselfs up to take a major fall in the eyes of pc gamers unless they fix this sort of thing before its released, Might and Magic Heroes 6 did this sort of thing right. You could play offline if you wanted but you missed out on the conflux which was a neat thing that you kept unlocking things in but it needed a net connecting, the point is that it was an option, you could do always online, or offline and never have to worry about it.

 

[w00tage]

I was going to comment on the lack of any numbers about how many offline players didn't want to have to start characters over playing online, and how Blizzard "felt" that this would be good (feelings are not an acceptable basis for a business decision), but frankly, it's pretty obvious that this whole deal is a DRM issue that's been pushed from the top, and anyone you hear from is going to be parroting the company line about how it's really all about the players. Welcome to the age of corporate "goodspeak".

Oh well. My friend and I have learned how to get NWN2 hooking for multiplayer, and while I'd rather import an appropriate-level character from a save into his ongoing game, he'd rather start over and play up together. Since it's multiplayer and the point is to have fun together instead of leveling your char like you're offline or something, I'm good with that, so I'm off to make a new char.

 

[Outlaw Torn]

On an unrelated note, where have you been Mr Young? Will we ever see more of the pixels you have stolen?

Back to Diablo 3; I have no comments whatsoever.

 

[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.

 

[Twad]

Unreliable ISP + always-on DRM for a un-pausable SP game?

Sure doesnt make me likely to buy it.. or maybe blizz simply doesnt want my money.

 

[Kestor]

I was really interested in this game, but now I will hold off to see what transpires after the game releases. I want to see the actual systems.
Remember that SC2 was suppose to not have an offline mode, but it was there on release.
And if all else fails, there's always the scene

 

[otakon17]

Well, my mind still hasn't changed since the last news about D3. My internet is not reliable due to where I live, there for always online is a bad thing for me. I would LOVE to give Blizzard my money otherwise, but I can't. Looks like it's Dark Souls and Skyrim for me until they come to their senses and make a offline option.

 

[Nautical Honors Society]

I cannot wait for this game to come out, honestly nothing will stop me from buying and enjoying the hell out of what will probably be a great game. Thank god for a living in 2011 with a strong internet connection!

 

[Low Key]

I am NOT accessing a game from a cloud. There is a reason why I built a monster gaming rig and why that rig has an internal hard drive, so there wouldn't be any lag and I can install everything, but Blizzard apparently doesn't like that.

The fact that I always have to be connected to play the single player campaign is the exact reason why I don't buy Ubisoft games anymore. If that is going to be a growing trend amongst game companies, I have no problem never buying a game again.

Why we can no longer pause the game is beyond me. It's not as big of a deal as the shit above, but it's another issue that shows me Blizzard are doing as much as they can to piss off their fans just to see what they can get away with.

The rest of the article is so far under the radar compared to these three things. I am no longer a fan nor customer of Blizzard because of Diablo 3. For someone that has purchased and played almost all Blizzard developed games, I think that is a pretty bold statement.


10 years of waiting for this bullshit. Fuck you Blizzard.

 

[Daemonate]

Blizzard (Activision really) have become incomprehensibly arrogant if they think they can treat fans of the Diablo series with such contempt and still get a sale from me. The thing is, Activision have done exactly that with its console audience repeatedly, and it works for them. Since they run the show now, I guess their business practices are what we should come to expect from Blizzard.

We shall see if this strategy holds up for the PC audience in the long term, or whether Blizzard will be saying "Well the PC isn't really our platform of choice" in 3 years after they have erroded 17 years of goodwill...

Removing everything about the series that made me play it for the last ten years, and then shrugging off complaints with ridiculous excuses and the whole "we're too big to fail, sorry if you don't like it but you'll buy it anyway" attitude...really?

Is this same company that would carefully put in spawn copies of their previous titles, to ensure you could play with your brother or bestie if you bought the game once? Is this the same company that, with no real hope of a serious return, retail re-released their classic Tides of Darkness with modern features and Battle.net matchmaking years afterward? This is the same company that kept servers and support up for games released 15 years ago? And they're pulling this always-on DRM BS?
WHERE IS THE REAL BLIZZARD, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM?

Waah Waah. People just need something to QQ about. I have to go on this internet thing to play my game? But I'm scared and overwhelmed! Get with the times grandpa! If you don't like it go make a better game.

Just to be clear, that means you give up the right to ever complain about anything unless you ever do anything better.

Sure you wanna say that, mi amigo?

Sure and not just because I usually do.

Right, dopey, so I guess that means you should give up your right to vote since you don't plan on running for parliament?

If I am a customer of a company, who pays their bills, and I don't like what they do with their product, I have a pretty good reason to complain. If I don't, they won't change it, I won't buy it, and they won't know why I didn't buy it, and everyone loses.

If I say why I'm not happy, they can fix it and and then I'll buy it, everyone wins.

Or they can ignore me, I won't buy it, but then they know they know what I want want and don't care, and I know they know they don't care, so it's a winning proposition to terminate our relationship. Noone wins here, but at least noone loses.

 

[Sabrestar]

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.

Well, I'm one. And I play games from a different location besides home too, one that has no internet at all. Which rules me out on both counts.

Thank you Blizzard. I got the message that you refuse my money. I want to pause my game, thank you very much. Otherwise I'd play Adventure on my 2600.

 

[mcnally86]

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?

 

[Daemonate]

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.

 

[Xanthious]

I'd wager that it won't be long after launch that there will be an offline single player version of the game that will fix most of the stuff Blizzard has fucked up. Now the question that needs to be asked is will this version be put out by Blizzard so that people who want to play offline by themselves can finally have a reason to pay for Diablo 3 or will it be put out by another group of individuals who will probably care far less about how much Blizzard is getting for their product? My money is on the latter.

My personal opinion of Diablo 3 is that the Blizzard staff can kindly go find a giant bag of dicks and choke on them as I have NO plans of giving Blizzard one red cent unless massive changes are made. This game is a fucking insult to PC gamers plain and simple.

Blizzard's recent decisions as a company are showing that they only really give a fuck about the bottom line anymore and it is showing in their games. WoW, is losing subscribers like rats off a sinking ship. Starcraft 2 is was split because . . . . .well probably because getting 180 dollars out of a game is more appealing than getting 60. Finally Diablo 3 is like a collection of everything that is wrong with gaming today. It's amazing how Blizzard has wiped their ass with a decade and half of good will in the span of a couple years.

#FuckYouBlizzard

 

[Versuvius]

I have a reliable, relatively fast internet connection. And i'm still not touching this with a barge pole. The auction house doesn't sit well with me, not that i would ever use it. But..no pause? Really? I do like pause buttons for when i want to go assuage my urges mid slaughter without opening up a damn town portal. Convenience, true but fuck i'm the one paying for it, i don't pay to be told by the people im paying that i don't need that luxury. Their previous press releases also made me spasm with rage. Who remembers being told that they have the power and influence to force gamers to do it their way? I do.

 

[SidingWithTheEnemy]

Well, let's hope this "diabolic" fiasco gives birth to some really cool games which clone that genre. Like Torchlight, Titan Quest and (a hopefully better programmed) Loki.

 

[BLAHwhatever]

My list of reasons not to buy Diablo 3 is growing. At the current rate, I'm not going to buy it...like twice. If they implement moar shit, I think I'll have to steal a copy and burn it in front of Blizz HQ
or
organize a Torchlight 2 Open Air LAN in front of it

 

[Nurb]

"You'll Need an Always On Connection to Play"

Until crackers and pirates fix it, that is.

I don't care, whatever it takes for them to lose money on this.