Jimquisition: You Should Be Mad at Diablo III's Always Online DRM

jehk

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Mcoffey said:
And yet they were able to do just fine without servers in Diablo 1, 2, and just about every other offline game with random loot drops.
Are you kidding? Hacking was rampant in those games. Even on BNet.
 

Stu35

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templar1138a said:
I'm mostly in agreement.

However, some of the "You're Allowed to Be Entitled" argument loses its merit when the players KNEW that being connected - even for single player - was a requirement WELL in advance of the game's release.
Not really. Not when they CAN'T get connected, and it's Blizzards fault.
 

jehk

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Eternal Taros said:
Diablo 3 is that Diablo is meant to be also playable by yourself.
And huge portions of WoW are meant to be playable by yourself. You don't get to play that content offline.

Just because its solo play doesn't mean its offline play. Hence both WoW and D3 being online games.
 

Lazy Kitty

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May 1, 2009
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Always on DRM?
Well, now I'm definitely not buying it.
And I already wasn't buying it because I found out there's no necromancer class.
And before that I walready wasn't buying it because I'm just too busy playing minecraft.
 

inkheart_artist

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How do you send the message to a game like this though? The franchise alone is so ridiculously successful they can do whatever they want to it and people will still buy it. And I'm betting just about everyone in this thread, Jim Sterling included, failed to send a message of their discontent when we bought the game opening week. What do you do after you buy the game to get publishers to stop this sort of behavior? Bicker on a forum? I don't think that's an effective solution... :\
 

jbm1986

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Thank you Jim for this. I knew I was right to complain. I paid for the game and I should be able to play when I feel like it and not when blizz's servers say I can. Also Jim, you are right about 'dealing with hackers being Blizzards fault and not ours'. Hackers gonna hack. There's gonna be private servers because not everybody can be online 100% of the time they want to play a game they paid upwards of $60 for(or $100 in my case) which will lower the amount of people using the RMAH. They shouldn't punish everybody because of a few bad apples.

Edit:Btw I love the game and just wish there wasn't DRM to deal with.

Oh and thank God for Jim.
 

Fr]anc[is

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As always, thank Jim for Jim. I hadn't even realized people were throwing around the 'entitlement' argument again because I'm not paying full price for a genre that is so grindy and monotonous.
 

QUINTIX

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So it's not necessarily singleplayer, but I do not think saying "it isn't an MMO either" goes far enough. Whatever happened to LAN parties? Must all multiplayer be exclusively over the internet? Even if your playmate is not even ten yards away?
 

Xan Krieger

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Feb 11, 2009
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To those defending this look at it like this. Dead Island is a single player game that also lets you jump into multiplayer at any time. What made Dead Island better than Diablo 3 is that if you had no interest in multiplayer you could still play offline. That is what Diablo 3 should've done, if you want singleplayer then by all means play offline. What Blizzard did was royally screw it's customers and it's why I didn't buy Diablo 3.
 

TitsMcGee1804

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Frostbite3789 said:
TitsMcGee1804 said:
Blizzard said sorry and thank you for your patience.

I dont think thats enough though, it needs to be 'We really fucked up bad and made alot of people deservedly pissed at us and youre all justified, heres a free ingame pet or something'

They wont
A free in game pet that can take the loot you want to sell back to town for you so can you keep questing.

Not that anything like that exists in a very similar game that's coming out soon at $40 cheaper, without all the restrictions. Nope.
I played the 1st torchlight and it doesnt have even close to the polish that D3 has. D3 used to have a little gadget that would buy your shit while you are out questing but they dropped it becuase 'going back to town to sell' was good for pacing, im with them on this one.

But thats off topic. Im just sick of the 'we apologize for the terrible customer service, thank you for your patience' that we always get every single time stuff like this happens

They still made a fantastic game though, when you can play it
 

jehk

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QUINTIX said:
So it's not necessarily singleplayer, but I do not think saying "it isn't an MMO either" goes far enough. Whatever happened to LAN parties? Must all multiplayer be exclusively over the internet? Even if your playmate is not even ten yards away?
D3 is an online multiplayer game. It's not an offline single player game. It's not a massively multiplayer game.

Personally I miss offline multiplayer games. RIP couch coop.
 

XelaisPWN

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If you paid $60 for a game on launch day even though you knew Blizzard game launches are notoriously bad and that it had always-on DRM that's your fault.

If you didn't know either of those things that's also your fault for not researching your purchase.

And I don't love Diablo III. I didn't even buy it. I just don't understand why anyone is surprised by this at all.
 

Stevolteon

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Thankfully it's not been an obstacle for me so far, but I will never ever buy a game which I can be remotely denied access to by someone else. Absolutely not.

If all games go down that route I have plenty of awesome games with tonnes of replay value and no such insidious "security" features, and there are many more like them which I have yet to experience. Most of which can be obtained without a penny going to the game companies.
 

Agayek

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Oct 23, 2008
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WildFire15 said:
I agree with Jim, though I'm not sure if DRM is the right world. Total waste of time is probably more accurate as I've heard somewhere (though I'm not sure if it's true or not) that the game's already been cracked and is played using a server emulator or some such. There's no excuse for forcing even single players to play the game, especially when they got bored of Diablo 3 and what to force Diablo 4 on us they can just shut down the servers for D3 and leave us with nothing to play unless we get D4.
I think we should start a campaign to demand Blizzard makes some form of offline mode that can't interact with any online functions. Can't be that difficult to do.
It has. There was a crack to get around the login within a couple days of release, and full server emulation came out over the weekend I believe.

OT: The always-online shit is incredibly stupid. It's a blatantly anti-consumer move that's incredibly aggravating.

TheKasp said:
Yes. Because then you are the FUCKING IDIOT who bought D3, knowing about the always online requirements and by logical conclusion that on a worldwide launch of one of the most anticipated titles would have serious issued for the first days, and then you DARE to complain.

You are a moron if you thought there won't be any problems.
You are a moron if you bought the game, knowing everything about it and complain afterwards.
Inform yourself, vote with your wallet.

The last three lines are not directed at anyone in particular. Now I watch and see if Jim was smart enough to come to this conclusion or if he rides on the popular opinion again. Oh, surprise. He just repeats the popular opinion *sigh*.
To be entirely fair, it's not unreasonable to expect, when purchasing a product, that it would work right out of the box. Regardless of DRM or any other concern, it is completely justified for any/every customer to expect that the product they purchased will function as advertised.

The fact that Blizzard was unable to gauge interest and adjust their server structure accordingly, even after having a stress-test weekend shortly before launch, means they failed as a company and should be held accountable (which in this case would likely amount to a bunch of bitching and customer service calls).

Everything else is irrelevant. The core principle of a business transaction is an exchange of money for a good or service. If said good or service does not function as the seller claimed, the buyer has every right to be aggrieved about it. "You knew it was coming!" is irrelevant. It's basic economics, Blizzard has a responsibility to provide a functional game to their paying customers, and they've failed spectacularly in that for a number of people.
 

Thistlehart

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When... not if, when Blizzard finally pulls its head out of its rectum with a resounding, hot-dog smelling pop and introduces its D3 offline mode, I'll consider buying it.

Each month they fail to do so further solidifies my resolve to not give them money.

You hear that Blizzard? I'm holding my money hostage from you! Accede to my demands!

Here's hoping Torchlight 2 blows D3 out of the water.
 

gring

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This is a complicated issue for me personally, and honestly I feel both sides of the debate are both right and wrong.

First, the "whiners". No, I don't think they're whining, in a general sense, but theres two types of people here, theres people talking trash about the game who haven't even played or bought it, saying its garbage or "just bad" etc, and theres people who have and complain about legitimate issues. The game SHOULD have an offline mode, bottom line. It's not that difficult, you just have "offline" characters, and "online" characters, and cannot transfer them over from one to the next. I personally feel that the game is a SHIT load better online and played in public groups or with friends and feel that the online experience is truly where the game shines the brightest, but to only restrict it to online is pretty shameful of Blizzard. Letting players experience both options and choosing after would bring MORE customers.

You know the only reason they do it is because they want every single purchase of D3 to be a potential auction house user, because overtime that's going to make an extreme amount of money, and every "user" counts. Personally, I disagree with this, and they should give us access to both online and offline, and SHOW us WHY we want to play online through example.

Second, there's the people defending Blizzard. The cheating argument isn't a valid argument if you keep offline characters from logging into the game. That way, cheaters can just cheat by themselves if they must, but don't affect ANYTHING online. Also, think about how many customers they have missed out on by only doing online and its pretty astounding actually.

However, its my opinion that if you are reading this and you're still super bitter about the online only policy of D3, then you're missing out on an incredible experience. My friend lives in Thailand and has a very sub-par connection, but we have very little problems skyping and playing together. Even to play it solo is almost tragic and a very shallow experience compared to any-sized group online. The game is AMAZING, and is AMAZING on STEROIDS when played online. The entire experience was designed around it, which can be seen as a evil thing, but the online experience is a gameplay work of art, in my opinion. That said, the lag still need's to get a bit ironed out right now but is more then playable.

Also, I feel like I should say something about the launch too. I understand it wasn't the smoothest launch ever, but I still have to side with Blizzard PARTIALLY here, because the fact they even got it running at all is a technical achievement in its own right. I mean, were talking about a launch to the biggest selling PC game of all time, and servers were up and running an hour after launch. Of course, not perfect, but you have to consider how many people were all trying to cram into at once. The next day was bad, but again, think about HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE TRYING TO GET IN, its astounding the servers didn't explode and set all of Irvine on fire. Regardless of how you feel, technical limitations can only go so far. We have to give Blizzard a partial break here, in my opinion. We waited 11 years for this game, I don't think waiting for one extra day is going to kill anybody. Still that doesn't completely excuse them from it, because the people who just wanted to play it single player, w/o lag, should have been able to.

But again, It's still my opinion that I understand why Blizzard chose to have it online only, and for the most part, I agree with them. I don't think that excuses them from any criticism, because I still think there should have been an offline mode, but really, to me, its not the end of the world, considering its an amazing game, and even MORE amazing played online, which is the only way I would ever want to play this game, and really how it was meant to be played.
 

scw55

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Nov 18, 2009
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It is retarded to have to be online when playing a single player game.

You should only need a connection to play with others or to chat with people. But then chat should be separate from single playing.
If you get a DC from the server, you lose chat. Not the last 30mins of your time exploring a dungeon level.

It is not your fault if the server kicks you off. It's not fair losing exploration progress.
PC and router malfunctions are your problem. The server being shit for a single player game should not be.

I rarely take a strong side on internet debates, but anyone who disagrees are fucking idiots.

If you can't see the irony of this, then, stop being what ever you are. L2Brain B4U opinion.
 

PunkRex

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Feb 19, 2010
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People who refuse to criticise that which they love is what divides fans and fan boys. Its cool if you over look somethings flaws and just enjoy it but denying that they exsist or trying to justify them is dumb, really dumb. I love Naruto but the things as flawed as an octuple amputee Octopus... blah, try saying that 8 times fast.

Diablo's trailers are awesome (no derp, its Blizzard), the monsters look badass and I havn't played a old school over head Fantasy RPG in like... ever! Might give it a go if this gets sorted, wanna bust up some demons as a monk, WOOPAH!