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

[GriffValdez]

Hit the nail right on the head there Jim. Thanks for that. Furthermore the whole cheating thing is a stupid debate from the start because in all honesty it's not even blizzards problem either when you think about it logically. All they need to do to keep people from cheating in multiplayer is require that the multiplayer characters specifically must be authenticated with the service. In other words have playing online all the time as an option that enables the drop in drop out multiplayer, not a requirement. In fact Blizzard has done the exact model I'm suggesting right before. it was in a little known game called Starcraft 2. Sure if you play offline in SC2 you can't unlock achievements and blah blah blah. But guess what, YOU CAN PLAY THE SINGLE PLAYER IF THE SERVERS ARE DOWN! Sometimes that's all I care about.

 

[Louis Demella]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.375850-Diablo-III-accounts-are-getting-hacked-and-relieved-of-all-items-because-of-Real-Money-Auction-House

Why must the vindication of your constant rightness be at the expense of so many consumers?

 

[Blade_125]

Good episode as usual Jim.

I am glad to see someone is able to say that we are entitled as customers to complain about poor service and poor product.

I only wish he had taken it to the next level.

We can complain until our voice is horse, and it won't matter one iota. You know what will matter? When Blizzard doesn't get your $60.

I played Diablo 2 a ton with friends. It was a fun game to play with the gang. When I heard Diablo 3 was comign out I was excited to play it, as I figured it would be a good game. Then I heard more and more of the BS going along with the game and I decided no. I was not going to support Blizzard by buying this game and having to endure this level of service. I have bought a couple games that requires always online and I can't play my saved games when the companies servers go down, and that is unacceptable. I won't buy from those companies anymore, and I won't buy form Blizzard anymore.

So everyone who bought the game can complain and feel justified, but until you stop buying the shit, don't expect it to stop.

Also I found it rather ironic (in a not the definition of irony sort of way) that right before this video there was an advertisement for Diablo 3.

 

[eva243]

I hate to say it but this is one of the reasons I don't play games online :/

 

[Calibanbutcher]

I hate to be the one to say this, but people that pirated D3 can play it offline, which means that they not only get it for free, but they also gat a more enjoyable single-player experience than the paying customers.
Now, something about piracy and service...?

 

[Joker7]

Jim is 100% correct, if we keep eating the shit they make, they'll just keep feeding it to us.

We are the consumers, WE have the power.

I stopped buying any games as soon as they are released. I wait a week, see what the buzz is about the game, then i buy or not buy it.

It's time to stop being good little consumer sheep and eating the shit they feed us and smiling and asking for more. This go's for everything not just the game industry.

YOU have the power. use it or STFU, eat your shit and go to back to sleep.


The Joker has spoken.

 

[theultimateend]

The primary difference is how they are sold. WoW is sold as a service - subscribe to our service, get our servers. Diablo, however, is being sold as a product - buy our game, then you can play it.

These days, game companies try to play both sides of the line, a sort of product-service duality that means they claim whichever side is more convenient. However, there is no need for this to cover single player, even if it is a service.

It would be kinda neat if WoW had a lan option to play with friends or single player with AI companions >_>.

Seeing as I don't socialize with people when I play it I'd get no less of an experience.

But that's for another post I suppose.

 

[Antari]

Dead on target as usual. Another great episode, 100% agreement across the board. Thank god for Jim!

 

[samaugsch]

One thing that bothers me about this thread is the people arguing about D3 being either single player OR multiplayer. If it has both options, can't it be both single player and multiplayer?

 

[NoaNeumann]

This game... I'm done with Blizzard DONE. Why the hell do I have to beat the game in order for me to actually play the more interesting stuff? When that interesting stuff should be there in the first 30 levels anyways? I understand this isn't an MMO, but charging an MMO game price and having all the problems of an brand spanking new MMO makes me think otherwise. Especially when you consider Torch Light 2 is coming out and it's basically like this, save for it cuts out most of the boring crap and gets your straight to the fun and straight to that fun for under forty bucks.

I'll stick to my Guild Wars 2 and hold Diablo 3 now as a reminder, an expensive reminder, as to why Blizzard is a turd and why I should never buy from them again.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Thank god for you, Jim. Every fucking week.

I despise the always online for Diablo III, because the RMAH is simply a way for Blizzard to get more money out of players without them realizing it. Yes, it's living the dream to be able to get paid to play a video game, but Blizzard is taking a cut. They have every right to because it's their service, but the problem is, they're not giving anyone a choice.

They're clever, I'll give them that. But I played Diablo II for many years exclusively with my friends and I never ran into any hackers or dupers, specifically because I ONLY play with my friends via LAN. The Always Online is another way that creators are taking freedom away from consumers. And just as Jim says, there are sadly just as many people out there telling us that we should just smile and ask for more. No. If BioWare must be beholden to their mistakes, Blizzard should be as well.

 

[MrBaskerville]

Come to think of it, what happens the day Blizzard stops supporting Diablo 3? Do they have plans to release a singleplayer version or will it be gone forever when that day comes?

 

[bells]

World of Warcraft can be a Singleplayer game. You don't get 100% of the content, and it's not as easy to play but same as Diablo 3.

Blizzard NEVER offered this game as a Singleplayer affair. It ALWAYS marketed it as a Online Experience AND they never lied or promised for something they didn't deliver in the end.

Online games are subject to connectivity issues. Plain and simple. That happens to EVERY online game. Just cause you want to play offline, doesn't mean Blizzard HAS to give you the option. They never offer it. They never tricked anybody. You can play D3 Single player, but it's an Online game. It's their design, it's their vision, they have to right to do so.

Why? Because if you are not on board with that, you don't have to buy the game. Simple as that.

But people Bought it. KNOWING of the fact. Nobody thought otherwise, because the deal was clear from day one.

So, Buying the game and then complaining about it... is bullshit. Blizzard doesn't really have to care about it. They already sold you the game. Now they just have to slowly make things right (with just the right amount of investment from their end. Not a cent extra) and all the bitchin will go away. Easy as that.

Now, if by knowing this i decided NOT buy the game, Pre-Orders would be Pitiful. And y'know what? Blizzard would've made it so that you could play offline. Because it would hurt their bottomline not to do so.

Gamers don't vote with their wallets, don't use their brains and think they have any force at all by Bitchin on metacritic. This is the end result. Blizzard has a ton of money, they WILL do this again on their future games, because you already showed them you're ok with this by BUYING their game... and the people that are complaining just payed 60 bucks to complaing about something they were fully aware they were buying.

Nice.

 

[Pseudoboss]

Strange that neither I nor my brother have had major problems with the always-online DRM. I've been playing D3 since the day after it came out and have never had a problem with excessive lag or logging in. It makes me wonder if there's a silent majority who simply can't defend the game because they're too busy playing it, or if we're really lucky to both not have noticed the always-online DRM.

 

[Something Amyss]

It would be kinda neat if WoW had a lan option to play with friends or single player with AI companions >_>.

Seeing as I don't socialize with people when I play it I'd get no less of an experience.

But that's for another post I suppose.

If I could try it out with bots, I might be more likely to play online. I'd sort of like to try it, but there's that whole "interacting with people" thing.

I usually play games online with friends. It's the main reason I play online.

But this is sort of an asside.

 

[IndianaJonny]

As always, Jim nails down what most haters cant seem to grasp: Bad servers doesnt make THE GAME BAD! I love the game, and luckily the server problems hasnt affected me in any way, but I still think its shit of blizz not being able (or not caring) about solving the problems bad servers bring with em, and feel sorry for anyone that had to deal with it.

People just cant see the difference... Thank god for jim I guess

Good point, well raised. Other comments so far seemed to glaize over that quality issue.

 

[bells]

World of Warcraft can be a Singleplayer game. You don't get 100% of the content, and it's not as easy to play but same as Diablo 3.

Nice.

Here's the thing, WoW is an MMO with a persistant world with lots of other characters in the world. Diablo 3 is not an MMO, it's an ARPG. It doesn't HAVE to be online only. They didn't HAVE to make it that way.

But they can if they want to. And they did. And they told everyone well in advance that they were doing it. And even so... most pre-ordered game of all time.

So nobody who bought the game can complain that "they didn't have to do it like this", because Diablo 3 was never presented in any other form. If you don't like the formula, don't buy the game... or in the very damn least, don't fucking pre-order it.

 

[Vuliev]

World of Warcraft can be a Singleplayer game. You don't get 100% of the content, and it's not as easy to play but same as Diablo 3.

Nice.

Here's the thing, WoW is an MMO with a persistant world with lots of other characters in the world. Diablo 3 is not an MMO, it's an ARPG. It doesn't HAVE to be online only. They didn't HAVE to make it that way.

But they can if they want to. And they did. And they told everyone well in advance that they were doing it. And even so... most pre-ordered game of all time.

So nobody who bought the game can complain that "they didn't have to do it like this", because Diablo 3 was never presented in any other form. If you don't like the formula, don't buy the game... or in the very damn least, don't fucking pre-order it.

Even those that bought the game knowing that it was online-only are more than allowed to expect a launch better than what was given. If I'd been the Blizzard exec in charge of the launch, I'd have said, "Look, guys, this is probably going to be one of the most important game launches in history--the preorders on Amazon alone show that. We can't afford to fuck this up by having our servers shit themselves from the combined strain of upwards of a million paying customers trying to log in at once. We saw that with WoW, and we need to not have it happen with this."