Server Issues Mar Diablo III's Launch

[Alumatine]

If you guys give this game anything but two stars I'm not even going to bother with your reviews anymore. I mean, I had my doubts. I recently saw the Dragon Age 2 review but hey, shit happens you know? That doesn't mean you can't reedem yourselves. Jew golds are fun and all but integrity is more important, right?

Are you threatening to boycot a website because you don't agree with an opinion? I just wanna make sure I'm getting this right. An entire website... with a huge amount of multi-subject media... with not direct connection to the game you are angry about...

Who are you and where do you buy your backwards logic?

 

[Woodsey]

What's the chances there will be a crack so you can play it without a internet connection by the end of this month?

Zero. All of the drops, and enemy spawns are server side. Without it there is no game.

We'll see.

I do wonder how much that's going to contribute towards hitting people's data caps in places like Australia and Canada though.

i remain unsurprised

since you know, this happens every time any thing 'online' launches

Breaking News: Popular game is popular.

And wow, we're about 9 posts in and already the stuck-up anti-DRM cretins have crawled out of the woodwork to whine.

disappointing isn't it, you'd think they'd have something better to do.

If that was a dastardly dig, we shall toast to it with cocktails. (Otherwise, I'll spit one out on you.)

 

[Torrasque]

A Blizzard product having server trouble when millions of players try playing at the exact same time?
SHOCK. AND. SURPRISE.

The same thing happens with every single Blizzard game.
They always say "our servers are fucking amazing" and such, but goddamnit they should be able to do better than this. Even right now, the servers are down for some quick maintenance to fix some weird lag that some players are having, making it impossible to even play the game.
I guess on the bright side, they are fixing it right away instead of having the lag go on and potentially get worse.

Either way, the server trouble is annoying, but it doesn't change the fact that I am having a fucking blast playing this game.

 

[templar1138a]

Blizzard's requirement that players always be connected to the internet [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112528-Diablo-3-Always-Online-Requirement-Helps-Fight-Hackers-Says-Blizzard], even for single player, has more than likely exacerbated the problem.

*in best condescending Carol Channing voice* Well maybe you shouldn't have made that a requirement!

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Not entirely unexpected. I unlocked my copy at 12:30 last night, and tried logging in sporadically for the next two hours. I was only able to log in at 11 o' clock this morning, and managed to play until 2:30.

I lost my connection with the server.

Honestly, I'm not surprised. StarCraft II had its own problems, and D3 is no exception. Either Activision realizes that always-online DRM is more of a nuisance to their own infrastructure than they'd like to admit, or they at least apologize for having poorly estimated the overall demand.

My guess is we'll be looking at one or two weeks of wibbly server activity before things get resolved.

 

[Dogstile]

Breaking News: Popular game is popular.

And wow, we're about 9 posts in and already the stuck-up anti-DRM cretins have crawled out of the woodwork to whine.

Why shouldn't I? Its a stupid move that would ruin me if I played the game as my internet dies on me a lot. Hell, I wasn't able to use the internet from home for a month, I ended up just doing it on my lunch breaks in university.

And as I've said before, I live in an area with a damn uni and these problems still exist. I don't see how companies want to continue to punish me for something I can do absolutely nothing about.

And the arsehole pirates continue on being able to play any game they want. Or at least they will when this gets cracked.

 

[doctorwhofan]

My husband did not buy this game for the reason of being always connected. As a member of the armed forces, it's really hard to connect in the middle of the ocean for 6+ months. As for the launch...I was wondering why Bree in LotRO suddenly became extremely crowded. This isn't Blizzard's first run at this, they know better. I call this an Epic Fail on their part.

 

[Sentox6]

Oh goody, another insane launch because they underestimate the demand. Just like TOR trying to limit how many people could play at launch and failing utterly.

I called it. I fucking called it. And does this really surprise anyone at all?

TOR has too many servers, actually.

The fact you effectively can't play this game without an internet connection makes me mad, though, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't derive some satisfaction from this.

 

[Simonoly]

I've had zero issues logging in. It's been pretty smooth for me.

First impressions of the game are not great and it's just annoying that I can't play on a higher difficulty than normal until I've completed the game once. That combined with the always-on DRM is making the game feel so restrictive, like I have zero choice over how I want to play this game. It's weird.

 

[The Human Torch]

I will just leave this here. Since this is pretty much all that needs being said.

 

[Abedeus]

'cept it didn't. You could play SC2 in offline mode.

You could? I thought Battlenet 2.0 made that impossible. Oh well.
As I said, I haven't played any of the Blizzard games after Frozen Throne, so my understanding is only second-hand.

You could most definitely play it in offline mode and, contrary to what PercyBoleyn said, you could do so on your account and not need a guest account. I have done so when my internet was down.

Yep. You didn't get achievements or anything of the like, but who cares. At least the functionality was there.

In Diablo 3, drops are server-side. That's to prevent people from getting data about items, coming up with duping methods, then ruining the market. Like in Diablo 2.

 

[The Forlorn]

Mandatory internet access, for single player? That is immeasurably idiotic, if not least because some people will now not purchase the game.

We already have massive bandwidth issues, so even if you have the capability to be constantly jacked in, you might well be dropping packets faster than you can pick them up, depending on location and time of day.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

And this is why Torchlight 2.

Yes, that's the whole sentence.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Let's see here... people complaining about always on internet... regrettable but in the long run potentially helping to prevent piracy (this traffic will pass) and looking like the new blizzard model.

People complaining about Blizzard being unprepared... maybe but I still find it hard to think that they could accurately guess traffic rates on day one. I'll let there underestimating go.

Someone said that blizzard is nickle and dimeing customers... HAHAHA... no. With all their employees working over time for these last few months to finish Diablo 3 I doubt if there doing anything short of putting all there effort into makeing this thing work.

Somebody saying the pirated version will be just as good. Maybe. Blizzard doesn't really give a shit if you're running ona private server though since they aren't paying for it and you don't have access to their services and you aren't contribution to their gameplay environment. It's a lost sale but at least its not leeching off the company. That you can't earn money with a pirated version since there will be no real money marketplace (outside of the existing black market).

Now that I'm done venting on that... That's really unfortunate. I wish Blizzard had tried to work its server architecture to prevent this but I understand if there is an issue on day 1. I'll be watching and expecting a complete fix by day 7 though.

 

[J9ACK9]

Adam Jensen stole my sentence.

Don't get me wrong: I enjoyed Diablo. I bought it back in '97, I bought Diablo 2 on release day along with everybody else, but I wasn't about to wait twelve goddamn years for the third one.

Torchlight was a clone? Yep. A perfect clone of a fantastic game becomes a fantastic clone.

Twenty bucks apiece? I'm sold.

 

[Aeshi]

For those mentioning blizzard taking down the D3 servers eventually. They still have the Diablo 2 and StarCraft servers up and those games are ancient. I wouldn't expect them to pull the plug on these servers for another 10-20 years.

And what about in, say, 50-60 years time?

Sorry, but who the fuck is going to be playing this game in 50-60 years? Given how much computers have changed there's no guarantee the computers of then would even use the same type of electronics (we might have advanced to Quantum Computers or something), let alone that they would be capable of installing it (I mean good luck playing a game on a Floppy Disk on a modern computer)

 

[GiantRaven]

Sorry, but who the fuck is going to be playing this game in 50-60 years? Given how much computers have changed there's no guarantee the computers of then would even use the same type of electronics (we might have advanced to Quantum Computers or something), let alone that they would be capable of installing it (I mean good luck playing a game on a Floppy Disk on a modern computer)

I would assume the same kind of person who would watch films made in the 50s in 2012. But I guess that sounds equally ridiculous to you right? Why should we bother to make our media and entertainment last?

Imagine if a game like Super Mario Brothers had this shit in it. People still play that game today and I bet still will be in decades to come because it's a great game.

 

[jetriot]

While I agree with you in principal, the idea that we won't be able to play Diablo3 if we REALLY want to in 50-60 years is just silly. Someone will have a workaround. I don't have the DRM manuals from my old games but I can still play those.

Oh and it is still very possible to play old floppy games, there are communities and services built around playing old games, like GOG.com.

Again, I agree with you on the issue of making us play on their servers, however the argument of us not being able to play in 50-60 years is a dumb one.

 

[The.Bard]

I'm totally going off on a slight tangent here, as I don't own Diablo 3 and have no plans on getting it for exactly this reason; I don't like playing multiplayer games, and not being able to play by myself in an offline server was just too stupid for even me to accept. (I accept much in the name of games I want!)

When ME3 came out, a lot of people were complaining that EA's marketing was disgusting, that they had bought reviews, and that they oversaturated the market with advertising.

I'd just like to say Blizzard can officially put on their floaties and jump in the boat with them. I humbly submit the evidence:

[http://i.imgur.com/MD8gB.jpg]

 

[chaosbedlam]

nothing i say hasn't already been said but here is my 2 cents any way. If we all had thought about it hard enough we could have foreseen this happening. the shear size of the diablo franchise fan base means that the likely hood of problems on launch day, for a game required to be on line, is pretty much a certainty. I'm now kinda glad that i wont be able to afford it for a couple of weeks, hopefully some of the issues have been fixed by then.