Diablo 3 will have always-online DRM, player-to-player microtransactions
Diablo 3 will have always-online DRM, as well as microtransactions for real money. And no mods.
The news comes from PC Gamer, who quizzed Blizzard on the whys of each point. See what Blizzard had to say on each point below.
Regarding Always-Online DRM
Blizzard has confirmed that, like Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 will be
'It’s the trend that we’ve been moving towards,' said Senior Producer Alex Mayberry. 'Obviously StarCraft 2 did it, WoW authenticates also. It’s kind of the way things are, these days. The world of gaming is not the same as it was when Diablo 2 came out.'
Mayberry also admitted that preventing piracy was a factor in the decision. Executive Producer Rob Pardo said that it was to provide a better experience for players and to tie them to Battle.net earlier on, because if players levelled up offline characters and tried to move those online then Blizzard would not be able to confirm that no cheats were used.
Players will still be able to play solo, confirmed Pardo, but will have to do so while connected to Battle.net.
Regarding Lack of Mod Support
Blizzard has only commented on the lack of mod support - which actually goes as far as expressly forbidding mods in the Terms and Conditions - in an official statement.
'For a variety of gameplay and security reasons, we will not be supporting bots or mods in Diablo III, and they’ll be expressly prohibited by our terms of use for the game,' says the official line.
Regarding Microtransactions
Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo 3 will feature an auction house where players can buy and sell in-game items for real-world money. Blizzard itself will not sell any items, though it will take a flat-rate fees for listing items in the auction house, plus another for successful sales. Players will be allotted a number of 'free sales' each week.
Blizzard's lead designer, Jay Wilson, said that Blizzard was staying away from a percentage-based cut to avoid the temptation to meddle with the system. Wilson also said that Blizzard doesn't expect the auction house to make a profit, rather that it might 'break even'.
'We think it’s really going to add a lot of depth to the game,' said Rob Pardo. 'If I have more money than time I can purchase items, or if I’m leet in the game I can get benefits out of it.'
'The players really want it. This is something that we know people are going to do either way. We can provide them a really safe, awesome, fun experience, or they’ll find ways of doing it elsewhere.'
Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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126 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyLet me take that off my shopping list.
Point 2. Bullshit, I dislike heavily. Mods are what will keep you game alive for a decade blizzard, sort it out.
Point 3. I like this. I'm leet so I intend on making money. If Blizz doesn't sort out farmers and shizzle though this could go downhill quick.
*cancels preorder*
The offline character to online character thing is nonsense - it'd be easy enough to simply not allow it, while still allowing offline play. The piracy justification is weak - if the current Ubi DRM showed one thing, it's that those determined enough will still crack it regardless.
Lack of mods is just... well, Blizzard being modern Blizzard quite frankly. Allowing mods in this, given it's essentially subscription-less-MMO styling (credit to Jewels for that) would be insane.
And the player-to-player microtransaction thing just smacks of 'if we don't do it, they'll do it on trading sites, so we're going to get a cut!'...
...
Seriously, it's like the big developers are trying to push me into the arms of the Indie devs.
im very interested in how this will play out. i wonder how much different people will treat different companies. Ubisoft clearly isn't one of people's favourites, but Blizzard is held highly by some fanboys.
My pirated copy of Diablo 1 and 2 work just beautifully, by the way, since my original Diablo 1 and 2 discs are scratched to buggery - so don't be too quick to dismiss the pirating "shitfaces".
I was really, really looking forward to Diablo 3. I think I'll just wait for Grim Dawn now....
http://www.grimdawn.com/
However Activision-Blizzard, that's a different company...
Nice one Activillain.
- It's NOT (at least not anymore) primarily a single player game and has survived as such for so long because of this. Battle.net and playing with your friends was the main draw. Single player could be done when they weren't on. The most fun to be had was always in a group.
- Add-ons are not required anyhow. You smash skulls in and collect loot, what could you possibly need add-ons for?
- Real money AH defeats scammers and nets blizz cash from gold sellers, it's a win-win for all.
Always online is the future and is a very tame version of DRM. Most people are always online so there shouldn't be much issue there and as mentioned, there will be a cracked version at some point - no doubt about it.
I do concur with one of the above posters that it's leaning more towards an MMO without the subs nowadays but I think that the things they have taken from the MMO scene fit well and will only add depth.
I'm not a mad blizz or activision fan, I've often been a critic; but this tide of negativity is feeding on itself and is just ludicrous for the most part.
If they're implementing real money and always online DRM, zero tolerance for mods makes sense. I think selling items for real money is a really cool idea, and if sacrificing mods is required to make it feasible, so be it. I have faith that Blizzard will make the base game fun enough anyway.
@XXAOSICXX
You could just register those cd keys with Blizzard and download the game legit...
I don't see what all the drama is, I can't remember the last time I wasn't connected to the net, and if I had to move house or something its not as if it would be the end of the world not to be able to play a game for a week or two. If they think it stops piracy of the game then fair play, if everything was released totally DRM free, we wouldn't have a PC gaming industry at all.
Seriously, even in the most countrified backwater you can get a net connection nowadays (speed isn't important)
As an aside, Grim Dawn looks awesome!
Exactly what I was going to post. Since Blizzard have decided to make Diablo 3, in essence, as a big '**** you you will buy into what we tell you' project this seems as good a time as any to point out that there is a competing game in development called Grim Dawn by some of the same people who made Titan Quest but now they are indies.
Perhaps this time we could use our wallets to tell Blizzard exactly where they can stick their rules and gold farming microtransactions and go with a game being made for the PC by people who care about the players and want to see them enjoy the product and who's only public thoughts on DRM have been "should be just put it on Steam? People seem to like that anyway".
Perhaps Acti-Blizz are pushing the limits on buyer remorse (with the amount of money coming in from games such as WoW and CoD they have a safety net) and seeing how far they can go to inconvenience the buyer for their own gains?
Lol. You realise that this isn't pirates fault. This is about control and now publishers have a smokescreen to force it on players. DRM only hurts genuine players as it is always always cracked.
The no mod support line comes from the Q&A about the Auction house:
Will I be able to use third-party mods to track auction prices?
For a variety of gameplay and security reasons, we will not be supporting bots or mods in Diablo III, and theyll be expressly prohibited by our terms of use for the game.
That does not address game mods, simply mods to alter the usage of the Auction house.
Next time read the info, not just copy past from someone else.
So why are you going to pirate it? Because it has DRM?
Now we'll have a cheater/hacker free online community where people actually have a need to trade for items. If you just want to play co-op, you can still do that. A constant connection to the internet is a small price to pay considering most people are always connected anyway these days. The issue with the Ubisoft DRM was that if you got disconnected you lost your unsaved progress. Unless that oversight is repeated here I don't see any real issues.
There is nothing wrong with DRM, if it isn't some monstrously debilitating software, which in this case it's not. Simply requiring an active internet connection is really not too much to ask.
Mods aren't needed/necessary if a game is of a good standard. Anything that you might want to be included in a mod, in most sensible case, should have been included as the de facto - given the amount of time it is taking to get this out the door, I would sincerely hope this is the case.
Additionally, tieing in with the fact that the game is always online, implementation for any voiced requests for features/additional gameplay elements or modes should be easily added by Blizzard with first party support.
Finally, real-world to game currency transactions are awesome, and it's great it's finally been legitimised. It provides a completely different element to gameplay, and raises the stakes making for a more fun and involved gaming experience.
TSB
I understand that many people requested such a feature in D2 (pretty sure there were even a few mods for it), but IMO it spoils some of the 'loot lust' which is a major part of genre.
If I'm levelling up a witchdoctor and a weapon I need drops - some of that excitement will be gone if I know that the hours spent getting that weapon could of easily been achieved by spending 50p on the auction house because gold farmers have driven down the price of everything...
In a way it's similar to Borderlands. Myself and a few friends were really enjoying the game until someone found a save game editor which allowed you to spawn any gun. Within an hour, one of the major driving forces of the game was destroyed.
Until they do a press-release that expressely allows the use of game mods that are not related to auctioneering then I will see their statement as banning game mods too. :(
I said this before... But only the PAYING CUSTOMERS suffer from these measures, you are just obligating paying customers to become "pirates"...
Instead of having to sit through all the mods that ever come out and check and recheck that it's not for cheating, blizzard has decided to just block all mods
Think this whole thing is going to get rather sticky rather quickly...
Sure, in some ways it sucks, but they have actual REASONS for doing this, and I think the end goal of a fantastic, balanced, and fun pvp/co-op game without cheats and mods is worth it.
The more 'open' games DO have bots and hacks made for them. It's a fact of life. We'll see how this goes - if Blizzard can actually defeat the hackers and modders with these measures, I hope you all will retract your statements.
I see someone saying 'lol piratez thanx' but thank the botters and hackers instead. They're the ones ruining the game for everyone else playing, and that's what Blizzard is attempting to defeat here.
However it does put paid to any ideas of playing this on the move when I'm commuting.
No mods and the auction house are very poor decisions and I really hope that the ban on mods doesn't cover things like UI addons.
Activision...
Dont really like Diablo so can skip it entirely.
Seriously guys? Have they even mentioned what the DRM is? christ, why all the naysaying on DRM? Personally I've had no problem with it, even the bad ones on games like Spore, but come on, you're going to cancel pre-orders because of this? Most DRM issues can be resolved with a quick 5 minute phone call. Yes the online only part may suck, but its not like its the first.
So anyway, personally I never once played diablo 2 on single player, and those who do, its a shame, you're missing out on a massive part of the game.
no mods? same as diablo 1, same as diablo 2, why is this suddenly an issue? I understand that they're stabbing themselves in the foot, as mod's do take games further and make them better, but Diablo was very much centered around the ladder, so probably can understand this point.
But yeah, blame pirates or publishers or whatever. People who want a cracked game will always find a way to play it, and DRM will always be there to protect copyrighted material.
I'm pretty sure if any of you developed an indie game that was as succesful as Diablo, you'd be trying to find ways to stop people pirating your creation for free.
This style of game is so dated you shouldn't really give a ****. I stopped playing this kind of game back in the 80's when 8-bit computers ruled the earth.
I travel a lot with work, and often do not have access to the internet so would be unable to play this game when stuck in a Premier Inn
Kimbie
For example has anyone seen Starcraft 2 on sale?
What's Starcraft 2? Oh you mean one third of the game they are still working on... No, wait until it's all out then buy the full game at a normal discounted price.
Acti-Blizz just isn't the same tbh.
Oh Blizzard, where art thou?
Strange I can, I was on an 8hr boat trip, then there was that time there were problems at my exchange, oh and then I did go on holiday abroad where the price to use the wireless in the hotel was a rip off.
Think about this: You are on the final boss on your 20th attempt to kill him, your internet connection drops.. Oh balls we cant verify you didnt cheat so you have to try again.
Really? Strange since:
a) Most games are actually cracked before the are even released.
b) According to a suppressed report into piracy, the pirates are generally better customers
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/07/20/2119232/Suppressed-Report-Shows-Pirates-Are-Good-Customers
c) Piracy != equal lost sales in a 1:1 ratio. Numerous sources/studies suggest this.
d) The witcher 2 was release DRM free on gog.com and removed retail DRM shortly after release, I believe their sales are just fine.
Does any one know, as I don't have a battle net account, does it have an off-line mode like Steam?
Mods - I'm fairly 'meh' about.
Microtransactions - I'm holding judgment on. Will see what happens. I prefer though that people field what they've 'won' in game, not bought third party.
While I'm thinking over what's been said, it'll be the always on thing that'll make me drop my pre-order.
You want a singleplayer game that you'll play for a few days, suck at it, implement cheats, then rush through the game bulldozer-style, and then toss it. They want a game that will be fair and continue to be played the next 10 years, and they have taken the measures necessary to achieve this goal.
So I'm with them on this one. Don't get me wrong, I hate debilitating and always-online DRM just as much as any one of you (if not more), but after seeing how it was implemented in Starcraft 2, I can only tip my hat to Blizzard and say "Thank you for providing us a fair and civilized environment to play in."
If I'm playing a single player game (and it would be played as a single player game, it's not very often I play this type of game in multiplayer on the PC) I don't want to suddenly lose the last x hours of play because my router's connection suddenly dropped and needs to be rebooted (Also, I can't change my router as it's a locked-down pre-configured job from my ISP).
Always on DRM has meant that games I would have bought on the PC (AC2/Borotherhood/Star Craft 2 etc...) don't get bought/played (and I refuse to resort to pirated versions).
Remember graphics maketh not the game.
I changed my talk talk router. Only about 10 minutes on there websites/phoning up to get the settings.
Grow up. It's down to pirates and no one else.You really think they'd go through all the trouble and whining that DRM inevitably causes unless fear of financial loss through piracy weren't driving force? Contrary to popular opinion, devs don't hate gamers and use every possible opportunity to screw us over. Totalitarian control over their product is necessary because games are meant as business, not charity.
If the router is part of the ISP's infrastructure, then they need to fix it. You have a contract with them and how much loss of connectivity is acceptable is stipulated there. Your case certainly doesn't fall into acceptable levels.
No, but art style does. D3 is a successor to D2 in the same way that CnC: Generals was a successor to Tiberian Sun. It's not.
I like to be able to play games on the train, or around the house, or just wherever I don't happen to have an internet connection. Blizzard have seriously lost touch with their fans if they think that we all want to play tournament-standard PvP all the time.
I actually think the auction house is quite a good idea, I'm all for player-led economies. However the always-on DRM is a vast bazooka to kill a tiny fly.
Unlike Blizard the companies that are participating in the humble indie offer know how to treat their customers!
http://www.humblebundle.com/
Exactly... I hate when that happens in TDU or TDU2...
Agree. I just never saw the appeal of watching a tiny little characrer run into buildings with no roofs and steal from treasure chests.
The lack of mods is another issue. Open battle.net was a shame in the end as mostly enyone was playing with map hack and bots and duped item. The main reason i played closed battle.net. The negative point was that everytime i logged in after some years i started from zero. Therefor on the one side its good its missing on the other side i will miss the mods created by the users. I just loved the mods created by people in D2 and Torchlight, were so much fun to play a boss map with 8 players ^^.
Not quite sure what it will be with the ingame auctions, i´m more a fan of "ingame" money like in guild wars or with pg´s/runes like in the old d2 days. Makes more sense to me.
1) TDU2 is a MMO. Diadlo isn't.
2) Most of the server offline errors were down to Atari not sorting it out.
3) TDU2 is crap anyway. I know, I pre-ordered the pile of turd.
This. Always online DRM is fine only if there is an offline mode (but "Alwyas Online" suggests no offline mode) or if at the very least, the online check only happens when you start the game, not during single play. Assassins Creed 2 drove me nuts, freezing mid game a couple of times when my net connection went down/router died, and again of course when the Ubisoft servers got DDoS'd. In the end, I stopped playing and waited for the crack.
#2: Excellent! Mods for Diablo II were absolutely horrible and completely ruined Open Battle.net (yes, I played Open legit. Bloody difficult with all the cheat mods out there). Mods are great for games like Oblivion, Fallout 3, Unreal Tournament, Neverwinter Nights and stuff like that, were you get the distinct impression that the developers spent more time tinkering with the engine and the tools for it (so that they could license it to other companies) than the actual gameplay. Gameplay was more of a showcase of what the engine was capable off, than anything else.
#3: This part really sucks. Yes, people sold items on E-bay in Diablo II, but at a huge cost, because they risked getting banned. This in turn also limited the amount of buyers. Now some people will farm like crazy and the prices will drop fast, making it the norm to have the best gear as soon as you can use it.
Personally I see it as cheating and I won't touch the service, but it'll make me think twice about joining random games, since I don't know if people have bought their gear or earned it.
Actually, i'm going to go on Dragons Den and pitch my idea for a modem/router that keeps you connected to the internet constantly and hassle free. Staying on the internet would be so much easier that way.
Whatever happened to people demanding more for their money, demanding better from the services/products they pay for?
Why do so many apologists always crawl out of the woodwork to make statements like "I don't see why everyone is whining", when the reasons are obvious to anyone who pays attention and cares.
The PC as a gaming platform would never have thrived the way it did if it wasn't for game mods and user freedom. Whether Diablo 3 is the kind of game that would benefit from modding or not remains to be seen, but it's a shocking turnaround after the flexibility of StarCraft 2 in this regard.
Many people do not have reliable connections with 100% uptime, and many others quite justifiably feel they shouldn't have to be online to play a game offline. As a paying customer I don't want to wear the ball & chain of the pirate down the street.
This appears to be different from the StarCraft 2 model and more extreme in the approach:
Micro-transactions are never good value for money and generally set a horrible precedent for future abuse by corporations who already nickel & dime their customers all too much to begin with.
In this case, however; players will either be at a disadvantage for being unwilling to drop a few dollars here and there on virtual items in the game, or they'll feel compelled to treat Diablo 3 and its item-crafting as a second job.
This situation is neither good for gameplay nor healthy for players.
Way to encourage yet more chinese sweatshops, Blizz.
It's not exactly optional if the real-currency AH is going to have a direct impact on the value of in-game gold, since that affects people regardless of using the real-currency AH.
Have they not thought this through? Or do they just not care?
Blizzard gives (marginally) better reasons for its DRM and restictive policies here than scum like Ubisoft in the past, but if you don't see why people are 'whining' then you're just bloody ignorant and part of the entire problem of the direction of the modern games industry.
To my understanding this is about mods not addons. Which is arguable i guess depending on the direction on the game. But I see no reason not to include addon support, some people inc myself like the change from the default UI.
and then the pirating shitfaces will tell you...
"We cracked SC2 and played SP, Diablo 3's main point is SP... CHA-CHING"
If I travelled a lot, I'd buy an Android phone and tether the hell out of it!
And we care about people on dial up why? Or should be shed a tear for those of us still trying to communicate via morse code too?
To the ragers: rage all you like. Seriously, just don't buy the game then and cry yourself to sleep about these nasty video game people doing horrible things to you. To the proper Diablo fans like myself out there, look forward to playing with you!
3G dongle or tether to phone.
Good job, lets all behave like 5 year olds.
Best thing to happen in money laundering market since the invention of the Internet.
Talk about being selfish and the world revolves around oneself additude.
I have a number of friends and family who are forced to use dial-up, wireless air cards with bandwith caps due no other options. Yes I care about them! If your a proper Diablo fan then I'd rather play Grim Dawn, thanks.
As I stated earlier, actually wait for further info or a review before making a full decision, can't believe the amount of people who are boycotting (allegedly, we all remember the CoD boycots) this due to a small snippet of info they don't like.
Anyway, I can't cancel now:
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5436/35764462.jpg
Dunno if you still can but I played for 4 years a few back and you could get them quite easily. Diablo 3 would have been the same.
was posted up middle of last month at gamestop
Your the one being selfish. Your in the tiny tiny minority on dialup, I'm in the vast majority of broadband users. Hell, why don't we start forcing devs to cater to people with no arms, no eyes and no ears too?
However, that's a pretty stark contrast with implementing features which let players pay real money for in game items. In game money for in game items? At least the player still has to be proficient enough to get the in game currency, even if they weren't able to get the item themselves. Real money? Little Jimmy blowing his allowance on Diablo 3 items because he wants to play in the big leagues without having to do the work. It all goes directly against the "fairness" the other two points try to create.
You, Sir, a ****ing idiot.
Quite the contrary to being selfish, the opinions you're summarily disregarding there reflect those of more people than you think.
Let's have a think - Diablo 3 isn't going to be sold ONLY in the UK or only in the USA. Believe it or not the world is a much, much bigger place than the town or city you live in, with high-speed broadband.
People on deployment overseas.
People working away in hotels or commuting regularly.
People in areas that don't have broadband.
People in countries that don't have broadband at all.
People with unreliable and unhelpful ISPs.
There are plenty of countries you can buy a retail boxed game but can't get a reliable internet connection.
3G dongles my ass - have you ever tried to actually use one of those whilst travelling for something even as basic as the WWW? You can literally forget having a reliable and persistent connection.
Personally, I like to get away from the stress of work for weeks at a time - last year I went to Malaysia where I had no hope in hell of getting a regular and stable connection. What did I do? I played Titan Quest (and Immortal Throne) on my laptop, via Steam's offline mode. I'm happy to reauthenticate from time to time - I do see that as reasonable - but online ALL the time - no thanks.
As a previous poster quite rightly says - you can hate the haters as much as you like - but why be so quick to defend the restrictions of the publishers - restrictions that ARE NOT THERE TO HELP YOU. Always online DRM offers you as a consumer *nothing* advantageous. Nothing. Do you understand that? There is not a single benefit to you as a paying customer. On the other side of it, there are significant downsides for lots of other people. Just because you're not affected doesn't make it good for you - it's still BAD.
How can people not see this? It's as if you're being brainwashed by the publishers into taking it up the ass because it's for your own good - simply because they say so.
THERE ARE *NO* ADVANTAGES TO THE CONSUMER FOR ALWAYS-ONLINE DRM.
And then you have the issue of control. It isn't just a working Internet connection, you need a working account too. That means having to suck up to every phrase in Blizzard's EULA (section 12D giving Blizzard rights to anything you create and transmit through their service is a corker). And if Blizzard require you to install spyware to enforce it, as they did previously, then you'll lose your account, game, character, money and time if you don't comply.
If you're a "proper fan" you'll want a game you can return to time and again, even 5-10 years later. Systems like this make that situation laughably improbable - but go ahead, spend your money, support a company that (frankly) no longer gives a damn about you and keep your trap shut when things go wrong and everyone else says "told you so!". :p
+1
You just admitted to never playing the *REAL* Diablo!!
I love listening to the negative nancys on BT, you guys are hilarious.
I am honest enough to say that I will play D3 no matter what, and I know that most of you will still play the game.
The reality is that if your computer isn't online all the time, it is broken.
Harden up, and get ready for some HARDCORE Diablo multiplayer action!!
S*D
Unfortunately, that's not always the case. It royally sucks when you're without internet for awhile (already a traumatizing experience), not playing able to play singleplayer games during that time just makes it worse. Or those rare people who don't have access to broadband or pay by MB.
Used to be you'd see the word 'paedo' scrawled outside people's houses by vandals... I swear the other day I saw someone graffiti 'DRM author' on this bloke's wall...
Christ you are a dick. Would you ever argue so aggressively and offensively in the street? I'm guessing not, cowards like to be rude where no one can hurt them..
An awful lot of people have to travel - not all of us use a 15kg desktop as our primary PC. A seriously high proportion of users have dodgy internet connection, either through living in a rural area, having a dodgy ISP or just a crap router. Not withstanding that, I do not see any serious benefit for this always-online DRM you defend that outweighs the huge costs.
Exactly. +1
UI addons and mods, like the ones that fell in the ToS for WoW and greatly improved gameplay? aka all the barmods, maps mods, chat mods, and functionality add-ons? eventually the good ones got put into late game wow but they were usually not as creative and interesting as the originals. I think these mods are great and vastly improve gameplay experience
campaign mods? still not sure if this game can be played single player in a non-MMO mode or if it's only online. If it's only online than campaign mods probably have no place and will be identical to private servers in wow. Campaign and new boss mods greatly expanded the life of D2... dupes and hacks are not modifications those are cheats and would never be okay.
Diablo has always primarily been a single-player game, why the hell does it need to always be online? I guess in their lust for more money Blizzard forgot that post-release, user-generated content is the reason people still play WC3 and SC1. Activision must have made Blizzard realize that there is no direct profit from such long-term support so they said **** it.
The pay-to-win auction house is going to attract hundreds of thousands of gold farmers and bots now, but ActiBlizzard doesn't care if poor Asians are getting paid slave wages via their game as long as they get a profit. They say the real money AH is all about the players, but that is a PR front-loaded lie; I'm sure that the fee they receive from every transaction isn't a factor at all!
They will lose hundreds of thousands of loyal supporters and possible sales from this triple shot of "let's see how much more cash we can milk from gamers while still maintaining our good reputation." Diablo III was a must-buy for many, but now the Blizzard brand name is turning into a "must-avoid" because of their Activision greed and crap Ubisoft DRM.
Unfortunately this trend will continue and as usual it's all down to the pirates according to the developers/publishers.
I will probably get the game even if it does have pointless DRM (hopes and prays the 3G signal stays strong whilst playing)
Wrong.
Back in 1996 when Diablo was released broadband didn't even exist. Dial-up was monthly fee PLUS pay-by-the-minute plus pay-for-extra-bandwidth-used PLUS kept your phone line occupied.
Multiplayer existed on LAN (which was quite laughable in Windows 95 over IPX/SPX) when you could get a mate round at your (parents) house for long enough to have a decent session.
Thus, for many, many people Diablo 1 was a single player experience - and a thoroughly enjoyable one at that - all without an Internet connection in sight.
Diablo 2 comes long a few years later and many of those who started with Diablo 1 played Diablo 2 the same way - single player - and still very much enjoyed it. Why, then, is it so unreasonable to ask the same of Diablo 3?
+1, this is pretty much how I played D1, D2 and the expansion packs.
+1 here also - makes you wonder if some posters were gaming (or even born) when D1 was released (I still cringe on hearing the whine of a modem handshake).
Things have changed a lot since, but some gaming publishers seem determined to undo the benefits that progress has bought.
Precisely.
Always online? Yeah, that's pretty much the standard now, and if it helps kill pirating I'm all for it. You can still play solo if you're so antisocial so what's the problem anyway, don't have internets?
No mods well that's kindof disappointing, but again understandable since it's an online game. You can't be changing gameplay when it's a shared system, there's no way around that it would cause way too many issues. Opens the door for cheating too which is lame.
Microtransactions again is nothing surprising, that's the big idea lately in gaming. Hey at least there's no subscription fees or anything, you don't have to use the auction hosue if you don't want to. No one's forcing you to use it so don't complain if you don't like it because it's there for those who do.
I don't know what people expect. Obviously this is the direction things were heading considering their success with WoW. Just be grateful we're even getting another installment of Diablo.
There's been ample coverage of Ubisoft's "always online" system and its successful launch and plenty of debate about similar systems here and elsewhere so the downsides should really be obvious. But then, plenty of people patronised DRMed music stores, again with obvious downsides, only to lose their purchases as store after store closed.
Piracy? Uh, nope. Ubisoft's DRM was cracked in a day which meant they had a hassle-free (as well as money-free, excluding those who paid and *had* to pirate due to Ubisoft's server problems) experience. Of course, piracy is a convenient scapegoat - but the target is, and likely always has been, the second-hand game market. Despite it being legal, software publishers are quick to liken it to piracy - since they've almost surely bought items second-hand themselves at some time, it shows how hypocritical they can be.
That's the whole problem! It doesn't help kill piracy - all it does is make life more difficult for legitimate purchasers. Why are you and others so quick to handover control to the publishers?
As an analogy, consider, if you will, the gradually diminishing civil liberties of UK citizens. We've conceded the right to physical privacy (stop and search/CCTV etc). We've conceded much of our freedom in the name of preventing terrorism (entering without warrants/indefinite imprisonment). We've now conceded the right to privacy on the Internet. And so on and so forth. Every single one of these acts was small enough and stealthy enough that when compared to the present state - the accepted norm - the response would almost certainly be "that's just how it is now - just accept it".
To go back to our game, Diablo 3 - DRM has been creeping in over the years. I'm a big fan of Steam - I'm using it right now - and I'm not a hippy revolutionary - but I *do* care that every couple of years we concede just one more small thing - which seems perfectly acceptable, until the next "small thing" comes along.
Compared to the previous accepted state *all* small changes seem insignificant. I'm 32, and I've seen the shift in the way publishers treat consumers first hand, as I'm sure many others have, and I'm not happy with it. Newer gamers who have never known any different might find it acceptable - I don't know.
So long as it doesn't directly affect you, though, there's no problem....right? Wrong. What's going to be next? Remember the EA/Bioware DRM that was designed for your serial number to "check in" every 10 days before or it would deactivate?
"For clarity, though, an internet connection is not required to install, just to activate the first time, and every 10 days after. You can be completely connectionless for 9 days and encounter no problems playing Mass Effect. And you don't need the disk in the drive to play."
It's a slippery slope. If you can't see that then you're either blind, ignorant or in the pockets of the publishers, and if you're the ones playing Diablo 3, I'd rather play single player - OFFLINE.
"Just so we're clear, when you're bored on a plane, and you have your laptop, and you want to play the game you bought in order to fight boredom, Blizzard's official recommendation is that you play someone else's game. That's pride, right there."
Brilliant.
Always on DRM will mean yet another game I won't play. I'm not even pirating them, I just don't play them. DRM is ruining PC gaming for me, and consoles just suck. Instead of quitting gaming, I'll just roll my own.
Ps. The DRM will likely be cracked in a month, but likely sooner. I don't care how good of a programmer those developers are, there's a reason hackers can break into any database they want, DRM's are practice for these guys.
*cancels pre-order and reinstalls Diablo 2*
Everyone will say they aren't buying it, but will get it anyway.
Maybe this sort of tihng will drive pressure for a always on always fast internet for everyone?
I think it is within the realms of possiblity for every computer to be connected to at least a half decent connection ALL the time, prehaps even for free or very little money.
My train travels through areas with no phone signal, and large portions has no 3G signal.
XXAOSICXX's long post above basically says it all and says it well.
Get a book
And ask for a refund for Diablo 3
I haven't pirated games I don't already own since I got my first job. I think I will wait to see how the game is reviewed, how quickly the bugs are fixed in the first few weeks, then buy it and download an offline crack for it, or just not buy it at all. I think this is what a lot of us will be doing.
This always online shite is stupid though. It won't stop pirates as they will just crack it and play offline, or on servers set up for the purpose of playing it without paying. And those who bought a legit version will almost exclusively be playing it online anyway. :(
This is valid for points 1 and 2 also. For every anti-pirate system there is a crack. For every anti-mod system there is a crack.
It's not Blizzard, it's Activision Blizzard. While we'd all love to hang onto the idyllic Blizzard of the 2000s those days are long gone. Blizzard is in the business of making money, not games. I'd love to pretend that the old BioWare were still running the show, but they're not...it's EA now...and their games, DLC and DRM make that quite apparent.
The sooner people stop defending the consumer-unfriendly decisions of studios and publishers because of some idea they have of them from many years ago the sooner the world will wake up to what's going on.
oh well, I was really, really looking forward to Diablo 3.
Let me take that off my shopping list.