Diablo 3 Will Require Players to be Online When Playing

At first when this concept came out I was outraged, now I'm okay with it. I realized I only play online and my PC is always connected to broadband.
 
"I want to play Diablo 3 on my laptop in a plane, but, well, there are other games to play for times like that." - Rob Pardo at Blizzard

And I guess if I want to play Diablo 3 at a deployed location or while TDY for the military, there are other games to play for times like that too right?

Guess what, dumbass, if I can't play the game, I don't buy the game. (And no, that statement has nothing to do with piracy.)
 
i love this quote from kotaku and its so true on so many levels.

"When the pirates have a better experience than the paying users, you're doing something wrong. You're also drastically increasing the proportion of people who will play a pirated copy of your game. There are always people who don't want to pay for your game. You cannot do anything about those people, but to set up the incentive structure such that people who would otherwise be willing to pay for it are encouraged to pirate the game in order to improve the gameplay experience merely serves to expand the pirate audience. "


http://kotaku.com/5826796/there-are-other-games-to-play-on-a-laptop-besides-diablo-iii
 
Let's be real, there are hacked versions of Starcraft 2, hacked versions of Diablo 2 and WC3

there are hacked versions of TF2 and CSS

Hell, pirates invented a way to get rid of Ubi's "always online DRM" by programming the game to believe that it had phoned home when in reality it hadn't.

There will ALWAYS be ways around things.

I agree FULLY with the premise that if the pirate gives you a better experience than the retail version provides, what incentive do you have to buy it?

Some people go about this differently, which is to say, they buy the game, then download a crack and apply it, or apply some patch to remove the onerous DRM.

I don't really find anything wrong with using cracks for games, if you have a legit copy, cracks have been the "patch" of choice for gamers who did not want to swap out discs in the early days before and after Steam launched (Steam was actually pretty unreliable in it's infancy if you guys all recall).

Personally, I feel that once you purchase a game, YOU are free to remove the DRM and apply cracks, that's just my opinion. You gave them your money, your obligation ends there.

Again, this is just my opinion, I do not expect it to be a popular one.
 
I don't really care if you're required to be online. It's one way to make it just that much more difficult for hackers to modify things.

I never played single player offline Diablo 2 anyway. I only played single player Diablo 1.
 
Knowing my connection, it ain't the brightest idea... I'd get pissed if after killing hard boss, I'd get DC'ed and no progress saved. And before you tell me to change ISP - no such thing is possible.

So I guess, I'll live without Diablo 3. Never was really fussed about Diablo series anyways.
 
rampantandroid said:
Exactly! No matter what service you have, you'll always have the possibility of downtime between you and the servers. That could be a router, modem, ISP or even just some hop between you and them. I understand it with a multiplayer game...but you buy the game knowing that. I do not buy SP games expecting to be online. SP games should always work, authentication be damned.
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Right.

A handful posts later we get a response like this anyways:

00PS said:
At first when this concept came out I was outraged, now I'm okay with it.

I realized I only play online and my PC is always connected to broadband.
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Doesn't matter.

Look at the response above yours that I quoted.

You and some others don't seem to grasp a very simple concept here: It doesn't matter how awesome your Internet is. Something farts the wrong way past your awesome Internet and down you go. There's a LOT of variables that can make that happen.


I see stuff like this showing up in gaming whether it's Diablo, Ubisoft...it doesn't matter...and a bunch of lemmings and sheep shrug their shoulders, ignore a bunch of obvious facts, say it's all good and whip out their wallets.

There's no question this game is going to sell like hotcakes no matter what same as most of the Ubisoft titles, regardless of how God awful the DRM schemes are. I'm realistic about all of it.


It's a battle of inches and we're losing. $60 games? Check. Expensive DLC for content that should have been there to begin with? Check.

Near Orewellian level DRM schemes that punish legit end users and doesn't work anyways? Check.

It's all good say the lemmings and they whip out their wallets.


I'm really starting to believe my favorite pastime is in serious jeopardy and I wonder how much time I have left before I have to sadly abandon it.

Sooner rather than later if this is anything to go by.


This is the kind of thing that simply encourages more piracy.
 
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Dome said:
i wonder if it will be a system connected to your account so that you can both 'deposit' your halves of the trade and then have it go through...or something...

i haven't done any reading...is it going to be an online trading post? or just in-game/IRL money for items?
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There is a "gold" auction house and a "money" auction house. The auction house interface is virtually the same as it is in WoW with slight differences. Items listed in the real money auction house will have a dollar value listed to the item. If you sell an item for $5.00 and someone buys it, the money will be stored on your battle.net account as a sort of Blizzard credit, which you can use to buy other games, buy WoW time, vanity items, etc. Or you can cash out through a third party, probably something like Paypal.
 
Bliz Exec 1: "Hey, pirates are costing us some serious money, what should we do?"
Bliz Exec 2: "Let's punish our paying customers!"

That's pretty much how it went.
 
Oldie said:
Bliz Exec 1: "Hey, pirates are costing us some serious money, what should we do?"
Bliz Exec 2: "Let's punish our paying customers!"

That's pretty much how it went.
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Yup. On a number of levels.

This pains me to see the likes of this from a company like Blizzard. I hold them in high esteem and it just burns my ass to see the likes of this from them. They really ought to know better.


Add to your above dialog:

Random pissed off hackers: "Let's see what this DDOS attack can do."

Down goes the service regardless of how awesome everyone's Internet might be.

Can't wait to see what the Diablo 3 threads around here look like when...not if...that happens.

Looking forward to it because that's the only way some people are going to get a clue.
 
Other than shafting deploy military gamers I'm glad you crybabies won't be in any bnet games with me.
 
Jake said:
Other than shafting deploy military gamers I'm glad you crybabies won't be in any bnet games with me.
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I know this is a shock to some people, but many gamers dont give a single shit about multiplayer gaming.
 
Jake said:
Other than shafting deploy military gamers I'm glad you crybabies won't be in any bnet games with me.
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They will, though.

This is the type of issue that gets everyone super heated at first, and then 6 months later when the game comes out hype overwhelms indignation and $60 later the game is being played, online, natch.

It's the principle of the thing, and history has showed that principled boycotts and entertainment products generally don't mix.
 
Jake said:
Other than shafting deploy military gamers I'm glad you crybabies won't be in any bnet games with me.
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And I'm glad I wont be there with you :p

Its far from just deployed military personnel who have flaky internet connections.
 
CryingGod said:
This thread turned out pretty good once the 2 blizzard apologists stopped posting...
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+1 contribution, way to bring the thread to the next level with your insightful response.

-----

I'm fine with having to log in to an online account to keep track of progress/achievements even for single player. Those who are incapable of doing so are in the minority; those who would prefer not to have to do it are also in the minority. People like achievements, which require you to be online to receive credit for those achievements.

Seems like logging in to an account and being online to receive credit for achievements is what the status quo likes, no matter how many folks state otherwise. If this was a mainstream issue it'd be quite visible--Call of Duty titles would've sold 1 million copies, not 55+ million copies as of 2009. Starcraft 2 would've been an abysmal failure. Who are people in this thread to state that this isn't what the majority of gamers want?
 
Honestly, I say we make all games require internet connections. Then maybe all of the stupid people will boycott them and we'll have games full of semi-intellegent people.
 
wait so are people who play multiplayer now the minority? if something happens with the internet you lose some progress but that always happened when you're on realms. hell i lost a few good items back when i was on the college fiber optic network due to disconnect.

it happens on my xbox when my router burps, or the connection drops, whatever. its part of playing games.

i understand that, yes, people like to play this game single player. if i were one of them. i would not buy, and then wait for blizzard to patch the game so that SP doesn't require a constant connection. i'd bet dollars to donuts that it'll happen
 
btw i love how if you don't think this is the most atrocious crime against humanity that you become an apologist
 
I welcome internet-on games and the tools they provide. Welcome to the future, lanning neckbeards.
 
Litfod said:
Who are you to state that it is?
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he's not. he's stating that many people here assume majority of people will hate this internet requirement. his statement does not automatically imply the opposite
 
All the complaints won't mean jack when the game comes out. At least half of the people whining about it will fold because its Diablo.

There are all kinds of DOTA purists that claim they won't play Dota 2 when it comes out as well :rolleyes:
 
Why couldnt they just make it like D2? You had battlenet which required a constant connection and then you had an off line mode. The reasoning given by Blizzard is pretty pathetic as well


http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-cannot-be-played-offline/

The anti-cheat reason makes sense, but why not permit an offline mode and keep it separate from the online game?

“We thought about this quite a bit,” says executive producer Rob Pardo. “One of the things that we felt was really import was that if you did play offline, if we allowed for that experience, you’d start a character, you’d get him all the way to level 20 or level 30 or level 40 or what have you, and then at that point you might decide to want to venture onto Battle.net. But you’d have to start a character from scratch, because there’d be no way for us to guarantee no cheats were involved, if we let you play on the client and then take that character online.”

“Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t play a game by yourself – of course you can. You can go into and start any game that you want, you’ll just be connected to the Battle.net servers, and we can authenticate your character.”
 
Well a company statement has to be diplomatic. The likely truth is they examined their potential player base and the amount of people looking for a purely offline experience is likely insignificant, and felt it unnecessary to devote the resources to develop it.
 
Godmachine said:
All the complaints won't mean jack when the game comes out. At least half of the people whining about it will fold because its Diablo.

There are all kinds of DOTA purists that claim they won't play Dota 2 when it comes out as well :rolleyes:
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Of course I'll be buying it and I do have a nice reliable connection but I still support those that have crappy Internet connections or sometimes none at all (military or airplane or some other reason). Pretty much pirates will play it regardless of a connection whereas paying customers are the ones that are screwed.
 
TheCommander said:
Why couldnt they just make it like D2? You had battlenet which required a constant connection and then you had an off line mode. The reasoning given by Blizzard is pretty pathetic as well


http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-cannot-be-played-offline/

The anti-cheat reason makes sense, but why not permit an offline mode and keep it separate from the online game?

“We thought about this quite a bit,” says executive producer Rob Pardo. “One of the things that we felt was really import was that if you did play offline, if we allowed for that experience, you’d start a character, you’d get him all the way to level 20 or level 30 or level 40 or what have you, and then at that point you might decide to want to venture onto Battle.net. But you’d have to start a character from scratch, because there’d be no way for us to guarantee no cheats were involved, if we let you play on the client and then take that character online.”

“Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t play a game by yourself – of course you can. You can go into and start any game that you want, you’ll just be connected to the Battle.net servers, and we can authenticate your character.”
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Yup, clearly bullshit. The online adds some cool functionality, but it also functions as DRM and gives Blizzard a direct means to monetize the game play. It bugs me when execs won't just own up to something like that.

Anyway, the older this news gets, the less I care. I always thought of D3 as an online game, so needing to be online to play is like... whatever.
 
Yeah this blows. I'll still be buying the game, but I really dislike them forcing crap like this on us. There is zero reason why I shouldn't be able to play an "offline-only" type character if my connection is down.

So are we going to have several-hours-long Tuesday maintenance? That would mean no one can play D3 during those times as well since there is no offline component.
 
wiploc said:
Yeah this blows. I'll still be buying the game, but I really dislike them forcing crap like this on us. There is zero reason why I shouldn't be able to play an "offline-only" type character if my connection is down.

So are we going to have several-hours-long Tuesday maintenance? That would mean no one can play D3 during those times as well since there is no offline component.
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I forgot about that. Maintenence took a while sometimes. There were also times it was so crowded that it took a long time to get a game going if even possible. Blizz will probably be prepared though for peak times this time though or I hope they will.
 
Godmachine said:
All the complaints won't mean jack when the game comes out. At least half of the people whining about it will fold because its Diablo.
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That will most certainly hold true when the game is released. I just wish people who say they will not purchase a game to not support certain practices would stand by their words...

These day's it's all about about the now and instant gratification regardless of what it might mean for the future of the industry and the consequences for gamers. I'm a bit worried about what the future holds to be honest.
 
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Well the inherent issue with boycotting the game for this reason is that the majority of people are playing with a multiplayer focus. What the alternatives for instance? More traditional MMOs? They require persistent connections as well. Guild Wars, or similar? That requires a persistent connection as well. (which of also brings up the issue of why not boycott Guild Wars for not having an offline mode?)

Those that actually are heavily singleplayer focused and are actually affected by this probably won't buy the game simply because they won't be able to play it, but those numbers to insignificant for anyone to care.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
At least Pardo is nice enough to try and save me from my own choices.
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Here's another by Mr. Pardo:

Diablo 3 will also require a persistent Internet connection, and Blizzard's Rob Pardo agrees that it's kind of a pain in the butt. "I want to play Diablo 3 on my laptop in a plane, but, well, there are other games to play for times like that," he told 1up.
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TheCommander said:
Here's another by Mr. Pardo:
Diablo 3 will also require a persistent Internet connection, and Blizzard's Rob Pardo agrees that it's kind of a pain in the butt. "I want to play Diablo 3 on my laptop in a plane, but, well, there are other games to play for times like that," he told 1up.
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Like Torchlight 2... :D I think I'm going to sit this game out.
 
ebduncan said:
yet another game comes out which completely forgets that not all people have a high speed internet connection.

I don't like being forced to have internet connection just to play a game, its non sense. Frankly my internet connection is rather slow (1mbps dsl) so this game automatically means that it will not be a good game play experience for me. My service also drops out at random so what would happen to the game if i experienced a connection issue, my guess would the game would crash and all progress you had would not be saved up to your last save game.

I understand they want to fight pirates, but really this is not the answer. Also no mods? no lan play? Blizzard i kindly ask you to go take your foot and shove it up your umm....

Blizzard is getting greedy with their games. The point of a game is to have fun! Not control it like you control some mindless star trek nerds, because that to me is what they are doing. Taking advantage of a franchise game to force the players who liked the earlier series to go by Blizzard's rules. More words for you folks at blizzard, your not a governmental system.

This actually gives me motivational support to actually crack your game, relase mods, and infuse lan support and say to heck with you. I will call it Diablo Twiwstb. ( The way it was supose to be)
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I doubt for SP it will need your connection except for a random authentication check now and then. Dial up will not be any different of experience than cable unless your playing MP.
Anyways, blame the pirates, probably half the posters here. Yeah some of them will still figure a way to play, but the time they invested to get it working they could have been spent working an actual job to pay for it. Imagine that.
 
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