Diablo 3: Auction House Does Cash, More

[amk-aka-Phantom]

My big problem with the no offline play is that hey, I LIKE single player Diablo. I have no problem with having to start afresh if I want to go online. Make it my choice, don't make it for me. Unlike Starcraft which is no fun to play single player after you've beaten the Campaign a few times, Diablo continues to be fun. I never played Diablo II online, even though I bought it and the expansions. I played fairly often on a LAN with my friends though. I stay away from MMOs because the ysuck time out of your life in a major way. If you want to compete at any reasonable level, you need to make it a near fulltime job. What about us guys who just want to play casually? Lastly, SC2 is constantly down because of server resets and game updates for hours at a time. At least when that happens I can still play some AI games or watch some replays. Diablo 3 won't let me do squat.

Here's another person who makes sense! But I think you misunderstood the article. There will be single player (just log in on the net first), but no LAN. Is that what you mean?

By the way, online DRM isn't bad because it's so difficult to crack (it's not - look at GTA IV), it's bad because it's ONLINE. My Mass Effect 2 pisses me off every time I launch it - it wants to login to Cerberus Network, and it can't, 'cause the connection here is $h!t. Yes, I KNOW that CN login will just skip if there is no connection, but there IS - it's just too unstable and slow. And I want my Internet switched off at all times I don't need it; and I don't need it, if I'm playing single-player. There are plenty of reasons why any kind of online-tied gaming is bad.

And yeah, MMOs DO suck the time outta your life in a major way. Normal games - I come home, I play for a while, I enjoy the storyline and gameplay, eventually beat the game and either start another playthrough after a while (when I have time) or move on to the next game. MMOs - you sit on your ass the whole day, wasting your time on PvP, farming XP, gold and loot, never ending, no story, nothing... of course, the MMO fans protect their games by saying "it's an interaction with REAL PEOPLE!!!!11", but for me, these 'people' are less real than any NPC out there. I have the same attitude towards online play in CoD, Crysis, etc. - I only play for storyline. I don't need to waste hours trying to figure out who'll kill each other more times in a single game, I've got far, far better things to do with my life. Playing a good single-player game (NWN, ME1/2, DAO, SW:KOTOR, Crysis: Warhead, Spore and many more) feels like watching an extremely exciting interactive movie. Playing an MMO or an online match feels like Pinball for Windows - fun for a while, then you realize you're just wasting your time and that's what this game is made for.

 

[inthere]

omg, i'm going to make sooooooo much money off this game

 

[dark_lord69]

"single-player to multi-player seamlessly"
AAAWWEESOME!!!!

I really don't get why you people are b*tching so much.

Is your internet connection really that unstable? Over the last 6 months my internet went out 1 time and that wasn't the ISP's fault, my router needed to be rebooted. Infact I can't remember the last time my ISP failed to have an active connection.

Are you concerned that your connection may go out someday and you will not be able to play (for what MAYBE a day or 2 at most)? You know what else could happen? The power could go out. Then what? You don't bitch about that possibility too do you? I'm assuming your house doesn't have a backup generator. Maybe you should get one to protect you against that possible issue so that you would never be stopped from playing the game for more than 1 second, ya f*ckin panty waist crybaby.

I don't know anyone that can't get an internet connection. Even my cousin that lives in North Dakota in the middle of no-where on a farm, many miles away from the nearest small town has an active internet connection.

If it's not the internet connection you people are b*tching about what is the issue? Is it, that you will actually have to pay for the game instead of pirate the game? Personally I will pay for the game and not even attempt to pirate the game because 1 - Piracy is illegal, 2 - I believe Blizzard diservese thier money, especially since I will likely play it for so many hours.

Personally I found it very annoying that you could not transfer a character from single player to multi-player so, I am very happy with thier choice. I don't see why DRM is such an issue for all of you. If you bought the game it shouldn't be an issue AT ALL!

I like that you will be able to sell things for real money but I think that the items might be nearly worth less in real world money or Blizzard's ebay like and withdrawl fees might be too high to make any real profit. But I would be nice to sell and sell and sell until I have enough to buy a solid-state hard drive.

 

[AMD_pitbull]

I love all the people complaining about the online part. Saying piracy is the reason for it. You think maybe the restrictions their putting on internet use and huge premiums their charging in a lot of places aren't playing a small part in that? No, there's no way a couple companies could work together to get kick-backs off one another. For those complaining about the pirates, no point. They've been around since the beginning. Middle ages people copied other people's work, ffs. It's not so much about being lazy, or cheap, or whatever excuse you have. For some, it's just a challenge to unlock the locks, so to speak. The new AH? Good. Hopefully cuts down on Gold sellers, but, you'll see MORE people farming now making it harder to do certain things, I can pretty well promise that. I'll probably pick this game up, but, if they decide to throw a monthly subscription, I'll pass. I know there was no mention of that, but, Activision isn't exactly a reliable company to tell you everything from day one either. Here's to hoping that Blizzard isn't gonna be ruined, and this is gonna be the first test.

 

[korsen]

OMFG@No mods. I could've dealt with the always connected, and if you're always connected, what the fuck is the problem with throwing LAN in there? Pirated software always insists we support the developers we like. I do when I can. Fuck you Blizzard. Guess who won't be BUYING a copy.

 

[donovands]

Proving my point, SC2 is down again, right now, for a service update. Won't be able to play online for hours. No big deal I can go ahead and play vs. A.I. or watch some replays. But in Diablo 3? I can't play the game I paid for untill the oh-so-frequent updates are finished. Find a way around hours of downtime and I'll be onboard.

 

[mcpcna01]

I liked Diablo 1 and 2. I was looking forward to Diablo 3 and I like the idea of the market place. I don't like the always connected to the internet idea. I've done online games but I guess I'm a loner. I will play with friends once in a blue moon but gaming for me is not an experience I share with others. Why pay to go online when I don't use any of the features of it(except maybe the marketplace)? I see no good out of talking to people or finding like minded gamers. I just don't get it. I automatically uninstall games on my ipod if they require the internet and I won't be buying this game.

 

[jquarter06]

What upsets me the most about this announcement is the explicit denial of mods. I quit playing vanilla Diablo 2 LOD a long, long time ago. I did however play mods for years afterwards. It extends the life of the game, and allows for unique and sometimes better variations. I will definitely still be getting Diablo 3 but I won't play it for nearly as long as I did Diablo 2.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

I'm assuming your house doesn't have a backup generator.

Lol, no generator, but I've got 2 big-ass batteries that can power my house for a day or two. Power cuts are SCHEDULED daily on my area, and it's not because it's poor or anything. Again, USA ain't the rest of the world.

 

[LongLiveRock1974]

It makes me sad, but I cancelled my pro-order I placed in Feb of 2010. I just love waiting years for a game to finally come out and then having my excitement and anticipation crushed at the last minute. Geez...I'm still licking my wounds from DNF.

 

[Guest]

If you're angry that you don't have a reliable connection to the internet, which would prevent you from playing D3, then you should be bugging your ISP and not a game company who's specifically developing their game for online play. It's not Blizzard's fault that you can't connect or hold a good connection.

If you're angry because you want to play single player offline, that's understandable. I personally never liked the single player version because I much preferred playing online. But what do you do? Do you complain about MMO's that don't offer an offline, single-player mode? Blizzard made WoW to be online only, so why not D3? Just because they made a single player version for 1 and 2, it doesn't mean they need to make that version for 3 as well. It sucks, but I'm sure they're well aware of the fact that people who wanted the single player experience offline will be cut out of the sales picture and it obviously won't hurt them or the game as a whole.

To those who say they want to pirate it, well, you're a thief. I really don't care how you spin it, you're a thief. Just because you don't agree with a companies business model, it doesn't mean that it entitles you to their products for free. You not only sound arrogant, but once again, you just show you're a thief. Good job. You want their attention? Petition and pester them to no end. Start an online uprising or something. If that still doesn't get their attention, then I guess they don't need yours either. Learn when you're the minority and deal with it.

 

[gm0n3y]

They should really just give the option to create an offline or online character. You can still play that online character in single player mode, you just have to be connected to bnet. If you want to play mods or without a connection, then single player only. Was that really so hard Actizzard/Blactivision?

 

[clonazepam]

[citation][nom]inthere[/nom]omg, i'm going to make sooooooo much money off this game[/citation]

With you and everyone else thinking the same thing... you'll likely end up with significantly higher supply than demand.

 

[ecadsgo]

One more game I was once looking forward to off my list of must buys.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-phantom[/nom]@all DRM-supporting people in this thread: thanks for supplying very satisfying, butthurt-filled comments. iLike[/citation]
Dude, no one 'likes' DRM. But most reasonable people also realize that the situation isn't black and white. Although there has certainly been outrageous and intrusive implementations of DRM recently (cough, Ubisoft), there can also be reasonable nonrestrictive DRM that any "legitimate" user wouldn't even notice on a game-to-game basis. And I think the system used in SC2 is as close to a 'good' solution as I've ever seen. Seriously, all you have to do is enter an in-game login! I have to do that with pretty much every other game I own as well, BF2, World in Conflict, TF2, L4D, etc...

And I don't know why you were trying to lead everyone into sympathizing with your ISP situation in your first couple posts, since your last couple pretty much confirmed that it was all BS. You may very well have poor internet connectivity, but that's not the reason you're going on these ideological ape-sh*t rants against a well tested system that millions of legitimate Blizzard users around the world have absolutely no problem with.

It amazes me how some people just attack the ass end of the problem. Everyone who has spotty or no internet access (not sure how you're planning on downloading a pirated copy) and are bitching non stop about a game developer who decides to produce a title specifically for online play. Why not question the state of your telecommunications infrastructure instead of questioning the motives behind a simple login process? Cloud computing, social networking, this is the direction that technology is heading in. And while you get pissed at Microsoft, Apple, Blizzard, and any other company that pushes for advances in network computing, you never once ask why your ISP sucks??

Practically the entire market for games like SC2 or D3 will have internet access, making every login-DRM argument you've made against these games practically null. And you certainly could pick up a copy of SC2 or D3 if you chose, seeing how you have a connection (albeit a bad one), but it seems like if anything you're just pissed that you can't hold a lan party with your friends off of pirated copies of these games like the good old days. Sorry, but I don't sympathize. You and your friends are in a very small minority dude. I know you really, REALLY don't want to believe this, but it's true. India ain't the rest of the world.

 

[master9716]

These Pos .They got a huge nerd base backing them up , The nerds should be spending this money on something else that helps the economy . SOMEONE NEEDS TO BOMB the HQ of Blizzard.

 

[Guest]

OMFG... after all this time I have been waiting, bated breath, extremely excited and patient because they MUST be polishing a most awesome game... The reality: Bobby Got-Dan Kotick et al have been scheming and concocting the biggest a$$-rape betch-slap to the face that could ever be devised. I am appalled. I have boycotted games I wanted before but I have wanted Diablo 3 for so long. I will wait to see the final product before I decide. It just makes me really disappointed, I've enjoyed the Indie games more than the sequels to classics :-\
'If Blizzard doesn't do this system, I'm not so naive to think that [third-party auctions are] not going to happen.' That's like saying 'if we don't sell crack, someone else will'

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]dragonsqrrl[/nom]hmmm... that's quite a troubling and paradoxical situation to be in. So will you simply never buy a PC game again? That is assuming you have bought one in the past.[/citation]

ill put steam based drm like solutions on my computer, as i can live with that, but any drm that requires a third party software, ill buy it, but use the pirated version.

 

[gokanis]

I couldn't care less about the DRM on Diablo 3 (although this is part of the reason I won't buy it), the problem with the diablo series, mostly Diablo 2 was that they retooled the game constantly and screwed over all of my characters over and over and over (dozens of hours wasted when they IMPROVED the game). They made it so I HAD to play with others online, and not just others but usually 4 or more just to survive. Usually it was only two of us playing and that was better done over a standard internet connection and not battlenet, so we could play the older versions of D2 which were small party friendly. Now not buying this DRM infested game is just a matter of principle just like all the others I've avoided. The buy stuff for real money system ruins every game it touches in some way, makes it less fun and anyone that pays real money for fake (online) stuff needs their head examined. The best thing for Diablo was offline/lan mode. I owned 3 copies of Diablo 2 and the expansions for lan games and the kids played online/offline with me, but thats it for these bozos. No purchasing or pirating.

 

[clonazepam]

[citation][nom]gokanis[/nom]I couldn't care less...[/citation]

Finally! Someone used the phrase correctly! That made my morning.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

Practically the entire market for games like SC2 or D3 will have internet access, making every login-DRM argument you've made against these games practically null. And you certainly could pick up a copy of SC2 or D3 if you chose, seeing how you have a connection (albeit a bad one), but it seems like if anything you're just pissed that you can't hold a lan party with your friends off of pirated copies of these games like the good old days. Sorry, but I don't sympathize. You and your friends are in a very small minority dude. I know you really, REALLY don't want to believe this, but it's true. India ain't the rest of the world.

Cool story bro. I don't think I ever demanded sympathy. My ISP is enough for anything I do on the internets, since it doesn't involve huge downloads or cloud computing BS.

It amazes me how some people just attack the ass end of the problem. Everyone who has spotty or no internet access (not sure how you're planning on downloading a pirated copy) and are bitching non stop about a game developer who decides to produce a title specifically for online play. Why not question the state of your telecommunications infrastructure instead of questioning the motives behind a simple login process? Cloud computing, social networking, this is the direction that technology is heading in. And while you get pissed at Microsoft, Apple, Blizzard, and any other company that pushes for advances in network computing, you never once ask why your ISP sucks??

Again and again I'm saying, I DON'T like Diablo, period. I don't care whether it has DRM or not, I'm troubled by the general tendency of everything shifting towards offline. And if you really want the computing to go into cloud and dumbass social networking, all your base are belong to Google/Apple. P.S. I never get pissed at MS, save Xbox BS =)

I'm not pissed off "about a game developer who decides to produce a title specifically for online play", I'm pissed off about that developer turining the game that was great offline (D2) into online one. I don't even know why I'm surprised - they did it with Warcraft...

Why not question the state of your telecommunications infrastructure instead of questioning the motives behind a simple login process?

Because I DON'T WANT any telecommunications to be involved to play a game for which I paid! How many times do I need to repeat myself?

You may very well have poor internet connectivity, but that's not the reason you're going on these ideological ape-sh*t rants against a well tested system that millions of legitimate Blizzard users around the world have absolutely no problem with.

Enlighten me. What's the true reasoning behind me saying that?..

...oh, wait, you're just gonna accuse me of wanting to pirate that game. 1) It will be cracked within days, anyhow. 2) Don't like Diablo, don't need it.

Dude, no one 'likes' DRM.

Maybe. But you're as close as it can get.

 

[Guest]

I like how Blizzard just ruined the game by eliminating the "skill" and "time investment" birds with one stone. now all you have to do is spend money to win the game. They aren't even trying to be subtle about the fact that they're corporate whores now.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-phantom[/nom]Cool story bro. I don't think I ever demanded sympathy. My ISP is enough for anything I do on the internets, since it doesn't involve huge downloads or cloud computing BS.[/citation]
Livin the dream...
[citation][nom]amk-aka-phantom[/nom]Again and again I'm saying, I DON'T like Diablo, period... I'm pissed off about that developer turining the game that was great offline (D2) into online one.[/citation]
I think somethings getting lost in translation here... cause I'm noticing a distinct trend towards contradiction throughout your posts. Or are you doing that on purpose?
[citation][nom]amk-aka-phantom[/nom]Because I DON'T WANT any telecommunications to be involved to play a game for which I paid! How many times do I need to repeat myself?[/citation]
Wo wo, bro... take it easy there. India ain't the rest of the world.

But just to lend some credence to what I've been saying:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/118/1185726p1.html

Good luck in the the coming decade, you might start caring a lot more about telecommunications real soon...
or will your solution be to start hating gaming in general too?

 

[AMD_pitbull]

[citation][nom]Cptkovacs[/nom]I like how Blizzard just ruined the game by eliminating the "skill" and "time investment" birds with one stone. now all you have to do is spend money to win the game. They aren't even trying to be subtle about the fact that they're corporate whores now.[/citation]
I actually LOL'd at this one. Thank you.

[citation][nom]dragonsqrrl[/nom]Livin the dream... I think somethings getting lost in translation here... cause I'm noticing a distinct trend towards contradiction throughout your posts. Or are you doing that on purpose?Wo wo, bro... take it easy there. India ain't the rest of the world.But just to lend some credence to what I've been saying:http://pc.ign.com/articles/118/1185726p1.htmlGood luck in the the coming decade, you might start caring a lot more about telecommunications real soon...or will your solution be to start hating gaming in general too?[/citation]
I was your thumbs up. I generally don't like it when two people get into an argument, or discussion, in threads as it generally leads to flame material such as name-calling, bias, etc. But, I have to give you props for responding in a respectful, yet fun, manner.

As for the people complaining about it being an online-only game: I really hope none of you (and I do mean none) got into WOW, due to the fact that you'd be flipping out about World of Dia....I mean, Diablo 3 for doing the same things that you invested in before. My only problem is if they start charging monthly for it. If they do, I won't buy it. I just want a fun RPG that's gonna allow me that one-time-only fee of buying the game+expansions. THAT, I have no problem with. Paying to play every month? I doubt it's gonna be that epic that it's worth it.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

I think somethings getting lost in translation here... cause I'm noticing a distinct trend towards contradiction throughout your posts. Or are you doing that on purpose?

Read my previous posts again; I mentioned that I don't like Diablo in nearly every one of them. And I have no idea what "translation" you mean, lol.

Wo wo, bro... take it easy there. India ain't the rest of the world.

But just to lend some credence to what I've been saying:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/118/1185726p1.html

Good luck in the the coming decade, you might start caring a lot more about telecommunications real soon...
or will your solution be to start hating gaming in general too?

I used to live in a country with one of the best ISPs in the world and I didn't want the Internet to be involved in my gaming all the same. It's not about bandwidth, speed or connection reliability (though, that can also be a factor), but about simply not wanting to use the Internet for something that can be done without it. Right now, kind of the same thing is happening with cloud computing BS: they're trying to convince you that you should give up the local power of your rig and shift everything to the stupid cloud.

or will your solution be to start hating gaming in general too?

If it will all shift "to the cloud" and go online, then yes. I know that won't happen, so it's fine. However, if it will happen, I'll just find something else to do. I'm not giving up my gaming power just so I can play some cloud BS (see the latest news article on Tom's about cloud gaming).

If it only means that every game will require online DRM to play it but I'll still have the game powered by my PC, I'll either accept it (grudgingly) or just pirate everything (hey, I might even buy it first to support the developers, lol!).