I dont understand this..

[Deleted]

Why are Blizzard starting to make games that require you to be connected to battle.net 100% of the time, even for single player? my internet went down today for a few hours, so i thought i'd play some SC2 skirmishes against AI, turns out i couldnt, i absolutely had to log on to battle.net to do this. It doesnt make any sense to me, ive tried to think of a reason why they would do this and i cant.

Whats more ive heard it will be the same with Diablo 3? so i cant play single player on a laptop where i have no internet connection?

It's rather disapointing and it seems like a step backwards to me, does anyone know why they are doing this?

[Deleted]

Play as guest? I thought it didn't need to be online to play as guest.

[Edge-]

It's a general trend in gaming. It's DRM (digital rights management) without calling it DRM. Basically, they can "prevent" piracy by requiring you to maintain a constant connection to their servers. There are a number of games that have this feature, or similar features, because of claims of how much piracy hurts the companies sales. That being said though, it's funny because pirates usually find a way to bypass these security measures and all they end up doing is punishing legitimate customers by imposing unreasonable regulations on them.

[Zergin8r]

Its prob so people can't download the games off torrent sites and play them. It also might have to do with cheaters/hackers so they can monitor your activity to determine if you are cheating/hacking.

[Deleted]

This required persistent connection to Battle.Net is precisely the reason I won't be playing Hardcore Diablo 3.
I will not invest hundreds of hours into a character with the potential for it to be killed off by a 3rd party influence such as a lag spike/ISP issues/server hardware fail/power cut etc. If I die in Hardcore I want it to be a result of my playing skill or lack thereof.
Diablo 2 was playable offline, as is Titan Quest and Torchlight (TL even has a hardcore mode too). An MMO game I can understand having a 100% always-on connection but not an Action-RPG. Absurd design decision by Blizzard imo.

This is wishful thinking but I reckon there should be an option in D3 to make your character 'permanently offline' if you have no intention of ever using the Gold/Real Money Auction Houses, and wish to play Hardcore without fear of being disconnected. Plus laptop owners without a connection in a hotel etc would be able to play too.
Failing that, Blizzard could also employ a method similar to Steam Cloud Sync in that your save games are stored on the Battle.Net servers so you'd still need a connection to launch/exit the game but not for the actual gameplay itself. This would also help prevent cheaters too and Blizzard still get to keep their 'DRM'.

Lastly, there is always the option of employing my own hardcore 'rules' into a softcore D3 game (semi-hardcore). If I make a fatal mistake, I take it on the chin and go delete/reroll a new character. If my toon dies to an issue out of my control, then I keep on trucking.

[braxx]

general trending, but for blizzard's diablo 3 it also will be for the real money auction house, to tempt everyone to try it. bottom line: it is a marketing strategy to make money

[Zyzzyx]

Control. Right now it's a joke, because any game requiring internet connection is easily hacked if you just want to play single player. The only solution they have is to store your single player games/characters on their servers. I don't *think* Diablo 3 does that, but it will happen. Basically it will eventually be a game you pay the rights to play, like an MMO. You won't "own" anything.

It's a false sense of security, and basically a "screw you" to legitimate customers. They say it's to "protect your online experience", but they're, respectfully, full of crap.

[Mechazod]

Its stuff like this that has driven me away from PC gaming in the past couple years. I still play Blizzard games but that's just because I have no other option for a platform to play them on, I am fine with "inferior" console ports and lack of mods if it means I don't have to deal with PC DRM bullshit but there's always going to be those PC only game exceptions. I wish these DRM services were like the old Steam, back when it wasn't required and you only needed to use it if you wanted to play multiplayer online. If services like Battle.Net and Steam were optional for non-mmo games, like for example added benefits of automatic patch updates, user generated content, maybe a back up digital copy, then I would have no problem with it, the fact though that you need to deal with them just if you want to play the single player of a game or LAN and even went out and got a boxed copy of the game irritates me to no end.

As far as Diablo 3 is concerned I would have nothing to bitch about if they had offline characters stored on a players machine and separate online characters saved on their servers for Battle.Net play and then very specifically stated what the differences/benefits would be with both types of characters before you make one so that you only have yourself to blame if you decided you want to take your offline characters online or vice versa.

[Faerillis]

It's a general trend in gaming. It's DRM (digital rights management) without calling it DRM. Basically, they can "prevent" piracy by requiring you to maintain a constant connection to their servers. There are a number of games that have this feature, or similar features, because of claims of how much piracy hurts the companies sales. That being said though, it's funny because pirates usually find a way to bypass these security measures and all they end up doing is punishing legitimate customers by imposing unreasonable regulations on them.

While I agree that it's unnecessary and isn't going to do a damn thing to significantly slow down pirates, I don't agree that the requirements are unreasonable. As long as it makes it clear that it uses online DRM, then complaining about the game using that when you don't have a steady internet connection is like complaining that you want to play InFamous but you only have a PS2. Tech requirements are tech requirements and not meeting them is like not having the necessary console, you can buy it but don't expect to get much use of it.
Now that doesn't mean we can't express our disdain, I just don't find an internet connection to be a particularly draconic requirement. Would it be nice if they didn't force this requirement on people? You bet, but it would be nice if Nintendo stopped making consoles and just made games so I don't have buy really crappy systems to play series like Legend of Zelda or Fire Emblem which I adore.

[gcsmith]

While I agree that it's unnecessary and isn't going to do a damn thing to significantly slow down pirates, I don't agree that the requirements are unreasonable. As long as it makes it clear that it uses online DRM, then complaining about the game using that when you don't have a steady internet connection is like complaining that you want to play InFamous but you only have a PS2. Tech requirements are tech requirements and not meeting them is like not having the necessary console, you can buy it but don't expect to get much use of it.
Now that doesn't mean we can't express our disdain, I just don't find an internet connection to be a particularly draconic requirement. Would it be nice if they didn't force this requirement on people? You bet, but it would be nice if Nintendo stopped making consoles and just made games so I don't have buy really crappy systems to play series like Legend of Zelda or Fire Emblem which I adore.

I agree if they say it up front its fine, TBH I think this could be used to help people with older computers since a decent internet connection is cheaper short term than a new computer, if it requires constant connection they can store most stuff client side taking a lot of stress off the computer

[anywherenotes]

companies put piracy above user experience.
The only solution is to not buy games based on this, but that's a personal choice, and I'm not making the choice.
The rediculous part is these things can be bypassed by people who care to do so, and I think only valid customers get penalized.
It used to be that we had to have a CD in the drive, and it was annoying, as it would spin up and make noise, and people used the cracks on legal software just to avoid having the CD in drive.

[Clockwork Pinkie]

Just what every video game company is doing for PC games, requireing you to hae something silly in order to play their game, single player, multi-player, mmo. Pretty silly that you need an internet connection to play a single player game though, gah what are they doing to games these days...

[vindicatorx]

Its prob so people can't download the games off torrent sites and play them. It also might have to do with cheaters/hackers so they can monitor your activity to determine if you are cheating/hacking.

this and that would be my guess as to what the Xbox 720 will do since it is rumored you won't be able to play used games on it.

[gcsmith]

I hate the idea of not being able to play used games on consols, I mean console companies make more than pc companies so should be able to live with second hand sales

[Profyrion]

Please don't spread that rumor.

[Gunz]

You're gonna have to play original starcraft if your internet goes out.

[unholytestament]

I understand why game companies are doing this, but it's getting really inconvenient to play games these days...

It would be nice if the game companies all came up with a single program used for all games that wasn't as restrictive as DRM/SecuRom/whateverthefuck but still allowed them to protect their games without making it so damn frustrating for gamers to keep track of and play the god damn games! But fat chance of that ever happening...

[Profyrion]

I don't think it's possible to discuss this topic without using the word "piracy", which just invites eager mods to lock it down.

[xylophone]

Are cracks off limits for discussion on these forums?

[flarecde]

I don't think it's possible to discuss this topic without using the word "piracy", which just invites eager mods to lock it down.

Not the mod's fault that people can't have a civilized discussion on the topic.

Are cracks off limits for discussion on these forums?

According to the rules (http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...efore-posting)), I'd say yes:

2. Subjects/content not allowed on MMO-Champion
...
Content that is considered illegal by law