You have GOT to be kidding me.

[Crispin]

Dont buy/play on release day.

[Frozen Death Knight]

It's all about the DRM protecting the real money auction house.



So the co-op should preclude being able to play the game at all because a constant server connection is required?

DRM tends to drive piracy, something even Gabe Newell admitted to. The RMAH has some ideological issues and potential real exchange rate issues. I get it, Blizzard is a business and now they have to please the shareholders. Doesn't mean you should be a complacent lump and tell everyone else to deal with it.

You could say that about any game that requires you to be online. Why do MMOs require online only when you can level through to max level by soloing? Why does LoL not have offline mode when it is possible to play against bots? If you want to make a case against online only being really bad, then you have to dismiss a lot of other games that are built around it, which is the case with Diablo 3 (does not matter if the previous games were built around the opposite, since they are not the same games).

Online only may be considered a DRM, but at least they are not using some of the other systems that other gaming companies have used over the years. Plus, online only does give some benifits for players who enjoy the multiplayer aspect of Diablo (most popular part of Diablo 2), so for those people it is a reasonable loss.

As for the people who preferred offline singleplayer, then I understand why you would be disappointed.

[Boddlegoulash]

Maybe I want to level a character up in WOW to level 85 via quests/solo play and experience the full story without having to be connected to the internet/interact with other players. What "gameplay based reasoning" leads you to believe that I should have to be connected to the internet do this?

An MMORPG is a persistent organic world where devs and GMs can hold random events if they want. The whole point of an MMORPG is to immerse yourself with other players in a game world. The fact that you want to play it single-player does not exclude the fact that you are still connected in an overarching world with millions of other players doing their own shit. It does not have a real ending per se, since the world, by definition, evolves and changes regardless of whether or not you do anything. When the endgame is reached, you can still interact with others in raids and instances and PVP. Or just fuck around and interact with the millions of others online.

D3 is essentially an instanced game, with every iteration being the same, randomized maps notwithstanding. When you reach the endgame and defeat Diablo, that's it. Your choice is either create a new character and go the same path or go on with your character on essentially the same scripted events on higher difficulty.

How the fuck you can compare that to an MMORPG is beyond me.

[thewallofsleep]

3. you need to be online (you did with Skyrim...a game with *no* multiplayer capability - heck at least Diablo makes sense in that regard)
.

You are able to disable Skyrim's online requirement and play it completely outside Steam's influence.

---------- Post added 2012-05-16 at 08:02 AM ----------

I think the real point is the reality. D3 is clearly not an offline single player game whatever it's previous versions were. Calling it one and saying stuff about it like it is one makes you look oblivious. Whether it should be this or that is also irrelevant, it's what it is and yelling about it isn't going to change anything.

For all intents and purposes, they've mutated Diablo into a weird-but-interesting version of an MMO. End of story. It's simply not a single-player game.

Diablo 3 can be played from beginning to end without involving any other players but yourself. Every mob and boss killed. Adding other players simply makes the enemies more difficult and adds more loot drops. Sounds like a single-player game with multi-player options to me.

[psoodkel235]

oh the OP got banned lol

[Deleted]

It is and I logged in at launch with ZERO hassles. Strange how a company with next to no experience in massive online gaming managed to pull off what the company with years of experience in the field and gobs of cash didn't. I also never had the pleasure of being brow beaten by forum goers to accept BS at their launch because hey their launch worked.

As you brought up TOR, did you really want to go into the problems they had a launch.....really?

*up to 5 days

For the thinking person that means 'up to' however to the cabbages who just look at the number of days how much QQ'ing was there because not everyone got the 5 days early thing?

Number of servers? Limiting the number of people who could login at one time leading to queue's hours long?

What about the requests they made to make toons on the less populated servers, remember that?

I bet if you picked a server with no one on it, you'd have no problem logging in. I'm sure that won't bite them in the ass later on considering there's still no character transfer.....oh wait!

None of this ring a bell?

Or is sitting in a queue for hours better than getting a timeout message, despite in both cases nothing happening....

As much as the Error message wasn't fun, all it took was a little perseverance. I got in about 20 mins after the launch (without much trying) and again last night after a couple of failed attempts I got in without any problems.

I'm sure some people had it worse, I'm sure some people are lying about how bad a time they had and I'm sure some people on here are PR shills looking to start crap.

Whatever it is, it's just noise, I know I can get in and play and there's nothing special about me.

[Ize]

I think the main point here is why should the game really need to be connected to their servers to be played?
Why cant you just play this in offline mode or connect to other player's 'offline modes' via their ip.
If you want to use their servers to play on then yeah you should need to connect to them and have your character 'sorted' on them only to prevent any cheating when merged with random other ppl.
But if you dont care for the AH or grouping with randoms then I cant see any logical reason why should need to connect to their servers....

[DeadmanWalking]

Not being able to get into the game didn't bother me, to be honest. This...however. This is a fucking joke.
Never did I think I would see the day where I was stopped from playing a single player game by seeing 'Server shutting down' in a damn chatbox.
http://i.imgur.com/Xcg8V.jpg

You must never of played an online game before because there has never been a game that didnt have ques and shut downs to fix server or code bugs. Never. At least bugs and problems get fixed in online games. I have Fable II rotting on my shelf because there is a bug that makes beetles unkillable and if you cant kill them in the arena you cant leave the arena and that bug is a known bug even before they released that bug ridden piece of crap. It won't ever be fixed.

Your Diable III game? Its online so any bugs that get reported are going to be fixed and usually quite quickly. They will also bring servers down to add stuff to the game like quality of life functions. They may even hear us complaining that magic drops are rather bland and so they could add magic items to the game just to fix that problems.

So you really don't have it as bad as your Nerd Rage has you believing. So Shaddap.

[Edison]

how dare they try to fix bugs on a newly released game? Blasphemy

[WretchedSimmons]

Not being able to get into the game didn't bother me, to be honest. This...however. This is a fucking joke.
Never did I think I would see the day where I was stopped from playing a single player game by seeing 'Server shutting down' in a damn chatbox.
http://i.imgur.com/Xcg8V.jpg

There is no single player game. You are playing a multi player game with just one person in it. All of Diablo 3 is a multi player game.

[DeadmanWalking]

I think the main point here is why should the game really need to be connected to their servers to be played?
Why cant you just play this in offline mode or connect to other player's 'offline modes' via their ip.
If you want to use their servers to play on then yeah you should need to connect to them and have your character 'sorted' on them only to prevent any cheating when merged with random other ppl.
But if you dont care for the AH or grouping with randoms then I cant see any logical reason why should need to connect to their servers....

The reason you cant play offline is because in Diablo II the characters were saved on your computer and hackers would go in and alter the files to create legendary items and then sell them on the internet for real money. They also create slave mills in Korea and China where prisoners are forced to play games to generate money to sell to players. Goldsellers are the second worst scourge on our games, the first being people who buy from goldsellers. Its because of them that increased security has to be put on our games. How many wow accounts get hacked because of Goldseller greed?

Will they find a way around it, of course. They went from farming gold to hacking accounts directly. They will find a way around this security and then security will get tightened again and we will be the ones that have to suffer for it. But so long as we buy gold from them because we are too impatient to earn it our selves then they will continue to sell gold and hack accounts.

[Pull My Finger]

You're not smart.

Neither are you.

Internet forums summed up in two sentences

[MrSerious]

There is no single player game. You are playing a multi player game with just one person in it. All of Diablo 3 is a multi player game.

that just sounds silly, might as well have an offline mode if that's the case.

[SirRobin]

diablo is no singleplayer game. it's coop multiplayer with the ability to also do stuff alone.
and RMAH.
and anti-cheating because of RMAH.
and anti-piracy in general.

Don't forget about anti-reselling too. Gotta keep that used game market dead.

---------- Post added 2012-05-16 at 08:37 AM ----------

But more and more, I'm not liking their business practices.

Yep, which is why I still haven't picked up SC2. Only picked up D3 because I was so bored with the market right now. Might still pickup MoP for my kids but its a pay to play game so its different than the pay once variety, in my opinion. The publishers have pretty successfully driven a stake into the used game market's heart over the last few years and its pretty embarrassing how desperate some of them are to keep that stake there.

[Sealbinder]

There is no need for the anger and hostility in this thread.

If you bought D3 and did not know about the internet requirement it is your fault for being an uninformed consumer. Never buy anything without reading. It says on the product that an internet connection is required. I am sorry if you feel cheated, but it is your fault for not reading. Whenever you buy anything (games, food, cars, homes, etc) you need to read the fine print, make sure you fully understand everything involved and if you don't know, ask questions. This way you don't make a mistake. The same thing goes for reading license agreements. It is a contract. Never sign a contract unless you know all the details of it, and the potential ramifications of accepting the terms.

To those who are knew about the internet requirement and are upset about the direction Blizzard took I can understand that. However if you purchased the product you gave Blizzard (and other developers) the okay to continue with this practice. If you did not buy the game for this reason, you did the correct way of handling it. You did not give them money, there by showing your lack of support for their decision. While I am loving the game and I feel you might be missing out, you are handling this properly.

To those just yelling on the forum to make noise and complain after spending money on something you already knew about, then shame on you. You want attention and we are giving it to you. As stated above if you do not like the direction something is going, boycott it and don't play. But also be an adult and don't come onto forums and complain like a child. There are mature ways to state a complaint. Follow them. Also if others act like children do not stoop to their level.

Those who are acting like children both complaining about the requirements and being fans, please stop. Is this accomplishing anything other than raising you blood pressure? Do you honestly feel better about yourself when you act like this? Please raise yourself above the childish name calling and try to discuss this in a mature manner. If the others don't, just remember you are better then them for not being at their level.

[Puremallace]

Not being able to get into the game didn't bother me, to be honest. This...however. This is a fucking joke.
Never did I think I would see the day where I was stopped from playing a single player game by seeing 'Server shutting down' in a damn chatbox.
http://i.imgur.com/Xcg8V.jpg

The reason is simple. People seem REALLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY DENSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. ...there are things called Torrents where you can download games like this for free.

People did it a crap ton with Skyrim and KOTOR. Magically now TOR became a MMO and Skyrim is being turned into a mmo. This idea is beyond silly to turn single player rpg's into mmo's, but Blizzard is trying to ensure that noone bootlegs Diablo 3.

The concept is really really really really really simple. For the people saying they need to have servers to do updates please for god sake stop typing right this minute because you are making my head hurt really bad.

[Kelimbror]

Don't forget about anti-reselling too. Gotta keep that used game market dead.

Yep...and I still don't know how I feel about this new development. Sure, it seems a little shady for Gamestop to make their entire business off selling used games, but this business model works fine in other areas.

You don't see car manufacturers freaking out trying to prevent you or other car lots from reselling their vehicle. It is the exact same principle and it is basically greed on the game developer's part.

What if when you finished a book, it burst into flames so that in order for anyone else to read it they had to buy a new copy? That is the same type of scenario. Maximizing their profits by completely devaluing their own product after your initial purchase. Talk about a scam.

Now that I mention it...I just decided I am completely against this BS from entertainment companies.

[SirRobin]

If you bought D3 and did not know about the internet requirement it is your fault for being an uninformed consumer.

Wait a minute now. There is a difference between "Internet Connection Required" and "Constant" Internet Connection Required. Its not like they couldn't have made the game check in every now and then, while you are playing, to confirm you are not some dirty pirate or worse... a reseller. <shudder>

Blizzard decided to make Diablo 3 require a "constant" internet connection. Only some of its features require a constant connection so why not have an offline option? Meh... Its a good game but I don't see any reason to sugar coat design decisions Blizzard made more for their benefit than ours.

[Puremallace]

Wait a minute now. There is a difference between "Internet Connection Required" and "Constant" Internet Connection Required. Its not like they couldn't have made the game check in every now and then, while you are playing, to confirm you are not some dirty pirate or worse... a reseller. <shudder>

Blizzard decided to make Diablo 3 require a "constant" internet connection. Only some of its features require a constant connection so why not have an offline option? Meh... Its a good game but I don't see any reason to sugar coat design decisions Blizzard made more for their benefit than ours.

Here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrent_file

^ This is why there is no offline option.

[zordayn]

An MMORPG is a persistent organic world where devs and GMs can hold random events if they want. The whole point of an MMORPG is to immerse yourself with other players in a game world. The fact that you want to play it single-player does not exclude the fact that you are still connected in an overarching world with millions of other players doing their own shit. It does not have a real ending per se, since the world, by definition, evolves and changes regardless of whether or not you do anything. When the endgame is reached, you can still interact with others in raids and instances and PVP. Or just fuck around and interact with the millions of others online.

D3 is essentially an instanced game, with every iteration being the same, randomized maps notwithstanding. When you reach the endgame and defeat Diablo, that's it. Your choice is either create a new character and go the same path or go on with your character on essentially the same scripted events on higher difficulty.

How the fuck you can compare that to an MMORPG is beyond me.

Sounds like pure subjectivity. The whole point of an MMO is to immerse yourself with other players in a game world? Says who? This could just as easily be said about Diablo 3.

The world in WOW never really changes or evolves, it actually stays almost completely static. Someone clears out a whole camp of mobs, they'll be back in 5 minutes. It's hardly what can be described as a dynamic world that evolves without you being there. Go back to Borean Tundra, does it look any different or "evolved" now than it did in 2008?

Diablo 3 doesn't have to have an "ending" either. How many times did people kill Baal and do Countess runs etc in D2? A huge portion of the replayability of that game was from finding and trading rare items, and leveling up your characters, etc. You can kill Deathwing over and over but the game never really ends, in the same way Diablo never ends just from killing the last boss.

No, not really. If you want to play it singleplayer, why do you need a friends list at all times? Why do you need an auction house? You won't need matchmaking because you're playing single-player.

There's no justifying Blizzard's stupid DRM system. Stop trying, it makes you look foolish.

If you want to solo quests in WOW, why do you need a friends list at all times, why do you need an auction house, etc

And it's not a DRM system (so there is no DRM to justify), the game is just 100% online-based, like WoW is.