Diablo 3 for PS3 and PS4

[Pendulous]

I'm still waiting for examples of online-only console games that aren't MMORPG's (in which I think FFXI is the only example there). Until then, my mind is boggled by anyone who did not expect a CONSOLE game to allow offline play.

[Mormolyce]

Frankly I disagree with every single thing you say but let's say it's true. WHY DO CONSOLES GET OFFLINE MODE?

Shrug. I guess they think online only is too difficult to implement on a console.

Blizzard knows a lot of people play solo. They try to discourage it because it's a multiplayer game and it's more fun with friends. If a game isn't the way you want it to be maybe it's just not the game for you?

[Leonard McCoy]

I'm still waiting for examples of online-only console games that aren't MMORPG's (in which I think FFXI is the only example there). Until then, my mind is boggled by anyone who did not expect a CONSOLE game to allow offline play.

Why would your mind be boggled by it? I can't name to many pc games that also aren't mmorpgs that require online connections. The fact is their is ZERO I REPEAT ZERO reason that consoles can't support this as well and their is ZERO reason that if it's such a good thing for the pc that it wouldn't also be a good thing for the consoles. I don't expect consoles to have online or offlinem frankly I could give a rats ass. I do expect the developers to stay true to their vision of the game. If that vision includes online only then it stands to hold true across the board.

---------- Post added 2013-03-01 at 01:49 AM ----------

Shrug. I guess they think online only is too difficult to implement on a console.

Blizzard knows a lot of people play solo. They try to discourage it because it's a multiplayer game and it's more fun with friends. If a game isn't the way you want it to be maybe it's just not the game for you?

The game isn't for me because it's a bad game. Has nothing to do with multiplayer. If online only is such a good thing and furthermore trying to discourage players from playing single player is also key then their is still ZERO REASON for it to be online only. Like every crappy shitty argument you can use to defend the pc version having internet support you can use to defend the consoles having it. They should have it frankly. If the developers were serious about their vision I see no reason why they shouldn't. Otherwise their justification for online only were a pile of horse shit. Conveniently disbanded when it suits them and fuck you pc users your stuck with it.

[Pendulous]

Why would your mind be boggled by it? I can't name to many pc games that also aren't mmorpgs that require online connections.

Again, that's not the point. Why did people expect. EXPECT. Online only play from a console game that is largely a single-player game anyway.

[Leonard McCoy]

Again, that's not the point. Why did people expect. EXPECT. Online only play from a console game that is largely a single-player game anyway.

I told you why. The developers didn't argue that it was a good thing for the pc version of the game, they argued that it was a good thing for the GAME PERIOD. In fact they've made that case about many of their other games.

I agree Diablo is largely a single player game anyway and yet on PC forced online is still forced online. I fail to see why it shouldn't be forced online for consoles.

[abijax]

Yeah but you have no idea why they allow offline play on consoles. Maybe it was forced by Sony or maybe they don't want to invest the resources required for the infrastructure or they can't implement everything they need to make it work.

[Ravenblade]

Again, that's not the point. Why did people expect. EXPECT. Online only play from a console game that is largely a single-player game anyway.

I think it's mostly because people like consistency and fairness, being treated equally in terms of principles. It annoys them to see that they are treated like some evil crowd which needs to be contained and constrained while the saints playing on console get all stuff for the opposite of the reasons stated. It's what companies like Ubisoft did. Ubisoft managed through milking the piracy argument to alienate its long-standing PC fanbase while bringing the console crowd closer and they have been fairly adamant about up until recently showing unveiled scorn to one crowd and excessive favouritism to the other.

You could make the assumption that Sony may have made it a condition to allow offline play. Indeed that is a possibility considering that Sony probably want an easy-going and controversy-free line-up of games at launch. For Blizzard it is a strategical decision as well as it will increase the probability to sell at high rates while technically being able to provide an alternative version instead of being forced to make a humiliating U-turn. Still this will turn the D3 playerbase into a two-class society. A Diablo 3 on two rails making the experience on both platforms notably different.

To be fair a lot games available across all platforms allowing for same gameplay experience still have their online play contained to the services available only to these platforms thus you won't see XBox 360-, PS3- or PC-players teaming up often across different platforms. However Blizzard had the chance with their B.Net system - which had a unified and centralized model in mind from the beginning - to exactly allow that. Now through their decisions they have to go the backward way and act in anachronistic manner against themselves by putting up a huge virtual fence dividing platforms again. I think the camel breaking the back would probably be if they allowed LAN play for consoles.

[Zenko]

D3 for consoles makes more sense to me vs current D3 as a PC game.

The game is easy to jump in and off from, and it lacks depth, even with multiplayer. The fact that it will have an offline mode might even make the game worth playing, considering the drops wont be balanced based on an AH.

[Kelesti]

I'm still waiting for examples of online-only console games that aren't MMORPG's (in which I think FFXI is the only example there). Until then, my mind is boggled by anyone who did not expect a CONSOLE game to allow offline play.

DUST514 on a technicality. Journey as an actuality. Is this where your argument goes to hell, now?

[Leonard McCoy]

I think it's mostly because people like consistency and fairness, being treated equally in terms of principles. It annoys them to see that they are treated like some evil crowd which needs to be contained and constrained while the saints playing on console get all stuff for the opposite of the reasons stated. It's what companies like Ubisoft did. Ubisoft managed through milking the piracy argument to alienate its long-standing PC fanbase while bringing the console crowd closer and they have been fairly adamant about up until recently showing unveiled scorn to one crowd and excessive favouritism to the other.

You could make the assumption that Sony may have made it a condition to allow offline play. Indeed that is a possibility considering that Sony probably want an easy-going and controversy-free line-up of games at launch. For Blizzard it is a strategical decision as well as it will increase the probability to sell at high rates while technically being able to provide an alternative version instead of being forced to make a humiliating U-turn. Still this will turn the D3 playerbase into a two-class society. A Diablo 3 on two rails making the experience on both platforms notably different.

To be fair a lot games available across all platforms allowing for same gameplay experience still have their online play contained to the services available only to these platforms thus you won't see XBox 360-, PS3- or PC-players teaming up often across different platforms. However Blizzard had the chance with their B.Net system - which had a unified and centralized model in mind from the beginning - to exactly allow that. Now through their decisions they have to go the backward way and act in anachronistic manner against themselves by putting up a huge virtual fence dividing platforms again. I think the camel breaking the back would probably be if they allowed LAN play for consoles.

They argued with us tooth and nail about how online only was good and it was the future and the game was built from the ground up for and if we wanted offline diablo wasn't that game. And the fans stood behind them and argued the same things to. And lots of people shrugged their shoulders and simple accepted it because their arguments were either compelling enough or their was an acknowledgment that business decisions had won out and we weren't gonna get offline so accept it. Come to find out that all their arguments, all their defence, all of it was horse shit. Their vision of an online only game to be abandoned at a moments convenience and the alternative that many of us sued for to be offered not as a part of the product we bought but as another 60 dollar title on another platform that we may or may not even own.

It's just undermines the position they argued for so long and I have a hard time accepting anything they tell me anymore. I mean it was hard to swallow their bull but now it's virtually impossible. How can I believe a single fucking thing Blizzard says anymore when apparently even they aren't committed to their vision for the game?

---------- Post added 2013-03-01 at 08:48 PM ----------

Yeah but you have no idea why they allow offline play on consoles. Maybe it was forced by Sony or maybe they don't want to invest the resources required for the infrastructure or they can't implement everything they need to make it work.

I really don't care frankly. It flies in the face of everything they told us about how diablo was built from the ground up to be an online only game. If that were the case then their should be no way it would be on console with offline support unless their rebuilding it from the ground up to not be online only something that could have and should have been done for pc. My suspicion is that the excuse about built from the ground up is horse shit and always has been horse shit.

Every argument they made to convince us that online only was good and necessary and amazing gets thrown out the window the minute they release offline mode for ps3.

[Purple]

Again, that's not the point. Why did people expect. EXPECT. Online only play from a console game that is largely a single-player game anyway.

I'm trying to figure out why you'd think anyone would or should expect or accept this, as long as the PC version doesn't allow for wholly offline play as well. The reason people expected it is simple. If you can't figure out why people expect fairness and equality, that's an issue with you. Not with anyone else. Either both versions should be plagued by 'always online' or both versions should be allowed an offline option. Preferably they'd both have offline modes.

One being stuck in the always online state that's plagued it at launch and beyond, and the other being allowed offline play, is not okay and never has been. Then again the Diablo III on the PS4 concept is an utter waste regardless, any effort spent on a console version of Diablo III should have been spent working out the numerous issues and flaws, big and small, that Daiblo III on the PC still has to this day.

[Leonard McCoy]

I'm trying to figure out why you'd think anyone would or should expect or accept this, as long as the PC version doesn't allow for wholly offline play as well. The reason people expected it is simple. If you can't figure out why people expect fairness and equality, that's an issue with you. Not with anyone else. Either both versions should be plagued by 'always online' or both versions should be allowed an offline option. Preferably they'd both have offline modes.

One being stuck in the always online state that's plagued it at launch and beyond, and the other being allowed offline play, is not okay and never has been. Then again the Diablo III on the PS4 concept is an utter waste regardless, any effort spent on a console version of Diablo III should have been spent working out the numerous issues and flaws, big and small, that Daiblo III on the PC still has to this day.

That's more or less the problem. I don't understand how people don't understand that it should be the same thing across the board. ESPECIALLY when the developers argued with us for so long about how necessary and how good online only was and how the fans argued that it was the future of gaming.

[Bad Ashe]

i just spent a little time on my WD and Wiz, for the life of me i still cant figure out how skills like blizzard or acid rain are going to work with a gamepad...

[abijax]

Increase radius and cast at fixed distance in front of your char? Aim with the 2nd analog stick? Plenty of options.

[MoanaLisa]

I don't know why it's so difficult to understand the online only requirement for PC. The game was always going to be ripe for pirating so they designed it in such a way that it would be as difficult as possible to pirate in the traditional way. That means keeping a good percentage of the game on the server instead of in the client. It worked pretty well too from what I can tell.

Now the console version which apparently is going to be substantially redesigned to allow offline/local lan play. There will still very likely need to keep some online capability to do a security/version check for authentication but from what I can tell it appears as if the game will plug into Sony's infrastructure instead of Blizzard's. I don't see that keeping most of the game server-side for the console version as a simple thing and it's possible that for technical reasons it wouldn't work as well in any case, especially if it's not connecting in a profound way to Blizzard's D3 network infrastructure. Lastly, it's more than a year down the road from launch so whatever pirating is going to happen on the console side is less of a concern than it was in May of 2012.

Is any of the above fact? No idea but it's as good a theory as any.

And for those who think they should get it free, get real. You couldn't get free CD's if you had the same LP's; you couldn't get free DVD's if you had the same VHS tapes; you won't get free console versions if you have the PC game.

[TyloBedo]

I don't know why it's so difficult to understand the online only requirement for PC. The game was always going to be ripe for pirating so they designed it in such a way that it would be as difficult as possible to pirate in the traditional way. That means keeping a good percentage of the game on the server instead of in the client. It worked pretty well too from what I can tell.

Because there is most likely private servers / offline sandboxes available for diablo 3, or there will be eventually at least. Since diablo 3 is online only blizzard also lets anybody download and install the client for free, it's probably going to be easier to pirate and connect to private servers on d3 than it was to pirate the other diablo games.

/puts on tinfoil hat. Honestly, I think the real reason blizzard didn't allow for offline play on d3 was because they couldn't allow offline characters access to the RMAH.

[Purple]

I don't know why it's so difficult to understand the online only requirement for PC.

I find that incredibly hard to believe.

The game was always going to be ripe for pirating

Hey let's inconvenience our users, 'because pirates despite that being every developer and publisher's baseless excuse for things that screw over their customers' and actively ignore multiple, successful, companies - big and small - that manage to do fine, either without DRM of any kind, or through far less strict forms that actually attempt to reward the legitimate player instead of punishing them.

And for those who think they should get it free, get real.

No you get real. I already bought the game, and I don't need a disc, that's what the digital format is for. If they're going to offer a version that's always online, and still keep the PC version locked into the plague that is always online, then, yes, I will insist, no matter how many deaf ears, it falls on that longstanding PC purchasers of Diablo III should get a free digital copy of the console version at a base.

[MoanaLisa]

Because there is most likely private servers / offline sandboxes available for diablo 3, or there will be eventually at least. Since diablo 3 is online only blizzard also lets anybody download and install the client for free, it's probably going to be easier to pirate and connect to private servers on d3 than it was to pirate the other diablo games.

Private servers have to keep adjusting to patches if they want to keep up. That's no small thing and my guess at this point is that considering how the game is perceived as a giant disappointment, not very many people are actually bothering. Private servers for WoW litter the internet and it only takes 10 seconds in google to turn them up. Diablo III is not like this at all. Nine months along that's a decent record.

Honestly, I think the real reason blizzard didn't allow for offline play on d3 was because they couldn't allow offline characters access to the RMAH.

No tinfoil hat required. An offline only character couldn't be allowed into the game economy as is at all. The only tinfoil hat theory I question is that the RMAH was terribly important to Blizzard in the first place. It was an experiement, some research and development if you will for the future (Titan). An attempt more or less to figure out what does and doesn't work. I don't believe for a moment that Blizzard staked the future of the Diablo series on the RMAH. They might know enough now to do that with some future game, or they may have found out that it was more trouble than it was worth. Either possibility is imaginable.

---------- Post added 2013-03-03 at 12:18 PM ----------

Hey let's inconvenience our users, 'because pirates despite that being every developer and publisher's baseless excuse for things that screw over their customers' and actively ignore multiple, successful, companies - big and small - that manage to do fine, either without DRM of any kind, or through far less strict forms that actually attempt to reward the legitimate player instead of punishing them.

I'll say to you what I say to everyone that complains about Blizzard's DRM. If you dislike it that much don't buy anything that has restrictive DRM on it. If you bought it anyway, then that's your problem. Money talks, bullshit and complaining walks.

[Bad Ashe]

the server side mechanics for D3 werent anything new, just the same system that has been in place for years in WoW, simple ai scripts to run monsters/chests/etc. except for D3 its a unique ai running for every copy of the game logged on, whereas in wow its 1 ai per server.

it wasnt a piracy issue that made it that way, simply the easiest way to do it to ensure their RMAH was kept secure. once the RMAH finally plays out and nobody uses it (we'd probably already be at that point if there werent expansion(s) to come) then the devs will take note of that fact and release a patch with all these scripts to run locally, since keeping the servers online is costing more than incoming rmah revenue.

lets face it, its an online only game with NO subscription fee... corporations dont give ANYTHING away for free, the RMAH is the bottom line. sure pirated games will hurt a bottom line in sales, but thats not where they were worried about their money coming from.

[Leonard McCoy]

I'll say to you what I say to everyone that complains about Blizzard's DRM. If you dislike it that much don't buy anything that has restrictive DRM on it. If you bought it anyway, then that's your problem. Money talks, bullshit and complaining walks.

Under the understanding that this was it in terms of diablo 3. The developers made arguments, in some cases very convincing ones but overall they made it very clear that offline only was never coming. GUESS WHAT HAPPENED? It's a slap in the face to everyone who defended them about this game just having to have online only and how amazing it was and how it was the future and a slap in the face to everyone who argued for offline only for the pc version. I don't understand how you can't understand why people are LIVID about this. They've lost all credibility as far as I'm concerned.