Topic: Diablo 3 is here and ITS AWESOME!

[Quemaqua]

*sigh*

[Pugnate]

Wow no offline play... that's just... wow...

[K-man]

While I can definitely see why people would be upset with that, realistically I played offline D2 for all of five minutes during the untold hours I logged with that game.  Offline's lack of inclusion is concerning, but I wasn't planning on playing offline anyhow.

[Cools!]

Not surprised. No offline/lan mode in SC2 either.

[Xessive]

It's Blizzard, they can do whatever they please.. They're the Apple of the game world.

[Quemaqua]

That's sort of how I feel about them now. I loved Blizzard. For years. I loved them and was a huge fan and everything... post-WoW, even though I still think they're a talented group who do great things, I just can't get excited. They're too huge and making too many decisions I simply won't stand for. This is just another of them.

[MysterD]

Torchlight 2 is the new Diablo 3.

[Cools!]

Keep telling yourself that...

[K-man]

Yeah I mean I like Torchlight, and I'll likely buy 2.  But there's no way in hell it ever replaces D3

[iPPi]

I think I only spent about 1% or less of my time playing Diablo II offline.  Granted, not having that option is somewhat disappointing.  Blizzard probably wants to streamline (re: control) the experience more, kind of like what they've done in Starcraft II by removing LAN play.

Like Xessive said, Blizzard is like the Apple of the PC Gaming market; they can probably do whatever they want and their games will still sell like mad.

[K-man]

Yep.  Because like it or not, their games are as close to guaranteed awesomeness as you can get with a game nowadays.

Not to mention unprecedented support.  Still updating D2 after 10 years?  Who else does that?

[W7RE]

75% or more of my time in Diablo 2 was offline. I played with my brother and RL friends, so there were never hacks or dupes. We never traded with anyone but ourselves. As far as we were concerned, there was no widespread multiplayer or public games. It was just coop. I never really had any intention of playing with strangers in Diablo 3 either. I don't see the need for matchmaking or anything. I'll play in private games with people I know, and that's it.

I don't see the lack of offline affecting me. It's still a major bullshit move. But hey, it's Blizzard. I've come to expect bullshit.

[Quemaqua]

I did a lot of both with that game. I had characters on and offline, though I'm sure I spent a lot more time online than off. I was a major player of both games for several years, part of an informal group on Battle.net and an official guild, and really enjoyed the hell out of it all. I won't get into some of the weirder shit associated with that time. I've probably told a few of you.

I guess I'd 2nd what W7 said. Probably wouldn't affect me all that much, though it's bullshit, but we expect it. I think the shame of it is that we've come to expect bullshit from Blizzard. Because it used to be that they were the last group I expected bullshit from.

[W7RE]

I guess I'd 2nd what W7 said. Probably wouldn't affect me all that much, though it's bullshit, but we expect it. I think the shame of it is that we've come to expect bullshit from Blizzard. Because it used to be that they were the last group I expected bullshit from.

Yea, before WoW I adored Blizzard. WoW was even great. It was the updated to WoW adding constant grinds and little effort to add fun, constantly adding services to charge you for, constantly recycling content and boss mechanics. Then there was Starcraft 2 and it's split into 3 games, Blizzard claiming copyright on anything modders make, etc. Bullshit has just become standard practice. They really do fit it as a part of Activision now, though I think some of it may have started before they were bought.

[MysterD]

I did a lot of both with that game. I had characters on and offline, though I'm sure I spent a lot more time online than off. I was a major player of both games for several years, part of an informal group on Battle.net and an official guild, and really enjoyed the hell out of it all. I won't get into some of the weirder shit associated with that time. I've probably told a few of you.

I guess I'd 2nd what W7 said. Probably wouldn't affect me all that much, though it's bullshit, but we expect it. I think the shame of it is that we've come to expect bullshit from Blizzard. Because it used to be that they were the last group I expected bullshit from.

What did you expect, since they're with Activision?
What's next? Monthly sub-fees for Diablo 3 on Battle.net?

[W7RE]

What did you expect, since they're with Activision?
What's next? Monthly sub-fees for Diablo 3 on Battle.net?

My brother was telling me about the D3 real money auction house and some details I hadn't heard. I haven't really read about it in detail. (this is second hand info, so it might not be 100% accurate) So you have to pay a fee (probably monthly) to access the RL money AH (like the web/mobile AH for WoW), but you also have to pay a realm money deposit on auctions, Blizzard takes a cut of all auctions, and there's a fee to withdraw money from your Battle.net account.

So you see, Blizz isn't just allowing people to buy things with real money. They're doing it in a way that they get money every step of the way.

[K-man]

Not going to begrudge them for that.  They found out a way to monetize something that gold/item farmers have been doing for years.

you will buy it one way or the other, might as well be through blizz.  At least you won't have to take chances with third party sites.

[W7RE]

you will buy it one way or the other, might as well be through blizz.  At least you won't have to take chances with third party sites.

Will buy in game items? For real money? I won't be doing that. I don't buy gold, I don't buy items except for with in-game currency, and 99% of the time I don't buy anything in F2P games (if I seriously get into one, I'll allow $15/month worth of item shop purchases, which is what it would cost me to play a sub based MMO). I have done realm transfers and such in WoW, but those are services that I feel might not exist normally and I don't expect my $15/mo to cover them. I've never bought any of the mounts/pets Blizz sells for real cash. I will never buy Diablo 3 items for real cash.

If I ever use the realm money AH in D3, it will be strictly to sell and attempt to make some profit. There's no other reason for me to go near it.

[idolminds]

Yeah it makes sense that Blizzard is going to take a cut of the real money sales. Otherwise, why bother setting it up?

[K-man]

Will buy in game items? For real money? I won't be doing that. I don't buy gold, I don't buy items except for with in-game currency, and 99% of the time I don't buy anything in F2P games (if I seriously get into one, I'll allow $15/month worth of item shop purchases, which is what it would cost me to play a sub based MMO). I have done realm transfers and such in WoW, but those are services that I feel might not exist normally and I don't expect my $15/mo to cover them. I've never bought any of the mounts/pets Blizz sells for real cash. I will never buy Diablo 3 items for real cash.

If I ever use the realm money AH in D3, it will be strictly to sell and attempt to make some profit. There's no other reason for me to go near it.

So it's there for the people that will use it.  Believe me there are plenty.

[Cools!]

I think I only spent about 1% or less of my time playing Diablo II offline.  Granted, not having that option is somewhat disappointing.  Blizzard probably wants to streamline (re: control) the experience more, kind of like what they've done in Starcraft II by removing LAN play.

Like Xessive said, Blizzard is like the Apple of the PC Gaming market; they can probably do whatever they want and their games will still sell like mad.

Dude, when are you going to play SC2 again?

[shock]

It's hard to foresee how exactly using real money in the Auction House is going to be a good thing.   Won't items just be farmed by various Chinese sweat shop workers to the point of absurdity?  They don't even have to advertise, hack accounts, or risk being banned any more.

[Cobra951]

100% of my considerable time in D2 was offline.  Played honestly a long time, hacked godliness in for a while, shelved it, went back to it years later.  This cycle repeated at least twice.  I bought both the game and the expansion too.  Can't say that will be happening with D3.  It's possible.  Blizzard may decide to be reasonable again, eventually.

[iPPi]

Dude, when are you going to play SC2 again?

Probably never.  I've gotten so bad at the game that I don't feel like playing it again.

[Cools!]

[K-man]

You know, I love Blizz a lot more than other game companies.  But this whole "DRM never entered into our minds" business is bull.  You can tout the advantages of a persistent connection all you want (and there are some), but in the end you want to combat piracy.  Just say so.  I won't be mad at you.  You want to keep people from pirating the game.  I can respect that.  Don't feed us a line of bullshit though.

Diablo 3 requires a constant internet connection -- a decision that has caused some strong reactions from folks looking to play the game solo, or those pushing against overly demanding DRM schemes. MTV spoke with Robert Bridenbecker, the Vice President of Online Technologies at Blizzard to get the developer's side of the story.

"Internally I don't think [always-on DRM] ever actually came up when we talked about how we want connections to operate. Things that came up were always around the feature-set, the sanctity of the actual game systems like your characters," said Bridenbecker. "You're guaranteeing that there are no hacks, no dupes. All of these things were points of discussion, but the whole copy protection, piracy thing, that's not really entering into why we want to do it."

Bridenbecker goes on to mention that Diablo 2 offline characters couldn't be used online, which got messy for players and the developer, so this time they decided to "just keep everything clean." As for those looking to play alone, they don't have to interact with any other online players if they don't want to -- but they'll still need that internet connection.

[idolminds]

This Wilson guy at Blizzard? Yeah, I don't like him. At all.

[Cools!]

You know what's going to be awesome? Losing all your loot cause of an internet hiccup!

Getting dropped from a game actually happens fairly frequently in StarCraft 2 and I imagine Diablo 3 game sessions will last a lot longer than 30 minutes. So yeah, can't wait!

[K-man]

I used to get dropped from D2 all the time.

And a quick Google search suggests that only 65% of Americans have access to high speed Internet.  What is this guy smoking?

[Quemaqua]

Seriously.  And Tim Willits, in an interview linked right underneath that, said (paraphrased because *gasp* my connection here sucks and I don't feel like reopening the article) "We have fast internet. All our fans have fast internet. What's the problem?" Fuck that, I used to be the biggest id fan ever, and you don't see me doing any fucking cartwheels. I'm pissed enough about Rage to not buy the fucking thing, and that will be the first id game in the history of id that I don't have in a box on my shelf. Don't you dare presume to tell me what I'm okay with you colossal dick.

[MysterD]

I love that designers want me to purposely wait for their game to some ridiculously low-price since they want to toss in some ridiculous DRM/always online requirements. While this make sense for MP portions of a game, this makes NO SENSE for SP components. This "we all must be connected" stuff is silly for anything that even remotely acts like a SP game.

If I can play a game with ALL bots and AI while online and the game can be finished w/out any other players joining my game ever, I should be ALSO be able to play it offline. That's it - end of story.

So, yeah - when's Torchlight 2 coming? 

Really makes me glad that people like CD Projekt are around that hate DRM and will remove it, whether their publisher likes it or not. They got balls. I hope they can stick around for A LONG TIME, too.

[Xessive]

What's.. uh.. what's going on with the pompous, overzealous developers? Why are they making such wild assumptions about their fanbase?

[idolminds]

How the always online requirement will affect you.

No pausing even when playing completely solo. Get a phone call in the middle of a fight? Hope you like dying. And then being logged out for inactivity.

[Cobra951]

No.  I guarantee you that it will not affect me.  Guarantee.

[K-man]

Exact same scenario playing solo on bnet in D2. Since the idea of the game is built around people jumping in and out of your games via bnet, it makes no sense to be able to pause it.

This is just a direct byproduct of there being no offline mode.

[K-man]

Also, there was no pause in Demon's Souls, and that was lauded as "hardcore"

[Quemaqua]

But it didn't have 2 prior games in the series that operated in an entirely different manner.

[K-man]

But D2 operated exactly in that manner...

[angrykeebler]

None of this affects me at all so i dont care. I'm pretty much always online and if i get a phone call, i pick up my cell phone like 1 foot away from me and multi task. I know some of you are against it solely on principle but i don't have any so.... SEE YOU ON D3 DAY 1

[angrykeebler]

Additionally,

Torchlight 2 is the new Diablo 3.