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Nmenth

Diablo 3 = always online

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Diablo 3 requires a constant connection to the internet to be played. Get disconnected, and the game will drop back to the title screen and remain unplayable until it can connect again. So don't plan to take Diablo 3 with you on long flights or anywhere else you won't have access to the Net. The move doesn't come as much surprise as developer Blizzard Entertainment took the same approach with Starcraft 2. Nevertheless, for a game many people play solo, and potentially on their laptops in all manner of on-the-go situations, Diablo 3's connection requirement poses some potentially frustrating limitations.

 

Blizzard's Rob Pardo explained that Diablo 3 requires a constant connection because all characters are stored on Blizzard's Battle.net servers. This setup allows Blizzard to authenticate all characters and items, adding of protection against player fraud and duplication of items. This latter point becomes particularly important with the (just announced) advent of real money auctions for items in Diablo 3.

Source

 

 

I despise constant internet connections and companies that support people buying and selling virtual goods for real cash.

 

Disappointing, but I'm really not surprised. I guess I just hoped against the inevitability of stupidity.

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Whilst I don't like this new form of DRM, I only 'game' on my desktop which is always going to connected to the internet (save a earthquake...). As for micro transactions, I've never been into them, DLC sure, but not buying a sword or shield for 50c each :o

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Its way the PC gaming is heading, it doesn't bother me as my computer is always connect to the internet when its switched on anyway. Besides haven't already had lengthy discussions about the whole constant internet connection issue at the time C&C 4 was announced/released?

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Guest Stevie_K

Constant connection doesn't bother me either. It means less cheating and less hacking. When I'm on the go, I am on the go, which means I don't have time to play games.

However, I don't like the "buy items for real money" deal. If there was one game that I'd expect the "buy-once" principle for, it would be a Diablo game. Very disappointing.

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Its way the PC gaming is heading, it doesn't bother me as my computer is always connect to the internet when its switched on anyway. Besides haven't already had lengthy discussions about the whole constant internet connection issue at the time C&C 4 was announced/released?

Yes, we did.

 

I was against it then, and I'm still against it. My internet is always connected as well, but sometimes it randomly goes down and can remain down for several hours. Since I almost never play games online, the requirement is quite ridiculous.

 

If there was one game that I'd expect the "buy-once" principle for, it would be a Diablo game. Very disappointing.

They justify this move by saying because third parties will sell items for real money anyway, this way they can regulate it (and make profit by charging a transaction fee :rolleyes:), but I have never bought into this idiotic argument of "they're going to do it anyway, so why not legitimize it?"

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Guest Stevie_K
They justify this move by saying because third parties will sell items for real money anyway, this way they can regulate it (and make profit by charging a transaction fee :rolleyes:), but I have never bought into this idiotic argument of "they're going to do it anyway, so why not legitimize it?"

 

I see.

 

I guess there's some sense to it then, at least seen from Blizzards perspective. They want in on the deal. Diablo II items, gold, levelling you name it was available on countless websites. If I understand right, it is this market that they want to take over for themselves for Diablo 3.

 

Whilst at some points it is a clever move, it sadly comes with many negatives for large groups of players. Including me. For me a game is something you have to play to win, not pay to win.

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I was against it then, and I'm still against it. My internet is always connected as well, but sometimes it randomly goes down and can remain down for several hours. Since I almost never play games online, the requirement is quite ridiculous.

Damn, sounds like you need a better ISP then ;) Or get a PS3 or Xbox 360, where these requirements can't be found.

 

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Guest Rabbit

I'm sure someone will come up with a "mod" someday that circumvents this requirement.

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This sounds like another follow-up after Starcraft II. :rolleyes:

 

But nevertheless, I think Blizzard should have made Diablo 3 a MMORPG so the constant Internet connection requirement will make sense and eliminate the SP out for good. Besides I never played the Diablo series before.

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Besides I never played the Diablo series before.

Then go away, you know what you are talking about even less than usual.

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This sounds like another follow-up after Starcraft II. :rolleyes:

tumblr_lfd5buqG8C1qbvc38o1_400.jpg

It's painfully obvious you've never touched Starcraft 2. If you had, you would know that it's very possible to play the game offline. Diablo 3 doesn't quite sound like that, but I suspect there will be enough bitching to drop that requirement so it's playable on the go.

 

However, I'm still with Nmenth on the whole "always online" thing. It's a disturbing trend with PC gaming these days and it really needs to stop. There are those of us who play games while traveling or are otherwise away from home. I'm not always able to procure a strong enough connection that's able to quickly load webpages, let alone play a ****ing game over the Internet. And how is this fair to those people stuck out on the sticks? Should people with 56K modems, or hell, no Internet at all, be precluded from playing a game? While I know the number of gamers who fit this situation is dwindling, there are still those in parts of the US and I'm sure the same holds true abroad as well. Why is it seemingly agreeable to alienate an entire portion of potential customers? This isn't an MMO we're talking about here. Always online is a farce and prevents nothing.

 

And then comes the microtransaction market. It was only a matter of time before Blizzard jumped on the bandwagon. I, myself, don't care for microtransactions but other people do and it's their choice to waste their real money for fake ****. If a gamer wants to waste money it, who are we to stop them? Besides, this is just Blizzard doing what it does, only more so. All Blizz has done is update their business model to generate more income, which is their intent at the end. Besides, microtransaction markets are extremely lucrative. A private Warcraft server owner racked up $3 million in profits, but got sued rather hard over it. But either way, the profit margin is there and more businesses are capitalizing on it.

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Nice essay there, though :P

 

 

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Looks like Diablo 3 is going to more of an MMO type game than it was before. Then again, the entire point of the game is creating a party or a group and going hogwild. Diablo 2 was more successful online than it was offline. And being that D3 is more online than offline, it's no surprise that Blizzard won't allow any actual modding to be done.

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So its an MMO that you don't pay a monthly subscription to. Hmm...

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As much as I dislike what bad decisions Blizzard has made up to this point, I still intend to get Diablo III. However, if they decided to implement a monthly fee too, that would be it, I would absolutely not buy it.

 

Hopefully, Blizzard is not yet that stupid.

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So its an MMO that you don't pay a monthly subscription to. Hmm...

Don't go giving them ideas :P

And anyway, Guild Wars has done that for ages.

 

Personally, I hate the concept of any game that I won't be able to pull out of my closet after 10 years, install on some emulated or old system, and play as I used to play it. Which is why I don't see myself getting into any multiplayer-only game any time soon.

 

 

Of course, like with WOW and C&C4, it won't be long before server emulation software / unofficial servers will appear to get around the online restrictions anyway.

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Unlike EA, Blizzard maintains its game servers for a quite long time. After 10 years you'll pretty much be able to play it as you did the first day of its release. The latest SC1 patch came last year, too, so you won't need emulators either.

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Still, it's no guarantee. It's just the current mindset of a currently profitable company.

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Guest Stevie_K
Personally, I hate the concept of any game that I won't be able to pull out of my closet after 10 years, install on some emulated or old system, and play as I used to play it. Which is why I don't see myself getting into any multiplayer-only game any time soon.

 

Those days are over, or at least have been in for a big change over the last years.

Who knows, in 10 years it might be that you log into your old battlenet account and install it on some emulated or old system, and play as you used to play it.

 

Get over it Nyer. :P

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