Blizzard extends a ginormous middle finger.

[Jools]

blizzard

poor sales

wat

Well, "poor" by their standards.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Welcome to the biggest video gaming controversy of 2011. Blizzard decided to give its fans some more news on the upcoming Diablo III. With it their customers also recieved a kick in the face.

1) The game requires a constant internet connection. It cannot be played offline.
2) Mods are “expressly prohibited.”
3) Items in the auction house are bought and sold for real-life money.

Oh dear.

Why is it a big deal again?

1) Does anyone still pay for hour for internet these days? Aren't you always online anyway? I don't think it means that you can't play a single player game as someone in this thread claimed.

2) Never tried any D2 mods, so I guess I don't know what I'm missing.

3) Who cares? Weren't people were buying loot and high level characters for real money anyway? Does it really make a difference whom do you buy it from if you really want to?

1) The game requires a constant internet connection. It cannot be played offline.

This is a problem.. if you#re living in a 3rd world country. seriously, I cannot remember a single time where I've been offline longer than 2 days in the last 3-4 years. I don#t give a shit, and it is a working copy protection, so there you go.

Yeah, and it's always fun to not be able to play your game in sp when it happens...What?
"Working copy protection"??? First of all: Why do you as a customer care if the CP works or not?
Secondly: No. It'll be cracked like all others.
Nomen est omen?

I don't get consumers who make excuses for corporations. "Yeah, this incoveniences me. But only a little. I'll hardly notice. And the corporation has some imagined advantage from it. Overall I'm happy if the corporation is happy..."

These are not excuses.

Games have all kinda issues and our experience teaches us to expect the worst: game breaking bugs, performance issues, shitty design, poor balance, bad writing, DRMs that punish paying customers, etc. That's the reality. So, when it comes to things that are a concern, the online thing is an issue so minor that it's not worth bitching about, as it won't affect most people at all. In fact, if all that's wrong with Diablo 3 is that you have to be online to play it, let's fucking celebrate.

You couldn've have said it better. That said, by reading what other people are saying, it's obvious that a lot of people will eat it all up don't give a fuck.

Fixed.

 

[thesheeep]

Yeah, and it's always fun to not be able to play your game in sp when it happens...What?

The way I see it, you will be able to play offline, just like in SCII. You just won't have any of the features you get when playing online. Which may or may not disturb some people.

"Working copy protection"??? First of all: Why do you as a customer care if the CP works or not?

I do not care, but I see the point in doing it from a publishers perspective. It certainly works better than the usual "insert your original DVD"-check and will likely piss off less people as more and more people are permanently online (or have the possibility to be). And since Diablo is played online by 90% of people anyway, where's the point in raging about having to be online? On principle? Idealism? Pfff. Hippies.

Secondly: No. It'll be cracked like all others.

If it will be cracked anyway, why do you care about it?

I don't get consumers who make excuses for corporations. "Yeah, this incoveniences me. But only a little. I'll hardly notice. And the corporation has some imagined advantage from it. Overall I'm happy if the corporation is happy..."

I don't get people who do not get the reasoning behind very obvious behaviour of publishers. We're not talking about indie developers here, who do it all for the fun, for the community, or god know's why. We're talking about a huge market construct with hundreds (!!!) of people somehow dependant on the commercial success of a game. They would be outright crazy not to use copy protections like that.

 

[Shannow]

And that's why boycotts are fucking pointless, because anyone who cares enough about the game to join a boycott will most likely pirate it instead of buying.

Fixed.
Boycotts are not "pointless" if enough people participate. I can't imagine that happening here, though. The average consumer of video games (for some reason I don't understand) doesn't mind being inconvenienced.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

in the past twenty-four hours alone 3,729 angry smilies were collected in this latest response to Blizzard's controversial Diablo 3 feature list, sparking the gaming community's most intense furor since Starcraft 2's division into 3 separate games was announced

 

[Shannow]

Games have all kinda issues and our experience teaches us to expect the worst: game breaking bugs, performance issues, shitty design, poor balance, bad writing, DRMs that punish paying customers, etc. That's the reality. So, when it comes to things that are a concern, the online thing is an issue so minor that it's not worth bitching about, as it won't affect most people at all. In fact, if all that's wrong with Diablo 3 is that you have to be online to play it, let's fucking celebrate.

That's just it.
I get: "I don't give a fuck."
I don't get trying to excuse those actions.
It's like excusing bugs. Sure, you people liked Arcanum despite its bugs. Is that a reason not to criticise them and to attack people who do?

 

[made]

Character data is stored on bnet. You can't play offline at all. Think WoW, not SC2.

 

[attackfighter]

When Blizzard talks about mods, they are talking about the kind of mods you see for wow. Things that make the interface change and give players information advantages. They aren't talking about you and the other two people in your basement bit twiddling or swapping textures. It's not like you would have been able to play those on battle.net anyway.

This is BS and you are a Blizzard groupie. In SC2 people have had their accounts banned merely for replacing Tychus's face on the opening screen with a different image or for replacing the sound files with sound files from SC1. Blizzard's ready to ban you for ANY modding whether it's innocent or not.

 

[pocahaunted]

When Blizzard talks about mods, they are talking about the kind of mods you see for wow. Things that make the interface change and give players information advantages. They aren't talking about you and the other two people in your basement bit twiddling or swapping textures. It's not like you would have been able to play those on battle.net anyway.

This is BS and you are a Blizzard groupie. In SC2 people have had their accounts banned merely for replacing Tychus's face on the opening screen with a different image or for replacing the sound files with sound files from SC1. Blizzard's ready to ban you for ANY modding whether it's innocent or not.

How dare you question Blizzard's almighty actions?

I'm kinda curious, VD, what are your thoughts on D3 in general?

 

[Konjad]

I'll just buy it and have some fun in multiplayer.

 

[Shannow]

Yeah, and it's always fun to not be able to play your game in sp when it happens...What?

The way I see it, you will be able to play offline, just like in SCII. You just won't have any of the features you get when playing online. Which may or may not disturb some people.

1) The game requires a constant internet connection. It cannot be played offline.

Was this misrepresented?

"Working copy protection"??? First of all: Why do you as a customer care if the CP works or not?

I do not care, but I see the point in doing it from a publishers perspective. It certainly works better than the usual "insert your original DVD"-check and will likely piss off less people as more and more people are permanently online (or have the possibility to be). And since Diablo is played online by 90% of people anyway, where's the point in raging about having to be online? On principle? Idealism? Pfff. Hippies.

You brought it up. You obviously care. No, it doesn't work better. It's more convenient for people who are bothered by DVD checks. It's less convenient for those who have issues with SP games requiring constant I-net connections. Thing is: Both are useless in preventing piracy and if publishers/devs could simply jump over their shadows they'd get rid of both.
Yes, principals, those concepts that are the sole argument in favour of humans being "better than animals". Pff, decliners.

I don't get people who do not get the reasoning behind very obvious behaviour of publishers. We're not talking about indie developers here, who do it all for the fun, for the community, or god know's why. We're talking about a huge market construct with hundreds (!!!) of people somehow dependant on the commercial success of a game. They would be outright crazy not to use copy protections like that.

Only not. We agree it'll be cracked like all others. Blizz has to know this. It's only a matter of acceptance. Some devs do (CDproject) and still sell their games with a profit. Considering that at least some will not buy the game because of this DRM/CP and it'll be cracked anyway, it stands to reason that it costs them in developmen/licensing costs and sales while providing no benefit.
(Perhaps until you look at the second hand market. If it prevented that, then it'd mean a certain amount of profit for Blizz...at the expense of the customer...)
And I can't stand the "They have to feed their families"-card. Whores also have to feed their families. And drug dealers and arms dealers, and banksters, and politicians, and con-men, etc. Just sayin'. Not to mention that it's practically impossible for D3 to bomb.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

The only one I care about is the lack of mods, but then I never modded Diablo 2 so I guess I probably won't miss it too much.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Games have all kinda issues and our experience teaches us to expect the worst: game breaking bugs, performance issues, shitty design, poor balance, bad writing, DRMs that punish paying customers, etc. That's the reality. So, when it comes to things that are a concern, the online thing is an issue so minor that it's not worth bitching about, as it won't affect most people at all. In fact, if all that's wrong with Diablo 3 is that you have to be online to play it, let's fucking celebrate.

That's just it.
I get: "I don't give a fuck."
I don't get trying to excuse those actions.
It's like excusing bugs. Sure, you people liked Arcanum despite its bugs. Is that a reason not to criticise them and to attack people who do?

Not at all. Arcanum was a deeply, deeply flawed game. Brilliant, but flawed.

Anyway, I don't think that it's like "excusing bugs". Bugs affect gameplay. Being online to play doesn't, unless someone doesn't have a reliable and affordable internet access.

I'm kinda curious, VD, what are your thoughts on D3 in general?

I don't really have any, as I didn't follow the game. I liked Diablo for the atmosphere and art, and I liked Diablo 2 for the gameplay mechanics (skill trees, nearly perfect kill, loot, level up flow, distinctive classes), so I'll definitely get Diablo 3. That's all I can tell you.

 

[Mrowak]

I don't get consumers who make excuses for corporations. "Yeah, this incoveniences me. But only a little. I'll hardly notice. And the corporation has some imagined advantage from it. Overall I'm happy if the corporation is happy..."

I don't get people who do not get the reasoning behind very obvious behaviour of publishers. We're not talking about indie developers here, who do it all for the fun, for the community, or god know's why. We're talking about a huge market construct with hundreds (!!!) of people somehow dependant on the commercial success of a game. They would be outright crazy not to use copy protections like that.

The problem is that we understand the reasoning behind their decisions exactly, which is this: $$$. Now don't get me wrong, we are not against Blizzard in this case because it wants to earn more money. The reason is much more complex and difficult to get across in language with anything else but one word: freedom.

You see, in the past, where there was no computer medium to speak of, I - the customer - was the lord and master of the product I bought. Behold the copy of Bolhakov's "Master and Margarita". I first got the book from a friend of a friend of mine who had lent lent it to friends of all his friends. In this way I not only learned of its qualities, I could test them first hand a pass judgement on it. Needless to say, I bought the book myself and extended my recommendation to countless other people, some of whom liked the novel so much that they bought their own volumes. Furthermore, I could do whatever I wanted with the book I had - unless I lived in Soviet Russia the authroties could suck my dick for all I care. No one was policing me, or checking if I have a legal copy of it. I was free.

Now let us compare this not so uncommon scenario with the business model Blizzard is using now. Blizzard hypes their product up to the heavens so naturally everyone knows about it. Because of the hype machine and bought reviews, or just reviewers being retards, word of it spreads like woods on fire. People buy it, and tell other people to buy it. So far so good. However, here the fun starts. Upon the purchase, I am told that I have to register with the service where I need to leave my personal data. I even have an option to integrate it with my facebook account. Fucking awesome. I just love when some company comprised of completely money-grasping, greedy cocksukers honest, good-natured, warm-hearted businessmen has access to my personal info. Moreover, it turns out that in order to play the damn game I must be under 24h surveillance in case I try to do anything shady with it. Talk about respect and trust to their paying consumer! The good news don't end here, because - naturally - even though I know the DVDs of the game I don't own the data. One could argue that with computer game this always has been the case. However, never before was there a nazi DRM to fucking check WTF I am doing on my own computer!

You may say - if it's such a problem then don't buy it. No worries. I won't. The real issue lies, however, with the sheer fact that thanks to apologist propaganda this will be accepted and soon integrated in every digital product ever created. Again, you may ask: "What's wrong with it?" Well, maybe the fact that you let yourself be treated, not like a paying consumer who pays and demands, but like a brainwashed retard who PAYS for being spied on and oppressed. Goddamn Orwell was right all along.

 

[J_C]

The only one I care about is the lack of mods, but then I never modded Diablo 2 so I guess I probably won't miss it too much.

Did D2 have a large modding community? I never was interested in the game, but IIRC it didn't have an editor program, like the one Starcraft and Warcraft had.

 

[Kraszu]

2) Never tried any D2 mods, so I guess I don't know what I'm missing.

Back to Hellfire, this mod pretty much combines best of D2 with best of D1. Yes not much from D2, but different skill for each class (that you learn from class specific books) add to the game.

 

[JarlFrank]

You may say - if it's such a problem then don't buy it. No worries. I won't. The real issue lies, however, with the sheer fact that thanks to apologist propaganda this will be accepted and soon integrated in every digital product ever created. Again, you may ask: "What's wrong with it?" Well, maybe the fact that you let yourself be treated, not like a paying consumer who pays and demands, but like a brainwashed retard who PAYS for being spied on and oppressed. Goddamn Orwell was right all along.

Well put.

When I buy a game, I want to be treated as a paying customer. I want my game to work flawlessly, no matter if my internet connection is currently doing some fuckshit, I don't want to have to sign up on some service I'm not going to use anyway, I want it to not give me any more hassle than the illegaly acquired pirate version with crack will give me.

I just don't see why paying customers should have to put up with annoying shit that illegal downloaders who get the game for free can just ignore due to crack.

 

[Jools]

Character data is stored on bnet. You can't play offline at all. Think WoW, not SC2.

People in the scene will come up with a local virtual server or something, like they did for AC2 and the Ubisoft online profile bullshit thingie. No big deal.

I find it amusing how companies really try their best to come up with shit, and the scene always comes up with workarounds fixes.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Online only is a big issue.

Do you fuckers remember the really early days of Diablo 2?

I was forced to play offline because of Battlenet's serious connectivity problems.

Do you fuckers remember the really early days of WOW?

I had to change servers (to one that was farther away) because of Blizzard's connectivity problems.

Get ready to deal with this type of thing in lots and lots of games.

 

[Varn]

Bla Bla Bla

Face it, you will all get and be addicted to D3 because the lure of teh lootz is too strong.

First thing I'm doing is buying a perfect Enigma and Mara's from a Chinese farmer...

 

[pocahaunted]

Get lost, you filthy d2jsp'er.

 

[Xor]

I don't care about the game requiring me to be online to play because I'm always online. I don't think an "offline" mode would hurt anything, though.

The AH for real money is more disturbing. It's likely the rarest items will end up on there and not on the regular AH; gold became useless quickly in D2 and it'll probably be the same here. I never support microtransactions, so I won't use the real $ AH for anything.

The only thing I ever did with modding D2 was to unlock the ladder-only runewords in single player because I wanted to use them. I suspect the stance against modding is to discourage cheating, though. They wouldn't commit to that without a good reason, given the general popularity of mods.

Then again, with no single player, there aren't going to be any total conversion mods anyway.

 

[Oriebam]

I wonder if the law cares about gold farmers

 

[SuicideBunny]

real money auction house sounds pretty fucking brilliant. everyone will buy it on the promise to be able to make money off of retards without getting banned alone.

also, can't wait for the first contract murders or terrorist attacks financed with diablo 3 loot.

 

[MMXI]

I liked Diablo 2 for the gameplay mechanics (skill trees, nearly perfect kill, loot, level up flow, distinctive classes), so I'll definitely get Diablo 3.

The skill tree implementation in Diablo II was horrible. Three large trees in which the only way to actually play is to pick 5 and max them. Trees only really work well when each node has a very small number of levels. Diablo II had 20. It was basically a hack between a proper skill list (Fallout) and a tree but with none of the benefits of either.

Oh, and loot sucked. But that's because I'm not a fan of those "every item is different" systems in Diablo and its clones.

 

[Multidirectional]

Oh, and loot sucked. But that's because I'm not a fan of those

It surely must suck then.