Diablo 3 will require a permanent internet connection

Not sure why people are saying it's the same as starcraft 2 when it's not. You don't need to be online to play the singleplayer in that.

[QUOTE="Banjo_Kongfooie"][QUOTE="Metric_Fantasie"]Is this really that big of a deal?Metric_Fantasie

My internet went down during on Saturday, we had to wait until at least Monday for someone to come and fix it, I'm glad I was able to play Steam offline mode.

Just saying.

This is bulls***. I expect this crap from Capcom and Ubisoft, not Blizzard. Guessing Activision has something to do with it.

Not liking the "real money for video game items" AH either.

[QUOTE="Rekunta"]Thanks Blizzard you just saved me money. I'll be sure to enjoy your game though, IF I buy it used 10 years from when it comes out. No way a single cent of my money is going to support this. What a bunch of BS....yea, we need to constantly be connected for "auctions" and such. Sure. Grow some balls Blizzard and simply state it because of piracy. SakusEnvoy

Always-on DRM: is it because of piracy? No, no of course not... it's a feature! Now even your single player games can be "social", which is of course what you must have wanted when you clicked the option for 'single player'...]

I totally agree with you. I don't who the biggest hypocrites are : Blizzard, or Blizzard fans who went crazy against Ubisoft for the same thing? (actually, what they're doing with this game goes further than anything Ubisoft ever dared to try)

There's one thing I'm wondering about this whole auction house thingy.

I'm hearing that you can auction items with in-game currency (gold) if you don't wish to use real money. So, this begs the question.....why would I pay for an item at auction with real money when I can pay for it with the huge amount of gold that I've accrued for free over the many, many hours I plan on playing? Will there be exclusive items that can only be gotten with real cash but that are limited otherwise?

This whole auction house seems stupid. I know I'm not going to pay real money for items I get as a reward for playing, which is a large part of the enjoyment that comes from the Diablo series and gives it its longevity. Plus that fact that I can get them for free if I invest enough time into the game to become rich, which I know I'll be doing.

Unless I'm misunderstanding this, it makes no sense to me.

". Wilson added further that if a player's connection drops, a player could die but the in-game penalty wouldn't be harsh (specifically a 10 percent decrease in durability for equipped weapons and items) unless the player is on Hardcore mode, in which case he or she loses the character permanently. He also said that piracy was a factor in this decision, but it wasn't "a deciding factor"."

Lame, all I'm saying, but I'd still love to play this game sadly.

Luxen90

Is this really that big of a deal?Metric_Fantasie

You can still play single player, yes you need a internet connection. Who doesn't have an internet connection in this day and age? It doesn't even need to be a good internet connection.Metric_Fantasie

Sounds like a good move. It will stop hacks, protect the game from being pirated and since it's mostly an online game the "damage" will be minimal. Everybody wins.IronBass

[QUOTE="Metric_Fantasie"]Is this really that big of a deal?skrat_01

You can still play single player, yes you need a internet connection. Who doesn't have an internet connection in this day and age? It doesn't even need to be a good internet connection.Metric_Fantasie

1) Treated like a thief? I guess all MMO players are treated like Thiefs then, this isnt the same as a damn Assassins Creed game recieving the online only treatment, despite what some single player D2 lovers will say DII is famous for its Multiplayer plain and simple, its the largest part of the market and is being catered for. They are treating this practically as an MMO, and similar to how Starcraft works.... which many complained about but look at it now.

Its a persistant online RPG, the singleplayer is join with the online, yes ok you can argue that single player is fine.. and this is all about anti-piracy, and it could well be, but this games focus is all about the connectivity, it mayaswell be an MMO in many regaurds.

2) You have an offline single player in a game like this then your undermining thier service, as in you wont participate in the shop or interact with others alot, perhaps they dont want this, and its thier decision, thier audience is WoW/SCII now. that silly little single player game from 10 years ago is gone.

Those complaining about Hardcore death on disconnect, welcome to DII's Hardcore Ladder.... I agree they should fix this, but then it could be abusable, whats stopping a player "Unplugging" when a predicted death is going to happen?

Stop the game from being pirated. You haven't seen how regularly ubisofts own games are pirated, and how the pirated versions are far more convenient than the 'always online' legitimate versions? There's been a storm surrounding it for a reason. skrat_01

I didn't say stop, though, I said protect. It's an additional layer of protection. Sure, it won't stop it, but like every other protection method it will encourage some people to actually pirate.

But I'm sure Blizzard considered that and they think that the protection/encourage balance is positive for them.

It stops hacks How? If a player connects to online play then they should go through a anti cheat system, as games have been doing since the dawn of online gaming. This doesn't change anything other than Blizzard deciding under what conditions your allowed to play the game, while they're maintaining a connection.skrat_01

I'm not an expert, so I suppose we have to wait until the game is out and see if it actually works.

1) Treated like a thief? I guess all MMO players are treated like Thiefs then, this isnt the same as a damn Assassins Creed game recieving the online only treatment, despite what some single player D2 lovers will say DII is famous for its Multiplayer plain and simple, its the largest part of the market and is being catered for. They are treating this practically as an MMO, and similar to how Starcraft works.... which many complained about but look at it now.

Its a persistant online RPG, the singleplayer is join with the online, yes ok you can argue that single player is fine.. and this is all about anti-piracy, and it could well be, but this games focus is all about the connectivity, it mayaswell be an MMO in many regaurds.

2) You have an offline single player in a game like this then your undermining thier service, as in you wont participate in the shop or interact with others alot, perhaps they dont want this, and its thier decision, thier audience is WoW/SCII now. that silly little single player game from 10 years ago is gone.

Those complaining about Hardcore death on disconnect, welcome to DII's Hardcore Ladder.... I agree they should fix this, but then it could be abusable, whats stopping a player "Unplugging" when a predicted death is going to happen?

Birdy09

Yes it is the same as Ubisoft's games, dungeon crawlers and hack and slash games have a legacy of having a strong singleplayer component and being completely playable on your own; cooperative being a highly valued feature which works in conjunction with the games design.

This is not an MMO at all, this is not a game based around a server side hosting of a 'shard world', which is social interaction centric, this is a dungeon crawler, where one or a few players cooperate, or compete. There is no reason for it to be connected online all the game.

Starcraft 2 could be played offline for its singleplayer features in its entirety. The only downside to this was achievements not being unlocked to your Battle.net account; it was perfectly reasonable.

There is no justification for this; it's not in the games nature by design, it's being forced in as Blizzard simply doesn't trust the general consumer enough; they want more control over how you play your game; which isn't different to Ubisoft at all.

Irony is it's the pirates who get the convenience of playing the games when is convenient for them, not when Blizzard thinks it's ok, and you're maintaining a constant handshake with them over a connection. But hey it's Blizzard, we love Blizzard, so free ride right?

2. Where in the games intrinsic design, or overarching systems is a constant online connection to Blizzard necessary?

There isn't one, not a single one. The game itself lends itself completely to singleplayer play, without relying on a constant connection, hence there being no reason for it.

But hey the arguments change to 'well Diablo is really about coop', despite the game fully supporting and being designed with singleplayer play fully in mind in terms of support; without a justification for maintaining an online connection other than 'I like to play coop mostly'; which undermines the point entirely.

Otherwise in regard to competitive play it depends on how Blizzard work their system. Having a constant connection is not going to magically prevent cheating - reality is internet connections do drop, so all that's being caused is a nice grey blanket of question marks in regard to detection; when a player connects to an online component there should be a comprehensive system, forcing every player to connect to Blizzard and stay connected isn't a prevention.

Irony is there's games that are far more multiplayer centric than the entire Diablo series, like lets say TF2, which can be played completely offline with bot support.

But hey let's all defend Blizzard, this surely is a practice that's better for gaming, and games in general. No we can't differentiate between anticipating a game and loathing them for implementing a horrendous non beneficial system, we either defend them or we hate them; no rhyme or reason allowed.

I didn't say stop, though, I said protect. It's an additional layer of protection. Sure, it won't stop it, but like every other protection method it will encourage some people to actually pirate.

But I'm sure Blizzard considered that and they think that the protection/encourage balance is positive for them.

IronBass

Positive enough to treat their audience with mistrust upon wanting to play the game each time and while they're playing it.

An 'extra layer' it isn't, a well designed anti cheat system based on players connecting to an online component can have just as benifitial detection rates, there's no benifit to mainting a handshake constantly; only for Blizzard deciding if it's fine for you to play the game.

I'm not an expert, so I suppose we have to wait until the game is out and see if it actually works.

IronBass

Positive enough to treat their audience with mistrust upon wanting to play the game each time and while they're playing it.

An 'extra layer' it isn't, a well designed anti cheat system based on players connecting to an online component can have just as benifitial detection rates, there's no benifit to mainting a handshake constantly; only for Blizzard deciding if it's fine for you to play the game. skrat_01

Their audience has earned that mistrusts (not talking about Diablo's only, but the gaming population in general), of course they're going to treatit accordingly.

And yes, of course it's designed for Blizzard to have more control over it, but I still don't see issue.

get it on consoles with an offline mode

thats what ill be doing, since consoles have no piracy according to Blizzard

[QUOTE="skrat_01"]

Positive enough to treat their audience with mistrust upon wanting to play the game each time and while they're playing it.

An 'extra layer' it isn't, a well designed anti cheat system based on players connecting to an online component can have just as benifitial detection rates, there's no benifit to mainting a handshake constantly; only for Blizzard deciding if it's fine for you to play the game. IronBass

Their audience has earned that mistrusts (not talking about Diablo's only, but the gaming population in general), of course they're going to treatit accordingly.

And yes, of course it's designed for Blizzard to have more control over it, but I still don't see issue.

Well that sucks, and for what reason? I hope not piracy as it will get cracked anyway...SaltyMeatballs

Exactly, it's going to be cracked within a few days of being released. Saying it won't be (I know you aren't, but some might) is like saying they won't release any expansion packs for it.

Which is why only Ubisoft uses this system, and even they're not consistent at all in implementing it or not? Right. It's a major issue, not to say the game will be *bad*, I certainly doubt that.skrat_01

If it were such a major issue then it wouldn't be used at all. It's an annoyance at worst, most people won't care and most that do will get over it quickly.

It's mostly an online game anyways.

[QUOTE="Metric_Fantasie"]Is this really that big of a deal?Banjo_Kongfooie

All I can say is :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: at all those making a big deal out of this. I know I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of Diablo 3.

If it were such a major issue then it wouldn't be used at all. It's an annoyance at worst, most people won't care and most that do will get over it quickly.

It's mostly an online game anyways.

IronBass

Another thing to note, is that you won't be able to play Diablo 3 on somewhere like a plane. I believe Blizzard responded to a situation like this saying something along the lines of 'Oh well you can play other games!' Really dumb stuff. Lethalhazard

This is 2011, so no problem.