Diablo III

[Inbred Chocobo]

Originally Posted by Seil

I liked Diablo II because I have no social life.

That being said, what's wrong with the online-check thing? As far as I know, most of us (except me) have stable cable, what with the being online all the time anyway. There's really nothing to be mad at. Every half hour or whatever, *blip*, okay, you're online, you bought this legally, no worries mate.

What's the big deal?

Its not that it checks online, its that it plays online. Period. You are always online. You can at anytime invite friends into your game and get them to join, or force them out. There isn't any offline play at all, its all dependent on Blizzard's servers.

Thats not exactly a bad thing, but people remember back in the day of lan parties, getting groups together and all joining in on Diablo 2. Hell, your internet went out, fire up a game of Diablo 2, play around a little bit, it was easy to lose a couple hours or a day or two back then with it before you had to wait for it to come back on.

Now, everything has to be internet based. Around here, you can't even get internet if you live in certain areas. Diablo 2 had the ability to play solo, its kind of weird that diablo 3 doesn't. It isn't stopping me, but it is for some, so yeah, its kind of weird.

[Seil]

I get it if you've got terrible internet - mine is getting worse and worse by the day, but this, to me, at least, seems like the next step in gaming.

First you bought the game from the store and played it. Now you're buying it from an online store and playing it online. I do agree that a single player option should be available offline, though.

[Bells]

if there was an actual need to be online or some benefit to it, but it's just to force you to show that you bought it legally, which forces you to only play D3 Online at all times regardless of how you want to play your game... which, in fact, screws with just the paying customers because there will be a Crack fix or a pirated version in no time flat out on the web (hell, it just might be out there already) to prevent this "always online thing".

So, there are no benefits but there are detriments are possible problems for Legally paying customers. If Blizzard servers went out for some reason or for maintenance, you might be locked out of the game you legally bought. Same if you just so happen to be having a crappy net day or if you want to do some downloads while you play (could cut you out from communicating with Blizz servers)

So, not only its draconian and pointless but it's actually harmful to paying customers.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

The online only requirement is really there for a couple of very valid reasons that people in general aren't taking into consideration. The primary one is the Real Money Auction House. The second reason is for security reasons, i.e. client side tools that give players the ability to duplicate tools, reveal maps, completely negate the random item drops from monsters or 'gambling' vendors. All one has to do is look at what tools like that did to Diablo 2 as a whole. Not only that, but with the RMA being implemented it gives a convenient system in place to greatly diminish the prevalence of third-party item sellers. Oh there's no doubt that there'll be some out there, but with a centralized system being put into effect it'll be greatly easier to track them and shut 'em down. Decentralization is what fucked over D2's online presence. Provide an easy logical in-game service that accomplishes the same effect with no malware/bank draining risk and people will use it over third party sellers. The parasites'll slowly die off.

Factor in that ease of abuse with the real money auction house...that opens a whole fuckload of problems for blizz. Both on a technical side and legal side since actual factual money will be involved.

It isn't so much draconian as a pretty forward thinking mitigation for problems that existed in previous incarnations of the franchise.

They aren't violently masturbating over DRM like ubisoft and other companies did. Hell, I doubt if the RMA was implemented they'd be more open to an offline only mode or something to that effect.

As for how it plays, I've been dinkin about on the beta for a good while before they opened the floodgates for extremely heavy stress testing. Blizz' servers will handle it. Hell, the only lag I noticed before load balancing was fine tuned was completely on my end. There might be a little hiccups and whatnot on release night, but that happens with pretty much any online game that has a lot of buildup. After the mass downloading and patching is finished things'll smooth out real quick.

[Azisien]

So I was pretty sure I wanted my first character to be a Monk. But then I looked through the strategy guide I purchased with my collector's edition and checked out all of the class skills.

Now I want my first character to be....EVERY CHARACTER. Seriously they all are awesome looking/sounding. Even the Barbarian. Guess what class I play will be down to the same logic as Diablo II. The character creation screen shall decide.

On that note. That's my biggest complaint from the beta! The character creation screen was lame. Like MMO lame. Diablo II had the sickest creation screen. You could sit there for an hour listening to the silly sounds of the classes, and then play the coolest sounding one.

[Arcanum]

Welp just bought the game after watching an hour of beta gameplay of the Wizard.

And yes a D3 NPF party is a thing that needs to happen.

[Azisien]

Welp, we already have one. 4 player games are the max, so that's Seil, bats, Arcanum, and myself. Of course, more will probably have it, which is also good. Since it's unlikely we'll all be available all the time.

[Arcanum]

Found the skill calculator. I'll be back in a few hours once I've read everything.

[Ryong]

Originally Posted by Grandmaster_Skweeb

The online only requirement is really there for a couple of very valid reasons that people in general aren't taking into consideration. The primary one is the Real Money Auction House. The second reason is for security reasons, i.e. client side tools that give players the ability to duplicate tools, reveal maps, completely negate the random item drops from monsters or 'gambling' vendors. All one has to do is look at what tools like that did to Diablo 2 as a whole. Not only that, but with the RMA being implemented it gives a convenient system in place to greatly diminish the prevalence of third-party item sellers. Oh there's no doubt that there'll be some out there, but with a centralized system being put into effect it'll be greatly easier to track them and shut 'em down. Decentralization is what fucked over D2's online presence. Provide an easy logical in-game service that accomplishes the same effect with no malware/bank draining risk and people will use it over third party sellers. The parasites'll slowly die off.

Factor in that ease of abuse with the real money auction house...that opens a whole fuckload of problems for blizz. Both on a technical side and legal side since actual factual money will be involved.

It isn't so much draconian as a pretty forward thinking mitigation for problems that existed in previous incarnations of the franchise.

They aren't violently masturbating over DRM like ubisoft and other companies did. Hell, I doubt if the RMA was implemented they'd be more open to an offline only mode or something to that effect.

As for how it plays, I've been dinkin about on the beta for a good while before they opened the floodgates for extremely heavy stress testing. Blizz' servers will handle it. Hell, the only lag I noticed before load balancing was fine tuned was completely on my end. There might be a little hiccups and whatnot on release night, but that happens with pretty much any online game that has a lot of buildup. After the mass downloading and patching is finished things'll smooth out real quick.

So.

Let me see if I get this.

The only reason they're doing the draconian DRM is because they want money from the real money auction house, which everyone is also pissed at.

That doesn't sound like a terrible argument at all now!

[Azisien]

Who is this "everyone" that is pissed at the Auction House?