[Game] Diablo III's DRM "solution" is beyond comprehension

[hockeywarrior]

First, just read this article, ALL the way through:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/09/22/how-diablo-iiis-drm-will-affect-you/#more-75047

And after you're done crying and throwing things, please comment.

 

[Harb]

Sounds like something I have no intention of taking part in. Although not sure I'll be missing much. The last Blizzard game I enjoyed was Diablo II and that was back in 2000. Haven't liked a single title since.

 

[Murphy]

But no matter how much they have argued that their always-on system is of benefit to players, it absolutely isn’t proving to be the case.

No **** Sherlock.

And maddeningly, the solution is incredibly simple: Create the option to create an entirely offline character. A character that can’t then be imported into an online game, one that can’t invite others to join in.

Or how about something like, say, an Open kind of Battlenet, where, say, you could play with your singleplayer characters that are stored on your PC, and with that you accept that people might cheat. Crazy idea, I know, but it could work. Could even be called "Open Battlenet"!
And if you care about legitimacy (and the precious auction house) you play in something like a Closed version of Battlenet (like, lol "Closed Battlenet", haha, genius!) where your characters are stored on Blizzard servers and everyone plays legit!
Maybe even add a third option for TCP/IP games where everyone can do whatever the hell they want, from modding to cheating to just having a grand ol' time!

I THINK there was a game once that had all this. What was it again?

Spoiler!

 

[hockeywarrior]

No **** Sherlock.

Or how about something like, say, an Open kind of Battlenet, where, say, you could play with your singleplayer characters that are stored on your PC, and with that you accept that people might cheat. Crazy idea, I know, but it could work. Could even be called "Open Battlenet"!
And if you care about legitimacy (and the precious auction house) you play in something like a Closed version of Battlenet (like, lol "Closed Battlenet", haha, genius!) where your characters are stored on Blizzard servers and everyone plays legit!
Maybe even add a third option for TCP/IP games where everyone can do whatever the hell they want, from modding to cheating to just having a grand ol' time!

I THINK there was a game once that had all this. What was it again?

Spoiler!

 

[Deist]

I lost interest in D3 a month ago or so. I just wanted to LAN and play it with friends. You couldnt pay me enough to have a battle.net account that some chinese guy will steal from me in a few months anyway.

Blizzard is an Icon of Corporate greed. I hope D3 fails and somone makes a new titan quest.

 

[hockeywarrior]

I lost interest in D3 a month ago or so. I just wanted to LAN and play it with friends. You couldnt pay me enough to have a battle.net account that some chinese guy will steal from me in a few months anyway.

Blizzard is an Icon of Corporate greed. I hope D3 fails and somone makes a new titan quest.

Don't forget their partner in crime ...

Bobby Kotick Holds Dedicated Servers Hostage - YouTube

 

[NoxNoctum]

Well I tried the Diablo 2 demo to see what all the fuss was about and didn't like it at all. Not my thing I guess. So this doesn't really affect me. Feel bad for the people it does though.

I am def worried though that it could carry over to Heart of the Swarm.

 

[Amerikaner]

Remember when the biggest inconvenience to deal with was slapping the disc in the drive in order to play? Ahh the good old days of DRM. Then it was SecuROM and Tages and such. And since then it's been an ever increasing mountain of garbage.

 

[Zips]

Big ****ing deal.

That's what I say about this.

Most gamers are connected to the net constantly anyway yet for some reason those are the very people boo-hooing about this whole system.

I'd much rather have this than some unmonitored system that opens the doors to cheaters/dupers/etc to walk right in. Been playing the beta and haven't had a single damn issue with this system, not a one.

I'm glad there are issues during a BETA that this guy at RPS ran into. God forbid there were issues during a BETA, right? I'm sure he realizes that the point of this beta is to help "us test out our server stability and hardware." An exact quote from Blizzard's own announcement on the beta.

But I'm sure the RPS people knew this already. Right? Sure.

 

[hockeywarrior]

Big ****ing deal.

That's what I say about this.

Most gamers are connected to the net constantly anyway yet for some reason those are the very people boo-hooing about this whole system.

I'd much rather have this than some unmonitored system that opens the doors to cheaters/dupers/etc to walk right in. Been playing the beta and haven't had a single damn issue with this system, not a one.

I'm glad there are issues during a BETA that this guy at RPS ran into. God forbid there were issues during a BETA, right? I'm sure he realizes that the point of this beta is to help "us test out our server stability and hardware." An exact quote from Blizzard's own announcement on the beta.

But I'm sure the RPS people knew this already. Right? Sure.

I'm sorry but the issues described in the RPS article are things that you could see being a problem a mile away with a game that requires an online connection all the time, even to play in singleplayer. I think its total bull**** for a game company to tell me I can't play a game I played 60 bucks because I'm not connected to the internet (for any myriad of reasons) in an OFFLINE mode. It makes absolutely no sense. I mean, not being able to pause in the middle of a SP game? Christ that makes no sense.

And obviously it's a beta, but I really doubt we're going to see a radically different system when the game releases. At the very least, you're going to have to suffer through the obvious inconveniences where you lose the internet for some reason, are playing on an unreliable connection, or the Blizzard servers are having inevitable issues -- all because the game requires a constant internet connection no matter what.

Also, when you put out a beta like this, you are trying to put your best foot forward to the community. You accept all criticisms that come your way, because you are putting your product out there (finished or not). I think it's great that RPS is exposing these issues, because without people making a big deal out of them, these are the kinds of things that don't change between beta and release unless they are illuminated by the media or playerbase.

Furthermore, this is just one more part of a chain of major missteps Blizzard has made with their community over the last few years. It's not like it's just a small part of their playerbase that is affected -- this impacts everyone, and on a PC only title, it's not going to be received well if things stay the way they are.

 

[Zips]

And how the hell is this different from something like Steam? Or World of Warcraft? Or any other game that is predominantly played online?

I love how RPS is playing it up to the misguided, misinformed gamers out there that fail to realize that they're online 24/7 already, that there are already other titles out there that do this, and that it's essentially a non-issue considering it's from a company that runs the largest MMO in the world and probably knows a thing or two about having a stable online server presence.

The only people I see getting up in arms over this are the bandwagon jumpers too afraid to accept change because it's not the norm, because they don't look at the whole picture, and they think that it's going to be sooooo bad yet can't provide any legitimate reason as to why.

 

[Moyako]

And how the hell is this different from something like Steam? Or World of Warcraft? Or any other game that is predominantly played online?

Steam has an offline mode, and WoW is a mmorpg.

 

[Zips]

Steam has an offline mode, and WoW is a mmorpg.

And? Sorry, but was there a point there? Because WoW is an MMORPG that automatically means that a title that isn't a classicly labled "MMORPG" can't be online only?

Oh really?

 

[Moyako]

And? Sorry, but was there a point there? Because WoW is an MMORPG that automatically means that a title that isn't a classicly labled "MMORPG" can't be online only?

Oh really?

Why the anger, zips? Geez, take it easy. The point is that Diablo III has single player content, and it sucks that you must be online to enjoy it.

 

[Pvt.pile]

I always get the impression (probably wrong) Zips is always mad or maybe just a decending voice amongst unreason, well anyway my connection went down during the week and for some reason even steam offline wouldn't work but I still want this game.

 

[HSMagnet]

i always get the impression (probably wrong) zips is always mad or maybe just a condescending voice amongst unreason, well anyway my connection went down during the week and for some reason even steam offline wouldn't work but i still want this game.

ftfy

 

[Amerikaner]

Zips, continuing his unrelenting support for whatever BS the industry decides to pull, even in defiance of simple logic.

 

[Flogger23m]

Why the anger, zips? Geez, take it easy. The point is that Diablo III has single player content, and it sucks that you must be online to enjoy it.

This. It is real simple concept. Often times your internet goes out, and being unable to play an offline game because of that is simply unacceptable. I like how he simple didn't respond to the comment about offline mode being a feature for Steam.

Luckily I don't care about anything Blizzard pumps out.

 

[HSMagnet]

while this sounds exactly like battle.net ladder play, i can see the disappoint feature of those that played DII strictly offline SP

i mostly played solo, but, always on battle.net.

 

[smokeythebear]

Well sounds the same as starcraft 2 so I really don't have a problem with it. I only played D2 on battlenet as well, the game was really boring to play alone.

The truth is the system works to counter piracy. There is no reliable crack for starcraft2 lan other then attempting to emulate battlenet on a virtual server which is not really feasible for most people. That is why blizzard is switching to having server side code in D3.