Blizzard Surprised by Reaction to Online-Only Diablo 3

[robert01]

SNIP

Your theory on the auction house I agree with 100 percent. Something just dawned on me though. Clearly there will be hacked accounts, the hackers will do their dirty work(whatever it may be with D3, steal gold, dupe items, bot farm, etc), but here is where the problem with this whole scheme comes into play. Since they have your bnet information they will have access to the money in your bnet account as well(and any other credit cards, money accounts you use to funnel money in and out of this account). So they could spend/steal this money as well.

And once poisoned accounts get frozen who is responsible for any missing money. With WoW it was easy, return the items, send guild items to the GM via the mail system(man I got a lot of those) and everyone went on their happy way. But with this real money is at stake. AND what happens to the money in the primary account of these hackers? Who keeps the money? Blizzard surely couldn't claim any right to this money could they? It's not like it's in-game gold or any other item that an EULA can say they have legal claim too, this is actual money, their property.

EDIT: Also these hacked accounts that get money stolen, can the hacker be charged with theft/fraud/whatever other charges can be laid?

 

[weirdee]

Maaaaan.

Why are all the people in charge of the things we hold dear so largely oblivious to everything?

It just makes you want to initiate some kind of citizen's arrest to get our beloved IPs back from those who don't treat them right.

I mean, I know about fan whining and empty claims, but at the end of the day lines are being crossed that should mean more than just "it's not a legitimate complaint, let's all forget about it and fall into the rut of putting up with all of their decisions regardless of what they are."

 

[SkyHawkMkIV]

Remember, assume makes an ass out of u and me...

 

[mrdude2010]

i spend a significant portion of my year in a place with really bad internet (256 kbps), and another month of summer vacation in a place with no internet

an offline single player function on my single player games is important to me

 

[Rack]

If it's not DRM then it's flat out stupid.

Even if it is DRM it's still flat out stupid. Internet outages are not uncommon, and beyond control of the gamer. Always on internet connection games are built without the realities of current internet infrastructure in mind. It's like designing a car with features that don't work because the laws of physics don't allow the new features to operate.

Dammit captcha, I don't have a lambda button on my keyboard!

I don't think it's flat out stupid, it might be wrong, it might be unpleasant but I think Blizzard might actually make more out of impatient pirates and converts to the RMAH than they lose in people who don't buy this down to lack of an offline mode. Even if that's not true I think they can be forgiven for thinking this is the case.

Wow, you don't even know what you are talking about. It's a single player game that requires a constant connection. Just like AC2. It's literally the same situation.

Now that's not true at all, it's not an MMO but nor is it a single player game. It's a multiplayer game you can play on your own. The single player in AC2 is just that, you get absolutely no benefit from playing online, if it were a choice between playing online and offline 100% of players would choose offline, it's a bunch of trouble for absolutely zero benefit. Diablo 3 is murkier, there's absolutely a reason to play online, even if you aren't initially planning on playing with people.

Oh and rule one of security is never trust the client. If Blizzard allowed players to take their offline characters online it would be incomparably worse than all of this auction house and no offline mode stuff. Hacking the RNG to give you whatever you wanted offline and taking that equipment online is trivially simple, it's not a pretty sight going online in those circumstances.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

Hey everybody, I don't know anything about this Diablo thing so can anybody recommend purchasing the first or second one to get started or atleast try?

I bet Blizzard wants constant internet because of the store. Loss of internet could result in some problems with bought or sold weapons.

 

[bakan]

snip

Oh, you and me both. I used to raid in WoW, so I'm quite familiar with addons and mods. Not trying to take anything away from them. But I can see why D3 might shy away from them. It's not like Ba'al or Mephisto have an aggro table that needs to be carefully monitored, or certain abilities on very specific timers that require extreme planning. Or maybe they do, I dunno haven't played it yet, natch... but I'm prety sure Diablo will always be a clicky clicky slashy smashy type of game, not a WoW'esque raid.
[...]

You know, mods in games like Diablo aren't like mods in WoW with raidgrid, aggrometer etc.
Diablo mods where story-mods, graphic-mods, mods revamping the whole item system etc.

On the other side it also has hacks like the map hack and it isn't a legitimate mod.

But please stop assuming a game like Diablo uses the same mods as a MMO...

 

[Malrock]

1. Internet connections can be unstable, they can be turned off without you knowing (like when someone unplugs the router because they didn't check what they were doing... I hate when this happens), people can move house and go weeks without a connection. That happened to me last month and I know what I did - I played games.
2. Being online all the time costs money. Sometimes people have to budget, and monitor their data usage really carefully.
3. Laptops are portable, maybe people want to take their game with them? Not everywhere has free wi-fi.

There are plenty of reasons why people might want to go offline, and not having the option in a single player game is just ridiculous.

100% agree.. I have to live out of hotels from time to time for work, and get charged for the wifi. Normally I play games on my laptop in the evening. I can't say it was a poor decision ( I am probably a minority) but I am shocked that they didn't foresee the negative reaction, the detremantal consequences are just too obvious.

 

[Heinrich843]

It's okay guys, those sneaky sneaky pirates will just play offline.

Oh.

 

[carpathic]

I just know that I genuinely have no interest whatsoever in playing online with other people. I have even less interest in opening a potential security hole in my computer.

Add to that the download limits that exist in Canada and you pretty much have a recipe to bother me a lot. Not sure I will be buying this game (and by not sure, I mean I am pretty much 100% certain that I will NOT be buying this game)

Not about DRM my big fat ass.

 

[frans909]

Does anyone know exactly what these benefits of have an always on connection are? I can really think of any.

Ladders and achievements, obviously.

 

[The_Emperor]

loving how everybody in the escapist is expressing their hate for this inane function.

 

[spartandude]

loving how everybody in the escapist is expressing their hate for this inane function.

well its stupid, pointless and makes them game unplayable for people with unstable internet connections

 

[danintexas]

Always on = I won't being buying it

I have many other Diablo clones that work just fine with out an always on connection. Looks like I will be sticking with them.

Call me when you stop treating customers as criminals. Not about DRM my butt

 

[jawakiller]

Not DRM? Bull shit good sir, bull shit.

 

[darkknight9]

"And, at the end of the day, how many people are going to want to do that?"

I for one. And evidently alot more than you bargained for Robert...

 

[CaptainKoala]

As to say: "Blizzard is surprised by bad reactions to a terrible idea."

 

[Siege_TF]

"It's not DRM, you just can't play unless you are constantly connected to the internet!"
Seriously?! Looks like Blizzard's gotten fat and arrogant, anticipated as this game was I hope it falls flat on it's face to send them a wakeup call.

 

[Nesco Nomen]

You will have to make a hero from scratch for online play, Blizzard want to remove the hassle for that. They force you to make one.

Why would you have to make a hero from scratch to play online? There are so many games out there that you can play cooperatively and do not have to make a new character just for it.

YOU SEE GUYS?

Didn't I tell you??


The moment Blizzard allows offline Single Play, they'll be bombarded with petitions from the same mainstream scrubnabs [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pc53tFAo1g#t=00h01m43s]






whining / threatening / pleading Blizzard to let them take their Pimp3d & H4ck3d Character ONLINE, so they can ruin fun for everyone.

There is simply NO WAY anyone can ensure integrity of the pure OFFLINE CHARACTER.