Diablo 3 no offline reasoning summarized by Penny Arcade

[rembrandtqeinstein]

By their own admission, Diablo isn?t not really focused around a PVP experience; if you?re playing with someone who has duped items or whatever, all it means is that you will be more likely to defeat Satan. Without a means to gain advantage over another, ?cheating? as a concept becomes substantially more opaque. Who is the cheated party, precisely? Satan the Devil? Fuck him, who cares.

Who is being cheated? This is the part of the movie where, in a series of retrospective realizations cut with you looking at your own face in the rearview mirror, you come bit by bit to the heart of it. The person you are cheating is Blizzard, Blizzard in the aggregate, with your attempts to interfere with their digital marketplace. You mustn?t play offline or goof around with your files or any other naughty business because they are endeavoring to transform your putative ownership into a revenue stream.

There, now don?t you feel better?

And there it is. Blizzard didn't include offline mode because they can't sell you shit if you do that.

D3 no, Torchlight 2 yes

 

[jakko12345]

when they said it wasn't solely about piracy, I called bullshit. But now I see, they are just greedy bastards. In retrospect, actually, I should have seen that.

 

[Hisshiss]

Did you also watch the comic that came with it that called all of the people complaining about it stuck up losers who are just blowing smoke? It was called Sound and Fury after all, Which is a fancy way of saying those people are just full of it.

Boycotting a damn fine game just because your mad a company wants to try and sell you something is just being childish, and if you had enough interest in diablo 3 to actually fish for this information, then your either still going to buy it, or you need to stop getting so pissed off about every little thing that it stops you from buying a good game.

And for the record torchlight 2 is going to price around 20 bucks, it's not like the average person can't afford both.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

or you need to stop getting so pissed off about every little thing that it stops you from buying a good game.

You need to stop getting pissed off about every little time someone voices their opinion. You are free to not comment.

And yes I saw the comic, and the Gabe and Tycho have differences of opinion it seems. And I posted the opinion that I agreed with.

I didn't buy hellgate because of no lan multiplayer. I didn't buy starcraft 2 because of no lan multiplayer, I'm not buying diablo because of no lan multi or offline single player. Some people are fine playing in walled gardens, cthulu knows the ihpone and ipad are popular enough. But some people aren't and would rather have the freedom to do what they want with their own property.

If I want to make 500 characters why shouldn't I be able to? If I want to use "cheat" mods to spawn items or instantly level my guy why shouldn't I be able to? If I want a character with an offensive name why shouldn't I be able to?

You are obviously fine with being told what you can and can't do and there isn't anything wrong with that.

 

[lovest harding]

Did you also watch the comic that came with it that called all of the people complaining about it stuck up losers who are just blowing smoke? It was called Sound and Fury after all. Which is just a fancy way of saying those people are just full of shit.

Boycotting a damn fine game just because your mad a company wants to try and sell you something is just being childish, and if you had enough interest in diablo 3 to actually fish for this information, then your either still going to buy it, or you need to stop getting so pissed off about every little thing that it stops you from buying a good game.

And for the record torchlight 2 is going to price around 20 bucks, it's not like the average person can't afford both.

But boycotting a fine game because you disagree with the practices of the company (AKA not allowing anyone to play a single player game offline) is what's happening.
Sure a lot of people complain about them trying to sell you things, but let's face it, every person on the planet doesn't have a super solid connection. I have a good connection, but my connection has a lot of issues with cutting out at times. Some days it never cuts out. Other days it'll cut out every 15 minutes. Just because my local community doesn't have a strong internet connection, doesn't mean I should be punished by the company (which I would be if I was to buy it). My only choice at this point is that I just simply won't buy it.

And no one can say that the real issue isn't that they want you connected for them to make money (they said themselves DRM isn't the issue, and from where I'm sitting there isn't another reason besides DRM or making money to keep a single player game constantly online).

I will also point out that this is coming from a man who's entire love of video games started when he bought the first Diablo (at about 10) when his family got their first computer.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I don't intend to buy anything anyway. I enjoy wandering around the world looking for stuff and going, "Hey, look. The name is in blue. Special weapon--wait. This one's name is in GREEN?! AWESOME! What does that mean?"
The only thing that bothers me about no offline is that I won't be able to play it on the go. Or rather, if my laptop could handle Diablo III, I wouldn't be able to play it on the go.

 

[Marik Bentusi]

Doing it as a piracy counter would be cute. People have found ways to bypass such systems with each in the past and they will continue to do so it the future. It's a bit trickier with Multiplayer because you usually can't crack the community that comes with the game, but they're getting there.

I'm not a fan of their countermeasure, especially since I like to play older games a lot and cases like these would make me wonder how long something is available for which I've payed in full. However, if I was actually interested in the title, I don't think this would stop me from getting it.
If this security feature does have negative effects on my gaming experience, I'd ask myself why people that got the game illegally should have more fun while downloading an appropriate crack. I wouldn't feel any guilt, I wouldn't cheat Blizzard out of their money, it'd be Win-Win.
People always say "vote with your wallet" and would frown upon such behavior, but seriously, if everything else would sound like great fun to me, except for that one feature that I could even bypass, I would still want to support the product as a whole and instead seek an constructive exchange of how to find a better solution.

I should point out that I don't believe that piracy is hurting the industry nearly as much as they always say. I'm kinda with Valve on the same page here, priorities should be elsewhere and great games, like Valve shows, usually sell well without overly complicated protection that only hurts honest customers in the end. If anything I think Same Brown Shooter 8 is hurting the industry the most, but that's another topic entirely.

TL;DR
It's not a great feature, but I don't see how it's a dealbreaker either, considering there will most definitely be bypasses available shortly after the release. That said, I'm not interested in Diablo 3, so I have to imagine it's a title I actually care about.

 

[evilneko]

Further proof that the originator of Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory is himself a fuckwad? I think so. Pretty much why I don't read PA...

 

[random_bars]

Oh, Tycho, why can't you just write in English?

 

[Miggiwoo]

I think that a company that spends millions producing a game has a right to protect their revenue stream. Part of that revenue stream is in sale of game licenses, part of it is in sale of items.
This is no different to a car manufacturer stipulating a condition of warranty that the car must be internally serviced.
Everyone knows there will be a day one hack anyway, if you really do care you can just do that.

 

[ms_sunlight]

Penny Arcade isn't funny and occasionally it's spectacularly failtastic. (Yes I'm thinking of dickwolves, but no I'm not only thinking of dickwolves.) Some people really do choose not to buy games if the DRM is oppressive, so it's not just sound and fury. I'm one of them. I rarely buy games with "always online" DRM because I can't be doing with being chucked out of a game I've paid for because my internet is down.

People who say, "it's their product, they have a right to do what they want" are quite correct. Well, it's my money, and I have a right to avoid spending it on games with crap DRM.

 

[lucky_sharm]

Further proof that the originator of Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory is himself a fuckwad? I think so. Pretty much why I don't read PA...

And how exactly is this proof? Could you please elaborate? Did that particular comic hit a bit close to home for you?

 

[migo]

Did you also watch the comic that came with it that called all of the people complaining about it stuck up losers who are just blowing smoke? It was called Sound and Fury after all, Which is a fancy way of saying those people are just full of it.

Boycotting a damn fine game just because your mad a company wants to try and sell you something is just being childish, and if you had enough interest in diablo 3 to actually fish for this information, then your either still going to buy it, or you need to stop getting so pissed off about every little thing that it stops you from buying a good game.

And for the record torchlight 2 is going to price around 20 bucks, it's not like the average person can't afford both.

I expect Torchlight 2 to be a better game than Diablo 3, and that's not even saying much. They're rather average dungeon crawls. I'd rather Play Persona 3 and go into Tartarus than Diablo 2 any day.

 

[migo]

People who say, "it's their product, they have a right to do what they want" are quite correct. Well, it's my money, and I have a right to avoid spending it on games with crap DRM.

Exactly!

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

when they said it wasn't solely about piracy, I called bullshit. But now I see, they are just greedy bastards. In retrospect, actually, I should have seen that.

Well they are owned by Activision...

 

[drakythe]

when they said it wasn't solely about piracy, I called bullshit. But now I see, they are just greedy bastards. In retrospect, actually, I should have seen that.

Well they are owned by Activision...

Thats kind of like saying your femoral artery is owned by your body. Yeah, technically, but without it you'd be in a metric crapton of trouble.

 

[Eric Staples]

Wait, wait, wait... A company is trying to give me a product... in exchange for money?! F-U Blizzardddddddoooo!!!!!!111

 

[Eric Staples]

Torchlight is not a great game. It's just there to hold you over until D3 comes out. Go ahead and keep complaining that the game is online only just like countless other games (WoW).