Diablo 3 without LAN mode?

[dirk45]

In a statement that was deleted in the meanwhile, two Blizzard employees talked about the reason to eliminate LAN mode from D3:

Karune:
"[...]

1) Pirated servers splinter the community instead of consolidating all players who love to play the game. Battle.net will bring players together in skirmishes, ladder play, custom games, and allow everyone the opportunity to share a common experience.

2) More people on Battle.net means more even more resources devoted to evolving this online platform to cater to further community building and new ways to enjoy the game online. World of Warcraft is a great example of a game that has evolved beyond anyone's imagination since their Day 1 and will continue to do so to better the player experience for as long as players support the title. The original StarCraft is an even better example of how 11 years later, players still love and play this title, and we will continue to support and evolve it with patches.

[...]"
Battle.net-User:
"All removing LAN support does is hurt legitimate buyers, pirates will have LAN and their free game.It might take them a while to reverse engineer it, but they WILL have it."
Bashiok:
"More so than overbearing/invasive anti-piracy measures that would affect everyone who buys the game regardless of how they're going to play it instead of just those that may want a LAN feature? I would doubt it.

I don't know a lot about it, Diablo III isn't really facing the brunt of the Battle.net 2.0 features just yet, but I think that removing LAN in an attempt to avoid more severe anti-piracy measures is pretty cool. We're saying "Hey, we're pretty sure you're going to love our game. The multiplayer is really the best part though. In order to get in on that that we'd just like to make sure you bought the game. Cool?"

(from http://diablo-3.gamersunity.de/text2104/diablo_3_im_battle.net_kostenlos_und_ohne_lan-modus_.html - German page).

I believe that this is just another move to promote Battle.net and offer premium services on it. I haven't played Diablo and Diablo 2 a lot but the few times I did it I enjoyed playing with my friends in the LAN mode.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Surely you'll be able to have friends-only servers so you can still play with only them?

Otherwise this is a very very bad move.

 

[deadaim6]

Alright, Pirating = Bad. We get that. But by making this decision, it's almost the same as calling even their legit customers pirates. They're punishing the majority for the actions of the minority.

 

[Aunel]

that is just a franchise killer move.
some mates and me were already talking about lanning it, and now they they are removing it?
totally fucking lame

 

[Dentedgod]

seeing as 99.99% of all lans are connected to the internet, I'm not seeing a problem. Unless maybe you're trying to play at on the Mcmurdo station lan and even then, I'd be surprised if they didn't have internet.

 

[Baby Tea]

I think that removing LAN in an attempt to avoid more severe anti-piracy measures is pretty cool. We're saying "Hey, we're pretty sure you're going to love our game. The multiplayer is really the best part though. In order to get in on that that we'd just like to make sure you bought the game. Cool?"

Not cool.
What about the infamous LAN parties? Can't have those anymore, unless the guy whose house you're at has excellent internet. Why? Because everyone will have to go through the internet in order to play with the guy they are networked to 5 feet away.

That is, as the Greeks say, freaking retarded.

Get a bunch of guys together to play, and you've got a huge bottleneck all based on one guy's internet connection! That sucks! Who is being hurt here? Piracy? No. Piracy will continue, and they'll find a way to get their own jury-rigged LAN. No, the legitimate customer is being hurt.

This won't curb piracy, it'll just piss off LAN players.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

God damn it, Blizzard. Why are you killing another incentive that old time Blizz fans would have to buy SC2 and D3?

 

[Warrior Irme]

I wouldn't be upset with D3 loosing the LAN play, because even D2 encouraged online play more than LAN and lag was rarely an issue. When Starcraft 2 looses LAN though I worry because my internet connection sometimes lags a bit when there is a huge battle on screen. With LAN I rarely see slowdown for obvious reasons. Removing LAN is going to deter me from buying the game, simply because I don't want to have to upgrade working internet speed for a single game.

 

[Laura.]

What about the infamous LAN parties? Can't have those anymore, unless the guy whose house you're at has excellent internet. Why? Because everyone will have to go through the internet in order to play with the guy they are networked to 5 feet away. (...)

This won't curb piracy, it'll just piss off LAN players.

Yes, it will. I play a lot in LAN, every week or so me and 4-6 friends meet and plug our rigs together (that sounds so dirty). We did that for a while for Diablo II... but I guess Diablo III will get no such treatment, since Internet connections are not that great around here (and even if they were I doubt we'd get the same ping we get in LAN).

This is exactly what made me say "screw you Red Alert 3".

Some developers seem to have grown an intense hate for LAN multiplayer lately...

 

[Fenixius]

I have three things to say on this topic.

#1) If Blizzard have anything else to say about their multiplayer, they should have said it at the same time as their AntiLAN announcement. Because I doubt Battle.net 2.0 will just be a shinier version of Battle.net; it will be significantly different. It may be the case that it works more like TF2 than Battle.net, where people join servers, and then can rock the vote or whatever. But it's a bad, bad move to just have this out there with nothing to redeem or counter it.

#2) Let's also think for a moment about people who don't live in the US. Like, say, Australia. Or any other country where internet speeds are not super-fast. Unless they have an Australian (not Asian, not Oceanic, -Australian-) server or servers, I'm not going to be able to play any kind of multiplayer. At all. Not with my friend in the same room, not with my friend in the next suburb over, not with my friend on the other side of the nation. It'll be impossible due to lag. 80 ping is what I get when I connect to the East from the West, in Australia, and that's CUTTING IT FINE for a game like Diablo or StarCraft. Games where even half a second is life and death for a unit, or a hero, or whatever. It'll be impossible. So I hope they realise that.

#3) For god's sake, let us make custom games on your new Battle.net 2.0. If I make myself a Tower Defense in StarEdit2, let me play it without having to go through a convoluted process.


That is all.

 

[KSarty]

seeing as 99.99% of all lans are connected to the internet, I'm not seeing a problem. Unless maybe you're trying to play at on the Mcmurdo station lan and even then, I'd be surprised if they didn't have internet.

Thats not really what they are talking about. Playing a game through LAN means having multiple computers on the same network playing the game while bypassing the internet. You wouldn't need internet service to play the game through LAN, because it is an ad-hoc connection. Apparently they're afraid that pirates will still get the full mp experience because they can bypass Battle.net's authorization by using LAN.

 

[squid5580]

You know what is funny. D3 will eventually have LAN and they know it, admit it and there is nothing they can do about it. And they are making us build it for them. Sounds like Little Big Planet lol.

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

This also kills any sort of modding before it begins. Nothing like alienating your fans, Blizzard.