Revenge of the Metacritics: Diablo III Getting Review-Bombed

[crimsonshrouds]

No, it prevents them from playing it ON THE FIRST DAY... and only intermittently at that. I've still managed to play over 8 hours even with all the maintenance and crashes.

People review-bombing and asking for refunds are just acting like children. It's a GIGANTIC online global release. If you didn't expect problems, then you're a bigger fool than I thought... and that's saying something!

Getting a refund for a game that doesn't work when you buy it is not childish and is the smartest thing a consumer can do. Childish is the petition of the retake me3 movement. Consumer rights are not childish. If i purchase a product that does not work then I get a refund because the company who sold me the product failed at providing the promised product. If expecting a company who has released a similar game two times before to not screw the pooch on the third release, is foolish? This company should have the foresight to avoid these problems especially with a game in the works for how many years?

Im not a diablo fan or player, just someone who is for consumer rights because I am a consumer. A company is not entitled to profit because they made a product.

 

[tipp6353]

Can't really figure out what all the fuss is about aside from the DRM, the servers will be fixed so why complain.

 

[AhumbleKnight]

I don't understand why people are claiming Diablo 3 is not single player. A single player game is a game where a single person plays. One person, ONE. A multi-player game has more than one player (two or more people) playing at the same time, in the same game.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with online/offline. I have played multi-player games where the other person uses the same keyboad as you, at the same time as you. I have played multi-player games where you play hot seat with other people. I have played them using LAN's. There have been single player games that can be played with other people, or on your own (NWN being on of my fav's).

To call Diablo 3 single player is accurate. You can play the game as a multi-player and in that case call it multi-player is accurate. But to say it is NOT single player is wrong.

 

[lapan]

So this is happening already. [http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/diablo-iii]

In short, within the first few hours of its launch, D3 has already accumulated half the amount of negative "reviews" which Mass Effect 3 has garnered in total at this juncture.
Currently, it's user score is a measly 3.3.

Speaking as someone who doesn't have the game, I'm curious to know whether those who have actually played it would say this reaction is warranted; server issues, DRM and auction house aside?

Question: does this finally prove that gaming culture has a certain measure of entitlement issues, or is it merely the righteous indignation of customers and fans scorned?

It's probably to a large part frustrations about the issues it has had so far in it's first days, with disconnects and entire regions not being able to connect to the servers. and thanks to no offline mode people arent even able to play it offline meanwhile.

I'll tell you what. I remember back in the day when computer games didn't have DRM. You know what happened? Everyone stole them. Then I remember when CDkeys were created. And you know what happened? People came up with a CDkey generator. But it was a lot riskier and more of a pain in the butt. Now you have online authentication. And you know what, yeah it's still possible to crack. But it's still a pain in the butt. AND you still have to have internet, just now you're connecting to a private server.

At some point, buying the game just becomes easier.

The reality is: at some point pirates get the superior version of the game since others do the cracking for them and they don't have to deal with any of the DRM issues the real customers are facing.



The gaming industry is the only industry where the customers applaud companies that release products that don't work when they are bought and that insults anyone that thinks otherwise.

 

[Agayek]

Speaking as someone who doesn't have the game, I'm curious to know whether those who have actually played it would say this reaction is warranted; server issues, DRM and auction house aside?

Question: does this finally prove that gaming culture has a certain measure of entitlement issues, or is it merely the righteous indignation of customers and fans scorned?

Gameplay wise, it definitely doesn't deserve below an 8. It's well polished, and it's more diablo. It's not massively innovative and it doesn't really bring anything new to the table, but it's fun to play, with a well-told, engaging story and a high level of polish.

Unfortunately, the servers are fucking retarded and the game has done nothing but piss me off all day. It's been laggy (occasionally to the point of flat-out unplayability), and the servers have crashed repeatedly, with the last downtime lasting for multiple hours.

I'm mostly pissed off that they didn't include an offline mode, because that would solve 99% of all of my issues with the game.

 

[Sonicron]

What is all this nonsense about the game being unplayable due to server issues? Aside from barely noticeable lag every twenty minutes or so I've been happily clicking my way through dungeons yesterday.
I think the game is fun... not much else to say. I never played D1 and D2, so I have no frame of reference, meaning I can judge D3 on its own merits. Aside from the technical issues surrounding the game (always online, DRM, auction house), I'd say it's good. Not a lot of depth to it, but it's entertaining, and definitely doesn't deserve an average score of 3.3 in my humble opinion.

 

[Tony2077]

this review bombing seems like a stupid way to try to get your point across if they even have one

 

[Crazy Zaul]

Even worse, they are actually giving useful votes to other trolls so you can't get the genuine reviews.

I think in this particular case, but probably not in general, the DRM may be unnecessary. I've looked at LPs and trailers and stuff on YouTube and on many the top comment says 'This is a good game. Anyone who pirates it is a twat' or 'These people deserve out money and respect' etc.
Maybe the number of people who don't buy it cos they hate DRM or can't maintain an internet connection is actually higher then the number would be of people who would have not bought it cos they pirated it if it didn't have always online/DRM.

 

[Imat]

Blizzard & Craptivision deserve every single bit of this horrible rating specifically because of their DRM. Let's face it...the game is awesome but the DRM pretty much has ruined it for a shit-ton of people all across the globe. If you're going to use this kind of shitware at least make damn certain it's going to work when you release it.

It's pretty aggravating that almost NO other industry other than gaming can release products that don't actually work out of the box and get away with it continually. Fucking annoying!

Because this industry then does you the favor of fixing the problems for free, and with little to no effort on your part, while enhancing the product over time. Normally when I get a car, drive it, then find out it gets terrible gas mileage, I can't tell the company to fix it and expect any sort of result. Normally if I get a broken part to something I order I can't tell them to come out to my place and fix the part for me. This particular industry has products which, for better or worse, can be changed both quickly and easily. I'd rather have a product which doesn't work for the first 24 hours, then provides many, many hours of entertainment and improves in quality, as opposed to a product which starts at a bad state and gets steadily worse. Maybe that isn't your preference.

Diablo 3 simply does not deserve the hate. Great game, really fun to play. Day 1 server issues? Oh no, couldn't skip school as planned to spend all day playing a game. Honestly one of the least inconvenient problems ever. Colors are too bright? I'm not gonna get into that. People can have their opinions. But server problems that are now fixed? It has been a single day. We'll all live.

 

[Funkamander]

lets just get something out of the way first. D3 is not single player and was not built to be played only with single player. Please stop fucking talking about this as some sort of tragedy like an entitled little shit about a game that wasn't even trying to be single player.

It was very obviously designed to support single player and lots of people will play it that way. It's forebears supported single player and most similar titles support single player. The only difference between Diablo III and those other games in regard to single player functionality is the DRM. The issue is not that the game doesn't support single player- it does- but the uber-draconian DRM. Can we please stop pretending the always online requirement is some non-feature instead of DRM?

But even if you insist that this game, alone in the genre, must not be played solo for whatever reason (many allude to this reason but I have seen no one articulate it), I think you have forgotten about LAN play. Which no longer exists, apparently. Because DRM. [Actually it's probably worse than that, but that's a different rant]

And finally, I don't see the connection between complaining about or criticizing a game's DRM scheme and "entitled".

2nd, it is complete bullshit that it is taking this fucking long to have the game run normally. It is complete hubris to assume that they should only go with "just enough" approach to server load. especially with numbers coming in that where saying this was going to be one of the most popular games of all time. They should know better. <--- this is the problem.

Believe it or not, I'm inclined to forgive them for this, if only because these problems seem typical for big online releases. Of course, the DRM scheme doesn't help this situation, either.

Or, how about we feel that logging into the service provides benefits that outweigh the downsides of having to be connected?

???

????

NO SURELY THAT COULD NOT BE IT

 

[Funkamander]

So this is happening already. [http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/diablo-iii]

In short, within the first few hours of its launch, D3 has already accumulated half the amount of negative "reviews" which Mass Effect 3 has garnered in total at this juncture.
Currently, it's user score is a measly 3.3.

Speaking as someone who doesn't have the game, I'm curious to know whether those who have actually played it would say this reaction is warranted; server issues, DRM and auction house aside?

Question: does this finally prove that gaming culture has a certain measure of entitlement issues, or is it merely the righteous indignation of customers and fans scorned?

It's probably to a large part frustrations about the issues it has had so far in it's first days, with disconnects and entire regions not being able to connect to the servers. and thanks to no offline mode people arent even able to play it offline meanwhile.

I'll tell you what. I remember back in the day when computer games didn't have DRM. You know what happened? Everyone stole them. Then I remember when CDkeys were created. And you know what happened? People came up with a CDkey generator. But it was a lot riskier and more of a pain in the butt. Now you have online authentication. And you know what, yeah it's still possible to crack. But it's still a pain in the butt. AND you still have to have internet, just now you're connecting to a private server.

At some point, buying the game just becomes easier.

The reality is: at some point pirates get the superior version of the game since others do the cracking for them and they don't have to deal with any of the DRM issues the real customers are facing.



The gaming industry is the only industry where the customers applaud companies that release products that don't work when they are bought and that insults anyone that thinks otherwise.

Until pirates can completely replicate the social and multiplayer functions of Battle.net, they will be getting an inferior experience.

 

[lapan]

Until pirates can completely replicate the social and multiplayer functions of Battle.net, they will be getting an inferior experience.

That particular paragraph was more about pirating in general than D3 in particular. And many of the audience that would pirate D3 are those that only want the single player experience anyways.

 

[infinity_turtles]

Damn right I'm entitled. If I paid sixty bucks for something, it sure has fuck better work. And if the reason it doesn't work is some bullshit DRM, I'm going to get my money back, because fuck any company that makes paying customers get an inferior product to pirates.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

lets just get something out of the way first. D3 is not single player and was not built to be played only with single player. Please stop fucking talking about this as some sort of tragedy like an entitled little shit about a game that wasn't even trying to be single player.

It was very obviously designed to support single player and lots of people will play it that way. It's forebears supported single player and most similar titles support single player. The only difference between Diablo III and those other games in regard to single player functionality is the DRM. The issue is not that the game doesn't support single player- it does- but the uber-draconian DRM. Can we please stop pretending the always online requirement is some non-feature instead of DRM?

But even if you insist that this game, alone in the genre, must not be played solo for whatever reason (many allude to this reason but I have seen no one articulate it), I think you have forgotten about LAN play. Which no longer exists, apparently. Because DRM. [Actually it's probably worse than that, but that's a different rant]

And finally, I don't see the connection between complaining about or criticizing a game's DRM scheme and "entitled".

2nd, it is complete bullshit that it is taking this fucking long to have the game run normally. It is complete hubris to assume that they should only go with "just enough" approach to server load. especially with numbers coming in that where saying this was going to be one of the most popular games of all time. They should know better. <--- this is the problem.

Believe it or not, I'm inclined to forgive them for this, if only because these problems seem typical for big online releases. Of course, the DRM scheme doesn't help this situation, either.

Or, how about we feel that logging into the service provides benefits that outweigh the downsides of having to be connected?

???

????

NO SURELY THAT COULD NOT BE IT

That still wouldn't explain why they couldn't include offline play. Not that it's a mystery demanding further explanation. It looks like you have perceived some slight or insult in the posts you quoted. Looking over my post again, I can see it may come off quite confrontational. Please believe I did not intend to offend or insult you. It sounded nicer in my head, I suppose.

 

[Syzygy23]

I think it's sad that the zeroes will probably be deleted even though people have a right to be angry about not being able to play a single-player game offline. They warned about this before release! I don't care, people should be able to use whatever they purchased.

This does not justify a zero score. Especially since it is NOT news. Especially since D3 is obviously NOT an offline game.

I have to agree. Diablo 3 is a good idea mutilated by stupid design and security decisions, but that STILL doesn't justify the shortsighted, emotionally charged kneejerk reaction of zero-bombing it.

 

[Aprilgold]

I think it's sad that the zeroes will probably be deleted even though people have a right to be angry about not being able to play a single-player game offline. They warned about this before release! I don't care, people should be able to use whatever they purchased.

This does not justify a zero score. Especially since it is NOT news. Especially since D3 is obviously NOT an offline game.

Diablo... Not... Offline... Must contain... Want to point and laugh... BAHAHAHA!! Oh god thats a good one.

To point this out also, and this is my whole point on the subject, the game openly allowed people to play it, but they fucked up with the DRM therefore the game was un-playable by so many that, yes, 0's are completely legit because the game didn't work.

 

[Tony2077]

i don't know if this is ironic or not but my internet kicked out for a bit just now

 

[Dandark]

I see two good things in this.

First of all, it's great that people are angry about alway's online DRM.
And second I hope this makes more people realize what a waste of bloody time Metacritic is, the sooner it dies the better.