Why's everyone mad about no offline Diablo 3 single player?

[lacktheknack]

It's not a bullshit policy. It's a bullshit policy to you because you're one of the 0.1% of gamers who don't have internet access at home (!?!?!). Considering how Blizzard's main audience is World of Warcraft players (all online) and a recent influx of Starcraft II players (same policy) then why should they pander to you?

Why because you shouldnt need the internet to play a single player game. Its why in recent years iv said fuck PC gaming and all its bullshit and played consoles. There is no actual good reason why you should have to authenticate the game every 15 days, or like many others requires an internet connection at all times or when you first start it up. I get that its drm to prevent pirates but it doesnt work.

This may surprise somebody like you but its actually not uncommon for people to either not have internet at home at all or only have dial-up. Really when your only option for internet is dial-up its not worth paying for.

Im not saying they should pander to me. What im saying is when game companies indroduce bullshit DRM like this that does absolutely nothing at all to prevent piracy but instead hurts people who actually wanted to buy the game. If they want to continue this thats fine, im perfectly content to say fuck them and not buy their games anymore.

Fine then, but still - where the heck do you live that you don't have access to anything higher then 56k?! I know a hamlet in the middle of nowhere with literally 50 people in it (no grocery store, no school) that has access to 512k internet.

 

[PurpleSky]

[HEADING=1] SAY WHAT AGAIN ? [/HEADING]

I am going to burn blizzard to the ground.

 

[Caliostro]

This much is true; but you gotta admit, when compared to Ubisoft's massive pile of dogcrap, needing to be online once every half a month is a rather small inconvenience. Everyone has some kind of internet connection if you're playing a game like this (I would hope so anyway, and here I am in the internet suckage capital of the world!), is being asked to check up every 15 days so bad?

Besides, you mention Gabe Newell; and Valve's Steam double-checks every second you're online to make sure your license is legit. Granted it offers more than JUST that, but regardless, this kind of DRM is small. Small. The worst DRM, to me, is the kind that limits installs though... Crysis Warhead has been reduced to a coaster for me.

Being shot in the knee caps is still a large improvement over being shot in the dick, but I don't feel particularly inclined to pay for that privilege.

Steam makes you log in once, then offline mode has yet to fail me. Additionally, Steam offers you some advantages for that particular disadvantage: permanent game backups, no need for a physical copy, ease of use (install steam and it installs everything else for you), absurdly good prices... etc.

You're right, once every 15 days is totally better than Ubisoft's "always on" shit, but at least Ubisoft can claim the "stupidly oblivious" card. Despite all the signs, they still thought that that level of never before done obnoxious DRM would work. Took hackers 2 weeks to break it. There's just no reason to keep doing this anymore.

Won't affect piracy in the least. Will greatly affect legitimate customers, and ONLY legitimate customers.

 

[Dzil]

To me, the only reason to be mad that you have to authenticate every 15 days if you play offline (plus goign out of your way to play offline to begin with) is if you plan on pirating the game. This isn't Ubisoft, they're not paying money to develop something that will decrease sales or anything.

Could we get a link in the OP confirming there's an authentication required for offline play?

 

[00slash00]

why would anyone want to play offline? i remember i played diablo 2 offline, for a while (i dont remember why) and then my friends convinced me to use battlenet so i could play online with them. i was so mad at myself for spending all that time doing single player because battlenet made the game a million time more fun. seriously, that game claimed like 4 years of my life!

 

[TK421]

To me, the only reason to be mad that you have to authenticate every 15 days if you play offline (plus goign out of your way to play offline to begin with) is if you plan on pirating the game. This isn't Ubisoft, they're not paying money to develop something that will decrease sales or anything.

Actually, the reason for most people to be angered at this is that wherever the are going to be/living does not have a stable/any internet connection.
Where I lived for the first half of this semester had to internet connection, thereby making it impossible for me to play Starcraft II. Needless to say, I was perturbed.

 

[LightOfDarkness]

Why does everyone act as if you can snap our fingers and Voila! a crack draws near!

I'm fairly certain that this DRM is going to be non-intrusive.

 

[helldragonX]

Maybe people want to be able play if they have a connection or not, primarily the people play on laptops, like me. We can travel and most likely we are gonna go through areas with no wifi or wireless connection so they want to be able to play no matter what.

This is my reason, also I cant see a real reason to force people to play online for single player.

 

[Boomah]

And noone has answered my previous post yet. Where is this info coming from as there's not one mention of either of the OP's claims anywhere on the intarwebz that I can see.

 

[SturmDolch]

This isn't Ubisoft, they're not paying money to develop something that will decrease sales or anything.

Activison-Blizzard is a company, just like Ubisoft. The only difference is that Blizzard has its nerd-posse that takes whatever they give them.

It's just like with Valve and even Minecraft. Everyone is so up in arms about DRM from Ubisoft, but the minute Valve, Blizzard, or Notch do it, it's ok because they have fanboy cred.

I could care less either way. I didn't get stuck in 1996 and actually have internet.

 

[Ashcrexl]

man, how am i gonna play this in china? where am i gonna find internet in china?

 

[Ertol]

How many people don't have internet connection? I could see if you use a laptop, but don't you go on the internet at some point? If you only have the do it for 1 min every 2 weeks it's not a big deal.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/almost-a-third-of-americans-still-dont-use-the-net.ars

how many dont have internet or have shitty internet that doesn't do anything? well over 1/3 of america. it takes well over 1 minute to authenticate so that's bullshit.

Alright, I see your point. I don't know, I guess I always considered the internet as just being a part of my PC, and I use it all the time.

 

[Gutkrusha]

I'll buy the game, then I'll get a crack for it.

If I wanna play offline forever, it's my damn prerogative. I like to cheat and modify the product I paid for, and i'll keep doing it. The same thing I said when Blizzard started suing the people cheating their single player in Starcraft 2 applies here. You're just forcing us to different avenues, avenues we're more than happy to go to when we feel wronged. I will enjoy the product I paid for my way. I don't give a flying fuck if you think my account's achievements are important, cause I could care less about them. Lock my achievements at 0, but let me play my game my way.

The more you try to force this totalitarian way to making games on us, the more we're going to find ways around it.

If game companies keep pushing these stupid rules on people, the world is going to have a whole lot more pirates.

Thats precisely what the built in cheat codes in SC2 do. There is a whole list of them. They banned people who used the trainer to get achievements as well.

Looking just at your posting history, you're on a computer connected to the internet at least every two weeks, which means you're just complaining to be self righteous.

I personally like the advantages that come with non restrictive DRM like Battle.Net and Steam. The ability to download my games wherever and whenever I want, having achievements and unified friends lists with robust community features, and getting fast updates for my games makes up for the HORRIBLE inconvenience of having to log onto the internet once every two weeks (anyone who was a PC gamer 10 years ago knows what I'm talking about with the updates thing, if you got Tribes 2 to patch right on the first go you get a cookie, and the same applies for a lot of other old school PC games)

No, I'm not doing it to be self righteous. I'm doing it because I like to cheat and 'hack'/modify my single player games. And I'll be doing that with diablo 3 just the same as the other games I play.

The way Steam does it is the lesser Evil of DRM, but Steam lets you modify your games if you so choose, Blizzard removes your ability to play their games and then sues you.

Also, those people they banned used the trainers to cheat, not to get achievements. I doubt more than 1%* of those people even cared about them, they just wanted to play how they saw fit.

 

[Signa]

Considering how Blizzard's main audience is World of Warcraft players (all online) and a recent influx of Starcraft II players (same policy) then why should they pander to you?

I'm sorry if I'm going to sound like a dickbag here, but this is probably the most idiotic statement in the thread. They aren't pandering to any customer, online or offline by adding a feature that no one wants and will inconvenience at least one person with no rational reason. They are pandering to their shareholders who don't actually have to buy the games we play. It shows a lack of respect to us as their customers and it shows a lack of trust of us as their benefactors.

I agree that the chances of this becoming an issue for more than 2% of their users are slim, but the fact is that it still shouldn't be there if it doesn't do anything for us. We are the ones buying their games, so We deserve better than this. It's like walling over a shutoff valve for the water main because no one is going to use it through the life of the house, but just wait for that time that the pipes freeze over and that effort to drywall that area is wasted because now it's a problem that needs to be removed.

 

[cprs_]

anc[is]

With Diablo 2, I think lots of people liked the single player because they could use mods and hacks to their hearts content, without worry of temp or permabans from battle.net. Thats one reason they may complain about no single player mode.

I liked it because I was guaranteed there wouldn't be any hackers/griefers/dupers et cetera...

You encountered hackers in single player?

0_o Maybe I'm just really tired or you missed my point; by playing single player, I ensured a pure experience.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

This much is true; but you gotta admit, when compared to Ubisoft's massive pile of dogcrap, needing to be online once every half a month is a rather small inconvenience. Everyone has some kind of internet connection if you're playing a game like this (I would hope so anyway, and here I am in the internet suckage capital of the world!), is being asked to check up every 15 days so bad?

Besides, you mention Gabe Newell; and Valve's Steam double-checks every second you're online to make sure your license is legit. Granted it offers more than JUST that, but regardless, this kind of DRM is small. Small. The worst DRM, to me, is the kind that limits installs though... Crysis Warhead has been reduced to a coaster for me.

Being shot in the knee caps is still a large improvement over being shot in the dick, but I don't feel particularly inclined to pay for that privilege.

Steam makes you log in once, then offline mode has yet to fail me. Additionally, Steam offers you some advantages for that particular disadvantage: permanent game backups, no need for a physical copy, ease of use (install steam and it installs everything else for you), absurdly good prices... etc.

You're right, once every 15 days is totally better than Ubisoft's "always on" shit, but at least Ubisoft can claim the "stupidly oblivious" card. Despite all the signs, they still thought that that level of never before done obnoxious DRM would work. Took hackers 2 weeks to break it. There's just no reason to keep doing this anymore.

Won't affect piracy in the least. Will greatly affect legitimate customers, and ONLY legitimate customers.

I don't understand this though, this won't "greatly" affect legitimate customers, it will slightly affect legitimate customers. Is it a negative? Yes. And that's pretty bad. But it's not an issue for rage or complaint. A lot of companies have an irrational fear of piracy, and to them, DRM is the best way to protect their IP. It's clearly a logical decision on Blizzard's part though.

Then again, I suppose you could keep complaining and see if Blizzard will change their mind. As long as we do it in a polite, non-hateful sort of way, they'll listen to the community and deliver a title that their fans want. This kind of spiteful rage, however, just comes off as so much white noise.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

anc[is]

With Diablo 2, I think lots of people liked the single player because they could use mods and hacks to their hearts content, without worry of temp or permabans from battle.net. Thats one reason they may complain about no single player mode.

I liked it because I was guaranteed there wouldn't be any hackers/griefers/dupers et cetera...

You encountered hackers in single player?

0_o Maybe I'm just really tired or you missed my point; by playing single player, I ensured a pure experience.

I got it, it was just... redundant. There wouldn't be ANYONE in SP, so therefore no hackers anyway. Grammatical oddity I guess

 

[Flauros]

Well, looks i wont be able to play. I dont have the internet, havent even USED the internet in two years.

Its a good thing i wont be able to hear about how good it its....

 

[Boomah]

AND AGAIN, IN CAPS AND BOLD THIS TIME SO PEOPLE CAN SEE IT.

THIRD POST IVE MADE IN THIS THREAD AND NOT ONE PERSON HAS ANSWERED IT.

WHERE ON THE ENTIRE INTERNET IS THERE ANY PROOF WHATSOEVER OF THE OP's CLAIMS OF EITHER NO SINGLE PLAYER OFFLINE OR 15 DAY RE-AUTHENTICATION. THERE IS ONLY PROOF OF BLIZZARD STATING DRM IS A TOTAL WASTE OF TIME.

NOW... CAN ANYONE ACTUALLY ANSWER THE QUESTION OR SHALL YOU ALL GO ON IGNORING IT AND QQ'ING ABOUT SOMETHING THAT ISNT EVEN VERIFIED/REAL.