surfsatwerk
Lifer
- Mar 6, 2008
- 10,110
- 5
- 81
Regardless of the reason, Diablo 3 is an ONLINE GAME.
Which sucks.
So what? Go play those games then. This never advertised it would have that. You think it is stupid, we get it. But you're not being shorted on something you were told you would have. This is an online game. It is like crying about WoW not having an offline aspect. You'd be stupid to expect it upon buying it.
Not sure how this applies as an argument (if that is what it is)? This is not related to always online DRM, and I stated the only valid complaint is that the servers are down.
WOW's a single player game too; you can decide to not play with anyone else the entire time if you'd like.
The only reason I partially disagree with this is because there are things in WoW you just cannot solo.
Having no experience with Diablo 3, though, I'm not sure things like Inferno will be solo-able. If it was, then this separates it from WoW. However, it doesn't change the fact it is an online game.
I think this article has an interesting take on that. I don't know if his conclusion is correct, but he contends that the "always online" component of the game is to make sure the auction house functions properly (no duplicate items and the like) since it uses real world money. This represents a way for Blizzard to make money off microtransactions rather than a monthly subscription fee. It's an economic decision rather than a piracy related one (although it manages to address both issues).The biggest issue people aren't realizing is that they are making a requirement out of thin air. A Single Player game has 0 requirement to be played offline other than in your mind. Just because YOU don't see a reason for it to be online, doesn't mean therefor it should be able to be played offline. I can think of a few things that being played online provides an advantage for other than DRM.
Thus is the issue. Everyone attributes to online only as strictly a DRM measure. This may or may not be true (I don't know what else Blizz does with this aspect, so I'd assume it is DRM as well), however it is irrelevant. Always online is a requirement of this specific game due to Blizzard's (Activision) choosing. And you have the right to choose not to buy it due to that restriction.
Regardless of the reason, Diablo 3 is an ONLINE GAME.
I already said I wasn't planning on playing Diablo 3; those types of games aren't really my cup of tea. I'm not losing any sleep over Diablo 3 having always-on DRM. But I'm still free to have an opinion about always-on DRM in regards to a singleplayer game, and I'm opposed to it for the reasons I mentioned. Doesn't matter if it happens to be in regards to a game I had no intention of playing; it's a bad business model and it should be done away with.
You're the one who used the air travel analogy. I was taking it to the next step; if Blizzard's servers fail, your game is dead. Completely, 100% unplayable. And they didn't plan accordingly for the high volume of players, so their servers have had a lot of downtime. And apparently it affects users of ALL their games, not just Diablo 3, so when their servers overload from too many people trying to connect, people playing WoW or Starcraft 2 are just as SOL as people trying to play Diablo 3. That's a pretty major SNAFU for a video game company.
Great article!
You can choose to not participate in those things that require more people, just as you can choose to not participate in the auction house, trading, and 4 player parties in Diablo 3 which require more people.
He's bellyaching because the game is not Diablo 2? How about just write an objective review of Diablo 3 as its own game.
WRONG!
Diablo 3 is only online cuz blizzard made it that way. It has single player component but you can only access it online, which is stupid. And we are NOT wrong about this.
Thats like saying "The road is only curved because they made it that way. IT COULD HAVE BEEN STRAIGHT!
And yes, you are wrong about this. Its an online game that you can play by yourself. Your argument makes sense for a game that has zero multiplayer elements. This is not the case for Diablo.
Do you also want an offline version of WoW or Guild Wars 2?
Well, yes, I agree with the premise that you shouldn't expect to play a multiplayer game offline. But I believe that any game that allows you to play singleplayer, whether as part of a campaign, or against bots, or even in an empty server to run around and look at maps, should allow the player the ability to do so without being connected to the internet. I can load counter-strike and run around an empty map without being connected to the internet, and that game has literally zero singleplayer component. Why shouldn't I be able to do that with a game where you can literally play the entirety of the story alone?Sure, you can have an opinion of always online DRM to a Single Player game, however Diablo 3 is not strictly a single player game so you're giving it a false label. And even if it was, this does not create some magical requirement to have to be able to play offline when it is an online game.
Except they could have just made "off-line" characters that were completely seperate from online or multipler characters just like in the previous games.I think this article has an interesting take on that. I don't know if his conclusion is correct, but he contends that the "always online" component of the game is to make sure the auction house functions properly (no duplicate items and the like) since it uses real world money. This represents a way for Blizzard to make money off microtransactions rather than a monthly subscription fee. It's an economic decision rather than a piracy related one (although it manages to address both issues).
Are people forgetting diablo 1 is now unplayable because it had an offline mode. Duping grandfather swords left and right. Not to mention what still goes on in d2. If the DRM online only garbage helps deter this then thats fine.
So you lose maybe 30 minutes of work,exp,eq finding when you get kicked off, were people really not expecting this? Be so naive to think the game we've been waiting for for over a decade would actually work perfectly? im ok to wait a few more weeks and months for kinks to be worked out. Ive waited this long.......
Isn't one major reason why the game has to be online because the maps are all generated server side? There are no maps client side for the dungeons when you start a game.
It doesn't make it impossible but I'm sure it makes it impossible. To allow off-line play, then all item data and map data has to be client side too, I am assuming. Now, with requirement of being online, that stuff can be stored server side and only stuff like item graphics need to be stored client side.