The real state of Diablo III is that is has DRM forcing you to be online even to play single player. As a result, my almost two decade long love affair with Blizzard games has come to an end.
This is basically my thought on it as well. Loved Diablo and Diablo II, but my wireless is a little flaky because of my apartment's layout so the only multiplayer that works well is on the LAN. I'd be ok with an online activation. I'd tolerate it checking in once a week or once a month. But I don't want to have to spend a half hour fudging around with the wireless signal every time I want to play an offline game.
But I don't want to have to spend a half hour fudging around with the wireless signal every time I want to play an offline game.
Not even that, what happens in 5-10 years when you want to dig up the game and play it again? Will the servers still be online? Will there be a "required" patch which doesn't work well with your system or nerfs your favorite character?
Not even that, what happens in 5-10 years when you want to dig up the game and play it again?
Will the servers still be online? Will there be a "required" patch which doesn't work well with your system or nerfs your favorite character?
Blizzard is actually the one company that I feel I can trust to keep the servers running for a lon gperiod of time, becuase they tend to stick with and support their games. They seem to have a corporate mindset that looks and plans in the long term, as opposed to most other publishers that just look to the next game and leave just a token force to maintain a previous game. That being said, I really enjoyed Diablo II, but after being disappointed with SC2, I do not expect to buy D3 any time soon.
I think that rather than plan to keep the servers up forever, I could see them release a patch that would allow LAN play if it were true that they had to close down for some reason" or, failing that, to at least patch it to remove the must be online part.
Blizzard has by and large done alright by me - I don't like the drm they are using now but they are the one studio that releases and supports their games well enough for me to put up with it.
I think that rather than plan to keep the servers up forever, I could see them release a patch that would allow LAN play if it were true that they had to close down for some reason" or, failing that, to at least patch it to remove the must be online part.
What if they go bankrupt? Blizzard are a strong company now, but 10 years is a long time and plenty of great companies have fallen before. Then they wouldn't have the resources to throw at that sort of thing- you'd be stuck with things in the state they are when the bailiffs move in.
What if they're purchased by someone less trustworthy. What if Oracle decided to move into video gaming and bought them out- do you trust Oracle to do right by you? Or some faceless private equity firm?
Better to not put the stupid broken-by-design features in in the first place, rather than cripple your product at launch and hope to fix it later.
With Blizzard, specifically, I'm willing to take those risks because of their past track record. As I said, I don't buy drm laden stuff except with Blizzard.
COMPASS [for the CDC-6000 series] is the sort of assembler one expects from
a corporation whose president codes in octal.
-- J.N. Gray
The real state of Diablo III (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:4, Insightful)
This is basically my thought on it as well. Loved Diablo and Diablo II, but my wireless is a little flaky because of my apartment's layout so the only multiplayer that works well is on the LAN. I'd be ok with an online activation. I'd tolerate it checking in once a week or once a month. But I don't want to have to spend a half hour fudging around with the wireless signal every time I want to play an offline game.
Re: (Score:0)
But I don't want to have to spend a half hour fudging around with the wireless signal every time I want to play an offline game.
Not even that, what happens in 5-10 years when you want to dig up the game and play it again?
Will the servers still be online? Will there be a "required" patch which doesn't work well with your system or nerfs your favorite character?
Re: (Score:4, Insightful)
Not even that, what happens in 5-10 years when you want to dig up the game and play it again? Will the servers still be online? Will there be a "required" patch which doesn't work well with your system or nerfs your favorite character?
Blizzard is actually the one company that I feel I can trust to keep the servers running for a lon gperiod of time, becuase they tend to stick with and support their games. They seem to have a corporate mindset that looks and plans in the long term, as opposed to most other publishers that just look to the next game and leave just a token force to maintain a previous game. That being said, I really enjoyed Diablo II, but after being disappointed with SC2, I do not expect to buy D3 any time soon.
Re: (Score:2)
I think that rather than plan to keep the servers up forever, I could see them release a patch that would allow LAN play if it were true that they had to close down for some reason" or, failing that, to at least patch it to remove the must be online part.
Blizzard has by and large done alright by me - I don't like the drm they are using now but they are the one studio that releases and supports their games well enough for me to put up with it.
Re:The real state of Diablo III (Score:2)
I think that rather than plan to keep the servers up forever, I could see them release a patch that would allow LAN play if it were true that they had to close down for some reason" or, failing that, to at least patch it to remove the must be online part.
What if they go bankrupt? Blizzard are a strong company now, but 10 years is a long time and plenty of great companies have fallen before. Then they wouldn't have the resources to throw at that sort of thing- you'd be stuck with things in the state they are when the bailiffs move in.
What if they're purchased by someone less trustworthy. What if Oracle decided to move into video gaming and bought them out- do you trust Oracle to do right by you? Or some faceless private equity firm?
Better to not put the stupid broken-by-design features in in the first place, rather than cripple your product at launch and hope to fix it later.
Re: (Score:2)
With Blizzard, specifically, I'm willing to take those risks because of their past track record. As I said, I don't buy drm laden stuff except with Blizzard.