"DIABLO III"

[Jobydrone]

I've always loved the simplicity of Diablo.  I love a good dungeon crawl - very old school D&D.  Can't wait to be home and play some more tonight!

Me too!  I was also just a bit turned off by how linear the begining of the game was.  There was exploration but it was extremely point A to point B, and the massive amounts of useless trash loot everywhere was annoying as well...I felt a little like a medieval sanitation engineer heading back to the recycling center every ten minutes to sell all the junk I'd collected.  It seemed to me the game felt very 90's style, and perhaps would have benefitted by some fine tuning or updating for the 21st century of gaming.  A tough thing, I know, considering how rabid the fan base is and how upset they'd be by significant changes.  I will definitely play this, just probably only when I've gotten through the massive amount of games I havent finished yet.

[Jobydrone]

Who's playing this besides Rico, I kept imagining I was hearing this "click click click" wherever I went this week.  How far have you gotten past the end of the beta Rico?

[Rico]

I'm taking it real slow Joby.  Many have beaten the game already - or are close to beating it.  I'm not even past the beta content yet from what I know (I didn't play a lot of the beta).  I've played maybe 3-4 hrs. so far total - still in Act 1.

[sheldor]

I am in Act III - level 28.  Having a lot of trouble with lard man.   I have a barbian under account markinro.  Character name is badass (all one word) :)

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Blizzard is getting its teeth kicked in this week. Outrage over the DRM, the constant disconnects, server problems, lagging, errors and etc have many people regretting their $60 purchase for a game that doesn't work.

To add onto the problem, accounts are now getting hacked, even if you use an authenticator. Keep an eye on your account and Blizzard is trying to figure out the problem and will fix your account if hacked.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05/21/shout-at-the-devil-blizzard-acknowledges-diablo-iii-hacks/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RockPaperShotgun+%28Rock%2C+Paper%2C+Shotgun%29

King

[Rico]

"Teeth kicked in?  Outrage over DRM??"  I'd say that's a bit harsh - and not accurate.  I'm enjoying the game and haven't had any issues.  Both my sons are playing - no issues.  Friends I know that are playing - no issues.  Only a few kinks on launch day, but I've had no issues since then.  I'm sure some people have had some of the above problems, but I think it's a pretty small number of folks.  And from my experience Blizzard always takes care of you if something does go wrong.  Keep in mind when you see reports like this that there are thousands of other players who are just merrily clicking along killing things and getting loot in this very polished and fun game!  :)

[sheldor]

I had issues the first maybe 2 days but its been playing great - even beat Diablo but like shampoo - lather, rinse, repeat.  Started nightmare mode.

[Jobydrone]

One benefit of the online nature/DRM requirements of this game is that if you don't like the game for any reason and take the time to write to Blizzard, they will refund your purchace price in full and simply remove your access in your Battle.net account.  Pretty unique and customer friendly policy.

[X]

Tim, one report out of millions of satisfied players does not equate anywhere close to teeth kicked in. Also, just for some perspectives. You might have a few people upset about DRM, but I have personally had over a dozen people come into my store for new PCs just to run Diablo smoothly.

If a sixty dollar game can get several people in my store alone to pony up hundreds of dollars to play it, Blizzard is doing something right.

I think that sometimes we have personal feelings about things and they can get blowing out of proportion when there is the slightest hint of validation of them. Again, one report out of millions does not make a true story.

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/129688-why-diablo-3s-always-online-drm-is-a-good-thing

I for one love DRM. If I have to pay for a game, so should everyone else.

Also, chances are that if you can't get your computer online to do the DRM either:

1) You don't do the internet, but knowing that, you shouldn't have bought the game and hoped they changed the rules for you.
2) The internet crashed, which means that something is either wrong with the world itself or a major communication hub in your home. Shouldn't you be trying to figure that out instead of playing a game?
3) Lastly, you can opt not to play it at all since you really don't agree to the terms of service that they offered. Don't click yes that you agree and then move on the something else.

[billybob476]

I was listening to a podcast earlier today where they were discussing Diablo III. One of the hosts brought up a great point. He said Diablo 3 is not a single player game, it's a multiplayer game you can play by yourself. That's why you always need to be online.

I could care less about Blizzard's DRM. I have never had issues with it, it has never stopped me from playing. I ordered by copy of D3 today.

[X]

I was listening to a podcast earlier today where they were discussing Diablo III. One of the hosts brought up a great point. He said Diablo 3 is not a single player game, it's a multiplayer game you can play by yourself. That's why you always need to be online.

I could care less about Blizzard's DRM. I have never had issues with it, it has never stopped me from playing. I ordered by copy of D3 today.

This is so true. The best fun is with your friends.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Stuff
@Joby: that's great to hear they'll refund, I wish that was standard business practice for all companies.

@Rico, it is because so many people are trying and accessing the game that there are server issues.

@X
I get my sources from all over the world X, not just from a few reports. Otherwise I wouldn't be here talking about it. Also, DRM doesn't stop pirates. It never has and never will, so we need to quit punishing the paying consumers for what pirates do.

If Diablo 3 isn't a single player game, then drop the single player, make it World of Diablo, the MMORPG game and I will leave this alone. That's all it takes for me to drop this subject. As it is, the DRM is a bad experience from what I've gathered with serious lag issues, constant errors, servers that crash you out and you lose progress.

I'll talk about X's article. Ok, goody, my characters are saved on the cloud. Why is it then that if I lose Internet connection for even one second, I lose a substantial amount of progress in-game? That isn't much of a benefit to me and suggests that's it's not a very good cloud service. As far as security goes, that is a blizzard issue, and as we just saw, the game was hacked into despite the DRM. So that argument is effectively null and void. And don't get me started on the in-game-auction-house. I'm currently on an anti-free-premium rampage these days.

None of anything the article or you guys states stops this game from being a single player offline experience. None of this. If Blizzard wanted Diablo 3 to be an MMO, they should have just gone ahead and done so. Heck, the game is pretty much already an MMO, which is in stark contrast to its predecessor. I think really, the only thing that doesn't make Diablo 3 a true MMO is the single player part, which is pretty much broken at this point. The only legitimate reason this game has always-online DRM is because they want single player games to have access to the auction house. See above why I don't want to talk about it.

Also keep in mind that I am strictly talking about the tech issues this game is having and nothing about the actual gameplay or how good/bad the game is. If the game is fun, great. Problem is, people can't access the game due to poor decisions made by Blizzard, especially when Blizz could have avoided all of this by not including the SP campaign in the DRM.

King

[X]

Sure there is something that stops it from being single player offline and we did mention it. Blizzard.

They made the game they wanted and I'm not seeing any problems with their choice. Also, if your computer is constantly getting disconnected from the internet ... you have more problems than just trying to play a game.

Blizzard didn't make a poor decision. The poor decision is on the part of any consumer that attempts to run the game on something that doesn't fit the criteria.

Your first thought is to blame Blizzard, but why not just blame the people that bought the game knowing full well that they might not meet the specs or that they would have to agree to the EULA?

Tech wise, they delivered exactly what they said. Just because some people don't agree with their decisions doesn't make them wrong for their choices.

All of this kicking in of teeth could REALLY be avoided by people simply not buying a game if they don't agree to how the designers want to design the game.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

What about those that accepted the terms of service with a good Internet and still run into the same problems everyone else runs into? Then he/she shouldn't complain?

And idk how many times people get disconnected, but that doesn't matter does it. If your disconnected and you lose progress, that is a poor game design.

Yes, I am going to blame Blizzard because all of these are problems with Blizzard's service, not the player's ISP. Server errors and lag is caused by the server, not the Internet connection.

King

[X]

Yes, I am going to blame Blizzard because all of these are problems with Blizzard's service, not the player's ISP. Server errors and lag is caused by the server, not the Internet connection.

King

And you would be wrong. Lag is caused by the speed of communication between two devices. The server and the host computer. Just as errors can be caused by the host computer as well as the server. The ISP also plays a HUGE factor in lag.

Which is pretty funny coming from you because of the countless amount of times you have had issue with your ISP and posted about it. Now you have decided that ISPs have nothing to do with the issue because that's necessary to maintain your view on blaming Blizzard.

So, are ISPs an issue like you have stated in the past or do they get a pass on the blame because of your personal dislike of Blizzard's position?

You can't have both. And if the ISP has no blame, then you owe several companies a letter of apology for accusing them of poor service in the past.