By Nathan Grayson on May 15th, 2012 at 7:31 pm.
Update: After many hours of patching and subsequent server outages, Blizzard’s claiming everything’s good to go. If, however, you kick open a rotten stump only to discover an outpouring of bugs instead of loot, you can take your complaints here.
Original article: Hey everyone, I just played Diablo III without a single hiccup! Ow, argh, oof, ugh, whyyyy. Oh, I get it: you’re all beating me because my experience is atypical, and instead of feeling happy for me and perhaps throwing some form of party, you’re booting my ribs from my body (henceforth known as “Error 37-ing”) out of rage at what you’ve encountered. Oh you guys. Fortunately, Blizzard claims a round of “emergency maintenance” should have things functioning far, far better than new.
The developer gave a status update on Diablo III’s official forums:
“We are in the process of performing an emergency maintenance for all Diablo III servers to resolve several issues that are currently impacting the game. This maintenance may cause some interruption in communication, ability to log in, use of in-game features, and disconnections.”
Other bugs that will hopefully be squashed under Blizzard’s slow-stirring boot include a full-on game-breaker that occurs when you trade equipped items with a Templar follower. This causes Diablo III to desync with Blizzard’s servers, summoning the wrath of Error 3006, which keeps players from playing the game even after attempting to log back in.
While 37 and 3006 are the two big ones, smaller errors abound as well. John, for instance, encountered lag and a couple instances of randomly getting kicked from the game entirely, which resulted in lost progress. Servers, of course, are flooded, but that’s less an excuse for this debacle and more an object lesson in why this “No separate single-player character option” decision was a truly silly and limiting idea to begin with.
This is pretty much inexcusable. Servers are down right now in the US while Blizzard applies its big fix, only adding to the time people can’t play the single-player mode in the game they own. I know: it’s a refrain that’s been sung (in some cases screamed) time and time again, but – given that this happened – the right people clearly haven’t gotten the message yet.
15/05/2012 at 19:33 Jim Rossignol says:
It’s the “OK” button on the error message that amuses me. It should say “WTF!?”
15/05/2012 at 19:35 tlarn says:
“You’ve been booted from the game because of reasons.” “Okay…”
15/05/2012 at 19:46 Greggh says:
“You’ve been booted from YOUR SINGLEPLAYER game because of reasons.”
TFTFY
15/05/2012 at 21:07 HexagonalBolts says:
Even worse than booting is that my SINGLEPLAYER game is LAGGING. Crippling lag that has resulted in my death several times (and in the game). I can understand if it needs to maintain a very minor connection for the onslaught of pointless achievements, fine. But why would the connection be so extreme as to make my game lag!? What on earth do my computer and blizzard’s servers need to confirm with each other that it would make my game lag (on the lowest possible graphics settings with a 2GB AMD6950 and an OCed Q6600)? My connection is 1.5mbps, sure, not great, but this should really not be an issue, it can play Starcraft 2 just fine.
15/05/2012 at 21:21 twig_reads says:
Sadly it does more then just track achievemnts. I believe monsters calculated and sent to you through the webtubes. It really isn’t a local singleplayer game at all.
15/05/2012 at 23:39 DrSlek says:
Some genius at Blizzard had the fantastic idea to make the vast majority of the singleplayer game, including the monster positions and spawning, handled server side.
Great work blizzard. I am sure regretting not buying this game.
16/05/2012 at 03:42 hmncia says:
11:30 a.m. PDT- We are in the process of performing an emergency maintenance for Diablo III servers in the Americas to resolve several issues that are currently impacting the game. This maintenance may cause some interruption in communication, ability to log in, use of in-game features, and disconnections. We anticipate all servers will be available for play at approximately 1:30 p.m. PDT. We will provide further updates as necessary. Thank you for your patience.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5051765603
15/05/2012 at 19:49 Bonedwarf says:
I admit to feeling incredibly smug that when they announced that single player had to be online I thought “NO SALE!” and I’m very glad I kept my money.
Well that, and the fact I realised last night after reading about all these issues that I’d have been screwed as my Battle Net Authenticator was on an iPod that died last year and I can’t access it, and I can’t be arsed to jump through whatever hoops I have to go through to remove it.
15/05/2012 at 20:10 Nevard says:
I didn’t think “No Sale”, I thought “Give it two days so they can sort their servers out and I can play singleplayer in peace”
Anyone who imagines these issues will continue for more than about a week is kidding themselves :V
15/05/2012 at 20:18 QSpec says:
Anyone who imagines that other issues won’t pop up is deluded.
I knew I should have waited for PoE or Torchlight. Anyone see the Lineage ARPG? It looks amazing.
The only reason we are putting up with this is because it is Blizzard. I am just sad to see Blizzard go this route.
15/05/2012 at 22:03 eks says:
@ QSpec
If your only reason for not playing Diablo 3 is because of the always on-line component (understandable) then stating PoE as an example of an alternative is ridiculous because that’s entirely online too. It has taken the same MMO approach as Blizzard.
There are reasons to support PoE over Diablo IMO (Being independent, ‘ethical’ micro-transactions, even being one of the few Kiwi game devs) but the online component isn’t one of them.
15/05/2012 at 22:37 kikito says:
Well, I thought “No sale, and I will tell everyone not to buy it”. So, there you go.
15/05/2012 at 23:03 QSpec says:
@eks
I didn’t actually know that. If it is free, I think I could forgive it. If they charge, I will hate it.
And for the record. I own D3. I was in the beta for quite a long time. I actually enjoyed it. I will probably enjoy it again.
My main gripe is I think “always on” is anti-consumer and reflects a change that is not for the better. I hope this stands as a warning for most companies.
Blizzard is one of the very few companies that could get away with a launch this terrible due to a feature that was largely unwanted by the community.
15/05/2012 at 23:19 KDR_11k says:
I hope that Lineage ARPG isn’t as terminally boring as the MMORPGs. I remember trying L2 when it was in open beta, used my GBA to bridge the significant downtime in that game and at some point stopped bothering with the game on the PC altogether and just played more Metroid Zero Mission instead.
15/05/2012 at 23:55 Nesetalis says:
@Nevard
You honestly believe they will solve these issues within 2 days?
It took them over 8 months to solve the majorly stupid problems with battle.net 2 on Starcraft 2.
I’m expecting stupid to continue for another 4 or 5 months at least.
16/05/2012 at 12:19 pruchel says:
The issues with always-on has already hurt their entire paying customer base. It doesn’t matter if they fix them and we never again run into a single server outage or lagspike.
The point is it was/is completely and utterly unnecessary and could have been avoided completely. Yet they did it, knowing full-well no server park in the world could cope with the logins on release day.
It’s like they set themselves up for a massive bad publicity campaign, willingly and knowingly. I’m done with blizzard. It’s the last straw for me. Boycotting them from now until their WoW revenue-stream dies and they go bankrupt. I’ll laugh while all their servers die slow deaths while people scream and rage at not being able to play their own fucking games.
16/05/2012 at 18:24 Nevard says:
@Nesetalis
Since the past last night (at 3 AM, a pretty reasonable time to do a patch!) I’ve had literally no problems at all, and nor has anyone else I’ve asked.
15/05/2012 at 20:29 Vinraith says:
I sincerely hope this serves as an object lesson for the “online-all-the-time is fine because I have a good internet connection” crowd. Your connection isn’t the issue, Blizzard’s is.
15/05/2012 at 20:38 Joshua Northey says:
It is fine. The game will be ready son, in the mean time take a freaking Valium. There would be no game at all without proper DRM so rather than whining that you cannot play it the instant you want why not just play something else and get back to it when you can.
Video-gamers can be such twits.
15/05/2012 at 20:42 Vinraith says:
I wasn’t foolish enough to “buy” it in the first place, so there’s certainly no anger here, just a bit of smugness. Considering the baffling hostility of your reply, you might want to take that Valium yourself.
15/05/2012 at 20:49 Brun says:
One man’s smugness is another’s condescension. I bought this game fully expecting the servers to bomb on day one. Why didn’t anyone else?
15/05/2012 at 20:58 X_kot says:
Such hostility on display by those chiding people for having a negative reaction to being unable to play a game due to online access problems. Here is one thing that I have not seen those supportive of this online requirement for DIII address:
What purpose did preordering and predownloading the game serve anyone?
If even single-player access is stymied by inadequate server capacity, the whole value behind “early access” is lost, and now the game must contend with a backlash. Sure, usage and capacity will find an equilibrium, but the early adopters will suffer in the meantime.
That is what strikes me as being a defining flaw in how Blizzard has handled this product: the increased marginalization of its consumer base in pursuit of a) continuous revenue stream and b) an attempt to lockdown access to the code, in service to a). First SP-only people, now preorders.
These are measures that the company is entitled to take, but they deserve the criticism they get (though, more likely, ignore it).
15/05/2012 at 22:19 FunkyBadger3 says:
The game wouldn’t have been made, but for DRM. Really?
Somebody tell CODBLOPS.
15/05/2012 at 23:58 wengart says:
I can assure that Blizzard would have Diablo 3 with or without DRM, and had it shipped without DRM a shit ton of people would have still bought it.
16/05/2012 at 03:47 zypnnjafss says:
The Bluetooth Stereo Headphone Headset great ah! I use headphones to play the game is the best! Because it is more stick! More convenient! http://au81.com/z1lxjDn
16/05/2012 at 07:26 Ajh says:
I didn’t buy it either. I did the annual pass because I still play WoW. I couldn’t justify spending my own money on diablo 3 when I feared this always on crap would make my gaming time on it difficult.
This isn’t even counting the numerous errors people have had just getting the game downloaded and installed.
I always played Diablo 1 and 2 single player or with a few friends, so it’s weird to be required to use their online connection.
15/05/2012 at 20:01 Jimbo says:
EVIL
IS
BACK
“ok”
15/05/2012 at 22:31 Phantoon says:
They just didn’t mention it was the company.
16/05/2012 at 15:37 Craig Stern says:
Zing!
15/05/2012 at 19:57 FunkyBadger3 says:
I’m just imagining the amount of grief Ubisoft would be getting for similar carve-ups…
15/05/2012 at 20:10 Nevard says:
I can see quite a lot of grief
15/05/2012 at 20:24 FunkyBadger3 says:
The reportage in the build up (over the last 18 months?) has been fluffy-bunnikins compared to the vitriol poured on other deserving suspects.
15/05/2012 at 21:04 Nevard says:
Are you sure you’ve been reading the same comments sections as I have?
Blizzard is both the second-most loved (after Valve) and most vilified (after EA) company around :P
15/05/2012 at 22:00 FunkyBadger3 says:
Meant the reportage rather than the comments…
16/05/2012 at 03:26 Nevard says:
Didn’t they write a whole article about how this was a terrible feature
16/05/2012 at 15:26 Ateius says:
Several articles, including one specifically focusing on how it made their experience in the beta highly frustrating.
15/05/2012 at 20:14 tetracycloide says:
Dear science am I ever sick of hearing that an online requirement in a multiplayer only game is somehow the same thing as always online DRM for a single player only game. If you can’t tell the difference between this and ass creed there’s no helping you.
15/05/2012 at 20:23 FunkyBadger3 says:
Diablo – in all its many flavours – is not a multiplayer game. Its a single-player game with a multi-player mode (check the stats).
So, just like AssCreed then.
15/05/2012 at 20:41 tetracycloide says:
Diablo currently has three flavors and in two of the three there was single player but in the third there is no single player. There are multiplayer characters in games by themselves in much the same way that a guild wars character might run a mission solo or with only mercs but that’s obviously (painfully obvious actually) not the same thing.
15/05/2012 at 22:23 FunkyBadger3 says:
To paraphrase: “D3 is a multiplayer game game because its always online. Its always onlione because its a multiplayer game”.
15/05/2012 at 20:25 Dyst says:
but the AssCreed games with the Shit DRM had multiplayer.
15/05/2012 at 20:39 tetracycloide says:
“… had Multiplayer and single player.”
FTFY
15/05/2012 at 23:18 somini says:
Not even that. Multiplayer was introduced in Brotherhood, which had an offline mode. Bought because of that. Ubi learned their lesson. Blizzard ignored that backlash and not they are rightfully being attacked.
15/05/2012 at 20:26 Vorphalack says:
There is a button in Diablo £ that explicitly says ”single player”. Now please tell me again how that is multi-player.
15/05/2012 at 20:43 tetracycloide says:
Let’s assume there is such a button in Diablo 3 (I only see “Start Game”). There could be a button in the C&C Red Alert mission campaign that says multiplayer but that wouldn’t change the fact that there’s no co-operative play for the missions and more than calling a multiplayer character in an instance by themselves ‘single player’ makes it a single player character.
15/05/2012 at 21:08 Vorphalack says:
Wait a sec, your argument for Diablo £ not having single player, despite an actual in game single player mode, is that multi-player does not exist in Red Alerts campaign?
Should we just take your brain outside and shoot it or would you like to book it in to be put down peacefully?
16/05/2012 at 06:35 Wisq says:
Too late. It’s dead, Jim.
15/05/2012 at 20:27 Leandro says:
Diablo 3 is multiplayer only? Yes, tell me more about how clueless everybody else is…
(insert Willy Wonka picture meme here)
15/05/2012 at 20:45 tetracycloide says:
Follows the hive mind and alludes to image memes in lieu of posting them. Yes, you sound like someone worth listening to! Excellent point fellow commenter, a valuable addition if ever there was one!
15/05/2012 at 21:07 wodin says:
Erm…Diablo 3 is single player or multilayer, it’s not multi only. So always on isn’t necessary for a single player game.
Or have I been misled and you can’t play it SP but only multiplayer?
15/05/2012 at 20:30 Jimbo says:
Science just rolled its eyes at you.
15/05/2012 at 20:33 AmateurScience says:
*rolls eyes in an amateurish way*
15/05/2012 at 21:00 jezcentral says:
How long have you been waiting to do that, eh? :)
16/05/2012 at 08:48 jrodman says:
That’s science for you; pouncing when you least suspect it.
15/05/2012 at 21:03 pipman3000 says:
diablo 3 doesn’t have single-player. it just has a mode where one person can play alone without anyone else being able to join in.
see they’re as different as night and day
16/05/2012 at 01:31 wodin says:
or in other words take it offline it’s single player.
16/05/2012 at 07:00 JiminyJickers says:
In other words, single player.
15/05/2012 at 21:06 Hidden_7 says:
Without question begging reference to the online requirement, in what ways is Diablo 3 different from Diablo 1 and 2 such that it is a multiplayer only game wherein the first two are single-player games with an online option?
15/05/2012 at 22:02 FunkyBadger3 says:
Because its always online, you big silly.
15/05/2012 at 22:23 Hidden_7 says:
Oh my goodness, of course! I can’t believe I missed that!
In that case, why is anyone upset about always on DRM? It doesn’t even exist! There are just single-player games, which you can play without an internet connection (Assassin’s Creed 2 [PS3, 360], Unreal Tournament, Quake 3, Diablo 2, TF2, etc), and multiplayer games which require an internet connection (Assassin’s Creed 2 [PC], Diablo 3, Anno 2070, etc)
15/05/2012 at 21:00 Xerian says:
Well, the only reason people are putting up with this is because its blizzard. I for one wont stand it, then again I saw them for the money-whores they’ve turned into long ago. The whole turning-one-game-into-3-with-full-price-tags, amongst others. Etc.
16/05/2012 at 03:17 nanowired says:
I wish it could be pointed out to blizzard(and to the lesser extent, people who still cling hopelessly to Blizzard’s hollowed out shell) that they would of never been the “great” game making company today if all of their previous games had their singleplayer games as server side(Pretending of course, that this level of technology/bandwidth existed for rock n roll racing.)
16/05/2012 at 07:13 Lobotomist says:
Problem is that Diablo 3 is genuinely good game. So we can scream and kick as much we want , but we will get it and play it anyways :(
15/05/2012 at 19:59 Antsy says:
If it was properly localised it would say “Quite!”
15/05/2012 at 20:14 subedii says:
“Keep Calm and Carry On.”
15/05/2012 at 22:50 Runty McTall says:
“… oh no, you can’t!”
Kudos Blizzard, you conquered the stiff upper lip.
Meh, guess I should be glad Amazon stuffed up my pre-order (“high demand… who could see this coming? … sorry! … will get something to you at, uh, some point blah blah blah”) and saved me from just staring at a login screen.
15/05/2012 at 20:55 Ninja Foodstuff says:
Well at least we are thanked for our patience (in the server updates window) that Blizzard is alright!
15/05/2012 at 21:10 Blaaaaaaag says:
I particularly enjoy it when a game, or any service really, ironically thanks me for my patience. They’ve obviously never met me…
15/05/2012 at 21:38 Sheng-ji says:
I always find those “Thanks for your patience” notices quite offensively passive aggressive. They are clearly not personalised in any way shape or form, they are simply a rather sly little way of telling you that you must be patient, no matter what nonsense is thrown at you.
15/05/2012 at 22:01 Ninja Foodstuff says:
We appreciate your cooperation in this matter
16/05/2012 at 08:13 Ragabhava says:
“Mind The Gap!” would be fitting as well.
15/05/2012 at 20:08 Cross says:
I guess the “OK” there is a reference to this. http://cache.ohinternet.com/images/e/e6/Okay_guy.jpg
15/05/2012 at 22:03 psaldorn says:
Brilliant.
Might I also take this opportunity to curse RPS for their idiotic logging in system. If I click “Login to reply” I don’t expect to be unceremoniously dumped back on the fuckatootledooing frontpage. Woulda referrer redirect kill you? Or an ajax login?
Also: people pleading for calm and sanity- Blizzard spent a fucktonne of money advertising DIII, and lo and behold, they fuck up the launch. With unneeded DRM of all things. Way to punish your paying customers. Thanks to their fuck up the DayZ servers are rammed, I was hoping for some peace ffs.
Sadly, because it’s old Bliz’, they’ll never reduce the fucking price either. Good times. Still got to complete DII with the missus, perhaps they’ll have their shit ship-shape by then.
16/05/2012 at 05:39 Phasma Felis says:
“Might I also take this opportunity to curse RPS for their idiotic logging in system. If I click “Login to reply” I don’t expect to be unceremoniously dumped back on the fuckatootledooing frontpage. Woulda referrer redirect kill you? Or an ajax login?”
Jesus Christ yes please this.
16/05/2012 at 15:33 Ateius says:
I am in support of this. No more frontpage-dumping, please!
17/05/2012 at 20:45 MythArcana says:
It certainly does add to the redundant idiocy factor, doesn’t it?
15/05/2012 at 19:33 Hentzau says:
I’m sure the emergency maintenance will be the equivalent of sprinkling magic pixie dust over the servers and everything will be fine and dandy afterwards, but it’s only for the US. Everyone else is SOL.
15/05/2012 at 19:35 MFToast says:
Here’s hoping this online-only BS becomes such a problem they remove it. I’d buy it if that happened!
15/05/2012 at 19:48 Greggh says:
If that comes to fruition I’ll buy you a beer for celebration! I’ll even post it to you internationally.
Seriously.
15/05/2012 at 19:50 MFToast says:
I’ll just buy an import and we’ll call it even :P
15/05/2012 at 20:41 Leandro says:
Where are 4chan and Anonymous when we desperately need a DoS attack?
15/05/2012 at 21:39 Sheng-ji says:
Probably working on intercepting the stream so they can upload an offline only patch onto pirate bay
15/05/2012 at 21:52 Shooop says:
Camping out in major state parks and pretending they’re protesting social inequality by “occupying”.
15/05/2012 at 22:03 FunkyBadger3 says:
To take down the authentication servers?
15/05/2012 at 22:34 Phantoon says:
Actually, a guy that goes by Netter said before the Diablo 3 launch he’d be running a nonstop attack on the Blizzard servers when it finally launched.
15/05/2012 at 19:51 darkath says:
For blizzard’s defence (well..) i found the game utterly boring when trying to solo after playing coop, so i decided to avoid playing alone. Solving the issue in some way i guess.
15/05/2012 at 19:58 FunkyBadger3 says:
How does that help me log-in again?
15/05/2012 at 22:02 Ninja Foodstuff says:
One less person in the queue
15/05/2012 at 19:37 Swanny says:
Uh oh. Need to sacrifice more virgins to get the servers going again. Ah well, WoW will make sure there is no shortage.
15/05/2012 at 21:40 Sheng-ji says:
Snigger.
Which reminds me of a joke, when the suicide bomber goes to heaven and is told he will spend the rest of eternity with 72 virgins, only to be presented with 72 teenaged boys playing WOW.
15/05/2012 at 22:35 Phantoon says:
Well played. I laughed.
15/05/2012 at 19:38 Nesetalis says:
No body actually /wanted/ to play the game anyway….. right?
15/05/2012 at 19:38 Hug_dealer says:
Glad I decided against buying this game. I knew the always online DRM would be causing issues.
Sucks for the folks who bought it, and i hope they fix it. But I warned you all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q8hAb230OE
My plans tonight are to spend $50 on A game of thrones the game and enjoying a decent RPG instead.
15/05/2012 at 19:50 Bonedwarf says:
What I find staggering is Blizzard should have MORE than enough experience running servers with lots of people with WOW and yet UTTERLY screwed the pooch on this. It’s absolutely pathetic.
15/05/2012 at 20:44 DK says:
Yes, the utter incompetence of making Diablo 3 an MMO and not implementing something as basic as a login queue is staggering. They’re handling this like they’ve never done an MMO before, much less a multiplayer game of any kind.
Blizzard fucked up their fourth(!) MMO launch, and this latest one is the least competent yet.
15/05/2012 at 19:52 Spider Jerusalem says:
you can buy it on gamersgate for $35 or so.
15/05/2012 at 19:54 Hug_dealer says:
Sweet, thank you very much.
15/05/2012 at 19:57 TheTayl0r says:
Oooo wait – have you seen the reviews for GoT? Very bad (4/10) is one of the reviews I read today
15/05/2012 at 20:32 Jimbo says:
What does a game have to do to get a 1-3 out of 10? Burn your house down?
15/05/2012 at 20:47 Belsameth says:
That happened once. it got a 3.5
:p
15/05/2012 at 20:01 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
So you trust Cyanide to make a good game all by themselves?
15/05/2012 at 20:20 Bhazor says:
Just gonna leave this ‘ere.
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/05/15/game-of-thrones-review
15/05/2012 at 20:38 Ninja Foodstuff says:
To make everyone’s day worse?
EDIT: never mind, should have read the OP properly
16/05/2012 at 00:57 FriendlyFire says:
I would suggest holding off for Torchlight 2 or grabbing Endless Space or Warlock instead. Fine games, and fairly cheap to begin with.
15/05/2012 at 19:39 duncanthrax says:
This is ridiculous. European servers flat, US servers either flat or under maintenance. If they don’t add capacity quick, this will continue for days at peak time (CET afternoon until midnight EST).
15/05/2012 at 20:42 Ninja Foodstuff says:
I have a sneaking suspicion that they won’t and just pull a SWTOR on everyone.
“Look at all the money we saved by not buying extra servers!”
Right now the forum thread on the issue is up to 700 pages. It’s going up faster than a almost-funded kickstarter.
16/05/2012 at 00:37 Hematite says:
+1, Topical
15/05/2012 at 20:51 mod the world says:
Seems like the DRM boycott has left the servers empty!
15/05/2012 at 22:11 Palindrome says:
The DRM certainly has
15/05/2012 at 19:39 Lagwolf says:
MFToast… well put.
15/05/2012 at 19:40 Biscuitry says:
I don’t get it. Isn’t this exactly the sort of thing open betas are supposed to catch? Wasn’t the entire point of that weekend to stress-test the servers so exactly this wouldn’t happen?
15/05/2012 at 19:42 Diziet Sma says:
Probably, but exactly this did happen during the stress test. I guess some were optimistic that blizzard would go:
- WOW, just imagine what this is going to be like when all our paying customers log in?
- Let’s add more capacity then so our customers are happy!
15/05/2012 at 19:51 Calculon says:
There was likely a cost benefit analysis performed on adding significant quantities of servers to ensure that there are no issues versus having *some* issues and being able to reduce that cost to an acceptable customer loss ratio.
I would guess they made an estimate as to how many people they could safely piss off to improve their profit margin. I dont think they have miscalculated personally…this will be forgotten within a couple of weeks and the *drool D3 pwns* discussions will continue instead.
15/05/2012 at 20:11 Nevard says:
Of course people will forget it once it stops being a problem, why wouldn’t they?
15/05/2012 at 20:17 Slaadfax says:
Calculon speaks the precise, sad truth, and its existence pretty much proves the direction Blizzard has gone towards as a company.
I truly wish there could be some repercussion towards Blizzard so that they understand sacrificing customer satisfaction in favor of profit isn’t always the best idea, but sadly, it probably won’t happen. At least they haven’t seemed to sacrifice quality.
Yet.
15/05/2012 at 20:43 Joshua Northey says:
Slaad- Hat companies are you dealing with who don’t try to make money? Surely they don’t last long? Every company I know is just a mercenary as this, that isn’t a problem, that is the way modern society works. There are things that should maybe be fixed about that, but nothing that would impact whether completely trivial things like “OMGG minor server outage on day 1 for popular video game”.
You all sound like a bunch of raving lunatics with no perspective. No understanding of the real world.
16/05/2012 at 01:00 Slaadfax says:
There are many, many companies in the world that avoid, as much as humanly possible, to avoid sacrificing customer service/satisfaction to gain greater profit. This is not a new or unusual notion, and often times these companies do very well simply because their standpoint leads to better products, lower prices, consumer confidence, and about a million other things.
Blizzard used to be like this, but the Real Money Auction House, and every facet and excuse for it, is purely motivated by profit. It is not a feature to make the game more enjoyable for people (though I’m sure some will like it just fine).
It’s idiotic to suggest one cannot find a good balance between customer satisfaction and shareholder satisfaction. Often times, one hand washes the other.
16/05/2012 at 03:24 Sheng-ji says:
@Slaadfax – In all fairness, I was VERY outspoken about the RMAH but it is not pushed at you in game at all (so far). In fact you have to quit the game and delve into the menu’s to find it. I am very happy with it’s implementation, it’s there if you want it but it’s not forced down your throat.
The thing I am most unhappy with is the MMO style chat box which while discreet is always there and all your characters speech is written in it.
16/05/2012 at 08:41 Harvey says:
@joshua northley: I’m interested in your debate style. Do you find that excessive hyperbole is effective as an argument “winner”, or is that just how you think normally.
15/05/2012 at 20:50 Belsameth says:
All companies would do the same if they want to stay in business.
Would you buy a Gforce 690GTX for the intro movie if your 560Ti does an excelent job for the rest of the game?
16/05/2012 at 07:47 b0rsuk says:
Metacritic user score: 3.5/10 (1472 ratings)
Breakdown: 344 positive, 28 mixed, 691 negative reviews.
They are not going to improve the average anytime soon.
16/05/2012 at 11:31 Grygus says:
Nobody sane cares about Metacritic user scores.
16/05/2012 at 12:57 greenbananas says:
Mindjack is a bad game that you can play after you’ve bought it, hence 44 in Metacritic.
Diablo 3 is a game, however good, that you bought and can’t play. Hence 30-something.
Excusing this on the basis that Metacritic is insane is like watching the figure skater attempt a(n admittedly impressive) quintuple pirouette only to fall on his face and then excusing his bad score cards on the russian judge being russian.
15/05/2012 at 20:14 Brun says:
In any kind of application like this you always have a smaller capacity than your maximum concurrent load. ALWAYS. A great example is interstates or highways – they’re never designed to run smoothly at max capacity because you would spend a ton of money on capacity that would be wasted except at very specific times of day.
Another example might be something like Gmail – do you really think they have 7 GB+ of storage earmarked for each individual user? Hell no they don’t – that would be prohibitively expensive. Instead the system relies on the fact that most (99%) of users will never use anything close to that 7 GB of storage.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that isn’t naive.
15/05/2012 at 20:30 Nikos says:
Yes, but in the modern day of the cloud you can lease processing power for busy times like launch and then stop leasing it after a while. So they could have planned for it, really.
15/05/2012 at 20:38 Brun says:
This is an interesting approach. I imagine that, should cloud services continue to develop and become more affordable we can expect (maybe hope is the better word) to see this adopted in the future. There are a couple of issues surrounding this particular case, and the cloud case in general, however, that may have put Blizzard off from using it this time around.
For Diablo 3 in particular, the game began development how many years ago? At least 3, likely more than that if you include planning. At that stage the whole cloud thing was just barely getting started. So it probably didn’t look like a very viable option at the time that Diablo 3 was being planned and designed.
For cloud solutions in general, there are several issues that often turn off major companies from “renting out” cloud solutions (either temporary or permanent) from other companies (like Amazon for example). The biggest is that when you take that step, you have to hand what amounts to proprietary data over to the other company. That’s a significant risk because you’re trusting that company (even with an agreement) to not only refrain from divulging or using it themselves, but also to protect it from hackers and anyone else that could compromise that data.
15/05/2012 at 20:58 Nikos says:
As to #1: they already had WoW. They probably know how to design games running on a cloud (or equivalent).
As to #2: WoW was (is?) running on AT&T’s data centres, so trust issues can obviously be managed.
15/05/2012 at 20:50 DigitalSignalX says:
During the beta, things were really slow and there were frequent disconnects. Been playing for the past 5 hours or so in the US and no issues at all. Perhaps atypical, but from some perspectives at least, the beta did indeed smooth things some.
15/05/2012 at 19:41 Torticoli says:
The worst part is, from what I’ve seen, the game itself is pretty damn good. The amount of BS surrounding this game is just sad.
15/05/2012 at 19:44 Hug_dealer says:
I want to buy it. I Do. But a series of bad design choices such as RMAH and Always on, along with region locking and no modding support means I’m saving my money. Perhaps ill buy it as a budget purchase, but they will never happen, they still want an arm and leg for D2.
15/05/2012 at 19:52 Bonedwarf says:
Given they’re owned by Activision now I imagine Satan will be driving to work in a snowplough before they drop the price.
15/05/2012 at 20:05 AmateurScience says:
Exactly, the box’ll drop in price but as far as digital goes we’ve got no hope: this is a company that is still selling Diablo II plus expansion for $20.
Which is just astounding.
15/05/2012 at 20:08 Azradesh says:
For the last time, THEY ARE NOT OWNED BY ACTIVISION!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard
15/05/2012 at 20:12 Hug_dealer says:
word it how you like. the end result is the same.
15/05/2012 at 20:15 Nesetalis says:
people can keep trying to say that… but the fact remains, ever since activision and blizzard merged… blizzard has gone downhill, becoming more and more of a disgusting company, caring less about the games and customers than profit margins.
15/05/2012 at 20:34 Kryopsis says:
Good luck trying to convince people of that. When I tried it myself, I was called ‘naive’ and ‘living in denial’. Being informed is a voluntary choice that can’t be forced on people, I guess.
15/05/2012 at 20:46 Joshua Northey says:
Blizzard was always concerned with profit. You really think they weren’t? What are you 5 years old?
15/05/2012 at 22:11 LintMan says:
@Joshua Northey – Give it up on the straw man. Nobody’s saying Blizzard’s not allowed to make any money. Everybody here understands that companies want/need to make money.
The point is that some companies need money to allow them to continue to make awesome games, while other companies make games to earn them a bundle of money. Most people would probably say that Blizzard and, say, Bioware both belonged in the former category when they were independent. Both seem to have shifted towards the latter category since the Activision/EA deals.
Do you see the difference there in priorities? Do you understand why that has an impact on games and why gamers might care about that difference? If you don’t, I’ll spell it out: what does a company prioritize: will they sacrifice some small amount of profit to make a better game, or are they more prepared to sacrifice game quality/features to make additional profit on a game they will already make bundles of money on? If you prefer the latter, you’re not a gamer, you’re a stockholder.
When people say Blizzard’s decisions are all about money now, THIS is what they mean. D3 was already guaranteed to make a huge profit. Did they really need to wring every last cent from their customers by forcing them all online to expose them to the cash auction house?
15/05/2012 at 22:21 Nesetalis says:
@LintMan
exactly. Mind you, i’ve been a blizzard fan boy since lost vikings and rock & roll Racing. I played warcraft 1 and 2 to death, starcraft for almost 5 years, warcraft 3 for quite a while… I played WoW… all the way up to wrath (didn’t care for BC much, but pre-BC and wrath were great.)
I even purchased starcraft 2… and then after beating single player, never played it again. (I am primarily a custom map user and creator, made tons in starcraft, and warcraft 3… a few got fairly popular in SC even…) I couldn’t find the custom games I wanted to play, I couldn’t share my custom games with anyone, because no one could find them to play them.
I gave up on battle.net 2… and now diablo 3 is just confirming my suspicions that blizzard is no longer the company I loved for two decades.
15/05/2012 at 22:39 Phantoon says:
Sorry, what? Vivendi owned Blizzard, Vivendi merged with Activision, and Blizzard had a good name so they kept it in the merger, thus becoming Activision-Blizzard.
You really think they don’t answer to Kotick?
16/05/2012 at 03:16 Azradesh says:
Vivendi didn’t merge with Activision you fool, they OWN Activision and they OWN Blizzard. All they’ve done is merge their too games companies.
16/05/2012 at 05:09 LintMan says:
Azradesh: “Vivendi didn’t merge with Activision you fool, they OWN Activision and they OWN Blizzard. All they’ve done is merge their too games companies.”
From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard
“In December 2007, Activision announced that the company and its assets would merge with fellow games developer and publisher, Vivendi Games. René Penisson, formerly a member of the Management Board of Vivendi and Chairman of Vivendi Games, would serve as Chairman of Activision Blizzard. Bobby Kotick, once head of Activision, was announced to become President and CEO of Activision Blizzard.”
Vivendi does NOT “own” Activision. It merged with Activision and the result left Activision’s head Bobby Kotick in charge of the ENTIRE operaration as President and CEO. Kotick is calling the shots.
16/05/2012 at 07:38 Azradesh says:
Sigh. Vivendi Games was just the games division of Vivendi.
“Activision Blizzard, Inc., formerly Activision, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) is the American holding company for Activision and Blizzard Entertainment. The company is majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA and was created through the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games, announced on December 2, 2007,[3] in a deal worth USD$18.8 billion.[4] The deal closed July 9, 2008. The company believed that the merging of the two companies would create “the world’s largest and most subtle pure-play video game publisher”.[5] It believes that it is the only publisher that has “leading market positions across all categories” of the video game industry.[5]”
Get your facts straight.
16/05/2012 at 16:08 LintMan says:
“Sigh. Vivendi Games was just the games division of Vivendi.”
OK, you’re right, I misread that. My apologies.
But, that still doesn’t change the relevant point people have been making, which is that Activision’s Bobby Kotick is the one calling the shots now at Activision-Blizzard. He might answer to some executives at the conglomerate level, but they wouldn’t be directly involved in decisions like “Find a way to turn Diablo 3 from a one-shot sale into a monetary income stream”.
15/05/2012 at 19:42 irongamer says:
11:30 a.m. PDT- We are in the process of performing an emergency maintenance for Diablo III servers in the Americas to resolve several issues that are currently impacting the game. This maintenance may cause some interruption in communication, ability to log in, use of in-game features, and disconnections. We anticipate all servers will be available for play at approximately 1:30 p.m. PDT. We will provide further updates as necessary. Thank you for your patience.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5051765603
For some reason this is funny to watch unfold.
15/05/2012 at 19:59 TheTayl0r says:
So why are the EU ones down too!?
15/05/2012 at 19:43 HisMastersVoice says:
“the right people clearly haven’t gotten the message yet.”
They did. They simply didn’t give a toss. Let’s face it, the whole “designed to be an online experience” act is pure PR bullsh*t meant to cover for the fact that they want everyone and their mother to use the RMAH.
15/05/2012 at 19:46 Hug_dealer says:
It is Activision. They do like their money, and RMAH is designed to do exactly that. Get rich off micro transactions.
15/05/2012 at 19:43 Freud says:
The problem is that their server capacity is most likely built to comfortably handle normal load in one weeks time, not the frenzy we are now seeing. We’ve seen it before with launches of expansions for WoW.
They should of course have capacity to handle this load if they insist on everything going via their servers, but I suspect the goodwill cost is lower than the real cost of having a giant server park that will have loads of unused capacity in a week or two.
15/05/2012 at 20:02 Brise Bonbons says:
I thought most of these online services used flexible virtual server farms anyway. I mean I know it’s possible, but I’m sure it is more expensive.
But then again, most of their money will probably be made from people who continue to play, not box sales, so it seems like they can afford to cut into their initial profits in order to ensure happy customers who want to spend spend spend in the RMAH.
Also as I say elsewhere, why not stagger launch with pre-orders getting in first?
15/05/2012 at 20:08 Starky says:
They do for the instancing for the game, but not for the login/auth server – that is a single server (or virtual server made up of numerous physical servers at least).
It will be a stupidly fast access database designed to handle X amount of requests per second (in the thousands) – which in 1 weeks time will be more than enough to handle login.
Right now though not only have you got people trying to log in – but thousands of idiots hammering the login button every 10 seconds.
It is nothing short of a DDOS attack. No server architecture would be able to handle it – not without massive distribution and regionalization (such as say with google).
Chances are it isn’t a matter of *more servers* but a limitation of fibre optic network switching speeds. I’d wager the physical limitations of fibre optics, and laser diodes are the biggest challenge.
15/05/2012 at 22:28 LintMan says:
Well, I find it hard to blame the players for spamming their login attempts – they just want to play the game they paid for. Blizzard should have implemented some sort of login queuing system if their auth server wasn’t up to the expected load. That would cut down/eliminate the login spamming.
Or, Blizzard could have kept the offline mode intact, and the problem would have been nonexistent.
15/05/2012 at 20:16 Starky says:
Also:
I’d wager that these server issues are actually caused by about 10% of the player population – the players who literally spam login, every 10 seconds over and over… Wonder if Blizzard put a 1 min cooldown on login attempts it would lower the stress significantly.
16/05/2012 at 03:33 kud13 says:
you say that like it’s a bad thing. The paid for the game, they are entitled to play it when they want.
Of course, if we had a single-player mode, there would be less issues (not to say there wouldn’t be people still furious about not being the first to play online).
16/05/2012 at 07:07 Savagetech says:
It *is* a bad thing. If every one of the millions of players is trying to log in six times a minute as opposed to one, they’re digging their own graves by loading the authentication server down with requests it can’t fulfill. It can’t fulfill those requests because it’s loaded down handling the ones it can and responding to the ones it can’t. Less people spamming = more people actually playing.
They did pay for the right to play the game, but my tax money pays for the right to use public roads; that doesn’t mean I drive like an idiot and ruin the driving experience of others who are paying to use the road as well. We’re equally entitled to the road and if we all don’t act like assholes then everyone has a better driving experience. Same idea here, and it can be applied to almost any social situation where people pay for access to a common venue. However, the road actually has rules to minimize detrimental behavior whereas Blizzard has not implemented anything to decrease undesirable traffic from excessive log ins. That is unless they’ve done it stealthily with the old “fake button trick”–if they just made it appear to try every 10 seconds while only sending a real authentication request every minute, people would be somewhat appeased because they appear to have control over it.
16/05/2012 at 14:08 Milky1985 says:
“It *is* a bad thing. If every one of the millions of players is trying to log in six times a minute as opposed to one, they’re digging their own graves by loading the authentication server down with requests it can’t fulfill. It can’t fulfill those requests because it’s loaded down handling the ones it can and responding to the ones it can’t. Less people spamming = more people actually playing.”
Any system that can’t handle 1 connection every 10 second is an awful system with serious issues, ocmputer handle millions of calculations a second, 1 connection every 10 seconds should be nothing. Anyway its all moot because they could have allivated the whole issue with a queue, you know the SAME SYSTEM they already have for other games.
The only reason i can see that they did not do this is the press it woudl bring up (why do i have to queue to play my sngle player game), so instead they went for not able to play at all
“They did pay for the right to play the game, but my tax money pays for the right to use public roads; that doesn’t mean I drive like an idiot and ruin the driving experience of others who are paying to use the road as well.”
Alll abord the bad analogy express, next stop “junction of completely different point”, change here for “missing the point” and “fanboyism like defence”
17/05/2012 at 03:36 aphocus says:
Milky: “Any system that can’t handle 1 connection every 10 second”
Wow I think you miss a big huge flaw in your assessment, 6 x a minute is PER PERSON, if you have 10,000 people trying to authenticate, that’s not 1 every 10s, but 1000 requests per second, or 1 every millisecond, My music player which uses SQLite (just as fast as MySQL) has a database of 5,000 songs and the file for it is 5MB yet it STILL takes an order of 10-30ms to query it, easy to keep up with key presses, now imagine multiplying it in to a authentication system with 10,000,000 players in the database and then all the disk space and RAM to store it without the data being corrupted, keeping all this in-sync across an entire global network of authentication servers.
15/05/2012 at 20:04 Vorphalack says:
…..or they could have just given us offline only single player and none of this would even be an issue : |
15/05/2012 at 20:36 Didero says:
Couldn’t they just have rented extra servers for launch week then?
A bit of temporary extra cost, but a lot more goodwill and people mainly focusing on the game instead of on the DRM.
15/05/2012 at 21:55 Shooop says:
Of they could have made an actual single-player mode instead of one where you’re just in an online game by yourself.
Get out of here you useless apologist.
15/05/2012 at 19:43 ExplosiveCoot says:
But don’t you guys know the online requirement is there to enhance the single player experience?
15/05/2012 at 19:53 Bonedwarf says:
And it has worked. Can you not feel the sense of community being built around everyone as they can’t play the game?
15/05/2012 at 20:00 FunkyBadger3 says:
I suppose you could class a lynch-mob as a community.
15/05/2012 at 20:34 MiniMatt says:
Can I interest you in this fine pitchfork? I’d put it on the auction house but, well, umm, yeah.
15/05/2012 at 19:45 whorrak says:
I was wavering in my decision to boycott D3 for this always-on DRM but, after reading this article, my devotion is stored. There is no way I’m relying on a server on the other side of the country to allow me to play my single-player game.
15/05/2012 at 19:50 Greggh says:
Some of us have to rely on a server ACROSS THE OCEAN… Imagine that!
The beta was so laggy that I was glad I didn’t buy this game in pre-order.
Damn shame D3 is so broken, it seemed promising.
15/05/2012 at 19:46 MythArcana says:
Right now I can open my door and hear the din of 40 million emo cosplayers screaming their bloody lungs out in panic and desperation as their hopes and dreams, along with the $60 investment, is hopelessly flushed down the toilet.
Welp, back to Stone Soup for me! Perhaps I’ll have lobster tonight to supplement the free entertainment with the $60 in my pocket.
15/05/2012 at 20:08 TechnicalBen says:
Dwarf fortress just released FLYING CARTS for FREE.
That’s gotta be better than an error 37 code. Right?
15/05/2012 at 20:13 LionsPhil says:
Flying…carts?
15/05/2012 at 20:44 Strange_guy says:
Just in case anyone doesn’t realise how great this is let me quote toady “I set a hauler to ride a minecart to its next stop. That happened to take the dwarf down eight ramps and then up a launch ramp into an open cavern. High up in the cavern there was a wide ledge and on the ledge there was a goblin, chilling out right where I had created it. I activated the dwarf’s squad, and he had just enough hang-time at the top of the flight arc to get a punch in. The goblin struck back but the dwarf jumped on to the ledge, where they continued to fight as the cart fell down into the darkness.”
15/05/2012 at 20:55 Belsameth says:
You’re forgetting the ability to load a cart with items and then effectively grapeshot your dining room
!!!
16/05/2012 at 00:20 Nesetalis says:
:O oh shit! I should really play some more DF, been about a year since I last played… launching minecarts sounds amazing!
16/05/2012 at 00:22 LionsPhil says:
Is the fluids performance any less dire yet, though? (Or the interface any less godawful, or the difficulty curve any less static, or any other number of reasons that DF fortresses usually fall to “bored now”?)
16/05/2012 at 06:24 Nesetalis says:
you asking for a miracle? :p
Toady doesn’t “do” interface design. >.>
Fluid mechanics are inherently complex and CPU intensive. Though personally i’d like to see him learn to fob that off on the GPU if the computer has a compatable GPU. Fluid mechanics is alot of vector math and GPUs are good at that.
15/05/2012 at 19:48 Yachmenev says:
Why so many complaints about this? We knew this would happen, and yet all you people went out and bought i day 1. Deal with it. :)
15/05/2012 at 19:50 Hug_dealer says:
Because they ignored it and wanted to pretend that the always on DRM wasnt going to be a problem.
Cause if singleplayer was offline, then they could play that atleast…………………………but nope. Suckers got sucked.
15/05/2012 at 19:52 Uthred says:
This is a ridiculous statement. “We knew it was going to happen”, why have we become so accepting of failure? It shouldnt be acceptable that game launches come with so many avoidable problems. This kind of apathy is why game companies can get away with this kind of thing. We wouldnt accept it with any other consumer product why should we accept it with games?
15/05/2012 at 19:58 Yachmenev says:
Of course it shouldn´t be acceptable. It isn´t. But it was bound to happen. It was so obvious.
15/05/2012 at 20:06 Vorphalack says:
Didn’t buy it, still gonna complain about it.
15/05/2012 at 20:14 Wisq says:
Whether it’s acceptable or not has nothing to do with whether it was predictable or not.
15/05/2012 at 20:20 Brun says:
This was hardly an avoidable problem. Unless, you know, they wanted to spend millions of dollars on additional server capacity that would be wasted after the initial 2 week hype wears off.
15/05/2012 at 20:27 Vorphalack says:
Could have been avoided entirely if the game had offline single player.
15/05/2012 at 20:28 Brun says:
Completely irrelevant. Nice troll, though.
15/05/2012 at 22:59 Vorphalack says:
So you believe that having an offline mode that requires no log in WONT lighten the load on the log in server?
So far i’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you were dropped on your head as a baby. Totally not your fault, gravity is a bitch.
16/05/2012 at 01:39 wodin says:
good comeback..made me chuckle.
15/05/2012 at 22:06 Grargh says:
This always sounds as if Blizzard was buying the servers and dumping them in their studio’s basement. They’re not. Servers are rented, and as the main problem lies with the login service and not even the main game, it should be cheaper to just rent them for a month and have your customer base motivated to preorder your next blockbuster game.
15/05/2012 at 22:21 Palindrome says:
It is avoidable though. Staggered activations (pre ordered CE -> pre order -> everyone else) or simply removing the online activation and/or online only single player would have seriously reduced these issues, if not removed them entirely.
As it is thought this utter cluster reflects very poorly on Blizzard.
15/05/2012 at 19:48 Uthred says:
Picked up a copy for my brother and myself on the way home from work, both of us have spent the last hour trying to get logged in. I thought the loot was supposed to be randomised but all I’m getting from the login minigame is Error 37.
It’s probably just my crazy entitlement talking but I’d like to be able to play a game I bought (yes, yes I know I’m not extending enough sympathy to Blizzard for taking my money and failing to provide me with a service, I mean theyre a big company they got their own stuff going on)
15/05/2012 at 19:51 lasikbear says:
But at least you know all the error 37s other people are getting aren’t dupes
15/05/2012 at 19:54 Uthred says:
Thats the only thing thats keeping me going to be honest. I mean I dont mind wasting an hour or two as long as I know that my single player experience isnt being irrevocably ruined (in a manner I dont understand but Blizzard said it so we know its true) by some guy on the other side of the continent using a dastardly cheat to enhance his own single player experience. I suppose not being able to play a game we bought is the cheap price of living in this glorious future
15/05/2012 at 19:59 BooleanBob says:
Let me know if either of you find a new keyboard in your drops, ‘cus mine just got ruined by errant tea.
15/05/2012 at 19:49 mr.ioes says:
I’ve been playing with 200 to 250ms today. Singleplayer. Sluggish combat and visual glitches are the result.
Not cool.
15/05/2012 at 20:06 Brise Bonbons says:
I had a lot of that in the stress test. And I’m in Chicago. To be fair I think much of it was on my end, but the idea that my wife watching Netflix is going to impact my single player game is a little silly.
Of course, it still felt better than Guildwars 1 ever did. I love that game, but lord, the netcode and servers are rough.
15/05/2012 at 19:50 JKjoker says:
the open beta made it pretty obvious this would happen, i was almost about to buy it and 1 day of failed login attemps followed by a few hours of a laggy, easy and mostly boring gameplay played were enough to eliminate the thought
15/05/2012 at 19:51 Lowbrow says:
I managed to get an error 3006 just at the moment where I had killed Leoric,made room in my inventory, and was hover the mouse over some sort of rare yellow bracer to pick it up. It couldn’t possibly been timed to better annoy me. If this drops me back to the first time I traded items with the templar, their DRM just took 30minutes to an hour from me. I HATE repeating content in games and this is totally unacceptable in single-player.
I gain nothing from this system, as I play single=player, and it’s causing problems even with a solid connection so playing while traveling is impossible.
UPDATE: When I managed to log back in I was in the same place but all the ground items were gone. At least with an MMO I could fight the boss again and get new items (it also deleted an achievement for making the boss kill his own guys but I can’t muster much concern over that), so they’ve managed to make disconnections a worse problem in single player than MMOs.
15/05/2012 at 19:55 AmateurScience says:
The major irritant for me is the fact that the maps seem to re-fog after a DC. This is the kind of thing that makes my inner OCD person weep with rage and tear at his beard in distress.
15/05/2012 at 20:18 Lowbrow says:
I’m dreading where I’ll be when I try to log in again, knowing I’ll probably OCD the map again. My rage-quit has not yet faded.
16/05/2012 at 03:11 Azradesh says:
Yes, it does the same thing as logging out, this is due the the random elements in the maps. Everytime you restart the game all the maps and monsters are random.
15/05/2012 at 20:15 Joof says:
I’m going to guess that the Templar Demon Hunter crash would have happened even offline.
15/05/2012 at 20:24 Lowbrow says:
Since it’s an error “causing Diablo III to desync with Blizzard’s servers” I highly doubt it. I’m also conditioned to be more forgiving of CtD errors. I’ve been less annoyed losing hours of progress in Mount and Blade (though non-linear games have an advantage there, I doubt I would have replayed 8 hours of a linear game until so much time had passed that I didn’t remember what I had done in the game).
15/05/2012 at 21:28 MythArcana says:
Or…for $20, you can play LAN/TCP/IP or single player with no connection on a notebook, along with complete editors for modding…but you’ll have to jump the Blizzard ship to get these kind of benefits.
15/05/2012 at 19:51 acidskrull says:
On the plus side i will never forget my password.
15/05/2012 at 19:59 TheTayl0r says:
ROFL!!
15/05/2012 at 20:01 AmateurScience says:
This! I can touch type mine now. Yay me.
15/05/2012 at 19:53 Cameron says:
Diablo 3 launch managed to cut off access to all of Blizzard’s games for at least some people. You could argue that if Blizzard hadn’t insisted on the always online “DRM” in DIII then this problem would have been quite less severe
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4064636470
http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/4079098415
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4078458347
15/05/2012 at 19:54 Nameless1 says:
I feel really good with the ludicrous 50€ price for this game still in my pocket. Never again, Blizzard :)
15/05/2012 at 19:55 Maxheadroom says:
“Requirement of a connection is not about DRM, but about improving the player’s experience.”
If by that they mean making me go play Torchlight instead then mission accomplished
15/05/2012 at 20:12 TechnicalBen says:
Have they succeeded if the game is made so poor no one plays, downloads or buys it? Oh wait, everyone pre-ordered. :(
15/05/2012 at 20:15 LionsPhil says:
And this, boys and girls, is why you don’t pre-order, even if they sugar-coat it with bonus DLC.
15/05/2012 at 19:55 RegisteredUser says:
I sincerely hope it gets much, much worse and does not let up, ever.
15/05/2012 at 21:05 m3metix says:
I own the game and I hope the same thing.
15/05/2012 at 19:55 SproutWinkler says:
You know, I pre-ordered this on Amazon in 2010, got it today (under £22!) and after working all day have sat down to install and play. I’m now sat here with Error 37 etc just wondering if these are the same people who can cope with hundreds of thousands of WOW players at 1 time but can’t let you log on and play a single player game… :-(
15/05/2012 at 20:14 Nevard says:
I’d imagine more simultaneous people are trying to log in at the same time now than are on WoW concurrently on a similar week.
Trust me, the first 2-3 days of a WoW launch are exactly the same.
15/05/2012 at 19:56 Kaira- says:
Luckily even us who haven’t bought Diablo III can enjoy the true Diablo III experience straight from our browsers. Truly magical times we live in.
15/05/2012 at 20:14 Hodge says:
Now I feel like a pirate.
15/05/2012 at 20:22 squareking says:
I was going through and reading the snide comments and thinking, “Oh, come on guys, this sucks for everyone who wants to play.” Then I got here and laughed merrily.
15/05/2012 at 20:33 7hink says:
If you press F11 it’s just like the real thing. For only €60 you get the 75 error as well.
16/05/2012 at 08:52 Harvey says:
You made me spit my bourbon! Thanks for that.
15/05/2012 at 19:57 Brise Bonbons says:
I’m actually going to defend Blizzard on this one and pull out the tired old, “hey, it’s launch, shit happens”. I do think they should have used a staggered roll-out where pre-purchase users and those with annual WoW subs could get in early; that seems like it would have been prudent. But otherwise this seems like just another undiscovered engineer screw up to me. No one is dying because of this. They certainly didn’t do it on purpose, and I’m sure they would have preferred to avoid it if they could have. If it wasn’t always-online play it might have been online validation hiccups like Valve games always seem to have.
Now, that said, I didn’t buy the game so I’m unusually neutral about it. I played the latest open beta weekends for both D3 and Path of Exile, and just found the latter a much more compelling game for my tastes. I thought I’d mention that just to cement my hipster cred, also I have the flu and am feeling loopy. But I dunno. If the always-online thing is such a problem, go buy Torchlight 2 and don’t reward Blizzard for their choices. Total Biscuit says it better than I can, but in short, either muster some will and use the tools you have as a consumer to support business models you like, or stop bitching about it.
Sorry for being so unkind here, but like I say, my brain isn’t at 100% right now. I hope you’ll forgive me.
15/05/2012 at 20:19 Uthred says:
This isnt a technical error, no engineer fucked up on this. Its a capacity error. Blizzard simply decided that the cost of extra login servers wasnt warranted. So no, “Its launch” isnt a sufficient justification and the fact that people accept it without thinking is why it keeps on happening. As for no one dying over this, no fucking shit, there are things more important in the world than games, what a revelation. But wait, this is a games site, its almost as if the core topic is gaming. But that cant be right can it?
15/05/2012 at 20:22 Brun says:
You’re the one not thinking. NO ONE designs high-demand systems around maximum demand. You always design around average demand. Doing the former is prohibitively expensive.
15/05/2012 at 20:50 DK says:
You know what reduces demand? Not forcing people to log into those servers that are oh so expensive to maintain.
Oh no, the system we designed specifically to be expensive for us is costing us too much money. Whaa, Whaa, Whaa Blizzard.
15/05/2012 at 21:03 rocketman71 says:
YOU DO on launch days, if you want to maintain your reputation. After that, you balance until you reach a happy number.
Also, when you’re Blizzard and you are swimming on money, you don’t have an excuse for not having enough servers at launch. ESPECIALLY when you did an stress test the week before, and you know how many preorders you’ve got.
It seems that Blizzard’s greed is getting in the way of their competence.
15/05/2012 at 21:33 MythArcana says:
This, folks.
If you wish to maintain vanity, don’t show up to the party with poo on your cheek.
15/05/2012 at 23:51 Uthred says:
As others have pointed out, servers dont have to be bought outright and kept forever, they can simply be rented. Blizzard rents extra servers for launch, once things quite down they stop, its not rocket science. Blizzard dont think the expense was worth it, but dont pretend that they didnt have a good idea what would happen (the beta weekend alone should have showed them) and that they couldnt have prevented out. Corporations dont lead your love and defence, especially ones that should know better
16/05/2012 at 05:49 SkittleDiddler says:
Blizzard can afford to spend eight digits in festooning Korean jet airliners with Starcraft 2 advertisements, yet they can’t shell out the cost to rent virtual servers for a couple weeks? Bullshit. Stop making excuses for them.
16/05/2012 at 11:54 Grygus says:
I know, right? Nobody ever designs for maximum capacity ever, that’s why Wall Street’s entire network crashes whenever there is heavy trading. That’s why the Internet goes down on the weekends. That’s why satellites fall from the sky when a TV show is too popular. That’s why you can’t get to Google, ever.
Or maybe you are parroting something you heard from someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. A well-designed system ABSOLUTELY DOES have a way to handle maximum capacity, and doesn’t die until it reaches physical or financial limitations. Blizzard’s system is not well-designed from this perspective, and they are not adhering to some sort of industry standard in this poor design; they’re simply taking advantage of their customers’ tolerance for failure.
15/05/2012 at 20:32 Vorphalack says:
It’s not really a defensible issue when the solution would have been to implement offline only single player.
15/05/2012 at 19:58 ninjapirate says:
Suddenly it doesn’t feel that bad that I have to wait until Friday for my D3 order to arrive…
16/05/2012 at 08:51 Dunamis says:
Same here.
15/05/2012 at 19:58 Althilor says:
I suppose it makes a good tagline for marketing though.
“Endless travails and hardships….and that’s just logging in!”
16/05/2012 at 12:27 Didero says:
Ok, this one had me actually laughing out loud.
15/05/2012 at 19:59 Kestrel says:
Obligatory Torchlight II plug here.
15/05/2012 at 20:00 Xzi says:
Worst launch I’ve experienced, bar none. This isn’t WoW, so there was no reason for the online-only requirement. Even if it were the same, WoW had a much smoother launch. They should have literally had enough server capacity to accommodate every single person who pre-ordered, and then some. If those servers are later unneeded for D3, switch ‘em over to another game/project.
No matter what anyone says, Blizzard is not the same since the Activision merger.
15/05/2012 at 20:14 Moraven says:
After 2 days WoW was unplayable for 2-3 weeks. Until a queue system was in place and more servers launched.
15/05/2012 at 20:35 Xzi says:
I don’t recall anything like that. I was playing for the entire launch week with no issues. Troll Rogue named Xzi, as a matter of fact.
15/05/2012 at 20:40 Hug_dealer says:
i recall it quite well.
Along with the fact that you would often get stuck in a looting animation and had to log out and back in to fix it.
15/05/2012 at 21:06 Xzi says:
I got some lag now and again, that was about it. Guess maybe I was just lucky. Or it had something to do with the fact that I had to switch servers a couple times in the first thirty minutes, and ended up on the lowest population one for the time.
15/05/2012 at 20:13 Hodge says:
The Torchlight guys may have been on to something when they decided to delay their launch.
15/05/2012 at 20:13 Moraven says:
This is not a single player game, despite the last two having the option. It is an online game that can be played alone. WoW, Tera, TOR, Guild Wars. Tho it is more like Guild Wars with no persistent world and everyone playing in their own instance of the game other than town/chat channels.
From all the hype from TOR and the story line quests, a lot of comments about the game said how it felt like a single player game in a MMO. Ask yourself, wouldn’t you mind playing that offline? You doing it all solo, being off or online makes no difference to your experience, other than running into people stealing you quest mobs or maybe saving you. You have a companion anyway to help.
15/05/2012 at 21:11 Swanny says:
This is not a single player game, despite the last two having the option. It is an online game that can be played alone.
This is a really good point- well done.
16/05/2012 at 01:44 wodin says:
or could have been an offline game you play alone.
15/05/2012 at 21:14 zeekthegeek says:
I wouldn’t play SWTOR offline or on and I won’t play Diablo 3 either. Funny that.
16/05/2012 at 03:20 Consumatopia says:
I look at it like this: If you can pay money for a box that ostensibly contains the game (it’s colorfully labelled “Diablo III”) and if you can (and most people probably will) complete the game without the possibility of interacting with another player, then it is a single player game. So far as I know, that doesn’t apply completely to any of the games you listed–you may be able to instance dungeons, but not an entire game (I doubt any of those games even have endings.)
In fact, Diablo III can never be un-instanced–you never go to any sort of village to interact with thousands of other D3 players on a server. (The Auction House is a set of menus and listings, not a place you can walk around and socialize.)
To put it another way, when those people were saying that those MMOGs felt like single-player games, that was criticism–they felt the games were supposed to be offering something they didn’t expect to find in single-player games. It would make no sense to criticize Diablo III by saying that it feels like a single-player game.
So I suppose a game gets to choose which kind of criticism it wants to face–that it’s online component isn’t sufficiently dynamic, or that it can’t be played offline. TOR is vulnerable to the first, D3 to the second. They are essentially two sides of the same coin–if you are going to put me through the inconvenience of being online-only, it should be for a very good reason.
I suspect that these diverging standards are because players imagined that in MMOGs the content was downloaded from the server every time they enter a new part of the game (e.g. as in Second Life). They came to think of MMOGs as places they visit, while single-player games are things they possess locally. So when I can’t play an MMO, I say “I can’t get to the place”, when I can’t play a single player game, I say “this stupid thing doesn’t work because it’s trying to call home”. Ultimately, if the experience is substantively single player (as playing D3 alone is), the second way of thinking about it is still correct–if Diablo 3 is not working, it is because it’s an intentionally crippled product.
16/05/2012 at 11:57 Grygus says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_logic
15/05/2012 at 20:17 Waldkoenig says:
GW2-Stresstest went better then D3-Launch btw…
15/05/2012 at 20:20 Moraven says:
But it has no single player offline mode and always-on DRM.
15/05/2012 at 21:22 Malk_Content says:
To be fair the last BWE for GW2 was god awful (in term of being able to connect.) I had a friend come over around 4 in the afternoon to try it. We didn’t get in till past ten, and that was with trying after every other best of five on SfXTekken.
15/05/2012 at 23:29 Vorphalack says:
The one day beta on the 14th may was almost flawless, they upgraded the server capacity considerably to cope with the huge number of pre-purchases. The weekend beta before that was hard to log into, but you can let them off there as it was the first beta and a large number of people pre-purchased in the week before the event went up.
Compare that to Diablo £, where they not only have a full stress test a few weeks before launch, but they also have several years to count the number of pre-orders. Inexcusable.
16/05/2012 at 03:34 nanowired says:
The Diablo 3 stress test went better than the launch.
15/05/2012 at 20:19 Sidion says:
Wait, so I buy this game two days ago, because I’m lured in by the idea that I can, “Play as soon as servers launch, and preload the game!”
Okay deal. I pay the $59.99 (Which I am already against because I think that’s too much for a digital release, but whatever.
Come 11:30 pm, I’m waiting. I’ve stopped playing Day Z, and am ready to grind through some dungeons. Error 37. Error 37… By the time I stop putting in my password to check what the damn problem is, it’s 1:44 am. WTH
By 1:50 I can make a character, of course as soon as I try to log in I am swiftly kicked from the server. Whatever, it sucks I was tricked, but I have tomorrow off! I’ll just wait and play then right?
I wake up, try to log on… Nadda.
Seriously if this is how Blizzard launches games why are they in business?
15/05/2012 at 20:22 Moraven says:
I only got to character creation. =/ This morning I had 15 Demon Hunters made with the same name.
15/05/2012 at 21:12 MythArcana says:
“Wait, so I buy this game two days ago, because I’m lured in by the idea that I can, “Play as soon as servers launch, and preload the game!””
Well, obviously you missed every other game launch that Blizzard has had on B.net because this happens each and every time. It took them many months to stabilize the servers when D2 came out and really wasn’t much different from what we are seeing today.
15/05/2012 at 22:11 FunkyBadger3 says:
Guess how many times B.Net outages stopped me playing D2. Go on, guess…
16/05/2012 at 12:00 Grygus says:
Twice, because you were reading outraged forum posts, instead?
16/05/2012 at 03:35 nanowired says:
Because people don’t seem to notice that all the people who made Rock n Roll Racing, Blackthorne, the Lost Vikings, Warcraft 1 2 3, Starcraft 1, and Diablo 1 and 2 no longer work for the company and instead it’s being operated by some bean counters who don’t give a f— what a Horadric Rombus is.
15/05/2012 at 20:20 sonofsanta says:
This post in the 3006 forums says it all:
Fucking atrocious.
All this is all the more annoying for the fact that, ok, characters can’t move between off- and on-line, there’s a better experience online with mates, fine with that… but I had all that in D2 and still had the option of just playing the fucking game if I wanted to. All this stuff about needing to be online is bullshit.
15/05/2012 at 20:21 Zarunil says:
This is sure to bring the devil out in people.
15/05/2012 at 20:24 Grargh says:
It is evident that this launch night ended in a grim dawn.
15/05/2012 at 20:41 MiniMatt says:
If dawn is too grim you may need to light a torch.
15/05/2012 at 21:26 dmoe says:
Best subthread here.
15/05/2012 at 22:53 Strange_guy says:
Whoever was responsible for this disaster should be shown the path to the door and exiled.
15/05/2012 at 23:27 povu says:
This was Fate.
16/05/2012 at 03:53 oceanview says:
It will be a titanic quest for anyone who has to fix this
16/05/2012 at 05:01 nanowired says:
Ooo ooo can I play this game too?
THIS IS A HALO A GOOD TIME
15/05/2012 at 20:23 Bane2087 says:
Blizzard suckered me again. Bored waiting for GW2 figured this will pass the time. If I could ever log in that is, even the brief time I managed to get in I couldn’t join my friend, which was the whole reason I bought the game. One of the most successful companies in PC gaming could not afford server capacity or bandwidth so people can log in to play on launch day? I think not. Pathetic.
Whatever happened to Blizzard? They are just crap now. Ah well at least it guaranteed me not succumbing to getting MoP, they won’t get my money again.
15/05/2012 at 21:16 MythArcana says:
What happened to Blizzard? Well, it probably all started when they fired the entire Diablo 2 development team after the expansion and started pumping out emo-cosplay cartoon crap I imagine.
16/05/2012 at 03:37 nanowired says:
Most definately this.
15/05/2012 at 20:23 QSpec says:
Dear Torchlight… Now is the time to release… right… now.
16/05/2012 at 03:38 nanowired says:
Yea, the “FINISH HIM” animation is on the screen. All they have to do is enter the code…
15/05/2012 at 20:28 Brun says:
So many people in this thread don’t know how high-demand service systems work. It’s really disappointing, RPS.
15/05/2012 at 20:33 Vorphalack says:
You know the best way to manage load on servers? Offline mode.
15/05/2012 at 20:43 Brun says:
We know you’re upset about no offline mode Vorph. But we also don’t care. So go ahead. Enjoy telling everyone you told them so. You’re SO much smarter than me. Really you are. Seriously.
In the meantime, I’ll be looking forward to playing the game.
15/05/2012 at 20:50 pipman3000 says:
you could be playing it right now if blizzard wasn’t ran by morons :p
15/05/2012 at 20:53 Brun says:
Actually, I couldn’t (not at home). But I’m not in a particular rush to play the game anyway, so I wouldn’t be terribly miffed if I couldn’t.
15/05/2012 at 20:58 pipman3000 says:
figures the only person who doesn’t mind isn’t planning to play the game anyway :p
15/05/2012 at 22:12 FunkyBadger3 says:
ZING!
16/05/2012 at 15:59 briktal says:
I’ve never understood the appeal of that. It’s like the people who start up a character on a new server in an MMO when their server is down for an hour.
15/05/2012 at 21:29 Eddy9000 says:
Yes, I can’t see anyone in these comments that cares about the lack of offline mode. No one at all.
15/05/2012 at 22:52 Vorphalack says:
You don’t need to tell me how much smarter I am. I already know. Comes from being that much smarter ¬ ¬
16/05/2012 at 01:46 wodin says:
I care..well said Vor…
16/05/2012 at 07:39 JiminyJickers says:
I also care.
15/05/2012 at 20:40 QSpec says:
Hey look… there goes the point.
15/05/2012 at 20:48 Jimbo says:
No part of that makes it ok to sell a service which you can’t adequately provide. Not really sure what your point is here.
15/05/2012 at 20:52 Brun says:
It happened in WoW, and it happens in other MMOs all the time, for the exact same reason. Would you accuse them of selling services they could not provide?
15/05/2012 at 21:02 ExplosiveCoot says:
Yes.
15/05/2012 at 21:55 Jimbo says:
Yes I would. If you can only meet the demand of 1 million copies worth of activity initially then only make 1 million copies available initially. Selling something you can’t actually provide isn’t an acceptable solution – that should go without saying.
It’s more egregious in this case because the process which has become the bottleneck isn’t really a necessary process for a lot of people. This was an entirely avoidable problem.
15/05/2012 at 23:52 Uthred says:
“It happens all the time so its ok” has never been a viable defence of anything
15/05/2012 at 21:19 MythArcana says:
So, in essence, what you are saying here is that fiasco is perfectly acceptable for YOU and that it doesn’t inconvenience YOU in the least since YOU are at work anyway and don’t particularly care to play anyway. Perhaps YOU can throw away $60 and forget about it, but these other 40 million people would like to play…if it’s alright with YOU.
16/05/2012 at 03:39 nanowired says:
yea, they’re the people who still think this wasn’t avoidable.
15/05/2012 at 20:31 rocketman71 says:
It seems not only Blizzard doesn’t give a fuck about what gamers want. They also don’t know how to do a proper stress test.
15/05/2012 at 20:36 dahools says:
Just to add another twist to it, I bought it last night, (paid full price in the end) :( .
Logged in first time this morning, No problem! played for about 6 hours before realising I should start putting some hours into my other character ( real life! ;) )
During play it never disconnected once, I swapped plenty of gear forward and back with the templar character no problems and had a ping of <40 mS
general chat was quiet but in use.
I think all the boxed copies have turned up now with people finishing work/school + dinner and the log in is being spammed like mad. tried going back on few mins ago only to get server busy (37) or server down (75).
I dont think its broken or a bad release, people have just got to realise it peak time on launch day give em some slack.
15/05/2012 at 22:14 Ultra-Humanite says:
“Give them slack?” What you are proposing is akin to an airline overbooking a flight and not having enough seats to cover the tickets they sold. Give them slack for intentionally screwing up in order to maximize launch day sales. That’s rich.
16/05/2012 at 08:19 dahools says:
How does intentionally screwing up maximise launch day sales? I don’t understand that one.
Plus it was back on again last night by half 9ish, as I put another hour into it before I went to sleep.
I’m talking about the EU server aswell not either of the other two. I didn’t even try them.
15/05/2012 at 20:36 trjp says:
I love these threads – the majority of the whinge coming from people who’ve not bought the game and are DESPERATE for validation for the stupid, childish protesting against the inevitable…
Sat in their thrones on the beach of single player as the tide of multiplayer/only comes in – I hope they all drown.
That or they stop trying to find validation by crowing about something that shouldn’t affect them – but somehow it does – funny that, isn’t it.
15/05/2012 at 20:38 Hug_dealer says:
hmmmm. This comes to mind after reading that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0
15/05/2012 at 20:44 DiamondDog says:
You hope they all drown? For being interested in single player? When developers all across the world still spend billions developing single player experiences?
I don’t…
What?
15/05/2012 at 20:44 NorfTehBarbarian says:
You might hope they drown. Personally, I hope you get cancer. Idiot.
15/05/2012 at 20:47 Brun says:
It’s an analogy, genius. Take it easy.
16/05/2012 at 03:44 nanowired says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk
16/05/2012 at 04:50 Beva says:
Oh, ok, thanks. If that is an analogy here is another one, to both of you: “Fuck right off”. Maybe this is a metaphore? Bah, who cares, right?
15/05/2012 at 20:46 pipman3000 says:
the five stages of diablo 3
1. denial
“I love these threads – the majority of the whinge coming from people who’ve not bought the game and are DESPERATE for validation for the stupid, childish protesting against the inevitable…”
2. angry denial
“Sat in their thrones on the beach of single player as the tide of multiplayer/only comes in – I hope they all drown.”
3. stupidity and even more denial
“That or they stop trying to find validation by crowing about something that shouldn’t affect them – but somehow it does – funny that, isn’t it.”
(this post will be updated as you proceed through the stages)
15/05/2012 at 20:46 pantognost says:
Please explain to me, since you are rational and all, what is that multiplayer wave? Is it some kind of buzzword that is supposed to persuade us that this debacle has any kind of rationality in it?
what is the benefit of keeping the game logic of a game, server side, EVEN FOR SINGLE PLAYER?!?
They could have followed the path of the D2 and be done with it.
And don’t mention piracy because free servers will be up faster than the patch.
Only explanation I can come up with is that they had their pipeline setup from WoW so they kept it the same for reasons of streamlined production process.
Which is just lazy for a company that big and successful
15/05/2012 at 20:56 pipman3000 says:
the multiplayer wave is an actual wave that will come crashing down on every continent on earth drowning anyone who ever played a single-player game and dragging their cursed souls to a watery hell to be driven mad and tortured for all eternity while the virtuous fans of multi-player will float to the top from the briny depths with Atlantis and repopulate the world on seaborne cities
15/05/2012 at 23:11 Salix says:
And lo, the cries of “Lol, noob” shall ring out across the heavens as the players of multi glory in their paradise…or something to that effect
15/05/2012 at 21:17 trjp says:
Diablo II is an old, old game – and yet it continued to be updated until quite recently (and may still continue to be updated for all we know) – but do you think that was based on it’s single-player game?
No – it wasn’t…
D2′s popularity came from it’s multiplayer – a multiplayer which predates many other online games and has had some pretty torrid experiences with cheats/dupers and other issues.
Anyone looking to make D3 has to consider that the core of the game is the multiplayer – that’s what kept D2 alive and that’s what D3 should aim to build on. The one thing they cannot afford to repeat is the debacle of duping and cheating which wracked D2 for years (arguably still does in some ways) and so they’ve adopted a semi-MMO “always online” system to ensure they have control over that.
I’ve only played the free weekend of D3 but I saw nothing which suggested it was a brilliant single player game – the ARPG genre is really tied-into the whole idea of co-op play (or PvP even) now and any game which focusses on the single player is missing the point.
That wave (although not King Canute himself, of course) is allegorical – it’s this idea that there’s a future in blockbuster-budget single player games – and there isn’t – simples…
Those railing against that – will soon find themselves with wet feet.
15/05/2012 at 21:38 DiamondDog says:
Yeah but they still could’ve put an offline mode in it.
15/05/2012 at 23:14 trjp says:
If you’re creating a game with a complex client/server relationship to ensure that multiplayer/co-op is seamless (*coughs* give it a week or 2) and cheat-proof, removing that to make an ‘offline’ game has a number of issues
1 – it takes time and costs money and slows down development (and we can’t slow Blizzard down any more or they’ll appear to be static)
2 – it gives a lot of info to the hackers and cheaters as to how the game’s internal systems work (this is also the reason demos often contain DRM – because removing it would show a hacker how to remove the DRM from the full version too)
I’m no happier about the idea of ‘online’ single player games than anyone else – my internet connection has developed the collywobbles of late (usually around 1am – it’s telling me to sleep I think!!) BUT as a developer I understand what’s going on and I respect the decision they’ve taken.
End of the day, there are many ARPGs to play – this one requires an online connection and if you don’t like that, don’t play it – play Depths of Peril or Dins Curse instead – they’re amazing (WAY better than D2, Sacred etc.)
16/05/2012 at 00:07 DiamondDog says:
Oh.
I guess I’ll go back to my desperate, stupid, childish whining.
15/05/2012 at 21:50 pantognost says:
Do you think that stating your opinion makes an argument for it? I did not say that a single player only game is what is needed. I said that single player offline option should be there. Say I like sliced bread. Imagine having to buy ham and cheese sandwiches so i can eat the bread alone. Think about it. Their idea is that stupid. As i said, they wanted to keep the wow toolset for the developmemt of D3 for easier development. Look at the login street. It’s the same with wow, just with a different backdrop.
15/05/2012 at 23:16 trjp says:
See my comment above – there are some solid reasons for not offering offline in a game which is entirely built around the online experience.
Remember that Blizzard’s wealth and position comes from WoW – an online game – it’s what they do, it’s how they think and they (foolishly perhaps) don’t realise that not everyone has a rock solid connection, everywhere they go so to them it doesn’t matter.
16/05/2012 at 06:51 pantognost says:
For the DRM, well I think we all know that there are hundrends of illegal WoW servers. I cannot understand why, if D3 is successful, it will not share the same fate.
And I am happy to see that you agree that the reason for the always online requirement is the streamlining of the development process.
And as a developer, you might sympathize with them, but they are in such a leading market position which can hardly make me feel pity for the billions they make annually.
15/05/2012 at 21:57 Elicas says:
You remember that part where Bashiok gave the explanation of how having Offline and Online characters separate was frustrating and confusing, and how only some 30-40% of the people who purchased D2 ever played online?
Obviously, the games success is based off it’s multiplayer. You know, the one the majority never even logged in to.
Obviously, you’re a fucking idiot.
15/05/2012 at 23:10 trjp says:
You make your point so eloquently, who’d argue with you…
16/05/2012 at 05:05 nanowired says:
Well he kinda did.
15/05/2012 at 22:53 Archonsod says:
Funny, I’ve yet to find an ARPG I actually enjoyed in multi-player. Enjoyed an awful lot in single player though.Sacred was the only one I actually bothered with online, possibly because people who played Sacred were assumed to be smart enough to note that offline and online characters were mutually exclusive (they actually lowered the bar a bit on that one in the sequel by giving you a big pop-up notifying you offline characters couldn’t be taken online and vice versa. I’m sure Blizzard might catch up to the wonders of game design in 2008 in a few more years) so you weren’t stuck with a community that had to wipe the drool off it’s keyboard during play.
15/05/2012 at 23:21 trjp says:
If you look at Blizzards history, they don’t make landmark, innovative games and never have.
They take a formula and they polish the fuck out of it – and in this case, the formula is the online co-op (and perhaps PvP) ARPG.
D1 and D2 were never particularly brilliant single-player games anyway (see also some Warcrafts and SC1 tbh) but they were landmark multiplayer games which lasted WAY longer than other, similar (perhaps even better) titles did.
Then there’s WoW – did almost nothing new but polished/tuned the MMO to a sheen so bright it hypnotised upto 12million people at one time (and far more over it’s 7+ year lifespan) – there are far cleverer MMOs (from Eve through AoC to allsorts of other games) but not one of them has managed more than maybe 10% of WoW’s popularity at any time – for maybe a 7th of it’s life at most.
Too many people expected D3 to be an amazing, innovative single-player ARPG and I don’t think Blizzard intended that for a second – they intended co-op/multiplayer and even PvP – the things which kept D2 alive for 8-9 years longer than it’s contemporaries.
16/05/2012 at 00:08 Vorphalack says:
”If you look at Blizzards history, they don’t make landmark, innovative games and never have.”
Warcraft 3 and Diablo would like a word with you. If all you know of Blizzard is WoW game play and the names of all their back catalog, I can see how you might have posted that tripe.
16/05/2012 at 00:21 Archonsod says:
“Warcraft 3 and Diablo would like a word with you.”
And Dune 2 and Rogue would like a word with them :P I think the last game Blizzard released which actually innovated was Rock N Roll Racing.
How long Diablo 2 lasted for those playing multiplayer is irrelevant. Not only does Blizzard’s own figures show it was around 30% of players, but without any continual supply of money from those players it’s nothing but an expense for the company.
16/05/2012 at 00:57 Vorphalack says:
You are stretching those examples a bit too far. Diablo and Warcraft 3 didn’t invent their respective genres, but they did contain genuine innovation.
16/05/2012 at 02:45 Lemming says:
I think you are muddling success with longevity. What Blizzard are doing is capitalising on that longevity (hello auction house!) with the sequel.
16/05/2012 at 04:55 Beva says:
The duping and cheating had such a bad impact on Diablo 2 they actually had to close the game down within… oh right. But anyway, it WAS a huge problem (that almost killed D2 probably/maybe/kindof) and now everyone can enjoy D3 single-player just fine without… oh wait. Etc.
15/05/2012 at 21:21 MythArcana says:
Spoken like a true Blizzard fanboy and well stated like the average SteamTard.
16/05/2012 at 05:59 SkittleDiddler says:
I’d like to know, seriously: how many times were you banned from the Steam forums to make you so pissy about them? Get the fuck over it man.
16/05/2012 at 06:13 MythArcana says:
Zero. Never installed that service, never will. vALVE is evil, pass it on.
16/05/2012 at 07:55 pipman3000 says:
could you tell me why you think valve is evil? i could use some free entertainment right about now
16/05/2012 at 13:42 Lemming says:
In other words you’ve got absolutely no personal experience to speak from. You are operating entirely on second hand information and slagging off a service you’ve never tried.
15/05/2012 at 21:37 Eddy9000 says:
Oh hi tjip. I really enjoyed D2 and torchlight and was looking forward to D3, however I have a BT broadband connection (a very common service), which drops out about once per evening. Not a problem for any other game I play, can live with flunking the odd round of tf2, however I don’t think I could put up with having to replay decent chunks of D3 when this happens. I only want to play offline but I’m prevented from this now because of the decision to require not only to be online at start up, but all the time, apparently to ‘improve my experience’.
Please could you tell me how I’m being over entitled by being pissed off by this?
And while you’re at it you might as well explain a bit more about about how big budget single player games are dying out, cos there seem to be a lot that are selling really well, and a lot of online multiplayer games that are going under. I mean if you’re going to make the claim that big budget single player games are going to cease to exist then I reckon you need to back your argument up a little.
15/05/2012 at 23:25 trjp says:
In fairness the problem is surely your connection and not Blizzard’s game!?
You’re effectively demanding a company design it’s games to consider your flawed broadband service – which is like complaining to Ferrari when your car won’t ford a river or cross speed bumps – you bought the wrong car!! :)
I’d be FAR more upset if I were playing an actual multiplayer title (TF2 or WoW or even D3 with friends) than I would if I were playing single-player – it’s not like you’ll wipe a raid or lose a league game or something like that!?!?!
I get that it’s annoying but we’ve known this to be an ‘always on’ game for years – if that’s a problem, there are 100s of other games to play!!
16/05/2012 at 00:07 Vorphalack says:
Nope, it’s the game that’s wrong.
16/05/2012 at 00:59 beekay says:
“You’re effectively demanding a company design it’s games to consider your flawed broadband service”
That’s true. And I would fully expect a company to take into account the limitations of their customers. It’s not like this is an unusual situation, most people’s internet drops out occasionally or stutters. This is like a company requiring its customers to have a 20mbps connection in order to play a game properly. It’s not reasonable.
16/05/2012 at 03:46 nanowired says:
This reminds me of when Civilizations 5 FRIED a good number of cards that 2k games claimed were supported. I don’t mean “didn’t run right”, I mean the cards got fried.
There is a huge thread on their support forums for the game. The company line is “Well you should of set your case up better.”
16/05/2012 at 01:27 Eddy9000 says:
hi trjp, sorry if you aren’t from the UK, but I’ll fill you in. BT is one of the biggest broadband providers in the UK, so yes, I do think that Blizzard should probably take into account that a large percentage of its users will have a bog-standard broadband connection that drops out occasionally. I also live in London so any connection problems caused by the area will be shared with a large percentage of the population as well. I think companies should consider the needs and limitations of their customers personally.
I don’t play tournaments or matches, I am a 32 year old with many other commitments (not that I didn’t have marathon sessions when I was younger, it isn’t a put-down), so I have an internet connection that is functional for home use and gameplay, not designed for stability like the more expensive one I forked out for when I was a younger man and played league CS. I imagine my situation is a lot more common then you’re giving credit for. You do rather seem to have the attitude that criticising a product for not meeting your needs as a consumer implies over-entitlement, but that it’s perfectly acceptable to tell people that they shouldn’t have an opinion, which I think is rather more over-entitled.
And yes, there are 1000′s more games I could play. I would like to play this one, I am disapointed that I cannot because of what seems like a rather unnecessary restriction, so I am complaining about it. Why is this such a problem for you?
16/05/2012 at 01:52 wodin says:
Well said…trgp talks out of his backside, defending the indefensible.
It’s bloody simple really. If there was an option for offline single player the none of this would really be an issue as people could still play the game they paid for. Also I never once read about D3 would be a multiplayer only game.
16/05/2012 at 13:02 trjp says:
I am from the UK and I know intimately that BT Broadband is the product people who know fuck-all about technology will have installed.
The problem with your assertion that relying on an online connection is a bad idea – is that it immediately makes online gaming impossible (and it’s pretty popular so I’m guessing loads of people don’t care about this).
Broadband will never be a perfect service – it will always have issues (whether they’ve down to a shitty provider or your own dodgy hardware) – if you choose to wait for perfect connectivity, you’ll wait forever and so you have to leap-in sooner or later.
There are good reasons for having the online part here – the game will survive, long-term, on the online play aspect – Blizzard have chosen to do this and it’s a take it or leave it situation – and it’s easily left.
Problem with those that leave it is that they’re in here moaning about it – endlessly – why? Just play something else FFS, we’re DROWNING in ARPGs with several more coming soon.
It’s not like this is the only game out this year…
15/05/2012 at 22:01 Shooop says:
All I can read out of this is some poor sucker who’s angry for being suckered out of his money on a game that he can’t play and so is attempting the “sour grapes” projection.
Sucks to be him!
Oh wait… Ha!
15/05/2012 at 22:02 Jimbo says:
“stupid, childish protesting”
Stupid, childish and ultimately proven correct, in this case.
15/05/2012 at 23:27 trjp says:
So you’re ‘correct’ and still in a thread talking about a game you’ve not bought because you were ‘correct’ and…
Do you not have ANYTHING better to do?? Did you earmark this time for D3 and then just leave it empty in protest???
Are you wearing a V Mask as you read this????
16/05/2012 at 08:13 Jimbo says:
What more noble cause is there than educating the foolish? They ignored all of the warnings but now they have seen it for themselves. Hopefully a lesson will be learned from this experience and your ‘inevitable tide’ will become a little less inevitable. And hopefully my throne won’t get wet.
15/05/2012 at 22:15 pertusaria says:
I’m not looking for validation. I’m looking forward to when people who’ve bought the game stop talking mainly about the DRM so that I can enjoy seeing the game through their eyes. This isn’t a game that interests me enough to buy it, even apart from the always-online-ness, but I’d quite like to know what its cool points are and hopefully get some nice AAR-type things of different classes.
15/05/2012 at 23:27 trjp says:
You didn’t try it when it was free??
You can apparently do this again – possibly now (with or without a pass, depending) or definately in 30 days time – so there you go!!
15/05/2012 at 20:40 Kryopsis says:
I like how this thread is a vehicle for people who did buy Diablo III to parade their schadenfreude.
15/05/2012 at 20:48 shagen454 says:
The music is so appropriate while waiting for the Server Authentication to fail.
15/05/2012 at 20:51 shagen454 says:
OH yeah, and HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAA to all of the people who took off work.
15/05/2012 at 20:52 eightbitrobot says:
Totally did not see this one coming, who would have known, a DRM… being a DRM!
15/05/2012 at 21:00 Reefpirate says:
Holy crap, I’ve never seen such a violent shit storm in here!
15/05/2012 at 21:11 Flint says:
This is nothing compared to the New Vegas uprising of the yonderyears.
15/05/2012 at 23:43 somini says:
At least it had some more solid bases. Being a fan of New Vegas. I still have a little resentment. Sorry Quinns. :(
Now, this shitstorm is D3 players/PR managers coming here answering to accusations of no offline mode with gems like “this is inevitable, the throughput of fibre optics is the bottleneck”
15/05/2012 at 23:31 Greggh says:
My thoughts exactly
15/05/2012 at 21:02 Joshua Northey says:
I think the funniest thing about this thread is all the people complaining that Diablo is not some other product. A single player product. You want that product make it yourself. That isn’t what Blizzard is offering. And until you can repeat their kind of success I will take their business sense about what is good for their games over yours.
If you get home tonight and cannot log in go read a book or play something else, or hang out with your wife. Mellow out a bit, have some perspective.
This is not the end of the world, and is mostly a sign of how right Blizzards choices have been (because their games are hugely popular) not how they are evil blasphemers who only care about money and not games.
15/05/2012 at 21:06 pipman3000 says:
how dare people expect to use a product they spent money on.
15/05/2012 at 21:08 pipman3000 says:
lowborn filth such as they should just shut up, suck it up, and know blizzard has their best interests in mind even if it doesn’t look like it.
15/05/2012 at 21:11 Reefpirate says:
I think the gentleman’s point is that it’s not Blizzard’s job to look out for everyone’s best interest. They’re trying to make it work for their customers, but to assume that the greater good of gamers is Blizzard’s interest is to misunderstand business. Just buy Torchlight 2 instead, or wait patiently for Blizzard’s game to work properly.
Is this the first computer game you’ve ever bought, if you bought it at all?
15/05/2012 at 21:10 RegisteredUser says:
How dare people expect that after the first Diablo came out and was playable without an internet connection and then the second Diablo came out and was playable without an internet connection that when the third Diablo comes out one might be able to play it without an internet connection!
Seriously people, wtf!
15/05/2012 at 21:24 Apples says:
Ah yes, if people want to play a game on their own, they ought to make their OWN AAA game! What a reasonable suggestion! Of course, pirates are right now engaged in making the product the way they want it, so I guess you’re sort of right…
p.s. hang out with my wife? shit when’d i get this lesbian marriage, nobody told me about it
15/05/2012 at 21:34 Reefpirate says:
I think the point he was making is that Blizzard and their investors put their money on the line to make this game the way it is… And they haven’t really been deceptive about it. If you feel there is enough demand and are able to throw together another game some other way then you should by all means… Torchlight and those guys are doing just that.
As for your lesbian wife, I can’t help you there…
15/05/2012 at 21:36 X_kot says:
Clearly everyone should just be hetero males.
Clearly.
15/05/2012 at 22:19 pertusaria says:
Congratulations to you both – have fun getting to know each other now. ;-)
15/05/2012 at 21:37 Deltadisco says:
Two words: Stockholm Syndrome
15/05/2012 at 21:39 Rich says:
Well played.
15/05/2012 at 23:19 Salix says:
I dunno, I’d be more inclined towards battered person syndrome.
15/05/2012 at 21:38 Rich says:
This is hardly high art and Blizzard aren’t some sort of artistic genius that shouldn’t be questioned.
If you spend money on a game it should bloody well work.
15/05/2012 at 22:03 Shooop says:
You know what’s even funnier than that?
That people expect to be able to use a product they bought! Inconceivable I know!
15/05/2012 at 22:19 Jimbo says:
“That isn’t what Blizzard is offering.”
The complaints are because they aren’t delivering what they DID offer. Those are valid complaints. Still, it’s not unreasonable to point out that if they HAD delivered what they didn’t offer (offline single-player), they probably wouldn’t have this clusterfuck on their hands.
On the other hand, if it’s apparently now ok to take money from people without being able to provide what you said you would, then why do anything else? Wanna buy a bridge?
TEE HEE JIMBO DIDN’T OWN THAT BRIDGE HE JUST SOLD YOU. ‘ok’
15/05/2012 at 21:04 Heliocentric says:
Satan just won Diablo 3, except maybe against pirates?
15/05/2012 at 21:08 RegisteredUser says:
I find it so ironic that most people I know that bought this POS are really just going to go beat the SP first.
15/05/2012 at 21:21 pantognost says:
Why is it ironic that someone who bought an action rpg wishes to play it alone? Is there a law that says that we must like what you like?
…oh come to think of it, if you think it is a POS and your opinion is law then none should be playing it so I would be able to log in…
fail logic is fail.
15/05/2012 at 23:36 RegisteredUser says:
The ironic bit is where they are trying to play a game mode that wouldn’t clog the online servers that are giving everyone trouble being able to play that very playmode..which would mean that if there weren’t this POS DRM attached to the game, the servers wouldn’t be half as full, because people would just be playing single player first.
Obviously you didn’t really understand what I was going for here.
And it’s a POS because people can’t get to work what they paid for. As in “God dammit, you POS, work!”.
16/05/2012 at 16:09 briktal says:
Some of them would still be playing SP online even if there was an offline mode though.
15/05/2012 at 21:18 Reapy says:
Well so far today its been going well, just went down about 40 min ago I guess, but hopefully back up soon. Truthfully I was pretty angry about the always on DRM thing, but then I sort of realized something while playing it… I played d2 online the whole way through as well, just a solo pw game for myself, why, because I wanted my character to ‘matter’, whatever that means.
I also realize that if I could play the game offline now, I wouldn’t be starting another char and playing because it would be a ‘waste’, I’d be doing what I’m doing now, waiting for the server to come back up.
I guess just treating it like a MMO and I feel fine about it after all. In any event I’m really having a lot of fun with it, and if the maintenance message is to be believe, should only be down a few more minutes.
15/05/2012 at 21:22 mmalove says:
I love all the people coming out and going “AHAHAHA told you so! Gotcha Bitch!”
Guys, I’ve been using Blizzard products for years. You’ll notice its really mostly the people that didn’t buy the game that are here berating Blizzard: most of the purchasers have pretty much come to expect the classic Blizzard learning curve, myself included.
Being against Always Online requirements is fine, but lets not look at the first morning hours after launch to cast a verdict on how much downtime this actually lays upon the single player experience. By all means include it in your totals if you’re keeping track, but give it a couple weeks to level out :P
15/05/2012 at 21:34 Ysellian says:
What classic Blizzard learning curve?
16/05/2012 at 03:53 nanowired says:
It took MONTHS before rock n roll racing played right on snes consoles.
16/05/2012 at 18:34 Apolloin says:
The one where they learn that their network code / serverside code doesn’t work. Classic.
16/05/2012 at 05:16 kud13 says:
It’s fuuny you say that. I bought SCII in a box, on launch day, I was able to play it offline (gasp) without any hitches, for 2 months, constantly (well, mostly evenings, since I had 2 jobs).
WHen I went a way to school and tried to log in 3 months after my last play session, I discovered that ability to log in offline other than “guest” has been patched out. (incidentally, this is why I will NOT be buying Heart of the Swarm) However, this isn’t really relevant to the launch day, where I had no issues.
I may still buy D3, in about 3.5 months’ time, when I’m away in Uni and my residence has its trusty DSL landline connection. However, I’m undecided. I boycott Ubisoft games that insult my moral integrity by assuming I’m a pirate because I don’t buy their games for a playbox, so why should I support Blizzard who insults my intelligence by brandishing the “But-but-but, if we made an offline mode, people wouldn’t be able to tell that they can’t use their SP character online, and the world would end! and besides, not letting you play when it’s convenient for you makes for a better experience, you’ll see”. as feeble excuses for a design decision that’s bound to alienate a portion of their fanbase.
And I write this, after being an RTS junkie throughout my early gaming career, and a hardcore Blizzard fanboy for many, many years.
15/05/2012 at 21:30 D3xter says:
World Exclusive Diablo III Review: http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/15/world-exclusive-diablo-iii-review/
15/05/2012 at 22:26 Sardukar says:
Heh. That was very good. The Husky at the end. Excellent.
15/05/2012 at 23:02 Vorphalack says:
Those eyes said more than all the words.
15/05/2012 at 21:38 wonko-the-sane says:
Upcoming Torchlight 2 Marketing campaign:
“Tired of always on DRM?”
Torchlight ftw
15/05/2012 at 21:46 Joshua Northey says:
That marketing campaign should sell them 1,000 or 2,000 copies. Where are they going to get the other several hundred thousand they need?
15/05/2012 at 22:05 Shooop says:
From other gamers who aren’t mentally challenged.
16/05/2012 at 01:36 Eddy9000 says:
yeah, you know Torchlight sold over a million copies first time round don’t you?
15/05/2012 at 23:16 RichardFairbrass says:
I wish I could see Torchlight 2 as the best alternative but is there any reason to expect it to be significantly better than the first? I mean I enjoyed Torchlight, I’d give it a very solid 7/10 without hesitation. It just struck me as a bit light on content and, well, bland. Like Bastion with the personality removed.
Also I know the Torchlight team are made up of the original Diablo guys or something like that, but didn’t anyone else find it a bit lazy of them reusing D2 music? I seem to remember the Tristram plinky guitar music appearing in Torchlight pretty much unaltered. If you’re coming up with a new IP then don’t reuse content from completely unrelated previous projects.
15/05/2012 at 23:39 Vorphalack says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVcsv3XWIAg&list=UUy1Ms_5qBTawC-k7PVjHXKQ&index=1&feature=plpp_video
TB’s footage and commentary from the current beta. Short version, they kept the art style of Torchlight and made everything else better. Its got a proper over-world now, much more environmental variety, and what looks like the best combat in the genre.
16/05/2012 at 02:22 Lemming says:
In fantasy-type games I tend to go for the warrior sword and shield type, or the sneaky theif arrow-slinger type. Torchlight got me trying something different (Alchemist) and I loved it, and now it looks like TL2 will do the same. Seeing the Berserker punching things to death is just brilliant!
15/05/2012 at 21:40 motherpuncher says:
Makes me want to play DayZ.
15/05/2012 at 23:20 Freud says:
Me too, but I hear it’s online only. :(
15/05/2012 at 22:09 Shooop says:
I’ll be off collecting my bets now I guess.
15/05/2012 at 22:50 Ace McAwesome says:
The servers went down for a couple hours. Then they went up. Then they went back down again. They are currently down until “estimated 4:30pdt.”
Look, say what you want in defense of Blizzard, or in defense of including a single-player offline mode, or whatever, but no matter which side of the fence you land on, having several hours of the first day of launch the game be literally unplayable is just bad. It’s bad bad bad bad. I played the game for about 30 minutes, total, since purchasing it. The rest has been installation, login, fixes for issues, etc etc and I haven’t played one single minute with another human being. So… yeah. This is going swimmingly.
15/05/2012 at 22:50 Howard says:
I just can’t believe people actually bought this.
a) its Blizzard, b) its 10 years late, c) IT’S BLIZZARD and d) it has terrible DRM.
Are you all high?
LOL =)
16/05/2012 at 03:56 nanowired says:
A and C are the reasons people bought the game, but only because they forgot that everyone who made up blizzard pre- Burning Crusade got canned/left the company a long time ago.
15/05/2012 at 22:56 stupid_mcgee says:
Seems like D3′s already been cracked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWez5Mu14Lo
Man, good thing they did all of this to stop those pesky pirates!
15/05/2012 at 23:39 RegisteredUser says:
You have likely linked either a scam or a trojan. Well done!
16/05/2012 at 04:14 MD says:
Not to mention the awful music…
15/05/2012 at 23:04 RichardFairbrass says:
I like the synchronised missile dance team in the Eve Inferno banner.
15/05/2012 at 23:10 Stellar Duck says:
I haven’t played D2 in a few years. And I mostly played it in SP.
So, I can’t remember the precise set up of the MP. But according to everybody and his dog it was cheaters rampaging and gold spamming. I never saw that? I always played with the same group. Were people just playing with any random player?
15/05/2012 at 23:47 Deltadisco says:
Pretty much. I played (technically, I still *play*) exclusively as open server characters (aka – the even wilder-than-closed-battlenet-west)
1) It lets me solo even without an internet connection.
2) When someone gets the urge it lets me use those same characters to play with my friends and family
Here’s the funny thing – we never once had to deal with hackers/cheaters/dupes/whatever game-ruining problem people praise D3 for addressing. Private servers/games with people you already know? What a concept! Having that sort of choice resulted in my time with D2 being a nearly perfect/ideal experience.
I always thought the real lesson was that random people on the internet tend to be dickheads. Not that offline play was evil.
The online “economy” of Diablo was always completely uninteresting to me. It always felt like a bigger accomplishment to squeak by with what we found ourselves than to go trade for something that was (effectively) significantly less unique in the general battlenet environment.
Sadly, D3 seems to be more concerned with implementing and securing what *I* consider to be a tedious and not-all-that-interesting metagame rather than giving me the flexibility of previous iterations.
16/05/2012 at 00:24 Archonsod says:
The whole character thing is bollocks. It’s been pretty standard for around the past 8 years to have offline characters who can’t go online, offline and online characters in a given mode and online only characters. Quite why Blizzard can’t manage the same feat is beyond me; perhaps they’ve never heard of checksums or something. Or maybe they’re just hoping to make a mint out of the auction house. I know which is more likely.
15/05/2012 at 23:20 Isometric says:
All technical issues aside I’m having a blast with it. It’s really top notch stuff. It took me half an hour to get into the game but once I was in I’ve had no lag issues or disconnects. It’s the Diablo I love and it’s back in my grubby hands once more.
15/05/2012 at 23:23 Matrix101 says:
In at most a few days any “pirate” will be able to play solo mode at ease, while any legit consumer will have to suffer from this sooooooo stupid always-on awful DRM policy.
I buy indie cool stuff, I support small (or not small but good) games, but here I for sure will go for the “DRM-free” version.
If Blizzard had selected to offer a legit offline solo mode, I would have bought it.
They decided not to, I decide my money will go to Torchlight 2! :)
Their choice, my choice!
Please don’t buy always-on DRM, it’s so [insert your critic here]… :’(
15/05/2012 at 23:25 equatorian says:
So always-on DRM is so Adam Walker?
(Insert critic here, and all…)
15/05/2012 at 23:24 jealouspirate says:
Launches for a lot of online games run into these problems. In a few days they’ll have some fixes out and they’ll be fewer people trying to cram on at the same time. It’ll settle down, and everyone who is angry about being locked out now will be too busy playing the game to complain. It’s happened before, it’ll happen again.
People are making mountains out of molehills. Blizzard is playing the long game, here. Several years from now, when people are happily playing, buying expansions and using the RMAH no one will care what rough launch it had.
I know (one of) the major points of contention is that it’s an online game at all, but in my opinion it’s a good enough game for me to accept that unfortunate fact and play regardless.
15/05/2012 at 23:51 somini says:
Or until Diablo 4 (I say 2 years from now) launches, and they just turn all the D3 servers off, rendering the SINGLE-PLAYER portion unplayable. Unless there is a crack available, and there will be one.
15/05/2012 at 23:55 AndrewYF says:
Yes, Blizzard, who has kept, maintained, and continuously updated online servers for Diablo II for, what is it now, 14 years?, will turn off the servers for Diablo III in two years.
Also, Steam will steal all your games! Muahahahaha!
These kinds of dumb ‘arguments’ are a big reason why people can’t take the anti-DRM movement seriously. Please just stop.
16/05/2012 at 00:51 alundra says:
That’s not a dumb statement, EA has been doing that for years now, and since now it’s obvious that blizzard has sunk to activision levels, well, how can they not? they are the same company now after all…since they are on the same level now it’s not entirely impossible to think one day they will do that.
16/05/2012 at 04:37 Rackam says:
Your misuse of logic hurts my brain.
16/05/2012 at 16:42 alundra says:
@Rackam
I see, you’re just an average fellow than thinks that logic is the same sheeple thinking, whatever you say bub, whatever you say.
16/05/2012 at 04:59 Sardukar says:
I’d say the anti-DRM movement is taken fairly seriously. Whole studios now refuse to employ it. Political parties now representing actual, real people in actual real countries like Germany consider this hampering of ownership and heavy-handed copyright control a significant part of their electoral platforms.
Any time you as the consumer has your privileges as owner reduced in favour of the producer’s control, you should be concerned.
Buying something is a trade, after all. Try to get as much as you can for your value – the fellow on the other side of the exchange certainly is.
16/05/2012 at 02:00 wodin says:
You think people will still be playing this ARPG several years from now! Doubtful. Also I envy people who can stick with a game longer than 6 months!
16/05/2012 at 02:09 psyk says:
people still play diablo and diablo 2 so I would say yes.
16/05/2012 at 02:51 jealouspirate says:
You can still find Diablo 2 on store shelves today, and people still actively play it. How many 12 year old games can you say that about?
Yes, I think people will still be playing Diablo 3 several years from now.
16/05/2012 at 04:02 nanowired says:
Diablo 1 and 2 had offline modes.
16/05/2012 at 11:05 psyk says:
Yep having an offline mode effects how many people are still playing online doing hell runs :|
16/05/2012 at 13:42 wodin says:
Exactly, you honestly think there will be enough people playing for Bioware to keep their servers running? Or will it drop down to a point it’s no longer viable? Then you can’t play the game at all.
Or shock horror Bioware get bought out or go bust! Could happen!
Still I’m just not that sort of person who can stick with a game for years on end. When I was younger I played games alot longer than I do now.
16/05/2012 at 16:18 briktal says:
That’s what keeps the online-only D2 Ladders going, people playing offline single player.
15/05/2012 at 23:32 GT3000 says:
It’s up. Go get ‘em boys.
15/05/2012 at 23:37 GT3000 says:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/status
15/05/2012 at 23:32 leokolln says:
Hard to imagine that one day, Blizzard said this: http://www.videogamer.com/pc/starcraft_2/news/blizzard_drm_a_losing_battle.html
15/05/2012 at 23:51 AndrewYF says:
Why is that hard to imagine? Battle.NET as a service is why people will not pirate their games. You can pirate and play single player all you like – there really aren’t any rootkits or anything. The only thing you don’t get is the Battle.NET service, which Blizzard thinks will be enough of a deterrent.
Likewise with Diablo III. The only way to save the in-game economy is to force all legitimate players with legitimate keys to be online – so no one can crack into their characters and hack the economy into meaninglessness like what happened with Diablo 2. This also means a big part of the draw of Diablo 3 is the economy and the chance to make small amounts of money by playing the RNG lottery. It looks like SKiDRoW already cracked the game. Good for them. Probably was one of the easier games to crack. But the point is those characters will never – can never – touch the online servers, thus saving the rest of the gaming populace from assholes.
Blizzard is actually being incredibly clever on this front.
16/05/2012 at 00:24 MadTinkerer says:
Ooooh, maybe I will buy a legit copy of Diablo III if I can crack it and play it locally! Thanks for nothing, Blizzard!
16/05/2012 at 00:39 vodkarn says:
Or: Single player characters cannot be used in multiplayer. No on-line required.
16/05/2012 at 00:43 bigdeadbug says:
CURSES! was beaten to it :(
So what would be the difference in them just offering an totally independent offline service upfront that doesn’t allow me to transfer the character etc online. Surely that would solve the current problem while still protecting the precious online economy without forcing a paying customer to turn to cracked versions of the game.
16/05/2012 at 02:23 Bhazor says:
Nope.
They will hack the servers. Just like they hacked the AC2 servers.
Again legitimate customers are the ones stuck with an inferior product.
16/05/2012 at 04:12 nrvsNRG says:
not true dude, skidrow hasnt cracked this game, ive seen the game files available tho.
15/05/2012 at 23:33 thestage says:
I was wondering what RPS and their readers thought about the online requirement for Diablo III. Thanks for letting me know.
#firstworldproblems
16/05/2012 at 03:23 Kandon Arc says:
I know right? Why aren’t people talking about the self-immolations in Tibet? Or the thousands being brutally repressed in Syria? Or the impending collapse of the Euro?
Oh yeah, because this is a fucking gaming site where we discuss video games. Shockingly, any problem with a video game is a first world problem. Only an idiot thinks that means it isn’t worth discussing because of that.
16/05/2012 at 04:04 nanowired says:
And you have the time to post about it? Quickly man! While there is still time! SOLVE ALL OF THE WORLDS PROBLEMS!
16/05/2012 at 05:09 Beva says:
You missunderstand, he is dealing with the real problems by pointing us lowlives in the right direction, he’s kind of like a Jesus with an internet connection (Jesus 2.0).
16/05/2012 at 06:18 SkittleDiddler says:
“Come on, Bryce. There are a lot more important problems than Sri Lanka to worry about.”
“Like what?”
“Well, we have to end apartheid for one. And slow down the nuclear arms race, stop terrorism and world hunger. We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights, while also promoting equal rights for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.”
16/05/2012 at 15:29 nrvsNRG says:
yes!!!
I luv American Psycho…Bales best movie!
15/05/2012 at 23:48 kael13 says:
Alright, granted, a lot of people are having issues, but I’ve been playing all day on the EU servers without a hitch. I’ve just finished Act 2 on my Wizard and I’m taking a break. I’ve been enjoying the game slowly and soaking up all the story. This is my game of the year already.
So uhh.. Up yours, haters.
16/05/2012 at 00:15 Antsy says:
Same here, logged in last night for an hour before bed. Played it most of today without trouble. It’s excellent and i’m really enjoying it.
I understand people are having issues and I sympathize but this articles comments thread is a new low for RPS. Time to go.
16/05/2012 at 03:24 Kandon Arc says:
“I’m fine, so everyone else must be a hater”
Stay classy.
16/05/2012 at 03:28 Feriluce says:
Games been unplayable for me for about 25 hours now
16/05/2012 at 00:21 MadTinkerer says:
So anyway, I’ll be getting Torchlight II.
16/05/2012 at 00:25 Unaco says:
So, DRM/Online issues aside… For those who have bought it: Is it any good? I’ve been hearing it’s a whole load of fun.
16/05/2012 at 00:28 Antsy says:
It is. Its really really good. Especially with a mate or two.
16/05/2012 at 00:30 jealouspirate says:
Once I get connected, I’m having a blast. I think it’s a great game.
16/05/2012 at 11:07 Mirdini says:
It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a Blizzard product – an extremely polished, extremely fun game that’s sadly occasionally let down by some business decisions. Even with the vitriol going around about the always-online requirement make no mistake D3 is an excellent game at its’ foundation, and I don’t even have that much of a problem with the always-online since the point of the game (to me) is to play with my friends anyway. Did manage to play for a good 5 hours and then another 3 (after a server restart to apply the hotfix that fixed the templar bug) last night without more than the occasional disconnect, until they brought servers down for emergency maintenance.
Honestly I can sympathize with people who want to play the game they paid $60 for and don’t like that they can’t because of some (annoying) always-online requirement, but I do feel for Blizzard here – they’ve put out an excellent game and they don’t deserve to be demonized like this due to server issues. If you have a problem with the always-online, that’s fine by me there’s certainly things wrong with it. However I do think it’s unfair to expect a launch where presumably hundreds of thousands if not millions of people are trying to log on and play on their servers at the same time to work without a hitch.
16/05/2012 at 12:04 RegisteredUser says:
“they don’t deserve to be demonized like this due to server issues”
And as you said, people are(I know that I am) demonizing them for requiring the authentication for SP in the first place, not the availability.
16/05/2012 at 00:31 ZephyrSB says:
How the hell did parental controls get turned on in my bnet account I only made during the open beta weekend?!?! I want to see how crazy that auction house is :S
Which is annoying, because I’m not particularly averse to the idea, but from what I can tell, it’s a massive effort to get it sorted out even though it should never have been touched in the first place :S
16/05/2012 at 00:36 vodkarn says:
I’d love to take this slightly out of context, and see a whole rash of news stories titled: “Single player Diablo 3 inaccessible due to server failure” and see what non-diablo gamers think. “Wait, how the hell does…”
16/05/2012 at 12:07 RegisteredUser says:
What everybody that financially supported this shit doesn’t understand that it is them who are creating a future where anyone reading “D 3 Singleplayer stifled by overwhelmed servers” won’t think a moment about it. And not because it had been pre-announced that there’d be always-on, but because being “lent” games instead of sold will become a “natural” thing..
For an enhanced gameplay experience, of course. Except that you will no longer be able to mod-ify said experience at all, of course. But its not like a mod ever made a game better or caused a whole comment thread to suddenly go and buy the core game they never would have played were it not for the mod itself. Or whatever.
God I hate what Blizzard has become, is what I am trying to say.
16/05/2012 at 18:50 Synesthesia says:
this. think of the children.
16/05/2012 at 00:40 Kuraudo says:
I’m interested to know if this actually impacted sales on Diablo III or future blizzard products. I’m thinking, “no.”
I find that sad :(
16/05/2012 at 02:04 wodin says:
so do I…but once the issues are ironed out everyone will forgive and forget..as is the case with many things these days.,,,keep them happy with new shineys..no doubt some freebie in the way of saying sorry will be offered.
16/05/2012 at 03:12 Sheng-ji says:
In all fairness, you should give games a week to get to grips with unforeseen errors before judging them – especially a game like this which will give a significant percentage of players a year or more of gaming.
I do suspect this has marked the end of the good will Blizzard North built and Actiblizzard has been trading off though – I doubt it has impacted this game too much, too many D1 and D2 veterans who will put up with a lot for that nostalgia hit, but I think thay have just guaranteed any new IP they try to release will crash and burn. Not that I think they have much interest in new IP’s, after all, with a catalogue like Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo – who needs new IP’s.
16/05/2012 at 01:25 Strangerator says:
I’ll be playing this offline in zero-player mode. DRM-free!
Also, this game can go to hell.
16/05/2012 at 01:55 wodin says:
This has been one of the greatest threads I’ve read on here….at least some entertainment has come out of it all.
16/05/2012 at 01:58 psyk says:
HAHA
10 hours and only 10ish mins of not being able to log in :p
16/05/2012 at 02:20 Freud says:
You’re luckier than me. I’ve had to spend more time than you trying to log in. But I’ve played 13+ hours out of the 27 hours since the game went live, so I’m ok too. From WoW experience, I did expect server issues so I haven’t been spamming the login button every five seconds when I don’t come in. I just try it once every five minutes until it works. Less frustration that way.
16/05/2012 at 02:27 psyk says:
Has been a nice surprise how well it’s been running tbh, bit of a grim ping at times (400+ started to bug out a bit) but 200 seems to be perfectly playable, which is what it was sitting at most of the day.
EDIT
European server
16/05/2012 at 02:14 bhagan says:
I am really getting pretty sick of all of this bellyaching going on here. This is the most exquisite coaster set I have purchased in a long time
16/05/2012 at 02:49 Feriluce says:
Definately isn’t fixed yet. I’ve been able to play a grand total of 1.5 hours out of the 28 hours the game have been released.
16/05/2012 at 02:52 psyk says:
Are people leaving the game on the default server? (american)
16/05/2012 at 03:06 Lemming says:
Changing topic slightly; Anyone remember when it was all Blizzard vs. Westwood? Bit of a joke now, eh? C&C hasn’t been good for a while!
16/05/2012 at 03:21 fish99 says:
Well I was really enjoying that till they just took the EU servers down.
16/05/2012 at 03:25 Sheng-ji says:
Me too – hopefully after the balls up they made applying the patch to the US servers, they will be quite efficient at patching the Euro ones.
Hopefully!
16/05/2012 at 04:19 Grobmotoriker says:
I´m so glad that I´m too old to take this crap serious. There´s Torchlight 2 coming and Grim Dawn and Path of Exile and and and …. so real patience is to wait for the good games coming out instead of waiting that blizz can handle that micro ebay always on SP fuck
16/05/2012 at 04:41 Xzi says:
So Torchlight 2 has jumped into the number three spot in Steam’s top sellers. I’d bet my left nut that has something to do with the way this launch has been handled. I’ll pre-order the second they actually have a release date.
Is Diablo 3 a good game? Sure, but even if it were my favorite game of all time, I’d still be frustrated as hell (no pun intended) by this point. Europe and America down again. Bnet websites down again.
16/05/2012 at 04:57 Moraven says:
Free press for them. Think its been in top 10 for awhile now. But really, like a game breaking bug in any other favorite game would cause a big uproar. The popularity of D3 is not helping it with all the rage from people who can not play on Day 1 and be the first to Inferno or Hardcore 60.
16/05/2012 at 05:02 Xzi says:
Yeah, I’m sure that is an issue for a lot of people. I’m not in any rush to finish the game or get to max level, but it’s still incredibly frustrating to be hacking and slashing along just fine, having fun, and then boom, getting interrupted for no good reason.
16/05/2012 at 04:53 Lowbrow says:
Outside of the infuriating disappearing items/achievements, I have to say that I’m enjoying this game a lot more than Diablo 2, purely due to the skills system. I really appreciate them doing away with “Oh, you wanted to try out that new skill? Start over now and pick one skill to spam or you’re dead.” I’ve been switching up skill combinations and runes just for the hell of it, and picking combinations that I don’t think will work well together just to see how it plays out.
That being said, I stopped playing for a bit after repeating part of act 1 to see what the Skeleton King dropped (I got disconnected after killing him), and am back to playing Mount and Blade. They’ve modded in volley fire for archers!
16/05/2012 at 05:01 remover says:
What strange fate is this that I received a beta invite for torchlight 2 right before the 6th time I tried to play while encountering server downtime?
Seriously, I don’t want to play with other people, why the f*** do I need broken servers to play this overpriced piece of crap?
Even when the servers are back, I’ll still regret not just politely holding out for Torchlight 2.
16/05/2012 at 09:33 Zanchito says:
I got a beta invite for Torchlight 2 just today too. Screw Diablo, I’m gonna play a game I can actually PLAY.
16/05/2012 at 09:43 jrodman says:
Is there some signup process to get Torchlight 2 beta access or is it an invite only kind of thing? I was holding off on ordering on steam to buy it direct from runic.
16/05/2012 at 11:03 Zanchito says:
Go to their official forums, there are instructions there on how to maximize your chances of getting an invite. Basically you have to create a “Runic account” and that’ll give you chances.
Anyway the word on the street is that we might have TL2 in the beginning of June. Speculation, but the beta is very very polished already!
16/05/2012 at 05:01 Symmetric says:
…and now it’s back down again. Not just Diablo 3, but “The whole family of Blizzard websites”. (Got that error when attempting to post to the D3 forum).
Maybe they have unplugged the boxes running the forums to give more juice to the D3 servers.
16/05/2012 at 05:14 Eric says:
Well, launch day is drawing to a close – already over here on the East Coast – and nobody can play Diablo III.
Stellar work, Blizzard. If only someone had warned you that making this an online-only game might not be the best idea.
Oh wait. Everybody warned you.
16/05/2012 at 05:26 BobsLawnService says:
If people want to buy single player gamer with always-on DRM they have no right to bitch when it locks them out of their games. They’re they people that enable publishers to go this route.
16/05/2012 at 05:30 Symmetric says:
Utter nonsense. I bought the game because I think it will be worth my money even with always-on DRM. I complain because I think it could (and should) be better. Nowhere did I sign away my right to grumble on web forums in the process.
16/05/2012 at 18:52 Vorphalack says:
Yeah, you can still complain. It just wont count for anything, since they already got your money, so you might as well not bother.
16/05/2012 at 13:30 Mordsung says:
People always have the right to bitch.
Because it is impossible to change the past, telling someone they cannot do something due to an act taken previously to the now is stupid.
Your statement creates a world where people aren’t allowed to make mistakes lest their “right” to do something be removed.
Think before typing in the future.
16/05/2012 at 23:15 ichigo2862 says:
It doesn’t remove their right to complain, but it does sound silly when they do. I mean, everybody and their mother said the problems would be there, but they still funded the damned thing.
17/05/2012 at 02:47 Mordsung says:
I don’t see it silly at all. Blizzard offered a service, they failed to deliver what they offered. Their customers are expressing their dissatisfaction at Blizzard. We all knew it was a possibility, but any product can fail.
The only silly complaint is the one not voiced.
Vocal dissatisfaction has never lead to a bad result. It either accomplishes good things or it accomplishes nothing, so you’ve got nothing to lose from complaining.
17/05/2012 at 04:33 ichigo2862 says:
I just mean it’s silly in that the warnings were clear regarding the potential problems, yet they went in thinking it would be fine, then started complaining when the very same problems they’d been warned about started happening. A collective “I told you so” would be appropriate in that case, I think.
17/05/2012 at 14:28 Mordsung says:
By that logic, no one should ever complain as any product can not work as intended and everyone is in an “I told you so” position
We need to stop this cultural shift to the idea that complaining is bad.
Complaining is the cornerstone of human civilization.
You should NEVER be satisfied.
The “I told you so’s” of the world accomplish nothing. They add no value to the conversation. They are little but sadists enjoying the misery of others.
17/05/2012 at 22:11 ichigo2862 says:
A: Don’t buy it! there’s gonna be bugs!
B: Nah, I’m gonna buy it, I don’t care about the bugs.
A: NOOOOOOOOoooo okay, well, I warned you.
B, after trying to log in for the nth time: FUCK THESE FUCKING BUGS!
A, smiling smugly: I told you so.
Perfectly realistic scenario. It’s not sadistic at all to enjoy being right, and I really do think person B was being silly in this case. Well within his rights, but silly nonetheless.
edit: allow me to clarify, I am not of the opinion that justified complaining is horrible, it’s necessary for change. I just mean that in certain scenarios, sometimes people ignore clear signs of trouble then complain when trouble comes their way, they just kinda asked for it didn’t they?
16/05/2012 at 05:34 AltF4 says:
People who play diablo 3 solo are the same idiots who play team fortress 2 with bots. STFU about online requirement, and move on with the times.
16/05/2012 at 05:38 Lowbrow says:
This is my favorite comment so far! So vehement, self-righteous, and illogical!
17/05/2012 at 00:05 ichigo2862 says:
The wonderful thing is, he seems to have captured in his post the same spirit which Blizzard has espoused of late. You can play this game on old computers, BUT you must also have state of the art broadband connectivity. If not, GTFO.
16/05/2012 at 05:39 nanowired says:
Game which has always been a team vs team multiplayer experience, versus a game which has always been a single player experience with LAN option AND online option to play with friends and having it’s latest incarnation be only multiplayer(with the ability to seclude yourself on a server)
16/05/2012 at 05:41 Tokamak says:
Congrats, you win the most ignorant comment of the month award! In other news, NA server is down again.
16/05/2012 at 05:59 remover says:
I’d love to “move on with the times”, but they’re offline.
16/05/2012 at 06:11 Vox Inaudita says:
Hm, I guess I should go try TF2 with some bots. Can I still have canned conversations about Evil and Destiny with them though?
16/05/2012 at 10:07 Punchbowled says:
People who move with the times are the same people who play Thundercats under their duvets with their sister and a torch and cry whenever they clip their nails.
16/05/2012 at 10:14 jrodman says:
So. Confused.
16/05/2012 at 13:44 Lemming says:
I think I just got ‘Punchbowled’. WTF was that?
16/05/2012 at 13:20 reishid says:
How dare you play an RPG alone!
16/05/2012 at 05:58 remover says:
Maybe Diablo 3 should have come with a voucher for a free copy of Torchlight 2. Then everyone would win. Both companies, the players would have something to play at all times, etc!
Obligatory RPS less-positive-snarky-comment:
Of course, then everyone would realize that talented dev studios can turn out a game of the same quality with 1/3 of the guys and 1/3 of the budget for 1/3 of the price and never pay for a blizzard steamer again.
16/05/2012 at 13:42 reishid says:
I’ll look at this as paying $60 for Torchlight 2 while getting Diablo 3 as a free bonus.
16/05/2012 at 06:51 ichigo2862 says:
I don’t know what kind of person this makes me, but the problems people are getting make me a little happy. I keep hoping that the problems will keep compounding so that eventually Blizzard just realizes they fucked themselves in the ass with this thing and decide to make it available offline, if only to lessen the load on their servers. Then I’ll hop and skip all the way to store to buy it. I’m a horrible person.
16/05/2012 at 14:30 macks says:
I’m in the same boat, but I don’t know if they will care when the profits from their real-money auction house starts rolling in. This entire always-online “feature” is profit motivated, and claiming it’s for the player’s benefit is downright shameful.
16/05/2012 at 21:59 ichigo2862 says:
Hehe, I was just happy that people who said they don’t care about others with less capable online connectivity turn out to be having trouble playing the game they’ve defended tooth and nail. But yeah, the RMAH is gross and must rightfully be excluded from the inevitable offline version. MARK MY WORDS! IT WILL HAPPEN! (unless it doesn’t)
16/05/2012 at 22:03 Antsy says:
Thing is the vast majority of people are having no problems and are too busy playing it to bother with the hilarious hate fests that these threads have become.
16/05/2012 at 23:06 ichigo2862 says:
Yes, i’m sure all the people complaining about errors and such are just anti-blizzard haters. How dare they not sit down and enjoy the game that Blizzard was nice enough to make for them and gave to them for absolutely free. THOSE LYING BASTARDS.
16/05/2012 at 23:12 Antsy says:
Nice try but nowhere did I say that people aren’t having problems. The truth is though, no matter how much you might wish it wasn’t, is that most people aren’t having these problems.
Feel free to respond with more thread friendly hyperbolic nonsense.
17/05/2012 at 00:00 ichigo2862 says:
So you say. I’ll believe it when people stop complaining about it all around us.
16/05/2012 at 07:04 Arcane says:
I don’t get all of the hate towards Blizzard, especially at RPS which has mostly had a history of avoiding the trolls. Blizzard has been the Pixar of the games industry for a while, producing high quality gaming that appeals not just to the hardcore.
I don’t necessarily defend a poor decision in not allowing some offline capability, but it is extremely difficult to cater for the kind of load their servers have experienced over the launch period. The servers getting the most hit are those servers which will see a bare fraction of that traffic in the future once the play patterns spread out – very difficult to engineer for that.
I struggled for an hour to get in, but then had 6 hours of uninterrupted play which was great fun and met expectations. We’ve waited 12 years, I can handle the extra hours/days of disruption.
16/05/2012 at 14:31 Wisq says:
And yet here they are turning Diablo into a “hardcore only” franchise, by effectively making it multiplayer-only.
“Singleplayer” is really just playing multiplayer alone, with all the non-casual pressures that presents. No pausing, so you’d better be able to get through that dungeon in one sitting, or at least be ready to cast town portal the moment real life calls you away. No cheating, so suck it up and play at a predetermined difficulty; no cheat codes or trainers for you. Want to make things easier or avoid the grind? Pay more money for some fancy gear in the auction house.
Oh, and if you just want to play singleplayer and you can’t because the servers are down and you complain about this, you get yelled at by all the “hardcore” fanboys who are like “why the hell are you playing Diablo anyway if you don’t want to play online? gtfo singleplayer noob”.
Yeah, they’ve made a game that “appeals not just to the hardcore” … and then summarily alienates them the moment they start playing. Good job, Blizzard.
16/05/2012 at 07:43 Toberoth says:
I’m really struggling with this one–never have I been so conflicted about whether to buy a game or not. On the one hand, it seems really fun, and I’ve been playing the starter edition and it’s grand. On the other hand, I’ve had one or two issues already with disconnects and lag and whatnot, and I really, really dislike the idea of the real money auction house (I know I don’t have to use it, I just don’t like knowing that it’s THERE) and the always-online business.
What do?
16/05/2012 at 07:44 Toberoth says:
There’s also the fact that a bunch of my friends are going to be playing DIII and I kind of want to play with them. But I want to play a game, not a service.
16/05/2012 at 08:00 alsoran says:
Its not really a struggle, you choose whether you want the game enough to play it on their terms in their sandbox/ walled garden or you go and find something more interesting and open. There are loads of games out there to play that don’t have the associated hassle.
Personally I liked the original Diablo and so did my kids, but that experience was very different to the one presented with the current Diablo III MMO.
couple of other things:- Did it really take 12 years to produce a game? Duke Nukem was pants and that took forever as well, and another thing, given the amount of time which they had I don’t really think that the initial problems are acceptable as they really have had plenty of time to fix things properly at their leisure.
Finally guys, if you produce a product or service and then bring it to market, make sure that it works from day one. No-one wants to use a broken game.
16/05/2012 at 08:57 Skeletor68 says:
Between the hours of 6 and 10.30 yesterday evening I got about 30 minutes of playable time. :(
Just took some of the excitement out of it for me.
Hopefully that’s it and I can enjoy at my leisure from now on.
16/05/2012 at 09:55 Milky1985 says:
The could be an interesting issue that will bite blizz a lot more than just people complaining.
The login issues last nigh were affecting all of battle.net , so starcraft 2 and wow, this weekend is the first weekend of diablo 3 so there will likely be a big demand for play
There is also a big starcraft 2 tournment, run by one of the big names in the pro scene (mlg) . If they have login issues they cannot run the tournment, because the LAN mode they have been asking for is also not implemented.Be interesting what will happen if there is issues, as this is big commcerial enterprises and blizzard want the esports side pushed as it helps them.
This could really bite them.
16/05/2012 at 09:55 Triangulon says:
Only slightly off-topic, how many people are planning on replaying Diablo 2 instead (besides myself)?
16/05/2012 at 10:16 postwar says:
Already did! Just got Cain out of Tristram. On my way to get the Horadric Malus. Playing as a Crossbow wielding Amazon.
16/05/2012 at 10:40 Skeletor68 says:
I just got my Necro to Act IV. Found a bad ass gargoyle head and an amulet with +1 to curses! Yummy!
Wondering how well class specific items in D3 are going to work when you can’t put extra points into skills. Do they just have an effect like ‘+15% damage to poison dart’ or something?
16/05/2012 at 11:11 postwar says:
Yup. Looks like they’ll add to specific skills and not base stats.
16/05/2012 at 12:33 RegisteredUser says:
There still isn’t a widescreen/HD resolution mod for that, is there?
16/05/2012 at 12:54 trjp says:
There’s an unofficial one – you can’t play online but it works for single player
Ironically…
18/05/2012 at 11:43 RegisteredUser says:
Found out with the latest official patches you can maximize it in windowed mode and there is a german who made a GLIDE emu wrapper which has supersampling and Bilinear filtering for the upscaled resolutions which works with the latest version as well.
Unlike the hack that stops working past 1.12 it doesn’t change the original view, either.
16/05/2012 at 09:58 postwar says:
So, I had a dream that my current Diablo II playthrough was interrupted by a server error. Silly me, server outages preventing single player gameplay? Will never happen.
16/05/2012 at 11:11 psyk says:
LMAO 11am and my first login attempt on the EU servers is successful
16/05/2012 at 11:36 Caiman says:
Of course, the silver lining to all this is the PR damage this has done to the notion of online single player games.
16/05/2012 at 14:18 AlwaysRight says:
blades – demon hunter
guns – monk
toughness – barbarian
cunning – wizard
voodoo – witch doctor
I deserve a medal.
(I mean guns as in what people who go to the gym call their biceps).
16/05/2012 at 14:47 Dammokles says:
So now that there’s a SKIDROW crack of Diablo III, pirates can play single player with no problems whereas paying customers are plagued with server issues. Clearly, a well thought out DRM scheme.
You know a publisher has its head up its ass when paying full purchase price for a pirated version of their game would yield a superior product.
Way to go Blizzard!
16/05/2012 at 14:58 Freud says:
If by “no problems” you mean running around in an empty world without quests, where skills may be broken and no enemies, sure.
16/05/2012 at 16:25 MythArcana says:
As much as Diablo 3 and Blizzard are irritating the masses right now, I don’t think it’s a great idea to drop release group names and false news that simply isn’t true. You might as well just post a URL to the torrent for convenience….Jeez.
18/05/2012 at 11:35 RegisteredUser says:
Yea, whatever this guy is on about, its fake.
17/05/2012 at 11:20 Palindrome says:
Its not actually cracked yet, as far as I can make out only the game files are up on the usual suspects.
There is no way of knowing how much of the core game will be in a cracked version so its a bit premature to say that half the game will be missing.