By Nathan Grayson on May 30th, 2012 at 10:03 pm.
Edit: Reports are that people are now managing to get back in. John just got an orange drop, for instance.
Have you ever built a house of cards? It takes ages, and then all you can do is pray that the cruel forces of nature don’t send a gentle puff of wind or prancing baby deer in its direction. If anyone so much as enters the same room as it, you reflexively scream “DON’T TOUCH IT.” 6.3 million people touched Blizzard’s latest house of cards. It exploded. So then Blizzard touched it and, well, it double-exploded. In the wake of patch 1.0.2 going live (which, itself, necessitated many hours of downtime to apply), EU players reported prolonged server outages. Amongst all the rioting in the streets, people on fire, and not-looting, some claim to have seen Errors 37 and 73 creeping through the wreckage, wringing their cold hands maniacally. Now a more than 80-page forum thread is finally seeing claims of successful logins – but with swift disconnects shortly after.
Blizzard responded around six hours ago, but hasn’t given a status update on the situation since. So for now, here’s the only word from on high:
“Login is currently being impacted by the number of players that are coming online after they downloaded the patch and accepted the Terms of Use. Sadly, the additional steps required to patch and log in to the game is creating a lot of the ‘Error 37′ prompts for players.”
“We’re currently working on a fix for this and are looking to have it implemented as soon as possible; we hope to have future patching processes smoothed out for Diablo III.”
US servers, meanwhile, appear to be functioning normally – making this situation all the more perplexing. In related news, an in-game prompt (you know, when you can log-in) now pegs the oft-delayed real money auction house’s launch on June 12. It is, at this point, a bit difficult to not be incredibly skeptical.
So, right then. As always, we’ll keep you updated. The whole situation’s a bit of a mess – as we’ve discussed countless times – and it’s immensely discouraging that it still hasn’t gotten any better. Launch hiccups? Sure, those are a thing. But these are acidic mini-volcanoes of launch vomit.
Some players, predictably, are accusing Blizzard of laziness. I actually do not think that’s the case. This is the company that still releases patches for most of its more-than-a-decade-old games. There’s no lack of dedication in this rapidly festering formula. But clearly, Blizzard’s bitten off more than it can chew, and now customers are paying the price.
30/05/2012 at 22:06 AlwaysRight says:
Thats weird. I was getting error 37 until I read this article, now its fine.
30/05/2012 at 22:08 Plivesey says:
Yeah, it seems like they purposefully waited for it to be fixed before posting this article? Either that, or just a case of very bad timing.
30/05/2012 at 22:43 Maktaka says:
Clearly, just as the speed of internet news exceeded the speed of print news and rendered the latter obsolete, Blizzard Forum news has rendered mere internet news obsolete. Let us now all rage at each other in a manner befitting our oracle.
30/05/2012 at 22:06 Spider Jerusalem says:
just waiting for my refund to come through.
30/05/2012 at 22:37 Desmolas says:
I have made my request to be refunded my money for the game. But that will probably go nowhere.
They will just thank me for my patience while the issues are resolved. =/
31/05/2012 at 00:33 mrjackspade says:
I’m thinking about doing this. I guess you just email their support line?
31/05/2012 at 01:34 Spider Jerusalem says:
you can open a ticket through bnet or you can call billing. they only employ two people in their call center it seems like, so you’ll probably wait for an hour or two to talk to a live human.
31/05/2012 at 00:42 misterT0AST says:
You enter the store and say:
“I would like to buy this game which is bound to a server at all times”
Then, after a few weeks:
“I want a refund, this game doesn’t work every time the server goes down!”
I really don’t understand the thought process.
31/05/2012 at 01:29 Bhazor says:
The key phrase
“I want a refund, this game doesn’t work”
31/05/2012 at 01:33 wu wei says:
Are you really incapable of understanding that consumers have a right to being able to utilise services they pay for?
If you can point to anywhere in the D3 advertising that warns users to expect erratic downtime and ongoing inability to connect, maybe then you’d have a reason for being so condescending.
31/05/2012 at 01:35 Spider Jerusalem says:
i’m sorry that i value my rights as a consumer re: using the product that i paid for.
31/05/2012 at 03:20 fish99 says:
Maybe people were expecting the servers to work?
31/05/2012 at 16:15 evileeyore says:
I wasn’t. Which is why I didn’t buy this game.
31/05/2012 at 07:40 mike2R says:
I’ve not played much D3. Until last night, the last time I tried to play was early morning a week or two ago.
That time the servers were “down for maintenance”, this time I got error 37. Then I did finally get in, cleared what I suspect was nearly all of a large area when the land ran out (literally just ended in a blue haze), I wandered around lost for half a minute, then the game dumped me back to the title screen. It let me start it up again right away… right back where I’d started before. I gave up.
I realise I’ve been unlucky, I’ve probably hit the only two major outages during that period. But shit, I bought this for single player, and this is ridiculous.
I doubt I’ll bother getting a refund, but this is the only game in like forever that I’ve been seriously thinking about it. The fact that they are apparently offering refunds is about the only positive thought about the whole experience that I have.
I’ve gone from almost ignoring always-on DRM (I play on a desktop with a stable connection, what does it matter to me?), to making this a likely deal breaker. I’ll have to want to play a game a lot more than I wanted to play D3 to buy another game like this.
31/05/2012 at 01:40 Khann says:
My refund came through a couple of days ago. My ticket consisted of one simple paragraph explaining that 250ms latency was unacceptable, and that Australia/NZ should not be forced to play on US servers.
31/05/2012 at 07:41 Hvr says:
MFW people are already trying to refund..
01/06/2012 at 15:49 Didero says:
Yeah, people should wait at least a couple of weeks for the product they buy to work before they have the right to complain.
31/05/2012 at 16:34 Yar says:
Yeah, I’m not raging or hating. But I only get a little time to play now and then and I want to be able to play. I’ve wasted two whole evenings trying to log in. There are other games that I will enjoy and that won’t do this to me. I requested a refund. The ticket was closed by inviting me to read the forums. I opened a second ticket requesting a refund.
30/05/2012 at 22:08 HexagonalBolts says:
It’s definitely a bit sloppy. Obviously a vast number of people have bought the game, but I’m not sure they have bitten off more than they could chew though, surely WoW is a more substantial mouthful?
30/05/2012 at 22:16 TillEulenspiegel says:
Yeah, it’s puzzling. WoW is substantially more complex, with multiple servers used to compose a seamless world.
In terms of server architecture, D3 should be very similar to SC2, which as far as I know didn’t have much in the way of significant problems. This is really exceptionally poor from Blizzard, given their experience.
30/05/2012 at 22:32 subedii says:
SC2 wasn’t “always online”, at least not in the way D3 is. All the game logic wasn’t shifted server-side, and even then, I imagine the majority of people were playing singleplayer when SC2 launched.
So yeah, a lot more strain here, where everyone’s online at all times, the server’s doing a heck of a lot, and sending and receiving a lot more as well.
31/05/2012 at 01:02 Bhazor says:
It is wierd just how much they’re doing server side. It must be costing almost as much as running WoW but without the subscription fees. The running costs must be in the millions. For a point of reference Guild Wars is rumoured to cost $9million a year to run.
Any fans of D3 better be hoping the RMAH is a runaway success because I don’t see Activision keeping the servers alive if they start bleeding money.
31/05/2012 at 03:47 diamondmx says:
Yes, there is a very real possibility this game will be disabled within the next 5 years.
31/05/2012 at 05:04 thestage says:
I am wondering exactly how stupid you would have to be to think that it is likely that blizzard would abandon Diablo III any time within the next decade.
Even if, somehow, the inevitable 10 million copies sold plus the existence of the real money auction house were not enough to pay for servers, Blizzard would bleed money from now until the apocalypse rather than face the backlash of taking the game offline. I can play Diablo ONE online TODAY. The game came out in 1996.
This whole post is a joke anyway. Yes, the servers sucked during a patch. Blizzard servers have sucked for each and every one of WoW’s four hundred thousand patch days, none of which have been covered here or anywhere else.
31/05/2012 at 06:20 Trith says:
I’m sorry but I am here merely to debunk this utterly foolish rumor, as Guild Wars 1 servers where covered for about 20 years by the first year of sales alone. It does not cost 9 million to run these servers and whoever is saying that is an incessant fool.
31/05/2012 at 09:18 NathanH says:
Anyway I would expect that if they decided to take the servers down relatively soon they’d patch in offline play. Not doing that would be so detrimental to their reputation after all. It’d also be good for PR the next time they make a game with no offline mode: they can immediately dismiss the “what happens if you shut down the servers” criticism.
31/05/2012 at 20:45 Ragnar says:
Back when I played WoW, I accepted that the servers might suck on patch day. That’s the kind of stuff you put up with for an MMO. But it’s been 4 years since I last played WoW, and Diablo 3 isn’t an MMO.
I may only have an hour a night to play with my woman. If I’m presented with Error 37 and 3006 instead of being able to play, I am understandably frustrated. I am meeting all the requirements to play the game, but Blizzard isn’t holding up their side of the bargain.
Now, I know the support team at Blizzard is working diligently to resolve the issue, and I thank them, and i know that Blizzard support their products for far longer than most. But if they can’t handle a patch 2 weeks after release (and the server outage in both the US and UK shows that they can’t), then clearly the server solution required more testing, and they shouldn’t have rolled out the patch. In fact, given that the only significant change was turning General chat on for everyone each time they log in, they could have held this patch off indefinitely and I’d be just fine with that.
30/05/2012 at 22:41 HexagonalBolts says:
I guess making a singleplayer game require server side content generation has never really been done before whereas the simple online login and MMO are both well established systems. You would imagine that 4 players in a game would require less work than 4 people playing the game individually (less monsters and terrain to generate), perhaps they significantly underestimated how many people would play the game alone?
31/05/2012 at 12:48 p12t says:
@HexagonalBolts:
Closed Battle.net for Diablo 2 was/is doing it the same way as Diablo 3 is doing it now. So server-side generation of the levels isn’t something new for Blizzard.
31/05/2012 at 06:54 frightlever says:
WOW didn’t have almost 10 million players straight out the gate. BUT if GW2, which has a similar structure to D3, as I understand it, is half as popular with a fraction of Blizzzard’s resources. Could be rough.
I lost (I assume) some nice toys in a crapout last night, but I remain sanguine. I’m having a lot of fun with the game. Normal really makes the game look like a turd though. They need to fix that.
31/05/2012 at 07:21 Azhrarn says:
How does Guild Wars 2 have a similar structure to Diablo 3?
Guild Wars 2′s structure is, just like most MMOs, a shared world where loads of players per shard can interact. Nothing like D3s structure then.
Guild Wars 1 was heavily instanced, with only the hub cities being shared.
Which bears more similarities to how D3 works than GW2 ever did. :)
31/05/2012 at 20:48 Ragnar says:
WoW didn’t have 8 years of MMO hosting experience providing servers for 10 million players either.
30/05/2012 at 22:09 Bahoxu says:
I think i would find this downtime more acceptable if it was an actual MMO suffering through early release troubles. But since its just broken copyprotection i’m a bit annoyed.
31/05/2012 at 06:58 frightlever says:
You misunderstand how much of D3 is server-side, I suspect. A lot. It’s not a MMO but there is still CONSTANT communication between the game and D3. So the D3 client is doing as much as a WOW client, possibly more even, while server side the D3 mega-brain may have less to do with each individual instance of the game, but there almost as many instances and as much data getting shuffled about. I’d say there isn’t THAT much in it.
Hell of a way to make a potentially single-player game though.
31/05/2012 at 13:59 kaffis says:
“Hell of a way to make a single player game, though.”
Yes. This is why the poster you replied to called it “broken copy protection.” Because, from a functional standpoint, the server-side content generation isn’t fundamentally necessary. It’s only necessary because Blizzard wanted to utilize it as an ambitious anti-cheat (since modifying loot tables and whatnot would obviate their monetization scheme) and draconian anti-piracy measure.
Thus, I think it’s entirely appropriate to lay the blame at Blizzard’s feet. If you can’t handle the load, requiring the load when you didn’t have to is a poor design decision. Poor design decisions yield bad game experiences. Bad game experiences are the number one factor in a bad game, in my book.
30/05/2012 at 22:10 Mr. Mister says:
So releasing a patch causes hype, said hype causes a login overflow, said overflow causes errors, said errors beg for a patch to fix them…
Am I the only one following the logic?
30/05/2012 at 22:13 HexagonalBolts says:
Surely the minor patch can’t have caused a similar level of hype to the first 45 minutes of the game being unlocked (how long it took me to get in)? I suspect there is a different problem here.
31/05/2012 at 20:53 Ragnar says:
I don’t know about you, but as soon as I read “Players will now automatically join General chat when logging in” in the patch notes I felt very excited!
31/05/2012 at 23:06 Hematite says:
hey can u tell how to get to XR my friend said to meet their. i am at the crossroads.
31/05/2012 at 02:14 elevown says:
Its not hype about the patch, but the traffic jam it causes.
If people cant play for 8hr, the big back-log of people, who would of otherwise been playing spread out over the day, all have to wait and then try to all play at once.
30/05/2012 at 22:11 Aedrill says:
I think this is the best way to describe this situation. Anyone defending Blizzard and this silly idea of always-on should consider this fact: if ANYTHING goes wrong it’s the customer (i.e. the one who paid for the bloody game) suffering, not Blizzard. All of the risk is being laid on the gamers. If you really think it’s all right, then something’s clearly wrong with your perception and your definition of free market.
31/05/2012 at 00:30 alundra says:
Don’t be mad at them, soon enough they will start selling…uhmm…lets say… a LOGINATOR!!!, for a price you will be instilled with a preferential place in the login queue.
Of course poor poor blizzvis will be selling those at a loss, some say.
31/05/2012 at 00:58 Richeh says:
That’s a little cynical. Always-on DRM and server swoggling is pretty crap. But Blizzard have always had, and continue to have, excellent customer service. They’re still a class act in my book. Not that they’ll ever see any of my money for such a shoddy product.
31/05/2012 at 01:26 Bhazor says:
I have to wonder how much more mediocrity Blizz can get away with before people realize the magic left the company years ago. Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 were both HD rereleases of decade old games and WoW was Everquest with a paint job and already outdated by release.
This is not the same developer that made Warcraft 3 or Starcraft.
They used to be known for daring reinventions of genres like Diablo 1 and Warcraft 3 now they’re known just for copying existing games with an extra layer of polish.
This DRM bullshit was where I drew the line. I liked Starcraft 2, WoW was completely fine, but there is no way Diablo 3 justifies this crap. In regards to customer service the existence of this DRM is the biggest “FUCK YOU” imaginable delivered to every single customer personally.
31/05/2012 at 01:43 Psychopomp says:
If you think D3 is just an HD rerelease of D2, you clearly haven’t played, read, or seen anything about it.
31/05/2012 at 02:02 Bhazor says:
If you think this game isn’t a stale rehash of a moribund genre then you really need to play more games in the genre.
Hell, Dungeon Siege 3 was more daring in terms of what it tried. Not to mention Nox or a dozen other games in the genre that did so much more. Add to that they didn’t tie their games to a broken and entirely superflous infrastructure and the defenders of Diablo 3 really come off as people who don’t know anything exists beyond Diablo.
My simple question.
Is this game really worth 7 years of development? Is this really all you expected?
31/05/2012 at 02:27 InternetBatman says:
God I loved Nox. It came with a bonus disk so you could play online with your friends.
Also, WoW was not mediocre. While it went way down in quality after the Burning Crusade, it was just a fantastic example of the MMO genre for a while. There are multiple reasons it far exceed EQ in player base, and some of the areas were just pure fun to play in like the Barrens, Stranglethorn Vale, or the Netherstorm. If it was mediocre, it wouldn’t be so hard to knock it off its throne.
31/05/2012 at 10:49 mouton says:
@Psychopomp
Of course, “HD rerelease” was Bhazor’s hyperbole. But it doesn’t change the fact, the SC2 and D3 have been extremely non-innovative. Heavily polished, yes, but still little more than rehashes of stale 90′s formulas.
31/05/2012 at 11:31 NathanH says:
I’ll continue saying this until I’m blue in the face, but Starcraft 2 has the most innovative and varied single-player campaign I’ve ever seen in an RTS. And before you say “It’s all about the multiplayer”, I don’t care, make your statements more careful!
31/05/2012 at 12:41 Bhazor says:
@ NathanH
No it wasn”t.
The structure was a near linear series of scripted missions. Of those missions only some were interesting (the rising lava level, the laser tunnel) whilst many others were crap build a base to destroy a base. The idea of upgrading units between missions has been done many times before.
The actual second to second gameplay is a horribly outdated relic.
Again, look at how they changed the gameplay from Warcraft 2 to Warcraft 3 to see how Blizzard used to innovate.
@ Internet Batman
Compared to games that came out years earlier like Dark Age of Camelot (3 years earlier), Ultima Online (7 years earlier) and Eve Online (1 year earlier) WoWs gameplay is horribly limited and just plain archaic. The fact that so many developers then tried to jump on the new money wagon is no compliment to the genius of Blizzard, it’s an admission to the creative bankruptcy of many developers and publishers.
I mean queing for instances? How the literal fuck did they get away with that?
31/05/2012 at 14:53 Zihua says:
>many others were crap build a base to destroy a base.
There isn’t a single one of those missions in the game. There are some “hold on for this long” missions, but everything else is different.
>The actual second to second gameplay is a horribly outdated relic.
I’m assuming you think this because it doesn’t have idiotic cover and retreat mechanics like CoH? Blizzard understands that this “outdated” gameplay is the only way RTS can be done. All these modern “innovations” remove depth and skill. It is why Starcraft 2 has the biggest competitive scene an RTS has ever had and CoH doesn’t have one at all.
31/05/2012 at 18:39 mouton says:
@Zihua
Iidiotic CoH mechanics? You must be Korean.
Also, COD has a lot of players as well.
31/05/2012 at 01:33 Auldreekie says:
Blizzard perhaps, Activision Blizzard is a whole new beast.
They now answer to new overlords, the shareholders will it.
31/05/2012 at 21:11 Flavioli says:
All of these news about trouble logging in are the main reason why I haven’t bought the game, and don’t plan to in the future. If anything, that’s Blizzard taking a loss, not me. Sadly, I’m the only person that I know in my circle of friends that didn’t preorder the shit out of the game as soon as preordering became possible. So I think it’d be fair to say Actiblizzard doesn’t have much of a lesson to learn here.
30/05/2012 at 22:11 WoundedBum says:
Mass Effect 3′s ending, Diablo’s copy protection…what next, I wonder.
30/05/2012 at 22:16 Torticoli says:
You’re comparing bad writing to technical issues preventing you from playing the single player mode of the game you bought. Sounds like a fair comparison.
30/05/2012 at 22:28 Meldreth says:
He’s only comparing these two issues in terms oh how much they suck. Both may be seen as outrageous decisions made by developers. It does sound like a fair comparison, I guess.
30/05/2012 at 22:39 WoundedBum says:
Yeah, I’m just saying there’s been two fairly major disappointments this year, calm down.
30/05/2012 at 22:40 Meusli says:
No, he is comparing two bad light stories against Blizzard and probably wondering what crazy nonsense they come up with next to deliver service to the customer.
30/05/2012 at 22:51 rocketman71 says:
He’s comparing two issues that destroyed the credibility of the developers in question, and both could have been easily avoided if said developers had not been so GODDAMNED STUPID.
(greedy stupid in the case of Blizzard, lazy stupid in the case of Bioware)
30/05/2012 at 23:39 Joshua Northey says:
If you think Blizzard and Bioware have “destroyed credibility” you are very, very wrong.
31/05/2012 at 00:28 alundra says:
No Joshua, it is only you who think you are right. What an imaginative fella you are.
31/05/2012 at 01:26 Supahewok says:
Oh, their credibility hasn’t been completely destroyed, but for many of us out there ME3 ended our relationship with Bioware. Blizzard took a hit with their always online shenanigans, but the real damage because of that happened months ago back when this plan was first announced. So Blizzard’s popularity took a dent, yeah. Bioware substantially more so. It’s okay to say so. These companies have all of the tools, resources, and minds to regain their standing with a substantial number of consumers. The big question is: Will they?
31/05/2012 at 04:01 Joshua Northey says:
alundra, the next big Blizzard and Bioware projects will fly off the shelves, their credibility is fine. But keep living in fantasy land if if makes you feel better.
31/05/2012 at 12:42 Mercurial says:
I think Bioware destroyed their credibility (for me at least) with Dragon Age 2, the Mass Effect 3 affair (DLC on the disc etc, online play requirement) was just further evidence that they had jumped the shark.
31/05/2012 at 01:01 Richeh says:
I don’t think wanting to be paid for every copy of your work that’s played could exactly be called “greedy”. More “naive, overbearing and under thought out”.
31/05/2012 at 03:17 jrodman says:
The RMAH is what induces the greedy label.
31/05/2012 at 02:33 InternetBatman says:
I view it more as a comparison between the bad decision to integrate multiplayer into a single-player a poor way that affected many players attempts to satisfactorily complete it and Diablo III.
30/05/2012 at 22:12 Shadram says:
After applying the patch last night (I’m in NZ, and so on US servers) the game felt somehow less responsive – the mouse cursor was ‘floaty’, especially when dragging items around, and my clicks didn’t seem to register as well as before. The framerate also appears worse. Was it just my imagination, or are others finding the same thing?
30/05/2012 at 23:23 TechnicalBen says:
They will probably gradually slow down the gameplay (and mouse) until the servers can cope. You’ll be playing in treacle in a week. :D
31/05/2012 at 11:50 Shadram says:
It seems better tonight. It probably had something to do with the servers being overburdened, or perhaps my PC was having a bad day.
30/05/2012 at 22:13 nasenbluten says:
I’m glad that I tried the beta and didn’t like it that much.
Blizzard is dead for me since Warcraft 3.
30/05/2012 at 22:43 MistyMike says:
For me, Blizzard ended after The Lost Vikings.
30/05/2012 at 22:47 Beelzebud says:
So that means you never played Rock and Roll Racing? Shame!
30/05/2012 at 23:05 frenz0rz says:
God I loved that game. Except for those bloody oil slicks.
30/05/2012 at 23:39 Joshua Northey says:
Such a good game.
30/05/2012 at 22:58 mzlapq says:
For me, Silicon & Synapse died with the Lost Vikings. Blizzard died with Blackthorne.
30/05/2012 at 23:03 nasenbluten says:
Backthorne, that was a nice game. Shooting orks and elves in the face with a shootgun, jumping around and writting down those level codes… good times.
30/05/2012 at 22:58 Aedrill says:
Well, I didn’t like the beta as well. Mostly because it was Error 37 all the fucking time. I didn’t play the bloody thing even for a second.
So yeah, I’m lucky I didn’t like the beta.
30/05/2012 at 22:13 Kefren says:
I think I’ll stick to my offline single player games.
30/05/2012 at 22:16 Plivesey says:
It’s a good job you looked up that this was an always-online game before buying it then, if you wanted singleplayer offline games eh?
30/05/2012 at 22:34 Kresh says:
“It’s a good job you looked up that this was an always-online game before buying it then, if you wanted singleplayer offline games eh?”
Nothing like a straw-man argument to make yourself feel smart, eh?
Patches (in general) are famous for mucking things up, so people being upset isn’t a real surprise to anyone that doesn’t have their jaws firmly locked around Blizzard’s e-wang. This is just more of the same old song and dance. I do hope Blizzard learns the right lesson from this.
The right lesson being; forcing you players to play a historically off-line capable single-player game online is retarded, no matter how much you try to BS the players to the contrary in an effort to pretend that the game ISN’T built purposefully to be a RMT cash vacuum.
30/05/2012 at 22:14 SirKicksalot says:
Why can’t software makers include a description of exactly what the error is about?
It’s baffling to me that Blizzard explained it in their blog posts in the weeks before D3′s launch but there’s no in-game explanation for the millions who never read those.
30/05/2012 at 22:14 Skipperoo says:
OH, is Diablo 3 out then?
30/05/2012 at 22:24 Aedrill says:
Well, it’s not, apparently.
30/05/2012 at 22:35 Kresh says:
Well played, sir. *golf clap*
30/05/2012 at 23:06 Hoaxfish says:
If Diablo sees his shadow, he’ll retreat back into his soulstone, and the error 37s will continue for 6 more weeks.
31/05/2012 at 01:02 Richeh says:
Yes, but it keeps seeing a shadow and going back to sleep for a few days.
30/05/2012 at 22:14 Bennet says:
The patch hit the U.S. yesterday, accompanied by around 15 hours of server downtime and good old Error 37. What’s *truly* perplexing is Blizzard had the big patch mess over here and deployed it in the EU anyway…apparently with the same messy result.
30/05/2012 at 22:14 mr.ioes says:
http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/diablo3complaint
30/05/2012 at 22:16 Skeletor68 says:
It makes me sad. I’m a few minutes away from fighting Diablo for the first time. So irritating when you finally get time to play.
30/05/2012 at 22:16 milan.jirkovsky says:
I only hope this will discourage other developers from always-online gameplay model because if Blizzard can’t do it, who can? So maybe it will be remembered as a good thing ;o)
30/05/2012 at 22:22 Fumarole says:
This is the best case scenario from all of this drama.
30/05/2012 at 22:32 Zenicetus says:
One would hope so, but it will probably be rationalized as… “Not every game will draw that kind of traffic, so our game will be okay if we use this method.”
Or the more cynical… “We can only hope to draw that traffic, and if we do, then we’ll cross that bridge when we get there (and be laughing all the way to the bank)”.
30/05/2012 at 23:26 TechnicalBen says:
Unless you are the bank (see Northern Rock, and a few US ones too).
30/05/2012 at 22:20 Aldehyde says:
Me and my friend’s hardcore characters died because of these issues. We were level 57 in hell and suddenly we get disconnected. When we finally get back in, we’re dead. 36 hours gone, wiiee!
Luckily, Blizzard has a policy not to reinstate heroes for any reason. That should help out.
30/05/2012 at 22:36 squareking says:
I hadn’t even imagined this horrible scenario. Ouch.
30/05/2012 at 23:03 PacketOfCrisps says:
I thought losing my level 13 hardcore character to a disconnect was annoying, I can’t imagine how you feel. I know one thing though, I will never make another hardcore character in Diablo III.
31/05/2012 at 02:28 elevown says:
I find it hard to belive you were on a 3rd play through in that little time.. My normal play through is about 40hr. And I didnt die much or do any grinding. What are you doing skipping every side dungeon and running through it in a straight line?
31/05/2012 at 04:35 Shadram says:
In a Hardcore game, yes, skipping side stuff is a good idea. One unlucky combination of elites can be game over, so avoiding as many as possible is the best plan if you want to get to the end.
31/05/2012 at 04:50 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
40 hours for normal? 40?
I played 57 hours on my demon hunter and I’m halfway through act 2 inferno. It’s not like we went through the game slowly, but I wouldn’t call our pace rushing either. I mean, there are achievements for finishing each chapter under an hour after all.
I can understand maybe 20 hours for normal, max. What were you doing?
31/05/2012 at 19:17 Aldehyde says:
Yeah, if you were playing 40 hours just for normal then you were doing something… not wrong but just not playing at all for long periods of time. Took me and friends about 10 hours to complete normal when we explored exactly everything.
31/05/2012 at 10:43 Zarunil says:
Oh dear, that has to suck. OUCH! I would be furious.
30/05/2012 at 22:25 tomnullpointer says:
Phew well at least we will get a few days refund on our online subs for the game…
oh, wait….
30/05/2012 at 22:26 Fincher says:
No problems, they said.
Barely any downtime, they said.
30/05/2012 at 23:08 Hoaxfish says:
enhance your gameplay, they said
protection from hackers, they said
31/05/2012 at 01:59 wu wei says:
“Separate SP & MP characters are too confusing,” they said.
“Of course you need separate characters for each region!” they said.
30/05/2012 at 22:28 LionsPhil says:
Enough already.
Nathan using RPS as his personal axe-grinding podium for this is tiresome. Everything that has to be said about how awful this DRM is has been said. Preaching to the choir is now just pushing articles about other, far more interesting to discuss games off the frontpage within the same day they’re posted.
30/05/2012 at 22:29 Fincher says:
Just curious, did you buy Diablo 3?
30/05/2012 at 22:44 LionsPhil says:
Fuck no.
Perhaps you’re missing the point here. It’s not that “Diablo 3′s DRM is an awful affront to the very concept of Personal Computer gaming” is wrong; it’s that saying that ten times in a row is just tedious and doesn’t achieve anything because after the first nine there is nothing new to discuss, and all it is doing is flooding out other, more interesting topics of PC gaming discussion (see: articles from today already pushed off the front of the site). Move on.
30/05/2012 at 22:58 rocketman71 says:
It IS newsworthy. It seemed like the tempest was calming, and now we’re at it again.
I didn’t buy Diablo 3 because of all of this (and StarCraft 2 because of the lack of LAN), and I want to hear these news. The fact that Blizzard fucked up so bad and still a big part of the gamer community is giving them a pass because this is Blizzard.
If Nathan never posted about this, those of us who didn’t buy D3, and many who finished it and uninstalled it because it didn’t offer them anything new (I know a few) would never know how much Blizzard is doing trying to catch up to Bioware in the 2012′s Worst Fall from Heaven competition.
30/05/2012 at 23:09 Vorphalack says:
RPS could consolidate all of the Diablo 3 developments into a weekly round up post, instead of bombarding the front page with daily (and fairly trivial) micro-updates. You wouldn’t miss anything and space would be saved on the internet. The game is out, it has issues, but it’s not going anywhere.
I know the issues D3 raises are quite important, but this is starting to feel more like a tabloid witch hunt than useful news blog material.
30/05/2012 at 23:08 MrWolf says:
One second. Let me give Nathan a quick call and ask him to stop pointing a gun at your head, forcing you to read the article.
30/05/2012 at 23:16 LionsPhil says:
Is it the hot weather, or are you just a bit of a dick?
RPS readers have finite capacity for reading things, if only because at some point we have to do something productive instead. The site itself prioritises the most recent eleven by putting anything older onto a separate page. Every article posted has a cost vs. the opportunity for another article.
31/05/2012 at 02:04 Bhazor says:
…I….huh…
30/05/2012 at 23:30 Gasmask Hero says:
True.
This place gets a bad case of the Eurogamers every time D3 is mentioned (look below for evidence ‘whaambulance’ indeed). Yeah, a bunch of persons may have bought it but if the sum of those persons is nothing more than two packs of apes flinging shit at each other what does this add? Page views? Can’t be short of those following the recent Alexa revelations.
At the same time though, a quick Google doesn’t seem to reveal any anti-blizzard bias on behalf of Mr Grayson. Sure, he has a girly curly piss poor hairstyle but then I’m not going to hold that against a gent.
…”RPS readers have finite capacity for reading things, if only because those of us with jobs have to go back to them at some point.”
Oh, wait, thanks LionsPhil for using your employed status as a veiled insult. I take back everything I said. Maybe the prevailing economic conditions will catch up with you soon, who knows. And thanks for reinforcing my earlier comment about the tribes of apes.
I should just stop reading D3 RPS articles full stop.
30/05/2012 at 23:33 LionsPhil says:
I’m not some Jesus-esque figure who turns the other cheek when people act like complete bell-ends. Just a regular dude with regular dude flaws like getting into idiotic Internet slapfights at times. Sorry.
But hey. Why the heck not. Post amended so that it doesn’t distract from The Point.
Your plan of action’s a pretty solid one.
30/05/2012 at 23:46 PopeJamal says:
I found it easier to block all his comments.Try it, you know you want to…
30/05/2012 at 23:48 LionsPhil says:
(Hunh. Must be pretty confusing seeing a thread where the original post is hidden. How the heck does that work?)
30/05/2012 at 22:32 noom says:
Fuck that. Complaining is fun.
30/05/2012 at 22:49 Kresh says:
Somebody call this man (LionsPhil) a whaaambulance! Somebody is saying something that he doesn’t like! Oh noes!
So, when a hugely successful game continues to have problems… it’s not news? We should ignore the fact that Blizzard was (and it appears, still is) mildly (as in totally) unprepared for the strain on their server farm? We should ignore that they couldn’t take the hint from their pre-orders and just wandered into the release date like a drunk wino wanders into traffic with the same approximate result?
Huh. You’re right. We should totally ignore their inept handling of this situation and just go look at some kickstarters or something. ‘Cause some guy trying to raise 18K for a game is totally more news that Blizzard (super-awesome ghods of games and the internets) f*cking the whole thing up over and over again.
To be honest, the guy trying to raise 18k actually is interesting, but the Blizzard news is just to delicious. I’m starting to think the “Leave Brittany Alone” tears that flow from the Blizzard fanatics anytime someone raises a slight problem with a Blizzard game is almost as tasty as Dr. Pepper.
30/05/2012 at 22:57 LionsPhil says:
The other problem with this being aptly demonstrated by twats like this. By this stage the whole “discussion” can be summed up as “APOLOGIST!” “HATER!” “APOLOGIST!” “DOUBLE-HATER!”
30/05/2012 at 23:04 Kresh says:
I’m guessing you don’t actually read what you write. It’s ok, I wouldn’t expect someone who calls another person a “twat” in the middle of a civil discussion about what is news worthy of being covered to actually understand the point they’re trying to make.
*yawn* Come back when you’ve matured a bit, would you?
30/05/2012 at 23:09 LionsPhil says:
>civil discussion
>whaaambulence
Comedy.
31/05/2012 at 11:17 Lemming says:
“Somebody call this man (LionsPhil) a whaaambulance! Somebody is saying something that he doesn’t like! Oh noes!
Yeah you’re all about civility, mate.
30/05/2012 at 23:06 NathanH says:
I bet you’re being paid by… by… by someone!
30/05/2012 at 23:10 Kresh says:
Gosh, secret’s out. Don’t tell mum, would you? She’d revoke my allowance for sure!
30/05/2012 at 23:13 DiamondDog says:
“Somebody call this man (LionsPhil) a whaaambulance!”
“civil discussion”
“Come back when you’ve matured a bit, would you?”
Kresh, LionsPhil isn’t defending Blizzard, he’s saying that RPS are just retreading old ground at this point. I mean, are we now going to get a news post every single time the D3 servers are down, forever more?
Still, well done going off on a rant and then trying to crawl back to the high ground.
30/05/2012 at 23:28 Kresh says:
Hey, guess what; “whaambulance” isn’t “twat.” One is funny exaggeration to make a point, the other is being a douchebag because someone pokes fun at you. Learn the difference and you might be able to detect the high ground next time. As they say in baseball; “Swing, and a miss.” Besides, I wasn’t crawling back to the high ground. If you must know, I was clinging by my fingernails. Pity you didn’t recognize my heroic efforts.
I’m also well aware of what he’s saying. The problem is, he (and you) don’t seem to understand what I’m saying. Which, to repeat because it seems reading comprehension is on the decline; Blizzard failing to “handle their sh*t,” as the saying goes, IS news. Complain all you want about the fact that it’s not what you consider newsworthy, but many of us do. Why? Because with any luck Blizzard will learn from this horrible roll out and do the next one better.
Also, it’s fun to see the fanatic supporters roll out and cry about how it’s unfair to Blizzard to complain about the colossal c*ck-up that is the D3 roll out. Really, I expected better and I’d never planned to buy the game. I’m actually very disheartened by what has happened to Blizzards reputation because of this one specific game. I thought Blizzard was better than this. I hope the next release proves that they are.
30/05/2012 at 23:50 PopeJamal says:
“I mean, are we now going to get a news post every single time the D3 servers are down, forever more?”
I hope so. I hate to admit it publicly, but I’ve been enjoying the hell out of watching people tell me they love their nutritious meal with a big smile on their faces while they force down their RMT-Turd-and-DRM sandwiches.
With a Diet Coke.
31/05/2012 at 00:24 beekay says:
Kresh: I’m sure your heart’s in the right place, but “waaaahmbulance” is pretty much synonymous with “twat.” Or more accurately, with “I am a twat.”
31/05/2012 at 02:23 Heresiarch says:
@DiamondDog, LionsPhil, beekay
Hey guys, here’s a fun little experiment to try out. First walk up to your mother and tell her “I’m going to call the whaambulance for you” and then call her a “twat”. After you remove her shoes from your collective sphincters, ask her which comment was the one that really set her off. If you come back and tell me it’s anything but the latter, I’ll know you’re lying.
31/05/2012 at 00:30 Eddy9000 says:
yeah I’d say the fastest selling game of all time, that also prominently requires an always on internet connection for a dedicated single-player mode, a single player mode that made up the majority of the way its prequels were played, constantly stopping people from playing said single player mode (or at all) because of server-side fuck ups is worth reporting. The old adage applies: if you don’t like it, don’t read it, certainly don’t waste your time posting about it. Plenty of other stuff on RPS that you do like, read that instead.
31/05/2012 at 01:00 Heresiarch says:
No, LionsPhil said it isn’t news, so that must mean it isn’t news! Even if D3 is one of the fastest selling PC games of all time with some of the most controversial design choices and restrictive DRM ever implemented, IT’S NOT NEWS!!!
NATHAN!!! WE DEMAND YOU WRITE SOMETHING MORE NEWSWORTHY FOR THE GREAT LIONSPHIL THIS INSTANT!
31/05/2012 at 03:03 max_1111 says:
Right, so i just created account so i could respond and say your attitude is complete balls.
Too much bullshit gets to slide on by in this industry now and somebody (even if it is only RPS in the end) needs to keep this crap in the hot seat.
It’s not okay and it needs to stop.
There.. said my piece…
I feel good.
31/05/2012 at 10:47 Zarunil says:
Considering how many people bought D3 and are experiencing problems, I’d say D3′s troubles are still newsworthy.
Not to mention Blizzard’s success/failure will be a factor when other companies decide to implement always-online DRM.
31/05/2012 at 11:15 Lemming says:
They aren’t posted articles about the DRM issues just for the hell for it. This is here because it happened. It’s news. Why is that a problem for you?
30/05/2012 at 22:31 ix says:
I came here just to tell you all to stop complaining about it on twitter. Seriously, I didn’t buy the game, but I feel like I’ve been playing it since launch. :-)
30/05/2012 at 23:00 rocketman71 says:
Diablo 3 is not the game they thought they had purchased. The ARPG is just a filler :-P
31/05/2012 at 11:49 stahlwerk says:
Alternate Reality Problem Generator
30/05/2012 at 23:51 MarkN says:
Very few other people feel like they’ve been playing it since launch, so hats off to you. :)
31/05/2012 at 01:58 Heresiarch says:
*slow clap* Well played, sir!
31/05/2012 at 11:18 Lemming says:
If you haven’t been playing it since launch, then you’ve been playing it since launch. :)
30/05/2012 at 22:31 gladius2metal says:
sue ‘em
30/05/2012 at 22:32 niuws says:
http://is.gd/PFQQs4
30/05/2012 at 22:37 aliksy says:
Meh. I played some Binding of Isaac (new DLC!) and then read my book when the servers went down. I mean, it sucks, but I’m having trouble keeping a sustained rage about it.
Now the lousy gear-checks, hit-detection, and “farm moar” design, that I can stay irked about.
30/05/2012 at 22:39 Beelzebud says:
I can’t wait until all games are on the cloud, then we won’t have to put up with this!
30/05/2012 at 22:50 MythArcana says:
So, what you are saying, in essence, is that you want ALL games to require Internet?
Epic.
30/05/2012 at 23:14 Kresh says:
You failed your sarcasm detection roll, good sir.
31/05/2012 at 12:27 Bhazor says:
Recieve 2d6 damage, take card from bottom of deck and do not pass Go.
31/05/2012 at 00:57 alundra says:
Yeah yeah, so glad nvidia thinks only a 10% of (PC) gamers will not enjoy this.
30/05/2012 at 22:43 doggod says:
Well it seems that the Korean government wont take this treatment of their citizens
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05/30/korean-government-raids-blizzard-over-alleged-diablo-iii-wrongdo/
Dissatisfied customers who couldn’t log into the game were denied a full refund by Blizzard, which said that it was under no obligation to do so under the game’s contract. The studio claims that it has a strict policy of “no refunds” in the country if a product is used.
30/05/2012 at 22:50 gladius2metal says:
interesting. Blizzard claims… well Blizzard, if Terms of Service break law (and customer rights are law in most countries…) those terms or “your policy” are invalid.
30/05/2012 at 23:11 Hoaxfish says:
I prefer this one: Diablo 3 called Big Pineapple in China to dodge sales ban
31/05/2012 at 12:33 Bhazor says:
Name seems oddly appropriate somehow.
But that has to be illegal surely.
31/05/2012 at 00:46 alundra says:
Just more proof that the so called EULAs and TOSes won’t hold in court, it’s just a matter of enough citizens uniting against this, or more governments show interest in protecting theirs.
If only such a huge percentage of governments around the world weren’t screwing in bed with corporate interests.
I said it, 7 million units sold, yeah, how many of those units represent a satisfied customer, one that will purchase again?
31/05/2012 at 07:06 Apolloin says:
In related news Blizzard threatens to destroy Korean society by taking Starcraft servers down for 36 hours unless their demands are met.
Seriously though, it’ll be interesting to see whether the Korean government or Blizzard flinch first. The South Korean government, of course, the people in North Korea need to master electricity THEN computers and THEN the internet before they can get hooked on PC games.
30/05/2012 at 22:45 MythArcana says:
Consumer fraud at its finest level if you ask me. I have willpower of the Gods, it’s just too bad that most of you fell off the cliff on this one.
Perhaps when the expansion comes out in 2014, you all will be able to connect like Kotlick intended. For me? My fucking ribs hurt from laughing so hard and I haven’t (nor will I ever again) bought a Buzzard release since LoD. The REAL D2 team is over at Runic. Come join the fun when you get tired of looking at login screens.
30/05/2012 at 22:48 SirKicksalot says:
The real D2 team really knocked it out of the park with Hellgate.
30/05/2012 at 23:11 MrWolf says:
BWA-HAHAHAHAHAHA!
31/05/2012 at 11:22 Lemming says:
Thing is, people weren’t bothered about Hellgate because its server model was pretty much D3s…..But Blizzard gets a free pass, apparently.
30/05/2012 at 23:43 Joshua Northey says:
If you think this is consumer fraud what did you think of SotS, or Stronghold 4 (or whatever it was). This game at least works and is fully complete (90% of the time).
30/05/2012 at 22:48 MarkN says:
What’s more interesting to discuss than this massive fuck-up? I have no interest in the Diablo franchise, but this clusterfuck around one of the biggest games of the year on any format needs to be discussed because it has huge bearings on the way hogh-profile games are handled in the future.
This should not be allowed to stand – it’s bloody ludicrous. “Bored now” is a piss-poor lazy response that looks like an apologist attempt to sweep an unacceptable issue under the rug.
Apologies if that isn’t the case, but as a complete outsider who doesn’t want always-online as standard that’s how it comes across.
30/05/2012 at 23:10 Moraven says:
Happened with WoW launch, and other MMO launches. Nothing new, other than there is millions more at launch than past games.
30/05/2012 at 23:29 Zanchito says:
It was not right for those games and it is still not right for this one. Also, this is not an MMO.
31/05/2012 at 02:06 Snakejuice says:
It is not an MMO gameplay wise but it is an MMO from a technical/netcode standpoint.
31/05/2012 at 09:48 Milky1985 says:
Its not an MMO from a technical/netcode standpoint as its simply client server.
For it to be an MMO the first M is the most important, this is not massivly unless massivly is now defined as 4.
31/05/2012 at 02:13 kud13 says:
The fact that it’s not an MMO makes it news-worthy.
also, the more fuss (and the longer) is raised about this, the greater the chances that other big publishers may decide not to try implementing this always on for single-player idiocy.
30/05/2012 at 22:50 marcusfell says:
The technology just isn’t there.
Edit: Is Diablo Month over yet?
30/05/2012 at 22:52 Ham Solo says:
Meanwhile at the legion of doom:
Just waiting for lovely Torchlight II to arrive.
30/05/2012 at 22:55 DalamarNL says:
Well, at least the patch added the #General chat to my single player game…
Why would Blizzard think anyone would want the option to look at people blabbering about nothing at all as default?
But hey, they’re “looking into it”.
Still having fun with the game though :)
30/05/2012 at 23:12 MrWolf says:
I like the #General Chat channel. It’s like being back in The Barrens (pre Cataclysm, ‘natch).
That is, when you can actually, you know, log in….
30/05/2012 at 23:16 Kresh says:
There was a reason people turned off Barrens chat. Barrens chat was the Mos Eisley of WoW chat channels.
31/05/2012 at 01:52 DodgyG33za says:
My understanding was that they turned on the general chat to ensure there was enough traffic between client and server to prevent a disconnect for some network configurations.
31/05/2012 at 03:13 BaronVonsnakPak says:
and now the chat is being taken over by gold-selling bots. so thats one feature of diablo 2 they managed to bring over.
31/05/2012 at 05:34 Kresh says:
I thought that feature was standard in all RMT games.
31/05/2012 at 09:50 Milky1985 says:
The age old idea of Keep Alive packets of data being transmitted every now and again too simple for fancy old blizzard?
I did wonder why general chat was enabled when I played last night (and promptly gave up after it spawned me in the midle of 1 yellow mob (freezing, molton) and a group of blues (jailer, vortex) that were impossible to kite and killed me in 5 hits)
30/05/2012 at 23:04 Moraven says:
They should have pulled Copies of Diablo like they Did with WoW launch.
30/05/2012 at 23:07 BaronVonsnakPak says:
anyone else noticing…strange map designs?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/BaronVonSnakPak/d3phallus.jpg
i also saw, but unfortunately didnt screencap, a dungeon layout in the shape of a swastika.
30/05/2012 at 23:14 grizzled young man says:
I’m usually loathe to point these kinds of things out, but yeah, I did notice an unusually large number of cock shaped dungeon elements.
30/05/2012 at 23:21 BaronVonsnakPak says:
i brought it up on the chat, and shockingly was met with replies of “you just want moar cocks lawls”.
and not to mention that on that level alone there were atleast 4 more phallus shaped corridors.
31/05/2012 at 16:08 theleif says:
I think Freud would like to have a word with you.
31/05/2012 at 20:42 BaronVonsnakPak says:
the word would be “penis”. as in, “Yes, there is a penis in that map design. oh, look, another one.”
30/05/2012 at 23:07 Dances to Podcasts says:
John is a terrible handler of fruits.
30/05/2012 at 23:11 grizzled young man says:
Personally, I’d like to hear Blizzard’s side of the story here. It must be very hard for them, knowing all their paying customers dislike them at the moment. With all the complaining going on around here, I bet their feelings are really hurt!
Not hurt enough to have spent a few extra million building a working server stack and validating the thing, but that’s not important because shut up.
If only Blizzard had better customers, this problem would go away. Customers who understand that it would take a company with hundreds of employees and millions of dollars to have delivered a working product on time. Blizzard has merely thousands of employees and billions of dollars, so obviously there is no way they could have made this work without a paid beta. They just don’t have the resources!
Real gamers bite their lip, bend over and politely take in the ass from huge corporations. Like a real man.
30/05/2012 at 23:33 Kresh says:
*snerk*
Can’t. Stop. Giggling. Too. Funny.
30/05/2012 at 23:47 Joshua Northey says:
I suspect 90% of their paying customers just load up some other game or read a book or something and get on with their life.
Twice I have not been able to log in when I wanted to, once I just did something else for a few hours, then went to bed, once I took a bath, read a book, then still couldn’t log on, so I watched a movie with my life.
Not everyone lives the same high stakes anytime-anything-isn’t-exactly-the-way-I-want-it-everyone-responsible-must-pay-with-neverending-hatred lifestyle a lot of you do.
31/05/2012 at 00:38 grizzled young man says:
Ah ok. Thanks Joshua. Should I read the book? Or bite down on it to distract from the pain in my asshole?
The point of complaints about D3 isn’t that without D3 working, life isn’t worth living because there is nothing else to do.
The point of complaints about D3 is that Blizzard sold a product that doesn’t work. More importantly, given their expertise in THIS EXACT SORT OF THING, it’s extremely unlikely that they couldn’t have anticipated this clusterfuck.
In any other situation, if a consumer buys a non-functioning product, they are entitled to consumer protections and refunds. Simple. In any other situation, if a company willingly sold a non-functioning product that they knew wouldn’t be functional, they’d be subject to penalties.
At the very least, the consumers of that faulty product wouldn’t bully each other into quietly accepting subpar treatment from a vendor. The reason that is important is because, as this incident indicates, the software gaming industry lacks basic consumer protections and those protections will only arise if we make a big stink.
Why is this so hard to understand? What is this bizarre submissiveness to authority? By now, I’m more frustrated over what a bunch of pathetic sissies some of my fellow gamers are. Do you think that if we silently take it in the ass, that companies like Blizzard will voluntarily unfuck themselves and resolve to never make these mistakes again?
31/05/2012 at 07:12 Apolloin says:
“I got in my car to drive to the restaurant for lunch and it crapped out halfway there but, you know, I went for a walk in the moose-infested wilderness and came back and tried the ignition again, it still didn’t work but I just slept in a storm drain and got raped by Squirrels.”
As someone has said, it’s not that there’s nothing else to do if the game doesn’t work, it’s the fact that they traded real money for it (money which works 100% as designed) and then it doesn’t work.
31/05/2012 at 08:19 Toberoth says:
The thought of mooses infesting a place makes me feel uncomfortable.
31/05/2012 at 09:34 Heresiarch says:
Really? I was more disturbed at the thought of being gang-raped by a group of squirrels.
30/05/2012 at 23:15 Gnoupi says:
Courage people, the wait is soon over. Torchlight 2 is coming.
30/05/2012 at 23:20 rockman29 says:
So this is going to happen every time a new update comes up or what? I never had these lame problems with Warcraft III.
30/05/2012 at 23:28 wcanyon says:
6.3 million suckers <— FTFY
Seriously, I hear stuff like this and think: man, you guys paid a premium for this crap?
30/05/2012 at 23:48 Joshua Northey says:
At this point this is almost certainly costing them a tiny bit of future revenue. Too bad for them it didn’t go better.
30/05/2012 at 23:48 Jimbo says:
This really Diablows. Ah haha. Guys.
30/05/2012 at 23:51 szendroib says:
At least they did something with the european servers, tonight was the first night since release that I had 60 latency instead of 250.
31/05/2012 at 03:34 fish99 says:
Just depends on the time you play. During 9-11 pm it’s usually over 100ms, the rest of the time I’m seeing 40-60 ms.
I still sometimes get hit when on-screen it looks like my character has avoided an attack, I dunno if that’s latency or the hit box issue some people were complaining about.
31/05/2012 at 08:40 MrMud says:
This is actually a design decision. (there is a quote from JW but im to lazy to find it).
The reason is that they dont want players to “game” slow mobs by running in to do one hit and then running out.
31/05/2012 at 09:39 Archipelagos says:
That can’t be right. They purposely slowed down the game? No. That can’t be right. Can it? No. No studio is that insane, right?
31/05/2012 at 12:03 fish99 says:
That’s pretty poor IMO, to deliberately take out one of the few skill elements the game has.
31/05/2012 at 00:41 SketchyGalore says:
Are we really going to report every time this happens?
31/05/2012 at 00:51 malkav11 says:
What’s weird is I’ve seen people arguing that the always online requirement -improves- patching! In what universe is that?
31/05/2012 at 01:19 Caiman says:
Diablo 3 and Error 37 stories are about as interesting as Skyrim and “arrow to the knee” jokes.
31/05/2012 at 04:43 Shadram says:
I used to get annoyed by ‘arrow to the knee’ jokes like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
31/05/2012 at 01:47 woodsey says:
They don’t sound lazy at all. What they sound like is a bunch of greedy idiots.
31/05/2012 at 02:09 Khann says:
Please don’t stop reporting on this.
It is a problem, and while repetitive, needs to be repeated. Just because you’re “bored” of a problem doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist anymore.
31/05/2012 at 02:51 Soccermom says:
“Now a more than 80-page forum thread is finally seeing claims of successful logins – but with swift disconnects shortly after …”
The main post on the issue is now 1336 pages (LOL) with 26000 people raging :)
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4064636470?page=1
31/05/2012 at 03:13 zagor says:
that was a half hour issue..
why does rps makes such a buzz about it is beyond me
rps should appreciate this game more ,because D3 is a prime example that PC games can sell more and are better than most of its console counterparts
31/05/2012 at 03:39 fish99 says:
It was 7-8 hours.
31/05/2012 at 05:45 Kresh says:
RPS should appreciate it more? This is an opinion site, not a “Gee, I better say nice things else Blizzard won’t mail us a check (or your preferred imaginary review-site bribe)” site. It’s why it’s a nicer place than most. Well, that and the pun threads. Those tie me into stitches.
RPS is helping us to be better informed consumers. Never mind we’re becoming better informed about a leisure/ luxury product, but these things trickle down to all other aspects. People getting tired of their unsatisfactory playtime (when they get some) with their $60+ AAA title will also likely start to pay attention when other “service” companies give them the big shaft-a-rooney instead of performing as promised.
Really, this stretches across more than just gaming. Plenty of western civilization is seeing a “meh, we got their money, screw ‘em” attitude from companies. If Blizzard is the company that gets people off their asses and jerks them out of their meek sheeple attitudes and stops them from blindly accepting whatever sh*t they get handed in exchange for their hard-earned money (at least what’s left after the government takes their generous cut), then it’s awesome.
As the kids say; Moar plox.
31/05/2012 at 22:40 zagor says:
this is a pc site and its certainly a NEWS site as well(the best site in news department imo)
also the reason D3 is having a DRM nad online only is the piracy
D3 sold beyond good,and the reason is because no one could pirate it(and prob wont for a long time)
Also Blizzard always wanted to make Diablo game with strong emphasis on online
31/05/2012 at 03:19 The13thRonin says:
The game is nowhere near good enough to warrant this amount of struggle to play it.
The saddest thing is that because it’s Blizzard they get away with it because most people are all too happy to make excuses for them.
For a game which has been in development around about a decade to be less accessible and generally worse than its predecessor is a tragedy of epic proportions.
31/05/2012 at 03:21 The13thRonin says:
If this is ‘the future’ of PC gaming then we are in for some hard times.
31/05/2012 at 03:23 Vinraith says:
A true dark age for PC gaming, actually, right down to the fact that when it’s over none of the games produced during it will be recoverable.
31/05/2012 at 03:58 kud13 says:
Thankfully with the dark times of Mass Effect 3′s ending, Blizzard’s bid to take over the Internet by forcing us all onto its servers, and GSC shutting down, we’ve also had the Kickstarter wave, the free release of Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition, and (fingers crossed) a worthy successor to Deus Ex in the guise of Dishonored.
31/05/2012 at 07:04 f4stjack says:
So… what I wonder is where are all the people who thought d3 was the “best thingz evar” and shifting everything to online will prevent “haxorz and such”… Though, gotta admit it really prevents hackers, to quote from the matrix:
- How can you hack a game, if you can’t log in to it, Mr. Anderson…
31/05/2012 at 07:13 etho says:
I am always driven crazy by people who blindly and violently froth at whatever new, hyped game is out, so I have been somewhat hesitant to admit this to myself, but… I’m kind of pissed off about Diablo 3. Pretty much everything about it is just overwhelmingly disappointing. I knew going into it, the story would be monumentally idiotic, because, well, I played the first two games. And I knew the DRM nonsense was dumb, but I’ve played always-on games before, and while I am strongly opposed to the system in general, my internet connection is reasonably stable, so it’s never been a problem.
But then I get the game. And a couple days later, I can play it. And it is laggy in single player. And the servers crash. With their DRM system, they seem to have taken the nicest thing you can say about always-online DRM, specifically that it doesn’t COMPLETELY screw EVERYONE all the time as long as you have a stable connection, and removed that particular feature.
So the DRM was way worse than expected. The gameplay, though, is also not really up to snuff. I mean, I know the gameplay has never been the point of Diablo. You click on things until other things come out. Then you equip those things to give yourself a 0.07% improvement to your posture. So, I wasn’t expecting anything mind blowing. But I don’t get to control how my character progresses, and that just seems stupid. I like the feeling of having earned my character, and having him be different, even if only slightly. But I can’t change the way her or she looks, and everyone gets the exact same sequence of skills. All I can change is my hotkeys.
Then there are the environments. They seem oddly familiar. Perhaps something to do with the fact that they are the same dame places we went to in Diablo 2? Seriously, exactly the same, except that they took out the jungle area and mixed the hell areas into other acts. The only new region was heaven, and it was only in the fourth act, which was of course only about a third as long as the others. When I opened my box it had that neat little map of the whole world, I got excited to think about where this game might take us. And then we go back to the same places we went to in the last game? Perhaps I should have known this was the case, but I didn’t really follow much of the marketing or beta news, or any sorts of previews.
Yes, I know, technically the desert city was a different desert city, but it was still basically the same.
Really, the only thing about Diablo 3 that exceeded my expectations was the story. It was vastly more idiotic than I would have thought possible.
I mean, I did have a little fun from time to time, but overall, it was just terrible. I wanted to like it, and at first I thought I would, maybe even enough to forgive the DRM nonsense. But the more of it I played, the less I liked. This is one of the very few times I genuinely regret spending money on a game.
I’ll tell you what, it definitely convinced me of the need to buy Torchlight 2.
31/05/2012 at 08:26 Toberoth says:
*hugs*
31/05/2012 at 10:10 Rapzid says:
I’ll admit to not playing Diablo 3, but having looked at it and read what others have to you’ve seemed to put into words what I’ve discerned; Diablo 3 is MEH. Sometimes less than meh, apparently. Yet, as always, it’s got super high reviews on the big rags. 9.5 on IGN! So between this and Mass Effect 2 scores(which I did play through the entirety of it’s ADD’d, JJ Abrahm’d, squirrel on crack story) I’ve lost all faith in mainstream gaming media to produce objective reviews.
01/06/2012 at 10:57 RegisteredUser says:
I liked the part where you are strongly opposed to always-on DRM and then voluntarily donated money to ensure its continued survival.
31/05/2012 at 07:57 Minsc_N_Boo says:
I am holding off buying at the moment because of all the beta BS. Everytime I see a good review I start to sulk and browse Amazon to see if it is back in stock. Articles like this make me feel better though.
It is a shame we are getting screwed over by DRM. If this was F2P then I could understand
31/05/2012 at 08:28 Screamer says:
Diablo must sure be happy to be in this Auction House game!
31/05/2012 at 09:42 Bweahns says:
This is why I only play single player RPGs.
31/05/2012 at 10:11 Theschiznits says:
I was furious at Blizzard for about the first week, because of the bugs. And really there is no excuse given there resources. A few sure, but not this cacophony of errors. However it has been running great since, and now that ive leveled into the 40′s the game has gotten fairly difficult. Its no romp in the schoolyard anymore. So im in for the next few months. Till I have to buy a new mouse. Clickity click click click…………..check my inventory………………..click click click.
31/05/2012 at 10:47 Artiforg says:
“Error 37″ gives me horrific flashbacks of “R Tape loading error, 0:1″.
31/05/2012 at 11:00 sophof says:
Obviously, this always online thing didn’t stop a lot of people from buying the game. I will be very interested how this will reflect on future Blizzard games though. Blizzard was up there with Valve as one of those companies that can do no wrong and they’ve effectively destroyed that (even though it was of course always an illusion anyway).
Yes CoD still sells too regardless of their shenanigans, but they have a completely different fanbase I think. In the end I’m wondering if the short term gains of the always online DRM (likely only a few percent of sales, but that’s still above a million) weigh up to the long term costs of wasting a reputation that will be very hard to build up again. Especially since it turns out they’ll have to invest more in servers, so it looks like their DRM will cost more than planned.
31/05/2012 at 18:39 Hematite says:
The particularly restrictive DRM is required to protect the real money auction house which hasn’t launched yet – whether the DRM is worthwhile or not will only be known after the RMAH opens. Until then it’s just a pain in everyone’s ass (apart from mine – it gives me something to post about!)
31/05/2012 at 16:06 alundra says:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/05/my-brief-life-as-a-diablo-iii-hacking-victim/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/05/30/the-horror-of-being-hacked-in-diablo-3/
31/05/2012 at 17:19 Yosharian says:
In other news, authentication servers are down AGAIN
I have a feeling it’s because they’re patching out the auth packet hack people have been talking about
31/05/2012 at 18:44 chokoladenudlen says:
My curse upon Blizzard for this.
I’m kinda hoping they’ll be sued in some way or another. Just a tiny little lawsuit. A cute one.
Or at the very least that other devs will take heed and steer clear of similar acts of always-on idiocy.
I’ll bet the pirated version of D3 (if/when it is/was released) doesn’t have the error37/73 problem – now that’s user satisfaction I can get behind.
31/05/2012 at 21:08 ukpanik says:
Are we going to get an RPS report every time the server hiccups?
How dull.
31/05/2012 at 21:11 Brun says:
Please tag this story under “shit that isn’t news.”
31/05/2012 at 22:55 theleif says:
Oh by the way, now I’m stuck at retrieving character list instead.
7 year to develop the game, a company that has more money than most other developers put together, a game 10€ more expansive than the standard price, and I can’t play it single player because of server problems.
Yay or nay?
01/06/2012 at 04:44 Fidelicatessen says:
I like playing action RPGs. The math, to me, was always really obvious.
Purchase Diablo III for $60 and play your single-player (or sometimes multiplayer) game whenever Blizzard’s servers will allow it.
-or-
Purchase Torchlight II for $20 and play your single-player (or sometimes multiplayer) game whenever you feel like it (with *no DRM whatsoever*).
It amuses (and, I suppose, dismays) me that folks who chose the first option are now complaining that Blizzard’s servers will not allow them to play. You did not see this coming? The fact that this is Diablo II with a pretty sheen is not surprising–Diablo II was Diablo I with a skill tree and (slightly) better graphics.
Watching this debacle is some of the most bitterly amusing gaming news I’ve had all year–even moreso than the ME3 clusterfuck, in my eyes. Keep it up, RPS.
01/06/2012 at 11:01 RegisteredUser says:
Torchlight 2 has a serial and activation from what I gather.
Although the way I read it, it isn’t really DRM or content control, but classic copy protection(quite a bit of difference).
02/06/2012 at 13:08 My2CENTS says:
Haha Diablo, that game is a joke to me – replaying the same 3-4 hour gameplay just to get items….
Nigga please.