Diablo III will be always-online, but not because of piracy: Blizzard explains

[Avatar]

They wouldn't force that since they have no clue how many people have physics enabled cards and which don't.

These guys seem to have a reasonable idea of who has what..

[kaytel]

“I would never say it [piracy] is not a factor, but it’s definitely not the driving factor,” said Pierce

Yeah right Frank, pull the other one.

I have no interest in this particular game, but if I were I'd play a copy.

[will1023631]

These guys seem to have a reasonable idea of who has what..

Haha very true. But you see that is one of the benefits of having an online system since companies can unobtrusively gather hardware data on a regular basis so the hardware side of things is covered. But Internet access is a little less objective than hardware specs since they can't measure availability and stability without expending vast amounts of resources and man hours

[Phatso]

As for the real money aspect of D3 - it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Being able to sell looted items for real cash on the auction house is a recipe for loot ninjas. Think about it ... you're questing with your buddies and a sword drops that's worth R2000 on the auction house. Just how much is your friendship worth to pass on the item if you're not going to use it for your own character? How about if the item incredibly rare and was worth R20k? Where do you decide what is good sportsmanship and what is just foolish to not be greedy over?

Sorry to nitpick Voicy, but you do know that the looting system won't allow for the above? Each character only see's their drops and can only loot their drops. There is no "Need|Greed" WoW styled system. There won't be a case where someone steals an item "for there other character" and then sells on the RMAH (Real Money Auction House).

Where sportmanship does become an issue however, is that say for example we are burning (hahahahahaha punny) through Inferno difficulty and my Demon Hunter picks up "Fire Staff of Andariel" which has +10000% fire damage. I have a choice to make.. I can give it to your Wizard... or just keep it for my next character.. or sell it on the RMAH...

That is the only issue I see with looting, but we'll have to see how things pan out and whether you see what I loot or not.

And regarding the always on MP issue, I know its a dead horse but my 2 gold on the matter:
"What do you mean I need the internet to play online?"
"I don't see the point of monitoring whether people are cheating or not"

Target markets are important to remember. As a sequel especially, and the Blizzard franchise's exiting big guns, Real ID and the movement toward the "future of gaming", its almost a no-brainer for them to start a trend of games only playable online. To anyone that doesn't have internet, I guess it is a little unfair.

[Prometheus]

And they aren't alienating customers. It's not exactly their fault that we're still stuck in the dark ages because no one in this country can see that we're fighting a losing battle. But legislation is slowly changing for the better and within the next decade we might catch up to the rest of the world. But till then we have no choice but to bite the bullet and pipe up.

It's not only us. Do you really think they aimed this press release at us? No, they couldn't care less when their target market is in places like the US and UK. Even there a lot of people don't have these connections or choose not to use them. That's why they respond because there is always a backlash from what some regard as so-called first world countries. They are alienating customers.

But then again if we bother to fill out the surveys they ever so often push put we might actually get somewhere since they use surveys as a guideline to determine features built into their future games. But then again we are in the minority since our infrastructure is as good as a lumbering dinosaur with asthma and arthritis.

They know what people want or else they would not have had this press release. Again this is forcing a 'feature' not everybody wants.

Will, I'm with you 100%.

Prometheus is arguing the semantics and not discussing the point.

I've been arguing points in all my posts or haven't you seen that? One sentence was about semantics. That is a really feeble thing to say when you don't have a counter for the points I made.


We can argue this to death but the main points remains. They don't need to force an always online connection to make it a good game. Not everyone is happy about it being forced on them so they ARE alienating customers that will likely hack it. Piracy may not be a driving factor but while it IS nontheless a factor they probably have clouded judgement and it was most probably the tipping point, or they are just lying about it altogether.

[PaPaRaZZ!]

most people have connections @ home now. Lets be honest.... If you can afford a R400 game and PC that can run a game like this, then you can afford an internet connection

Not the people in Pofadder, i feel for them!

[will1023631]

It's not only us. Do you really think they aimed this press release at us? No, they couldn't care less when their target market is in places like the US and UK. Even there a lot of people don't have these connections or choose not to use them. That's why they respond because there is always a backlash from what some regard as so-called first world countries. They are alienating customers.


They know what people want or else they would not have had this press release. Again this is forcing a 'feature' not everybody wants.


I've been arguing points in all my posts or haven't you seen that? One sentence was about semantics. That is a really feeble thing to say when you don't have a counter for the points I made.


We can argue this to death but the main points remains. They don't need to force an always online connection to make it a good game. Not everyone is happy about it being forced on them so they ARE alienating customers that will likely hack it. Piracy may not be a driving factor but while it IS nontheless a factor they probably have clouded judgement and it was most probably the tipping point, or they are just lying about it altogether.

...But Internet access is a little less objective than hardware specs since they can't measure availability and stability without expending vast amounts of resources and man hours

It is probably just a lack of communication between the community and the developers. But then again this was only a recent development that was announced to the masses. In the end companies should be a bit more communicative about their intentions so that these kind of issues can be avoided in future.

But as they say. Where there is a will there is a way. So for now, it's a matter of waiting. We can't do much except to wait and see whether Blizzard is going to listen to masses, or truly alienate them and just swipe them aside.

[RoosTa]

They don't need to force an always online connection to make it a good game.

AHA! A finally a good counter argument.

Do you think that WoW would have been as successful as it has been as an 'offline' game? Its a very good example, because you didn't need to be online to level 1-85. But I don't think that it would have been as fun.

Point is there are many advantages to having an online-only game and I'm glad that its Blizzard doing it, since they somehow always get it right.

[PatPion]

most people have connections @ home now. Lets be honest.... If you can afford a R400 game and PC that can run a game like this, then you can afford an internet connection

That is true, but some people's connections aren't that reliable. For example, people using wireless connections just so that they can play a always-connected game.