P4: Gritty Reboot Posted August 2, 2011 Report Share Posted August 2, 2011 Not only that, but online-only--no offline mode whatsoever. No net, no play. And mods are expressly prohibited. All I can say is that if you can't see that this all has to do with DRM, regardless of Blizzard's original intention, you're fooling yourself. Edit: Just saw Dean mentioned this all yesterday. My point still stands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vargras Posted August 2, 2011 Report Share Posted August 2, 2011 And mods are expressly prohibited. That just seems like an odd thing for them to do, considering what Diablo and Diablo 2 were like. Hell, they've even opened up StarCraft 2 to modding. I think mods might initially be prohibited (just to keep some players from getting a massive edge over others, and using resulting edge to control the auction houses), but I seriously can't see them keeping mods banned forever. Fans were angry enough over SC2s lack of LAN support. Tossing out mod support isn't going to help them any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterDex Posted August 2, 2011 Report Share Posted August 2, 2011 With the game always being online, they can't support mods because singleplayer is still played on a server and I don't think Blizzard are going to allow people to run mods on the official servers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted August 2, 2011 Report Share Posted August 2, 2011 And mods are expressly prohibited. That just seems like an odd thing for them to do, considering what Diablo and Diablo 2 were like. Hell, they've even opened up StarCraft 2 to modding. I think mods might initially be prohibited (just to keep some players from getting a massive edge over others, and using resulting edge to control the auction houses), but I seriously can't see them keeping mods banned forever. Fans were angry enough over SC2s lack of LAN support. Tossing out mod support isn't going to help them any. I really don't remember any mods for D1 or D2. All I remember are map hacks and shit to get items and rob players and stuff like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vargras Posted August 2, 2011 Report Share Posted August 2, 2011 I really don't remember any mods for D1 or D2. All I remember are map hacks and shit to get items and rob players and stuff like that. There were some, but for the most part, you were right. It was mostly hacks and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Posted August 2, 2011 Report Share Posted August 2, 2011 I've seen a lot of stuff thrown around on the subjects of Diablo 3's DRM and the auction house lately and I thought I might offer my thoughts on the matter. To start out with the easy, gameplay mods can't exist as long as the game is played exclusively via battle.net. It just wouldn't work. Or at least I can't think of any practical way it would work. This is not a huge deal to me. There is only one notable Diablo 2 mod at this moment - Median XL - and Diablo never really had a huge mod scene. Still, I'd have preferred it if modding was possible. For the DRM topic I must say I'm not surprised Blizzard did this. I'm disappointed, but not surprised. I think it's a mistake on Blizzard's part and it will lose them customers. Plus, as with all DRM, it is extremely likely pirates will find a way around it. I think there's a few reasons blizzard chose to do this. Diablo has always had battle.net separate from your offline characters. Even with an offline mode, you'd have to play a separate character from your battle.net one. This is of course to prevent people cheating. StarCraft 2 has an offline mode where you can play campaign or vs bot skirmishes. This feature is extremely unpopular and pretty much never used. Blizzard has a huge hard-on for an always-connected online platform. That's their goal with Battle.Net as they have been saying since they unveiled StarCraft 2 way back. And of course, the piracy thing. Now, Blizzard has never been a company that has gone out and pointed fingers at the pirates, but it's still safe to say that preventing launch day and pre-launch piracy is probably a significant part of the reasoning behind this. In the case of Diablo 3, the always-connected DRM is honestly not a deal-breaker for me because I would play Diablo 3 almost exclusively online in any case. I can see why it's a deal-breaker for other people though. Now, what I find truly interesting about this is the auction house. Item and gold selling in Diablo 2 and World of Warcraft is a very common thing and there is no reasonable way to stop this. Blizzard seems to agree and are making a very bold move in legitimizing this. Is it partly motivated by the idea that Blizzard themselves can make money off of this? Probably. Do I give a crap? Nope, not really. See, item and gold selling will always be a thing and legitimizing it in this way protects both buyers and sellers (because they won't have to go through shady keylogger websites) plus opens the selling part up to the average guy with a paypal or similar service account. If all the fees are reasonable I just forsee this is being a big win for everyone - with one exception. The PvP people will not be pleased with this. I'm usually a huge PvP guy but that's not what I'm playing Diablo for, so whatever. What random items happens to drop for you (or what items you buy, now that they have announced this system) will be a far too major deal in determining PvP fights. I play Diablo for slaying a ton of monsters, interesting skill builds, and interesting item drops. It doesn't really affect me. I am not expecting anyone to agree with me, but that's my take on it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyber Rat Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 Not a direct response to your post, Johnny, but just to address how a lot of people are "unaffected" by this. My main problem is, for example, when LAN was excluded from SC2, people still bought it because it was a good game regardless. Even the people who were extremely vocal against the omission of LAN. Diablo 3 is a bit more problematic because of the "big three issues". A lot of people, even those vocal against it, will buy it. This is the consumer sending the message that these things are ultimately alright. After Diablo 3, it's gonna be taken even further either by Blizzard or the competition. It's only a matter of time until something happens that will be a deal-breaker for people who were ok with SC2 and who were ok with Diablo 3 and we'll only have consumers to blame for never making a stand, just empty threats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterDex Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 It's a sad fact, CyberRat. There's too many who'll give out and say they won't buy but ultimately will and it doesn't help that Blizzard has one of the blindest group of loyalists around. Personally, I won't be buying it and while part of that is because I've already chosen to ignore Activision titles as a whole, I was willing to overlook that if Blizzard didn't do what they've done. it just cemented my stance even more. I'm just one guy and I'm not going to make a difference but I'd rather be proud and principled than play one game. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 Not a direct response to your post, Johnny, but just to address how a lot of people are "unaffected" by this. My main problem is, for example, when LAN was excluded from SC2, people still bought it because it was a good game regardless. Even the people who were extremely vocal against the omission of LAN. Diablo 3 is a bit more problematic because of the "big three issues". A lot of people, even those vocal against it, will buy it. This is the consumer sending the message that these things are ultimately alright. After Diablo 3, it's gonna be taken even further either by Blizzard or the competition. It's only a matter of time until something happens that will be a deal-breaker for people who were ok with SC2 and who were ok with Diablo 3 and we'll only have consumers to blame for never making a stand, just empty threats. You are essentially making a "slippery slope" argument. I don't really buy into the idea that buying Diablo 3 is bad because some game in the future might go too far. If a game in the future does go too far for most people, then they won't buy THAT game. As it should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyber Rat Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 (edited) Not a direct response to your post, Johnny, but just to address how a lot of people are "unaffected" by this. My main problem is, for example, when LAN was excluded from SC2, people still bought it because it was a good game regardless. Even the people who were extremely vocal against the omission of LAN. Diablo 3 is a bit more problematic because of the "big three issues". A lot of people, even those vocal against it, will buy it. This is the consumer sending the message that these things are ultimately alright. After Diablo 3, it's gonna be taken even further either by Blizzard or the competition. It's only a matter of time until something happens that will be a deal-breaker for people who were ok with SC2 and who were ok with Diablo 3 and we'll only have consumers to blame for never making a stand, just empty threats. You are essentially making a "slippery slope" argument. I don't really buy into the idea that buying Diablo 3 is bad because some game in the future might go too far. If a game in the future does go too far for most people, then they won't buy THAT game. As it should be. It will never go too far for most people. If it did, Capcom would be bankrupt by now with their endless iterations and updates packaged in retail boxes. And I don't believe that if the majority is alright with it, it is necessarily alright on an objective level. Edited August 7, 2011 by Cyber Rat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 If the majority is alright with it, the minority boycotting it won't change anything. I don't see the point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyber Rat Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 I don't see the point. Not being a hypocrite. It's not like the game market isn't full of other quality entertainment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 Still not getting it. Why would buying Diablo 3 make anyone a hypocrite, unless they've been saying things like "People who buy Diablo 3 are the scum of the earth." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 I'm with Johnny here. What the FUCK are you talking about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyber Rat Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 (edited) Still not getting it. Why would buying Diablo 3 make anyone a hypocrite, unless they've been saying things like "People who buy Diablo 3 are the scum of the earth." I didn't meant "anyone buying Diablo 3", I meant the people being vocal against stuff in Diablo 3 like online-only, no mods and so on, who end up buying it anyway. If the majority is alright with it, the minority boycotting it won't change anything. I don't see the point. ^I read this as "I don't see the point in boycotting it". Edited August 8, 2011 by Cyber Rat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 You know, you can be against some parts of a product while still finding the overall product worth a purchase. That doesn't make you a hypocrite. And I was saying that I don't see the point in boycotting it if it won't make a difference. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyber Rat Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 Like Dex said, it's a matter of principle. If you see that as pointless, there's nothing really anyone can say that will make you think differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgi Duke of Frisbee Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 Yep. Hitting the nail on the head like they always do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrainHurtBoy...2 Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 See, I don't know that they hit the nail on the head. I just spent five weeks in India with my cousin, who plays a lot of games. I know a lot of people in India who love Diablo, and I know that many of these same people, particularly in the Monsoon season, suffer from power outages which cut their internet out. These guys mostly play on laptops since building your own PC is only common practice around tech-types, and is considered daunting for most. These people also play single-player almost exclusively, since multiplayer for a new game like Diablo 3 is somewhat rare in India, and playing with people from anywhere else can result in crippling lag. I also know that India isn't really Blizzard's target audience with Diablo 3, but I can see why many people are upset. The Penny Arcade comic doesn't 'hit the nail on the head', as you put it, because feeling discontent with the decisions made by Blizzard regarding Diablo 3 isn't unreasonable. I know many potential buyers of Diablo 3 who are genuinely hurt by this unfortunate policy Blizzard has decided to adopt, and I do think it's a sad policy. The fact of the matter is that there are places on Earth, major population centers, in fact, where people will not have a consistent, guaranteed internet connection the way people do in America, Western Europe and much of East Asia, and in making a move like this Blizzard actually is 'forsaking' any potential customers from those areas, which really is unfortunate, since there are, despite what many people think, people in those areas who want to play what looks like an excellent game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 Cool story bro. I'm sure people from India make up a really significant portion of the user base. The fact of the matter is that there are places on Earth, major population centers, in fact, where people will not have a consistent, guaranteed internet connection the way people do in America And why should Blizzard change their game to cater to this minority/even view them as a target market? This goes beyond DRM as many people have pointed out. Contrary to belief, video game companies aren't intent on fucking people over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BrainHurtBoy...2 Posted August 9, 2011 Popular Post Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 I also know that India isn't really Blizzard's target audience with Diablo 3, but I can see why many people are upset. I'll refer you to this quote. I'm just saying I can see why people are upset. Sarcasm and 'cool story, bro'-ing are unnecessary and make you come off as a jerk. Blizzard may not be intent on fucking people over, but in this case, even though they are a fairly small minority, there are people getting fucked over. That's all I'm trying to point out. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyber Rat Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 Cool story bro. I'm sure people from India make up a really significant portion of the user base. Wow, you're a real douchewaffle. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
excel_excel Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 mmm....douchewaffle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 Perhaps I should change my name to douchewaffle... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.