News Diablo 3 director defends always-online DRM

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2011/08/24/diablo-3-director-defends-always-online-sys/1

 

So they can't make an option to have an offline and an online character, separate from each other? Alienating customers in any business is just plain stupid.

I smell faeces. Oh no, wait, that's Activision...

 

its not going to affect sales either way as people have waited years and years for it

diablo 2 is still very popular in itself

 

No point in buying this for my laptop then.
I hope the game fails. Their attitude stinks.

 

I think it's been shown it will affect sales. I, for example, won't be buying it upon release.

 

I still play Diablo 2 on Battle net

This games seams nice and I don't care if it is a success or not as I will buy it. I really don't know why people are complaining about the always ON DRM .... Doesn't it work the same way with Steam ? If it can prevent piracy then it is ok with me. I worked as a game developper and I know how it is to see your work stolen. Blizzard is a big company and can survive piracy .... but many very creative, but small, studios did close because of piracy.

 

"In this day and age the notion that there’s this whole vast majority of players out there that don’t have online connectivity - this really doesn't fly any more" - what doesn't fly anymore is execs not knowing facts and making stupid comments like the above.

Yes alienating the entire African continent for whom Internet costs are extremely high, totally unstable or non existent.

Definitely on my boycott list

 

You can’t aim your product at everyone and not alienate some groups because people are to diverse. It makes sense to have players online not only for the reasons they mention but alot of others like you can see what , when how and possibly why they play. That information is invaluble from a buiness perspective.

Pandering to the comparityly tiny demographic of on the go laptop gamers or hardcore nuts who can live without a game for a week when they move house, or even the small number of poeple who both love games and have a crap internet connection will not make as much money.


If on the other hand you aim your game at the large group of people who have a decent enough connection, who just want their computer to 'just work' and have the money and lack of arrogance to buy a game they think will be cool to play with their mates just like they do on xbox live then you are going to make loads of money.

To properly address the 'just work' issue you have to have people online all the time so you can accuratly record and diagnose what goes wrong.

 

Nope steam has an offline option and doesn't lock you out of your games just cause your someone stole the cable between your home and the exchange.

 

...but it doesn't stop piracy.

At all.

Nor will it ever.

 

I care, because I'm stationed in Afghanistan and my network connectivity sucks ass.

And no, Steam does not work that way. By default, I can play any Steam game for up to 30 days without checking in on the Steam servers. If I have to head to an outstation, I shoot the Steam helpdesk a quick email letting them know my situation, and they work some crazy hoodoo magic that lets me play for up to 90 days without having to check in.

It's sad, because I was really looking forward to this.

 

GuilleAcoustic

My problem is simply this, I will not be able to play the game. If I bought it it would be a wast eof my money as I would not have internet connection when I play it. You may say tough luck, but its a game that I have been waiting for so Im hugely dissapointed.

 

So basically he's telling customers to **** off if, for whatever reason, they don't have an always on internet connection?

Classy.

I keep fantasising what their reaction would be if no-one bought this for PC.

But let's face it, that's never going to happen. Just look at COD:MW2 and SC2. Huge protest as well, and sure enough, the vast mayority of people complaining about it buy it anyway. Yeah, that'll show 'em. Nice will power there champ.

Still, part of me clings to a shred of hope that this'll fail. And do so spectacularly.

 

I highly doubt its for 'just work' reasons you specify the loss is greater than you think and can result in a loss of sales of millions of copies of the game. You not going to get much out of the whole always online other than a easily portable save game bleh steam does it with steam cloud and offline support so again don't believe the corporate BS companies spin.

 

I'm one of the few who actively boycotted MW2 and have stayed true to my word. Activision have not received a single penny of my money since the COD4 .

 

Consumer rights vs Consumer Intelligence to demand their rights.

 

Blizzard have lost their way..

 

I trully understand you .... I got the DSL only 4 years ago since I lived in a small village with only 56K, time limited, and no cellphone network.

I didn't knew Steam had an offline mode ..... I'm interested since my Internet sucks and I mainly play single player mode. How do you set the offline mode ? I only know the "offline" status in the friend window.

I've been waiting for it for long too, been playing D2 for 10 years now, spent 1000's of hours playing it. And always on seams weird for a mainly single player game.

Maybe player should boycot the game until they release a patch to enable offline game ... in solidarity for those who can't afford always on or have a bad internet connection.

 

I actually laughed out loud at his comment about online connectivity.

Jay, Jay can you read this? I'd just like you to know that your PR skills are really, really poor and you should be sacked immediately. The choices have made a lot of people unhappy, not just some.

It's a money move and it's backfired. Heres a notion that might of not occured to you Jay - People don't like being told they have a poor connection mid game..

Maybe all software companies should implement online DRM. That way everyone will be so angry when their connections drop, they won't buy your crap anymore..


It's never worked, and it still doens't now.

/reality

 

Meh, I can see how the constant connection is the surest & easiest way to validate player items & why that's hugely important when they are being sold for real money.
But it isn't what I wanted from the game, which sucks for me. So probably off the purchase list.