News Diablo 3 will have always-online DRM, player-to-player microtransactions

And ask for a refund for Diablo 3

 

I don't know how big Diablo is in South Korea and the rest of Asia, but this only-online thing strikes me as a decision made by those who think people only game in internet cafes.

I haven't pirated games I don't already own since I got my first job. I think I will wait to see how the game is reviewed, how quickly the bugs are fixed in the first few weeks, then buy it and download an offline crack for it, or just not buy it at all. I think this is what a lot of us will be doing.

 

I am sufficiently put-off that I won't pre-order or buy at release. But I'm sure I will play the game at some point.

This always online shite is stupid though. It won't stop pirates as they will just crack it and play offline, or on servers set up for the purpose of playing it without paying. And those who bought a legit version will almost exclusively be playing it online anyway.

 

"The players really want it. This is something that we know people are going to do either way."
This is valid for points 1 and 2 also. For every anti-pirate system there is a crack. For every anti-mod system there is a crack.

 

the always online DRM makes me cringe, but then again, this is blizzard and not ubisoft

 

It's not Blizzard, it's Activision Blizzard. While we'd all love to hang onto the idyllic Blizzard of the 2000s those days are long gone. Blizzard is in the business of making money, not games. I'd love to pretend that the old BioWare were still running the show, but they're not...it's EA now...and their games, DLC and DRM make that quite apparent.

The sooner people stop defending the consumer-unfriendly decisions of studios and publishers because of some idea they have of them from many years ago the sooner the world will wake up to what's going on.

 

Diablo 3 is essentially an MMO and Mods are what will keep you game alive for a long time!!
oh well, I was really, really looking forward to Diablo 3.

Let me take that off my shopping list.