News Blizzard surprised by Diablo 3 DRM reaction

I understand the system & potential benefits (though insignificant in my eyes); live background updates, store special offers, live DLC notification, etc.
But my laptop doesn't have wireless & even if it did, half the places I'd be trying to connect are locked down like crap, nothing like battle.net or Steam works. So I have no problem plugging a cable in every now & again at home to install/register/update a game. But I want to be able to play those games offline while I'm sitting in a hotel or airport or such.
Diablo is, to me, a predominantly single player game, that I might play mp once or twice a year at a LAN party.
Always online DRM won't completely stop me buying it, but it will bump it a fair way down my priority list, behind a number of other releases that I'll get better use out of.

 

I am excited about Diablo 3, but then.
I have a good connection,
I take a walk and read a book at lunchtimes
I read or listen to music on trains.
If I have to play a game wilst im out and about its probly somthing like peggle or angry birds.
I completly see diablo 3 as a MMORPG minus the fist M

 

Skyrim = RPG
Diablo 3 = Online hack and slash and Share loot

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

I moved house. I had to wait a week for my internet to be connected. I played singleplayer.
I would NOT be able to play this at all. Therefore this sucks.

With intel and AMD releasing ever more efficient processors, with at least one eye on the laptop market, game developers HAVE to start thinking that people are heading towards portable gaming. And that means tht people will NOT have internet connections all the time.

If all we had were desktop PC's tied to the wall with cat5 cable it would be LESS of a problem. But this is simply not the case.
I'm afraid we are feeling more than just poorly ported graphics and textures from developers who think console. It now seems the "your gaming machine is tied to your telly" mentality is hitting these decisions too.
Did the developers even think about laptops when they decided this?

(PS. I hate laptops too; not as much as consoles, granted; but that is a subect for a different thread entirely)

 

Gaming laptops? is there realy enough of a market to aim you buisness at this demographic?

 

No. But you can't ignore it entirely either. You don't "aim" for it, but you don't purposely isolate them either.

 

Sales of desktops PC's are down.
Laptops are getting better and better.
Intel and AMD are going for power efficiency over speed when developing new chips.

Right now, no there isn't enough of a market. But if you are developing for the PC you ought to be thinking laptops as well, as that is where the immediate future lies. (IMHO)

 

+1

What he said. (And better than me!)

 

Torchlight even has a specific netbook mode for the graphics settings. Nothing like as demanding of course but it shows that some developers are sensible enough to not alienate large potential markets, clearly Acti-Blizz are not.

 

ok im convinced. a 2 - 4 week 'check in and sync' should be avalable and would alow all the benefits

 

Why not just do it like Diablo II, single player chars and multi player chars... Diablo I was offline chars that were loaded for online too which is why they were easily exploited. But having to be online? What if I fancy a blast on my laptop while on the road and don't have an internet connection.

 

quite frankly im surprised they are surprised, of course im not "uh oh im not gonna but that game coz uh oh..", **** that reaction really, it sucks coz it has no offline mode but im gonna buy it, test it and play it, but honestly blizz, I like your idea of expanding outside of the box of giving people new things to explore with, but basically this is a not a good idea of not providing an offline mode for diablo, think of a better way to integrate the game to battle.net instead of completely devoiding the game of an offline mode, I maybe online 99% of the time. but what about the 1% im offline,lol, it happens, internet reliability is still not where its supposed to be quite yet

 

Honestly very surprised a company like Blizzard would force something like this. Always had a lot of respect for them, but its pretty criminal they are going to force you to have an internet connection to play it. And reason i think that is essentialy this.

After i pay rent, council tax, gas, electric, food, diesel and the odd pint at the weekend, im f***ing broke. I essentialy break even. For my internet i tether a cheap pay as you go phone for a tenner a month, it only supports HTTP traffic. I simply do not have the money to enter into some mad financial contract for a year. And if i wanna treat myself to one of the most anticipated games of recent times I F***ING WELL CANT.

Why Blizzard live in this magical fantasy world of orcs and elves where everyone[children] use there parents broadband to harvest eP1XXXXXLOLZ!!!!! i dont know.

Blizzard can pretty much go f**k themselves.

 

I find it rather odd that they thought always-online DRM wasn't going to be badly received. It's hurting my brain trying to figure out how anyone can even begin to think that it might be a good idea...

Surely a better way would be to let people make a online and offline character? You can still transfer items between the two, but check the items coming from the offline character against a list of 'approved' items. If it's not on the list, it's not coming in.

It also gives players who want to create ungodly powerfull items to mess around in the game offline, the chance to do so .

Obviously not the ideal way to do it, but it beats being online all the time.

 

I agree with the minority on here actually, I couldnt care less if its always online. Never had a single problem with any DRM with any games.

Then again, my life isnt so dependant on my ability to be able to play a computer game or not that I feel its ruining my life like some people seem to suggest.
Yes, I understand that not everyone has an always on or a reliable connection, if any connection at all, thats not good, but 5h1t happens and you deal with it.
I dont have cable in my town so i dont have the extra choice of virgin media stuff and super fast broadban, but I'll live, its not the end of the world! There are always alternatives.
If you're somewhere where you dont have internet access, play something else! There are millions of games out there! Hell, go out and get some fresh air (doesnt apply to you guys stuck on a submarine!) or find another hobby that doesn't wind you up so much.

Everyone these days seem to think everything that exists is a basic human right!
If you dont wanna buy the game for whatever reason, then dont, the game sales will be the only way to know if this works for Ac-Bliz or not.

 

Hands up who saw this coming? Havn't been looking forward to this for some time now.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10461048 "Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
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For me Diablo 2 was largely a singleplayer game.
I would saythat this change is for the better, although it would be even better if characters created on singleplayer would be stored offline only (and not able to ever go online) and that multiplayer characters would be stored online. To make the whole game dependant on a stable broadband connection makes it feel like it is a bad excuse to implement DRM and not a recipe for "awesome"-ness.

 

Ola.I
Yeah okay you got me there!
Doesn't mean it'll always work 100% of the time though i guess

 

If you are serious about gaming on a laptop, then surely you would also be serious enough to have some kind of mobile internet sorted out also. It's not like 3G or 4G is unobtainable in large parts of the World. To me, the "what if I want to play offline" argument is getting weaker all the time.

Seems like people are so used to whining about DRM, that it's just trendy to do so regardless of the facts.

 

So if I'm a hardcore RPGer I am expected to keep a constant connection on my laptop to the rest of the world? Really?

I'm not serious about gaming on a laptop, but I am serious about being able to play my games on the move. As an IT consultant I don't often stay in one place for any length of time. A laptop could be the only bit of IT kit I see for weeks on end before I get back home.

Expecting someone to hold a line open whenever their laptop is on is a step too far.