4 ms·

"But it's not a DRM issue any more than the fact that WoW, EverQuest, Second Life or many other games cannot be played without being online. To label it as a DR

by aqme28 14y ago

"But it's not a DRM issue any more than the fact that WoW, EverQuest, Second Life or many other games cannot be played without being online. To label it as a DRM issue is disingenuous." I disagree with this. EQ and WoW are fundamentally multi-player games. Without multiple players, the game ceases to be anything special. In both cases, there is extensive content that you cannot complete without large raiding teams. The Diablo series however has always been a single-player game with an added multiplayer component. You don't need teammates to access any of the content, and you never have. A large portion of players play the entire game alone, which is something you could never even hope for in EQ or WoW. I think a more apt comparison would be to something like Borderlands, which is a single-player game that can be played cooperatively with friends.

ebbv 14y ago
It has no bearing whatsoever what previous games in the series were. Previous WarCraft games before WoW were playable alone or on LAN or what have you. WoW changed that. Similarly, Diablo 3 has been designed from the start to be online only. You may disagree with this design decision, and that's fine (I also don't think the RMAH is worth it), but it's part of the design of the game.
- aqme28 14y ago
  There are absolutely no gameplay similarities between WoW and Warcraft, so don't compare the two. Literally the only thing common between those two games is the IP. I do disagree with their online-only design decision and that is why I am voicing my disagreement. I don't see what point you are trying to make.
- jsolson 14y ago
  I think the objection here is that the game isn't actually multiplayer by design. There's nothing about the single-player gameplay that warrants requiring an internet connection. I actually didn't know it was online only, and I've been playing it for a week. I had assumed (apparently incorrectly) that if I didn't have an internet connection I could play in Offline mode. This is how single player titles on other platforms (e.g., HL2 on Steam) work, and it seemed like a reasonable assumption.
  - Slackwise 14y ago
    > There's nothing about the single-player gameplay that warrants requiring an internet connection. If your goal is to get the achievements and even touch the Auction House for items [1], then yes, an online component is required. Diablo 1 and 2 had issues with client-side item duplication cheats. With server-side handling of item generation, that is no longer possible. The only solution I can think of is letting players create entirely "single player only" characters, which will never be available online. Otherwise there's no (guaranteed) way to verify the save data hasn't been tampered with. [1]: The Auction House dramatically amplify your statistics, as itemization is always behind your current level. So the idea is players ahead of you can sell items they find to the people behind them. Ultimately those ahead of everyone are not finding 'gear' for their level [2]. [2]: Okay, so "Inferno" mode is a "flat" curve where everything is technically your level, but the difficulty still ramps up, and item quality is still behind the curve.
gte910h 14y ago
The first Diablo was a mostly single player game with added multiplayer content. The second was either way you wanted to play it and definitely shined more in Multi than Single player play. The third takes all the good lessons Blizzard has learned from WoW and SC2, and made a hypersocial experience that's tons of fun to play with people. Borderlands is an interesting game to bring up: I've tried continually to play the game. It's a bit lacking by yourself, but with friends it's great. However the slightest internet blip loses progress in the game for whomever has it due to the player-hosted nature of the game. If the host loses internet for a small window, then everyone loses progress. Lag is horrendous as well on that game depending on who you play with. Played entirely LAN based, BL was a lot of fun...but as soon as we lost about 40 minutes of playtime from a small interruption, we just stopped playing it. I get you want your D1 experience back, but the D3 experience, as designed, is fantastic. Go play Kingdom's of Amantur or something like that if you want a great solo 1 player game. There are TONS out there in that genre. No one does phenomenal multiplayer like Blizzard does. There are tons of companies that do great single player. I'm very happy they committed heavily to multiplayer for this game.

by aqme28 14y ago

ebbv 14y ago

It has no bearing whatsoever what previous games in the series were. Previous WarCraft games before WoW were playable alone or on LAN or what have you. WoW changed that. Similarly, Diablo 3 has been designed from the start to be online only. You may disagree with this design decision, and that's fine (I also don't think the RMAH is worth it), but it's part of the design of the game.

aqme28 14y ago
There are absolutely no gameplay similarities between WoW and Warcraft, so don't compare the two. Literally the only thing common between those two games is the IP. I do disagree with their online-only design decision and that is why I am voicing my disagreement. I don't see what point you are trying to make.
jsolson 14y ago
I think the objection here is that the game isn't actually multiplayer by design. There's nothing about the single-player gameplay that warrants requiring an internet connection. I actually didn't know it was online only, and I've been playing it for a week. I had assumed (apparently incorrectly) that if I didn't have an internet connection I could play in Offline mode. This is how single player titles on other platforms (e.g., HL2 on Steam) work, and it seemed like a reasonable assumption.
- Slackwise 14y ago
  > There's nothing about the single-player gameplay that warrants requiring an internet connection. If your goal is to get the achievements and even touch the Auction House for items [1], then yes, an online component is required. Diablo 1 and 2 had issues with client-side item duplication cheats. With server-side handling of item generation, that is no longer possible. The only solution I can think of is letting players create entirely "single player only" characters, which will never be available online. Otherwise there's no (guaranteed) way to verify the save data hasn't been tampered with. [1]: The Auction House dramatically amplify your statistics, as itemization is always behind your current level. So the idea is players ahead of you can sell items they find to the people behind them. Ultimately those ahead of everyone are not finding 'gear' for their level [2]. [2]: Okay, so "Inferno" mode is a "flat" curve where everything is technically your level, but the difficulty still ramps up, and item quality is still behind the curve.

gte910h 14y ago

The first Diablo was a mostly single player game with added multiplayer content. The second was either way you wanted to play it and definitely shined more in Multi than Single player play. The third takes all the good lessons Blizzard has learned from WoW and SC2, and made a hypersocial experience that's tons of fun to play with people. Borderlands is an interesting game to bring up: I've tried continually to play the game. It's a bit lacking by yourself, but with friends it's great. However the slightest internet blip loses progress in the game for whomever has it due to the player-hosted nature of the game. If the host loses internet for a small window, then everyone loses progress. Lag is horrendous as well on that game depending on who you play with. Played entirely LAN based, BL was a lot of fun...but as soon as we lost about 40 minutes of playtime from a small interruption, we just stopped playing it. I get you want your D1 experience back, but the D3 experience, as designed, is fantastic. Go play Kingdom's of Amantur or something like that if you want a great solo 1 player game. There are TONS out there in that genre. No one does phenomenal multiplayer like Blizzard does. There are tons of companies that do great single player. I'm very happy they committed heavily to multiplayer for this game.