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I didn't buy Diablo 3 when it came out, and now I'm kind of glad. I hadn't realized this before, but apparently Diablo 3 requires the user to be connected to Blizzard's servers to even play single-player. I realize this isn't a problem for people who have rock-solid, reliable, fast connections, but mine is fickle at best and anything but fast.

I'm really bugged by the idea of having to be connected to servers to play single-player. Companies can regurgitate all the 'reasons' they want, but what it boils down to for me is that they're so afraid of pirating and hacking that they're crippling their customers' experience. I can see where they're coming from, but at the same time there are a couple of big problems: first, pirates hack the game anyway; and second, they're giving their legal paying customers the shaft.

Basically if I bought Diablo 3 I'd spend a lot of time reconnecting and replaying parts because my game got interrupted by an internet glitch. In the end, I'd basically be paying for the privilege of letting Blizzard take up my hard drive space. Oh, well, I guess I'm in the minority of customers. Apparently everyone but me has reliable internet…sigh…

Sorry, just ranting here. Carry on.

That is some intense DRM.

I played D1 and D2 and pack expansions.
I not seen the detail of the D3 about needing to use the Internet to play "solo" player, something really strange. thanks by information.

Some games on Steam are the same way or similar where you have to be logged onto Steam to play singleplayer. There is an offline mode in Steam but you have to log on first to enable it.

I'm not a fan of having to be logged on for single player either, but at least as time goes on faster internet is more accessible to people. One day we will be able to tell others "back in my day we didn't even need an internet connection to play".

The reason is because they allow item trading involving real money... that requires that all gameplay be "secure" through server-based methods since otherwise people could "hack" the game to scam money out of people, which is obviously unacceptable.

Whether you like that or not or ever plan to trade items is sort of irrelevant... it clearly does provide something for people who want to farm and trade items. Moreover Blizzard themselves has emphasized that the game is intended to be played coop; while it supports single player, that was not their design focus.

Incidentally my internet is also sorta crap recently, but I've been able to play Diable 3 ok. It seems to be pretty liberal on how often it synchronizes stuff and fairly fault tolerant. If you internet went completely off for hours or something I wouldn't expect it to work, but spikey, bursty cell phone internet like what I'm using right now seems to work to some extent.

it's all just part of the big circle of application architecture life. you used to have to be connected to the mothership computer (mainframe) to do anything on a computer (including games), now companies are making you be online to play games.... same as it ever was. just some new protocols and catchy buzzwords "cloud computing" but it's all the same.

Try Torchlight 2.

ftw.


I'm Jon God, and I approve this message.

Diablo III is hours of WoW-style mouse click pounding and token-grabbing with the odd piece of bad voice acting in between.

Pyro wrote:Some games on Steam are the same way or similar where you have to be logged onto Steam to play singleplayer. There is an offline mode in Steam but you have to log on first to enable it.

I'm not a fan of having to be logged on for single player either, but at least as time goes on faster internet is more accessible to people. One day we will be able to tell others "back in my day we didn't even need an internet connection to play".

ah, the steam! is true, also Tomb Raider "Guardian of Light", Also need to connect to the internet and steam.

If there's a demo I'll probably give it a whirl to see if it's worth the pain. My Internet company is promising they're fixing the problems soon…hah, hah.

I think it's a little crazy that there's an in-game auction house where you can earn actual legal tender for selling game items. Anyone playing this game, I'd be interesting in knowing what kind of prices people are willing to pay for little digital weapons. I can see why Blizzard would want to keep it under wraps since they're dealing with real money, but still, couldn't there be a single-player mode that's completely separate from any kind of online?

I'd rather fire up Steam & play moonbreakers.

This cracks me up because I just came from reading the D3 General Discussion forums to here- and didn't expect to pick up where I left off.

Bought the game- definitely a pain in the ass to have to be connected- I have to come to a friend's house to play reliably. And to be honest- the game is fun just to hack and slash, I haven't been too happy with the player interaction or anything else. - I don't think it will hold my attention as much as D2 did.

On a somewhat tangential point- I've been itching for a sci-fi dungeon crawler/MMO/shooter for a while.......and from the little I've read about their next project- I'm hoping Bungie can scratch that itch.

remedial wrote:This cracks me up because I just came from reading the D3 General Discussion forums to here- and didn't expect to pick up where I left off.

Bought the game- definitely a pain in the ass to have to be connected- I have to come to a friend's house to play reliably. And to be honest- the game is fun just to hack and slash, I haven't been too happy with the player interaction or anything else. - I don't think it will hold my attention as much as D2 did.

On a somewhat tangential point- I've been itching for a sci-fi dungeon crawler/MMO/shooter for a while.......and from the little I've read about their next project- I'm hoping Bungie can scratch that itch.

Try Torchlight if you have the chance.

I'm Jon God, and I approve this message.

Jon God wrote:Try Torchlight if you have the chance.

I'm Jon God, and I approve this message.

I plan on it, actually. I like the looks of it- the style, and the classes coming out in Torchlight 2 look awesome.

I'll have to wait for the mac version though.

remedial wrote:

Jon God wrote:Try Torchlight if you have the chance.

I'm Jon God, and I approve this message.

I plan on it, actually. I like the looks of it- the style, and the classes coming out in Torchlight 2 look awesome.

I'll have to wait for the mac version though.

Torchlight 1 is out for mac. I tried the Torchlight 2 beta on mac, and it ran... alright. Enough for me to get some hours in. Good stuff!

I'm Jon God, and I approve this message.