I believe you can attach a digital copy to your battle.net account, play, and at a later time receive a CE license and upgrade your existing account to that.
On another note if playing minute one is more important than having the collectors edition, what was your motivation for buying the CE in the first place?
nektel, thank you for your response.
Actually, it never occurred to me that the Collector's edition wouldn't come with the ability to play at launch. That may sound stupid, but if you pull back and ask the question as a customer service query: "Should people who pay more for a deluxe version of our game not be able to play as soon as people who paid less?" The answer should seem obvious. Of course not! I guess I figured that I would be able to email Blizz a copy of the receipt and that I would have a key that activate on launch just like everyone else. It seems so obvious, in fact, that I didn't research it beforehand. Stupid me!
I had thought of buying a digital retail copy too, but it galls me to do so. I had never bought a CE version before, and thought I would treat myself. Now I kind of regret it. Hopefully my Wings will help ease the pain, lol. Oh well, it's really a minor problem but it is still aggravating.
I would like to pose a question to the community experts out there.
I am basing this isse off the assumption that the servers for D3 go live at 12 am on the 15th.
I preordered the Collector's edition through Best Buy. I wanted to order direct through Blizzard but I couldn't do so. Not sure if they ever sold it directly or not, but whatever the case, I had to use a thrid party. Now, if I just ordered the regular version, Blizzard would already have a game license attached to my account. As it is, although I have paid the $99, Blizzard has no way of knowing this. Now my question is, if you bought via Blizzard, will you be able to pre-download the client so that all you need to do is activate the license? Thus enabling you to play at midnight if you received the license via digital download?
Because as I thought about it, I realized I really wanted to play live from minute one. It's not ultimately important to my overall enjoyment, but I just want to be able to say it. I played D1 the day it came out the minute after I got home from the store after being there on opening, same with d2. I am wondering, if Best Buy doesn't open until 10 am on tuesday, will I effectively be losing out on that experience because I paid more for the collector's edition? That would make me sad.
Btw I really liked Wizard until I saw her disintegration beam, was really a turn off for me. Btw what perks do you have from being a Curse premium member?
It's a funny old world, that disintigration beam was what made me drool over the wizard.
I want everyone here in this forum to give a vote on this. Vote a class base on how stylish their armor and gear would look on them. And how nice they look in regards to their pose and their overall character design taking into account both their male/female looks. And also their voice overs. Ultimately, which class you think is the coolest. Dont take into acct whether their op or not because it doesnt matter, its PvM in the end anyway.
I want to find out which class equipments would worth more in the real money auctions.
Just want to point out that the poll question and the question you pose in your actual post are two completely different things. The Barb is the most popular class, but I think the Witch Doctor or Wizard are the coolest, with the coolest animations and ability effects.
My friends and I make it a little game; Whenever something new about D3 comes out, even if it's just a blue post with some actual info in it, we bet on how long it takes before someone makes a thread just to rip on it. It was fun for awhile until I realized this happened ALL the time. I just... I'm just getting so tired of people complaining.
Edit; I feel bad for Blizzard with stuff like this. Here they go making a whole site just for Diablo 3 stuff, adding awesome short stories for each class, creating a little mini vid for each class, giving us unique in game stuff for participating.. And still it can't please some people.
Hey, I get you bleu. I personally feel that in terms of the games, Blizzard made such amazing, iconic games, that no matter how good their games are, people will never replicate the feeling of FIRST PLAYING IT. But I am not talking about the actual game, of which I am a tireless defender of all of them and a promoter as well. I have gotten 11 people to become more than casual gamers through Blizzard titles, and I LOVE these games.
I am talking about the promo material. All that work on the amazing artwork, and they do themselves no favors by putting not much at all in them...so far. What do I think should be in them? clear from my post: a little in game fluff and I am thrilled. But watching three fairly awkward people talk about a stage of game development over a year old is far from interesting and I think really lessens the impact. From a marketing standpoint, I think it's pretty weak compared to the standard they have raised. Now, looking forward on the spoiler site- well, I won't say anymore. Despite what you may think, I am not out to lessen anyone else's enjoyment of this game, which I love, and if anticipation about the upcoming reveals from the site is pleasurable to you far be it for me to spoil it. Anyways, to conclude, it's just a promo site, and my beef isn't huge. So there, you don't see that everyday, someone backing down from an argument and chilling out. Hopefully that restores some of your faith in the comminuty. I am sorry if I made you feel bad in any way.
Disclaimer: I have preordered the collector's edition, but all I care about is ingame stuff, the dyes, the WINGZ!!!! and even the portraits. I couldn't care less about the other stuff, although the flash shard looks cool. Also I missed out on the beta, no invite.
So I have been making banners or sigils, my lust for anything related to Diablo 3 insatiable, and despite my overwhelming impatience for the release of a new quality game in a franchise I have been involved with from the beginning, I am totally underwhelmed by the promotional site. Developer diaries that are totally boring and completely uninteresting. A page from the cain book.
I am really hoping that the 50% mark brings some quality content. Or at least at the 100% unlock there is some good ingame stuff. Because I tell you now so far I am unimpressed. After making 20 banners not one is visible to me, but some schmoes have 5 identical banners up there, and I put actual work in. I am not really that bitter, just unimpressed and rapidly losing what little interest remains- for the promo stuff! I still crave my Diablo fix.
I am not a big complainer. I have loved every title they have released passionately with the exception of Warcraft 3. I logged nearly a year on WOW, I am embarrassed to say, and I am not afflicted with the bitterness and skepticism which so many hardcore WOW fans seem to carry. I think Blizzard is the best PC game maker of all time (followed by BIOWARE, of course. BG2 still my all time fav for story) But I am not really getting into all the promo stuff.
So I was curious, how does everyone else feel? Can Blizzard do no wrong? Do you all think everything is awesome? Have you been thrilled with dry accounts of long past corporate stories of game design, carefully vetted to have no actual drama? Or do you find every detail important, vital, and interesting? We are at 46% unlock now, if all we get is yet another wallpaper at 50%, will you be disappointed? Answer the poll and write in the comments!
Seriously, someone needs to make a NINJA class. Like now.
But it does seem likely that there will be a reprise of the amazon. A ranged non caster dps is pretty much standard operating procedure in rpgs of every type. Going back to DnD original, all the classes except the most useless ever (The Illusionist, lol) have been done. Maybe the Bard might make an appearance, but I hope not.
I think you have to look at role and function first. Barbarian: Melee str based, dps or tank, Sorceror: ranged caster dps, Witch doctor: Caster Dps, mid range/close range, Monk: Melee Dps, other than str based, rogue/assassin/NINJA: Stealthy melee combat, dex based, Druid: Hybrid melee or caster dps, nature type casting, Paladin: Armor shield and sword casting melee. Priest: Casting Dps or healing. Ranger/Amazon/Hunter ranged physical DPS. What else is there?
I think the best bet for "new" classes are in the area of different magic types, like a melee caster that does magic damage and has magic armor, or elemental casters. But it doesn't seem likely as the balancing issues for the established classes are already known. The Witch Doctor class is pretty original, and I was happy to see it.
I guess that after all that rambling I guess I don't have much to add, lol.
I think it is deceptive because the last 10% will take longer than the previous 30%, you know, the final tuning and balancing etc. Especially since they are going to make pvp a bigger part of D3 than previous Diablo titles to monetize esport playability.
I would like to add a few things to the topic regarding not losing wow players...
I have been playing wow since pre tbc, tho not since release, I was playing a lot of guitar in bands at the time and took some time off, plus my starcraft play was still going on and I never liked wc3 much. Most of the people I know of in established guilds are getting burnt out, and yes, the population keeps growing, but I have been noticing quite a bit more old friends going by the wayside... I have been in quite a few guilds and know a lot of people... 5 80s, 2 70s, and a few twinks here. Now I am on an older server, one of the originals, so maybe my sample is biased to older players. I also believe blizzards subscription statistics are heavily, HEAVILY influenced by 3rd party vendors of gold powerleveling, etc, not to mention the guys who create 50 accounts to then suicide in marketing slogans for gold sites in orgrimmar or whatever, go to such and such a website spelled out in corpses.
I would really like to see a stat breakdown of wow accounts in terms of activity, location, and IP frequency. Like how many accounts have lvel 80s, or whatnot. But I can tell you that on my server, when Starcraft 2 comes out a LOT of people will be absent, I know several guilds will go on hiatus as well. I dont think wow will DIE, necessarily, but I do think revenue will be hit. I also think that Wows very time consuming nature will differentiate players when D3 is an option. Spend months leveling a character and not being interested in Pugging raids? Or play solo D3 where you dont have your lowly status shoved in your face by everyone you see. Oh well, Please remeber I love Blizzards games, I am more conducting this discussion because I am curious about community development- I am a sociology student studying this stuff at UCSC.
In an unrelated point, for people who dont understand why blizz removed lan play from sc2 and how this relates to piracy, let me share a story.
When I travel through asia, like thailand, Internet cafes are very popular as infrastructure quality is low, even in bangkok, and people are pretty poor, that is, theres a smaller middle class by percentage. So people game at lan cafes. In NONE of the many cafes I visited could I play on live blizz servers for starcraft ow wc3, because they were all hacked accounts, with tons of mods and whatnot. Not seen much in the US or Europe, its more an asian phenomenon. You could by hacked versions of starcraft in real gaming stores, lol. BTW, some were pretty creative and cool!
Anyways, If they get to a population of 10 million playing on Bnet, I really would expect to move to a paid system. Personally, I feel it would be better anyways, as the services would be better. If they DONT do a paid system, they will be working hard to find other ways of monetizing Bnet through ads or partnerships anyways I am sure.
Now I know wow will continue for many years to come, but I bet they will see sharp activity fallout from new title release. Also, I think that the type of player who raids heavily will be dissatisfied at blizzards new ez loot ez raid inclusion strategy. Recently they changed the emblem system so you can buy leet gear and be raid ready by running heroics, and by raid ready i mean ulduar, or endgame content. This has generated a lot of dissent amongst hard core raiders, and I think this will decrease overall game lifespan for that type of player.
Oh well, I just foresee a universal subscription to Bnet that will include ALL blizzard games, perhaps they will create Bnet profiling so you can display your leetness on all titles in one profile, which will encourage people to play all titles compulsively, as e-status is a huge driver of play. Things like achievements for accomplishing milestones in all titles. Furthermore ladderstyle play and D3 PVP will be a huge part of gameplay now. I also foresee multi-title guilds developing with Bnet guild/clan management in which clans have players of multiple titles and stats that relate guilds to each other in terms of status, like a guild ladder/ranking system.
What I hope for most is that SC2 still has the amazing Use Map Settings creativity. One of the most remarkable blizzard feats to me was the SC map editor-tens of thousands of game maps and weird game offshoots created by the community, adding a dimension of playability unheard of from other titles.
I was curious as a new member whether there are any threads devoted to discussing Blizzard's strategy of release in terms of it's other products...
For example, how does their desire to promote or protect other products influence their decision to release this game? I would assume that they have started to plan for the demise of the WOW empire, but they have to know that there are a limited number of pc gamers, and that if they released D3 today, or SC2, then their wow population will be severely affected. Personally, I believe that they will eventually have their BNet subscription available for all their games to promote using multiple products without feeling the need to choose one or the other.
I often wonder if their strategic marketing and business planning is more of a factor than game readiness. I have come to the conclusion that protecting wow is their highest business priority, until they have decided how to capture all of the transitionary customer movement to new titles, they will not release another title.
Given the recent postponement of SC2, I believe they are still working on it. The delay relates to Bnet, and I have to assume that they want to ensure that their market stream of paid subscriptions is not adversely affected. I also am assuming that Bnet will be a paid subscription service or a tiered subscription service, although as I write this I figure this has been publicly discussed but I just haven't seen it yet. It is just hard to believe that Bnet will be free with the huge increase in online play since the original SC and D2 releases when Bnet was free.
Frankly, when you view the product release cycle from a removed perspective, how long do you think D3 or SC2 would have taken to release if WoW did not exist? Some of that surely relates to the immense success and personnel and resource requirements that the huge growth of WoW necessitated, but even considering that WoW had to be bigger than they expected or were prepared for, these titles have seen a looooong hiatus, and this is surely related to their desire to allow WoW and paid subscriptions to have as long a run as they could.
Anyways, I would appreciate any directions to official positions on this, and any comments regarding this subject. Have a great day!
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nektel, thank you for your response.
Actually, it never occurred to me that the Collector's edition wouldn't come with the ability to play at launch. That may sound stupid, but if you pull back and ask the question as a customer service query: "Should people who pay more for a deluxe version of our game not be able to play as soon as people who paid less?" The answer should seem obvious. Of course not! I guess I figured that I would be able to email Blizz a copy of the receipt and that I would have a key that activate on launch just like everyone else. It seems so obvious, in fact, that I didn't research it beforehand. Stupid me!
I had thought of buying a digital retail copy too, but it galls me to do so. I had never bought a CE version before, and thought I would treat myself. Now I kind of regret it. Hopefully my Wings will help ease the pain, lol. Oh well, it's really a minor problem but it is still aggravating.
I would like to pose a question to the community experts out there.
I am basing this isse off the assumption that the servers for D3 go live at 12 am on the 15th.
I preordered the Collector's edition through Best Buy. I wanted to order direct through Blizzard but I couldn't do so. Not sure if they ever sold it directly or not, but whatever the case, I had to use a thrid party. Now, if I just ordered the regular version, Blizzard would already have a game license attached to my account. As it is, although I have paid the $99, Blizzard has no way of knowing this. Now my question is, if you bought via Blizzard, will you be able to pre-download the client so that all you need to do is activate the license? Thus enabling you to play at midnight if you received the license via digital download?
Because as I thought about it, I realized I really wanted to play live from minute one. It's not ultimately important to my overall enjoyment, but I just want to be able to say it. I played D1 the day it came out the minute after I got home from the store after being there on opening, same with d2. I am wondering, if Best Buy doesn't open until 10 am on tuesday, will I effectively be losing out on that experience because I paid more for the collector's edition? That would make me sad.
Thanks in advance for any feedback or answers.
It's a funny old world, that disintigration beam was what made me drool over the wizard.
Just want to point out that the poll question and the question you pose in your actual post are two completely different things. The Barb is the most popular class, but I think the Witch Doctor or Wizard are the coolest, with the coolest animations and ability effects.
Hey, I get you bleu. I personally feel that in terms of the games, Blizzard made such amazing, iconic games, that no matter how good their games are, people will never replicate the feeling of FIRST PLAYING IT. But I am not talking about the actual game, of which I am a tireless defender of all of them and a promoter as well. I have gotten 11 people to become more than casual gamers through Blizzard titles, and I LOVE these games.
I am talking about the promo material. All that work on the amazing artwork, and they do themselves no favors by putting not much at all in them...so far. What do I think should be in them? clear from my post: a little in game fluff and I am thrilled. But watching three fairly awkward people talk about a stage of game development over a year old is far from interesting and I think really lessens the impact. From a marketing standpoint, I think it's pretty weak compared to the standard they have raised. Now, looking forward on the spoiler site- well, I won't say anymore. Despite what you may think, I am not out to lessen anyone else's enjoyment of this game, which I love, and if anticipation about the upcoming reveals from the site is pleasurable to you far be it for me to spoil it. Anyways, to conclude, it's just a promo site, and my beef isn't huge. So there, you don't see that everyday, someone backing down from an argument and chilling out. Hopefully that restores some of your faith in the comminuty. I am sorry if I made you feel bad in any way.
So I have been making banners or sigils, my lust for anything related to Diablo 3 insatiable, and despite my overwhelming impatience for the release of a new quality game in a franchise I have been involved with from the beginning, I am totally underwhelmed by the promotional site. Developer diaries that are totally boring and completely uninteresting. A page from the cain book.
I am really hoping that the 50% mark brings some quality content. Or at least at the 100% unlock there is some good ingame stuff. Because I tell you now so far I am unimpressed. After making 20 banners not one is visible to me, but some schmoes have 5 identical banners up there, and I put actual work in. I am not really that bitter, just unimpressed and rapidly losing what little interest remains- for the promo stuff! I still crave my Diablo fix.
I am not a big complainer. I have loved every title they have released passionately with the exception of Warcraft 3. I logged nearly a year on WOW, I am embarrassed to say, and I am not afflicted with the bitterness and skepticism which so many hardcore WOW fans seem to carry. I think Blizzard is the best PC game maker of all time (followed by BIOWARE, of course. BG2 still my all time fav for story) But I am not really getting into all the promo stuff.
So I was curious, how does everyone else feel? Can Blizzard do no wrong? Do you all think everything is awesome? Have you been thrilled with dry accounts of long past corporate stories of game design, carefully vetted to have no actual drama? Or do you find every detail important, vital, and interesting? We are at 46% unlock now, if all we get is yet another wallpaper at 50%, will you be disappointed? Answer the poll and write in the comments!
But it does seem likely that there will be a reprise of the amazon. A ranged non caster dps is pretty much standard operating procedure in rpgs of every type. Going back to DnD original, all the classes except the most useless ever (The Illusionist, lol) have been done. Maybe the Bard might make an appearance, but I hope not.
I think you have to look at role and function first. Barbarian: Melee str based, dps or tank, Sorceror: ranged caster dps, Witch doctor: Caster Dps, mid range/close range, Monk: Melee Dps, other than str based, rogue/assassin/NINJA: Stealthy melee combat, dex based, Druid: Hybrid melee or caster dps, nature type casting, Paladin: Armor shield and sword casting melee. Priest: Casting Dps or healing. Ranger/Amazon/Hunter ranged physical DPS. What else is there?
I think the best bet for "new" classes are in the area of different magic types, like a melee caster that does magic damage and has magic armor, or elemental casters. But it doesn't seem likely as the balancing issues for the established classes are already known. The Witch Doctor class is pretty original, and I was happy to see it.
I guess that after all that rambling I guess I don't have much to add, lol.
I would like to add a few things to the topic regarding not losing wow players...
I have been playing wow since pre tbc, tho not since release, I was playing a lot of guitar in bands at the time and took some time off, plus my starcraft play was still going on and I never liked wc3 much. Most of the people I know of in established guilds are getting burnt out, and yes, the population keeps growing, but I have been noticing quite a bit more old friends going by the wayside... I have been in quite a few guilds and know a lot of people... 5 80s, 2 70s, and a few twinks here. Now I am on an older server, one of the originals, so maybe my sample is biased to older players. I also believe blizzards subscription statistics are heavily, HEAVILY influenced by 3rd party vendors of gold powerleveling, etc, not to mention the guys who create 50 accounts to then suicide in marketing slogans for gold sites in orgrimmar or whatever, go to such and such a website spelled out in corpses.
I would really like to see a stat breakdown of wow accounts in terms of activity, location, and IP frequency. Like how many accounts have lvel 80s, or whatnot. But I can tell you that on my server, when Starcraft 2 comes out a LOT of people will be absent, I know several guilds will go on hiatus as well. I dont think wow will DIE, necessarily, but I do think revenue will be hit. I also think that Wows very time consuming nature will differentiate players when D3 is an option. Spend months leveling a character and not being interested in Pugging raids? Or play solo D3 where you dont have your lowly status shoved in your face by everyone you see. Oh well, Please remeber I love Blizzards games, I am more conducting this discussion because I am curious about community development- I am a sociology student studying this stuff at UCSC.
In an unrelated point, for people who dont understand why blizz removed lan play from sc2 and how this relates to piracy, let me share a story.
When I travel through asia, like thailand, Internet cafes are very popular as infrastructure quality is low, even in bangkok, and people are pretty poor, that is, theres a smaller middle class by percentage. So people game at lan cafes. In NONE of the many cafes I visited could I play on live blizz servers for starcraft ow wc3, because they were all hacked accounts, with tons of mods and whatnot. Not seen much in the US or Europe, its more an asian phenomenon. You could by hacked versions of starcraft in real gaming stores, lol. BTW, some were pretty creative and cool!
Anyways, If they get to a population of 10 million playing on Bnet, I really would expect to move to a paid system. Personally, I feel it would be better anyways, as the services would be better. If they DONT do a paid system, they will be working hard to find other ways of monetizing Bnet through ads or partnerships anyways I am sure.
Now I know wow will continue for many years to come, but I bet they will see sharp activity fallout from new title release. Also, I think that the type of player who raids heavily will be dissatisfied at blizzards new ez loot ez raid inclusion strategy. Recently they changed the emblem system so you can buy leet gear and be raid ready by running heroics, and by raid ready i mean ulduar, or endgame content. This has generated a lot of dissent amongst hard core raiders, and I think this will decrease overall game lifespan for that type of player.
Oh well, I just foresee a universal subscription to Bnet that will include ALL blizzard games, perhaps they will create Bnet profiling so you can display your leetness on all titles in one profile, which will encourage people to play all titles compulsively, as e-status is a huge driver of play. Things like achievements for accomplishing milestones in all titles. Furthermore ladderstyle play and D3 PVP will be a huge part of gameplay now. I also foresee multi-title guilds developing with Bnet guild/clan management in which clans have players of multiple titles and stats that relate guilds to each other in terms of status, like a guild ladder/ranking system.
What I hope for most is that SC2 still has the amazing Use Map Settings creativity. One of the most remarkable blizzard feats to me was the SC map editor-tens of thousands of game maps and weird game offshoots created by the community, adding a dimension of playability unheard of from other titles.
For example, how does their desire to promote or protect other products influence their decision to release this game? I would assume that they have started to plan for the demise of the WOW empire, but they have to know that there are a limited number of pc gamers, and that if they released D3 today, or SC2, then their wow population will be severely affected. Personally, I believe that they will eventually have their BNet subscription available for all their games to promote using multiple products without feeling the need to choose one or the other.
I often wonder if their strategic marketing and business planning is more of a factor than game readiness. I have come to the conclusion that protecting wow is their highest business priority, until they have decided how to capture all of the transitionary customer movement to new titles, they will not release another title.
Given the recent postponement of SC2, I believe they are still working on it. The delay relates to Bnet, and I have to assume that they want to ensure that their market stream of paid subscriptions is not adversely affected. I also am assuming that Bnet will be a paid subscription service or a tiered subscription service, although as I write this I figure this has been publicly discussed but I just haven't seen it yet. It is just hard to believe that Bnet will be free with the huge increase in online play since the original SC and D2 releases when Bnet was free.
Frankly, when you view the product release cycle from a removed perspective, how long do you think D3 or SC2 would have taken to release if WoW did not exist? Some of that surely relates to the immense success and personnel and resource requirements that the huge growth of WoW necessitated, but even considering that WoW had to be bigger than they expected or were prepared for, these titles have seen a looooong hiatus, and this is surely related to their desire to allow WoW and paid subscriptions to have as long a run as they could.
Anyways, I would appreciate any directions to official positions on this, and any comments regarding this subject. Have a great day!