DiabloFans

Jaetch
Thank you for the link. I read the contents with interest. Obviously although I joined Diablofans some five years ago I've been away from the community for some time.

Thank you for your replies folks. The rabid attacks I was expecting have not yet materialised. If my personal situation were different I'd look at the game but with things as they are...

Of course another similar game (PoE) is also closed to me and I have not yet tried Torchlight 2 although I'm not happy personally with what little I have seen of the graphics.

OK let me clarify things a little for myself.

Diablo III sold extremely well initially. The game then drew some attention from both those who loved it and those who disliked it. The forums seem replete with both excessive praise from those who liked it and vitriolic condemnation from those who didn't. A marked polarisation. Since I haven't played the game obviously I cannot state any personal preference either way.

Before I continue I should point out that I'm in agricultural research and spend a lot of time in areas without internet connectivity (Yes Virginia, they DO exist!). Therefore any game that requires a constant internet connection doesn't work for me.

Diablo I, Diablo II and the L.O.D. expansion (which I'm still playing) rapidly became, despite some problems, the standard against which all similar games (and there were many) were judged. Hence many players of the early titles felt that Diablo III would follow the same general path. According to its detractors it has failed to do so.

This doesn't mean that Diablo III is a bad game. It indicates only that many people who purchased the product felt that the product should have been other than it was. They were disappointed and felt betrayed.

There are apparently issues with botting and with players of questionable integrity. These problems will always be a feature of any online game. If there are opportunities for profit then people will take them. Offline play or LAN games are mostly free from this sort of problem.

How and why?

Well, despite what many people claim, they don't like large amounts of change. They want the book they buy to be pretty much like the others in the series with maybe a couple of extra chapters and a new cover.

This brings us to the point. The developers of Diablo III have stated that the game they produced was the game that they wanted to produce, but the question is did they produce the game that the client base wanted to buy?

Initial sales figures are not a reliable indicator since a proportion of those sales would doubtlessly have been based on the high reputation of previous titles in the franchise.

The mantra is client focus, client focus, client focus.

Since I don't support either faction I now expect attacks from both.

Flame on!

O.K. let me make one thing clear at the beginning. I have NEVER played Diablo III.

I joined this forum back in 2008 with the hopes that DIII would allow me to continue to feed my habit.

It soon became apparent that DIII did not meet my requirements so I stopped monitoring the forums and posting. Obviously I didn't buy the game.

Now, Jay Wilson has left. I cannot comment on his performance or the game for the reason previously given but with a possible change in direction the game may one day meet my needs. Therefore I'll monitor the forums again but probably will post infrequently.

@ C_zy

You're absolutely right. Let's kill it now and move on to more important things Didn't ever see it lasting this long anyway and I don't see it serving any useful purpose. I've said what I wanted to say and so has everybody else. I've got the burn scars to prove it.

OK folks, play amongst yourselves. I won't be posting in this thread again.

@ jaclashflash

No worries mate

Have a good day

@ #49 jaclashflash

Introduced species charlie. It happens. We've got rabbits too, and cane toads, European foxes and even camels in Australia. Not to mention introduced fish like carp destroyng our waterways and some introduced bird species.
Cats aren't native to Aus. either but the domestic cat gone feral is a major predator of our birdlife. This is why we shoot 'em on sight out here. Pigs were introduced too and now we've got a large population of ferals all happily infecting our waterholes with brucellosis
Oh, and as for the non-existent deer try this URL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_hunting#Australia

Of course Wikipedia COULD be aiding and abetting me in trolling. Why don't you ask them?

Suggest removing foot from mouth and checking before posting LOL!

@ Gekkeloko

Hi

I'm sure that you know and have probably played games with, many Austalians but you may not be aware of some facts.
Let me enlighten you.

Most (90%+) Australians live in cities situated along the coast.

I'm one of the 10% who doesn't.

Sure, the people in the cities and towns have everything but out in the bush (which is what we call the rural areas) the situation is different.

For one thing the population density (and hence the market) in a lot of rural areas is too low for governments to worry about infrastructure let alone private enterprise. Therefore we don't get many of the services you take for granted. Nobody's fault, it's just the way things are.

I'll tell you a few things about the place where I live.
Trip to the mailbox - dirt road then another dirt road with 4 hills 4 gullies and 2 kilometres of dust.
Trip to the nearest branch of my bank. 160 km.
Trip to a larger city. 320km.
Trip to the closest fence of my back yard. 5km.
Small general store? Yes. 30km.
Wireless internet? No.
Mobile phones work? No.
Town sewage? No. (We use septic systems)
Piped water from mains supply? No. (We collect rainwater. When we can't we buy water by the truckload from a supplier in town)
Television reception without special equipment (boosters etc.) No.
Landline 'phone? Yes if you're prepared (as in my case)to pay for a 2km. trench plus cabling plus setup.)
Any public transport of any sort? No.

And guess what?
I wouldn't trade it. Couldn't possibly live in a city. Too crowded, noisy, messy restrictive etc.etc.

So, it's difficult/impossible for me to play online games. Big deal.

I can do anything I want here. If I need a deer for the freezer the rifle's behind the door. Fish? No problem. We have a stocked dam on the property. The trail bike and the 4 wheel drive live behind the shed.
Wildlife? Place is crawling with it. 'Roos, wallabies, deer, feral pigs ringtail possums, you name it. Kookaburras, wedgetailed eagles, parrots wood ducks on the dam... if it has feathers we've probably got it. Do-it-yourself? (which it has to be) well there's a complete workshop including a forge.

Why would I want to play online computer games when I'm home? Even if I could I wouldn't, and if you were in my position you wouldn't either.

@ FreddyBenson No worries mate. She's right.

You're dead right about the stars too. There's no atmospheric pollution here so what we get looks like black velvet with a handful of sugar thrown on it. Beautiful stuff.
Gets a bit cold at night though.

LOLOL this is quite amusing.

Clarification

I'm NOT military

I'm NOT in Afghanistan (Rajasthan is as close as we get)

Try finding an internet connection in somewhere like for instance central Australia somewhere north of the Alice. Cable and standard wireless internet is out. Satellite internet just isn't good enough.
Is Australia a 3rd.world country? Perhaps so...

So why do I post in this forum? Well maybe... MAYBE one day things will change. I really don't see it happening though.

You're not going to convince me and I'm not going to convince you (not that that matters overmuch) so I'll leave it there.

Or you could all complain to the appropriate moderators and get me banned from the forum... Just a thought.


So, I'll leave you all to your lifestyle and I'll stick with mine.

You're not going to understand my situation and I've no personal gripe with you folks OR with Blizzard

<sigh>

I've been a member of this forum now since July 2008, long before D3 took its present direction.
I was enthusiastic then, I looked forward to playing it - I even attempted to pre-order it at a later stage.
At the time I first created the account the LAN situation was still not clarified and we (my team) thought that we had a really great way to de-stress in our off-duty hours. There isn't much else to do out there when you're not working

Additionally my kids were younger then and I didn't allow them to play online games because - well, they're kids, with all a kid's trust and openness and I wasn't prepared to take the chance they'd run into some jerk so LAN looked like the way to go and some of the other parents in my area agreed.

Then I found out that even If I bought D3 I wouldn't be able to play it very often. Let me restate IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO CONSISTENTLY PLAY D3 IN ITS CURRENT FORM.

This isn't a matter of like/dislike. It's because I spend a great deal of time in areas with little or no internet connectivity.
I'm home at the moment but in a month's time I'll be away again and I'll maybe return at the end of November.

We DO have laptops because some of our equipment interfaces with them and some of our mobile camera equipment is also controlled via a radio link to the laptop

What I actually do doesn't matter. What matters is no internet = no game.

Oh, we can play solo or lan provided we don't actually need to connect to the net. This is why some of us take D2 or Sacred or whatever. Later we'll be taking TL2. because it's LAN capable. Skyrim is O.K. because it can be played offline.

This isn't a value judgement. It's just a reflection of the fact that our needs are just a little away from those of the normal suburban lifestyle.

Play it at home?

NO!!!

Home time is for friends and family. It's for going fishing and out for dinner and maybe even going to a movie or spending a couple of days in an actual shopping centre or at a real beach without having to worry too much about what might be in the immediate environment.

There IS a world outside suburbia and some of us spend time in it, so it might not be a good idea to try to project the norms of your environment onto us. It doesn't work.

Presumably a player will need to set up an account in order to play. And if the account gets hacked and Blizzard stops the use of that account for whatever reason? These things have happened before in other areas and the problem has been resolved with only considerable inconvenience to the players concerned
Sometimes account suspension or cancellation is entirely justified but...what if somebody like that horrible totsakanth who does not bow down before the Great God Blizzard or the wrath of his worshippers upsets somebody enough that his/her account is suspended or blocked? Would this foul miscreant deserve his/her fate?

Actually I'm surprised that I'm still survivng in this forum but then I'm a little person and barley tolerable for the laughs.

I do envy your faith however people, but then I'm probably older than most of you and have survived to be so by being more deeply steeped in sin and cynicism.

Feel free to resume the application of heat.

OK let's back off and look at this logically.
Blizzard, as a corporate entity, exist to make money. It is the responsibility of the management teams to produce a marketable product.
Lengthy development time costs not only money but other intangibles which may negatively impact sales.
The development teams must be able to justify their actions and delays to management and to investors in dollars and cents terms
It is therefore in the interests of the development teams and ultimately the investors that the product should be released as soon as it is ready. I suspect that the development team is under far more internal pressure than that generated in these forums.
Release of a flawed product is to be avoided. It will be more costly in terms of cash and reputation to fix it than to get it right in the first place.
Logic indicates that the development team does not yet feel that the product is marketable. Therefore it has not been released. There is no conspiracy.
So, Blizzard is doing what it can. To think otherwise is to presume that Blizzard management is unfamiliar with the corporate facts of life, and we know that whatever else Blizzard may be the company is on a sound economic foundation.

One last thing:-
Blizzard exists to make money. They do this by making games but this doesn't mean they have to be committed players. Players are the cows of the gaming dairy industry. They exist only to purchase the product.

As in any other dairy the purpose of the farmer is to 'extract the maximum of milk with the minmun of moo' Yes, this is a quote but I can't remember where from.

You'll get your game eventually and I hope you enjoy playing it.

I stand by what I have posted

The opinions expressed in the replies to my post do not invalidate the statements I have made.

Okay let me start by saying that I won't be buying D3. I feel no need to apologise for this decision or to detail my reasons.

BUT

I'm following the whole D3 thing with considerable interest.

This forum contains the most dedicated members of the D3 fanbase. Those who have followed the development process faithfully for years but now it appears that even the faithful are recanting.

Blizzard appears to have lost the confidence of a significant proportion of the most dedicated fans the franchise has. This is obvious from the tone of the posts in several threads.

Let me ask a hypothetical question...

D3 will be online play only. What will happen to all those who have purchased the game if - for whatever reason - Blizzard pulls the plug? Don't say this can't happen. It can, because Blizzard owns the plug, not the player.

One answer is that the proud purchaser will be in possession of a pretty box containing a disk and a manual. This could be placed next to another box labelled 'Hellgate: London'

Flame On!

Hi Braveheart
There is always a need for escape and this is not necessarily age related. Winston Churchill for instance collected Disney comics.
The real world is not a kind place and there are stresses enough to seriously impact health. If you are in a high stress occupation, if you have a level of responsibility, the situation becomes worse and with increased responsibility comes a geometric increase in stress.
Enter the fantasy R.P.G. - and, if it's immersive enough you can step off-planet for a while. Do something completely different. For a brief period BE someone different! You have perhaps a different kind of stress but for a short while at least the cares of the 'real' world will weigh less heavily upon you.
I firmly believe that whilst fantasy (and I emphasisie FANTASY here) games have their place in the world of entertainment they play a more significant and vastly underrated role in stress management. It's not a case of Peter Pan syndrome. It may perhaps be a case of a temporary release of the inner child which is so very necessary for older people today.
It may be that I'm considerably older than many of the people in this forum. I'll leave you to guess that, but trust me, playing Diablo I, II III =>; Diablo XX (insert the role playing game of your choice here) is NOT a 'childish obsession' but a very positive de-stressing agent

Flame On!