Bashiok then went on to discuss how some pay-for ideas could possibly work for the game."Mike mentioned it in an Activision Blizzard investor meeting [paraphrased] "A player that buys Starcraft 2 at retail will have the ability to play on Battle.net with no additional fee."
I'll point out that this is a very carefully worded statement."
Obviously, none of us would like to have to pay additional fees in order to use Battle.net. If nothing else, I believe anybody who buys the inevitably pricier "Collector's Edition" of Diablo 3 when it comes out should never have to pay Battle.net fees to play the game."One pay-for idea that specifically relates to Diablo that I thought was kind of interesting was the chance to resurrect a fallen hardcore character.
I think this was mentioned by a fan, as far as I know we're not even thinking about these types of pay-for options yet. But, I think it's kind of interesting. I'm not sure if I like the idea or not, which is probably why I like thinking about it. There are some obvious pros and some obvious cons, but I'm not sure there's a clear cut answer as to whether it would work well or not."
However, this does raise the question: What special features would you pay Battle.net fees for with Diablo 3 other than the chance to resurrect a fallen hardcore character? Is there anything that you feel would be worth spending a little extra cash on to make the online gameplay more interesting?
Pay to play would be terrible, its one of the few things that would prevent me from playing Diablo 3 (which would probably lead to me hating my favorite company since childhood). I'm really not worried about it myself, as they have already said Bnet itself will be free. However, forcing us to buy difficulties or modes (such as hardcore) is an outright rip off.
Small things such as server transfers (to europe or asia for example) wouldn't be a bad idea, assuming all your characters are going with you. If America one day up and decides to piss me off more than they already have, I might just hop a plane and head to Europe myself, and wouldn't mind paying that fee once (I mean seriously, how many of you move to a new continent often?). Also, name changes wouldn't be that bad, just don't expect me to use it, rofl.
I do not at all, however, enjoy the idea of DLC. I currently can't even play Halo 3 ranked or get online achievs because I don't own the map packs, thats a rip. I also can't play social ffa, as it needs a map pack as well... Crock of shit if you ask me. Bungie did good when they made their first map pack free when Legendary came out, and Legendary was only optional. That way you could buy the maps and play them early, or wait till it became free. It just never became free and now I would have to pay $20 for all that shit... Which isn't even worth it in this economy.
Oh, and as for Hardcore resurrection, you might as well just remove HC from the game if you want to pull that shit, it would become a rich kid fest. Better gear because you subscribe? What is this, Runescape? If Blizzard is smart they will keep paid features relatively basic and Bnet absolutely free.
Pft. Of course Blizzard wont do that bullshit.
If Blizzard is going to be paying out of their own pocket to host servers that players play on, then we should have to pay.
If the Players will be doing all the hosting by themselves, then we should not have to pay.
Its as simple as that. Player matching isnt a very big overhead to carry, which is why BNET has been free. and D2's closed realms didn't require that much horse power either. forgot about those. mostly integers and binary.
But, if BNET in D3 is different and blizzard is hosting 32-128 player shards then obviously it's costing them money and they should be reimbursed for that. To think that it should be free if that is indeed the case is as dumb as the "I should get L4D2 for free because you promised new content for L4D1" argument.
If you expect to tell me you want us to pay monthly so we can get some stupid content patches, I say shove it up your bum. I hate to be hostile here, but seriously, what more can a guy ask for when your favorite gaming company announces its upcoming game will be free online, as it was before and should be today (unlike this X-box and MMO shit). For once a game company in this day wants to bring back what seemed to be yesterday's good old standards, and now you ask them to charge you?
Your nuts. Fucking nuts. No wonder why people tend to think this game is turning into WoW, people really seem to want that for the Diablo series.
That I wouldnt mind and i think is a great idea
Diablo is a game about collecting, from sets to uniques to just neat items. To limit a player's ability to store those items and charge them for extra space...well not only is it low, but it is an Activision thing to do. Hopefully Blizzard can keep themselves above this sort of action.
I think what the first quote meant was a person does not have to pay anything extra if he or she buys the game at a store. If he or she wants to play without actually purchasing it from a store, then he or she will have to pay extra?
@ valeo: You do realize that Blizzard holds the chips here, right? Without Blizzard, Activision would lose immense power and profit. As far as I've seen, Activision has not affected what stuff is implemented in a game or how a game is developed. I haven't heard of anything of them for a long time in relation to Blizzard, actually.
The only micropayment options that Bashiok has even mentioned so far is one that is obviously not going to be done (payment for ressurrecting a Hardcore player), since he was only offering it as a vague example (context is everything, people). The only other suggestions he has given are things that do not in any way alter or change gameplay for the better or worse for anyone, like name changes and character relocation. We got by just fine without either of these in Diablo II, so I don't even care about them.
Yes, I realise that Activfision-Blizzard is simply the publishing company and not really anything to do with the development studio but I still think it's not really a coincidence that as soon as Activision jumped on board Starcraft 2 suddenly split into a trilogy that would cost not $60-80 but $160-200. Each game will also 'add something to the multiplayer game' according to Joystiq so you are basically forced to buy 3 copies of one game. I've still not seen a believable justifcation for that from Blizzard.
I suppose i'm just suspicious of it because Activision is pretty much the polar opposite of what Blizzard tries to be as a company. Activision takes a franchise and milks it for all it's worth until it dies a sad death.
Please pull more stuff out of your ass, I'd like to see what more you could out with. Did they force you to buy Brood War? Its exactly the same. No one is freakin' forcing you to buy anything. You can stick to SC2 and play with the people that only have SC2.
Activision doesn't affect the production of games at all. They might slip something in about how a game is marketed or released, but the developer (Blizzard) can easily say no.
Activision wouldn't have anything to do with the content of the game but outside of the content it is under the jurisdiction of Activision (copy protection, MP service, distribution etc) unless Blizzard has a different deal than normal publisher-game company
but back on topic, if they decide to charge a fee what can we do?
pay, just play SP or play MP via other (illegal) means
on principle alone, i probably wouldn't pay for B.net although it would also depend on the payment type, whether it is monthly or micro-transactions etc.
but my friends would definitely play MP regardless so i have to wait and see.
although it is a bit too early to talk about it since it is still years befoer D3 is released.
god knows if i'd even be still alive then
But this is Diablo III .. if thats what they do, so be it. Anything from $10-$20 a month is fine with me.
Just my $0.02 ~~
it was also noted that the above was a "carefully worded statement"
to me this reads, that any other game will incur a usage fee. so if you skip starcraft 2 and only buy diablo 3, you will pay a fee to use battle.net. if you buy starcraft, and diablo you will not incur a fee.
thats my interpretation.
since i plan to buy both, i wont pay a fee
but we can already see micro transactions incoming with the premium maps (for SC2, so its likely other properties will have premium content) and im sure they will charge for other features. personally i would pay 10-20$ one time for unlimited character creation, and no expirations on characters.
with all the money from micro transactions in wow they bring in, im sure they will come up with creative ways to do the same in diablo 3.
edited for grammar lol
That doesn't cover the existence of pay-to-download materials, like maps for SC2, etc., just the usage of Bnet itself.
Worst logic ever...