[Totsakanth]

Here's the way it is for me. I bought 3 copies of the original Diablo. Didn't get the hellfire expansion because of negative reviews. Then I bought 3 copies of Diablo II and after that 3 copies of the expansion.

Why?? Well, we're a 3 computer household.

If D3 ISN'T LAN capable I won't be interested. I don't want to play with people I don't know and my house can only handle one internet connection at a time.

LAN gaming with D2 has been a major family pastime for us for years. If D3 won't feed the habit then I guess it's no good to us. I'd be pretty sure that a lot of other gamers feel the same way.

Out here in the Aussie bush LAN is the only way to go. Internet speeds here are woeful and online games such as Hellgate etc. just don't work.

So there it is Blizzard. D1 D2 and the D2 expansion were great. I'm sure that D3 will be just as good - but if it isn't LAN capable then you're going to be losing business - and not just mine!

The mark of a successful business organisation is client focus. Think about it!

[danobrega]

The reasons I prefered BNET vs TCP was:

- More players to trade.
- No one could save harcore characters (by saving the files).
- No one could use trainers.

But TCP is still very cool. I'm sure D3 will have TCP too. :)

[DarkSacred]

Loved playing D2 on LAN, in fact dusted off my old copy the other day and started playing again playing in a constant LAN between me, my brother and one of my friends.

And im really hoping that when D3 comes out I'll be able to start the game for the first time in a LAN with my brother and play through the story together for the first time just like with D2!

Viva La LAN!


**EDIT**

If they don't include a LAN option (am pretty sure they will though) you would also be able to play b.net games with a passworded room meaning only those you wanted could join.

[Lucion]

We have three computers and 6 discs at our place too and an 802.11n network. Especially for home TCP/IP games of Diablo.

We don't PK here and we don't run off with the cool gear drops. We party as a team. We öwn Diablo II!

So sad we couldn't do this in open battle.net.

--------------

I've written a series of scripts to automatically synchronise the save files between computers and separate log in accounts for each user at around 5am every morning. At the start of a session anyone can walk up to any computer and get going again.

A rule in our house is the first to start a game for the day is the host.

All gear is saved in a series of mules.

Nothing could be better.

[Djinn_690]

I've never even considered trying LAN =/
xcept of course with the D2loader for single player xfers :P

anyways I don't see a reason for why Blizzard would scrap LAN, and I highly doubt they would so make sure to keep some money aside for your 3 Diablo III copies :D

[The_wind]

it's olny recent that i got a second computer and unforrtantly i doubt ill be playing lan anytime soon, but yea bring it in for the people who do.

[3CXOD]

I've never used the TCP.
It takes to long for me to load up...

Offtopic:
I create a different account for each player for transferring gems/jewels/charms/class specific weapons and armor...

So I hope the item transferring is implemented a little better than in previous games.

[Veritech017]

Just play on the Asia server.

I used to play D2 on AOL online everyday without any lag back when the game first came out, highly doubt there is an internet connection on the planet worse than AOL.

Edit:

Also, if I were in your shoes and only wanted to play LAN, I'd only buy one copy of the game.

You can get one copy to work on as many computers as you want, you just cannot connect to battle.net.

[ollo]

Djinn_690 said:

I've never even considered trying LAN =/

I've done it once on a lan party (no internet connection available there), it was fun. But i wished we could have done this more often, it's always a hassle to move the computers around. Now we all got DSL and perhaps will use a private game, but as it's a no-brainer to implement they should definately include it.

[Djinn_690]

ollo said:

I've done it once on a lan party (no internet connection available there), it was fun. But i wished we could have done this more often, it's always a hassle to move the computers around. Now we all got DSL and perhaps will use a private game, but as it's a no-brainer to implement they should definately include it.

I definitely wish I tried one of those with my friends.
But what happen was, my friends introduced me to the Diablo series a before Diablo II was out, but I never really got into the series until the Battle Chest came out, and by that time I had a couple of friends still playing D1, and the rest wher on D2 refusing to update to expansion because it would destroy their D2 builds or w.e
so I ended up being the only one playing the expansion out of 12 people or so who I knew that played Diablo.

I tried making a D2 char and playing with them a couple of times but couldn't get into it after I experienced the Expansion.

[akse]

We did lan at the very early days in school.. but we never got higher than 25 when everyone got bored and we played starcraft again :)

Djinn: I also play a lot of original d2 or nowadays mostly that. None of the old friends that played with me before expansion that still even play D2 are in the expansion so would be kinda lonely there and I don't actually care much about the act5 and overpowered items :) We had a tight group of hardcore players from our country before LOD, everyone of course moved to LOD when it came but most of us disappointed hugely. It was fun untill we had seen everything from act5. Some still kept playing PvP there but many of them quit the whole game. Me and some friends went back to Orginal game and a few more joined too. So out of 30 guys there are maybe 5 playing these days and perhaps 1-2 + me playing regulary.

But about the LAN I'd hardly want that, it was such a hassle everytime we played :) It is very easy to play as group in battle.net too, make an own channel, private games or games with limit, or just free games where you are only partying together.

[Credge]

I don't play online. I don't like having to connect to a server to play with my friends on a game that does not require it and is still fun without a good number of players. This is the number one reason why Hellgate went from a must buy for my friends to a "Oh... glad we didn't all buy it."

LAN ensures that a game is future proof. If the service drops then people can just host hamachi servers or LAN party it up. If D3 does not have LAN then I won't be playing. I closed B-Net was any indication of how the service in D3 will be, I'd rather not play then require me to log on every month to ensure my character doesn't get deleted.

[akse]

Things will be different with battle.net 2 and d3 it's been like 10 years since battlenet 1 launched?

[Credge]

akse said:

Things will be different with battle.net 2 and d3 it's been like 10 years since battlenet 1 launched?

I don't see them getting rid of the deletion of characters thing. Even if they do, no thanks. Having to rely on servers being up to play catch up on one of my characters is not going to happen.

[PhrozenDragon]

I'm sure this thought was in part spawned from the approach made by Flagship, but I do not think Blizzard will go down the same path.

The way I understood it, Flagship removed TCP/IP to prevent users from downloading the game illegally and force people to paly on their servers for their multiplayer needs. This, evidently, backfired.

Blizzard has another approach of dealing with piracy. Whereas Flagship prevented customers from the illegal options, Blizzard entices people to buy the game for the stable environment that Battle.net will provide. Thus I do not see why a LAn function will not be inlcuded, seeing as I don't think they have any money to lose on it.

[Credge]

PhrozenDragon said:

I'm sure this thought was in part spawned from the approach made by Flagship, but I do not think Blizzard will go down the same path.

The way I understood it, Flagship removed TCP/IP to prevent users from downloading the game illegally and force people to paly on their servers for their multiplayer needs. This, evidently, backfired.

Blizzard has another approach of dealing with piracy. Whereas Flagship prevented customers from the illegal options, Blizzard entices people to buy the game for the stable environment that Battle.net will provide. Thus I do not see why a LAn function will not be inlcuded, seeing as I don't think they have any money to lose on it.

Yeah, the HG:L went from MUSTBUY to "Nope, not gonna do it" once I bought it and everyone found out it was not lannable. It's one of the reasons why we didn't get Universe at War. While it has LAN, we aren't all in the same area and use hamachi to connect to those who couldn't make it to the party. The reason this doesn't work is because you can't join somebodies LAN game if your ping is over 50.

Another MUSTBUY turned into "Nope."

A lot of games turn from must buys into nopes because of the terrible ways they go about trying to stop piracy. You're not going to stop pirates. You're simply going to annoy the real customers.

[Equinox]

Credge said:

A lot of games turn from must buys into nopes because of the terrible ways they go about trying to stop piracy. You're not going to stop pirates. You're simply going to annoy the real customers.

That's just something game companies (except Blizzard, ID, and other serious guys) never seem to get. It's almost as if they want to be special or something.

I prefer LAN, really, for many reasons. Better connection, usually, less stressful games, and you play usually with people you know. There is no outside lag, either...

[Veritech017]

Credge said:

Yeah, the HG:L went from MUSTBUY to "Nope, not gonna do it" once I bought it and everyone found out it was not lannable. It's one of the reasons why we didn't get Universe at War. While it has LAN, we aren't all in the same area and use hamachi to connect to those who couldn't make it to the party. The reason this doesn't work is because you can't join somebodies LAN game if your ping is over 50.

Another MUSTBUY turned into "Nope."

A lot of games turn from must buys into nopes because of the terrible ways they go about trying to stop piracy. You're not going to stop pirates. You're simply going to annoy the real customers.

Agreed.

Atari has been the worst, while I understand the need for a CD key I just wish they'd print it on the manual and not on some retarded piece of paper that I always lost in the first 3 hours.

Had to get a CD-Key generator just to get my NWN game reworking last week.

[Satriani]

Every now and then i'll have a D2 lan with either family or friends, have been doing it since 2000.

I never was into playing d2 on battle net, i did play D1 on battle net in the late 90's... lol good times.

[Lucion]

Couple of posts here suggest that setting up a LAN party is a hassle/takes too long.

Now way. First person in selects "Host". You need to know your IP address, like "10.1.1.10" or "10.0.1.200". Every other person selects "Join" and enters the host's IP address. Diablo will remember this for next time - good if you have (fairly) static IP addresses assigned by your router.

There are absolutely no delays or anything special to do. If the IP address is already filled in or is known then we are talking about a delay of 2 or at most 3 seconds.

There is the issue of port forwarding. The Blizzard website will tell you what to do there. But that is for your operating system and installation of Diablo 2. Actually starting up a LAN game takes almost no time at all.

Just make sure that the host is the last to exit the game and there will be no problems with games being saved properly.

----------------

I really don't think posters should be suggesting that only one copy of the game is needed. Sure, you need an IQ of 50 to work out what to do now that D2 can be played without a CD in the drive bay and you can download serials and so on from anywhere and probably torrent the necessary disk images too but it is all illegal.

I think true fans, if you really love the game, use original disks. We're way beyond the "try before you buy" or "just play with it for a few days as I'm a casual gamer" mentality here. Sorry if anyone finds this offensive.