To the OP it's not that people are ungrateful or that nobody understands the problem of maintaining servers. It's just that people want the game to work and the game should have had offline mode, to start with, which could negate most of the problems we're facing right now.
For some perspective; At the risk of sounding like an old man, back in my time as a kid, playing 4-bit and 8-bit games, and PC games were all burdened with errors, If this sort of game suddenly became available (online Diablo 3) ....I would think fuckin space wizards had taken over the Earth. This sort of gaming experience would've seemed other-worldy.
Yet a few errors and some issues with server stability have caused an entire generation of demanding brats to forget how lucky they are to have such technology at their disposal. Y'all mother#$%*ers are spoiled, whether you realize it or not, spoiled.
.
This x 1000
I remember loading cassettes on my spectrum, waiting 20 minutes patiently and then a load error, start again.... I don't care if I sound like an old man, people these don't know what they have! Back in my day etc etc
lol....the 'ol cassette loader. I had an Atari computer 600XL that had both cartridge and cassettes. The cassette games tended to be more impressive but were an agonizing tease to attempt to load. For those of you whom don't know, you would have what was essentially a tape recorder with a tape cassette in it that you would patch to the main unit with a cable. You would press play and it would begin to make a sound much like the sound produced by a dial-up connection attempting to connect with the ISP. This sound would go on for anywhere between 8-45 minutes, often stopping due to error right before it was done and you would have to start over again.
Many times I remember trying to play Zaxxon
right before school and I was unable to get it to load, having to leave for school unfulfilled.
BEHOLD !!!! My 48k ram awesomeness!!!
...and people are shitting their pants over some server side issues when they paid $60 for a game they'll undoubtedly play for years. With this shit-box machine you would have a total investment of a few hundred dollars in equipment that more often than not didn't work. 2 years later it ended up in my closet where it stayed for 10 more years until I sold it to a collector for $10.
Actually they did rent you the game.... you really need to read thing before you hit accept
you do realise that government laws come before any agreement? if u kill a guy just because he signed an agreement doesn't mean u didn't comit murder
I'm curious. What government law is relevant here?
<- is definitely not a lawyer.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I grew up gaming without internet forums. The entire phenomenon of being upset with a game developer makes no sense to me. No sense. I cannot imagine spending my time and energy being upset about something I choose to do for recreation.
Please notice how, when listing the exploits from WoW, he lists end dates. Meaning, these are simple manipulation techniques that were easily shut-down.
As well, the author essentially admits that storing the program server-side only makes it exceedingly difficult for people like him to create duplicate items when he says things like this;
"Diablo 3 will have dupe exploits and tricks as well, I have no doubt in my mind. Item duping, gold duping, point duping, or stat duping (e.g. stacking of stats).. users will always find a way."
"Blizzard has a great team of programmers but a lot of these exploits slip by. They have a limited quantity of QA Testers, and besides, they are tasked with testing the gameplay, quests, and bugs that appear in normal gaming sessions for the casual player. They don't sit there with WPE trying to exploit the game."
"Exploits are discovered over a long period of time and after thousands of players have played the game and stretched the variety of gameplay in ever which direction."
I want to add that I think this guy (and everyone like him) are fucking scumbag bottom feeders. What this piece of human garbage has essentially stated in his article is "I intend not to play the game, but rather, to spend all my time finding exploits so that I can rip you (the player) off. I intend to try my hardest to fuck you out of your real world money {and in game gold, which is worth real world money} by flooding the RMAH {and the GAH} with fake items."
/scumbag, I hope you (the author) die of colon cancer you shitstain. This hypocrite talks trash about Blizz, saying how greedy they are, yet his entire existence in-game is intended to fuck "us" over. Die in a fire you bottom-feeder.
Back on point;
In D2 the only method they had to deal with dupes was an 'after the fact' retroactive measure known as "ruststorming". What we saw in WoW was the companies ability to correct exploitative methods and prevent future incidents, not just simply erase duped items, which only hurt the victim.
I'm assuming that when dupes are identified, Bliz will track the lineage of the item back to the original source and wipe his/her account from the game. Making it difficult for exploiters to trade their phony wares. Now that Blizz has made the dubious choice to support a real money economy, they will most definitely take extreme measures in dealing with scumbags like the guy in the article you posted.
And yet I still fail to see how having offline client could possibly compromise the separated online mode as it is now? Do keep all the online games and characters on servers, do monitor them for exploiters and cheaters. But how would those of us that play offline compromise that system that we have now?
What worries me in this whole situation is that we're becoming company hostages. What if other companies decide that it's a great idea to make single player (and Diablo is a single player game at its core) games online only? What if they release a game but in a month go like "Oh, we've got all the profit we wanted so f#ck those servers - we're putting them on a garage sales!"? I want my entertainment I pay for on my terms - when I want it and where I want it.
^ That is what the XBox 360 and PS3 are for. Not every game is going to be built the way you want it. They are delivering a product the way they want it, and you paid their asking price under their terms.
Please notice how, when listing the exploits from WoW, he lists end dates. Meaning, these are simple manipulation techniques that were easily shut-down.
As well, the author essentially admits that storing the program server-side only makes it exceedingly difficult for people like him to create duplicate items when he says things like this;
"Diablo 3 will have dupe exploits and tricks as well, I have no doubt in my mind. Item duping, gold duping, point duping, or stat duping (e.g. stacking of stats).. users will always find a way."
"Blizzard has a great team of programmers but a lot of these exploits slip by. They have a limited quantity of QA Testers, and besides, they are tasked with testing the gameplay, quests, and bugs that appear in normal gaming sessions for the casual player. They don't sit there with WPE trying to exploit the game."
"Exploits are discovered over a long period of time and after thousands of players have played the game and stretched the variety of gameplay in ever which direction."
I want to add that I think this guy (and everyone like him) are fucking scumbag bottom feeders. What this piece of human garbage has essentially stated in his article is "I intend not to play the game, but rather, to spend all my time finding exploits so that I can rip you (the player) off. I intend to try my hardest to fuck you out of your real world money {and in game gold, which is worth real world money} by flooding the RMAH {and the GAH} with fake items."
/scumbag, I hope you (the author) die of colon cancer you shitstain. This hypocrite talks trash about Blizz, saying how greedy they are, yet his entire existence in-game is intended to fuck "us" over. Die in a fire you bottom-feeder.
Back on point;
In D2 the only method they had to deal with dupes was an 'after the fact' retroactive measure known as "ruststorming". What we saw in WoW was the companies ability to correct exploitative methods and prevent future incidents, not just simply erase duped items, which only hurt the victim.
I'm assuming that when dupes are identified, Bliz will track the lineage of the item back to the original source and wipe his/her account from the game. Making it difficult for exploiters to trade their phony wares. Now that Blizz has made the dubious choice to support a real money economy, they will most definitely take extreme measures in dealing with scumbags like the guy in the article you posted.
And yet I still fail to see how having offline client could possibly compromise the separated online mode as it is now? Do keep all the online games and characters on servers, do monitor them for exploiters and cheaters. But how would those of us that play offline compromise that system that we have now?
What worries me in this whole situation is that we're becoming company hostages. What if other companies decide that it's a great idea to make single player (and Diablo is a single player game at its core) games online only? What if they release a game but in a month go like "Oh, we've got all the profit we wanted so f#ck those servers - we're putting them on a garage sales!"? I want my entertainment I pay for on my terms - when I want it and where I want it.
So maybe you should've read before you bought and decided online only is something you don't want. Don't complain that a product isn't what you want when there are plenty more out there that will tailor to your wants. It's not a companies job to please everyone, especially an entertainment company. they make what they want how they want, it's ultimately up to the consumer to say "I want this product" or "I don't". So your whole argument is invalid. simple as that. If you wanted Diablo to be offline single-player then by all means you didn't get what you wanted you got what the developers wanted, which is perfectly fine with millions of other people.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Not even Death will save you from Diablo Bunny's Cuteness!
And yet I still fail to see how having offline client could possibly compromise the separated online mode as it is now? Do keep all the online games and characters on servers, do monitor them for exploiters and cheaters. But how would those of us that play offline compromise that system that we have now?
I'm not going to pretend that I have deep knowledge of programming or IT infrastructure. The gist I have understood while researching is this; People with limited knowledge of programming can view the code in it's entirety when it is stored on their hard drive via offline mode. Through these means, a person can gain knowledge of how to manipulate the program online much faster than if the program was not accessible to them.
The author in the article you linked to earlier straight out admitted that it requires countless thousands of attempts, over years and years, to discover exploits which allow item duplication. He also gave an unwitting tip-o-the hat that not being privy to the games full program makes it so that they must purge the secrets of exploit trough painstaking trial and error.
What worries me in this whole situation is that we're becoming company hostages. What if other companies decide that it's a great idea to make single player (and Diablo is a single player game at its core) games online only? What if they release a game but in a month go like "Oh, we've got all the profit we wanted so f#ck those servers - we're putting them on a garage sales!"? I want my entertainment I pay for on my terms - when I want it and where I want it.
Unfortunately that is just a sign of the times we live in. Nearly everyone has internet access so the assumption is that people will adapt with them. This is coming from someone (ME) that the first 5 years I played D2 was offline.....and I loved it. Yet when I finally went online with it....WOW, I was fucking knocked out my socks at all the things I didn't know and how much better the game experience was.
What worries me in this whole situation is that we're becoming company hostages. What if other companies decide that it's a great idea to make single player (and Diablo is a single player game at its core) games online only? What if they release a game but in a month go like "Oh, we've got all the profit we wanted so f#ck those servers - we're putting them on a garage sales!"? I want my entertainment I pay for on my terms - when I want it and where I want it.
Don't go into a Chinese restaurant and order pizza.
Blizzard's is not going to make a custom game for you. They're going to put together a menu of things they do well and enjoy making and show you the menu. You can always find another menu if you don't like theirs. It's their concern to draw business, and they seem to be doing very well at it. On-line only play is a part of their best practices to maintain the integrity of their product. You can't please everyone, nor should you try.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I grew up gaming without internet forums. The entire phenomenon of being upset with a game developer makes no sense to me. No sense. I cannot imagine spending my time and energy being upset about something I choose to do for recreation.
Usually the people who complain about the servers are people who don't have knowledge about what it takes to keep them maintained.
I know how to build, run and maintain low and high cap servers. I had a job in which I did so for a year. I also know how to program.
I whine and complain over D3's launch BECAUSE I KNOW that Blizzard did a piss poor job. With all of the time and data collection they had to launch this game, they cut corners while prepping for launch day and as a result the customers suffered. They had terrible communication about problems and issues, and they have been brash at times towards people with legitimate concerns.
The complaints D3's gained are merited, in several ways D3 has failed to meet many of the claims and expectations that Blizzard themselves set up towards the game. Problems and concerns people said were going to pop up, and Blizzard claimed were not going to be an issue in the slightest, did come up, and Blizzard has been extremely ungraceful at eating their own words.
Unfortunately that is just a sign of the times we live in. Nearly everyone has internet access so the assumption is that people will adapt with them. This is coming from someone (ME) that the first 5 years I played D2 was offline.....and I loved it. Yet when I finally went online with it....WOW, I was fucking knocked out my socks at all the things I didn't know and how much better the game experience was.
So your point is "f#ck those with crappy ISP, f#ck those, who travel a lot, f#ck those who's only internet connection is irregular wi-fi"?
I'm honestly glad that you loved your online experience (no sarcasm) but that doesn't mean that everyone should love it or need it too. I played first diablo with my friends 50% of the time, second diablo I mostly played solo and was totally fine with that.
Don't go into a Chinese restaurant and order pizza.
Blizzard's is not going to make a custom game for you. They're going to put together a menu of things they do well and enjoy making and show you the menu. You can always find another menu if you don't like theirs. It's their concern to draw business, and they seem to be doing very well at it. On-line only play is a part of their best practices to maintain the integrity of their product. You can't please everyone, nor should you try.
"Seem to be doing very well at it" - in context of the last week that made me smile.
A custom game? So now a game that works 24/7 and that you can play 24/7 is called a custom game?
And yes, I don't go to chinese restaurant and order pizza. When I go there, I expect it to serve a chinese food. Much like when I buy a game that is not a mmo I expect to play it whenever I want. much like when I but music or a film I don't expect that my player has to be constantly connected to the internet for me to enjoy it.
Don't go into a Chinese restaurant and order pizza.
Blizzard's is not going to make a custom game for you. They're going to put together a menu of things they do well and enjoy making and show you the menu. You can always find another menu if you don't like theirs. It's their concern to draw business, and they seem to be doing very well at it. On-line only play is a part of their best practices to maintain the integrity of their product. You can't please everyone, nor should you try.
"Seem to be doing very well at it" - in context of the last week that made me smile.
A custom game? So now a game that works 24/7 and that you can play 24/7 is called a custom game?
And yes, I don't go to chinese restaurant and order pizza. When I go there, I expect it to serve a chinese food. Much like when I buy a game that is not a mmo I expect to play it whenever I want. much like when I but music or a film I don't expect that my player has to be constantly connected to the internet for me to enjoy it.
Really, has blizzard had some kind of trouble attracting Business to Diablo 3? What exactly about them having success attracting business made you smile?
If you did't know D3 was online-only before buying... I'm just not sure how you could have missed that. It's not like it was hidden or unexpected. The latest generation of Blizzard games are on-line only. Now you know, i guess.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I grew up gaming without internet forums. The entire phenomenon of being upset with a game developer makes no sense to me. No sense. I cannot imagine spending my time and energy being upset about something I choose to do for recreation.
So your point is "f#ck those with crappy ISP, f#ck those, who travel a lot, f#ck those who's only internet connection is irregular wi-fi"?
Well, no. They have other gaming options, such as consoles. I'm having trouble understanding this notion that Blizzard had no right to offer an online only game, especially when other companies do the same thing and people don't fret about it. Namely Guild Wars.
I remember when I first started playing D2, I bought the LoD expansion with it. After installing them both I couldn't play. I couldn't play because there was a new patch that was required to play the offline game I just bought. So I had to go online and download the patch to play the offline version anyway. Seeing issues such as this, it seems obvious why companies are going toward online only.
So maybe you should've read before you bought and decided online only is something you don't want. Don't complain that a product isn't what you want when there are plenty more out there that will tailor to your wants. It's not a companies job to please everyone, especially an entertainment company. they make what they want how they want, it's ultimately up to the consumer to say "I want this product" or "I don't". So your whole argument is invalid. simple as that. If you wanted Diablo to be offline single-player then by all means you didn't get what you wanted you got what the developers wanted, which is perfectly fine with millions of other people.
My whole argument? My whole argument is that I wish there was an offline mode in D3 and that I don't like that we're having problems because there is none. What's invalid in that? Am I wrong at not liking that fact and I love it in reality or what?
I'm having trouble understanding this notion that Blizzard had no right to offer an online only game, especially when other companies do the same thing and people don't fret about it. Namely Guild Wars.
Guild Wars is a mmo. It's designed around online interaction with other players. Sure, you can perfectly run alone (up until the point when you decide to take on that boss or run a dungeon) but that's just an option, much like cooperative in Diablo is an option and not the main aspect of the gameplay.
Why are people so ungrateful for what blizzard has done for us?
There are bugs in the system ill grant you that but they are trying to fix them.
All day in general chat i see people complaing about how blizz sucks they wasted there money bla bla, like they are entitled to a game just because they payed money for it.
You dont own this game my friends and if you dont believe me read the TOS agreement.... your renting the right to play.... they own it and can take it from you at any time for no reason at all.
Have some Gd appreciation for what these people have givin you.
i love the diablo franchise and i appreciate what blizz gave me...... patience and understanding people... they give it to us everyday.
I'm pretty happy with the game and I think what little I'm not happy with will likely be fixed through patches and expansions. However, Blizzard gave me nothing. They sold me a limited license to play D3 on their servers. I suppose I'm grateful in a limited way for the opportunity to buy their product, but no moreso than I'm grateful to big oil for the gas in my car or Wall Street for investing in businesses so that I can buy things. It's not like Blizzard wrote D3 out of the goodness of their hearts and gave it away for free. Why don't people have the right to express dissatisfaction with products they pay for?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
...and if you disagree with me, you're probably <insert random ad hominem attack here>.
Guild Wars is a mmo. It's designed around online interaction with other players. Sure, you can perfectly run alone (up until the point when you decide to take on that boss or run a dungeon) but that's just an option, much like cooperative in Diablo is an option and not the main aspect of the gameplay.
But GW could've been just fine as an offline game. With the full party hero's and some nerfs to certain elite dungeons, the game could've been fully playable offline. Heck, most of the time I played GW I was solo, only interacting with people to trade.
I plead ignorance on this one, but I still cannot grasp the definition of MMO? How is a game like GW an MMO but D2 is not? People say "D2 is an RPG, not an MMO". But I fail to see the difference?
Because D2 is online only, isn't that an MMO by definition (massive multi-player online)?
If I'm wrong I digress, I'm not really a hardcore gamer. I'm very casual with my gaming.
Holy crap the op reeks of fanboyism so much he's raising the bar to frothing lunatic levels.
They are a business and only that. There is nothing they do that isn't in the interest of making more money. I paid them and expect a high level of service. I'm not getting that. Complaints are extremely justified. Deal with it.
Well, I'd say that when you pay what amounts to full price for a game you'd like it to work, instead you get a really terrible launch followed by days of huge bugs and server issues.
I think most people would be a lot calmer if the game's launch and subsequent first week had gone a lot smoother.
Remember Wrath launch? How bout Cata? Both had severe issues and i didnt see anywhere neare the amount of complaining i see here.. People piss and moan about the game, how they hate it or how shitty it is, but they still play it? Where is the logic?
apparently you don't remember wrath or cata, both had fairly smooth openings for me, burning crusade on the other hand did not. the issues diablo 3 has had thus far far outweighs server crashes due to a shit ton of people entering one zone at the same time i.e hellfire peninsula in BC.
Guild Wars is a mmo. It's designed around online interaction with other players. Sure, you can perfectly run alone (up until the point when you decide to take on that boss or run a dungeon) but that's just an option, much like cooperative in Diablo is an option and not the main aspect of the gameplay.
But GW could've been just fine as an offline game. With the full party hero's and some nerfs to certain elite dungeons, the game could've been fully playable offline. Heck, most of the time I played GW I was solo, only interacting with people to trade.
I plead ignorance on this one, but I still cannot grasp the definition of MMO? How is a game like GW an MMO but D2 is not? People say "D2 is an RPG, not an MMO". But I fail to see the difference?
Because D2 is online only, isn't that an MMO by definition (massive multi-player online)?
If I'm wrong I digress, I'm not really a hardcore gamer. I'm very casual with my gaming.
It's the design question. MMOs are designed with constant player interaction in mind be it pvp, raids or dungeon runs. Sure you can down the difficulty and adopt Guild Wars to be a single player rpg much like you can give diablo barbarian a blaster and send him into space to fight zergs in a FPS.
D1 and D2 were both designed as single player RPG with multiplayer option (you don't call Mass effect 3 a multiplayer game just because it has such an option, right?). The core idea was that you're the hero taking on lots of monsters and having fun at searching for those elusive legendary items that could possibly make you a god of destruction.
Now in D3 the didn't change the core design philosophy - you can still play the game solo you don't need to interact with others, you don't need AH or item trade - all you need is luck. Hence the frustration - D3 is not MMO at it's basic gameplay, it's still a single player RPG game on one hand. On the other hand it requires the unneeded constant connection to the internet which shifts it into the MMO niche.
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lol....the 'ol cassette loader. I had an Atari computer 600XL that had both cartridge and cassettes. The cassette games tended to be more impressive but were an agonizing tease to attempt to load. For those of you whom don't know, you would have what was essentially a tape recorder with a tape cassette in it that you would patch to the main unit with a cable. You would press play and it would begin to make a sound much like the sound produced by a dial-up connection attempting to connect with the ISP. This sound would go on for anywhere between 8-45 minutes, often stopping due to error right before it was done and you would have to start over again.
Many times I remember trying to play Zaxxon
right before school and I was unable to get it to load, having to leave for school unfulfilled.
BEHOLD !!!! My 48k ram awesomeness!!!
...and people are shitting their pants over some server side issues when they paid $60 for a game they'll undoubtedly play for years. With this shit-box machine you would have a total investment of a few hundred dollars in equipment that more often than not didn't work. 2 years later it ended up in my closet where it stayed for 10 more years until I sold it to a collector for $10.
.
BurningRope#1322 (US~HC) Request an invite to the official (NA) <dfans> Clan
I'm curious. What government law is relevant here?
<- is definitely not a lawyer.
And yet I still fail to see how having offline client could possibly compromise the separated online mode as it is now? Do keep all the online games and characters on servers, do monitor them for exploiters and cheaters. But how would those of us that play offline compromise that system that we have now?
What worries me in this whole situation is that we're becoming company hostages. What if other companies decide that it's a great idea to make single player (and Diablo is a single player game at its core) games online only? What if they release a game but in a month go like "Oh, we've got all the profit we wanted so f#ck those servers - we're putting them on a garage sales!"? I want my entertainment I pay for on my terms - when I want it and where I want it.
Battle.net Profile / Diablo Progress Profile
So maybe you should've read before you bought and decided online only is something you don't want. Don't complain that a product isn't what you want when there are plenty more out there that will tailor to your wants. It's not a companies job to please everyone, especially an entertainment company. they make what they want how they want, it's ultimately up to the consumer to say "I want this product" or "I don't". So your whole argument is invalid. simple as that. If you wanted Diablo to be offline single-player then by all means you didn't get what you wanted you got what the developers wanted, which is perfectly fine with millions of other people.
I'm not going to pretend that I have deep knowledge of programming or IT infrastructure. The gist I have understood while researching is this; People with limited knowledge of programming can view the code in it's entirety when it is stored on their hard drive via offline mode. Through these means, a person can gain knowledge of how to manipulate the program online much faster than if the program was not accessible to them.
The author in the article you linked to earlier straight out admitted that it requires countless thousands of attempts, over years and years, to discover exploits which allow item duplication. He also gave an unwitting tip-o-the hat that not being privy to the games full program makes it so that they must purge the secrets of exploit trough painstaking trial and error.
Unfortunately that is just a sign of the times we live in. Nearly everyone has internet access so the assumption is that people will adapt with them. This is coming from someone (ME) that the first 5 years I played D2 was offline.....and I loved it. Yet when I finally went online with it....WOW, I was fucking knocked out my socks at all the things I didn't know and how much better the game experience was.
BurningRope#1322 (US~HC) Request an invite to the official (NA) <dfans> Clan
Don't go into a Chinese restaurant and order pizza.
Blizzard's is not going to make a custom game for you. They're going to put together a menu of things they do well and enjoy making and show you the menu. You can always find another menu if you don't like theirs. It's their concern to draw business, and they seem to be doing very well at it. On-line only play is a part of their best practices to maintain the integrity of their product. You can't please everyone, nor should you try.
I know how to build, run and maintain low and high cap servers. I had a job in which I did so for a year. I also know how to program.
I whine and complain over D3's launch BECAUSE I KNOW that Blizzard did a piss poor job. With all of the time and data collection they had to launch this game, they cut corners while prepping for launch day and as a result the customers suffered. They had terrible communication about problems and issues, and they have been brash at times towards people with legitimate concerns.
The complaints D3's gained are merited, in several ways D3 has failed to meet many of the claims and expectations that Blizzard themselves set up towards the game. Problems and concerns people said were going to pop up, and Blizzard claimed were not going to be an issue in the slightest, did come up, and Blizzard has been extremely ungraceful at eating their own words.
So your point is "f#ck those with crappy ISP, f#ck those, who travel a lot, f#ck those who's only internet connection is irregular wi-fi"?
I'm honestly glad that you loved your online experience (no sarcasm) but that doesn't mean that everyone should love it or need it too. I played first diablo with my friends 50% of the time, second diablo I mostly played solo and was totally fine with that.
"Seem to be doing very well at it" - in context of the last week that made me smile.
A custom game? So now a game that works 24/7 and that you can play 24/7 is called a custom game?
And yes, I don't go to chinese restaurant and order pizza. When I go there, I expect it to serve a chinese food. Much like when I buy a game that is not a mmo I expect to play it whenever I want. much like when I but music or a film I don't expect that my player has to be constantly connected to the internet for me to enjoy it.
Really, has blizzard had some kind of trouble attracting Business to Diablo 3? What exactly about them having success attracting business made you smile?
If you did't know D3 was online-only before buying... I'm just not sure how you could have missed that. It's not like it was hidden or unexpected. The latest generation of Blizzard games are on-line only. Now you know, i guess.
Well, no. They have other gaming options, such as consoles. I'm having trouble understanding this notion that Blizzard had no right to offer an online only game, especially when other companies do the same thing and people don't fret about it. Namely Guild Wars.
I remember when I first started playing D2, I bought the LoD expansion with it. After installing them both I couldn't play. I couldn't play because there was a new patch that was required to play the offline game I just bought. So I had to go online and download the patch to play the offline version anyway. Seeing issues such as this, it seems obvious why companies are going toward online only.
BurningRope#1322 (US~HC) Request an invite to the official (NA) <dfans> Clan
My whole argument? My whole argument is that I wish there was an offline mode in D3 and that I don't like that we're having problems because there is none. What's invalid in that? Am I wrong at not liking that fact and I love it in reality or what?
So I guess SC2 is old generation?
I'm pretty happy with the game and I think what little I'm not happy with will likely be fixed through patches and expansions. However, Blizzard gave me nothing. They sold me a limited license to play D3 on their servers. I suppose I'm grateful in a limited way for the opportunity to buy their product, but no moreso than I'm grateful to big oil for the gas in my car or Wall Street for investing in businesses so that I can buy things. It's not like Blizzard wrote D3 out of the goodness of their hearts and gave it away for free. Why don't people have the right to express dissatisfaction with products they pay for?
But GW could've been just fine as an offline game. With the full party hero's and some nerfs to certain elite dungeons, the game could've been fully playable offline. Heck, most of the time I played GW I was solo, only interacting with people to trade.
I plead ignorance on this one, but I still cannot grasp the definition of MMO? How is a game like GW an MMO but D2 is not? People say "D2 is an RPG, not an MMO". But I fail to see the difference?
Because D2 is online only, isn't that an MMO by definition (massive multi-player online)?
If I'm wrong I digress, I'm not really a hardcore gamer. I'm very casual with my gaming.
BurningRope#1322 (US~HC) Request an invite to the official (NA) <dfans> Clan
They are a business and only that. There is nothing they do that isn't in the interest of making more money. I paid them and expect a high level of service. I'm not getting that. Complaints are extremely justified. Deal with it.
apparently you don't remember wrath or cata, both had fairly smooth openings for me, burning crusade on the other hand did not. the issues diablo 3 has had thus far far outweighs server crashes due to a shit ton of people entering one zone at the same time i.e hellfire peninsula in BC.
It's the design question. MMOs are designed with constant player interaction in mind be it pvp, raids or dungeon runs. Sure you can down the difficulty and adopt Guild Wars to be a single player rpg much like you can give diablo barbarian a blaster and send him into space to fight zergs in a FPS.
D1 and D2 were both designed as single player RPG with multiplayer option (you don't call Mass effect 3 a multiplayer game just because it has such an option, right?). The core idea was that you're the hero taking on lots of monsters and having fun at searching for those elusive legendary items that could possibly make you a god of destruction.
Now in D3 the didn't change the core design philosophy - you can still play the game solo you don't need to interact with others, you don't need AH or item trade - all you need is luck. Hence the frustration - D3 is not MMO at it's basic gameplay, it's still a single player RPG game on one hand. On the other hand it requires the unneeded constant connection to the internet which shifts it into the MMO niche.