Diablo III Online Only

[ikreos]

Diablo III was one of the upcoming games I was looking forward to... Until I read these articles.


http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-cannot-be-played-offline/


http://www.gamingbus.com/2011/08/01/diablo-iii-is-online-only-has-official-real-money-item-market/


Needing a constant internet connection just to play single player is downright stupid. At least with Half-Life 2 and Steam (though I don't like that I need Steam to play) you can play without logging in. Guess I won't be buying this one.


Anyone else have any opinions on this?

 

[ndbsolar]

Wait for it to be cracked? I will...

 

[ikreos]

Wait for it to be cracked? I will...

With this kind of model it would be difficult. You would have to know how the server and client communicate, emulate the connection, etc. That would be a lot of work.


Disclaimer: I don't condone cracking software.

 

[gadgetoid]

You don't have an always-on internet connection?


I don't really see the problem, other than the fact it's DRM and everyone loves to kick a fuss about it.


IMO if you're playing Diablo Single Player, you're doing it wrong anyway.

 

[ikreos]

I do but I have very strict rules governing internet connections on Windows. I refuse to browse the internet on any of my Windows machines (which I only have one dual-boot).


I'm not much into multi-player myself.

 

[gadgetoid]

Get a Mac. Loophole


I've never had any troubles letting Winblows connect to the internet, behind a router it doesn't seem to get instantly pwned.


No doubt it will be cracked in short order. Or you could just re-play Diablo 2 + LoD. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it'll be better.


Torchlight 2 is coming, too. I'm looking forward to it! Specially after the disappointing Dungeon Siege 3.

 

[WizardStan]

Wait, what? The argument is that they don't want someone playing an offline game, and then taking that character online somehow? Weren't the Battle.net and single player character, you know, completely and totally separate in Diablo 2? Someone doesn't know what they're talking about, and I'm pretty sure it isn't me.*


*disclaimer: it frequently is me.


edit: ok, I'm taking bets. At what point in time will a single player crack be available? How long before pirates are free to play it whenever they want and the DRM only hinders paying customers? I'm guessing 3 days before the official release date.

 

[ikreos]

Get a Mac. Loophole

I was actually contemplating getting a Mac Mini at one time, but that was before they switched to x86 and I never bought one. I just wanted to play around with a different architecture.


My preferences for things are too restrictive and it's getting annoying but I can't help it.


It would be nice if there was a full blown 3d version of Nethack with all it's quirky humor.

 

[ikreos]

Wait, what? The argument is that they don't want someone playing an offline game, and then taking that character online somehow? Weren't the Battle.net and single player character, you know, completely and totally separate in Diablo 2? Someone doesn't know what they're talking about, and I'm pretty sure it isn't me.*


*disclaimer: it frequently is me.

That's the thing though. If you play single-player for a while, then decide you want to hop on multi-player you have to start from scratch. That annoys a lot of people.

 

[WizardStan]

That's the thing though. If you play single-player for a while, then decide you want to hop on multi-player you have to start from scratch. That annoys a lot of people.

And this move will annoy far more people than it will appease.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Why do game companies have their heads up their asses as of late?

 

[Caine]

I don't really see the problem, other than the fact it's DRM and everyone loves to kick a fuss about it.

I remember that after buying Starcraft II that for about a week Battlenet was having connection problems about three times out of five whenever I wanted to play the campaign (bad timing, I know). The annoying DRM prevented me from playing the single-player mode of a game I just bought, which truly pissed me off. As usual, pirates did not have this problem at all.

Why do game companies have their heads up their asses as of late?

People still buy the games don't they? If you truly want to make a statement against this then don't buy the game (and don't pirate it either). If everybody did this then DRM would be gone by now.


I'm having serious doubts now about buying Diablo III as the Starcraft II DRM experience really pissed me off.

 

[Blue Protoman]

I don't buy the games. But I don't get why I couldn't pirate them (assuming I have proper specs, which I don't at this time). After all, the company wouldn't be getting my money.

 

[Prometheus]

^ Pirating them is only making the point "I want your goods, but I do not intend to pay for them.". Not touching them at all sends the message "I do not want this.".

 

[Blue Protoman]

So these companies are Big Brother now and can read my thoughts, feelings, and intentions? Hell, I doubt if they'd read these boards if ED opened a whole section dedicated to me pirating this game.

 

[WizardStan]

So these companies are Big Brother now and can read my thoughts, feelings, and intentions?

No, but they think they can. "Pirates are taking our games, we need to add even more DRM!" By pirating their games, you're only "proving" their thinking correct.

 

[Coldbird]

Wait for it to be cracked? I will...

With this kind of model it would be difficult. You would have to know how the server and client communicate, emulate the connection, etc. That would be a lot of work.


Disclaimer: I don't condone cracking software.

No it's not difficult.


When it comes down to this you always end up with some kind of boolean switch... "Boot or not boot..."


The game code works the same... all you do is simulate the boolean switch to always return "true" - aka. "Boot always".


So I'm not too worried bout it.


Did it before myself, others did too, we will do again.

 

[Blue Protoman]

So these companies are Big Brother now and can read my thoughts, feelings, and intentions?

No, but they think they can. "Pirates are taking our games, we need to add even more DRM!" By pirating their games, you're only "proving" their thinking correct.

Except how can they tell that I pirated it and not simply decided to not buy it?

 

[Nintendo]

No more use of the word, "pirate" please.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Yes, Big Brother.


(For the record, I did not actually pirate or buy the game. Truthfully, this is the first I've heard of it.)