D3 - Online Only?

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I admit I haven't really been following D3 development much, but I was intending to get it when it comes out. But maybe not, if this means that it will essentially be a multi-player game only.

 

This and the integration of an ingame item store pretty much kills it for me.

"why would you want it any other way?” is like a slap in my face.

This is the perfect sentence for a lot that annoys me in games nowadays:
limited number of registrations?
"why would you want it any other way?”
permanent online authentification even for single player games?
"why would you want it any other way?”
glorious item packs as DLC for only a lousy 5$?
"why would you want it any other way?”
I could go on...
Well at least, there is Torchlight 2 to look forward to ^^.

 

After reading that, I won't be purchasing D3. What a bunch of BS. I hate MP play in any game. I prefer to keep my gaming to myself. The only MP games I would play are games that are set to be versus another player. Like a board game or war game. Jackasses....

 

I agree it is ridiculous. And their excuses are horrible and condescending. They make an a** out of us and themselves by making a whole lot of assumptions.
- "the game’s not really being played right if it’s not online"
- "because the players want it"
- "Erm… upgrade the wiring in his house? I mean, in this day and age the notion that there’s this a whole vast majority of players out there that don’t have online connectivity – this doesn’t really fly any more. I mean, at our hotel, there’s nine wi-fi networks that I can access. Just from the hotel! And they’re all public – they’re all paid – but they’re pretty cheap, and they’re all publicly available. So the notion that there’s just tons and tons of people out there that aren’t connected – isn’t… I don’t think is really accurate."




And the auction store is literally a cash-cow for them. They get a cut when you put the item for auction, they get a cut when you sell the item, and they get a cut when you withdraw the money from them. If e-bay operated like this, I doubt they would see so much business.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-will-let-players-buy-and-sell-items-for-real-money/

 

Won`t be getting D3 then. On pure principle.

 

Oh well looks like I won't be buying it then. That's another customer lost.

I love the fact they try to justify the always on rubbish as helping to prevent piracy as well. Ubisoft tried that one, and infact the only people that could consistently play their always on games were the pirates who'd cracked the protection within a couple of days. The people who'd 'shock' actually bought the games couldn't log on due to server issues etc.

 

While I will be buying the game, I am disappointed by this. There are times when you just don't want to deal with the noise of an online game. By noise I mean spam, PKers, perverts, annoying twits, etc. You don't get those in a single player game.

 

Exactly Snook. I do not want to have to deal with depending on other s to help me in a game, I don't want to share or fight over loot and I don't want to deal with all the idiot kids.

 

Not my game. Count me as not buying. If I want something that's online only I'll go for a real MMO instead - like perhaps 'Old Republic' for 2012, and of course, LotRO.

I am currently playing LotRO (nominally f2p, and indeed enjoyable as an f2p player but way better when paid for) and am throwing money at these folks, but I play in a nice community and it's very RP oriented, which makes it worthwhile. One thing that annoys me though is that indeed you do depend on others to finish parts of the game (which is somewhat offset by the fact that playing in groups is both re2warding, challenging and indeed, a very different experience than single player). By and large I prefer single player because of that. LotRO is the first MMO that got me hooked.

When D3 will be online only, the reason that that Blizzard does want to be in on the trading. They expect more profit from the game that way. I hope this will blow up in their face.

 

I loved D1. D2 was great as well, though I never delved deep like some others here(Aldeth!). But with so few games coming out these days that fiulfill my gaming needs, I was really hoping for a great game in D3. It really sucks that they are going this route. I would never pay real life money for extra items in a game. That is just plain retarded. And can get real expensive, real fast! I was not placed here on Mother Earth to fill Blizzard's pockets. My 50-60 dollars on the original release should be enough for them. Greedy bastards!

 

Well, I think every game designer who asks for more money are greedy bastards, not just Blizzard. I would think that one company had to have this idea first, this offer to the public.

As for single player not being satisfying, that is your opinion. The fact that you were very unlikely to find a full set in one playthough just means you can play it many times to find all the possible itmes. Replayability with incurring greater expense. That is what I am looking for. Obviously a full set of anything wasn't a necessity to beat the game as I beat the game many times over with all characters and never rec'd a full set on any of the playthroughs. I am not against MP for others, whatever floats your boat, but to strip SP as an option? That is f****d up. I know, it's their game, their design, their business. But they will lose this customer over it, that is for certain.

 

Of course the players you speak with online are mostly MP players, as most of them are also internet junkies. Not so with the SP players. Most SP players are fans of the older school of games. Like me. I only post on this site and you were up for years before I joined. I'm not a fan of too many other sites. Why? Because you host forums for most of the games that I find enjoyable. Black Isle games. Mostly non-MMO games. A few other sites do, but not with nice mix of options you put together here.

And yes, they the gaming manufacturers of today are greedy. Their original fan base came from the SP world, as that is where PC/Console games got their start. They are abandoning them. Why not have a single player element? I am sure the cost wouldn't be much. They are min/maxing profit. As a SP player, I and many others contributed to their start. Helped build their base. And then we are left in the dust. I am supposed to be happy with this? I think not my fire-breathing friend...

 

In D2 I ALWAYS played online. Know what I did when I wanted to play by myself?

I made a server with a stupid password that even I couldn't recreate. That's probably what i'll do again.

 

Tal, you are right of course. I know it and everyone else knows it. I am just griping. I'm an old-schooler who loves single player mode. But if just one person of the team from Blizzard reads the above posts, maybe... just maybe, a glimmer of hope will appear for the next great game they make. Who knows, I might get lucky...

 

No, no, no people. Just because you are required to have an online connection to play, it isn't required for you to play with anyone else - you can still play by yourself. In fact, you are only allowed to bring an NPC along with you if you are PLAYING BY YOURSELF. If you are in a party, you cannot have an NPC, so there's actually content you can only access when going solo. And don't worry about PKers - there is no PvP in the regular game. They have an arena set up for all PvP - there is no way for players to go hostile against one another in the regular game.

It's just like with Starcraft 2. You have to be connected to battlenet to play, even if you are playing a single player version of the game (which, as has been stated, can be done by simply creating a game with a password that only you know).

There is also one very practical reason for this. Most of the item hacks that people had in D2 were made in single player mode that they brought to online play. While I doubt this will stop people from duping items and the like, at least it won't make it easier for the dupers.

Finally on the in-game store. Regardless of whether or not Blizzard had an in-game store, many other people would be buying, trading, and selling items for D3 - they just would be doing so on other sites. There were ways to buy your way to the top for years on D2, and to think that won't happen in D3 is just silly. At least when you buy something from Blizzard it has to pass a server check so that you know the item you're buying is real and wasn't duped or hacked.

And guess what? If you are totally against the idea of buying, selling, or trading items in D3, then don't do it. They aren't going to make you do it.

 

That had actually occurred to me when I created this thread, but the wording in the quote I cited made me wonder if that was going to be the case. I guess we'll just need to see how it's implemented (although the password idea seems like a fairly easy workaround).

The odd thing about my reaction to this is that while I loved D1 as a single-player game (I didn't share Tal's dislikes), I really didn't enjoy D2; I'm not sure why not, although Act 3 had a lot to do with it. I also didn't have the expansion, which might have made a difference. Having said that, given my "meh"-ness towards D2, I'm not sure why I want to play D3; maybe I'm hoping to re-create the D1 experience (unlikely, since D1 was completely new for me, while the subsequent games are in many ways more of the same).

(New word of the day - "meh"-ness.)