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Gaming: Blizzard and D3

Monday, August 8, 2011

Anyone who is interested in Diablo may already know this, but for those who don't, here's a nice tidbit of information: If you don't have an internet connection, much less a reliable internet connection, you can't play D3. Yes, even in single-player mode. You will also not be able to play over LAN. Their response about playing offline? Well, they just want you to play someone else's game.

They are trying to wrap up this DRM reaming as a good thing, so they threw in a real-money auction house. That's right, you can buy stuff for actual cash! They are also giving you a persistent friend's list, server-side character storage, guarantees the disappearance of hacks and dupes, a cross-character item stash, and a few other things.

Let's take a look, shall we? The Auction House, I'm torn on. I was an avid WoW player for some time, and some of the changes to the game just seem all too... similar. I like the idea that my gaming could possibly gain me some real-life revenue that I can use how I need. However, this also means rich kids get the best things, since this will let them just purchase the weapons straight up without doing a lick of work. On top of this, it could open the door to the IRS coming online in full force. This is an excuse for the always-online DRM, and another revenue source for Blizz (as I'm sure there is a nominal fee for this feature).

The persistent friends list isn't so much bad as not needed. With the age of cyber-socializing as it is, we have our friends in a hundred different lists already. We don't need another one. Allow us to link our account of choice and use it when we're online. This is also an excuse for their always-online DRM.

Server side character storage. Why? Because they're afraid you might mess with your character. Well, I paid for this software, I will do as I please, within the letter of the law. This is an excuse, again, for their always-on DRM.

They say it will prevent hacks and dupes and such. This just simply isn't true. There is no possible way to make something completely unhackable. They can try, but as they have said themselves, their development team isn't as big as the cracking/hacking community. Another excuse to push their always-connected leash? Yup.

Cross-character stash for your items. I like this. I love a cross character stash, though I apparently hold the unpopular opinion. However, there's no need for the stash to need to be online. I've played plenty of games where they had a cross-character stash and was never connected to the internet. I'm pretty sure you can guess the next sentence. It's just another excuse for their online DRM.

Also, their persistent friends list requires RealID. This isn't something I'm a fan of. I dropped WoW before it, and so haven't used it personally, but what is this doing besides causing another step of inconvenience? I don't want my name thrown out to everyone so future employers could see I once used a bad word on a forum, or see that I had a level 80 of each class. No employer will see that and think "Oh, he must get his work done quickly, and that's how he has time to do that!" No, they will think "He's a lazy ass who only wants to play video games all day. NEXT!"

Another point I would like to make is that requiring a persistent internet connection punishes people who choose to live in a more rural area or even those who don't, that can't get an unlimited internet connection.

Finally, pirates get a better product that they have less hassles with, and for a 100% reduction in price. Why wouldn't you pirate? Check out, for instance, the whole StarForce problem. Or the previously mentioned problem about internet connections. Or hey, trying to get customer support (especially from blizzard) can be a nightmare, so I think I'll just post on the forum or comment section from where I got the cracked version. Almost always an answer in very little time, and I don't have to have a phone up to my ear the whole time!

Blizzard, we're trying to throw our money at you for this game, what is your problem with that?

5 comments:

Thoon said...

Anti piracy really in insane and pointless. I maintain hope one day, one of these ridiculous games will fail miserably because it goes too far, doesn't make even the base money and and the majority of companies finally give up.

ThirtySeven said...

Diablo 3!!! Can't waaaaaaait! It's only been over 15 years since the last one

LoneIslander said...

They do anything just to make an extra buck. To me, if just feels like blizzard is trying to drain whatever then can out of their customers because the quality of the games is just decreasing.

Mekkor said...

Starcraft II is also not playable without internet connection. Thats so stupid, i just dont understand why a game cant be played offline.

Bulletproof Zombie said...

...And I guess I'm not playing this then. What a letdown.

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