Wow, this is just disgusting. Everything about this game pisses me off more and more. If I could go back in time and not buy this I would. I will never support Blizzard again.

You can't limit people who paid in FULL to your fucking game to combat gold farmers or whatever BULLSHIT excuse they came up with. Gold farmers and hackers are Blizzards problem, not they people who pay their REAL FUCKING MONEY to play this game.

I feel like such a dumbass for buying this game. I was one of those people duting launch staunchly claiming I wouldn't buy it, due to the always online requirement and the RMAH. I ended up being my weak-willed usual self and bought it anyway. It didn't take me long to become completely bored with it. And all the stuff that happened, and continues to happen after launch, makes me a little sick for supporting this company and their business practises.

I wish I lived in South Korea, they can actually get a refund there for Diablo 3 according to eurogamer, because of not delivering a functioning service at launch.

I understand their problems, but it's something they should fix instead of punishing honest consumers. It's the whole online requirement all over again. Like how they said the online requirement would combat hackers and cheaters, guess what, didn't work at all.

@jasonefmonk said:

@WinterSnowblind said:

@jasonefmonk said:

@WinterSnowblind said:

This only affects players who purchase the digital version, which is insanely overpriced anyway.

It's the same price as the box ... what about that is overpriced?

This is an odd move, I bought the physical copy out of necessity but the Auction House delay and things like this make me glad I did. What's the benefit on Blizzard's end?

Don't know about the US, but the digital version over here costs £45 as opposed to the £25-30 you can get it from online retailers for.

I'm not defending Blizzard here, I just thought it was a pretty important piece of information that the OP left out.

Ah, well I can only say that in Canada and the US the game is priced at $60USD or CAD from Battle.Net, and is the same from Amazon or in retail boxes in both countries. These discounts from online retailers are not likely from Activision/Blizzard, and is probably a loss leader to attract business.

I don't think Amazon needs to sell at a loss to increase traffic.

@MariachiMacabre said:

@Barrock said:

@MariachiMacabre said:

@MikkaQ

Aww how nice of Blizzard to simulate the experience of those who bought and tried to play Diablo within the first 3 days of release.

Now even those late to the party can join in the fun of not playing the game they just bought. See? What a great company, no one misses out.

Except it only limits you until your payment clears to make sure you've actually PAID for the product, so for most people the payment will clear before the game is finished downloading.

Wouldn't anyone that actually purchased the game be cleared immediately so this has no effect on anyone who is legitimately trying to purchase/play the game?

I believe as soon as you've purchased the game it allows you to download it while it tries to clear your payment. At least that's what Blizzard seems to be saying.

Except I don't care because I was making a joke at this news story's expense.

It's alright, Diablo 3 was the last chance at redemption for them, because I loved Diablo 2. Seeing that I'm bored of starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 is full of their big brother mumbo jumbo, I can now take the choice to tell Blizzact to kindly fuck off

I'm still trying to figure out how this move would stop gold farmers and spammers. Ok, so you set it up where digital buyers can't play the full version until after 72 hours. How will you stop gold farmers and spammers after the 72 hours? They will still be able to play and farm. The only way Blizzard can stop them is by paying attention to spamming reports.

I also wonder how many of those Diablo III purchases were spammers.

@DFSVegas said:

If you pay $60 for a game, does blizzard really need to presume you're up to no good? If I pay $60, shouldn't I get the benefit of the doubt, until I screw up?

I understand putting restrictions on accounts in games where you can freely create new ones, but that's a lot of money to spent just to troll and hack. Also the fact that it doesn't apply to hard copies really makes no sense.

I still intend to buy the game when I get some extra ducats, but yeah, I don't really know how this helps safeguarding against anything.

I think you forgot where Blizzard comes from. 'MERICA! Where you're guilty till proven innocent.

@ck1nd said:

Honestly this doesn't sound nearly as bad as anyone is trying to make it. This generation is getting a little out of hand with impatience. So you have to wait for 72 hours? So the fuck what.

I bought the game. What gives Blizzard the right to treat me like a dirty gold farmer for three days? I paid to play the game, let me have my fucking game.

If you think that makes someone impatient, then you are beyond help. Just bend over and touch your toes, papa Blizzard will handle the rest.

Might make sense, I also see it's good to do this for the digital version to keep people from just taking it apart then selling pirated copies as well as the gold farmer accounts. I think that the best things so far that blizz has done with the gold farming issue in D3 is to make the 'flag for spam' button to also mute the person but more importantly just turn off general chat as always on unless you want it on (no clue why anyone would want it on).

@ck1nd said:

Honestly this doesn't sound nearly as bad as anyone is trying to make it. This generation is getting a little out of hand with impatience. So you have to wait for 72 hours? So the fuck what.

There is obviously a reason Blizzard is doing something like this, regardless of whether or not you agree. Also, all this was is a pity party for the OP to exclaim why he's cool enough to not jump on the Diablo III "Bandwagon."

Wow. The amount of 'I'm a consumer, please fuck my face' coming out of your mouth right now is astonishing. By the way, all these little 'baby steps' that aren't a big deal slowly become a massive problem within the industry. But you're right bro, may as well just shrug it off.

Alright.

I've been saying people have been all up in arms for no good goddamn reason. But c'mon...this is crazy!

You gotta wait 3 days for this shit to clear to get off the starter pack?

Alright.

I've been saying people have been all up in arms for no good goddamn reason. But c'mon...this is crazy!

You gotta wait 3 days for this shit to clear to get off the starter pack?

The blue post was, in fact, unclear about the 72 hour restriction. The Starter Edition page notes that "Most Diablo III Starter Edition restrictions will remain in place until payment verification is fully complete. This may take up to 72 hours", while the sticky post states "... when purchasing a digital version of Diablo III through the online store or your Battle.net Account, players are restricted to the Starter Edition for the first 72 hours (sometimes less)." The Starter Edition page is addressing the issue of upgrading from the Starter Edition to full game, not digitally purchased full games right off the bat. Further clarification from Blizzard would be nice.

@MikkaQ said:

@MariachiMacabre said:

@Barrock said:

@MariachiMacabre said:

@MikkaQ

Aww how nice of Blizzard to simulate the experience of those who bought and tried to play Diablo within the first 3 days of release.

Now even those late to the party can join in the fun of not playing the game they just bought. See? What a great company, no one misses out.

Except it only limits you until your payment clears to make sure you've actually PAID for the product, so for most people the payment will clear before the game is finished downloading.

Wouldn't anyone that actually purchased the game be cleared immediately so this has no effect on anyone who is legitimately trying to purchase/play the game?

I believe as soon as you've purchased the game it allows you to download it while it tries to clear your payment. At least that's what Blizzard seems to be saying.

Except I don't care because I was making a joke at this news story's expense.

Huh. Shows how well the joke went over then, I suppose.

They've done this with WoW digital editions for a while. With WoW (I assume it's the same here), it's because they wait for your payment to clear before they activate the product, thus '72 hours, sometimes less'. It's exactly the same thing, except it seems they don't explain it as well here. On the WoW digital store it spells it out for you why you have to wait 72 hours (sometimes less - I think my wait was around 48 hours before my bank sent the payment).

@bibamatt: Just because its a terrible system implemented into WoW doesn't make it right. My old man bought the game last night and it was the worst gaming experience of my life. I introduced him to the game and we had a blast, shortly after he was prevented from progressing after beating the Skeleton King and trying to progress (it doesn't help we did it 4 times before realizing what happened).

And the site does not spell it out for you, if its in anything less than GIANT FUCKING LETTERS saying THIS IS A DEMO its not spelling out clear enough because I thought I bought the Standard Digital Edition. If I was prevented with the "Skeleton King message" on the fucking website I would have never made the purchase, I would have went to the fucking store and bought the game.

This is not how games are supposed to work.

@cmblasko said:

The link says that it applies to digital copies of the game, so I guess if you purchase a hard copy you can bypass the restriction. I wonder what their reasoning for doing this is?

Gold farmers, real money auction house farmers, exploiters etc.

@George_Hukas: Chill out, man. That reply was a bit unnecessary. I didn't say it was right and I didn't give an opinion. I just put a comment to explain why the system is there in a thread full of people asking 'why do they do this?'. Don't answer me with a comment full of abuse and swearing, that's awful.

Meanwhile, rudimentary private servers are up and running. Just saying.

I'm with Pop and mariachimaracbre!

@bibamatt said:

Don't answer me with a comment full of abuse and swearing, that's awful.

Holy. Fuck. Nothing I said was remotely offensive. It worked for fat bus lady, you wont profit from playing victim, just stop. Maybe re-read that again. And we get why the system is put in place.. nobody questioned that. The issue stands with the omission of GIANT FUCKING LETTERS on the store page telling people they only have access to 1 hours worth of content for the next 3 days. Deception.. that's a dirty word.

@ertomic said:

wouldn't it be good to know this information before we bought the game?

----------

www.rentbuybash.com

Blizzard already changed this policy: http://www.giantbomb.com/diablo-iii/61-20803/blizzard-lifts-odd-72-hour-diablo-iii-digital-purchase-restrictions/35-552333/#46

If this will rid the game of cheating and botting then I'm all for it. I got a guespass with the starter edition and it was enough for a day or two. Although im not the "hardcore-play-5-hours-a-day" type of guy.

@MrCaptain said:

If this will rid the game of cheating and botting then I'm all for it. I got a guespass with the starter edition and it was enough for a day or two. Although im not the "hardcore-play-5-hours-a-day" type of guy.

Keep up, they have already got rid of it.

Oh wtf. Well that's convenient! I played the game when it came out, then stopped after beating it a couple times. Recently some friends got the game and wanted me to join in, but... yeah even though I have two high level characters on the account, it just stops me and tells me to upgrade for $60. Yay. I am the proud owner of a starter account that is capped at level 13 for the next 72 hours. Blizzard is so weird.

Unless they changed it yet again, I'm pretty sure this policy was reverted and this necro is weird.