I'm sure everyone's heard the news by now, that Diablo III is going to require an internet-connection for all play, a real money auction house, and no mods. I'm not super happy about any of these, but I feel like some rationalization is in order.
 
1. Internet Connection is required for play. Obviously, this is one of the most demonized things in pc gaming right now, and if someone even hints at it, people start yelling. But think about it. I'm going to play a shit ton of Diablo single-player, but also a shit ton of multi-player. I'd imagine what went through their heads is, well millions of people are going to be playing this game on battle.net anyway, so what difference does it make? Those people would be playing single-player too, but I'd imagine most people would play single-player and multi-player in one gaming session, so it does make sense, at least to me. 
2. Real Cash Auction House. Well this one is simple. If you don't want to look at the filthy philistines who would pay real money for fantasy swords and runes, then don't. You don't have to use this feature. 
3. No Mods. I'll admit, this one kind of sucks. But, look at Blizzards past history with mods. Mods were huge in the success of Warcraft III, what with DOTA and the myriad of different levels and campaigns, and mods have been a very interesting part of World of Warcraft. But look at the past mod history of Diablo I and II. How many different mods for those games can you name? I myself, can't name any ( but I wasn't a huge Diablo player.) But blocking the feature out entirely, really doesn't make that much sense.

Your first two points are stupid.

I somewhat agree with the third.

I wouldn't want you as my defence lawyer…

 3. No Mods. I'll admit, this one kind of sucks. 

i still dont get the big fuss about always-online drm, but maybe thats because im...always online >_>

When AC2 does it a shitstorm ensues but when blizzard does it's defensible? 
 
 
 
 
talk about double standards

Ugh, there's nothing worse than "in defense of blizzard" threads

1. If your playing Diablo 3 I bet your playing on a desk top so the only reason I see this sucking is if your connection absolutely sucks.
2. Don't do the auction then.
3. That sucks.

When AC2 does it a shitstorm ensues but when blizzard does it's defensible?       talk about double standards

Just because the Diablo mod scene didn't spawn any mods as famous as DOTA doesn't meant it was insignificant. How many mods can you name for other games? Diablo has several great mods - Median and Eastern Sun basically changed the whole game content - skills, loot etc.
 
You do admit that you weren't a ''huge Diablo player'', I'm guessing your lack of understanding of the game is the reason your points are so asinine.

 1. 2. 3.
 ^^
 I'm okay with this under one condition: (statement contains profanity) The game is hack free and hackers will be actively hunted and banned. Not like VAC once in a blue moon bust. I mean a QA taskforce of nerds that work around the clock to ensure the integrity of this game. Fucking.

The online is bull shit.

I understand the auction house though, people are going to be selling shit anyway so you might as well give them a safe platform to use.

And yeah, I don't really care about mods for Diablo.

Always be interneting is not a huge problem for me, but it is fucking annoying.  This is the type of game I would love to play when I can't be on a multiplayer game or on forums because the internet is out.  I love playing LAN games with my brother when the net is out.  Very annoying.
 
Real-money auction house goes against everything they believed in about the in-game economy in WoW.  Buying items with real cash makes the rich have an unfair advantage and disrupts the in-game economy.  Though, unless I'm mistaken, this could still be only for cosmetic items, but I assume not.
 
No mods sucks, but I can live with that, as the only games I've modded are WoW and single player RPGs and some older games to spice them up.

I feel like the people that are against the auction house thing didn't play much/any Diablo II. As someone who played well over 1000 hours from 2001 to 2008 (and have even played it for a few weeks at least once a year since), giving people the option to sell items for money in-game is the smartest thing in the world. Real money item selling literally destroyed the economy of Diablo II. I could link you to 10 or 15 different sites right now that sell Diablo II items. I have many friends that spent anywhere from $30 to $75 buying D2 items. Blizzard is effectively cutting this off at the pass and not allowing the economy to be ravaged by farming sites, assuming they handle it well.

Always-on internet sucks because even though most people are always connected to the internet, that doesn't mean connections don't drop and internet doesn't go out.

No mods sucks too, but then again Diablo wasn't exactly a haven for great mods; that's always been WC3's (and to a lesser extent SC's) thing.

I feel like the people that are against the auction house thing didn't play much/any Diablo II. As someone who played well over 1000 hours from 2001 to 2008 (and have even played it for a few weeks at least once a year since), giving people the option to sell items for money in-game is the smartest thing in the world. Real money item selling literally destroyed the economy of Diablo II. I could link you to 10 or 15 different sites right now that sell Diablo II items. I have many friends that spent anywhere from $30 to $75 buying D2 items. Blizzard is effectively cutting this off at the pass and not allowing the economy to be ravaged by farming sites, assuming they handle it well.

Always-on internet sucks because even though most people are always connected to the internet, that doesn't mean connections don't drop and internet doesn't go out.

No mods sucks too, but then again Diablo wasn't exactly a haven for great mods; that's always been WC3's (and to a lesser extent SC's) thing.

1. Have they specified if it requires a constant internet connection yet? If every time your connection drops and you get booted out of your game then that would be a definite game breaker for me.

2. The problem here is that Blizzard would be inclined to make all the epic loot drop rates ridiculously low so that it would be damn near impossible to get some decent gear without shelling out some extra cash.

3. Personally I never cared for the Diablo 2 mods, so I dont think I give too much of a damn for Diablo 3 mods as well. But still, im pretty sure there are gonna be mods, Diablo 2 didnt have any official editing tools yet people still made mods for this. To be honest I wouldnt be suprised if people started hacking away start making private servers for this as they did for WoW.

There is no need to defend them, they are big enough company that they can do almost anything they want and people would have to accept it.

Anyway I don't think anyone is really attacking them.

 Buying items with real cash makes the rich have an unfair advantage and disrupts the in-game economy.  Though, unless I'm mistaken, this could still be only for cosmetic items, but I assume not. 

Nobody made a "In Defense of Ubisoft" back when AC II's DRM was announced.
 
How is this different?

@imsh_pl said:

Nobody made a "In Defense of Ubisoft" back when AC II's DRM was announced. How is this different?

Because the only reason isn't to stop piracy; but you'd know that if you had read any of the numerous articles about it.

@xobballox said:

 Buying items with real cash makes the rich have an unfair advantage and disrupts the in-game economy.  Though, unless I'm mistaken, this could still be only for cosmetic items, but I assume not. 

The auction house is player driven. So I doubt people would just want to sell their epic loot items unless it was something like retiring a character. Some rich mofo cannot just buy all epic sets on day one since somebody out there has to get them first. So in game economy will be just fine. This is really the same thing as legalizing it, so they can get a cut of teh action. No more being worried if your going to get ripped off, no more worrying if selling your shit is against the TOS. Best of all, when the time comes that you feel like retiring your character, you can actually get some money for it. I don't see why people are upset over this. 

@StaticFalconar: i don't think people quite understand that it's all player driven and instead think its blizzard selling the items

I know blizzard have claimed that it will be all player driven but I don't think they'll be able to resist selling top gear for too long.

expect the auction house to be filled with players  with names such as "wo-ai-qian111" "wo-ai-qian222" "haoduoqian111" haoduoqian222"
"benyangren1" benyangren2"
 
wait a month after the game is released, buy all the top tier items for your char in that patch.Start farming for top tier gear for other chars.
once you get all the top tier gear, farm for more so you can place them on the auction house. Repeat as patches are released.
 
i predict there to be more item sellers than actual players   in game on release day.

I don't feel the need to defend Blizzard but I also don't care about any of this. These are my opinions on these issues.

1. I don't plan on playing Diablo anywhere other than my desktop. Don't give a shit.

2. Love this idea. Hopefully I can get a decent chunk of change from this game.

3. I wouldn't expect any mods to be that great anyway. I know some people go crazy over mods, but I haven't played a mod I really liked in over 5 years.

I'll buy it if they ever release it. 

@blacklabeldomm said:

When AC2 does it a shitstorm ensues but when blizzard does it's defensible? talk about double standards

AC2's didn't work. It disabled the game even for lots of people who owned legal copies and were online. Ubi's DRM was disastrous.

If Diablo III's DRM actually works, who gives a shit? I still don't buy the guy on a bus with a laptop and no data connection argument. 99.9% of people are going to play D3 at home on a desktop or laptop. If you don't have internet there, consider relocating. You have bigger problems than DRM.

1. Wanted to play Final Fight: Double Impact while PSN was down forever. Guess what, I couldn't! Because it requires an Internet connection to play. So what! I have tons of other games to play that didn't require one.

*Fast forward to dystopian future where all single-player games require an Internet connection*

Crap! My Internet's going to be out for several days due to construction in my area (true story, actually lasted months, had to switch from cable to dsl). Crap! I can't play any of my games!

2. Sounds sleazy but ultimately I would never participate with real money. Seems lame and flies in the face of playing the game to discover new items.

3. Understandable if implementing mod support would be difficult and push the game back several months. Otherwise, it shows Blizzard doesn't care about the mod community.

People on forums just love to make a big deal out of things that does not matter.

I don't like any of the changes but there are other games out there to appease my desires for mods (thank you Bethesda) and I doubt I'll play the game enough that auction house shenanigans become a problem.  I don't like having to be logged in to play the game, but I'm used to it with Steam these days.  What it all comes down to is I don't like any of the new modifications, but that doesn't mean I can't tolerate them.

@imsh_pl said:

Nobody made a "In Defense of Ubisoft" back when AC II's DRM was announced. How is this different?

Because the only reason isn't to stop piracy; but you'd know that if you had read any of the numerous articles about it.

@StaticFalconar said:

@xobballox said:

 Buying items with real cash makes the rich have an unfair advantage and disrupts the in-game economy.  Though, unless I'm mistaken, this could still be only for cosmetic items, but I assume not. 

The auction house is player driven. So I doubt people would just want to sell their epic loot items unless it was something like retiring a character. Some rich mofo cannot just buy all epic sets on day one since somebody out there has to get them first. So in game economy will be just fine. This is really the same thing as legalizing it, so they can get a cut of teh action. No more being worried if your going to get ripped off, no more worrying if selling your shit is against the TOS. Best of all, when the time comes that you feel like retiring your character, you can actually get some money for it. I don't see why people are upset over this. 

 The one problem that I see with what your saying is that it assumes that Blizzard won't sell items directly through the auction house. Ok, they say its player driven now but I'd be very surprised to see a revenue stream like that get ignored. The other problem with their system is that you get taxed twice if you want actual cash which seems like bull shit. Blizzard taxes you on every transaction - fair enough, but when you cash out its handled by a third party who also take their cut, so selling characters that you retire might not be that profitable, depending on how they implement the system.

@opp said:

The thing is... You kinda have to use the real money AH if you want to buy something. Because if somebody gets some rare loot and wants to sell it, which AH do think they'll use.

I think it depends on the auction house performance. Imagine this: You find a sword you want to sell, you pay the fee to put it on the RMT auction house for $3.00, someone else swoops in and puts the sword up for $2.99 or $2.50. People buy the cheaper ones and your auction runs out without selling. You just lost a small bit of real money because of the listing fee. Doesn't look so appealing now does it?

We will have to wait until the game is released to see how this actually performs.

@Arabes said:

@StaticFalconar said:

@xobballox said:

 Buying items with real cash makes the rich have an unfair advantage and disrupts the in-game economy.  Though, unless I'm mistaken, this could still be only for cosmetic items, but I assume not. 

The auction house is player driven. So I doubt people would just want to sell their epic loot items unless it was something like retiring a character. Some rich mofo cannot just buy all epic sets on day one since somebody out there has to get them first. So in game economy will be just fine. This is really the same thing as legalizing it, so they can get a cut of teh action. No more being worried if your going to get ripped off, no more worrying if selling your shit is against the TOS. Best of all, when the time comes that you feel like retiring your character, you can actually get some money for it. I don't see why people are upset over this. 

 The one problem that I see with what your saying is that it assumes that Blizzard won't sell items directly through the auction house. Ok, they say its player driven now but I'd be very surprised to see a revenue stream like that get ignored. The other problem with their system is that you get taxed twice if you want actual cash which seems like bull shit. Blizzard taxes you on every transaction - fair enough, but when you cash out its handled by a third party who also take their cut, so selling characters that you retire might not be that profitable, depending on how they implement the system.

I don't think you understand how powerful the system of taxation is. Blizzard is going to make a buttload of money from taxing the auctions that they will not be duping epic loots for a little extra cash. I can maybe see some rogue Blizzard worker that plays the game religiously may start some scandal, but shit like that would have happened without the auction system. Blizzard ain't dumb and know if they try to "cash in" selling themselves through the auction, they will wreck their own economy. If a bunch of random trolls hating on them can point this out, they are smart enough to realize this too. So whats your only other reason to hate on them? Ohh the taxes will cut in an any profits. Seeing as selling gear for real money right now is a shady business that is against the TOS, having a legal way to get some money out of retiring a character is already more than you ever had before. Of course its not supposed to be profitable to stop the farmers. When I sold my WOW character (because I was quitting the game), I had all epic gear at the time, and only got about 500 bucks. But seeing as my playtime was 250 hours at the time, it of course was not profitable even on the black market. But guess what, I wasn't looking for a profit, since I was selling something what was worth nothing to me at the time. Gold/Gear farmers may care about the profits, but thats why taxation hinders them since its those people that actually wreck game economies. 

There are subtler ways for apologists to to make these type of of threads without going into a "In defense of..." thread.

In all reality though this doesn't affect me too much except for 1 because, lets face it, everybody has internet issues at some point. Never got into the mod scene, and I don't think the for profit auction house will enhance or detract the game for me.

 I'm just dubious, that's healthy.

@Arabes said:

 I'm just dubious, that's healthy.

Really? Cause from what you wrote, you seemed to be a little kid getting ready to walk around with a cardboard saying "the end is near". 

The always-online nature of Starcraft 2 failed to be of any concern to me, and I've played a lot of it. For those few times where my internet was doing something weird and I couldn't log on, and it was the worst thing ever, but 99% of the time it was fine.

@ryanwho Well from the beginning Blizz has said they have no plans to balance PvP in any way so this just goes along with that philosophy.

In defense of Blizzard, they make great games and you're still going to buy it.  
 
Also, the real money auction house is just legalizing and standardizing something that would happen anyway. Think of it like legalizing pot. 

There are two ways the AH thing can go in the shitter.  If Blizzard themselves start selling things for cash in there, or if they do not force all items to have both an in game currency price and a real money price.  As long as the former does not happen and all items are still available for in game currency in some way, it should not be an immense issue.   
 
As for the Always Online DRM, given the existence of the AH, its existence is completely justified.  There is simply no two ways around it.  The only thing to critique would be if they went the route of Ubisoft, and let any short disconnection of mere seconds boot you from the game, even when playing single player.
 
No mod support sucks.  Period.

I dont know. Have you seen the screenshots of Diablo 3? I'm more worried about the fact the game looks boring and washed out.
 
I would probably buy it off Steam anyway - the horror!!! Seriously, though if it required internet connection and I bought it at a store, I'd be pissed. 
 
No mods is dumb, but this was probably done to eliminate all the mods that help you get gear and what not (you know autoscripts..). So, makes sense.
 
If good items are hard to get, then Auction House is lame (think TF2 lame, cus I hate how a lot of good items are hard to get - Croc Sniper Armor...).