@Nekrokreuz said:

Buncha complainers up in here. Diablo III is GREAT. I fucking love this game. And who cares about the DRM? Everyone that plays PC games is always online anyways.

I have way above average internet speed, but that doesn't mean anything if Blizzard is having problems, even when I am playing alone. They could have added a SP part that required an online activation.

Anyways, I do enjoy the game, but this solution kinda sucks, and I think it is 90% auction house system, and 10% piracy fear.

@artgarcrunkle said:

@Humanity: I've pirated exactly eight games in my life and bought legal copies of seven of them solely because pirating playing the pirated copy made me want to buy the game. The game I didn't end up buying was Postal 2, so all things considered I feel my hands are clean and your poorly formatted personal attack doesn't bother me.

You are a minority when it comes to people who pirate stuff. I know so many people who say the same thing. A person I know, pirated Skyrim under the same pretense as you and said that eventually they would buy it if they liked the game. They put in over 150+ hours into the game and when they were done refused to buy it. The point is that what you're doing is still part of the problem and your hands are still dirty no matter how "clean" you think you are by buying the game later on. Still, if it is true that you did buy the games you previously pirated then there's something to be said about that.

Damn.

The always-on DRM sucks, but the game's fantastic.

@Humanity: The problem: as long as people buy the game, nobody gives a damn what the press think or the metacritic score is. At some point, the consumer has to go "Damnit, my buying power is being eroded, corporations are charging more and giving me less, at some point, I'm not going to buy this game, no matter how good it is." All the complaining and principle in the world doesn't mean jack if the game is a best seller, because the corporation got what it wanted out of it - profit.

Blizzard has 4.5+ million reasons to tell the gaming press to screw off.

JGH

I fell asleep playing this game and then I didn't play it anymore.

It deserves its success. Without any expectations I've been blown away.

There have certainly been some issues though. Launch day I had to wait to get on, then they were off again that night. Next couple days had some downtime too, including maybe 4-6 hours on a Sunday. There was a 6 hour maintenance last night, and the servers are down now too.

I've played a good chunk of hours, now a good way through Act III on Hell difficulty. For people with obligations and little free time this always-online system is backfiring.

I really think Diablo III is an MMO, there are more similarities than differences. I realize their ambition and flyaway success, but it must have been possible to have a smoother launch than this, they're sowing discontent among leagues of internet people.

Still; the game's really fucking good.

Not surprised at all. A week ago, I was pretty adamant about not buying the game until a price drop. A week later and I'm now fifteen hours deep into the game . . . :P

However, it's not like there are many games on the PC that can generate this type of revenue.

I did the only reasonable and responsible thing, I canceled my preorder

@mrpandaman: Nah, I wouldn't have had to pirate any of those games if there were demos for them. I guess the only reason I'm wasting time still posting is because bad consumers use pirates as a reason to say "It's not my horrible consumption habits it's all because of pirates!" Publishers see stuff like that and know consumers are either clueless or don't want to empower themselves and they take advantage of it. I guess I'd be happy if we could agree that the industry is awful and it's everyones fault :)

@clstirens said:

@Zabant said:

I have the worst feeling in my gut that people will point at this and say "LOOK AT THE NUMBERS WE COULD DO IF WE MADE IT SO NOBODY COULD PIRATE THE GAME, ALWAYS ON DRM IN ALL GAMES NOW!"

:(

They should take note of this. Companies should do what they can so people can't pirate their game. Over the last couple years it seems every couple months you hear about a studio closing or cutting tons of jobs. If always on DRM saves those people their jobs, i'll take the minor inconvenience of not being able to play the game a few hours during launch week.

Wish my computer was capable of playing it. Would have bought it day one if it was released for 360.

Well I expected as much, but looks like my and others' not-buying of Diablo 3 will lead to absolutely no imperative on Blizzard's part to deviate from this path of shitty DRM. Plenty of people are perfectly content to live with being insulted right off the bat if the game is fun, and I guess I'll have to learn to deal with the results.

I may be in the minority here but I have no problem with digital rights management. Sure, it can effect game-play occasionally, and when done poorly can be a pain. The reality, though, digital rights management protects the developers and producers of games from throwing their money away. Nobody blames a bank for locking up at night. Banks lock up because people are trying to steal from them. Video game producers have every right to follow suit.

In the case of Diablo 3 the persistent always online connection is only in part digital right's management. Whether you never play the game with another person Diablo 3 is not a single player game. When you are on the game mode selection screen you are in the equivalent of a town hub in the first Guild Wars. You have access to an auction house for better gear. There is chat channels available for you to discuss strategies on how to play your class. there is a robust achievement system. There is one thing, however, that I find even more special.

I grew up during the rise of PC gaming. even then I dealt with some form of DRM. In one particular tetris like game called Faces in order to play the game I had to answer three "trivia questions," the answers of which were in the back of the game manual. Eventually I lost the game manual in a move (I was maybe 10 or so) and never played that game again. Then during the age of the cd-rom I had to keep the disk in the computer to play the game. Eventually some of those games became unplayable.

Today most of the pc games I play are on steam. When I log into my account I can download the game I want and start playing it. When I upgrade or replace a computer I can have near immediate access to the games I want to play. Many of them now have support where I don't lose my saved progress when I make such a transfer. Blizzard also provides this service. People complain about the always online form to Diablo 3 but someday when I have a craving to play it and I don't have a computer I can go to an online cafe that has Diablo 3 login to my account and start right back where I stopped. Having grown up in a different age of computer gaming I find this almost magical.

I pirated one game in my life. It was in college and a friend of mine told me he could install Diablo 2 onto my computer with a cd crack so I could play it without the disk. I could never go online and play with others and I couldn't get the expansion when it came out. I would go on to buy Diablo 2 on three separate occasions afterwards. When I stole that game, however, I sent a message out to video game producers that I couldn't be trusted. I spat in the face of all the hard work they put into their game. I live in a world of DRM because I helped make it so. With Diablo 3 they give so much opportunity and benefit with their DRM, It is as if to say we know we can't trust you but we love you all still.

So I don't mind Always on DRM or any form of DRM. I helped make the world that need's it. For those of you who have had the integrity never to steal in your entire lives I salute you. However you still live in a world populated by a very small number of thieves. Bank doors will not open after 5 pm and from now on video games will not let you in unless you have the keys.

@happypup70: It's not that it's DRM, it's that it hinders game performance. 200+ ms ping on solo, not acceptable. I want you to try a hardcore character and get up to the later difficulties, and tell me 200ms is fine.

@dvdwalker8 said:

Wish my computer was capable of playing it. Would have bought it day one if it was released for 360.

How old is your PC? Really, it does not take much to run it.

@Jimbo

@Hunkulese said:

@Jimbo

That many copies for a PC game is a game-changer, for better or worse.  
 
If it makes devs/publishers consider making PC exclusives which wouldn't otherwise have been made, then that's great.  If it means games which we'd have been getting anyway will now have always-online DRM shoehorned into them then that's sucky.  If it legitimises a 'release it broken and fix it later' mentality then that would be unfortunate too - nobody should get the free pass Blizzard has been given for that.
 
Bit of a mixed bag.

So much ignorance in this post.

That's true, but you don't need to be so hard on yourself about it.

There's not one thing in your original post that makes a lick of sense but you're trying to defend it with a witty retort that sounds like something my four year old came up with.

@dvdwalker8: The damn game runs on a toaster. You have no excuse.

Haters gonna hate. The game is awesome. And I'm one of those elite old school PC master race retards that complains about everything. So well played...well played.

@lordofultima: It is unfortunate that there is so much lag in the game right now. preparing servers for nearly 7 million players is, up to this point, completely unheard of. I have no doubt that lag will improve over time. I have also had Hardcore Deaths in both Diablo 3 and Diablo 2. I remember my system slowing down in Diablo 2 while playing single player a decade ago and losing hardcore characters to that stutter. Hardcore death's are a fact of life when you play on hardcore. I am on hell right now with my main and usually slowdown and stutters don't kill me. running into two set's of champions with jails and walls and morters and arcane laser thingies and illusions is what does me in.

@Vitor said:

Once the game is around £35 or less I'll hop on, but not before.

I got my copy for £27 from amazon.

You sir, need to learn how to buy games that aren't on steam.

Also, this game won't drop in price (on the blizzard store) for about 2 years, then it will stay at that price forever after.

And another thing! The DRM in this game actually works. You can't pirate the fucker, mission accomplished.

Don't you know what this means, people? It means that 350 million people pirated this game.

The DRM arguments ring hollow for a lot of people.

To me and everyone I know, D3 is a purely multiplayer game. Even when I played by myself in d2, it would be on battle.net in a passworded game.

Blizzard makes game, no matter what the quality, its gonna break this record.

@blueduck said:

@phrosnite said:

@gaminginpublic: @blueduck: @budgietheii:

The fact that you don't know which dungeon crawlers I'm talking about shows me that you don't know shit. Shut up. Don't reply to people who say bad things about Diablo 3. Go play your Diablo 3 instead of defending it so furiously.

Dude chill out. I'm honestly asking for you to elaborate on your opinion.

Lol...he still hasn't actually told us what games he is referring to lol. The only game in my opinion that is in the same league as Diablo is Trine, but they practically admit that they just knocked off Diablo II to tide people over until Diablo III. Anyways he's just trolling ignore him.

I'm guessing no one even cares about online all the time DRM, or the lack of LAN & offline singleplayer?

@Cataphract1014 said:

The DRM arguments ring hollow for a lot of people.

To me and everyone I know, D3 is a purely multiplayer game. Even when I played by myself in d2, it would be on battle.net in a passworded game.

I'm pretty sure that anyone who played Diablo 2 in pretty much any capacity played it in passworded battle.net games. Who would want to risk losing a character?

@giyanks22 said:

The only game in my opinion that is in the same league as Diablo is Trine,

I think the game you're thinking of is Timeshift

@Hunkulese said:

@Jimbo

@Hunkulese said:

@Jimbo

That many copies for a PC game is a game-changer, for better or worse.  
 
If it makes devs/publishers consider making PC exclusives which wouldn't otherwise have been made, then that's great.  If it means games which we'd have been getting anyway will now have always-online DRM shoehorned into them then that's sucky.  If it legitimises a 'release it broken and fix it later' mentality then that would be unfortunate too - nobody should get the free pass Blizzard has been given for that.
 
Bit of a mixed bag.

So much ignorance in this post.

That's true, but you don't need to be so hard on yourself about it.

There's not one thing in your original post that makes a lick of sense but you're trying to defend it with a witty retort that sounds like something my four year old came up with.

 That wasn't to defend my original post, that was just to mock you.  My original post obviously didn't need any defending, mostly because it's fantastic, but also because your 'attack' had no substance whatsoever.
 
Your four year old sounds exceptionally funny I must say - is that from their mother or from me do you think?  Perhaps you should give them the keyboard? If they're as smart as they are funny maybe they'll be able to contribute something a little less vague than 'so much ignorance in this post'.

@giyanks22 said:

@blueduck said:

@phrosnite said:

@gaminginpublic: @blueduck: @budgietheii:

The fact that you don't know which dungeon crawlers I'm talking about shows me that you don't know shit. Shut up. Don't reply to people who say bad things about Diablo 3. Go play your Diablo 3 instead of defending it so furiously.

Dude chill out. I'm honestly asking for you to elaborate on your opinion.

Lol...he still hasn't actually told us what games he is referring to lol. The only game in my opinion that is in the same league as Diablo is Trine, but they practically admit that they just knocked off Diablo II to tide people over until Diablo III. Anyways he's just trolling ignore him.

I assume you mean Torchlight. And there's also Titan Quest, and a few free to plays, and now by the looks of the trailer even a Marvel one.

@Chemin said:

Shocking? Nah. I'm somewhat split on this being a good or a bad thing. It does show that PC gaming is not dead, and games can sell like a motherfucker. But it also gives green light to all publishers that the worst possible DRM is accepted by the public. Or rather, no one cares enough.

I didn't buy it because of battle net ... I chose to buy a 4 pack of torchlight 2 for friends and family a far superior game LAN play offline local and guess what made by the people that made diablo 2 :)

That's million bucks!

3.5M copies x $60 = $210M in one week. That's just silly!

BUT...PC gaming is dead!

@AhmadMetallic said:

@Jimbo said:

That wasn't to defend my original post, that was just to mock you. My original post obviously didn't need any defending, mostly because it's fantastic, but also because your 'attack' had no substance whatsoever.

Your four year old sounds exceptionally funny I must say - is that from their mother or from me do you think? Perhaps you should give them the keyboard? If they're as smart as they are funny maybe they'll be able to contribute something a little less vague than 'so much ignorance in this post'.

Hahaha, Jimbo strikes!

I'm hoping you say that because he's your friend. His post was exceptionally unfunny and unsightful. Not to say the other guy is any better.

@phrosnite: I want to play these secret dungeon crawlers that are so much better than Diablo 3, Tell me so I can play em!!!...............Or you're just talking out of your ass.

@zombie2011 said:

@clstirens said:

@Zabant said:

I have the worst feeling in my gut that people will point at this and say "LOOK AT THE NUMBERS WE COULD DO IF WE MADE IT SO NOBODY COULD PIRATE THE GAME, ALWAYS ON DRM IN ALL GAMES NOW!"

:(

They should take note of this. Companies should do what they can so people can't pirate their game. Over the last couple years it seems every couple months you hear about a studio closing or cutting tons of jobs. If always on DRM saves those people their jobs, i'll take the minor inconvenience of not being able to play the game a few hours during launch week.

You're missing the point Zabant's making. Diablo III sold so insanely well because it's fucking Diablo. Doing the same thing to Prototype 2 wouldn't have helped them one bit, if anything people would've lost their shit and possibly boycotted it, e.g. Ubisoft's employment of LESS stringent DRM.

This thread has 2 of the best kinds of commenters:

1) "I've never had a problem, so logically that can be extrapolated to everyone else who also plays this game. Ergo, it's not a problem."

2) "I'm commenting on a post about video games to tell you that video games are lame and you should get a life....also, video games."

Seeing how well this sold just makes me think my plan to skip it purely for its awful online requirement is pointless. It looks fun, and it's clear that there was no actual dent in the sales because of that.

Well that's a fuckload of games despite being on a dead platform, right?

@Dalai said:

Well that's a fuckload of games despite being on a dead platform, right?

I guess this is all the proof we need that always-on DRM is a foolproof solution!

I won't buy this game because I already spend too much time on the computer. But well done blizzard! You and Valve are saving my favorite platform from obsolescence.

@Humanity said:

@doobie said:

@artgarcrunkle said:

@Humanity: Piracy and used games are a convenient PR scapegoat developers use to rationalize taking advantage of a short sighted and self-absorbed consumer group. Personally I very rarely pirate games because I'm patient enough to wait for price drops for games from companies I don't like. But I have zero problems with people pirating games from one of the big three of anti-consumer game makers.

But by saying you're OK with DRM and horrible launch issues because you like the game that much does in fact make you part of the problem.

and pirating doesn't make you part of the problem. take your head out your ass dude.

You are basically stealing something.

Your argument falls down when you say stuff like this. Piracy makes a copy of something, it doesn't steal it. You can argue that piracy is stealing money the dev would have gotten otherwise, but that argument has issues too.

@Dragon_Fire said:

I'm guessing no one even cares about online all the time DRM, or the lack of LAN & offline singleplayer?

I certainly don't. I have a constant internet connection and I don't live in 2002.

holy shit bravo blizzard

@big_jon said:

@gaminginpublic said:

@big_jon said:

And yet I could still give no less shit then I already do about it.

Then get lost

You first, douche.

32 posts and a stock avatar and you're telling me to get lost?

Yes because having a bigger post count consisting of garbage like "And yet I could still give no shit about it" and having a stupid avatar makes you more important.

@Chemin said:

But it also gives green light to all publishers that the worst possible DRM is accepted by the public. Or rather, no one cares enough.

I'm not sure why preventing people from hacking the game (and thus stealing real money from people) is bad, but that's just me.

Totally not surprised at all. Regardless, incredibly awesome.

@phrosnite said:

Pity the game is a disappointment.

Pity you are such a fool!

Diablo 3 is an online multiplayer game that you can play through by yourself, if you so choose. So is Guild Wars, Path of Exile and any number of freemium online action games. No one accuses Guild Wars (which is not an MMO, by the way) of restrictive DRM. All these people praising Path of Exile don't seem to care about it's always-on DRM. Diablo 3 is an online game. Get over it and move on. Torchlight 2 is coming and it'll have it's own set of advantages compared to playing Diablo 3, but for a large portion of the people that loved Diablo 2 and especially loved playing Diablo 2 over Battle.net with friends and strangers, Diablo 3 is very close to perfect. If it's a single player game for you, that's your choice. My advice is make some friends or just play with the friends you have. The game is fun by yourself, but it's so much better with a group.