Diablo III returns to the world of Sanctuary twenty years after the events of Diablo II with a new generation of heroes that must defeat the demonic threat from Hell.
Like beyond a certain point does it matter? How many people are really going to skip this game, or the next blizzard game because of a bad launch? They don't really seem to have an incentive to throw a bunch of money into the launch.
Something tells me that when you bring down the servers for an entire region for maintenance in the middle of launch day you probably care about your product. Otherwise, why not take care of it tomorrow, or maybe the end of the week?
Throwing money at servers doesn't really do anything if your infrastructure is already set in stone.
And yes, I'm sure they care. Blizzard have had poor launches in the past with WoW and people keep buying their games so I don't think this will change anything for the majority of people. I hoped this would be at least bearable but we're over 24 hours from the launch now and the game is unplayable. This rivals some of their early WoW patch/expansion launches and those were like 6 years ago. It's pretty embarrassing.
Very frustrating, 24 hours now and I was only able to play 1 hour of gameplay. What is taking so long to resolve this, this isn't the first time it has happened.
I'm trying to be pretty positive about the game (because the game is super fun), I understand that they're having a rough time right now. However, almost getting to the end of a long dungeon (right before a checkpoint) only to have the server go down mid-chest open is absolutely infuriating. Now I gotta do this thing all over again? Cripes!
this problem happens with all their launches , this one is the worst yet but its a new client and infrastructure , you could expect them to have fixed allt hese issues before launch but the bottom line is predicting server capacity is going to be a massive time and monetary investment.
sure they can afford it but they didn't get to where they are by throwing money away , the sheer amoutn of peopel hammering forums/accounts/downloaders and the game servers themselves alllll at once will decrease naturally , or the balance will tilt more towards game servers etc as more people successfully get to play etc..
you have to think they have some meaty servers , so upgrading them from here woudl probably be a multi million dollar investment , which over time wouldnt be needed ultimately , and therefore just is bad for their bottom line :/
looks like they bit the bullet and pulled down n/a servers to upgrade them a bit but eu servers seem to be having less capacity issues currently
ultimately this is understandable , and it doesnt make me like the game any less , but i would be lying if i didnt say blizz only really care abotu the money , but any good company that cares about its money ultimately overcomes a situation like this out of need for more money
Probably one of the biggest launches ever in passed years. Chill, Blizzard's got this shit under control. Everything will be smooth runnings in a day or two.
You know after reading threads on this topic here and on other boards about how badly things where going I expected that when I tried playing tonight that it would be a horrible, unplayble mess. Turns out everything (install, account settings, login, new game) worked correctly on the first try. No glitches. No crashes. Nothing out of the ordinary where in fact the most worrisome thing I saw was the system MOTD over in World of Warcraft mentioned possible login issues where being looked at.
It isn't that I don't believe others when they say they had problems but I encountered none of those issues so I really wonder about how big the scope of the issues were. As far as I can remember this is smoothest launch I have seen for something this large and popular where I was even ready and expecting a queue but never saw it.
@Leptok: They do care about the launch. I have a friend who works at Blizzard, and they are just as unhappy with the issues at launch as many others are. Fortunately, they have staff dedicated to resolving server issues at launch, and they seem to be making serious headway on fixing all current issues. They are taking this seriously and trying to make sure the next few days go much smoother than the launch day. The issues are getting worked out.
At this point, I've spent the $60 on this game. But, I will be avoiding all Blizzard launches following this. Sorry, but when I buy a product, I expect to be able to play it (at least) solo.
Wishing I'd have opted for Max Payne 3 at the moment.
I'm sure they care because it affects their reputation which affects their bottom line.
I think people expect MMOs to have issues when they launch. Diablo is not an MMO series. It is a predominantly single player experience that is now dealing with lag, kicks, and screwed up servers because of a poor design choice to combat piracy.
This is terrible. I got the code from a kind fellow, downloaded it and havn't been able to play it. Like ,wtf? It is a single player game, this is beyond frustrating.
Businesses are all the same. What's the most cost effective.
/thread basically with this great quote.
They care enough because it would probably effect profits in the end, but they easily could have gotten around all of this crap by not having an; always online single-player mode.
Meh, I don't think Blizzard cares about piracy with Diablo 3 as much as they need to cover their asses with a full audit trail in the RMAH. They gave away millions of copies with that annual pass thing which seems to suggest they value having people running around in the game than paying for it.
Businesses are all the same. What's the most cost effective.
/thread basically with this great quote.
They care enough because it would probably effect profits in the end, but they easily could have gotten around all of this crap by not having an; always online single-player mode.
@Leptok: There are employees of blizzard that are being yelled at as we speak. Well maybe not yelled at but being sternly asked "what the fuck is going on". The people being yelled at are going to other employees and asking "what the fuck is going on." Most likely some of those employees have been awake since launch. They really fucked up with this launch but believe me they are trying very hard to fix these problems. Remember a company is composed of people. many of these people have been working on this game for years. So yes those people care. From the track record of Blizzard (as a company) they also care. Specifically with Diablo II, a decade after they launched the game they made significant updates. They didn't have to. They made that update 2 years after being acquired by Activision. Yes they care. So do they have to? Yes absolutely, The good will Blizzard has earned from it's community is because they try so hard to please the costumer.
Of course they care, it's a little immature to believe that they do not.
This
Although, I have to say, that when I got my CE this afternoon, I was able to install, log on, create a character and play with no issues, and I honestly don't think I'm just "lucky" in that arena.
A couple rough days for a long lasting good experience isn't too high a price to pay. It's easy to get upset in the short term because you're so excited to play and run into troubles, in the long run it won't be that big of a deal.
I'm sure they care because it affects their reputation which affects their bottom line. I think people expect MMOs to have issues when they launch. Diablo is not an MMO series. It is a predominantly single player experience that is now dealing with lag, kicks, and screwed up servers because of a poor design choice to combat piracy.
I really honestly believe that most games will require being online in the near future. If the new MS and Sony consoles do not require an internet connection to play, I will be shocked.
They should have followed the MMO convention of allowing preorders to access the game earlier and sort out the issues then. SWTOR's launch was relatively smooth as they did a staggered early access launch.
Most games now require some online. In fact most PC and phone/tablet games active ask for a connection where it is increasingly rare to find one that doesn't. The software wants to be patched to the latest settings and versions. They want you to post to Twitter or Facebook. They want to post to an online leaderboard. They want to check something on the Internet like location, metadata, etc. Its already here were a lot of people are oblivious or don't care.
@mosdl: They made an attempt to test the servers, My guess is the 'get diablo free for a year long subscription to WOW' was the mistake. They tested the servers based off of actual interest and forgot about the millions of people that have no interest in diablo but got it as a signing bonus for WOW.
Most games now require some online. In fact most PC and phone/tablet games active ask for a connection where it is increasingly rare to find one that doesn't. The software wants to be patched to the latest settings and versions. They want you to post to Twitter or Facebook. They want to post to an online leaderboard. They want to check something on the Internet like location, metadata, etc. Its already here were a lot of people are oblivious or don't care.
There is a big difference between online authentication and always on connections. The fact that I loose progress because Blizzard's servers go down is horrid.
@happypup70: They should have staggered the access, but this could also be DDOS attacks, who knows.
While I've been sticking to my "don't buy what you don't like" crap, sometimes these slightly shaky launches give a lot of entertainment and eventually fond memories.
I am just guessing but I think the server load was not the initial problem. I logged in at 9am eastern time and played for hours without a problem. My guess is trying to fix some of the game breaking bugs that cropped up between launch and when I started playing, caused a cascade effect of things not working right. Having done some programming I know that the lunar cycle seems to have more influence on whether my program runs or not than anything I can figure out. (until I figure it out of course) Also not everybody who wanted to play the game was logging in at midnight last night.
At this point, I've spent the $60 on this game. But, I will be avoiding all Blizzard launches following this. Sorry, but when I buy a product, I expect to be able to play it (at least) solo.
Might I suggest you stop playing PC games then, since it's a platform where this type of thing is relatively typical?
I don't mean they don't care at all, but they don't really have an incentive to make it super smooth because people will still buy this and the next ones.
A couple rough days for a long lasting good experience isn't too high a price to pay. It's easy to get upset in the short term because you're so excited to play and run into troubles, in the long run it won't be that big of a deal.
Yes, in the long term it doesn't matter, so they don't need to spend a bunch on servers, they just need to make it good enough.
I don't own the game, I'm not going to buy it anyways. Just commenting on big companies that have super loyal fans. Its almost unfair because a different company would be torn to shreds over something like this.
They only care as long as people still make the purchase and there is plenty who jump in without looking first and then rant that the game don't work. If they even get these issues fixed, remember in 30 days, the 'free account' will be turned on then another huge rush of people will start all these issues over again.
Like beyond a certain point does it matter? How many people are really going to skip this game, or the next blizzard game because of a bad launch? They don't really seem to have an incentive to throw a bunch of money into the launch.
Their incentive is making as large a profit as possible, and I am pretty sure that, with videogames, that initial 24-72 hours is vital in the launch of a product. Plus it's hard to explain to people "in the know" with this industry why Diablo 3 requires a constant internet connection even if it is being treated as a single player experience, so imagine having to explain that to the average joe who picked it up because of all the hype only to find it is literally unplayable. This launch hurt Diablo 3, and Blizzard, unfortunately. Activation wont be happy to hear that a flagship title was marred critically solely because of launch complications, because you want positive press only when a new game comes out because consumers tend to be intelligent, thus the existence of some review embargos.
So to make a long story short, yes, Blizzard is very invested in solving this as quickly as possible because in business there's no such thing as "making enough money" for a launch and being satisfied...especially when there is an incredible amount of potential profit lost due to technical issues that shouldn't exist for a game this long in development, and on a service, like battle.net, that has been in existence for years and numerous gigantic launches. Great game though, I'm loving it.
Honestly, I started it when I got home yesterday, and my only interruption was two hours of maintenance downtime. I do kinda treat it like an MMO launch, where problems are the norm.
I dont like always online single player, but complaining about that is about as useful as punching a brick wall.
It isn't that I don't believe others when they say they had problems but I encountered none of those issues so I really wonder about how big the scope of the issues were. As far as I can remember this is smoothest launch I have seen for something this large and popular where I was even ready and expecting a queue but never saw it.
I spent a lot of my life working in the restaurant business, and there's a saying that if a person has a good experience at your place, they'll tell someone, if they have a bad experience, they'll tell ten. Bad news spreads faster than good, especially on the Internet. Obviously there are some problems, as there often are with launches of this size, but all this talk of Blizzard not giving a shit or that sites should give the game bad reviews for it are a little much.
I'm not trying to downplay people's frustrations, but some of it is pretty overblown. Just wait, there will probably be a lawsuit or two.
At this point, I've spent the $60 on this game. But, I will be avoiding all Blizzard launches following this. Sorry, but when I buy a product, I expect to be able to play it (at least) solo.
Wishing I'd have opted for Max Payne 3 at the moment.
Yeah, this whole thing is pretty pathetic. The fact that this is a single player game combined with the fact that Blizzard can take as much time to put out a product as they want, it's really just unacceptable for this to happen. It's reasonable to have launch issues, and it's even reasonable to try to fight piracy, but when that DRM and those issues are so insanely fucked up when Blizzard essentially had infinite time to figure it out is extremely disappointing. Blizzard does care, but at the same time they know that these issues aren't going to drastically effect sales. I'm guessing they would much rather fuck you in the ass for a couple days with their piracy protection instead of making things go smoothly but lose money to piracy right out the gate.
Like beyond a certain point does it matter? How many people are really going to skip this game, or the next blizzard game because of a bad launch? They don't really seem to have an incentive to throw a bunch of money into the launch.
Their incentive is making as large a profit as possible, and I am pretty sure that, with videogames, that initial 24-72 hours is vital in the launch of a product. Plus it's hard to explain to people "in the know" with this industry why Diablo 3 requires a constant internet connection even if it is being treated as a single player experience, so imagine having to explain that to the average joe who picked it up because of all the hype only to find it is literally unplayable. This launch hurt Diablo 3, and Blizzard, unfortunately. Activation wont be happy to hear that a flagship title was marred critically solely because of launch complications, because you want positive press only when a new game comes out because consumers tend to be intelligent, thus the existence of some review embargos.
So to make a long story short, yes, Blizzard is very invested in solving this as quickly as possible because in business there's no such thing as "making enough money" for a launch and being satisfied...especially when there is an incredible amount of potential profit lost due to technical issues that shouldn't exist for a game this long in development, and on a service, like battle.net, that has been in existence for years and numerous gigantic launches. Great game though, I'm loving it.
Yeah but what costs them more, a few lost sales or spending on server infastructure that's only needed for a few days.
I mean, how can they still be having this problem? They have a ton of popular online games, so they must have some chart with the cost/benifit analysis.
They care.... not as much as some would think and more than some would think. They certainly care - I can guarantee you that if their customers were locked out of the game for more than a day, they would be very worried. But a few problems for an hour or two? Not that much of a problem. I've been playing D3 for a while now - I've only had two problems - one was the difficulty in starting, which everyone had and was resolved within the hour. The second was when the servers went down today and I couldn't play for two hours - I used the time to get work done.
The launch had problems - problems I was expecting in fact. Doesn't excuse the problems, but it wasn't the end of the world. They fixed the problems quickly enough, and I'm having fun.
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