I don't know if I am buying it. I am not saying that I WON'T buy it, just don't know yet.

I played all of D1, D2, and D2 LOD in single player, offline mode.

I beat them with different characters and different difficulties.

I didn't start playing online until I started playing EQ (then I never played Diablo again...)

And not all of us are minimum wage monkeys either. Planes + laptops = I want to play it. Or, shitbag foreign internet is another example. Your griping about our griping is the same fucking thing you're whining about, but even less relevant.

To make this thread complete, how about I offer that we step outside and discuss it?

Yay, Nazis. Thread over.

Focker, Out!

The area where I live has a land area of 57,674.26 km2 (22,268.16 sq mi).
As of the 2006 census, the population of the region was 143,872 inhabitants.

That's 6.4 persons per square miles.

So if you live outside of a town around here you don't have access to
cable/high speed internet because it's too expensive to deploy.

I don't mind online activation but always on connection... That's different.
They could have continued with open/closed characters and people who want a cheat free environement
(pfff yeah right like there's no cheating in D2 with closed characters or starcraft 2...)
could have closed characters and the people who don't have constant on connection could have open characters.
Deny access to cash auction for open characters. Oh wait that makes too much sense...

Like I said... If you think for a minute it's for a cheat free environment that they removed off line mode then you are a dumbass.

I probably go on hiking trips an average of once per week at this point, and it's been steadily increasing as I've put more focus into my job. I definitely enjoy that "out of the office" time, but I also enjoy working on things so I bring my laptop for both purposes as well. Even so, it's a pretty important time for me to relax after a long work week, and losing it is a major bummer if I can't play a game that I really enjoy. So it hinges on how much enjoyment I'd get from the game, really. With my gameplay time much more limited than it used to be, that "OMG it's just an hour or two out of the whole week you could play!" isn't quite as miniscule as you suggest, especially when it comes at a time when I enjoy it most.

So to answer your question about rarity, it's becoming increasingly common these days that I find myself without an internet connection.

I admit I boot up old titles from time to time, but I'm pretty back and forth in which games I play so newer titles aren't off the table for the laptop. This also answers the question about playing Diablo 3 months from now, however. I enjoy popping out the old good ones, and if Diablo 3 is anywhere as close to a classic as D1 and 2 were, there's no question that 6 months or many years from now I'll be loading it up from time to time. Or rather, would be assuming it doesn't require this "always on" internet connection nonsense. If I could accumulate the amount of hours I've played old games, it would end up being pretty high up there, and it'd be sad to see games like Diablo 3 chalked off that list.

As I said, this issue is important to me, but it's not a deal-breaker. I will be buying the game, I'll just be disappointed about some aspects. Especially when they aren't necessary and the game would've been much better(in the former case, playable).

If your use case is really "I take my laptop hiking", then it's not cost-effective for a business to satisfy your needs.

The "anti-cheating measure" is absolutely also DRM, but we're talking here like it's somehow outrageous that it makes stealing the game difficult. Are we really complaining in here because an anti-piracy measure looks like it'll work?

My point was that it's one more reason on a list of reasons people dislike the internet connection requirement. Some people are claiming it's a superficial concern, I'm just saying there are legit reasons. It may not appear to be cost-effective not to do it from the standpoint of the number of people effected by it, but as is more often the case, people's discontent with unnecessary measures that have very little to do with the game's enjoyment can be enough reason for them to take action(hacking or otherwise attempting to diminish the game's integrity).

This measure isn't going to eliminate hacking, and at best it will reduce piracy. A one-time activation that doesn't require "always on" serves the same purpose while making it a bit easier to hack, which is going to happen with or without "always on".

Perhaps Blizzard should hire you since you did all of the research that their people failed to do, to know what works best for their business.

They'd have to beg me with some pretty strong incentives at this juncture =p You have a good point, though. Research is point and click; A peon's job. Logic is brain waves.

But no, actually I think there's a reasonable point to be made about the hacking. For every competent gamer that plays with a tight-knit group of friends that has almost zero chance of being remotely effected by a hacker, there are another 50 thin-skinned idiots that play random pickup games with other tardfaces. Those people are the same people that allow their enjoyment of the game to be dictated by others around them(e-peen, high item prices, dumb groups, etc). If there is even a minute increase in hacking, that group's cries will be heard from here to Timbuktu. The question is whether that would be offset by an implementation that pisses off people for more practical reasons. /wink /wink

Except...it won't. I doubt it will last a month. Granted, that's definitely reduced piracy to be sure, but still punishes the paying customer. The first rule of DRM that MUST be learned by publishers: It should be a BETTER experience to have bought the product, than to have stolen it. If I have to download a crack to enjoy From Dust (or Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, etc), then they're doing it wrong.

Honestly? I didn't play Diablo 2 online. (Well, other than to see how it was) It just wasn't that interesting to me. I played through the single player on a few different classes and that was fun, but running through Baal 500 times to hit level 99 so I could run through Baal even faster seemed boring.

I don't really play any game online unless it's dedicated to it - mmo's, league of legends, etc.

There are plenty of games with no online component whatsoever that are extremely popular, so I don't feel like I'm some sort of edge case scenario, either.

If D3 requires an internet connection because it's an online-only game, that's fine. But if you can play the fucking thing without *needing* an internet connection, it shouldn't require one. How is that not common sense?

There's a dark thought. It's just barely possible that they're dumb enough to think that their Auction House offerings cover the gap.

I didn't play Diablo II online either. I almost never play online, unless I can create a private session with just my friends, because multiplayer gaming on the Internet is a spread vector for mind-herpes.

People say cheating has been a problem for Diablo (2?) in the past. How was it a problem?

Were safeguards in place to prevent players from cheating in multiplayer/online mode? And were offline/online play distinct (characters couldn't "cross over")?

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There were two types of online play. "Open" Battle.net, where you could play with your offline characters and "closed" battle.net, where your characters were kept on blizzard's servers.

Typically open games were hack fests, with lots of characters who'd been boosted by character editors -- no one took open battle.net seriously.

Closed battle.net had a lot of item duping bugs (which they're still patching for!) but was mostly hack free otherwise due to the fact you couldn't directly edit your characters.

Botting, on the other hand, was a huge problem. I participated myself, to be honest -- MephBot got me LOTS of wonderful uniques.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Having a zealsmiter for torch runs maphack was invaluable. The rarity of some of the crap you needed to make the build work to solo uber trist almost required a bot or insane rune wealth.

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Marauder Harabakc Goat

Here is a link to some links to live streams of the beta:

http://diablo.incgamers.com/diablo-3-beta-live-streams

Delayed till early 2012 like anybody is surprised. I'm not even the slightest bit disappointed. Still lots of cool stuff to look forward to.

Yea I'm in no rush to play it. I'd rather see the completed package. Lot of stuff on my "to play" list with what little time I have to game with these days anyway. My expectations aren't extremely high, either. I think I'd be satisfied with something a bit better than Titan Quest, which shouldn't be too hard to beat in 2011.

I played D2 briefly and never picked it up again. I just couldn't get into it. Then again when I started playing EQ I pretty much stopped playing everything that wasn't a MMO. Even though the game looks cool, I doubt ill buy.

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This is my concern for Diablo. Not in the sense that it won't sell well but in regards to my potential enjoyment. The best times I had in the Diablo franchise was when I didn't have a MMO in my life. Fast forward to now, MMO's are a part of gaming lifestyle. So how will this game fair with that crowd (which is a pretty huge playerbase). I think most will buy it but how many will play it for any length of time?

Blizzard's always late. Before Internet update patches, the rule was "It's late until it's out, but it's bad forever." It's still essentially true, in that if your patch isn't a day-zero update, you've lost half your users by the time you get it released. So, it'll be done when it's done -- this has always been their way.

Their policy is the extreme opposite of Bioware's with SWTOR, but it's still an extreme. Blizzard seems incapable of calling something done.

That's probably a healthy instinct in a world where MMO's are the most profitable games in existence.

Profitable mmo's might be. But how many of those are there?

Its been my impression that most of them are profitable. Pretty much any mmo that is still operating in a year I would bet is making money.

MMOs are stupidly easy to make money on. Generally speaking, ten thousand subscribers is the break even point for subscription based MMOs, the sky is the limit with F2P/Microtransactions. LOTRO is (comparitively) making money hand over fist since they went the microtransaction route.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Even everquest has been doing the Micro-transactions in game for a while now.

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

Release Date: May 15

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4612389/Test-3_16_2012

Already purchased, yep im a fanboy!

_________________
"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

Wow it's going to be released sooner than I thought haha I was thinking June or July

I hope its better than the beta... Oh and lol PVP arena patched in at a later date? lol

I'll tell you one thing it's going to be better than. This new layout that's what.

Remember Oni? Very pretty for its time, ran smoothly on a reasonable machine, good play control -- and three hours long.

Pre Ordered as well. I think I may need a mindless MMO break. Even with TOR 1.2 coming out, I think I need a little something different. I loved D1 and played D2 very little due to EQ/MMO's. I look for it to be fun and would love a shot at beta just to help my learning curve but that's part of the fun I guess.

I'm looking forward to the initial patches... i.e. PvP, Arena, etc.

I'll buy it, but not right away. Every available cent goes to the wedding pirates until that's over.

Wedding pirates suck!

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

Less than one week before the heavens shall fall!

Diablo 3 Gameplay.
4 years ago...


3 months ago.

Other interesting D3 Stuff.

That is cool Evil. Thank you for sharing, I have not seen that.

Np Worthy and I thought it was cool too. A good background story for the new game indeed

Found an alternate solution for the wedding pirates, which allowed me to throw down the $60+tax today. It's downloading now.

Hey, did the client downloader hard-lock anyone else's machine before you disabled peer-to-peer networking?

Nope. Just you.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Downloader worked fine for me last week.

Ive still gotta find out what its even about. Last diablo I played was the original

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Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

You click on a bunch of things and get things and then occasionally there will be a bigger thing for you to click on. I reckon it'll be nice to play some Diablo in this decade, but I'll pick this up in a few months and fall into a week-long Diablo hole and then leave it alone for a year or so.

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So how is it? I heard it still uses the Hold down mouse to move, and shift+mouse to attack. That playstyle in diablo 1 was murder on my mouse hand. Still the same eh?

I've really not heard much since release last night other than "if you like DII you'll like D3.

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Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

You can click once to move where you point and attack using the keyboard if that tickle your fancy ;)

"if you liked D2 you'll like D3" is a very good review, and it's exactly my opinion of the game.

Luckily, I fucking loved D2, at least until 1.10 fucked everything up.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Ill be playing tonight and ill see if i Like it. I had work and school last night so no time.

_________________
"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

I like it so far, but I haven't seen anything D2 couldn't have done if its graphic designers had been fully awake. The DC issues with North American load are incredibly annoying, since preventing that kind of crap is basically what I do. They know better by now -- if nothing else had taught them, the Burning Crusade launch sure as hell did. They have zero remaining excuses.

ally anything special about D3. Honestly it plays almost exactly like D2 did right down to the act layouts. It's more or less a nostalgia orgasm for fans of the series. What changes they did make to the formula work tho and really make these type of loot and scoot games a lot better. The skill and rune system is pretty cool. Blacksmith and artisan are the new Gheed. Items for the most part are pretty bland and ordinary tho. Can't wait to see some actual legendaries.

It's not terrible by any means, but I don't really see why we had to wait 12 years for this.

I do have some specific gripes.

1..Server stability. I know it's launch and they shattered pre sale records and all, but damn. This is just insane. At times a single player experience being unplayable due to rubberbanding is silly.

2...Loot is boring. Most modifiers are completely useless outside of Vitality + Class stat like str, int. I want to see gear out of late hell and inferno tho before passing final judgement.

3...Abilities are out of whack. Some skill and rune combos come across as "must haves" They touted there would be so much choice, and honestly we knew this wouldn't be the case. It's impossible to avoid a situation where specific talents are obvious choices. I also wish there was a way to store multiple skill and rune loadouts to be able to switch instantly on the fly.

4...I don't like the always online thing. 4 players per game also seems kind of low. Can't do anything about it so whatever.

5...I do like the blacksmith random and all, but I'm seriously not seeing a payoff. Need more blueprints to drop. Also no way to access the auction house in game that I know of.

6...Nightmare suffix mobs can go eat a dick. Nightmare suffix dragonflies from act II can suck my dick.

I agree with given, I loved Diablo and Diablo II so this is right down my ally, I actually do enjoy the craft system less merchant fodder and more tinkering on trying to get crafted weapons.

Anyone cares my Battle.net handle is CakvalaSC#1897

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

I'm planning on doing a co-op run with some friends, but we won't be starting that until next week. For now I'm just creating one of each character and running through the starting areas.

I really like the way they've implemented the skills and runes. I never respecced much when I played WoW, this will give me more incentive to play around with different builds.

I never really played much diablo 2.. I think with Renia and a couple other oryx types for an hour or two or something... by that time the graphics seemed outdated and i just didn't care for it.

I played the Titan quest games, fucking loved them.

Fucking love this game, other than i think the way they're doing it on a server is annoying as shit.

but still loving it

I WON!!

On Ala, they announced a D3 Give-away by Venture Beat.
Diablo III Collector’s Edition Giveaway!

I have been on a budget, and was not able to buy the game yet, so, I figured, what the hell, and entered the contest.

I entered the past few days, and had basicly given up, but, This morning, I got an E-Mail:


I am almost tempted to just lock it away and save it, but, I really want to check it out.


Something going right for me for a change. I will probably go out and buy the players guide while I wait for it to be shipped to me.