All i know is that i’m getting 300ms (this is unacceptable for a USA server when i got sub 100 to wow and nearly any other big online game i played) to a single player game and i got disconnected near the end of a dungeon and had to redo the whole thing in a single player game.
Assuming they fix their servers, making it online only might not affect most players, but at the moment it still pisses me off, even though everyone knew it would be like this during the first week.
I understand that they are doing this for anti-piracy reasons, but all i know directly is that, I, a paying customer, suffer from a worse gaming experience as a result (which is normally the case with most DRM solutions).
peterb
5322
Prepare yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally for the influx of people chastising you for claiming that your single player game is a single player game. Because obviously this game that you’re playing entirely by yourself is totally a multi-player game, so stop whining, and you’re probably not any good at the game and your computer sucks and you’re gay.
I understand that they are doing this for anti-piracy reasons, but all i know directly is that, I, a paying customer, suffer from a worse gaming experience as a result (which is normally the case with most DRM solutions).
How dare you apply logic to this situation.
I’ve stopped trying to argue about whether or not this is a singleplayer game with multiplayer and social options, or if it’s meant to be a multiplayer game that you can optionally play solo. Too many people agree with Blizzard now, so every debate about this just degenerates into them telling me to get used to it because this is the way it’s going to be from now on, etc.
Instead, I just fall back on my other point which is that Blizzard has no excuse for the poor launch. There shouldn’t be this many server issues for a company with this much experience and infrastructure.
Timex
5324
Their excuse is that you will buy whatever they give you, and like it.
Am I just not far enough along yet, or does this game do a much worse job than most modern games in taking you by the hand and explaining stuff?
I’ve played Diablo I and II so I’m not completely lost, but I’ve noticed, for example, that after an hour of play the game has done nothing to direct me to or explain the merchant, the healer, the black market guy, etc. I have no idea where the auction house is (I haven’t tried to seek it out, but again, I figured the game would give me some indication or direction to it).
It just seems strange, and makes me wonder what else I’m going to have to on my own figure out even exists. (Crafting, etc.)
I’m fine with them making it a online only game personally, but they NEED to improve their servers in order to provide a quality experience that isn’t severely negatively affected by it.
I’m just bored with the argument at this point. I’m at the “fine, hate it, who cares” point of the debate.
I agree though, the launch wasn’t great. For me, I didn’t have super-high expectations of a smooth launch, since Blizzard’s launches are usually filled with problems.
So, I realize this is a totally, totally basic question probably covered in detail in the first 100 pages of the thread, but…
I read some comments a couple places about the game feeling very hand-crafted (maybe in the RPS articles?). Are there random dungeons in Diablo 3? I know that people have talked about how enemy placement and abilities, etc. can vary between playthroughs, but are the maps always the same?
nomaar
5330
As I understand it, most of the dungeons are randomized, but the outdoor areas are not.
I haven’t read anything specifically, but it’s feels pretty random to me. There do seem to be a few different templates that have somewhat static features, but those seem to be randomly dropped into the existing terrain.
Great, then you can accept that the market will be 25% of the size in a decade, because most people will move on hobbies which don’t treat them as the enemy.
The amount of effort spent “stopping piracy” noticeably cripples and harms the actual games. They have to be twisted and broken to fit. Forget making anything which won’t sell a million, the DRM is too expensive and you can’t make anything specialist because halving those markets means it’s “not viable” - the accountants won’t go for it.
And you lose the hardcore fans first. The music industry has crippled it’s revenues for a generation, why do you hate games that much?
The servers have been really stable lately, but what’s with the pings? Generally around 200-250 for me. Do they not have servers on the West Coast or something? I get sub-60 pings in other games.
blah
5334
If Blizzard didn’t think they would make money off of it they never would have made the thing. They absolutely plan on making a killing and they probably will.
And it only makes it worse that this is Blizzard. This game would have sold massive amounts even without making you stay logged in all the time. The entire idea that Blizzard had to do this to be able to give us D3 and have it the same quality is ludicrous. Blizzard has some of the most loyal fans in the industry and they could put their name on an empty box and sell 5 million copies, D3 would have been just fine with an offline mode.
MikeJ
5335
IIRC, the boundaries of the outdoor areas are fixed. Different things can happen in the interiors though.
ducker
5336
Right it would have… but that’s not the direction they want to go in. They want to create a whole online experience between all of their games.
So everyone QQing about having to log in to play D3 (or SC2) is just wasting their breath. That isn’t in the cards. I’d love an offline way to play - I commute a good 2+hours a day on a train and would love to play d3 while on it ( but the wifi connection on the train is spotty at best )
That being said I’m still fine with it. I love the fact that I can share items quickly/easily with friends - see who’s playing WoW, see who’s playing SC2 (no one)
My major bitch about the online piece, is the spoiler achievements. WTF blizz, pick names/ descriptions that don’t have spoilers.
That’s your pick? Not the shitastic login issues or lag?
anyone know if they’re going to have some sort of in-game guild functionality or at least a way to chat with multiple people at the same time who aren’t in your party?
I think this is a big miss, right now. I have 30 people on my friends list, and the vast majority of those are you idiots. Some of the best times I’ve had in online gaming have been just hanging out in guild/group chat with you idiots. Bring on the idiocy.
I’m sure they will make a huge profit on the RMAH, but there are other reasons to do it. Primarily, because it reduces customer service costs due to fraud.
