prolix
4741
Well, they’ve definitely thought about it. I still prefer it on console even without seasons, just because the control scheme is so perfect.
I play it on XBox One and console is the best choice for me. Not only is the control scheme fantastic, it also looks great on a large screen TV. What’s more, it lets me play split screen coop with my wife and/or kids.
Blizzard delivered a superb version of the game for consoles.
Wendelius
Sure, they’ve thought about it. They’ve unquestionably seen a lot of people asking for it. But your article is from August, and the official word as of this late December article about season 5 is it’s not going to happen: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/19993877?
For me, the idea that the two versions are different games is nonsense, and it should be 100% feature parity (including offline play and the other niceties of the console experience such as controller support on PC and seasons on console) between both. But that’s the party line.
That would mean shackling the PC version to the vast annoyances of platform-holder nonsense, though, which I suspect isn’t what anyone wants.
In other words, parity across all versions likely doesn’t mean “console gets all the cool PC stuff” so much as “no more cool PC stuff.”
Not sure why it would need to mean that as long as you don’t take parity to mean at exactly the same time, which is often not practical because of functional differences between platforms. I have no idea why you would think Sony or Microsoft would object to stuff like Seasons, if that’s what you mean. Obviously console versions wouldn’t get to be patched as aggressively.
prolix
4746
Blizzard’s explanation regarding the “offline and disconnected nature of console” makes no sense, as every console is online now, and multiplayer is fully integrated and a key feature of the console versions. They are already patching the console games on a regular basis anyway, so implementing the seasons could easily be done at the same time.
If they have other priorities, or just don’t want to do it, that’s fine, but at least be up front about it.
I am not going to complain too hard, though, since Blizzard has gone above and beyond to keep the console versions fresh and up to date in every other way.
It’s just as disingenuous as the idea that the PC version is just such a multiplayer game that they couldn’t possibly offer an offline mode even though there’s literally nothing preventing you from playing the entire game solo for dozens of hours (over 90% of my time with it has been solo), nothing but vestigial PvP that requires other people, and of course the mostly identical console version does have offline support.
I am sure there’s actual reasons behind both decisions, and I might not like them but I would respect them more if they’d just fess up.
KevinC
4748
It’s because of piracy concerns, clearly. Just like the RMAH was clearly there for ongoing revenue, not primarily for “the good of the game” like they tried to sell it. Blizzard has been notoriously full of shit when it comes to Diablo 3.
Online-only and RMAH were attached at the hip. Both were mistakes but only one was abandoned.
LMN8R
4750
It’s not very difficult to explain. In fact, the console versions of Diablo 3 have completely justified Blizzard’s explanations for why it was online-only on PC.
It’s not the simple fact of characters being stored locally vs. online, as Diablo 2 demonstrated. Even online-only characters in Diablo 2 were hacked. The reason is because in Diablo 2, all of the gameplay logic existed locally on your PC for offline characters, even if it was handled online for online characters. The mere existence of offline gameplay logic made it easier for hackers to reverse engineer the game and then ruin things for online-only characters.
In Diablo 3, since everything is always online, there’s much less opportunity and surface area for hackers to explore to figure out how to exploit the game. As far as I know, there have still been no notable widespread vulnerabilities discovered in Diablo 3 on PC.
Now that there’s a console version out there which supports offline play, naturally it’s been hacked to death.
I just wish Blizzard would port the controller support for the PC version (so it would play like it does in consoles, optionally), but I don’t think that will happen.
Yeah, I don’t agree that some people altering their own characters ruins the game for anyone that, y’know, doesn’t play with as shoes, much less justifies sabotaging the potential lifespan of the game, breaking it for the many people who still have slow or faulty internet (if any) or stifling potential modding. But I have no desire to have that particular argument again with anyone who isn’t in charge at Blizzard.
I have no real preference one way or the other for how Blizzard handles PC vs. console, but I have to think that they’re good at making money, and therefore, any decisions in this realm have to be based on the bottom line somehow. That is, they probably have reasons that work for them, and care jack all about what anyone not a shareholder things. And, really, that’s pretty much their responsibility, to their fiduciary duties, not to gamers per se. Gaming is big business now, and this, along with more resources, greater popularity, and all the good stuff, is what comes with the territory.
stusser
4754
Their response is that they made tons of changes to enable direct control on consoles. Not just dodging but also using abilities themselves-- think about how you place blizzard or sentries, for example. So obviously they could do it, but it would be a lot of work.
Excellent! Season 5 starts on my birthday, so it must be a sign that my S5 hero is destined for greatness! Or not…
stusser
4757
Seasonal characters get an additional stash slot too. So… anyone want to level my seasonal guy a week into the season?
Sure, once a few of us get to 70, I’ve no doubt a few of us will be more than happy to tow anyone to 70.
stusser
4759
Cool! Supposedly takes about 10 minutes to powerlevel to 70, going through a T6 lvl 70 rift.
Daagar
4760
I doubt you’ll need to wait a whole week. There should be tons of public games in the first few days carrying folks (especially being a 3-day weekend).
