Bored Druid ThreadFollow

Mental note: Make sure public mode is off.

It's mostly that I really don't want people being able to join me all of a sudden. If I decide to play single player I do so because I don't want to play with anyone else.

It might suck, but it's one of the first abilities you get, so you might be stuck with it for a while.

And yet, this isn't Blizzard's first launch of a very popular title. They knew that a lot of people were going to be playing in the first week or so. I feel like, even if what you say were true, they could have gotten some kind of temporary setup so people would at least be able to play. Stuff like this is what a stress test is for.



Ok, always on to protect the RMAH. I guess I can understand that. But the Real Money Auction House is itself something that I don't think should exist in the first place. Blizzard said that that kind of real money trading was going on anyways - this is just their way of keeping it safe. Bullsh*t. This was a way for Blizzard to make money, plain and simple. Just a quick Google for "Diablo 3" will get you a ton of sites selling "cheap Diablo gold safe" and similar poorly worded offers. It's not going to stop just because Blizzard decided to provide a little competition.

Always-on DRM is ok if it's to protect real-life money. But the whole real-life money aspect isn't ok, and shouldn't be there in the first place. By extension, the always-on DRM shouldn't exist either.



Glad you're enjoying it. I don't see the appeal much in playing the same campaign again and again, just on harder difficulties. But if that's your thing, more power too ya. That's all subjective, and I think Diablo just isn't my thing.

Anywho, yeah. My counterpoints. Feel free to continue the Bored Druid Threadness.

I suppose that, yes, if offline play and online were completely separate, then that would make sense. Hadn't thought about it that way, mostly because it's unfortunately become such a common occurrence for companies to do things like require active internet connection for a solely single-player game (I'm looking at you Ubisoft).
Honestly, the launch is poor. Blizzard could've probably done something about it. Whether it be buy a lot of expensive hardware or stagger sales.
But from a business standpoint, neither of those things make any sense. D3 was the most pre-ordered PC title ever. Blizzard would hardly lose any money(if at all) to a bumpy launch. Why should they go out of their way and spend a ton of cash, or stagger their sales or whatever, when they can simply brush off the aftermath and have people eat up the game regardless? And Blizzard is a business. Blizzard is in it for the money. We're just lucky we get quality products for the money we pay, unlike with some other developers. (Ubisoft applies here too)
Either way, I don't care much. I wasn't even affected that hard by it, and the game's still good enough fun for me to look past it.

Edited, May 17th 2012 1:05am by Delinja

Blizzard used to be the company that bent over backwards for their customers, which is why this launch hurts more than other shaky launches. Which might be unfair to Blizzard, but a decent part of their reputation used to be based on the fact that they were a developer you could trust not to rip you off. Honestly, that didn't change until WoW became such a significant cash crop.

And, as a random additional point that's only loosely related, it boggles my mind that Blizz didn't build in tablet support for D3. Yeah, I'm sure that would have been additional work. And you couldn't have had the same number of graphics options. But I can't think of any game better suited for a decent-sized touch screen. Playing online would be a b*tch though, I bet, but it would be amazing as a localized single player rpg without always-on connection demands.

[EDIT]


I don't want to hate it, quite the opposite. D2 was my first foray into online gaming, and I played it for a long time. I want D3 to be amazing, but it feels like they stripped everything I loved from the first two games and just left behind a hack n' slash game. I think some of the changes, had they been implemented slightly differently, could have been awesome.

For instance, builds. I actually hate the fact that you can switch in any ability at any time. I know we've had this conversation before, and others disagree, but I hate it. I think it absolutely destroys any value that comes from customizing your character. If your build meant something more interesting than taking 10 seconds to select your new set of abilities, it might be a different story. And maybe there's a happy middle, like being able to change your abilities whenever, but the ability choices have an intrinsic effect in and of themselves (which I haven't thought through, just tossing it out there). ANYTHING to make my Wizard feel at all distinct from any other random Wizard. Right now, I don't see anything doing that, and it is probably my biggest game-related issue.

Associated with this is my issue with the stat homogenization. I really, really hate this. I would have rather seen stats mean extremely little, but come with customization, or stats having some effect that was more utility-based in nature, but gave you a way to make your character yours. In D2 I could make my Paladin an Archer, my Sorceress a heavy-armor wearing warrior, and my Amazon could use daggers for some passive-effect mayhem. Stat options and lack of class restrictions on weapons are what enabled this. To do away with stats, but fail to replace this system of customization, is a really big snafu.

Difficulty was an other issue. You say it is getting harder, and I'll trust you on that--I'm relieved. Because it was ridiculously easy in the stress test.

I don't like that the RMAH exists, and I don't like what it represents for Blizzard as a company. I'd get over it by never using it, but it makes me deeply uncomfortable. Had D3 launched as a F2P game, I wouldn't mind it at all. But I don't agree with charging full retail price and then pressuring players into using a system that lets you get milk more money out of your fan base without delivering content in return. Expansion packs? Totally acceptable. Pay real money for uber weapons? GFY.

Those are actually the sum of my issues with D3, beyond the always-on one. I honestly don't know if I'd buy the game if I got over the three remaining, because the DRM is a big issue for me. But with those AND the DRM, it's just not going to happen. I'm going to continue to follow the game, and if balance is done well enough that I feel like there actually are many viable builds, which are sufficiently varied for me to care, then I might change my mind. Until then, no.

Edited, May 16th 2012 9:10pm by idiggory

Don't really care. Failing to properly launch your game so that people can actually play it has been the death-knell for MMOs everywhere, and no one fails to bash the company for failing in those cases. I see absolutely no reason why that logic shouldn't apply to D3 as well.

Add in the systems designed to encourage use of the RMAH, which I view as am unethical* addition itself. D3 might not be a rip off, but I feel completely justified in saying that Blizzard is ripping off their customers, if that makes any sense.

*I can't decide if it's the word I want to use, but I can't think of something to replace it with. But its a business practice that rewards people willing to give them more money, and it's crap. Most people probably don't care solely because they don't play competitively. I don't think that excuses it.

[EDIT]

Don't think I put much stock in the idea, but to put it out there--this indie game designer is worried the poor D3 launch will seriously hurt other PC gaming developers. Don't think I agree, but I can see where he's coming from. Most PC companies are doing everything they can lately to have the smoothest launches they can. But that's generally for their own sake--I doubt there's an industry-wide effort to make PC gaming more attractive. I'm just not sure I buy the idea that this poor launch will reduce the PC gaming pool in a meaningful way.

Edited, May 16th 2012 9:31pm by idiggory

As I understand it, there are no BoP items. How would you feel if Blizz made the top tier item sets in WoW BoE, and then made the AH RMT?

Do you see a distinction there? Because I'm struggling to find one. If anything, D3's seems worse to me. Why? Take the item "Immortal Archon Armor of Courage", a Barbarian chest piece with up to 458 armor. It's suffix can bring its level requirement down to 42, and its prefix will regenerated up to 350 health per second. That's pretty insanely powerful.

Or, hell, just look at endgame. It's WAY harder to get the perfect chest piece in D3 than it is to get your BiS chest in WoW, because the items are more dynamic here. That makes decking our a character in perfect gear significantly harder in this game. Since there is a competitive aspect, particularly once the PVP stuff is launched, it means that you will HAVE to use the AH to be competitive. And, chances are, the gold requirements aren't going to be feasible for you to meet.

D3

I watched a guy stream ~12 hours of it (they stopped at level 46 or so and no, I didn't watch the entire 12 hours, just roughly an hour by skipping through it) and I doubt I'll ever spend serious cash on that game. Guess isometric hack 'n' slash gameplay just isn't my thing. And maybe my memories of D1 have been distorted, but I don't remember the original game as being a "spam your mouse buttons until your right hand cramps and then spam them some more" game.* Four people throwing their crap around with 10+ mobs in the area, I couldn't even see all the sweet graphics they put in it. It's just a blur of colors, damage numbers and big *** demons taking up half the screen.

And it still lacks the ominous atmosphere from the two other games (especially the first one). Reminds me more of a multiplayer Kingdoms of Amalur. Except for the emphasis on enemies that are clinically dead and still walking.

* I mean, have you seen a Barbarian with Frenzy and a fast one-handed weapon? It's ridiculous. It's like watching a Shaman get endless Windfury procs with a dagger.

Edited, May 17th 2012 4:01am by Mazra

I remember breathing sighs of relief whenever I found an excuse to go back to Tristram.



Yeah, I sort of wish I'd known this before I played the beta. I remember painful throbbing in my right hand and me worrying that I might have to buy a new mouse.

Because I'm not going to play the game (anytime soon), I went ahead and watched the cinematics and read the storyline.

What. The. Shit.

Bookmark this post. You'll need to quote it once you finish the last act.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JeQzJC-vS40#!

Watching the crazy players death hop around the map getting checkpoints to progress is hilarious.

Diablo III, if nothing else, is far from competitive. There is no 'raiding' or whatever, and PvP won't have a ladder and whatnot...all it will have is a hidden MMR. (Unless they've made a statement recently deciding to change this, but I"m pretty sure they won't, since they specifically said the game wasn't balanced for PvP)
Therefore, I couldn't care less if someone decided to buy top-notch gear for real money. In fact, I'm probably going to be the one selling it to him.
Oh, and don't forget that, even if RMAH didn't exist, black markets still would. Honestly it's a tad bit ridiculous to complain about the RMAH. Nobody's forcing you to use it, and it doesn't really affect you if somebody else does. What you can do, is make some money off of it and be happy about it.

EDIT- Even if there was a competitive aspect to Diablo, RMAH still wouldn't change anything since it's not Blizzard selling items, it's players. Whether player A found a legendary and equipped it and did PvP with it, or Player A sold it to player B who did PvP, there would be absolutely no difference for you.

Edited, May 17th 2012 11:20am by Delinja