Diablo III hits early 2012

[StreamOfTheSky]

I guess my views are more old fashioned if so many people don't find all that outrageous. Buying top gear, something just a few years ago Blizzard was firmly against, now legitimized. Supposedly for noble reasons...then you look at all the cuts they take from the process, and it strains credibility to think protecting people from scammers/viruses/etc... was their true motivation.... I'm also wary of the online-only aspect, which I'm guessing will involve some sort of DRM to limit you to using the game from only one computer, or a set limit of computers before you can't anymore. Maybe it won't be like that, but why else cut out offline play completely?

 

[Hand of Evil]

I will play because I have fun with the Diablo games, never cared for WoW. As far as being online all the time...on the fence but the internet is always open.

I do have concerns about the age of the game, sure it will be great in graphics but the game has been 3 years in coming...got to wonder if it will play on my iPAD!

 

[GreyLord]

There are problems with your correction. Current estimates actually have the world population cracking 7 billion this year. Mid 2010 we were already over 6.8B.

Yep, but not all of them have computers. At this time most of Europe, the Americas, Australia, and the majority of Asia have access to computers and hence video games. They say most play Video games, even if it's only a simple game of solitaire on the computer once or twice....etc.

The question is how to get into that market. One of the reasons the Wii did so well at first was because it figured a marketing scheme to get into the market of casual gamers.

Overall, the SP portion of the market actually outweighs the MP and online portion of the market (despite what Jay Wilson may think or says). Even estimates on those who own consoles in the US dwarf the numbers that they see online...unless you think people simply buy consoles and throw them away...it indicates a majority are NOT playing online with them.

The amount of PC's staggers that of consoles...but it's harder to compare on that since I'd say many of those are used for work and not entertainment. Nevertheless as MS would say when they include their games folder...most people will play a game or two on their computer (solitaire being one of the most played games out there)...and all of those are potential customers.

So the original statement actually needed a little repair in regards to people who could play and who couldn't.

Currently the original SC still sold better then SC2 (but that was with over a decade of sales behind it), and SC2 HAS OFFLINE SINGLE PLAYER.

It's hard to say what will happen with D3 as of right now.

My understanding is that the AH will be there in single player games and it will be there in 8 player games. Use it or not, you'll still be required to be online always when playing D3. I'd imagine it's like D2. If you want to play alone, create a game w/a name and password so other people won't join unless you want them in and they know the code.

Yeah, your summation of the AH seems accurate.

In diablo 2 I didn't have to create a game with a name and password...I simply started an SP game on my machine. Didn't have to worry about strangers trying to hack it, get on it, or enter my own game. According to Jay Wilson that was the wrong way to play it though (his statements are online in regards to all sp players playing the Diablo games the wrong way).

 

[Zelda Themelin]

I am getting this game, but to be honest I don't know if I like it anymore. I played Diablo 2 so much for years. I played lot Diablo 1 but not so much.

However, I think new Diablo is not so dark, bit too much like some Gauntlet long time ago. Too much mobs spawning, too much traps, too much item grinding like WoW.

I don't like it only being online either. So it one more game I can't play when my internet is unstable. I don't like internet-only games for that reason, my cable connection sucks too often.

I don't like real ID either. No-one ever stole my Diablo 2 account so what the heck.

I don't want wow-carbon copy where you can't play Solo Play. I like SP, I have always hated mmo despite playing them for years. I don't like forced to be online, or grouped or anything I don't curretly feel like to do. Games are supposed to be fun. I don't intend to play this one as sport event.

So, while I have preorderer diablo III I don't think it will be same success for me than diablo 2 was. It might even end up being wasted money. But I have some hope, it will be fun game, for a while. Despite being their now and future customer, after some things Blizzard did right yearlier, and many things they have done wrong since, they have lost my trust.

 

[drothgery]

Yep, but not all of them have computers. At this time most of Europe, the Americas, Australia, and the majority of Asia have access to computers and hence video games.

Since a rather large percentage of Asia's population is rural China and rural India, I'm, uh, really doubting that. And most of South America and Mexico, too. The US, Canada, western Europe, Australia, the UK, Japan, South Korea, and a handful of other countries, I'll give you.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

If you just play solo then I don't see how the AH thing even matters. Don't like it, don't use it.

The AH thing is because the loot in Diablo is very much random; Diablo isn't always going to drop a helm token, for example, but will have a random list that you can draw from. So, this lets you sell the items that you can't use to people who can and will and get some benefit out of it, either with in-game currency or real money, other than vendoring them.

Brad

 

[GSHamster]

I look at the real-money AH as analogous to the War on Drugs.

Blizzard has failed in curbing the Real Money Trade in their games. And they've tried very hard to stop it, especially in WoW.

So they're trying the other tactic. Legalize it, make it safe, and tax it.

We'll see if this strategy works. Experimentation is good, in my opinion. If this works, increases satisfaction or reduces customer service costs, I wouldn't be surprised to see Titan (their next-gen MMO) have a similar system.

 

[SSquirrel]

I guess my views are more old fashioned if so many people don't find all that outrageous. Buying top gear, something just a few years ago Blizzard was firmly against, now legitimized.

They were against people selling things over ebay and the like that were housed entirely within their game, partially b/c a lot of the things being sold were duped items and if they tracked them down and did a big purge, they knew people would lose their item they had paid real money for. In WoW, most (all?) item duping tactics have been blocked over time. People used to dupe items by entering instances, trading items then quickly logging out. They would log back in and still have the original item. That has been blocked for a long time.

Blizzard seems confident they have duping techniques covered w/their current plans w/D3 and they are opening up the option for real cash. I know lots of people who have asked for this for years in WoW. Currently you have to earn badges or special trade in drops, some of which only drop in specific high level raids, for some of the best gear in the game. The only thing Blizzard sells outside of the game is non-combat pets and such, so no one gains an actual competitive advantage just for having more money.

Real money AH in D3 will allow people to just spend some money to outfit a character, but everything that will be on the AH will have been legitimate drops form within the game.

In diablo 2 I didn't have to create a game with a name and password...I simply started an SP game on my machine. Didn't have to worry about strangers trying to hack it, get on it, or enter my own game. According to Jay Wilson that was the wrong way to play it though (his statements are online in regards to all sp players playing the Diablo games the wrong way).

Sorry I should have been more specific. Once they started making the ladder games better (i.e. more options in gear, etc) than non-ladder games, if you wanted full access the only router o go was to make ladder games. Then if you didn't want other people in, making a passworded game was the way to go. Yes, SP/local LAN was still an option, but once the 1.10 patch came out I was playing online highly w/friends in passworded games and we were muling set items and cubing runes into higher ones and sharing all kinds of cool stuff. That beat the crap out of offline play for me.

 

[GreyLord]

They were against people selling things over ebay and the like that were housed entirely within their game, partially b/c a lot of the things being sold were duped items and if they tracked them down and did a big purge, they knew people would lose their item they had paid real money for. In WoW, most (all?) item duping tactics have been blocked over time. People used to dupe items by entering instances, trading items then quickly logging out. They would log back in and still have the original item. That has been blocked for a long time.

Blizzard seems confident they have duping techniques covered w/their current plans w/D3 and they are opening up the option for real cash. I know lots of people who have asked for this for years in WoW. Currently you have to earn badges or special trade in drops, some of which only drop in specific high level raids, for some of the best gear in the game. The only thing Blizzard sells outside of the game is non-combat pets and such, so no one gains an actual competitive advantage just for having more money.

Real money AH in D3 will allow people to just spend some money to outfit a character, but everything that will be on the AH will have been legitimate drops form within the game.




Sorry I should have been more specific. Once they started making the ladder games better (i.e. more options in gear, etc) than non-ladder games, if you wanted full access the only router o go was to make ladder games. Then if you didn't want other people in, making a passworded game was the way to go. Yes, SP/local LAN was still an option, but once the 1.10 patch came out I was playing online highly w/friends in passworded games and we were muling set items and cubing runes into higher ones and sharing all kinds of cool stuff. That beat the crap out of offline play for me.

And That's where Jay Wilson got into problems. He's been working on D2 for a while. However, Patch 1.10 was a long time after the initial release of Diablo...and Diablo LoD. Most of those who actually got the initial games were not playing online, but Wilson's main exposure to the game in the past few years HAS BEEN THE ONLINE community.

In fact, one could say the ONLY real exposure he's gotten was the online D2 community...he has NO idea about the SP portion or the MP portion that doesn't connect to Battle.net in any way, or those of use who really dislike Battle.net

(I actually played on Bnet for a tiny bit after LoD was released, made it into the top 10 druid list even, then stopped). I hated the rushes, just moving the game at a breaknet pace, people wanting me to go to PVP just because they like stabbing people in the back, challenges of idiots trying to kill me for no reason, Koreans begging me for stuff...it got very tiring, Chatters trying to talk to me when I log in...it got very tiring.

I found I actually didn't like bnet for Diablo 2.

Jay Wilson hasn't really had much exposure otherwise, and I think that unfortunately influenced him far too much. His exposure was to hard core Diablo players on Bnet...which means by catering to their wants he ignorantly is in many ways leaving those who are not in that crowd (who were a majority of D2 players, sure many tried bnet, but most were NOT playing on Bnet a few years later, or even now) out of his concerns. If they had an AHRMT for D2, it wouldn't have mattered to a majority of those who bought D2 because they never really played on BNet in a hardcore fashion in the first place.

Times change though, with WoW, maybe the primary audience of Blizzard has changed to completely online...and so that's who they'll completely cater to now, players who want to play online (MMO'ers) and ignore the rest of the world (the billions of others who don't play on line...though I'm not certain about those Chinese...I suspect that they have tons who play MMO's...but all of them are pirated MMO's on Pirate servers or something).

PS: That said, I plan on getting D3 and seeing how it is. It may be the LAST Blizzard game I ever get, depends on what happens with the game. I suspect, just as I stated, it's going to be made for all the WoW players and not for anyone else...but we'll see. IF it is...and the AH/RMT is simply a way for them to make money like they would in an MMO...then that's the last time I support Blizzard. Shame as well, since Blizzard used to be THE GAME company for people to go to for games. After this if they fail...they'll be like THE GAME company to avoid along with Ubisoft.

 

[Wayside]

Jay Wilson hasn't really had much exposure otherwise, and I think that unfortunately influenced him far too much. His exposure was to hard core Diablo players on Bnet...which means by catering to their wants he ignorantly is in many ways leaving those who are not in that crowd (who were a majority of D2 players, sure many tried bnet, but most were NOT playing on Bnet a few years later, or even now) out of his concerns. If they had an AHRMT for D2, it wouldn't have mattered to a majority of those who bought D2 because they never really played on BNet in a hardcore fashion in the first place.

This was actually the case for all Blizzard games prior to World of Warcraft, when online connectivity became mandatory. During the heyday of StarCraft it came out that only about 12% of the product keys that retailers sold ever logged into Battle.net.

(This was significant because StarCraft uses a single data set for all game types, which severely limits the kinds of balance changes Blizzard can make. The information came from Rob Pardo in a balance discussion on the Battle.net forums, so the original post is probably lost to time.)

Diablo 3, on the other hand, will have tangible features that many people will use, and that the pirate servers simply will not be able to offer (particularly cross-game friends list and cash auction house), in addition to probably requiring either special configuration or locally-run server emulation software. The non-pirate experience will be, on average, demonstrably better, instead of worse.

The Diablo games have always been a fundamentally singleplayer experience, and Diablo 3 hasn't changed that. While pirate servers will certainly exist, most pirates won't use them. They'll play locally, offline, as they have with previous Diablo games and as StarCraft 2 pirates did. Once they've exhausted the singleplayer campaign, they'll move on to the next game.

By "every one since 2002", I meant the last one to not require an internet connection came out in 2002, and everything since then did - thus, "every one since 2002".

That's a pretty gross distortion of the time frame though, since Blizzard didn't release any online-only games in 2002, 2003, or the first ten months and three weeks of 2004.