Diablo 3: Doom & Gloom for Diablo 3?

SBFord

In a rather ironic twist, today's Devil's Advocate takes a look at Diablo III and the rather difficult launch that players have been enduring since Tuesday and, just maybe, difficulties that will arrive down the road apiece. See what we have to say about the whole thing and then weigh in with your thoughts in the comments.

Now, I've waited 12 years to play Diablo 3, and I don't mind waiting another day or two for Blizzard to get its gears running properly, but I doubt everyone has the same patience. All across the internet, people are disputing Blizzard's dominance in the genre it created and giving the game low user reviews on meta-review websites. For some of them, Diablo 3 may very well be the end of Diablo's reign on the hack-and-slash genre of gameplay.

Read more of Victor Barreiro Jr.'s The Devil's Advocate: Doom & Gloom for Diablo 3?

Arakane

they lost me at the drm thing, as far as I am concerned,the Diablo series ended at D-2

Verenath

It did end at D-2 and then came D-3  

botrytis

The DRM is also to prevent the rampant hacking that happened in D1 and D2. In D1, I remember friends who all had one piece of armor - the Godly Plate of the Whale. It was all hacked. This way that won't happen.

As far as the auction house, I won't use it so it doesn't bother me one iota.

The game plays well and doesn't need a huge amount of horsepower to play well.

It will be nice to waste some time, playing it.

skeaser

Originally posted by botrytis

The DRM is also to prevent the rampant hacking that happened in D1 and D2. In D1, I remember friends who all had one piece of armor - the Godly Plate of the Whale. It was all hacked. This way that won't happen.

As far as the auction house, I won't use it so it doesn't bother me one iota.

The game plays well and doesn't need a huge amount of horsepower to play well.

It will be nice to waste some time, playing it.

You're naive if you think that the always on will stop hackers. Battle.net was hacked in D2 and will be hacked in D3. 

Soulrift

My offline never-connected-to-the-internet Diablo 2 was perfectly immune to outside hackers.

Pyuk

Actually there's one less copy  - I got a refund on mine because of the absurd connection issues. Too bad D3 doesn't work as well as their CS - got my refund without any hassle.

Nadia

id like to see the "day one" sales but probably wont know that for a week or two

 

WOW Cata claimed 3.3 million for Day One sales (including preorders)

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?id=2847886

 

 

nyxium

Haters gonna er be me.

black_isle

Peeps, i just yesterday discovered this, when you go to options>gameplay, there are two checkboxes; Advanced Tooltips and Elective Mode, check those boxes people, it will give you more info about your skills and control over how to use/assign those skills.

Unknown

Great game so far. But yeah, I also had major issues actually getting to play on the first day. Haven't had any trouble since then, though. If this game is going to keep you occupied for years like the previous game, it doesn't really matter if there's some issues the first few days.

The Diablo 2 launch was also terrible, but its saving grace was the offline single player.

unreal

All I can say is... http://bcove.me/i9o04bqg

 

TyvolusNext

Originally posted by vission

It did end at D-2 and then came D-3  

 

"they lost me at the drm thing, as far as I am concerned,the Diablo series ended at D-2."   --   think about what Arakane said here for a minute or two (or honestly however long it takes to sink in).... HE SAID AS FAR AS HE IS CONCERNED.

thanks

Zaltark

When the servers actually work, I have non-stop fun. I just recently got to Azmodan on hardcore Normal. I can see it being a real challenge moving on from each difficulty on hardcore. The game itself is fine. Once you play it more you see how randomized everything really is (except boss fights). Crafting is really a must unless youre incredibly lucky.

Another thing, people all cried about not being able to put stats where they want, guess what? Just get those amor pieces for VIT or DEX or INT. You can be a tanky DemonHunter(with shield) or a mage with a 2h sword with VIT/INT. Its still possible.

rygard49

Originally posted by botrytis

The DRM is also to prevent the rampant hacking that happened in D1 and D2. In D1, I remember friends who all had one piece of armor - the Godly Plate of the Whale. It was all hacked. This way that won't happen.

As far as the auction house, I won't use it so it doesn't bother me one iota.

The game plays well and doesn't need a huge amount of horsepower to play well.

It will be nice to waste some time, playing it.

Actually the massive amounts of Godly Plate, AASoAs, and Zodiacs were all from an in game duping bug that they never fixed, not hacks. So no amount or type of DRM would have stopped that from happening.

eric_w66

The DRM also turned me off as well. I wasn't a big fan of D2, and the beta for D3 did nothing for me, but knowing I couldn't play single player without being connected to battle.net? Nope. And the price tag is high for a game with so little content that took so long to make.

Alalala

It's really not a compelling game. The graphics are go-hum; the story is cliche; there's not much that's new or inventive or bold; the DRM thing sucks; and the AH reeks of corporate greed over customer satisfaction. Strongly NOT recommended. I used to get very excited about Blizzard products, but D3 and WoW pandas has turned me off from Blizzard. Very sad.

Lobotomist

Temporary lapse in popularity due to being overhyped.

The game is actually so good by itself that it will soon float back on its own merits.

Its very much like vanilla WOW , and what made it so popular back than.

 

Nirrtix

I find it amazing how childish people are because they could not play the first day returning the game and or whining about it. MAny games have first day or even week pains.

I have met so many uninformed people who bought the game thinking it was like Skyrim or Dragon Age (laughs) this game never was or will be meant to be like those this is a Dungeon crawler game.

I agree that you will never prevent hacking, but you can do whatever you can to minimize it. Frankly I have had little problems with the system they have in place for Diablo III, so I do not get what the whining is about. I could understand how it would be frustrating if it did go out a lot, but since the 16th it was down twice for about 30 minutes. I mean seriously are you returning a game over that?

I have seen people also whine their machines will not run the game. My machine is 2 years old with a videocard that was considered mid range when bought. It is also a LAPTOP and runs the game on almost max settings and resolution. So if your machine does not run Diablo III you need to upgrade anyways.

Nirrtix

hun you do not have to use the Auction House, they also have one using only in game money. I think some people jsut find an excuse to complain.

Zaltark

If people are complaining about RMAH, just play hardcore. There is no RMAH, also all softcore/normal players have no access to any harcore games/items. Theyre 2 different things.

Verenath

Originally posted by TyvolusNext

Originally posted by vission

It did end at D-2 and then came D-3  

 

"they lost me at the drm thing, as far as I am concerned,the Diablo series ended at D-2."   --   think about what Arakane said here for a minute or two (or honestly however long it takes to sink in).... HE SAID AS FAR AS HE IS CONCERNED.

thanks

 

I read what he said and I understood it.  I was just giving him a hard time, hence the after my statement.  Please re-read my original comment, even the and then think about it, the comment as a whole, think  for a minute or two (or honestly however long it takes to sink in).

 Thanks.  

Nirrtix

I would like to know what is the huge objection to DRM (assuming you mean "digitally recorded media".) Many games are DRM personally I have no problem with it. The only down side is to reinstall takes forever. But it also beats having a gigantic collection of discs all over my house.

botrytis

I think it is funny people are getting upset with DRM on D3. How many of these complainers have an iPhone or Android. THe app store is basic DRM but you are not complaining about that....

As was said earlier - haters will hete.

gaeanprayer

"Better immersion is created by allowing players to learn about the game's systems, story, and statistics without consulting external sources (otherwise known as alt-tabbing)"

I and probably every DnD player there ever was disagree greatly with that statement. Not to mention TSW players, as although you can open the browser in-game, you're still using google to find information about a lot of things. I don't consider that breaking immersion at all, I ~like~ having to research and plan and think ahead. That immerses me far more in the experience, having to think critically and make sure I don't pay for my mistakes further down the road. I love that. Going back and forth between Guild Wars and its wiki to research builds, test powers combinations, read up on backstory and lore that would be farrrrr too long-winded in-game but work just fine for a wiki profile page, etc., made me a bigger fan of it than I've been of any other game that's taken the customization out of my hands to coddle me. Going back to DnD, I don't remember it breaking immersion that I'd read about monsters, campaigns, spells and classes before my character actually had a chance to interact with any of the above, but it certainly endeared me to him.

 

I understand not everyone may feel that way, but the better sentence would be, "Better immersion for some..."

Ghabbo

Originally posted by skeaser

Originally posted by botrytis

The DRM is also to prevent the rampant hacking that happened in D1 and D2. In D1, I remember friends who all had one piece of armor - the Godly Plate of the Whale. It was all hacked. This way that won't happen.

As far as the auction house, I won't use it so it doesn't bother me one iota.

The game plays well and doesn't need a huge amount of horsepower to play well.

It will be nice to waste some time, playing it.

You're naive if you think that the always on will stop hackers. Battle.net was hacked in D2 and will be hacked in D3. 

 

Sorry, but I do not agree. Hacking D3 is like hacking WoW official servers (AFAIK it never happened)... the way it's designed makes it almost impossible to hack