Blizzard has revealed that the long-awaited Diablo 3 will require players to be constantly connected to the internet, even after an initial authentication process has been completed.
Those features include the following:
- A persistent friends list.
- Cross-game chat via the RealID system.
- Persistent characters that are stored server-side (no more having to play online once every 90 days, nor item duplication cheats).
- Persistent party system.
- Player-versus-player and public game matchmaking.
- Dynamic drop-in/out for co-op
- Larger item stash that gets shared among all of your characters (at the moment, up to 10)
- The auction house (allows players to sell loot for real money)
- The Achievement system and detailed stat-tracking, both of which feed into the final point:
- The Banner system, a visual way to display your skills that take into account earned achievements, the number of PVP victories etc. Banners can be clicked to teleport to other players.
Comments
19 comments so far...
StonecoldMC on 1 Aug '11 said:
Comments here should be quite interesting shall we say.
Can understand why Blizzard are doing this, to try and improve the overall experience of the Game for the Player but I dont think its going to go down well with everyone. Am I right?
slick loose on 1 Aug '11 said:
Yeah, I'll stick to my PS3 thanks...great games, great exclusives and no s**t like this.
PC gaming dying, slowly but surely. Steam is it's only hope imo...
richard99 on 1 Aug '11 said:
I just got into PC gaming so I actually haven't played the other Diablo games yet. I still reckon this is a shame though, this is just like the Ubi DRM. The single player ought to be playable offline, what if someone's connection cuts out or they're on a gaming laptop? They shouldn't be punished for that.
tmulford on 1 Aug '11 said:
Not surprised and actually think that after all the cheating that went on with Diablo II it's a good idea. The real money auction house I'm not so sure on, but can see why they have done it after the seeing the amount of money that people were making selling in game items through ebay.
cjw101 on 1 Aug '11 said:
To be fair, if Diablo 3 required my first-born son, I'd have to give it some real thought...
Killermancarro on 1 Aug '11 said:
In contrast to slick loose
i'm selling my ps3 when this comes out. I won't need another game for the next 10 years
That and i discovered minecraft at the weekend
deepbluerd on 1 Aug '11 said:
"slick loose" Bull s**t PC gaming will never die. Playing FPS games on the PC is the only way to go. Only thing that's going to die is your Failstation 3 network.
theaface on 1 Aug '11 said:
Surely you don't really believe that? I mean yes, it's an anti-piracy measure which in turn could clean up the online experience, but the motivation is purely to tackle piracy, not protect the player. If this weren't the case, Blizzard wouldn't be so quick to say "tough luck" to the significant minority that don't have internet access. Effectively they're saying we don't want/need your custom.
I was reading about this elesewhere this morning and have read some astonishingly ignorant comments like...
"Well who doesn't have a constant internet connection these days anyway?" - Answer: lots of people
"Diablo's about the multiplayer. Who plays it for the single player anyway?" - Answer: Again, lots of people.
If you want to be further convinced that this is all about money and not the player, you only have to look at what they're implementing in D3 with the Real Money Auction House.
WHERESMYMONKEY on 1 Aug '11 said:
They haven't said its an anti piracy mesure at all. They said its because of various features within battlenet which are going to need you to be online while playing the game.
It's not DRM, although i could see how it could be seen as such.
Imaduck on 1 Aug '11 said:
Bah. I bought a new PC about 3 years ago, spurred by the desire to play games like this, DoW2 and all the amazing PC games at the time. Since then, I've played all those games and now built a new PC, and we still havn't seen Diablo. Now Activision have done this to it? Well f**k you Activision. I'm sick of having to be online to play offline singleplayer games. This is just DRM, regardless of whether or not they announce it as such, don't kid yourselves. Seriously though, wtf is happening to gaming
Oh yeah, they'll also release it in more than one part or make some sleazy DLC deal, I'm calling it now.
anytime on 1 Aug '11 said:
It's a shame the people without an internet connection can't come online to defend themself, all 5 of them.
tomshelley on 1 Aug '11 said:
Give me a break. Even if I have internet, there's no guaranteeing that it always works. Hell, my crappy internet connection reset itself several times a day. Besides, I have a gaming laptop that I travel with. Requiring an always on connection makes the game inconvenient and unplayable during the times that I want to play my games.
There are plenty of places around the world where internet connections are either rare, very poor quality, or extremely slow transfer rates. For places like these and for people who don't have the luxury of being able to stay at home all the time; this requirement is a deal breaker.
Hopefully Torchlight 2 wont have this kind of requirement. It may end up being my next Diablo and get my money instead.
damoxuk on 1 Aug '11 said:
I'll be buying it nonetheless. Played Diablo 1 and 2 to death so will do same with this.
Although the idea of having to be perma connected is s**t (not so much having router always on which it is but more the fact dropped connections/de-syncing is more a problem).
Imaduck on 1 Aug '11 said:
Just because most of us have an internet connection doesn't mean we should have to use it for everything. This is a single player game, why the f**k would I want to "log in" to play it?! The online adds nothing worth having, but if you aren't online, you can't play it. That's one of the worst things happening to gaming right now.
slick loose on 2 Aug '11 said:
Hook
Line
Sinker.
Barry316 on 2 Aug '11 said:
Please slickloose don't get the PC crowd agitated. You know most of them haven't upgraded their sense of humour cards yet.
slick loose on 2 Aug '11 said:
ricflair on 2 Aug '11 said:
I'm sure this DRM will come to consoles one day, or it will just be digital only games. With how easy it is for PC's to run any program you put on them, it just encourages cracking them for single player games.
And I'm sure Barry has never lost his sense of humour while replying to a comment that may or may not have been in jest.
cjw101 on 2 Aug '11 said:
Err...