Blizzard: Diablo 3 requires constant internet connection

From IGN: Link

As the Diablo III beta nears, Blizzard announced its anticipated action-role-playing game will require you to be online at all times to play. The characters you can create in Diablo III, up to a limit of 10, will be stored on Blizzard's servers, and therefore require a constant internet connection to access. This applies to all modes of the game, from co-op to player-versus-player to solo play.

According to Rob Pardo, executive producer of Diablo III, this was done mainly to combat the hacking present in previous versions of Diablo. "In both Diablo and especially in Diablo II, I think the intuition for a lot of people when they're playing the game is 'I want to make my character offline away from that scary battle net environment. And then once I have this powerful character, I'll jump online.' But the problem with that concept is we can't really detect if they're cheating. They might have the capability to hack their character, things like that, so at that point we can't really allow that character to be in the battle net environment. Then they're going to have to restart their character, which is exactly what happened in Diablo II, which was really unfortunate."

"Your character will be online on battle net the moment you start playing," said Pardo. "You can play a solo experience like you would in Diablo II, it's just your character is on Blizzard's servers and authenticated." This character can then hop into multiplayer games and trade items with others through battle net.

This system functions essentially like an MMO, where if your connection is interrupted during a game you'll be dropped back out to the login screen. It differs from what Blizzard did with StarCraft II because though the Wings of Liberty required an initial online activation, the campaign could still be played in an offline mode.

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Great, looks like Ubisoft is no longer the only one pushing this crappy DRM. Really disappoints me to see what should be a great game have this requirement. I expect some people on here to defend them (because it's Blizzard), but I seriously think it's uncalled for. Thoughts?

10 characters? Oh lawdy, why are we going to need more than one of every class?

Just keep any off-line charecters (solo) from going online, and keep them only usable in /SP?

Why not just separate SP and MP characters? :?

Why not just separate SP and MP characters? :?

Vesica_Prime

Why not just separate SP and MP characters? :?

Vesica_Prime

Wow that's just like Ubisofts stuff. I mean it doesn't affect me personally but it's a pretty low move.

yeah thats all good and all but i just heard them say on that gamespot video that there finishing up on a number of game systems so they can release the beta......crossing fingers for ps3 diablo 3

Wow that's just like Ubisofts stuff. I mean it doesn't affect me personally but it's a pretty low move.

GD1551

[QUOTE="GD1551"]

Wow that's just like Ubisofts stuff. I mean it doesn't affect me personally but it's a pretty low move.

Elann2008

[QUOTE="Elann2008"][QUOTE="GD1551"]

Wow that's just like Ubisofts stuff. I mean it doesn't affect me personally but it's a pretty low move.

soulitane

I mean... StarCraft II works exactly the same. Why would Blizzard change that if both games are run off of Battle.net. People might be shocked or complain but I hardly see why. My desktop is always connected to the internet anyway.NAPK1NS

interesting *drops diablo 3 from to buy list*delta3074

[QUOTE="NAPK1NS"]I mean... StarCraft II works exactly the same. Why would Blizzard change that if both games are run off of Battle.net. People might be shocked or complain but I hardly see why. My desktop is always connected to the internet anyway.Elann2008

interesting *drops diablo 3 from to buy list*delta3074

[QUOTE="Elann2008"] True. [QUOTE="delta3074"]interesting *drops diablo 3 from to buy list*delta3074

[QUOTE="Elann2008"][QUOTE="NAPK1NS"] True. [QUOTE="delta3074"]interesting *drops diablo 3 from to buy list*delta3074

*oh my god* I hate when people use that term but just like Jim sterling if its my choice im gonna come down on the side of the publishers and developers they are sick of seeing their product pirated, and cheated at online enmasse so I say let them do their drm it might not work even half the time but it atleast keeps the people that aren't very good at pirating from doing so and thats one possibly one more sale for the game.

though I find it odd how your talking about i work damn hard to support my wife and kids and how you cannot afford a router *30 bucks* and you may have to drop your net connection yet you can still afford games...*by the way i wasn't calling you a pirate I was simply explaining that Id have to agree with the developers and publishers about drm*

*oh my god* I hate when people use that term but just like Jim sterling if its my choice im gonna come down on the side of the publishers and developers they are sick of seeing their product pirated, and cheated at online enmasse so I say let them do their drm it might not work even half the time but it atleast keeps the people that aren't very good at pirating from doing so and thats one possibly one more sale for the game.

though I find it odd how your talking about i work damn hard to support my wife and kids and how you cannot afford a router *30 bucks* and you may have to drop your net connection yet you can still afford games...*by the way i wasn't calling you a pirate I was simply explaining that Id have to agree with the developers and publishers about drm*

WilliamRLBaker

DRM only encourages piracy and restricts paying customers.

*oh my god* I hate when people use that term but just like Jim sterling if its my choice im gonna come down on the side of the publishers and developers they are sick of seeing their product pirated, and cheated at online enmasse so I say let them do their drm it might not work even half the time but it atleast keeps the people that aren't very good at pirating from doing so and thats one possibly one more sale for the game.

though I find it odd how your talking about i work damn hard to support my wife and kids and how you cannot afford a router *30 bucks* and you may have to drop your net connection yet you can still afford games...*by the way i wasn't calling you a pirate I was simply explaining that Id have to agree with the developers and publishers about drm*

WilliamRLBaker

Birthday present for the kids? There are special occasions like that where you set money aside for the kid, even if its $5 or $10. A router is something that you can do without so there is absolutely no reason to get one if you are struggling to where you can barely pay the bills.

Also I'm skipping Diablo 3 because this is Draconian DRM plain and simple. My internet likes to drop randomly and being booted out of a game I would play by myself is absolutely ridiculous to say the least.

Even if the game didn't have that the DRM other stuff worrying to say the least. Who thought it was a smart idea to encourage gold sellers? The appeal of Diablo games has always been about building up your character and getting a sense of progression. If some 12 year old can buy his way to the top it completely defeats the purpose of the game and will ruin PvP for those guys who want to play it.

You mean that i can't play Diablo 3 single player with not internet like Diablo 2...??That is just horrible.

[QUOTE="delta3074"][QUOTE="Elann2008"] Why would you do that? Don't you have a constant internet connection anyways? It's not like this authentication DRM stuff is going to kill your performance or anything. Unless you have a terrible ISP provider? :)WilliamRLBaker

*oh my god* I hate when people use that term but just like Jim sterling if its my choice im gonna come down on the side of the publishers and developers they are sick of seeing their product pirated, and cheated at online enmasse so I say let them do their drm it might not work even half the time but it atleast keeps the people that aren't very good at pirating from doing so and thats one possibly one more sale for the game.

though I find it odd how your talking about i work damn hard to support my wife and kids and how you cannot afford a router *30 bucks* and you may have to drop your net connection yet you can still afford games...*by the way i wasn't calling you a pirate I was simply explaining that Id have to agree with the developers and publishers about drm*

It's not a big deal for me, though i can see why some people will be pissed.

The unique thing about it is, you can play your character in SP and then use that badass character online. Some people want that.

Elann2008

Except that this is not single player; you have to be connected to their servers the whole time to play. It's no more single player than someone soloing in an MMORPG with instancing.

Rather than finding a way of handling the two they have simply removed single player altogether.

i am not going to take the risk on a game that requires a constant internet connection, so i guess i will be getting deus x for the 360 insteaddelta3074

Deus Ex: Human Revolution does not require a constant internet connection. It has Steam's usual login authentication but you can use offline mode when desired, and if your internet cuts out during play you won't be kicked out of the session. I'm not particularly a fan of this approach but it's quite flexible compared to the solution Ubisoft and now Blizzard have favoured--especially since you can actually play the game if your internet connection and/or the Steam servers have some unplanned downtime.

[QUOTE="soulitane"][QUOTE="Elann2008"] Well, in Ubisoft's defense, they are no longer practicing the DRM business model like they have before. But yeah, it's an "old" Ubisoft" move by Blizzard here. :PElann2008

Driver: San Francisco is going to have the "always online" DRM as well. Ubisoft only required internet activation for AC: Brotherhood, but now they're going back to their "more sinister" DRM.

Right. I have too many games to play for this year anyway.

Awesome...love battlenet with WoW and SC2 so this is perfect for me. I love having that security! A+ Blizzard once more.

This is why I have a console. At least I don't need to be connected all the time to play a game. :P

i have cable wifi

my cvomputers on 24/7 why would i care about this?

i also got wifi on my iphone and thats even on 24/7 internet

how are ppl complaining about this? MY PHONE is online 24/7 let alone my computer DUH unbelievable

i have cable wifi

my cvomputers on 24/7 why would i care about this?

i also got wifi on my iphone and thats even on 24/7 internet

how are ppl complaining about this? MY PHONE is online 24/7 let alone my computer DUH unbelievable

ZarbonX

I dunno maybe I am a "gaming hippie" or something but I believe in clean games with no DRM sold on disk. It worked 10 years ago, why doesn't it work now? Just corporate greed nothing else.ZombieKiller7

Because times are changing. Do you think this isn´t coming to consoles in the future as well?

It´s already starting with some companies figthing the used games market and taking measures against it,next gen it will be much worse.

At least on the PC,you can do something about it,on the consoles,you´re stuck with what the devs do.

*oh my god* I hate when people use that term but just like Jim sterling if its my choice im gonna come down on the side of the publishers and developers they are sick of seeing their product pirated, and cheated at online enmasse so I say let them do their drm it might not work even half the time but it atleast keeps the people that aren't very good at pirating from doing so and thats one possibly one more sale for the game.

though I find it odd how your talking about i work damn hard to support my wife and kids and how you cannot afford a router *30 bucks* and you may have to drop your net connection yet you can still afford games...*by the way i wasn't calling you a pirate I was simply explaining that Id have to agree with the developers and publishers about drm*

WilliamRLBaker

Should they start doing this for xbox and wii games to? Because those get pirated like crazy as well.

[QUOTE="ZarbonX"]

i have cable wifi

my cvomputers on 24/7 why would i care about this?

i also got wifi on my iphone and thats even on 24/7 internet

how are ppl complaining about this? MY PHONE is online 24/7 let alone my computer DUH unbelievable

ZombieKiller7

if pirates get a clean version how does it encourage them? to be a pirate you would need a fast internet connection thats probably on 24/7 to even download a file the size of diablo 3 so people with fast internet would have no reason not to just buy the game since it wouldn't make a difference for them

Well, this puts a damper on my anticipation for this game.

My internet's sketchy, so I'd hate to keep getting interrupted because of a random hiccup :(

Gonna have to really think about this one now...

[QUOTE="ZombieKiller7"]I dunno maybe I am a "gaming hippie" or something but I believe in clean games with no DRM sold on disk. It worked 10 years ago, why doesn't it work now? Just corporate greed nothing else.Arach666

Because times are changing. Do you think this isn´t coming to consoles in the future as well?

It´s already starting with some companies figthing the used games market and taking measures against it,next gen it will be much worse.

At least on the PC,you can do something about it,on the consoles,you´re stuck with what the devs do.

[QUOTE="ZombieKiller7"][QUOTE="ZarbonX"]

i have cable wifi

my cvomputers on 24/7 why would i care about this?

i also got wifi on my iphone and thats even on 24/7 internet

how are ppl complaining about this? MY PHONE is online 24/7 let alone my computer DUH unbelievable

ZarbonX

if pirates get a clean version how does it encourage them? to be a pirate you would need a fast internet connection thats probably on 24/7 to even download a file the size of diablo 3 so people with fast internet would have no reason not to just buy the game since it wouldn't make a difference for them

i never thought i would say this

but ill be getting Diablo 3 on consoles and enjoy it offline like its meant to be played

Diablo 1/2 is meh online imo, "hurr durr baal run for the 324359435830583405380 time"

Blizzard games on PC make consoles look like happy meal toys. JohnDead80

consoles can have the damn game

i dont think any real Dialblo fans care anymore