Diablo 3 - Rob Pardo Interview @ Wired

Dhruin

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Wired speaks to Blizzard VP of Game Design Rob Pardo about Diablo III, although the conversation does meander. Limited DRM will probably be a high point for many people:
Wired: Along with that, there’s a huge segment of the fanbase and a huge segment of the media who came down on EA recently when they released Spore and it had that ridiculous DRM system that only allowed you to put it on three computers. There was a huge uproar. Obviously you need some kind of DRM otherwise people would just blatantly pirate your game over and over again. What kind of solutions are you guys looking at for Diablo III?

Pardo: The thing that I think helps us, is that since our games have such a huge multiplayer component, Battle.net really is our most effective DRM.
If you wanna play online on Battle.net with other players you’re going to have to have a legitimate copy. That’s really kinda been the thing that’s always saved us from a lot of the PC piracy that I think hurts a lot of other single-player-only games.

Wired: You’re not going to have something where the game has to phone home every time you turn it on?

Pardo: No, there’s no particular plans for that. We do now have the online store where we’re doing digital distribution on your account. In those particular cases you have to be online to actually download the game, but once you have it, you're fine.

I think our approach -- if you want to use an analogy -- we take an approach that’s more similar to Steam than EA, let’s say.
While we're talking about Diablo III, PlanetDiablo's Blizzcon video on a gameplay, classes and skills presentation is worth a look.
More information.
 
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Well, that's just sold me on Diablo III. I wasn't planning to buy the game, even though I loved the first two games, because there just doesn't seem to be anything new on offer, it's just the same old same old with better graphics.

But this news of no DRM is a HUGE selling point to me. Now I'm going to buy the game just on the hope that it sends a message to other developers that DRM is not the way to go.

I was going to buy Spore, but its insane DRM put a stop to that, so now I'll use that money to buy Diablo III.

I really hope Blizzard makes crap loads of money with this game, and I hope the other developers learn a lesson from it.
 
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But this news of no DRM is a HUGE selling point to me.

They've not said there'll be no DRM - they've said they won't have anything quite as bad as EA's. There's a lot of room in there for them to still have a DRM system I'd find prohibitive.

So I wouldn't make that pre-order just yet.
 
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Blizzard initially sold Starcraft without CP. They won't repeast this mistake.

My guess is that Blizzard will come up with some really innovative DRM & CP stuff for SC2 and D3.
 
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I'm waiting for the fine details on BN2 before I say much on this one.
 
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