Diablo 3 - v1.03 Released, 72 Hour Restrictions Snafu

Dhruin

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Patch 1.03 for Diablo III has been released in most regions, introducing a range of balance changes and some other interesting consequences (below). As previously discussed, loot and drop rates have been tweaked to address criticism.
Moving on, whatever your position on Blizzard's always-online design for Diablo III, they sure are working hard to turn players against them.
During the week it became evident that, as of v1.03, newly purchased digital copies of Diablo III were locked into the "Starter Edition" for around 72 hours, restricting access to a range of content. From GameSpot:
Gamers who pay to download Diablo III won't have full access to the game for up to three days, thanks to tweaks made in the game's latest patch. According to a post on Blizzard's forums, Diablo III downloaders will only be able to play the Starter Edition of the game for up to 72 hours after purchase.
The Starter Edition for the PC dungeon crawler caps character levels at 13 and progress through the end of Act I. It also prohibits auction house access and multiplayer matchmaking with anyone who is not also using a Starter Edition or in the same region.
Though some of these posts have been removed by Blizzard, it seems this was to address credit card fraud - though I'd note much larger vendors seem to have no trouble providing online purchases without delay:
A customer support article on Blizzard's site states that the restrictions remain in place until payment verification is completed, a process that can take up to three days. The change was made Wednesday along with several other modifications in the game's 1.03 patch.
"We apologize for the inconvenience, but it is a necessary step to combat fraud and other malicious activities that can weaken everyone's play experience," Blizzard support forum agent Kaltonis said in a forum thread about the issue.
At Kotaku, Blizzard responds by saying some of the restrictions are necessary but some were unintentional:
However, as an unintended consequence of these security measures, players who purchase the game digitally after patch 1.0.3 are temporarily being capped at level 13 and not able to proceed beyond Act I. We are working to correct this as soon as possible and will provide another update when we have more details to share.
Aside from the two unintended restrictions noted above, below are the standard security-related restrictions that will be in place for digital purchases until payment verification is complete:
· No public game access for unverified digital purchasers
· No auction house access (real-money or gold) for unverified digital purchasers
· Unverified digital purchasers cannot trade items or drop items for other players to receive
· Unverified digital purchasers are not able to chat in any public or game channels
· Unverified digital purchasers cannot attach a custom message to friend requests, but they can send/accept friend requests, and play with their friends
· Global Play is not available for unverified digital purchasers
Again, we want to be perfectly clear that these are temporary restrictions (often lifted within a day and at most 72 hours) associated with digital purchases for the protection of players. We appreciate player feedback and will continue to evaluate the best methods for ensuring a positive game experience for everyone.
Good job, Blizzard.
More information.
 
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I love how they blame the patch for there own decisions. Seems every week all I read about is blizzard making pr snafus.
 
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If it reduces the amount of gold spam, and makes it harder for the people hacking accounts to sell their stolen goods, then I say, yes, good work Blizzard.

For the most part, vendors on the internet don't have too much trouble with credit card fraud for the same reason that brick and mortar vendors don't have too much trouble with people walking in and taking stuff without paying. It's illegal, and the average person who attempts it will get caught. In Blizzard's case, they are operating online games whose accounts are worth more than stolen credit card numbers. There significant criminal enterprises that are focused on WoW/D3.

It's only a relatively minor restriction, and in most cases it will be lifted quickly. Just be glad that the majority of vendors will give you your stuff without waiting to see if your payment actually goes through.
 
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If it reduces the amount of gold spam, and makes it harder for the people hacking accounts to sell their stolen goods, then I say, yes, good work Blizzard.

For the most part, vendors on the internet don't have too much trouble with credit card fraud for the same reason that brick and mortar vendors don't have too much trouble with people walking in and taking stuff without paying. It's illegal, and the average person who attempts it will get caught. In Blizzard's case, they are operating online games whose accounts are worth more than stolen credit card numbers. There significant criminal enterprises that are focused on WoW/D3.

It's only a relatively minor restriction, and in most cases it will be lifted quickly. Just be glad that the majority of vendors will give you your stuff without waiting to see if your payment actually goes through.

So everything this company does is fine then? Lines have to be drawn and stopping you from fully enjoying your game crosses it. I don't care if it's one day or three.

If people keep accepting all the crap going on in the gaming business I weep for the future game buyers.
 
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If it reduces the amount of gold spam, and makes it harder for the people hacking accounts to sell their stolen goods, then I say, yes, good work Blizzard.

So, how do Amazon, Steam et al survive without such restrictions? Why can I buy physical equipment worth thousands of dollars from international sites and have it ship same day?
 
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God, what a clusterfuck. Warcraft 3 will certainly be the last Blizzard game, that i have. There is absulutely no excuse for some of the stuff that they have done wrong with Diablo 3.
 
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Yeah it is a little hard to swallow that somehow circumstances force blizzard to require an up to 3 day effective hold on purchases made with credit cards while NewEgg, Amazon, Steam, Origin (eww), Live! Marketplace, etc. seem to get along fine without them.
 
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So everything this company does is fine then?

Everything the company does is not EEEEVIL tho, either. I know youre mr anti-Blizzard cheerleader now, just jumping for joy at everything wrong that happens to the point that it's comical to watch you, but come on. Things happen on a game launch. Things happen with patches. And yeah, some people are going to get pissed.

I hate to burst your bubble there Cheerleader, but any crap that comes along is only temporary. It will be fixed.

Regardless of whatever hilarious little fantasies you may have, Blizzard is not "going down", Blizzard is not going to be "hated by everyone", and Torchlight is not the "Diablo Killer" I know you wish it could be. People will buy and play Diablo 3, and continue to play and enjoy Diablo 3 for years to come. It will continue to make Blizzard millions of dollars and be one of their most profitable ventures ever, until their next major release.

You lose
 
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^One of the more embarrassing corporate shill posts, for sure.
Take a lesson from CountChocula or something, ffs.
 
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it's true, shit happens. It's temporary.
I enjoy the game, and snicker at the cheerleaders popping up w/ their hopeful wishes that Blizzard is somehow fucked because of temporary setbacks. Its funny
 
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It is true. I'm not going to defend Blizzard on this, it's clearly a screw up. But the vast majority of players aren't effected by it, or even aware of it. Doesn't make it right, but it's unlikely to have much effect on their success, especially if they straighten it out quickly.
 
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Well, I always tend to sit back and… observe things from a distance when stuff like that happen. I remember back when World of Warcraft launched and the servers had all kinds of problems, people would go mental, me on the other hand - I just stopped playing for a while and came back-on at later time, if I remember correctly they then added extra time in our accounts, for compensation.

As for Diablo III, I payed 45 euros for a good 130 hours, didn't run into many bugs/problems either, but for now I am simply done with the game, to me it really feels like an unfinished product that won't last.Seeing how they WANT it to last(see DII) - there are many things that Blizzard is going to address like, Itemization, class balance(build diversity is a joke), drop tweaks/gold costs - to increase long term sustainability of the game's economy, difficulty.. and last but not least: the infamous PvP feature.

So, lot's of imminent and probably unpleasant changes, people yelling and swearing at the forums for getting nerfed, rants on how 'Acti-Blizz' (scapegoating Activision) fails and should burn in righteous fire etc. I'll just give it some time, two major patches will probably do the trick.Now, if Blizzard fails miserably, then I will simply put the game aside, drama ain't my thing… and I got bigger fish to fry. :p
 
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So, how do Amazon, Steam et al survive without such restrictions? Why can I buy physical equipment worth thousands of dollars from international sites and have it ship same day?

Simply because Blizzard is internationally insanely popular. Much, much more that Amazon, for examople, or Steam.

The higher the popularity, the higher the possibility of Fraud.

That's the reason why Anti-Virus specialists often said in the past that the Mac and Linux were much, much safer than the PC … - Simply because international fraudsters hadn't discovered both Platforms as a way to generate income …
 
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Cerberus - what a sensible and chill post, i actually feel a bit more relaxed than i was, i think just from reading that.

Let's all just sit back and have a cold drink everyone, sound good?
 
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Simply because Blizzard is internationally insanely popular. Much, much more that Amazon, for examople, or Steam.

The higher the popularity, the higher the possibility of Fraud.

Neither of us have reliable figures but given Steam has 40M active accounts and is estimated by competitors to hold around 70% of the entire PC digital sales market, I doubt your claim that Blizzard is "much, much, much" more internationally popular.
 
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Neither of us have reliable figures but given Steam has 40M active accounts and is estimated by competitors to hold around 70% of the entire PC digital sales market, I doubt your claim that Blizzard is "much, much, much" more internationally popular.
I think Alrik was talking about single games, not the entire collection.
So, Blizzard's games - WoW or Starcraft or Diablo 3, for example- are generally more popular than games published on Steam (Team Fortress 2, for example) and they have a larger non-western fan base compared to Valve games. Both WoW and Starcraft have huge Asian fan-bases. They tend to attract more attention, too.
But as you said, that's not exactly based on reliable figures.
 
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Enough with the Stockholm syndrome demonstration people.
Blizzard is putting every single one of their customers through shit, just so they can profit from their auction house during the years to come. Entire game was build and every design decision was made around the auction house, for blizzards profit, damaging the quality of the game itself.
I don't give a single damn about suppressing cheaters or frauds or whatever in a game I would like to play alone, offline.
Also, one or two patches will fix it, you say? Well f**k that, after years of development and years of beta testing, after asking for almost double the money for the product as usual, it should have been polished as a diamond, from the first second.
 
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Enough with the Stockholm syndrome demonstration people.
Okay, so I was merely stating how *I* deal with it and what MY plans are and that means that I am suffering from Stockholm Syndrome? Well, I don't know what to say other than… thank you for the free diagnosis, and that I will have it checked, because clearly - anyone with a different point of view than yours is chemically imbalanced and/or traumatized.

That's how I deal with bugged/unfinished games, that is what I did with pretty much every Piranha, Bethesda (and others) game, I give them time to 'mature' instead of complaining on a daily basis.
 
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