Diablo 3 - Petition for Offline Single-Player

That server emulation is a complete joke, but if people are really that opposed to playing the game online as it was designed to be played - I say go for it.

I have no problem with online-only as long as I understand the reason and I find it's worth the money. With Diablo 3 - they have good reasons and I hope they don't waste resources trying to please a minority who're not really into the design regardless.

I'd much rather they get working on the boring loot design and make it worthy of a Diablo game.

moonmonster said:

Nothing works like an online petition!

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I'm sure we'll see the all important facebook 'like' soon.

blatantninja said:

I'm sure we'll see the all important facebook 'like' soon.

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No the movement will be called retake Diablo in tribute of the MassEffect movement that succeeded. Then the facebook likes will begin.

Diablo 3 has already sold over 6 million copies worldwide. Which means Blizzard has potential 6 million customers in the real money auction house which will bring them more shiny dollars. So let’s be realistic. As much as I want that also, there’s no chance that there will be an offline version. Blizzard use to earn ten millions of dollars every month with WoW and they see games as service, not products. They see Diablo 3 as their second cash cow and since there’s no montly fee in D3, they compensate that with real money auction house system.

Even if we can amass 1 million sign, I’m sure nothing will change here. So move on. There’s no D3 for me.

In its current state, it would be literally impossible to get anywhere in the highest difficulty (Inferno) while playing it offline. The entire game is based around using the auction house to sell good (but useless) stuff you obtained, and get the correct pieces you need from other players. Playing 5 hours a night, it would take many years to get what you need to complete Inferno without the AH.

Who buys? looks like a sucker deal. Besides, looks like farming. Completion of the game demand to buy items in the AH, meaning that in six months, you'll need sellers to finish it.

It is more than considering gaming as a service, it is introducing a job dimension into gaming.

Stingray said:

Playing 5 hours a night, it would take many years to get what you need to complete Inferno without the AH.

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Which is exactly what people asked for. They didn't want to be able to complete everything the game had to offer in a few weeks, and if it were like that we'd now be flooded with complaints to that effect.

The long term grind is by design. The option to shortcut that if you want is also by design. If you want to 'finish' a game on all difficulty modes without either then sorry, go look for an easier game to play (or infact, just play D3 on a mode other than inferno..)

Maybe they should have saved inferno for an expansion/DLC a year or two down the line…

Well, I don't think I know anyone who would play an offline single-player game for 5 hours every night for 3-5 years in order to finish it. And I do know a lot of hardcore D2 players.

Though I guess if they made an offline mode with characters that couldn't be brought online, they could re-work the way item drops work in it.

Stingray said:

Well, I don't think I know anyone who would play an offline single-player game for 5 hours every night for 3-5 years in order to finish it. And I do know a lot of hardcore D2 players.

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So how many years have they been playing D2? Last I heard, people were still playing it 8 years or so on.

It only takes a few hours to finish the game anyway - higher difficulties are like extra challenges.

Vast majority of those people play it online, that's the appeal.

And the higher difficulties are the whole point of a game like this, completing it in normal means nothing, it's like a tutorial mode.

Stingray said:

Vast majority of those people play it online, that's the appeal.

And the higher difficulties are the whole point of a game like this, completing it in normal means nothing, it's like a tutorial mode.

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OK so if Blizzard shoot for a 'completion' of a few weeks they are flamed for making it too short. If they shoot for a 'completion' of a few years they are flamed for making it too long. What's your ideal 'completion' length?

I now find myself in the camp who is really annoyed with Blizzard due to the item game. The drop rates are absolutely abysmal, and it was like a head-slap when I finally realized, "Of _course_ the legendary drops rates are abysmal, that's so more people will be motivated to try out the RMAH!"

Leading up to this game, I tended to not have a problem with the controversial "features" of online-only and a RMAH, because I was under the impression that it wouldn't affect my enjoyment of the game. But now I see that's not true. I've put about 40-50 hours into the game, while my wife and best friend have put in about 20-30 hours each, and between the 3 of us we have exactly 3 legendary items to our name, and no set items. I've been staying gear'd up by buying rares on the gold auction house for cheap, but I absolutely refuse to buy legendary or set items because finding those is a big part of the thrill of playing for me (not to mention they're so damn expensive). But I'm already starting to get discouraged, and I'm pretty sure that my masochism will get tiring far, far faster on D3 than it did on D2 when I spent several intense months trying to collect every unique/set item in the game (and I got pretty damn far on that endeavor, if I do say so myself).

Obviously, nobody should be able to find a bunch of the best items in a mere matter of weeks, but it should be visibly possible to do so within _some_ timeframe, even if it's measured in months or even years, and right now I'm not seeing the possibility of amassing a decent collection of legendary/set items in ANY timeframe without resorting to the auction house. It really is that bad, and has started me down the path of wondering why I even bother.

(And yes, I know many here would wonder why I would bother collecting unique/set items in the first place, and I have no response to that question. It's a malady that I am not particularly fond of, but I can't deny it's hold over me. I need a support group or something).

kalniel said:

OK so if Blizzard shoot for a 'completion' of a few weeks they are flamed for making it too short. If they shoot for a 'completion' of a few years they are flamed for making it too long. What's your ideal 'completion' length?

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They didn't shoot for a completion of a few years, that is the hypothetical case where the AH doesn't exist and other players don't exist. ie: an offline game of D3.

Re: Fantasm - if the three of you have only put in about 95 hours, then you've actually been pretty lucky to see 3 legendaries. That's a much higher rate than most people are seeing. Most of the people I know have played 100-150 hours so far and seen one or two legendaries, and no one I know has found one that's actually worth using. Set items are even more rare. It's all about the AH. Not necessarily the RMAH, but some kind of AH. RMAH isn't even in the game yet, but I assume you're talking about their future expectations.

At your rate of play, it would probably take several decades to complete a single set without using the AH or trading with friends. Chances are, you wouldn't live long enough to ever complete one.

Yeah, I was talking about the RMAH in terms of their future plans. Basically, I'm upset with the idea that Blizzard is placing a higher priority on the item economy than on whether their players are having fun playing the game. To me, finding legendaries and sets is a huge part of the fun of this game. And it's not like I'm asking for a lot, I think finding one every act or two would be enough to satisfy me and keep me coming back for more (which I think is probably about where D2 was, give or take).

The problem with that rate (at least from Blizzard's perspective) is that it would create hundreds of thousands or even millions of players with a small collection of legendary/set items as they advance through each difficulty, and their value on the auction house would be greatly diminished. And lower prices means lower fees once the RMAH goes live.

I don't want to participate in an item economy, I want to play an action RPG where I find cool stuff. And that is not what Diablo 3 is. I'm really not sure how much longer I'll keep playing it...

It's true that the customer may choose not to buy the game (I'm not buying it), but to assume that Blizzard's DRM choice will have no effect on you or me regardless would be foolish.

Imagine other industry players taking their lead and managing their games this way. Now imagine those companies going out of business after a year or two (as happens all too frequently). Players end up in the position of leasing a game instead of owning it. Don't worry though, the price will be the same!

This is why horrible decisions like this matter. Go indie!

I own the game and play it on-line with friends mainly. I would like a single player off-line mode since it's poor to force that on-line (aside from the piracy issues). However the game really shines in multi player and since I mainly play MP I can have peace with this.

I did sign the petition because I would like developers to reconsider always on-line, but I can understand this move from a DRM point of view (yes, even though there was no cracks the game showed up on torrent just before release...).

Given there's lag, that sounds like content is streamed from the server when you play. Is the environment on the server or client side? If it's the former, no crack will be possible unless someone steals the server code AND data I imagine.

Raggie said:

the always online requirement was a dealbreaker for me. I don't do online-only games, single-player or not.

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yep, this. The only game I would possibly play with an online all the time requirement would be a MMO, but it has been years since I saw one interesting enough to want to play.

A single player game with an online requirement is an automatic fail in terms of ever considering buying it, but that is me.

Can I sign it offline?

Stingray said:

And the higher difficulties are the whole point of a game like this, completing it in normal means nothing, it's like a tutorial mode.

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Pity you need to play through that nothing with every single character if you want to get to some challenge.
In the case of Diablo 3 this system is even more hilarious since character leveling is fully automated.

Anyway, the petition has obviously close to zero chance of success, but I think it´s perfectly understandable why some people would like to have an offline mode.

Maybe I´ve missed something huge, but I don´t see much benefits in the always online policy for someone who just wants to play through the game solo a few times with different characters and isn´t interested in playing inferno or auction house metagame. Or isn´t interested in additional challenges in the form of latency issues and such (particularly exciting element on hardcore), waiting till another server maintenance is over and the game becomes functional again, or dealing with good variety of neatly numbered errors which also render the game nonfunctional.