News

Diablo III demands Internet, bans mods and trades real-life cash
Posted: 01.08.2011 11:31 by Simon Priest Comments: 42
Blizzard has just hydrogen bombed your childhood, videogamer. Not only does Diablo III require a constant connection to Battle.net, but all mods are banned.

The first is so they can "guarantee no cheats were involved" creating characters, and they cite "gameplay and security reasons" for no mod support. Got cash?


If you do happen to have some cash lying around the place then perhaps you'll consider spending it on some in-game tradeable items through Diablo III's auction house? Yes, Blizzard will include trades between players for actual real world money.

The studio takes a small cut of the proceeds, an auction administrative fee if you will, and lets you literally pawn off items you don't want to keep. There is also the more traditional auction house that uses in-game gold to buy and sell virtual wares.

"One of the things that we felt was really important was that if you did play offline, if we allowed for that experience, you’d start a character, you’d get him all the way to level 20 or level 30 or level 40 or what have you, and then at that point you might decide to want to venture onto Battle.net," said Blizzard.

"But you’d have to start a character from scratch, because there’d be no way for us to guarantee no cheats were involved, if we let you play on the client and then take that character online.” Erm, why not just offer both anyway?

As for why PC modders can suck it: “For a variety of gameplay and security reasons, we will not be supporting bots or mods in Diablo III, and they’ll be expressly prohibited by our terms of use for the game,” noted a stern, party-pooping Blizzard.

Micro-transactions in Diablo III?! “We think it’s really going to add a lot of depth to the game. If I have more money than time I can purchase items, or if I’m leet in the game I can get benefits out of it. The players really want it." Alright, admit who you are right now.

"This is something that we know people are going to do either way. We can provide them a really safe, awesome, fun experience, or they’ll find ways of doing it elsewhere.”

Items will feature level caps so you can't go buying insanely awesome weapons for your level one nobody, despite how much disposable income you flaunt. Thankfully there is a more traditional auction house involving trades with in-game currency for us normies.

It's gut wrenching stuff people, particularly when mods are banned - the lifeblood of PC gaming. The always-on demand for the Internet is another swift kick to the nether regions. The micro-transaction auction house is less horrible as it can be ignored.

Perhaps Diablo actually won and we're all in hell right now? No? Feels like it.
Source: RPS
Related games: Diablo III (PC)

Comments

By Kres (SI Elite) on Aug 01, 2011
Kres
No mods?? That's spectacular! I'm sure there's a brilliant reason for it. Good job Blizzard!
By Chosen_One (SI Elite) on Aug 01, 2011
Chosen_One
OMG...Activision influence did his part. I can't believe in all that news...just can't...

“We think it’s really going to add a lot of depth to the game. If I have more money than time I can purchase items, or if I’m leet in the game I can get benefits out of it. The players really want it."

what fu****g depth is he talks about???
By unsilviu (SI Core) on Aug 01, 2011
unsilviu
Agreed, it is one thing not to release official modding tools and developers discover ways to mod it for themselves, but to actively discourage it... I must say, I do not like the direction Blizzard has taken with this game. And Activision clearly have their hands in the cookie jar, Blizzard alone could not, I think, have done such a reckless thing as devise an auction house with real life money, having completely and utterly rejected it in WoW. 'Tis a sad day for Diablo fans...
By djole381 (SI Elite) on Aug 01, 2011
djole381
@unsilviu
A sad day indeed. Welcome to the dark corporate future.
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Aug 01, 2011
nocutius
Not good at all :(.
By chiefone (SI Veteran Member) on Aug 01, 2011
chiefone
I was going to buy this. Not now.
By MindCoil (SI Veteran Member) on Aug 01, 2011
MindCoil
There is no depth added by making an auction house.
"We can provide them a really safe, awesome, fun experience, or they’ll find ways of doing it elsewhere.” BECAUSE GIVING YOU MORE OF OUR MONEY IS REALLY FUN AND AWESOME. YYYEAAAAHHHHH!

No mods, I couldn't be happier though with that.
By Thibby (SI Core Veteran) on Aug 01, 2011
Thibby
:( Activision: I hate you!
By unsilviu (SI Core) on Aug 01, 2011
unsilviu
Not to mention that this will most likely be used not by average players, but by the gold farming companies, this will be a motherlode of cash for them. I assure you, 90% of the products on this AH will be farmed by chinese prisoners.
By Aikon_The_Dragonslayer (SI Veteran Member) on Aug 01, 2011
Aikon_The_Dragonslayer
Blizzard are either immature or they are taking stuff to the extreme. I know several games that can easily be cheated at. Such as the Elder Scrolls series, it's easy to cheat an Elder Scrolls game yet you don't see Bethesda taking things too far and crying out "ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG BAN ALL MODZ GUIZE!!! BAN ALL MODSSSS!!!!" That's because Bethesda are mature and they understand the fact that some people want to cheat (and because of the fact that an Elder Scrolls game without modding capabilities is like a lamp without a lightbulb)
By lichlord (SI Core) on Aug 01, 2011
lichlord
Bethesda did good for allowing mods to come out for the elder scrolls and such the modding community did much not only make mods but also made unofficial patches and great overhaul extentions

i was going to pre-order the game but at this moment they are trying to solve something they will fail in just like they try to kill piracy

well note you can't it will be like trying to remove a weed but it will always grow back no matter what you do
By Knave (SI Core) on Aug 01, 2011
Knave
These are three very silly moves on blizzard's part.

They say it's to prevent cheating, but the fact of the matter is that it also means they have the ability to squeeze every player for more $ every time they want new content.

Instead of having a giant community to release free content, you must fork over more to buy it from blizzard.
By Chosen_One (SI Elite) on Aug 02, 2011
Chosen_One
Still I'm in shock...

"Diablo III demands Internet, bans mods and trades real-life cash."

Is that true...our favorite action-rpg title is going to this...noooo...nooo!!!
By unsilviu (SI Core) on Aug 02, 2011
unsilviu
SCII started this trend, I'm not that surprised tbh...
By lichlord (SI Core) on Aug 02, 2011
lichlord
well im having second thaughts for sure now with diablo 3

twas a good thing i changed my mind to pre-order Deus ex instead of diablo 3 2 weeks ago
By chiefone (SI Veteran Member) on Aug 03, 2011
chiefone
SC2 is ok... you can still play without Internet, u can't buy things with real money in game, and it has tons of mods. How do you blame it for this?
By steven101x1 (SI Member) on Aug 03, 2011
steven101x1
When will they realize that people will ALWAYS find a way to crack and pirate the game. Always on internet connection is only hurting their costumers, it will not prevent piracy.
By unsilviu (SI Core) on Aug 03, 2011
unsilviu
It still requires internet connection to play (no LAN) and the process isn't "start the game and play", you need to enable an offline mode while still connected, if I remember correctly. So it was Blizz testing the waters with their internet-based DRM
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Aug 03, 2011
nocutius
Which clearly didn't work as the game got cracked anyway. The same is almost guaranteed to happen here as well.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Aug 03, 2011
FoolWolf
Diablo 3 has lost some serious interest for me this week. None of the news made me go "wow, that's cool". Always online, cash in your weapons, battlenet/Facebook shit, mmo styled skills. Bazaar and real id... why not make a Facebook page with zynga? Torchlight 2 all of a sudden sounds intriguing...
By Chosen_One (SI Elite) on Aug 03, 2011
Chosen_One
Wolf I also thought of Torchlight 2. And strongly agreed with your feelings bout this week news...
By unsilviu (SI Core) on Aug 03, 2011
unsilviu
Though, to be honest, there have been no private servers for SCII, so it HAS worked, at least on the multiplayer side (which, let's face it, is the one that counts for StarCraft)
By bosnian_dragon (SI Core) on Aug 03, 2011
bosnian_dragon
I can understand the money thing, I mean almost all game publishers are greedy we know that already. I don't approve it at all, but I do understand.

BUT, I CANNOT and WILL NOT understand why the heck did they require a non-stop internet connection? I'm using a wireless internet connection since I move a lot, and I play most of my games on my laptop when I have free time, and sometimes I go to places where signal is weak or isn't available... That means I won't be able to play Diablo 3 even if I pay for it! Not everyone has broadband all the time, I guess they wanna sell this game only to static gamers who don't come out of their homes a lot or something...

Second, I believe that a game that doesn't support modding doesn't deserve to be bought. Period.

Obviously, Blizzard thinks that they are perfect, that they can't make any mistakes when developing a game. I just wonder what will happen when people starts to find bugs and imbalances in the game? They will publish a patch every week or what?
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Aug 03, 2011
FoolWolf
Blizzard do tend to support their games well. SC2 has received several patches. D3 for me has not been that much about MP play, never been. Been interested on trying it out more though. The real id is a stupid idea. The battlenet chat is for the ones playing wow or something... And FB.. sorry but that is pure casual trash right there. Always on-line - not going to add more there simply stupid. Gameplay wise - this sounds like Guild Wars but with a top down camera. I will most likely still get it, for as cheap as possible...
By bosnian_dragon (SI Core) on Aug 03, 2011
bosnian_dragon
Well, maybe I will buy it sometimes later too, but not for a full price either... I'm gonna wait for a 95% discount or something lol
By unsilviu (SI Core) on Aug 03, 2011
unsilviu
Hehe bosnian, it's clear you like modding, I think I even saw you on ModDB! :D But if Blizzard thinks they are perfect, it's because...well, because , up until now, they've been almost just that.
By bosnian_dragon (SI Core) on Aug 04, 2011
bosnian_dragon
Heh yeah I do love modding, and I am currently working on two mods, but generally, I believe that modding is not a bad thing. However, some developers and publishers consider modding to be a form of piracy, which is far from truth!

P.S. I know that Blizzard has great releases behind them, and they always supported their releases with proper patches, but I really can't understand their latest decisions with Diablo3.
By unsilviu (SI Core) on Aug 04, 2011
unsilviu
Agreed, it might be Activision taking a more active role in their decisions :S
By flortan (SI Newbie) on Aug 04, 2011
flortan
I was so surprised when it was announced in 2008 but, look at what happened. Not only are they requiring you to have internet at all times but also making it to where no mods are allowed. I mean that is why most people buy for PC for the mods. I mean also for the better graphics but who has the money to buy a new graphics card for the new call of duty every year? Mods are what make the PC unique but look at blizzard. Blizzard your main problem is listening, you don't listen to your consumers, You just lost 300,000 subscribers because of that. If you don't start listening to your consumers the same will happen to Diablo. PC is a good gaming system not only for the games but also the players. Case dismissed.
By flortan (SI Newbie) on Aug 04, 2011
flortan
Forgot to mention, 300,000 subscribers in World of Warcraft
By djole381 (SI Elite) on Aug 04, 2011
djole381
@flortan
300K subscribers less isn't a big deal, they still have 10.7 million left.
By flortan (SI Newbie) on Aug 04, 2011
flortan
But the 300,000 is going very quickly. less than a week. People are quitting everyday but this time 2x as usual
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Aug 04, 2011
herodotus
The way of the future and Blizzard, along with Activision is already looking to move their business model into a new age.
The trouble is, this will absolutley create such a wave of discontent amongst the mainstream and hardcore games. Constant connection is a problem for many gamers, yet hasn't stopped Ubisoft and THQ from including it recent titles. No Mods support? Deal-breaker for me.
By unsilviu (SI Core) on Aug 04, 2011
unsilviu
Actually, they have 12.7 million, they had 13 before the drop.
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Aug 04, 2011
SirRoderick
11.4 at last I saw, a few days ago.
By unsilviu (SI Core) on Aug 05, 2011
unsilviu
Then it must have been 12 million, not 13, their max... But the numbers are dropping, and I think they're panicking and looking for other ways to maintain their enormous money flow.
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Aug 05, 2011
nocutius
We'll they better make WoW2 then so they don't have to butcher the rest of their games just to make a few extra bucks.
No LAN in SC2 was a shock but not on the same level as this. Well to be honest Diablo was never really near the top of my most played games but i still respect the series. So i probably would not buy it until it got discounted anyways, but now i might not get it at all.

I kinda hope this flops now so they see they took things too far but it probably won't happen, Diablo is still Diablo.
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Aug 05, 2011
SirRoderick
If dropping playerbase came as a surprise to Blizzard, they are idiots. No game lasts forever.
By unsilviu (SI Core) on Aug 06, 2011
unsilviu
It came as a surprise, since it had just risen following the release of the expansion. According to them, the players are finishing the game too fast :P
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Aug 06, 2011
nocutius
Well after years of playing the same game you probably tend not to waste time fiddling around and actually go do stuff cause you're hungry for actual new content.
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Aug 06, 2011
SirRoderick
Indeed. I got bored after about 30 minutes with the grind.
By MindCoil (SI Veteran Member) on Aug 23, 2011
MindCoil
Well, just give it a day. A stable offline crack will be up. And mods will be on the way. Nothing we can do about the RMAH (Real Money Auction House.) It makes Blizzard/Activision money.