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Are you, in fact, a pregnant lady who lives in the apartment next door to Superdeath's parents? - Commodore |
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Troubling D3 announcement
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http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/...sh-trades/
I dunno, a lot of folks seem to be frothing at the mouth over this. How do people feel around here?
Well, my mind was already set to "cautiously awaiting" the game, since I didn't really like the direction they seemed to take the game to.
The "awaiting" part is now over : I'll just pass. Two of these annoucements are straight deal breakers for me : no modding and no offline mode. The "auction-house" with real money is just despicable. Another annoucement that got less press is the long cooldowns on skills, which is also a potential deal-breaker (esp. with no modding) : been there, done that, it's no fun.
I'll refer to the points from that article:
1) The game requires a constant internet connection. It cannot be played offline. -> My PC is always online when powered on so I don't give a damn about this. 2) Mods are âexpressly prohibited.â -> LOL! Were RB ever in need of mods to have fun? I don't care at all. 3) Items in the auction house are bought and sold for real-life money. -> A big fat NO-NO to this! There is no better reason to attract bot programers, cheaters, scammer or goldfarmers than given them the opportunity to make real money. Shame on you Blizzard! In another article i read that the real-money auction house will be limited to softcore. Seems at least someone at Blizzard retained a touch of sanity.
Arthur pulls tiles from the Scrabble bag which by random form into "What do you get when you multiply six by nine?"
Arthur: "Six by nine? 42?" Ford: "I always knew there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe." 
I am more concerned about the fact that Blizzard basically removed skill and attribute points from the game. So the only way to customize your character right now is with runes and items (see shop
 )
Seems to me that the first two things are entirely driven by the third one - they realise they've just given people a game-endorsed financial reason to cheat. So they're trying to stamp out possible avenues of attack on the system. I bet it doesn't work - partly coz writing a successful cheat now doesn't just get you in-game kudos it gets you money too so it's worth trying harder, and partly coz where's the incentive for Blizzard to really crack down on cheats if they get a cut off every transaction in this auction house? The article says it's a small cut, but I bet it'll add up. So if it's really blatant obvious stuff they'll patch it out, but small scale-ish stuff that just nets everyone a bit more cash, who'll care? Particularly as PR can point at the initial tough stance, in a "we're doing our best" sort of way.
I don't much like the flavour that gives to the game even if it's unlikely to affect me personally, if you see what I mean. It won't affect me personally coz I won't pay real money for in-game things like that, to me it feels a bit like giving up to do that i.e. like you're saying "I'll never be good enough to beat this bit of the game", me I'd rather lose than pay for victory  So that announcement makes me wonder if it's a game that's aimed at people like me.So it's dropped the game from "probably buy when I first see it" to "read the reviews closely, check out a demo if I can". If I can treat it as single player or maybe multiplayer with only like-minded people, then a good game will probably still outweigh my distaste for endorsing a "rich people can get better stuff, cheats get to profit" mentality (after all, I know it happens anyway - I just don't much like the company effectively saying they think that's good).
...wounding her only makes her more dangerous!
 -- haphazard1It's More Fun to be Jack of All Trades than Master of One.
Heh, Blizzard seems to have better PR people than Ubisoft, that's a much nicer way to spin an 'always online' DRM. I don't believe for one moment it's to keep people from cheating on their characters, not when they couldn't stomp out Map Hacks and all that jazz in Diablo 2.
I don't care about in-game auctions much, don't plan on buying items, never have. Hopefully it'll cut number of bots spamming chats with item crap. I have to agree with Penny Arcade guys, this is a really roundabout way of introducing microtransactions. The only thing that grates is that they did announce that a week after I placed the pre-order. Sigh. Mist Wrote:Heh, Blizzard seems to have better PR people than Ubisoft, that's a much nicer way to spin an 'always online' DRM. I don't believe for one moment it's to keep people from cheating on their charactersAgreed. They could have allowed offline characters for offline play without letting them have access to online play, and only let online characters interact with other players or the auction house. They didn't, and it's clear it's a stupid anti-piracy measure instead sugarcoated by euphemistic PR talk. In addition, I don't like they added even more colors, speed and WoW-like design to the game. I'll pass, and grieve for the gothic, tactical masterpiece Diablo I had been.
There are two kinds of fools. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, "This is new, and therefore better." - John Brunner, The Shockwave Rider
Dr.Disaster Wrote:I'll refer to the points from that article: I think these two match my own feelings - I object to both on principle, but I'm rarely gaming where I can't get online, so it doesn't phase me much. The auction house... I find the idea mildly intriguing because it reminds me a lot of the farmville model, where you can pay money to not play the game. So I'm interested in learning how it actually works out for other people. I don't expect to touch it at all, at which point the question is how bad are the secondary effects.... Quote:Since no-one can join your game of Diablo 3 without your permission, grinding gold farmers wonât be as intrusive as in the public world of WoW. If that really means what it seems to on the surface, then I don't think I'll be affected at all.
I would like to see a demo first or at least some video reviews so that I can judge the art style and gameplay a bit before buying, but I agree that most of the concerns I've seen posted so far don't especially bother me personally. I can certainly understand why they might bother someone else and why they might not want to support games that do have these sorts of issues. But I've never cared much about modding, or DRM-by-net-connection, or what other people do with their items. While real money traders will certainly influence the AH economy, I've never been one to buy overpriced items for either cash or gold, and I'm used to largely making do with what I find for items anyway. When it comes to games like Diablo, it's not the destination -- it's the journey.
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