Diablo 3 launched today to the excitement of many. I mentioned over the weekend that I wasn’t interested in it but was expecting to feel left out. Well, I’d forgotten about the always online DRM that Blizzard was building into the game. Despite the fact that you can play Diablo 3 completely single-player, you can’t actually play it offline. In effect Blizzard launched a single-player MMO today (an SPO?) and had the usually MMO launch issues, namely overwhelmed servers.
So instead of there being a deafening silence on Twitter as everyone was engrossed in playing, or having to read tons of messages about how amazing the game is, instead I was reading complaints about lag, server timeouts, and error numbers. It really reminded me of the original launch of WoW more than seven years ago, and made me wonder why Blizzard wasn’t able to prepare better. After all, surely if any game developer has the experience and resources to handle a massive launch it should be Blizzard. Right?
Personally, even were I interested in the game, I still wouldn’t be playing it as I really dislike the trend DRM is taking at the moment. At least Valve has built Steam to allow for offline play, surely Blizzard could manage something similar if they cared to. Or maybe it’s Activision that doesn’t care?
Either way, I hope that things calm down soon for those of you who want to play, so you can get in and get some quality time in-game.
Holy hell, long ass post eaten by by stupidity. Short version: I can play Titan Quest, Borderlands, Mythic, and a screaming ton of rogue-likes with ASKI graphics for free now. I haven’t seen anything that convinces me that DIII is the second coming of these types of games. In fact, I thought DI was much better than DII, and DIII seems to build on what I didn’t like in some ways.
I really have no basis for comparing the games sine the first Diablo-like game I remember playing is Torchlight. Ironically, I remember not spending a lot of time with it since there was no multiplayer.
Don’t worry, I’ll play enough for you guys! Believe me though, when things are running smoothly, the game is pretty awesome.
I’ll take your word for it. Glad you’re having fun though!