official Diablo III

[Miuku.]

Its a stress beta. do you not understand what that means ?

And do you not understand they've had almost 16 years of "experience" in developing a gaming network infrastructure with the last 7 years of running of a multi-million player MMO.

At this point, I would expect them to do a little better. You know, people tend to learn from their mistakes - Blizzard doesn't seem to do so, every single launch they've had - let it be a beta or normal has been a complete and utter failure.

[hjf288]

Wheres the Matriachs bone and jar quests?

[xplatinum]

And do you not understand they've had almost 16 years of "experience" in developing a gaming network infrastructure with the last 7 years of running of a multi-million player MMO.

At this point, I would expect them to do a little better. You know, people tend to learn from their mistakes - Blizzard doesn't seem to do so, every single launch they've had - let it be a beta or normal has been a complete and utter failure.

same could be said about CoD on launch day. I don't think it has anything to do with blizzard. That's just how things happen with massively popular games.

Having experience with WoW has nothing to do with Diablo. You don't even know if it's the same netcode, the engine is not the same. WoW works with realms. You have no clue how D3 operates in the background. You are comparing apples and oranges.

[firey]

And do you not understand they've had almost 16 years of "experience" in developing a gaming network infrastructure with the last 7 years of running of a multi-million player MMO.

At this point, I would expect them to do a little better. You know, people tend to learn from their mistakes - Blizzard doesn't seem to do so, every single launch they've had - let it be a beta or normal has been a complete and utter failure.

You do know that WoW != D3. Yes the same company makes it, but they are different teams, different technologies, etc. You do know how bad WoW's WOTLK launch was right? Before it was even launched the 4.0 patch more or less crippled wow, and that was their second expansion so they had already done it once before.

People learn from their mistakes yes, but D3 mistakes aren't WoW mistakes. Also there are plenty of times I have written code that works perfectly and is awesome as a few use thing. Then once it becomes stressed the cracks show.

Also, these breaks now are to ensure that when D3 launches officially there are no problems. I'd much rather it crash now than in a month when it has gone gold.

[Jaybonaut]

And do you not understand they've had almost 16 years of "experience" in developing a gaming network infrastructure with the last 7 years of running of a multi-million player MMO.

At this point, I would expect them to do a little better. You know, people tend to learn from their mistakes - Blizzard doesn't seem to do so, every single launch they've had - let it be a beta or normal has been a complete and utter failure.

Ok I just saw this thread and this post and had to jump in.

The development teams are different. The WoW devs, which DO rotate in and out like every other gaming company, had very little to do with Diablo 3.

[Amarok]

And do you not understand they've had almost 16 years of "experience" in developing a gaming network infrastructure with the last 7 years of running of a multi-million player MMO.

At this point, I would expect them to do a little better. You know, people tend to learn from their mistakes - Blizzard doesn't seem to do so, every single launch they've had - let it be a beta or normal has been a complete and utter failure.

The StarCraft launch was pretty smooth. Every game has bugs when it launches, and just about every game has issues when it launches. The entire point of a stress test is to stress the servers so that they can get a better understanding of the limitations. More or less the servers are supposed to crash during the stress test. That's why there is ONE gateway in the stress test for the entire world. They want to see what happens when a heap of people from all over the globe log-in to one gateway. If you understand that and you still fault them for there being connection issues ... well then I don't really know what to say to that.

[Teebor]

I was undecided if this game was for me or not (I loved the original two) but after playing it on this weekend just gone I can say that it does not feel like Diablo at all

Sure it looks, Sounds and even plays like Diablo but its heart is gone. The dumbed down levelling experience I think is partly to blame for that

But, and I know it was a stress test weekend, the fact that if servers are offline you can't even play single player was a massive pita

On the Pro's side it does look amazing, and the remixed music again like D2 was good

But revisiting Tristram again I thought felt tired, and Leoric.. AGAIN?

[firey]

I was undecided if this game was for me or not (I loved the original two) but after playing it on this weekend just gone I can say that it does not feel like Diablo at all

Sure it looks, Sounds and even plays like Diablo but its heart is gone. The dumbed down levelling experience I think is partly to blame for that

But, and I know it was a stress test weekend, the fact that if servers are offline you can't even play single player was a massive pita

The dumbed down leveling system is Blizz's way of attracting kids. They are doing the exact same thing with WoW.

I was a little iffy after reading some of the comments, but playing through the open beta was awesome. Went through and beat it with every class, and I was not dissapoint. I even the whole thing! I bought the year wow thing so that I could get a copy of D3 more or less free, and I am very glad I made that decision. Between D3 and GW2 I am set for the next couple years I think.

[Osiris]

Really, show me a game these days where it hasnt been dumbed down? Game developers want to target the largest audience possible and that means going for casual gamers who have the attention span equivalent of a gnat. Im stirring dont want to get into a hardcore/casual debate but I think the trend to simplier games (especially in the rpg genre) is pretty common unfortunately. I never thought Diablo or D2 was terribly complicated...D1 could be considered a click n slash bash really so it sort of stumps me how it needs to be dumbed down but yeah I like the lore and storyline so ill buy it. If I get into MP again all the better, if not oh well.

[Shaun N.]

Got to level 8 - I wasn't too impressed. I guess I could play it when I have nothing else to do. Like during maintenance.

[SMELTN]

I played it as well this weekend with 3 other friends and that was fun. We would all go through and level up a class to lvl 10 together completing the game each time, then everyone would pick another class and do it all over again. I have never been a huge fan of top down point and click type games like Diablo until I played Neverwinter Nights. This weekend didnt change that. While the game looks cool, music is great, and the overall game play was fun, it still isn't right for me.

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

While i agree that the leveling system is rather dumbed down, to me it does not take away too much from playing the game. Although I can say that I liked the leveling system earlier in the beta rather than how it is now.

As far as the stress testing if anyone read the forums while they were doing it you would learn that they purposefully used less hardware than needed and then slowly added in new servers to handle the load. They mentioned the reason for doing this was so they would know how many servers to have ready on release day.

[Minifig]

Really, show me a game these days where it hasnt been dumbed down?

As you wish.

[2xSilverKnight]

As you wish.

And that looks boring as hell !

It's true, games are dumbed down in these modern days. It used to be harder to finish a game.

This explains it very well, and also talk about one of the greatest game of all ;)

[watchthisspace]

My issue with the 'online al the time' thing is that in NZ we have still got capped internet and the largest plan here at most ISP's for a reasonable price is 80GB. So I dont know how much data Diablo 3 will use but with the game, email, normal web traffic etc 80GB may not be enough.

Also if they are eventually or will straight away start charging for access to the servers to be able to play like the do for WoW, then shouldnt the game be free? I mean they will make a truckload off the monthly subscriptions for access to the servers to play the game, and charging for the game itself seems rude. Yes they need to be compensated for their time and expertise and IP, but surely with potentially hundreds of thousands if not millions of people playing the game the world over, they would make more than enough from the subscriptions.

If I have to pay to play, then I expect to not pay for the game, if I play the game locally and have no need to connect to their servers then I expect to pay for the game. Will be waiting before buying, which sucks as I really liked and still play Diablo 2

I know your pain and I'm in NZ too. I got a little ****y when playing the Beta it was lagging out, even thought I was playing single player.

[Amarok]

A couple years ago someone tested how much bandwidth WoW uses over the course of a month while raiding regularly. I would assume that just given the nature of WoW it would be sending and receiving a lot more than Diablo 3 which is a much smaller game. Anyway WoW used less than 1GB/month at the time.

[HawkMan]

Since EVERYTHING you do in diablo 3 is done on the server, it would be about the same as WoW. Which in itself is ridiculous and blizzards reason forint just as much. They should have done what they did with diablo 1 and 2 and what he'll gate did. You have online characters that you can use in online matches and are guaranteed to be cheat free. Then you have separate offline(LAN) characters that are ony usable in single player and local LAN games. There no reason for them not to have done this. Well except pirates. But pirates don't in any way affect legal gamers do they....

[firey]

But pirates don't in any way affect legal gamers do they....

Not at all. I mean if a pirate is playing a game on their lan with some buddies, it doesn't affect my game. If they are playing single player doesn't affect me. Can't play online unless it's a legit copy so doesn't affect me.

On a side note, can anyone point me in the direction where Blizz is considering charging for d3 use?

[freedonX]

On a side note, can anyone point me in the direction where Blizz is considering charging for d3 use?

I have not heard such thing. Only charge/ fee there is, is when you buy the game.

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

On a side note, can anyone point me in the direction where Blizz is considering charging for d3 use?

They have stated several times that they will NOT charge monthly for the game and that unlike Diablo 2 Characters will NOT be deleted after X amount of time.

[firey]

They have stated several times that they will NOT charge monthly for the game and that unlike Diablo 2 Characters will NOT be deleted after X amount of time.

That's what I had read, and heard. I heard their thing is more the "pay to win" idea. Pay real money (to other players) get awesome items, win the game.

However, the post a few above mine was talking about subscriptions, thought maybe I missed the memo.

[HawkMan]

Not at all. I mean if a pirate is playing a game on their lan with some buddies, it doesn't affect my game. If they are playing single player doesn't affect me. Can't play online unless it's a legit copy so doesn't affect me.

On a side note, can anyone point me in the direction where Blizz is considering charging for d3 use?

Except in this case they caused us to not have a local option and your entire game happens online. How annoying is it to have lag in your single player game because blizzard wanted to stop pirates dead.

[firey]

Except in this case they caused us to not have a local option and your entire game happens online. How annoying is it to have lag in your single player game because blizzard wanted to stop pirates dead.

That's fair, but the thing is people are still going to pirate, people are still going to play private servers, blizz's protection ultimately does nothing. Personal servers will come out letting you play 100% local. I mean I know of a couple already in existance.

[Kirkburn]

I sure would love to understand how D3 is 'dumbed down' compared to D2, which had so much depth at level 1-10. Oh ... wait, it didn't.

Don't judge the depth of a game by the experience of a brand new character playing the first hour of the game.

On server lag: for the final release, it'll have servers across the world, and more of them.

[firey]

I sure would love to understand how D3 is 'dumbed down' compared to D2, which had so much depth at level 1-10. Oh ... wait, it didn't.

The dumbed down has to do with the set skill style. You gain this skill at this. However I can see the customization especially with the runes. Some runes work better in certain situations, and with the "Selective Mode" you can place any skill in any place so it makes it a bit more flexible.

I think the dumbed down part is the removal of trees, and a very fixed path of what you get, and when, and how you are supposed to use it. You don't pick stats, you pick which of the spells you are given you put on your bar. And unless you enable an option, you are told which spells go where.