First they require you to go online. Once you have a profile with all your save games in their servers, they start with offering microtransaction to do the most simplest of managing ur account and content ala wow. (download your saved games to yourlocal machine). Bottom line is, with this, were surrendering control to Blizzard and are at their whim and fancy. THey will eventually control everything and require us to pay for every tom d*** and harry thing. Look at the auction house for example. Its the beginning of the end.

Coz D3 backend is the same backend as WOW. Battlenet. One system to rule them all. You think if that was the case, Blizzard would have the Auction House? Blizzard anticipates that soon after finishing it, ppl will come back for more. Especially so when new contents are introduced. If D2 is any indication, ppl will be back for more looong after finishing it the first time. Yes auction house can trade in gold or cash. But dont you think that if a particular item is being featured in an only cash option, that ppl would not be tempted to spend moola? Worse of all, Blizzard gets a cut from whateve cash transaction. So yes it is a side option but BLizzard intention is to reverse psyche you in believing that. SO once you in, u have no choice coz by the time u realised it, u have invested in it too much.

Now im not against this if this was more the exception than the rule but seeing how all this is being set up, you cant help but wonder the intentions of this companies...especially so when Activision is involved...and u kno from history how they're like.

Im an avid Diablo fan, but having such a "be all and end all" system just ostracise the existing fans. Even more insulting is the guise that we actually have a choice when actually we dont. Yes, we have a choice to buy the game or not. But really is that what its come to now?

Now if you feel that you need to spend your hard earn cash on those additional stuff that by tradition is free, then by all means. But, i'd prefer to have a little bit of control and not having to pay for it. You may not see it now, but im willing to bet that things are just going to get worst from here on. If anyone things otherwise, do enlighten. Though 'You no moolah you don't use it' is hardly an argument. so weak.

. How you figure that?

k........whatever makes you happy man.

Its not only the auction house that is worrying me. Is the whole go online and store all ur content in the cloud that is the one that is actually worrying me. Imagine, if ActiBliz decide to do the unthinkable and start taking advantage of this fact. Restrict certain things we can and cant do. Charge us for things that may be the norm for PC since back when...The list goes on. And the best part is we cant really do anything abt it coz D3 is deeply embedded in the BattleNet infrastructure. No way of locally saving ur own characters or games. If we decide that ActiBlizzard is going too far with said actions or if somehow they decide to charge us monthly subscription, our copy that we buy of D3 would be just trashware. This not taking into account of other unforseen circumstances:

i) Network down
ii) company goes bankrupt
iii) Hacker to the network infrastructure

The list goes on

Microsoft tried this with Windows Game Live where they charge for subscription to play online with ur friends(ala Xbox live), but playing online with your friends have always been part of the PC gaming experience and we enjoy it for free long before. That was why Microsoft decide not to continue this. Acti Bliz Battlenet reminds me of this and the best part they aware and they are forcing it down our throats anyway.

I duno abt you guys but im the type of gamer who likes to keep a copy of any games bought on shelf for future play through again, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years down the road. I just duno if by then, ActiBliz would support D3 or any games currenlty on Battlenet then.

Subs just a 'what if' case. In the end, we cant really tell what this co will and will not do. To them, is abt earnings for the year to sate the shareholders. And earnings have to be better than the year before that. In a desperate case, wat is to say that they would not do the unthinkable. My point is more a lack of control on this unforseen things than one specific thing. The question is would you rather have them control ur content and saved game and potentially be able to twisting your arm to play your games on their terms or would you rather have control of ur own content and saved game and play on your own terms...barring not playing the game at all of course.

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Added on August 9, 2011, 10:16 amSupport the IP yes, but would they support their older games? look at Sony and support for PS2 games? Cant play em unless u have a PS2 or the older version of PS3.

Let me put this in perspective. Battlenet is their backend infrastructure. They need resources to maintain said infrastructure(Human resource, hardware etc). Resources need money. They will come a time when the number of users for said IP will no longer sustain the cost of maintaining this resources and also profits that they make. They will start to revamp said infrastructure to suit their business need and thus implement this in future iterations of the IP. Can we be certain that we will still be able to play the older iterations of this IPs? Would we leave it up to them to control that? Like i said, i can be pretty nostalgic and revisit this games in later years...but will i be able to play them in 20, 30 years time? Starcraft and Diablo 2 doesnt need battlenet to play as those contents and saved games are still stored locally (for single player games anyways). Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 is not. Yes we dont kno if this is the case in the far future, but i just dont like the fact that we are leaving all this up to them to decide.

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Added on August 9, 2011, 10:17 amLol. i want it. But i don wan the strings attached.

This post has been edited by used2bcow: Aug 9 2011, 10:17 AM

No doubt. Hopefully they will release a patch that removes all these restrictions or maybe handover the old battlenet servers over to fans to maintain down the line in the years to come. Seriously i do hope.

Yeah, wats with D1 anyways. Cant seem to find that on the new Battlechest. Only D2 and their expansion.

Sorry man..ori all the way.

For D3, they would need to patch no-connection required and also patch local save and load for content and save games. Im wondering how much effort that would entail and if they would go into all the trouble to do that. I hope they would do.

A guy can dream right

No doubt, BLizzard is doing a stellar job maintaining their servers and catering for the community, but this doesnt change the fact that some fans may want to just play it on their machines, locally and without the need for a connection. I respect your preference and gameplay type but you cant and for that matter, BLizzard cant ignore those who like it otherwise? But then they just did...so no love there...

The multiplayer content and the singleplayer content in D2 is the same...isnt it? So how is that superior when they are the same? Sorry for my ignorance but maybe there have been changes along the way from the first time it was released till the last update. Please do enlighten. I cant say anything much abt the quality of the singleplayer and multiplayer for D3, inferior singleplayer and superior multiplayer, cos honestly, i have not played the game yet....

They say they doing this to curb cheating for the single player toons(characters im assuming...duno the term, old fart here ) when going online. The way i see it, they could just as easily make it in such away that gives player a choice to store locally or in the cloud. All toons in local harddrive is not allowed to go multiplayer. My 2 sens. Seriously I cant comprehend as to how Blizzard go about in making decision that ultimately culminates to the now existing way of handling toons. All can say is it could have been handled better pleasing both old school and new. I guess that just the way of being the minority.

In the end, I really really want to play D3 becoz ive been a Diablo fan from the time of Diablo 1. But it really is a disappointment that Blizzard puts all these rules alienating some fans. I'd like to add that I'm not dissing your play style preferences or anyone else with similar taste. And im definitely not saying that new school is inferior to old school. I'm just saying that it would be great if Blizzard catered for the Old school of play.

I've got constant internet connection though the games i play dun require any internet connections, apart from the game updates from Steam.
I dont really play multiplayer games. Tried WOW and City of Heroes but didnt have the time to constantly play so the subscription was a waste. Ended up stopping after awhile. SO i guess less than 1%?

I dont play competitively so i guess the Ladder thing doesnt really appeal to me much. I play for the story. Maybe thats why adventure games and games with heavy story is more my cup of tea.

Anyways, regardless of the game modes, your argument is valid. Even though some ppl may not like it i see credence in your point.

For me, this is more a wait and see purchase. Want to see if the single player is worth the other setbacks.

Lol unfortunately cant read chinese. OCBC

Thanks for the recommendation though

K man thanks

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Added on August 9, 2011, 4:32 pmHmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....reminds me of a Cop show(criminal minds? Csi new york? Law and Order:SVU?). That...is...very possible....

This post has been edited by used2bcow: Aug 9 2011, 04:32 PM