Blizzard says it was wrong to include offline mode in Diablo II

Russ Boswell

Posts: 109   +0

It isn't exactly news that a lot of the Diablo fanbase was disappointed with the release of Diablo III. Blame it on the lengthy development period, or the daunting task of creating a sequel to Diablo II. But aside from that there were two major issues that upset Diablo players, the auction house and the lack of an "offline" game mode.

One of those problems will soon be a thing of the past come March 2014 as Blizzard is finally set to close an auction house that has seen almost nothing but ire since it released with the title back in May 2012. The ability to "buy" the best possible armor and weapon combinations with real money upset a lot of hardworking players, not to mention it hurt the title's in-game gold-based economy.

But what of the other glaring issue? Blizzard developers have remained vigilant in enforcing their "always online" policy in Diablo III and it doesn't seem likely that they will be doing away with it anytime soon. In fact, according to one Blizzard team member, it was a mistake to even offer an offline mode in Diablo II.

In an in interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, lead designer Kevin Martens addressed the offline/online predicament with the Diablo series and made his stance very clear too:

"I don’t think people necessarily remember how mad they were that they had an offline mode and online mode in Diablo II. People will be like, 'I wasn’t mad!' But I was there at the time, and then I studied this for a living. It sucks when your friend or brother is online and he wants to join this game, but you realize you’re an offline character and he’s an online character, and there’s no way to transfer over because offline characters can be hacked and hex-edited to hell and back, right?"

That small rant displays how Blizzard feels about possibly implementing an offline mode into Diablo III. Keep in mind that there is already an offline mode available for the console versions of the game, which may offer a slight hint at the differences in development between PC and console, since it appears to be much easier to include an offline play option for stand alone gaming units.

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If he has so good memory perhaps he might also remember that 13 years ago a quite significant number of people where on dial-up, me included.
And to this day there are people still on connections which are so poor that an online-only mode is a major inconvenience at best, or deal breaker at worst.
 
Even with on-line games, I have a tendency to solo through it. I'm not interested in on-line only modes. This only shows how Blizzard doesn't have my interest at heart, no matter how insignificant it may be.
 
Indeed same here cliffordcooley infact when I got my preordered copy of Diablo III on launch day I could not play it because the servers where overloaded. I got so turned off so I put the game away and did not start playing it until last week!
 
This whole 'forced connection' debate sounds like something that would be debated either way. if offline were allowed there could be hacked players, cheating, and probably a bunch of other issues we don't know of right now. And if that were the case, we'd all be complaining about those.

I know no one likes being forced to do anything like being 'forced' to play online. But online gaming has trade-offs, and for every vocal complainer there are dozens who don't care. They do their best to please as many as they can, and that's all they can do. A solution that makes everyone happy is a fantasy.
 
Ugh these guys are so disconnected from reality by now I can't take a word they say seriously anymore.

Not even going to bother with the expansion since the core of the game is flawed.
1. No choice on builds, manually change stats.
2. Loot drops are too random and too much, yellow items drop every 7 seconds and are totally useless. Drop me one every 20 minutes that actually does something!
 
This whole 'forced connection' debate sounds like something that would be debated either way. if offline were allowed there could be hacked players, cheating, and probably a bunch of other issues we don't know of right now. And if that were the case, we'd all be complaining about those.

I know no one likes being forced to do anything like being 'forced' to play online. But online gaming has trade-offs, and for every vocal complainer there are dozens who don't care. They do their best to please as many as they can, and that's all they can do. A solution that makes everyone happy is a fantasy.


...but I believe
This whole 'forced connection' debate sounds like something that would be debated either way. if offline were allowed there could be hacked players, cheating, and probably a bunch of other issues we don't know of right now. And if that were the case, we'd all be complaining about those.

I know no one likes being forced to do anything like being 'forced' to play online. But online gaming has trade-offs, and for every vocal complainer there are dozens who don't care. They do their best to please as many as they can, and that's all they can do. A solution that makes everyone happy is a fantasy.


...but I think that "always online" is the choice that makes them most happy than the rest of us. It has so much less to do with our security than protecting their product (and cash flow) from "freeriders". Always online is a move further from your customers and closer to greater profitability. Nothing more.
 
If he has so good memory perhaps he might also remember that 13 years ago a quite significant number of people where on dial-up, me included.

I'm included in the lucky dial-up users of yesteryear as well. Until we got DSL about a year after I got Diablo II, I had to just play offline mode.

I personally don't have a huge problem with online only games... when they work - I'm looking at you Blizzard and EA. I'll start getting fully on board with online only games when terrible launch problems, constant server crashes, and general server-side failures aren't the status-quo.

If you want me to buy into your *Insert AAA Title here* online only game, then fix your servers so that I can actually play within the first month without being disconnected constantly or just generally unable to play.
 
Wow Blizzard

Diablo 3 version PS3+xbox360 = has offline mode up to 4 players, can transfer save game via USB.
 
Oh yeah, sure... game would have been so much better playing on 56k modems. 128k isdn for the rich ppl.

I guess blizz got fire in the bong again ;)
 
Blizzard is as greedy as EA and they're more arrogant than Capcom! The team that made Diablo II is gone with the wind and Activision bought the company. Blizzard isn't Blizzard anymore, just like Bioware isn't Bioware after EA bought them and fired everybody! Brand loyalty is a disease of the brain, and I've suffered this affliction long enough. Blizzard is joining EA and Capcom on my boycott list.
 
It sucks when your friend or brother is online and he wants to join this game, but you realize you're an offline character and he's an online character, and there's no way to transfer over because offline characters can be hacked and hex-edited to hell and back, right?
lol, then let his brother connect thru LAN so the can both play offline... or let the other brother quit offline play, go online so they can both play at the same mode of the game.... no hassle. :)

pure online 5uck5.
 
Wow, its quite amazing how stupid blizzard is. Hmm, looking for a system where you can play with your friends and family without worrying about hackers... Ever hear of this new thing called Co-op? Its a shame that the majority of games out there overlook the fact that people want to play with their friends (you know the real ones that you know "IRL") instead of a bunch of whiny teenagers or hackers. That's the whole reason games like DayZ have private server hacks so people can play a fun game without the people who make games unbearable... I'm looking at you CoD.
 
Offline mode = bad? What a crock of ****!!! Not everyone enjoys playing online, I for one HATED IT for the most part. It had it's moments, but the huge amount of gold sellers/gear sellers that spammed every chat room was far too annoying for my liking and I was glad to have an offline mode to play at my leisure without the spam. I also had some online characters for playing with friends, so again, this idea that we only had ONE character, off line, and that ruined it for online play is a lame *** excuse! I HATE having to connect up to play a game. I played D2 FAR MORE than D3, I levelled a toon to 40 in D3 then never played again since, but I played D2 a lot and still boot it up every once in a while... OFFLINE... and love it.
 
This whole 'forced connection' debate sounds like something that would be debated either way. if offline were allowed there could be hacked players, cheating, and probably a bunch of other issues we don't know of right now. And if that were the case, we'd all be complaining about those.

I know no one likes being forced to do anything like being 'forced' to play online. But online gaming has trade-offs, and for every vocal complainer there are dozens who don't care. They do their best to please as many as they can, and that's all they can do. A solution that makes everyone happy is a fantasy.

Why would I complain if someone hacks their offline character? People done it all the time on Diablo 2 and it didn't bother me in t he least, why would it? It's OFFLINE... it doesn't effect anyone but the person playing the character. This is flawed logic. So long as the offline characters are kept separate from online characters, who cares about hacked offline characters??
 
Blizzard held characters online in diablo 3 so they could easily have offline characters that didn't interfere with the online server characters. I don't remember that being the case in diablo 2 or the online characters were stored locally ya some point and uploaded when you finished played. Either way that was poor and they should have seen the hacks coming.

This article title should read "Blizzard deny online only mode for Diablo 3 purely for DRM, points to Diablo 2 in lame attempt to pull wool over gamers eyes".

The console version needs a copy of the game disk to run so they don't mind offline coop. There's your DRM. The PC needs a constant connection with an account created with a cd key. It's all about money so I wish they wouldn't just make **** up. We ain't stupid.
 
"since it appears to be much easier to include an offline play option for stand alone gaming units."

Who are you kidding? easier? hahaha Look, pc or console has nothing to do with whether or not it is easy or its hard to make a game to play offline. It has everything to do with software piracy and corporate greed. Blizzard is slowly loosing its main cash cow base - yeah people are quitting world of warcraft. They arent stupid. they are going to make everything forced online. they are afraid of software piracy and I cant blame them considering how greedy they are and how expensive D3 still is.

Once D3 is selling for less than 10 bucks, I'll buy it. Because the game is so linear its not worth much.
 
Why would I complain if someone hacks their offline character? People done it all the time on Diablo 2 and it didn't bother me in t he least, why would it? It's OFFLINE... it doesn't effect anyone but the person playing the character. This is flawed logic. So long as the offline characters are kept separate from online characters, who cares about hacked offline characters??

You'd complain if they weren't offline. You'd complain if their hacked character ended up online, or you'd complain if your character was no longer allowed online because you hacked it. It's not my argument, it's right out of the quote from the game's lead designer.

My whole point was, they know more about this than you. You have a little information and therefore you think the solution is easy. It's not. Don't you think there must be a valid trade-off for requiring a connection? By doing so they upset many of their customers, so we have to believe their solution in is the best interest of the greatest number of people. Or you'd have to argue that Blizzard is in the business of p!ssing of their customers and not selling games, which we know isn't true.

Maybe they did it to prevent pirated games, in which case you should be upset at the thieves.

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong." Not my line either, but it's true, and it applies here.
 
I think Diablo II is the game I have played the most .. ever. And I only played it in offline solo mode. I also played WoW a lot and again only in solo mode. Then Skyrim was awesome. And I have recently spent at least 4 months playing Guild Wars 2 as a solo player. I have no interest in joining guilds or parties -- I play to enjoy the story and the gameplay and to try out different characters and races and classes. If you enjoy the fantasy RPG big world type of game, then I do recommend GW2. Unlike WoW, it's a once-off purchase, no monthly subscription. But it's an MMO, so you do have to be online.

I think Blizzard realise people are moving away from the monthly subscription model as it is difficult to justify spending $300 on one game over a 2 year period. The RMAH in D3 was an experiment to find an alternative revenue stream and I hope it has backfired for them. There are plenty of free games out now that are pay to play or pay to win. But we also need quality games that are not going to bleed us dry after the first purchase.
 
If Diablo 3 had actually taken inspiration from Diablo 1 and 2, I might actually care. But as it stands, Diablo 3 is a big pile of ****. I'll stick with Path of Exile which is also an online only game (however it is free to play, so you can't really complain). PoE destroys D3.
 
Ppl were expecting D3 to be a life changing event but it's just a game. I took it as a game and I had a lot of fun, and that is despite me being in my 30's and having played all the others to the death in my prime days. Highly underrated game imho.
 
Ppl were expecting D3 to be a life changing event but it's just a game. I took it as a game and I had a lot of fun, and that is despite me being in my 30's and having played all the others to the death in my prime days. Highly underrated game imho.
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuude, you said it all.
I played this game from beginning to end with my girl and we had a blast!
We're planning to do the same with Path of Exile
 
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