it's funny how nobody realizes this is about the gradual, yet 'forced', progression to ensure every single person on earth is connected online to the 'grid' to be able to track, trace and have a total information awareness network on everybody that exists..


and that's only the beginning lol..


after you are either forced or beg for brain-chips, you'll be connected fully all the time etc..

then the end-game ensues,

they flick the 'switch' and the borg-ification is complete..


enjoy diablo 3 lol..


(and yes, the 'cow' level is the analogy for all you goy/cattle lol that need to be herded about, enslaved or killed off lol..)

I'm tossed up on whether I'll buy Diablo III now.

With data caps being implemented by most ISPs constant connectivity requirements in single player games are asinine.

You think I'll waste my precious data on this video game, or any video game, when I want to play single player?

I use my connection for a lot of things, including my businesses. It's called "real life".

If I do buy Diablo III it will be rarely played, to be sure.

The lack of mods may actually put me over the edge on whether I'll spend my money on this game, and if Blizzard keeps this attitude in the future I may never buy another of their games again.

BTW....Torchlight 2 is beginning to look like a better deal to me after read this article.

A true console game

hello ...

pre-ordered Diablo III long ago (& still haven't finished D2 ) ...

I don't like an 'always connected' gameplay but my main game is City of Heroes, so doesn't really bother.

The trade system if it doesn't make it compulsory, would be just fine.

No MODs !!! Well I'm sure some people would find a way to do so with offline play, i just hope it doesn't do the reverse effect, i.e. Online ONLY to stop piracy (as if wasn't the real reason) & no mods that will push some people to crack the game to mod it then have offline pirate gamers!

OK mods aren't good for MP, it spoils the gameplay & makes it an unbalanced one, but i guess this will be replaced by the now inevitable DLCs !!! :S .. common Blizzard we are your fans, your customers & what's make a business are the cUStomers ... please do consider the US in it

Anyway won't cancel pre-order, i love the franchise & surely will enjoy the game.

cheers!

This is actually a huge step forward for gaming. I remember playing diablo 2 single player wishing I could use that same character on bnet, now you can. However those without internet will suffer. Instead of people buying characters and items illegally on ebay and other means they now offer a legal way to auction with real money. I hope they do not drop the ball on d3 like they did on sc2. Its been 10 years, 10 years! Make new characters, monsters, skills, bosses! Sc2 did not even get a new race after 10 years. If blizzard fails at making diablo 3 I am hanging up my gaming rig. More like selling it on ebay then returning to gaming when I retire. No mods no bots, Great! Lets see if they can live up to it. Hacks ruined diablo 2 then breathed new life into it giving it replayability.

What can you really expect though? The original diablo 2 staff has not even been with blizzard for 5+ years. After seeing how uncreative sc2 is, I believe blizzard hit its high water mark over a decade ago. They are my favorite gaming company and I hope they don't make my fears a reality.

Considering how much of a failure SC2 is for me (mostly story-wise, could've swallowed the art style if the lore was fine >.<, gameplay's good but not bw (not sure if the yet applies anymore)) and, well, activision... Let's just say that they'll have to pull quite the redeemer to get my money
As for the no lan/offline play/DRM - won't stop pirates but most people don't really listen...

I can picture it now, in game farmers that buy out auction house items for game gold and then resell it for stupidly high priced real money. I play World of Warcraft and see this sort of thing a lot. The greed has gotten ridiculous lately. If you try and be a nice person and sell things cheap to help out the community, someone will inevitably buy your cheap items and resell for a lot more. I would at least like to see anything that is sold in the auction house not be able to be resold in it. But I somehow doubt this will happen. There is no way in hell I will pay real money for an in game item, I don't like the idea that the person with the most money does the best in game.

I definitely don't like being forced to logon to play. I want to be able to play solo offline. I WAS looking forward to this game but I am not sure now. Forcing me to have to be online + real money auction house sounds like a deal breaker.

honestly... its not that hard to create an offline mode of the game that has no affiliation with the online mode.

Not a surprising decision.

Piracy on the PC is just one factor that will continue to kill off the PC gaming business. Many factors negatively impact games made for what used to be arguably the best gaming platform in the world. PC games are still successfully released, but with online checks and balances to ensure that the game is not adversely impacted by hackers. AAA Single player and multi player games hosted on player's PCs are in my opinion gone forever on the PC/Windows platform.

1. Supporting multiple gaming environments. The ability to create a challenging game that works for single player, multi player, and online players is difficult and expensive. The game balance is different when playing single vs multi player vs online. The cost to test and achieve game balance is costly both in amount of code and game testing time.

2. The increased testing matrix on the PC is hard to support, especially when you compare the PCs testing matrix to that of any of the consoles. Consoles have fixed hardware (relatively speaking), whereas the PC is wide open to millions of combinations of hardware from many vendors: system boards, chipsets, video, input devices, etc.

3. Unfortunately, the open environment that brought masses of developers to the PC (Windows) platform has also allowed hackers to break almost any security system on the PC, which then leads to piracy, cheating, and ruined game economies.

4. The cost of producing a AAA title these days is on par with that of a blockbuster movie. Who's going to risk that kind of investment on a platform that can be compromised by hackers. Piracy, game economy, cheating, are all aspects that hackers attack on the single player or client-hosted multi player PC game. Putting the game online allows developers to detect and control piracy, cheating, and game economy; which are some of the more important attributes that are critical to the success of a game.

5. Piracy. Software only hacks such as break once break everywhere (BOBE) spread easily and have little risk to the casual pirate to use. BOBE attacks are difficult to detect and remove, unless there is some online presence to the game. The efforts of one hacker can be used by literally millions of casual users. Software companies dedicate a huge amount of resources to fighting piracy, but not nearly as much as the hacking community. It's a cat and mouse game that will continue as long as the PC/Windows platform is open and has no secure mechanism for booting into the operating system (secure boot/hypervisor). Even then, the hackers will always be there...looking for a way to wedge their way into the system.

6. Cheating. No one wants to play a game where others are cheating and profiting at your expense. Many hacks on the PC are focused on cheating to gain an unfair advantage over other players, which can quickly take the 'fun' out of a game.

7. Game Economy. A game with a balanced economy is critical to keeping players interested and engaged in the game. When hackers can get the best weapons, artifacts, spells, etc, they destroy the game for others and frankly for themselves. the challenge to win the game switches from actually winning by the game's rules to the challenge of winning by hacking.

Let´s see
- Online only (no lan gaming in the cellar of my friend)
- real money auctions (guys with a lot of money will always have better equipment than I)
- mods forbidden (no additional value by great mods like Median)
- limited health potions (I need to watch out for some health bubbles monsters drop to get decent healing? Too consoly for me)
- no possibility to distribute skill points? all skills are acquired automatically when levelling up? (Sorry this game is too "accessible" for my taste. I prefer to decide by myself)

I might grab this game some time in the future. When it´s become cheap enough. But right now ? No Way

Probably this year my wallet votes for "Skyrim".
And if I want to play an ARPG It will probably be "Path of Exile".

DAMN. Game was looking so sweet too. ONLINE ONLY?! NO SKILL POINT CONTROL??
Kiss my *** blizzard.
Whats next, monthly subscription fees?

My friend was able to find a pirated copy of SC2 about a month after it came out. You could play the entirety of the single player campaign but without achievements and so on. He actually gave me a copy to play but I don't have it anymore--never played it, don't care to. Their ridiculous DRM caused me to not buy this game (maybe when it's 15-20$)--and I never cared as much about Diablo as I did their RTS games (I always played open Battle.net and never PvP so I never cared if anyone hacked their character or not--and I would play single player too). But thankfully the indie game scene is improving and starting to be more prolific and between Torchlight 2 and some free/open source RTSs, until Blizzard changes their stance they've lost me as a customer forever.

And how is this not a form of online gambling?

I have had a permanent broadband connection since 1999 and always played ladder (always closed online-only) and never used mods, so no difference to me

Yay for farmers! now they can really make actual money at ease

GG blizzard ^_^ diablo III will be ruined within weeks, but hey, it's all about milking the gamers right

I have never played Diablo, so can someone please explain to me why buying items and upgrades for your characters matters?

All I want is a single player campaign with story/missions like Warcraft III or Starcraft 2. I realize this isn't a strategy game, but is Diablo more like an open-world game like WOW where you explore the world to find bosses to fight and keep upgrading your character to level 80 (but the game never really ends) or it is more like a traditional RPG game with a campaign that has a beginning and an end?

I don't really care to play online with anyone, but I just want a good RPG with a long single player campaign like SKYRIM (doesn't have to be FPS style).