I just hate blizzard all around.
I just hate blizzard all around.
They've explained quite a few times why they didn't want single player to be offline. You end up with problems like they had with D2, and where the user has access to data that makes it far easier to cheat in the online portion. By keeping nearly everything online it makes it easier to keep cheating / hacking to a minimum, as all queries have to run through the online servers.
As a programmer I can see why they would do it this way. You don't have to worry about essentially two separate forks, single player offline, and multiplayer online. While if it were me, I'd let the player do whatever the hell they want offline, and focus on protecting the online portion, I understand that by just doing that you are opening doors you could have kept locked by only having an online portion.
It just sucks they couldn't get the initial slam handled properly. Then again, if you create more servers, authentication, etc. than you need for launch, then in two months time you have a ton of idle servers you now have to figure out what to do with the hardware, even on a game as large as this. It isn't like Blizzard needs to be pinching pennies, but it is a business, and profits are what are important.
So while I understand why they are doing it, I don't necessarily agree with them doing it, but I also can't suggest a better method that would also solve the issues they were looking to handle.
One word: Piracy.
They think that, if you have everything online, it'll be harder to play offline, and thus, transfer it.
PS: It's called a "debugger" and "decompiler", Blizzard. Just strap a debugger on, rip the code, make an offline version.
Albeit you have to be a great coder to do that, but I know there are people who do that.
Yeah, the whole, "they could make it easy to cheat online if they play offline" is kinda bologna.
It's all a (poorly) veiled attempt and controlling piracy. I like to take my games offline and mess with them, modify them, and cheat at them (if I want). I bought the product so I should be able to do that.
They should just make the online and offline portions different with no character crossover. And it's not impossible to verify the legitimacy of what did and did not happen while playing offline.
The thing I hate most about this sort of thing is that it increasingly makes cheating at games immoral. It used to be that I could cheat at a game I owned by entering cheat codes or modifying some game code. Then, one day, gaming companies decide to sell cheats as DLC. I can buy a "free pass" to get past a level or get a hint. So, now, if I cheat, I am somehow stealing from the company. What the heck? I bought the game to have fun, if cheating (offline) makes it fun, why make me pay money to do it.
It's just dumb.
I can understand ONLINE cheating not being fun, but offline cheating or cheat tournaments with pals?
Age of Empires, anyone?????
Heck, I had some awesome time with some friends using C&C Red Alert back when dial up modems were the way we played multiplayer *shakes head*. We modified the game file to have v2 rockets that could shoot 3/4 of the way across the map and were cheap. Made for some epic, epic firefights. haha.
I for one loved the original Diablo. I never made it all the way through II though, and even though I was excited for this release, I think Blizzard killed it with the DRM. I guess I will just wait til it is cheap and try it then.
Centurion 5 Mod <<--- ON HOLD FOR THE WINTEROriginally Posted by Omega
What was fun in RA2, was when the "place buildings anywhere" bug was still working.
Apparently, there were 2 ways to execute it:
Click on building, click on ready paratroopers, click on minimap.
Click on building, click on tab, click on mainmap.
They say it's been done in the name of anti-piracy.
Who wants to bet there will be a cracked version available that allows you to play offline within the month?
These game companies are absolute morons. Anything you program can be un-programmed. You're not the only ones who are capable of programming stuff. So all you're doing is hurting your actual customer base while promoting piracy! Is that really so hard to understand? Honestly, I don't think they understand that and/or they believe something different, which is absolutely insane. I'm tempted myself to download the cracked version because of all of this.
It just baffles my mind that game companies are still trying. Do they think that we'll eventually just be so annoyed with this DRM crap that we'll stop pirating and call it truths if they go back to older ways? Uh, no. We'll just pirate even more so we can have the product that we should have had from the start.
On an unrelated note: My friend bought D3. He got to play for a bit, but now the servers are down again. World's most expensive login screen is all D3 is becoming.
if i could get my money back i definitely would. i stood in line for 2 hours had to wait another 3 to find out i couldn't play. then i played for 20 mins got kicked for server down time then i couldn't log on now i have to wait again.