I'm *only* interested in single-player and LAN play for D3. I have absolute zero interest in playing any game online with strangers. These announcements are throwing me very strongly from my original plan to purchase two copies of D3 - yes, purchase, at retail - and the player's guide, immediately upon release. Now I'm thinking I would be much, much better off to wait a few weeks (days? hours?) and download the cracked-for-offline-play version, or just not bothering at all. Blizzard is going from getting around $150 from me upon D3's release to getting a goose egg.
The killers here are the lack of LAN play, the 10-character limit (which is absolutely mindblowing - can I at least delete them and rotate, or do Activision's beancounters expect me to buy another copy of D3 if I want to replay with different skill builds for an 11th time?), and the always-connected requirement. None of those are acceptable. They aren't even up for discussion for me.
I don't care at all about the auction house, because I don't play online, so I'm not concerned with keeping up with the latest 'leet loot all the twelve-year-olds have. See how it all comes in a circle?
Blizzard, it's not too late. One of your own VPs is explicitly telling me not to buy this game. "I want to play Diablo 3 on my laptop in a plane, but, well, there are other games to play for times like that", indeed. There are lots of other games. I wanted to play this one, but you don't want me (or anyone else in my family - I'm the head of a household full of game geeks) to do so.
I will never let another piece of Sony hardware or software into my house. The last Sony product I purchased was a spindle of blank discs, not long before the rootkit fiasco came to light. I used them (they were already paid for, after all), and haven't purchased a Sony product since. I've explained the reason why to lots of people over those six years, too. Even non-geeks get it when you explain that this company put a piece of software on people's computers that allowed them (or anyone else) to pop in and have a look around the place.
I'm guessing that if John Q. Hacker had written a wildly popular shareware game that happened to install a similar bit of nastiness, he'd be in prison for a very long time yet to come. The same should have happened to everyone involved in the Sony rootkit. Their executives should have been in prison, their corporate charter should have been revoked, and all assets of the company should have been liquidated.
Their claim that consumers shouldn't have cared, because most of them don't even understand what a rootkit is, betrayed the extent of their arrogance and evil.
So this study determined that people who are prone to addictive behaviour - yes, 120+ texts per day would count - are prone to addictive behaviour.
That’s some good science, right there.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm *only* interested in single-player and LAN play for D3. I have absolute zero interest in playing any game online with strangers. These announcements are throwing me very strongly from my original plan to purchase two copies of D3 - yes, purchase, at retail - and the player's guide, immediately upon release. Now I'm thinking I would be much, much better off to wait a few weeks (days? hours?) and download the cracked-for-offline-play version, or just not bothering at all. Blizzard is going from getting around $150 from me upon D3's release to getting a goose egg.
The killers here are the lack of LAN play, the 10-character limit (which is absolutely mindblowing - can I at least delete them and rotate, or do Activision's beancounters expect me to buy another copy of D3 if I want to replay with different skill builds for an 11th time?), and the always-connected requirement. None of those are acceptable. They aren't even up for discussion for me.
I don't care at all about the auction house, because I don't play online, so I'm not concerned with keeping up with the latest 'leet loot all the twelve-year-olds have. See how it all comes in a circle?
Blizzard, it's not too late. One of your own VPs is explicitly telling me not to buy this game. "I want to play Diablo 3 on my laptop in a plane, but, well, there are other games to play for times like that", indeed. There are lots of other games. I wanted to play this one, but you don't want me (or anyone else in my family - I'm the head of a household full of game geeks) to do so.
-Zirbert
I will never let another piece of Sony hardware or software into my house. The last Sony product I purchased was a spindle of blank discs, not long before the rootkit fiasco came to light. I used them (they were already paid for, after all), and haven't purchased a Sony product since. I've explained the reason why to lots of people over those six years, too. Even non-geeks get it when you explain that this company put a piece of software on people's computers that allowed them (or anyone else) to pop in and have a look around the place.
I'm guessing that if John Q. Hacker had written a wildly popular shareware game that happened to install a similar bit of nastiness, he'd be in prison for a very long time yet to come. The same should have happened to everyone involved in the Sony rootkit. Their executives should have been in prison, their corporate charter should have been revoked, and all assets of the company should have been liquidated.
Their claim that consumers shouldn't have cared, because most of them don't even understand what a rootkit is, betrayed the extent of their arrogance and evil.
Never, never, never forget what Sony did.
-Zirbert
So this study determined that people who are prone to addictive behaviour - yes, 120+ texts per day would count - are prone to addictive behaviour. That’s some good science, right there.