That's what this whole post is about.
Single player mode requiring online connection? Seriously? I dont see this going anywhere but the fact is it definitely stops piracy as most of the dungeons, monsters, loots are stored in server side and not client side.

No it doesn't. Eventually the content needs to be sent to your PC, and once on your PC you can save it to keep it there, then upload a "DRM-free" pirated version online.
Hey, I'm not versed up in cracking games and am opposed to piracy, but even I could defeat this system given enough time... and I'm not some reverse-engineering assembly-loving hex editor guru. It'd take me (someone with general programming experience but no DRM-circumventing experience) about a month to crack it, maybe two - and most of that time will be spent learning assembly, memory scanning, and network packets. People who are experienced with this can probably do it in 48 hours. I'm sure right now there are Diablo 3 cracks available.

Did you know there are World of Warcraft pirate servers? Servers reversed engineered and up and running? They don't even have the code for the WoW servers and they can still get at least something running! When the entire code for Diablo 3 is sitting on your computer, do you really think people can't reverse engineer it, capture the downloaded content, save the content, remove the download requirements and substitute loading from disks instead? Once one person does, they just upload their one DRM-free version, and whallah! Everyone has it.

It offers no protection long-term from pirates. The _best_ they can hope for is 72 hour protection. They dream of week-long protection, hoping would-be pirates get bored of waiting and purchase a legit copy.

No, if you want real protection, complete online content+code is the only real way, just streamming video downstream and user input upstream (OnLive / Gaikai). And if that is the future (it is), I don't want it. More and more control to companies, less to consumers, and less government intervention, and when they do intervene, they intervene on behalf of those with money (i.e. the companies). Horrible. No thank you.

That's what this whole post is about.
Single player mode requiring online connection? Seriously? I dont see this going anywhere but the fact is it definitely stops piracy as most of the dungeons, monsters, loots are stored in server side and not client side.

No it doesn't. Eventually the content needs to be sent to your PC, and once on your PC you can save it to keep it there, then upload a "DRM-free" pirated version online.
Hey, I'm not versed up in cracking games and am opposed to piracy, but even I could defeat this system given enough time... and I'm not some reverse-engineering assembly-loving hex editor guru. It'd take me (someone with general programming experience but no DRM-circumventing experience) about a month to crack it, maybe two. People who are experienced with this can probably do it in 48 hours. I'm sure right now there are Diablo 3 cracks available.

Did you know there are World of Warcraft pirate servers? Servers reversed engineered and up and running? They don't even have the code for the WoW servers and they can still get at least something running! When the entire code for Diablo 3 is sitting on your computer, do you really think people can't reverse engineer it, capture the downloaded content, save the content, remove the download requirements and substitute loading from disks instead? Once one person does, they just upload their one DRM-free version, and whallah! Everyone has it.

It offers no protection long-term from pirates. The _best_ they can hope for is 72 hour protection. They dream of week-long protection, hoping would-be pirates get bored of waiting and purchase a legit copy.

No, if you want real protection, complete online content+code is the only real way, just streamming video downstream and user input upstream (OnLive / Gaikai). And if that is the future (it is), I don't want it. More and more control to companies, less to consumers, and less government intervention, and when they do intervene, they intervene on behalf of those with money (i.e. the companies). Horrible. No thank you.