Hash Collision is the method that's currently in used to counter piracy. Participating in torrent with a hash colliding piece allows companies to force the torrent downloaders to download corrupted data. This method is currently in development, and will eventually stop lots of torrents from hosting torrents for copyright materials. Of course, the only way to use this method is to pretend to be a seed entering the system.

So no, I don't count the "record breaking sales" as any kind of valid measure of the worth of this game.

Neither do I. The worth of the game is irrelevant to my point. My point is a lot of people seem to be complaining bitterly about issues and then buying the game anyway.
BTW, I'm not accusing you of this.

[quote name='ChaosEngine' timestamp='1338245206' post='4944165']
Feels like there's a lot of noise being generated around this, but not much actual "not purchasing the game". Either that or their record breaking sales would have been even better without the drm.

Perhaps because it's possible to both like a game, and hate the way it's been crippled with DRM? (Plus the first buyers are not going to know until after they've bought the game.)

It seems perfectly consistent that more criticism is generated for the most popular games - of course you won't get much noise over a game that no one cares about.

Would not buying really help? Or would they just blame the lower sales on piracy, like they always do? What about games that get lots of sales without this system?
[/quote]

Well, not buying the game would give your argument a bit more legitimacy. Would they blame it on piracy? Probably. But it's kinda hard to take someone seriously when they can't even be bothered to stick to their guns (kinda like all those l4d2 boy-cotters who then pre-ordered the game in droves).


For the record, I haven't bought D3, but I was never really a big fan of the series anyway

Personally, I don't really care about always online DRM. I care about my experience. My gaming pc is always connected to the internet anyway. If I go out or go away, then I can just not play pc games. No big deal. I have a smartphone to keep me amused and playing a triple A game on a poky laptop screen defeats the purpose anyway.

Sure, though not everyone has the same views, or circumstances, as you do. And the examples given in the article show problems even when at home.
[/quote]

And as I said, this has been monumentally badly handled.

Honestly, I almost feel it is futile to try to bitch or whine about this scheme. While I hate it with a passion and want to burst into laughter every time I hear another reviewer say "lag" and "single player" in the same sentence, the endless masses of fans who ensure Diablo is the best-selling game ever, and will undoubtedly keep playing despite its crappy state, ensure that this practice only becomes more and more common. And the pattern has repeated enough times already, with the CoD MW2 boycott and L4D2 boycott - people bitch and whine, but ultimately give in. That is the way of the masses

Who cares what the metacritic score is, what your angry forum is yelling, and what the reputable news sources state; if you're rolling in more cash than ever before, that it all the incentive a business needs.

Honestly, it feels like they ran out of time and had to put out something for the money, and will be spending the foreseeable future, "finishing the game".

With increasingly DLCs and pre-order early access, we are entering an age where games are never really finished and you are effectively buying a Beta game. That will never come out of Beta.

I count it as a big scam; a flim-flam, if you will. A swindle. Had someone told me, "Hey, Blizzard is going to make you pay $60 for what you think is a complete game, only here's the rub: you'll have to nickel and dime yourself on the auction house if you want to complete it, because they are going to deliberately nerf your in-game drops based on the Auction House to force you to pony up additional cash," I would have given them a great big "Screw you, punchy" and walked away to spend that $60 elsewhere. Until yesterday, I had no inkling that they would do that; I was under the impression (as were many others) that the game I bought would be "complete", and the Auction House purely optional. To find otherwise honestly leaves me feeling like I've been punched in the stomach. It leaves me feeling ripped off. It makes me feel like I've been played for a fool.

after reading that, I'm left thinking "wtf". Can you elaborate on this, such as what's incomplete or how real-money extra costs are required?

after reading that, I'm left thinking "wtf". Can you elaborate on this, such as what's incomplete or how real-money extra costs are required?

Bashiok stated that the Auction House factors into the frequency/quality of items that are dropped in any given game:

http://us.battle.net...opic/5149013410

Given that this affects all players (the always online requirement) I am left in the awkward position of being one of those few guys that only plays solo, and refuses to use the auction house. That means I play with nerfed drops, without the counter (the AH) to balance it out. Is it silly of me to want to play without the Auction House? Yeah, maybe. I never traded in D2, either, but at least there my drops weren't nerfed to compensate for trading. I'm not in this to participate in some kind of virtual economy meta-game. I want to play the game by making use of what I find, self-sufficient and self-contained.

In fact, it boggles my mind that anyone would want to use the AH, rather than, you know, actually playing the game. Given that gear in D3 is the sole means of customizing your character, what you are doing by buying the best gear you can find on the AH is in effect paying to skip past the best parts of the game. The only reason you need gear is to be able to take on tougher enemies. Tougher enemies drop better loot, better loot helps you take on tougher enemies. It's a feedback loop that forms the very core of the game. The real money auction house allows you to skip all that and go right to "I win teh gmae!!!" Where's the fun in that? Blizzard has gone the route of free-to-play, pay-to-win, whatever you want to call it; only with the added fiendish cleverness of making you pay $60 bucks up front.

My character when I quit, in Act 3 Nightmare, was still wearing most of the equipment he was wearing when he finished Normal, because stuff just wasn't dropping. I was getting lots of loot, sure, but it was an overabundance of gear that was not an upgrade. Plenty of stuff with Strength; I even found a couple magic wands with +Strength. How stupid is that? Coupled with the lack of character customization, and the fact that the skills and runes I wanted to use had all been unlocked for quite some time, meant that I was effectively playing a character who had not progressed, at all, in over 10 hours. That's when I decided to hang it up. The feedback loop was broken, even though I wasn't using the AH to purchase "I WIN" gear. Now, sure, if I had grabbed my ankles, bit my lip and hung on I eventually would have squeezed out an upgrade. But 10 hours without any progress was enough for me. Funny that if they had retained the incremental upgrade system of D2s skill trees (instead of eschewing them in favor of this recycled FPS weapon loadout crap) I would have hung in there. The incremental progression would have kept me on the hook.

I guess I've kind of overreacted on all of this, though. I wasn't nearly as angry as I seemed to be. Mostly sad, because like many others I looked forward to this game for so long. But I'm pretty much over the whole thing now. Got my refund after a couple hours on the phone, I'll probably use some of it to buy Torchlight 2. That game, at least, is shaping up to be a worthy Diablo 2 sequel.

I reckon this'll be the last time I gripe about D3. Done is done. The world has moved on, the writing is on the wall.