
Diablo 3 DRM: Defective by Design - zoowar
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/diablo3
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gte910h
I love the "blizzard hosts the game" aspect of D3. Sure, the login servers
going up and down there was a bit annoying, but the HYPER social nature of the
game make is fantastic. It is almost impossible for me to play by myself (and
I mean that in a good way) due to friends constantly dropping in, doing a
level or so with me, then heading out. It has definitely consumed quite a few
evenings last week.

After _trying_ to play Magicka, Borderlands and Dungeon Defenders with
friends, but constantly being defeated from minor internet blips cancelling
games, I hope _all_ multiplayer games go this "must play on our servers"
route.

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ebbv
It's not really accurate to call the fact that you can only play online "DRM",
any more than being unable to play without a keyboard and mouse is DRM. It's
inherent in the game design, and it serves more purpose than just preventing
copying.

Blizzard actually has a pretty lenient and I'd say modern approach to DRM.
Which is that you buy a product key and you can then download and install the
game -- for Windows or OS X -- as many times as you want on as many computers
as you want. Any friend can come over and play on your computer on their own
account -- assuming they have a valid account -- by simply logging in. I think
that's pretty solid.

Now, whether you agree with Diablo 3's online only design or not is a
different story. But it's not a DRM issue any more than the fact that WoW,
EverQuest, Second Life or many other games cannot be played without being
online. To label it as a DRM issue is disingenuous.

Personally I think the Real Money Auction House is stupid, and it definitely
wasn't worth the tradeoff. But the decision has long since been made, the time
for this discussion was long ago when the RMAH was announced. It was obvious
at that time that local play would never be an option. People trying to have
this discussion now missed the boat.

But most importantly, on this or any other issue, be honest about the
discussion or you're undermining your point of view from the beginning.

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aqme28
_"But it's not a DRM issue any more than the fact that WoW, EverQuest, Second
Life or many other games cannot be played without being online. To label it as
a DRM issue is disingenuous."_

I disagree with this. EQ and WoW are fundamentally multi-player games. Without
multiple players, the game ceases to be anything special. In both cases, there
is extensive content that you _cannot_ complete without large raiding teams.

The Diablo series however has always been a single-player game with an added
multiplayer component. You don't need teammates to access any of the content,
and you never have. A large portion of players play the entire game _alone_ ,
which is something you could never even hope for in EQ or WoW.

I think a more apt comparison would be to something like Borderlands, which is
a single-player game that can be played cooperatively with friends.

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ebbv
It has no bearing whatsoever what previous games in the series were.

Previous WarCraft games before WoW were playable alone or on LAN or what have
you. WoW changed that.

Similarly, Diablo 3 has been designed from the start to be online only. You
may disagree with this design decision, and that's fine (I also don't think
the RMAH is worth it), but it's part of the design of the game.

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jsolson
I think the objection here is that the game isn't actually multiplayer by
design. There's nothing about the single-player gameplay that warrants
requiring an internet connection.

I actually didn't know it was online only, and I've been playing it for a
week. I had assumed (apparently incorrectly) that if I didn't have an internet
connection I could play in Offline mode. This is how single player titles on
other platforms (e.g., HL2 on Steam) work, and it seemed like a reasonable
assumption.

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Slackwise
> There's nothing about the single-player gameplay that warrants requiring an
> internet connection.

If your goal is to get the achievements and even touch the Auction House for
items [1], then yes, an online component is required. Diablo 1 and 2 had
issues with client-side item duplication cheats. With server-side handling of
item generation, that is no longer possible.

The only solution I can think of is letting players create entirely "single
player only" characters, which will never be available online. Otherwise
there's no (guaranteed) way to verify the save data hasn't been tampered with.

[1]: The Auction House dramatically amplify your statistics, as itemization is
always behind your current level. So the idea is players ahead of you can sell
items they find to the people behind them. Ultimately those ahead of everyone
are not finding 'gear' for their level [2].

[2]: Okay, so "Inferno" mode is a "flat" curve where everything is technically
your level, but the difficulty still ramps up, and item quality is still
behind the curve.

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aqme28
An important point to add is that a number of users have had their accounts
hacked. The current theory is that hackers are joining public games, gathering
some info on the players there, and then spoofing their credentials to the
server.

So while (and if) public multiplayer games aren't safe to play, this really is
an online-only singleplayer game.

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jameskilton
Blizzard has stated that this is not the case. All hacks have been by people
getting their passwords stolen, and all of the recent hacks have been without
an authenticator, or before one was added to the account.

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aqme28
Ah fair enough. I seem to have had some bad information.

