Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

[Aug 01, 2011, 11:14 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

There's a burst of new Diablo III information available today, as Blizzard brought some folks in to get a look at how their upcoming action/RPG is shaping up. IGN has a preview of the beta, as well as word that the game will require a persistent internet connection. "In both Diablo and especially in Diablo II, I think the intuition for a lot of people when they're playing the game is 'I want to make my character offline away from that scary battle net environment. And then once I have this powerful character, I'll jump online.' But the problem with that concept is we can't really detect if they're cheating. They might have the capability to hack their character, things like that, so at that point we can't really allow that character to be in the battle net environment. Then they're going to have to restart their character, which is exactly what happened in Diablo II, which was really unfortunate," explains Blizzard's Rob Pardo. "Your character will be online on battle net the moment you start playing. You can play a solo experience like you would in Diablo II, it's just your character is on Blizzard's servers and authenticated."

There's a post on Di abloFans.com with a big rundown on their experiences along with a FAQ, photos, video, screenshots, and interviews with the developers, taking extra effort to let you avoid major spoilers. There are many revelations, perhaps the most significant of which being the ability to buy and sell in-game items in the auction house for real money. Here's a bit from the FAQ on how this will work:

Don’t Need It? Put It Up For Auction!
Nearly everything found in the game, including gold, can be exchanged with other players directly or through the auction house system. So say you’re a witch doctor and you’ve just found an incredibly rare, incredibly powerful axe that only barbarians can use. In the previous Diablo games your best option might have been to sell the axe to an in-game vendor, but in Diablo III, you now have the ability to list that axe in the auction house for your fellow barbarian players to bid on. And you know another player will probably appreciate the true value of that axe more than some heartless vendor who’ll likely just melt it down for scrap….

Amazing Search Functionality
The auction house’s "smart search" functionality can automatically sort items in the auction house based on which upgrades would be most beneficial to your character. Also, searching for the best gear for multiple characters on the same Battle.net account can be done all from the same interface without having to log out.

The Choice Is Yours
Use of either the real-money or gold-based auction house is completely optional -- that decision can be made on a per-item basis, and both versions of the auction house are functionally the same. In addition, players have the option to simply sell the items they obtain to in-game vendors for gold. They can also trade items to other players through a direct character-to-character trading system in the game in exchange for gold, other items, or just an overwhelming sense of goodwill.

Players Only
Blizzard does not plan to post items for sale in the auction house. The driving purpose of the auction house is to provide players with a fun additional in-game option for what they do with the items they obtain in the game. Items sold in the auction house will be posted by players and purchased by players.

Safe and Sanctified
The real-money auction house provides players with an easy-to-use, Blizzard-sanctioned way to collect money for items they obtain while playing Diablo III. It also helps protect players from the scams and theft often associated with questionable third-party sites by providing a secure, completely in-game method for purchasing and obtaining the items they want for their characters.

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391 Replies. 20 pages. Viewing page 2.
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371.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 3, 2011, 05:41

Dev

Luke wrote on Aug 3, 2011, 04:49: They are NOT* going to do offline SP with D3. Give up all hope about it now.* And i am pretty sure YOU know that Yes I do, based on what blizzard has said. Such as the quote I linked a few posts ago about a blizz employee complaining he couldn't play d3 on an airplane flight since its NOT playable offline. That article was also linked on bluesnews front page. In addition to blizzard saying this is the case in multiple places in multiple ways (such as even this very story this thread is about), I also gave logical reasons why this MUST be so if they are to continue on the course of unified SP & MP characters and want to have real money involved.

370.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 3, 2011, 04:49

Luke

They are NOT* going to do offline SP with D3. Give up all hope about it now.* And i am pretty sure YOU know that

369.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 23:05

Mr. Tact

"Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

-- Andy Dufresne




Truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

368.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 22:14

Dev

Cram wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 17:37: The public outcry to RealID was enough to get Blizzard to change their plans. Granted, RealID was a serious privacy issue and one I personally believe is much larger then this consistent internet connection requirement issue. I think it is still possible that, perhaps not at launch but maybe through a patch in the future, enough outcry can change this in some way. I hope as much for those that want it anyway. Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 17:31: Yes, I agree there is an extremely high chance that will be the case. But I won't stop hoping until the release that someone at Blizzard "who matters" changes their mind. Yeah but the realID thing also had a bunch of legal issues in a number of european countries that blizz didn't bother to research before announcing stuff about it, it wasn't just the outcry. In fact, given the anti-customer stuff blizz has done with SC2 and doing with D3, I doubt the outcry was even the biggest reason. If it launches with this, its not going to change afterwards. It would require a large fundamental engine/game change to do so. It would also probably be dangerous to do so and give more information out on how the game works by storing everything locally, given the whole real cash stuff with the auction house. If the real cash thing hadn't happened, there might be a glimmer of hope, but since it has, there's none. Did blizzard add in LAN play to SC2 which had offline single player? NO. That would have been a far easier decision and far easier to patch, and it hasn't happened. They are NOT going to do offline SP with D3. Give up all hope about it now. This comment was edited on Aug 2, 2011, 22:20.

367.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 21:46

Agent.X7

Sepharo wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 19:36:
This post is now the 8th most commented in Blue's history and I'm not going to read any of it.

Who's winning?

The monkeys, same as always.




Seven Star Gaming - Sayre, PA

366.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 20:14

Pyloff

So who wants to get a D3 Blues team going? I've got the monk.

365.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 20:06

ASeven

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 19:53: Sepharo wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 19:36: Who's winning? Charlie Sheen. DUH! Biwinning!

364.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 19:53

Mr. Tact

Sepharo wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 19:36:
Who's winning?

Charlie Sheen. DUH!




Truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

363.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 19:46

space captain

this is what they mean when they say "panties in a bunch"




Go forth, and kill!

362.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 19:36

Sepharo

This post is now the 8th most commented in Blue's history and I'm not going to read any of it.

Who's winning?




[I'm not trolling I'm just] tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. -TrollinThundr

361.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 19:34

Luke

StingingVelvet wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 18:47: Even if they said they would patch out the online requirement after a certain amount of time I would probably buy it. So now you buy it ? , mkay

360.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 18:47

StingingVelvet

Even if they said they would patch out the online requirement after a certain amount of time I would probably buy it.

359.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 17:37

Cram

The public outcry to RealID was enough to get Blizzard to change their plans. Granted, RealID was a serious privacy issue and one I personally believe is much larger then this consistent internet connection requirement issue. I think it is still possible that, perhaps not at launch but maybe through a patch in the future, enough outcry can change this in some way. I hope as much for those that want it anyway.

358.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 17:31

Mr. Tact

Yes, I agree there is an extremely high chance that will be the case. But I won't stop hoping until the release that someone at Blizzard "who matters" changes their mind.




Truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

357.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 17:25

Dev

Cram wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 16:29: Yep. I acknowledged it was not the case a couple posts above the one you quoted there. Unfortunate it is. I know, I saw the year thing and the acknowledgment posts, but then I saw several posts where people were wishing out loud that it would still happen. So I thought I'd put any lingering hopes to rest and give an official blizz dev quote and link for the info that one can NOT play this game in offline mode in single player, like SC2 had. If they are going for unified characters between SP and MP and want everything to be stored and arbitrated by servers to avoid hacking because of real money being involved, it has to be that way anyway, simple logic.

356.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 16:29

Cram

Dev wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 14:39: Cram wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 03:28: StingingVelvet wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 03:17: So if I can install the game and activate it, then "go offline" and never need a net connection again, I will buy the game. Let's hope they confirm that. Nice to see a blue post about this, and hope it is confirmed. Bash has always been a bit...odd(?) about providing information and I definitely want a confirmation before I completely believe it. Diablo has always been a franchise I love and want everyone else to enjoy, so if this news is confirmed (Bash's post just isn't enough of a confirmation for me) and it is enough to help a few bluesnewsers here reconsider buying it, then awesome. Obviously if a blizzard dev is complaining about not being able to play diablo on a plane trip on his laptop... its confirmed to NOT be the case. Link Diablo 3 will also require a persistent Internet connection, and Blizzard's Rob Pardo agrees that it's kind of a pain in the butt. "I want to play Diablo 3 on my laptop in a plane, but, well, there are other games to play for times like that," Yep. I acknowledged it was not the case a couple posts above the one you quoted there. Unfortunate it is.

355.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 15:19

Rattlehead

Errr, isn't this the dude that proclaimed he worked for Blizzard awhile back Working for blizzard? Where the hell do you come up with this?

354.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 15:13

briktal

Dev wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 14:39: Cram wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 03:28: StingingVelvet wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 03:17: So if I can install the game and activate it, then "go offline" and never need a net connection again, I will buy the game. Let's hope they confirm that. Nice to see a blue post about this, and hope it is confirmed. Bash has always been a bit...odd(?) about providing information and I definitely want a confirmation before I completely believe it. Diablo has always been a franchise I love and want everyone else to enjoy, so if this news is confirmed (Bash's post just isn't enough of a confirmation for me) and it is enough to help a few bluesnewsers here reconsider buying it, then awesome. Obviously if a blizzard dev is complaining about not being able to play diablo on a plane trip on his laptop... its confirmed to NOT be the case. Link Diablo 3 will also require a persistent Internet connection, and Blizzard's Rob Pardo agrees that it's kind of a pain in the butt. "I want to play Diablo 3 on my laptop in a plane, but, well, there are other games to play for times like that," Well that original blue post was from last year, so things probably changed.

353.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 14:39

Dev

Cram wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 03:28: StingingVelvet wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 03:17: So if I can install the game and activate it, then "go offline" and never need a net connection again, I will buy the game. Let's hope they confirm that. Nice to see a blue post about this, and hope it is confirmed. Bash has always been a bit...odd(?) about providing information and I definitely want a confirmation before I completely believe it. Diablo has always been a franchise I love and want everyone else to enjoy, so if this news is confirmed (Bash's post just isn't enough of a confirmation for me) and it is enough to help a few bluesnewsers here reconsider buying it, then awesome. Obviously if a blizzard dev is complaining about not being able to play diablo on a plane trip on his laptop... its confirmed to NOT be the case. Link Diablo 3 will also require a persistent Internet connection, and Blizzard's Rob Pardo agrees that it's kind of a pain in the butt. "I want to play Diablo 3 on my laptop in a plane, but, well, there are other games to play for times like that,"

352.

Re: Diablo III Will Require Persistent Connection, Feature Cash Auctions, and More

Aug 2, 2011, 13:39

Creston

StingingVelvet wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 13:15: Rattlehead wrote on Aug 2, 2011, 11:14: Funny how people are now wrapping their lips around the Torchlight 2 cock since this announcement. Don't get me wrong, I love Torchlight but the series can't hold a candle to Diablo in terms of story, characters and well pretty much everything in general. Torchlight is pretty much filler until Diablo 3 comes out. It certainly is the best "Diablo Clone" but that it's, it will always be just a diablo clone. Baiting and vulgarity aside, I think it says a lot about your position in this debate that you already have Diablo 3 down as a great game way before you have ever played it. Errr, isn't this the dude that proclaimed he worked for Blizzard awhile back? So in essence he's then nothing more than that sad Bioware monkey who was writing love poems for Dragon Age 2 on metacritic. I might be wrong, there's so many trolls here. /still amazed there are people who haven't ignored him yet. Creston

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