Ray Ban wrote on May 24, 2012, 10:51:

nin wrote on May 24, 2012, 10:42:

Ray Ban wrote on May 24, 2012, 10:36:
And the fun continues ...

www.gamebanshee.com/diablo-iii-hacking

To be fair to Blizzard, one thing I wasn't doing was using their authenticator or Battle.net SMS protection options.

If the holy Blizzard Authenticator is the only thing that can give you a reasonable protection from getting your account hijacked, shouldn't Blizzard then have made it mandatory?

Cutter wrote on May 24, 2012, 07:57:

Doombringer wrote on May 24, 2012, 01:16:
The best solution will likely be to cut down on distribution/packaging costs and move toward the download model (even allowing gamers to bring memory cards into stores to complete their downloads there), if games are going to be locked to an 'account' and no longer tradeable. Lower the cost per game to close the gap and gamers will have less to complain about. It's the $49-$59 pricetag that drives a lot of players to buy used or go the rental route, after all.

To save $5? Most of them probably spend that much on gas going to get the damn thing. And no company in this history of man has ever lowered prices when something got easier and cheaper to do. Only real competition drives the price down, otherwise they'll charge what they can.

nin wrote on May 24, 2012, 10:42:

Ray Ban wrote on May 24, 2012, 10:36:
And the fun continues ...

www.gamebanshee.com/diablo-iii-hacking

To be fair to Blizzard, one thing I wasn't doing was using their authenticator or Battle.net SMS protection options.

Ray Ban wrote on May 24, 2012, 10:36:
And the fun continues ...

www.gamebanshee.com/diablo-iii-hacking

To be fair to Blizzard, one thing I wasn't doing was using their authenticator or Battle.net SMS protection options.

Slippy wrote on May 24, 2012, 08:42:

Dev wrote on May 24, 2012, 01:55:
You must not read tech news sites or blues enough. There's been cases of nvidia drivers screwing up with the fan control on nvidia cards and heating themselves into perma hardware failure (you'd think video card companies would do minimal testing on a new video card driver , say by playing a game with them to see if they melt?). Nvidia even offered to replace cards that had that happened to them.

It would be incredibly unusual, I agree, but it does NOT have to be physical problems.

How is a fan not running NOT a physical problem? I know what you are getting at though... still that would be an extream exception and not a problem resultant from Blizzard. The way he wrote his original post made it sound like computer hardware is made of gel caps and choco-puffs.

Dev wrote on May 24, 2012, 01:55:
You must not read tech news sites or blues enough. There's been cases of nvidia drivers screwing up with the fan control on nvidia cards and heating themselves into perma hardware failure (you'd think video card companies would do minimal testing on a new video card driver , say by playing a game with them to see if they melt?). Nvidia even offered to replace cards that had that happened to them.

It would be incredibly unusual, I agree, but it does NOT have to be physical problems.

Doombringer wrote on May 24, 2012, 01:16:
The best solution will likely be to cut down on distribution/packaging costs and move toward the download model (even allowing gamers to bring memory cards into stores to complete their downloads there), if games are going to be locked to an 'account' and no longer tradeable. Lower the cost per game to close the gap and gamers will have less to complain about. It's the $49-$59 pricetag that drives a lot of players to buy used or go the rental route, after all.

Luke wrote on May 24, 2012, 03:26:
Will never happend , they said that about the bigbox art to dvd case all we got was higher prices.

Doombringer wrote on May 24, 2012, 01:16:

Prez wrote on May 23, 2012, 23:05:
I have mixed feelings about this amazing success. It's by no means a surprise of course, but the sheer magnitude of its success is astounding. On one hand it's awesome to see a PC game proving that PC gaming is alive and well. On the other hand, I worry that other publishers will extrapolate erroneous information from this and use it to further screw up singleplayer gaming. Diablo 3 was not a success simply because it can't be pirated; Blizzard is one of the biggest names in gaming and Diablo has a one-of-a-kind pedigree. Always-online singleplayer is a horrendously bad idea (and offensive to gamers) that needs to die, but I expect other publishers will feel this is a successful proof of concept for the hated practice.

We'll definitely see more of 'online authentication' and DRM-style locks, especially on consoles. As others here have said, publishers despise the secondary market that used games creates -- they see zero revenue from it. And really, I can't blame them for that.

The best solution will likely be to cut down on distribution/packaging costs and move toward the download model (even allowing gamers to bring memory cards into stores to complete their downloads there), if games are going to be locked to an 'account' and no longer tradeable. Lower the cost per game to close the gap and gamers will have less to complain about. It's the $49-$59 pricetag that drives a lot of players to buy used or go the rental route, after all.

theyarecomingforyou wrote on May 23, 2012, 17:06:
The auction servers have been unavailable for hours now in Europe. They went down briefly in the US but are apparently back up again. The European servers have had more downtime than the Americas and Asia servers put together. It's getting to be ridiculous. People have even lost hardcore characters due to server issues.

I love the game but Blizzard isn't even close to providing a decent level of service.

Slippy wrote on May 23, 2012, 17:53:
Melted your hardware?!?!?!?!?

WTF?

Dude you would have to have some serious hardware issues for something like that to happen... I like Blizzard personally but I'm not saying this for any other reason than hardware doesn't 'melt' unless you have some kind of serious physical problem with your rig.

Prez wrote on May 23, 2012, 23:05:
I have mixed feelings about this amazing success. It's by no means a surprise of course, but the sheer magnitude of its success is astounding. On one hand it's awesome to see a PC game proving that PC gaming is alive and well. On the other hand, I worry that other publishers will extrapolate erroneous information from this and use it to further screw up singleplayer gaming. Diablo 3 was not a success simply because it can't be pirated; Blizzard is one of the biggest names in gaming and Diablo has a one-of-a-kind pedigree. Always-online singleplayer is a horrendously bad idea (and offensive to gamers) that needs to die, but I expect other publishers will feel this is a successful proof of concept for the hated practice.

If you like single-player role-playing games--Skyrim stands at the summit of them all at the moment, as far as I am concerned. If you don't buy another game this year--buy Skyrim (it has enough content to keep you hooked for the rest of the year, all by itself, if need be.)

WaltC wrote on May 23, 2012, 20:09:

Slippy wrote on May 23, 2012, 18:05:
Hey Walt,
Been thinking about purchasing Skyrim... Didn't have any time to game when it came out and then just never got around to it. Use Fallout 3 as a comparison... I love that game... do you think I would like Skyrim?

Thanks for your input in advance!

Warning--I really like this game! What follows is me trying to temper my emotions so that I can give you an objective read. As you can see, I failed!...;)

It's great, Skyrim is great--I liked F3, too, and I've modded that one extensively, as well. I think, however, that F3 doesn't hold a candle to Skyrim. (To be fair, though, F3 is a different story and hits many different themes accordingly.)

Skyrim surprised me on so many levels that I'm still tallying them up...;) Skyrim is sort of like...let's say, maybe, Morrowind or Oblivion, except that in Skyrim everything is done right! For instance, in Oblivion I always felt like I was traveling these vast distances to reach these tiny alcoves of human (and otherwise) activity, and that much of the game I spent ogling the scenery while fighting to stay awake...;) Skyrim is positively amazing in that in every single square acre of the game world, and it is huge!, there are, literally, several things of note to do, like cavern and cave explorations, lost treasure surprises, or battles with ferocious beasts or rogue sorcerers, hostile and friendly clans and tribes--the net affect is that compared with Morrowind/Oblivion, Skyrim is a virtual beehive of activity! You never get bored playing this game--I don't--a literally there's something new under every rock it seems! Even more remarkable for a computer game is the fact that the physical world inside Skyrim has differing geological features, depending on where you are--sort of like good 'ol earth, actually. Get ready for all kinds of marvelous terrain to travel.

The game is fairly non-linear in that you can decide where and how you want to play the main quests while exploring and taking on the seemingly endless array of secondary quests--and all of these generally involve a bit more than merely steppin' and fetchin'...

According to Steam, I've logged in 143 hours play, and I am not even 1/3 the way though the main quests and with still 3/4 of the world left to unroll and discover! Best news is that it hasn't bored me yet--not even once. This is the way I like to play--I don't lollygag (heh...;) If you don't already, you'll understand that slightly archaic word a bit better when you start playing) but I don't rush through it as though my britches were on fire, or because I have to take a really big "dump" and I need to finish the game a'fore it starts hurtin' bad!...;) I've never understood the mentality of rushing through a game by bypassing 70% of the content, simply to boast about "How fast I beat the game." I think in those circumstances it is clear that the game is beating its owner on or about the head, and quite severely, too.

Did I mention the mods? The game is very mod friendly and there are tons of cool mods, many of which definitely complement and improve upon the game play! The customization possible is remarkable.

The darn game is just fun, fun, fun...I don't know what else to say. It's a masterpiece--a definite classic in the making. It isn't "perfect"--but nothing is perfect. It's close, though.

If you like single-player role-playing games--Skyrim stands at the summit of them all at the moment, as far as I am concerned. If you don't buy another game this year--buy Skyrim (it has enough content to keep you hooked for the rest of the year, all by itself, if need be.)

I hope this is of some help to you even though I *did* try (somewhere in the above text) to present things coolly and dispassionately.

Creston wrote on May 23, 2012, 22:54:

Orogogus wrote on May 23, 2012, 16:38:

entr0py wrote on May 23, 2012, 15:50:
Blizzard has become a lot like Apple. They make very well crafted and unique products that come with unreasonable terms of use that customers wouldn't tolerate from any other company.

To be fair, people just recently put up with something similar for Mass Effect 3.

How so? I'm not defending ME3; it's a broken piece of shit in MP, and the SP... well, we've talked about that enough.

But it DOES have an offline mode. You can't play MP in offline mode, obviously, but the SP works just fine. Admittedly the offline mode was broken on launch, but it works just fine now.

Creston

Orogogus wrote on May 23, 2012, 16:38:

entr0py wrote on May 23, 2012, 15:50:
Blizzard has become a lot like Apple. They make very well crafted and unique products that come with unreasonable terms of use that customers wouldn't tolerate from any other company.

To be fair, people just recently put up with something similar for Mass Effect 3.

Cutter wrote on May 23, 2012, 20:16:

ASeven wrote on May 23, 2012, 19:49:
No amount of marketing will be able to mask a lock on used games, for instance. That's what the rumors say the next consoles will have, and both manufacturers and publishers would love the next gen to have it. However this would be the line for console gamers, take away used games and I can see the next gen being not as successful as MS and Sony wish to be.

Also, if the rumors of using a 6670 for graphics chips for both consoles is true, and the words coming from Epic point in that way, then their power will indeed be far behind an average PC. There is a chance here for PC gaming to come out on top again, there's also a chance that if the jump isn't that great console gamers will see no reason to get a new console, especially if they bring the used games lock.

I think Blizzard has just proven otherwise here. Oh sure, it won't be for every game because they simply don't have that sort of clout, but the big titles will all do it. Oh well, the mouth-breathers have no one but themselves to blame. As for me, I think I'm slowly but surely coming to the end of gaming as a hobby if this is the future. Time to move along. Maybe I'll take up woodcarving or stained glasswork or something.