D4: Offline Mode or Creation of Private Games

General Discussion
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Dear Blizzard,

I am a huge Diablo fan since my childhood and spended thousands of hours in the Diablo games. And i am really looking forward playing D4 next year.
All of the footage you showed us is absolutely awesome! :slight_smile:

But there is one big thing… i think it’s one of the biggest fears of people looking to D4, is the aspect of D4 being a MMO. Think about this:
There are many Diablo players who only play solo in Diablo games.
I still would say, the majority of players.

Diablo 1-3 you don’t have to see any other players in the game, if you didn’t want that.
So…why force the players to play together…?

You yourself say, that D4 will not be a MMO like Diablo Immortal, even not close.
But what does this mean? There is still no appointment to the playerhood, how many other players we see in the open world or if dungeons are soloable even on the highest difficulties…

What, if I don’t want to see any other player in the open world at all…?
Why I am forced to see them? Why is there the possibility that other players can…farm the monsters I want… steal the chests in front of my eyes… steal the shrines, I can’t use on my own…

Furthermore some people like the idea of being the only hero in the world !

PLEASE: I would really appreciate it, when you can think abount this points and consider an offline mode for Diablo IV.

edit: Okay, I have to add something regarding the answer of Oblivion: Private Games would solve this issue, too! There is no offline need for me, I just want to play alone.

Last but not least, I wanna say thanks for all your great work and I am very excited of further news about D4.

Kind regards,
Cerveyio

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Its alrdy been discussed in several threads. Blizzard said no and that it wont happen.

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While an offline mode would be nice, I doubt we’ll see it. Instead I would simply want the option of creating a private game, where I could either play purely solo or with a few select friends.

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Maybe there is a small chance when enough posts like this exist… I dont know, I just try.
I think it’s a mistake when forcing people to see other players. When this is the reality, Diablo will loose players.

@Oblivion: Private Game would be okay, too. It doesn’t have to be offline for me. :wink:

I changed the title a little bit and added the point of private games!

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Blizzard has stated it’ll be online only. End of discussion.

D4 will have crossplay and crossprogression. That’ll basically require all platforms to store saves on the server side exclusively to prevent cheating which is already running rampant on console versions of D3 due to it having offline mode and locally stored saves.

Being online only however does not prevent having completely private game sessions. That should be an option available to those not wanting to see other people ingame.

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Sorry this was my fault now… it doesn’t have to be totally offline.
Private online games where I can play alone should solve this issue. :slight_smile:

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if we aren´t even gonna be able to have a private game there´d better be a cosmetic filter too as i don´t wanna see all you weebskizos prancing around in magda wings…

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Doubt that will be an option, the free advertising is unlikely to be something they remove.

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Easy. The game should both have an Offline mode, and a Private mode.
Private mode is more likely of course. But having both would make for the better game overall.

Yep. That too should exist. Even when you do choose to play in the shared world, it should be possible to hide cosmetics.

Yeah, forced multiplayer is likely only there because they want the walking MTX advertisement.

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Never gunna happen, lest they suddenly stop being anti-consumer.

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I think private-solo games is not a far fetched idea, but I guess they could choose to lock you into the campaign route. There are many people crying vows about not playing D4 if they can not solo it then brag about it to their friends.
Easy solution could be locking player who wants to play privately in a rather limited area of the campaign trail. Then overworld at multiplayer revealing world bosses and group events with raids. That’s just a theory though, a Game Theo- cough– I should get off Youtube…

Ah… This again. Offline mode only happen if they don’t ignore previous generation of consoles. I kind of lost all hope of that ever happening. They most likely gonna ignore Sony PS4 and PS3, indefinitely because those are broken to tidbits by third party already. There’s just a small possibility of offline mode appearing at XBox One/360 I believe.

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Yes, an offline mode would be the best thing, especially for the mod community.
Then you would have the chance to change the game from an end-game sports game to a role-playing game, away from end-game, towards the actual game and its content and talent-based development including story.

I am clearly in favor of an offline mode. That has other advantages as well if you don’t have to be online.

A private game in online mode only fulfills a small part of the requirements, which is to really be alone in the world.
But that doesn’t offer the opportunities and possibilities of an offline variant.

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It seems like you don’t want a Diablo game, and instead want some type of single player console game… of which there are plenty.

I recommend that you wait to see what the game actually is upon release before you purchase it, and check to see if there is an online always requirement (which their probably will be), and a solo play ability.

Personally, I think that Blizzard needs to make a Diablo version of World of Warcraft, where everyone is out there, and you’re NEVER alone…

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Pretty sure that’s what D:I is.

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Diablo should primarily be a single player game and never have forced interaction or forced multiplayer.

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You can have that opinion of course, and I don’t disagree as I have played them all solo for the most part, but the reality is that that hasn’t been the case for well over a decade.

While you can play D2, D2R and D3 solo, if you’re looking for efficiency in any of those games you need to interact with other players.

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The only content you will need others for are world bosses.

But BY NO MEANS do you EVER have to enter a group.

You can still turn up to a world boss solo. There may be forced multiplayer but there definitely is no forced GROUPING. You can still play the entire game solo.

If you can afford a gaming pc that will be able to play D4 then you can probably afford the internet. Over half the world population is on the internet. There will very likely be a way you can turn the game to solo mode and not see others walking around but you will still have to connect online.

Preserving online play by making sure people don’t hack items into the game by being able to manipulate files offline, is the best thing to do for something that is primarily going to be a social online experience for most people.

Because this:

Is a fallacy.

If a game with good social and co-op elements and good pvp is made, people will play it.

The old school Diablo player base doesn’t care about any of this, they would be happy to have all the build freedom and solo focus in the world.

But the wider gaming audience, the people looking for ground-breaking games, true innovation that shakes up the market. A real next gen experience that takes everything we love about Diablo, single player RPGs, multiplayer RPGs, pvp games and pve solo grinding games and pushes the envelope is what people are really after. And what Blizzard should be aiming for.

This requires ignoring vocal minorities trying to stop Diablo from being able to be a social online experience and a robust, balanced pvp experience that lasts into every second of end game.

This requires sacrifice to solo players.

No offline mode to stop cheating.

Class identity and lower complexity to allow for a real social pve AND pvp experience to exist via GOOD BALANCE.

REALISTICALLY ACHIEVABLE BALANCE REQUIRES LOWER COMPLEXITY.

AND a satisfying solo experience because an ARPG should NOT be an MMO.

I know for sure some of the reasons I love building characters in Elden Ring and playing MOBA’s like Dota or LOL is because they are robust quasi mini versions of what Blizzard was never able to deliver on with World of Warcraft or Diablo. Immersion, social experience and pvp.

Blizz need to ignore all the Diablo players begging for solo play to trump online play when actually multiplayer social pve experiences and pvp games are by far the most popular among gamers as a whole. People are WAITING for AAA companies like Blizzard to bring the great experiences we get from these games into MMO’s and ARPG’s for long term RPG experiences we can play for lifetimes the same way we do Dark Souls for pve or MOBA’s for pvp.

It’s sad that we’ve waited so long for Blizzard to use all the resources they have to really make a truly amazing next generation game that understands modern gaming audiences but also has a vision on what a truly great game should be. This means not pleasing everyone. Casual players have had their fill for a long time with many games and solo players have also had many many games to sate them.

Making D4 a truly great social pve experience and having BADASS pvp while keeping the integrity of always being able to grind solo and leaning towards a more mature, intelligent, hardcore player base that can play games well and want something that can be mastered for years to come, should be the true vision for D4.

Please make D4 a truly amazing, innovative, social online pve experience and don’t drop the ball on PVP either I beg you.

We need some good (within reason and improving over time) balanced PVP modes like Invasions from Dark Souls or world pvp 1v1 encounters. And arena mode for 1v1s 2v2s and 3v3s.

Much love Blizz dev team and happy Monday.

Sending you my energy to complete the game :heart:

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Heh, in my experience most people are only social when they are forced, even in MMO:s most people in group play at most greets when joining a group and gives a gg or something when the content is over.

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People got pretty introverted over the years. It’s not a big thing anymore, and people are mostly annoyed by others, who don’t play in their pace. So in short, everyone is selfish and can’t give any compromise. Your friends are not there anymore more most if the time, and it’s hard to find like minded people.

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Private Games who want to play solo, other ones can use shared world.
Win-Win for everybody, isn’t it? :slight_smile:

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