Which would probably even maximally upgrade the whole game, because you would no longer play because of the competition and number comparison on the last level and could completely ignore this, which would then allow completely different views on the actual real game with great possibly mods of the community.
Unfortunately it is a fallacy to believe that MS is not interested in control and monopolization. Exactly the opposite is the case. One of the big problems of our time.
so I recently moved to the UK … and the Struggle is real … I lived 15 years in Romania and my god they have a GB connection for 8$/month … and I never felt this is an actual problem … now I feel I’m in 2004 and totally understand the people with this problem … I hope Microsoft does something for us and give us our games as blizzard should have done and make them offline like D1, D2, D2-LOD were … the single-player option without the need to be connected to the internet …
There is a higher chance I will be engaged to Emma Watson than D4 is offline.
I don’t agree with the idea that including an offline mode means less revenue.
If done correctly (i.e. DO NOT store the online profile locally) online and offline are completely separate entities. So what if we have server code stored locally? If the profiles are stored server side, even with access to server code (actually server binaries) it would be extremely difficult to hack the online aspect. So nothing changes with respect to the online portion of the game. MS/Blizzard gets all the good stuff that comes from that.
On top of that, offline can convince more people that are on the fence on buying the game, cater to those that are forced to play offline due to circumstances (remote location, low quality connections, deployed personnel, etc).
So if anything, adding offline ON TOP of the online/MMO functionality brings in overall MORE people, not less. Just how many more people and if it’s worth allocating the resources to actually implement it… well that’s debatable.
But nevertheless, it’s still much nicer to have a fallback mode than not to have one. It’s actually one of the reasons I prefer D2 to D3 even if the chances of this happening in D4 are rather low. But hey, it’s nice to have a very small glimmer of hope.
“Always online” is garbage. Always has been, always will be.
Clearly Blizzard didn’t think it would be profitable, and given that the Microsoft/Blizzard deal isn’t scheduled to be done until next year I really don’t see anything changing.
For you maybe, can’t say I’ve had much issues at all and 95%+ of my gaming the last 20 years have been online.
I don’t really like to have a kill switch at the core of a game I purchase. I don’t like the idea of perpetually renting a game.
“Always online” is purposefully introducing a single point of failure into a system. From a system’s engineering perspective this is absolute crap. It’s also done solely for profit with no benefit at all to the end user.
I don’t like to be locked out of my games by server or connection issues.
I don’t even like the idea of this being a possibility. All games that can also be played solo should have an offline fallback mode.
It’s really interesting how the industry has managed to brainwash an entire generation into thinking that “always online” is somehow beneficial to them as customers when in fact the opposite is true.
Where did you see me say it’s beneficial? I said I had no issues. That’s not the same thing.
That’s clearly not how things are, if anything it will move more towards online than it already is.
Nooo, you’re saying a private company works towards maximizing profit? That’s friggin inconceivable!
I wasn’t talking about you specifically. But there are people actually defending this crap.
Unfortunately…
Sure, but profits can be made while at the same time maintaining a consumer friendly approach. “Always online” is by far the most anti-consumer measure than can implemented into a game.
Can think of plenty of worse options actually. “Free to play” games that put everything but the bare bones behind steep paywalls, pay per hour, pay to win etc…
One of the things that I have noticed in my reading up on the MicroSux/ActiBliz merger is that little is said about the potential for anti-trust action. It is one of the things that MicroSux feels they are immune to since they claim that Sony and TenCent are bigger in games than MicroSux is. The few that did mention that possibility pointed out that MicroSux has agreed to pay Activision $3 billion if the acquisition is stopped on anti-trust grounds. They also point out that anti-trust is a very real possibility if they take games and make them “XBox only” as they have done with some of the other games they have acquired. Personally I REALLY hope that happens. MicroSux is bordering on being the only company out there that does what they do in terms of their computer programming and creation of and continuation of the most common operating systems on computers. The only ones that I am aware of that compete are Apple and the various FREE Linux systems. If they get hold of this ActiBliz conglomerate then they will broaden into the gaming market even further than they have. I have no problems with mergers and acquisitions in general, but I do have a problem with monopolies that stifle competition which always results in increasing prices when there are only one or possibly 2 or 3 others providing the same service. When competition is gone, then the biggest players always increase the prices so that they make money and it does not matter if we little guys can afford their product or service because there is always someone that is willing to pay through the nose for it. Businesses are in business to make profits. I get that, and wholeheartedly approve. But that profit should not be at the expense of everyone that has supported the product before the conglomerate swallowed the original producer/provider. Here’s to Anti-Trust litigation and MicroSux getting hammered on!
Technically you can easily have cross play in offline mode too. It requires that your upload your offline save to their server sometimes of course, and download in the other device. But, that still gives you the option to play offline whenever you want, of course knowing that you can’t use cross play again before reconnecting to the internet. And even when connected to the internet, downloading and uploading the save is not affected by latency or DCs, while gameplay is, so players would still benefit even if they were connected to the internet the entire time.
Isn’t that crossprogression? To me crossplay was only the ability to play with people from other systems.
Ah, thought he meant the ability to play on PC, and then go to your console and continue there, etc.
Crossplay, as in multiplayer, would not exactly make logical sense in a solo offline mode.
People who choose to play solo on battlenet also wont use crossplay. That is just a choice based on whether you play with others or not, and not an online/offline choice.
Now, maybe they could add LAN support for offline mode, in which case you could have crossplay offline. Though I wouldn’t consider that a super important feature. It is fair enough that you had to go online to have multiplayer. Would definitely be nice however.
Then there is couch co-op of course, but that wouldn’t work for crossplay.
To be fair, I will say that I fully support, encourage, endorse, and hope to get an offline mode. I just don’t think it’ll happen.
Actually, local LAN play would be preferred.
I agree. I’m just a realist and understand what Blizzard wants to do. Way too many of the pro offline e posters are caught up in feelings and such thinking that they somehow are a majority and can sway Blizzard. I remember this same talk from 2008-2012 and posters claiming D3 was DOA for online only. Yet, D3 went on to be the best/fastest selling PC game of all time, up til then.
Most gamers have internet and just don’t care if a game requires online to play. A small vocal minority really care, and then there some of us that want offline but it doesn’t really make or break the deal.
I ment playing in real time, on your PC whit some one on a console. What you described is crossprogression. Crossplay is playing whit another gamer on a different platform.
Oh dang, you just obliterated MS. How will the recover from your devastating whit?
Not my experience and it’s been this way for decades, it’s crazy to me that people still complain about this and it’s 2022.
You’re all shouting into an empty room with this, just saying.
Yes, high speed internet is already ubiquitous in every 1st world country, and becoming more so all the time. Services like Starlink and 5G are making it increasingly difficult to find a location were you actually can’t be online 24/7/365. This isn’t 2004, where internet speeds and coverage were such that ‘always online’ was just a pipedream and you pretty much had to play offline. It’s 2022, and really, seriously, what gamer isn’t always online on at least one if not multiple devices?
And if you actually can’t be always online, or don’t want to be, that’s cool, you’re just not a customer for D4. And it’s not worth the time, cost and risk to make you one.
Even with Starlink and the ubiquity of high speed internet, server are still a finite resource.
No company will size their server requirements to handle the large influx of players at the launch of a game.
Error 37 has plagued Diablo III in 2012. The same “always online” crap fest has bugged CoD Modern Warfare in 2019.
It’s also a matter of “ownership”. I do understand that we don’t even own single player games that we can play offline. But no publisher will actively prevent you from playing a game that has offline capability.
For “always online” games the publisher decides what version of the game you play and when you can and can’t play it. I hate the idea of a perpetual rental system.
And the fact still remains that “always online” is an artificial limitation, a purposely introduced single point of failure. The ubiquity of high speed internet and the year in which we are don’t really matter. The discussion is as useful and relevant today as it was back in 2000.