Hello everyone, does anyone have an idea what will happen in the future with D3, when they close the Battle Net servers? Those who play on console can play offline but those of us who play on PC We will no longer be able to access the game?
The original Diablo 2 servers are still up and players, including myself, do log in to them regularly. Consider D2 is still running, even after the release of the remaster, there’s a good hope that the D3 servers would continue to remain up for many years to come.
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I doubt we have to worry about this within our lifetime. And yes, I’m aware that you might be a few decades younger than me. Doesn’t matter. Bnet won’t go anywhere unless Blizzard catastrophically fails, and now that they’re part of Microsoft, that means MICROSOFT would have to significantly tank and/or be afraid of tanking.
Remember now, Bobby K was the principle accused in multiple sexual harassment lawsuits over multiple years, including one brought by the state of California that Activision-Blizzard (who Bobby was CEO of at the time) chose to settle out of court to the tune of $54 million USD. And there’s only two reasons something like this gets settled out of court:
A.) you’re afraid you’ll lose if it goes to trial, or
B.) the person accusing you has one of those “I don’t get paid unless YOU get paid” lawyers you see on TV (they always settle first chance they get, which is why they can afford to make that claim - companies know they can just throw money at it to make them go away).
And Microsoft STILL bought the company in spite of all of that. They may have “volun-told” Bobby behind closed doors to retire, but they still bought the company. And they still gave him his golden parachute. What this tells me is there’d have to be literal CATASTROPHIC, without exaggeration or understatement, CATASTROPHIC problems before they shut Blizzard - and by extension, Bnet - down.
Now, Blizz or Microsoft might possibly decide D3 itself - instead of Bnet as a whole - isn’t worth the money sink, and shut D3 down specifically, just on its own. That’s an entirely different story and I’ve often wondered if they’d do it. It’s possible. I mean, yes, D2 is “still running” but D2’s servers cannot POSSIBLY cost anywhere NEAR the resources D3’s do in terms of maintenance. What even ARE the D2 legacy numbers? Does anyone know how many players are active on that one within the last year?
I’d still wager it’s highly unlikely. But it is possible. Maybe like 10% or less right now, if I had to throw random odds out there I made up based on my gut feelings.
But BNET closing down? WAY less than 1%. Primals have better odds than BNET shutting down within the next 60 years. I’m willing to bet the world ends before BNET does.
Now, to (finally) answer your question: if D3 is otherwise unable to be played online? They might make it offline capable for everyone. They’ve done it before on other games. Though, I think they’re more likely to just nuke it and release a remastered version in 15 years.
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Impatient, are we? Nobody really knows what is going to happen when they decide to pull the plug but I am willing to guess that it’s not soon. It may happen from fifty years from now on or hundred, but they will not drop a title with millions of players who are potentially customers of this company in a whim.
The developers most likely going to consider this option as a last resort. Player base once have to wane very slowly over the course of years. Then when the game eventually have a very little player base left, then Blizzard can decide pulling the plug after seeing so little amount of people they’ve been serving.
Game needs to die down slowly over the course of decades for this; millions of players will not leave in droves unless something really drastic happens. Currently the player base of Diablo 3, also consist of whales that buy everything in WoW, OW and D4. No company would take a risk of angering their player base let along their best customers.
Along the first decade, people have spent their time complaining about offline mode, and I reckon, the waiting will not be any easier after this point. Servers will go defunct eventually, down the road and Blizzard could give you an offline mode if they wish. But as long as servers stand you can not pirate or mod this as a property of your own.
At another case, if you really need to quench your thirst that is; every massive multiplayer online game have their own share of private servers, but those are not long lived.
Good news, by the time Blizzard decide to pull the plug on servers, we would have desktop computers that is capable of emulating gaming consoles without any issues. Actually according to the internet, it is possible to play the Playstation version of Diablo 3 on an overclocked computer since last few years. Even if Blizzard doesn’t give us anything to work with, such as a source code, anyone would be able to emulate a fifty year old game on their computer without overclocking anything.
You will be bored with the game before the servers are shut down.
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???
and why would they do this?
It is literally the only access to half of their games on PC.
on deeper thought, the only Blizz games available elsewhere on PC are the COD games and OW.
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Maybe Blizzard will wait and see the outcome of this lawsuit against Ubisoft before deciding what to do…
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From the end user license agreement:
Blizzard does not guarantee that any particular Platform, Game, or Account, or any particular features or components thereof, will be available at all times, at any given time, or in all countries and/or geographic locations, or that Blizzard will continue to offer the Platform, Game, or Account, or all features or components thereof, for any particular length of time. Availability is subject to change at any time, although we will endeavor to use reasonable commercial efforts to provide you prior notice, unless the discontinuance arises from a matter that is beyond Blizzard’s control or causes the provision of such advance notice not to be possible or feasible.
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Diablo 1 is such a good game.
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I’m trying to understand the question: why should the servers be shut down overnight?
I have D1 on my computer (DevilutionX), always fun to play it from time to time
It won’t but that doesn’t stop people to have deep delusions about this game or that game, failing sooner than expected. That so they can claim rights or steal a portion of the community away for profit off from them. It’s simple.
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There’s a heavy emphasis on that in modern gaming discussion spaces. I personally think most of it’s noise coming from bad faith actors, but the heart of it is fear and uncertainty. I’m reminded of Men in Black:
“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it.” ~ Agent K
When information is a product, psychology is a marketing strategy. Nothing stokes sales like negative emotions, and fear is most primal above all. Stronger than hate, stronger than sadness. When we fear, we engage.
When they do pull the plug I just hope they respect the players enough to release an offline version. I don’t really think they respect the players, though.
True. I learned that fear is the basis of those things you mention. You won’ t be angry, hatefull, or sad unless there is an underlying sense of fear of something.
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That’s in the context of imminent danger. Like suddenly there is a lion standing in front of you. Not in the context of Microsoft taking control of a gaming company.
A much more applicable quote might be
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”
subdue the enemy: turn off the servers.
fighting: lawsuits.
Makes sense to me.
Thing is, your body doesn’t differentiate between theoretical threats, and real threats. That’s literally what PTSD is all about, and why people get physical changes to their body when introduced to emotional/intellectual stressors. Like, your body tenses up, your heart rate increases, your blood pressure rises, and for what? Because you missed the light and have to sit there for a few minutes until it turns green again?
Or even better: someone makes a post on the internet, and it’s something you don’t agree with. Or even worse, their post is WRONG or INACCURATE. Oh god, horrible right?
You ever play an MMO and find yourself “moving” when someone else stands directly on the same spot as your avatar is occupying? That’s a response to you feeling your “personal space” is being violated. Similar things happen if someone sits RIGHT next to you on a park bench, or you bump elbows with someone at the dinner table. But… it’s a game, right? There’s no “actual space” being violated with your toon, so… why move?
It’s because our brains aren’t nearly as good at parsing reality as we think they are.
All i know is Diablo games are my favourite and i don’t care about others as much. If i do i will go post in their forums. Right now it’s all about D4 (even if i am chat banned for telling the haters to * off and stop lying/over exagerating). By act 3 i’m starting to feel powerful like getting deeper into the cathedral in D1.
Provide the examples, please
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I would like for them to make a offline mode. But I don’t think it will happen.
EDIT: And before you attempt to rebut this with the “you must have logged in within 30 days” thing, remember now, we’ve been discussing a theoretical scenario wherein THE ENTIRE BATTLE DOT NET IS SHUT DOWN FOREVER.
The options in that scenario, would be for Blizz to allow these offline CAPABLE games to bypass that restriction, or just let every single one of their IP’s die forever. Which I wouldn’t put past them, but the point is it’s equally theoretical that they could let offline capable games stay offline.
2nd EDIT: I’d also like to reiterate that D3 can be played FULLY offline via console already. That’s why they have such rampant hacks to begin with.