I think the problem is that there are strong views on both sides. You and others have taken a more nuanced approach to this topic acknowledging that there are valid arguments for an offline mode; however, there are people who speak in such absolutes and in a condescending manner that it just annoys others and the back and forth keeps going and going.
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Luckily enough for everybody you are not in charge of anything.
Don’t know why anyone would put you in charge though.
If you really want bad publicity and create a shtstorm then by all means they should try your way of handling things. Blizzard would never do such a thing because they are smart, unlike someone we know.
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And yet people on the Switch have offline mode for D3. People cry that’ll it’ll effect the rankings. Well, most gamers couldn’t care less, but do like EA has and limit offline characters to offline only. In games that are actually competitive in numerous aspects.
Diablo isn’t a competitive game. Yet 99% of the issues complained about here are bc they arbitrarily shoe-horned in speed running. Something which is more determined by RNG in D3 than skill.
Reality is, there is no justification to be always online. It doesn’t stop cheating using third party scripts. If it did, people wouldn’t be crying about botting. It doesn’t stop pirates or emulation, as Blizzard knows all to well. It simply slows it in the beginning. And there are more effective ways to do that today that doesn’t limit engagement, which is the primary goal. If people can’t play X, they’ll go play Y and the developer risks losing that consumer outright or for an extended period.
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I’d be happy if a blue said something. This official blizzcon thing doesn’t satisfy, because that was before they had our feedback.
If this issue wasn’t important, we didn’t have so many threads about it.
Security is an ongoing struggle in the tech industry. It is constantly evolving, but so are the tools of thieves and hackers.
There absolutely is a justification to online only. Giving in to the demand of offline mode would be the equivalent to just leaving your back door unlocked at night. By that logic, deadbolts don’t stop determined thieves, so we should just leave them unlocked, because theives will break in if they really want to, right?
Requiring an internet connect may not completely stop hackers and pirates, but it does help. Security is about having multiple layers of protection, and online only is a part of that security. Just like your deadbolt is one part, your alarm system is another, etc.
You’re right, if a player can’t play an online only game, then they wont be able to play, not only Diablo 3/4, but also many other games in the genre, such as Path of Exile, which also requires an internet connection.
There are other games that do offer offline play, such as Grim Dawn, which I think Blizzard is probably already aware of.
Will they lose some customers because of legitimately not being able to play their game due to poor or lack of internet connection? Probably.
I assume Blizzard does this type of market research for their games, and makes design decisions based on that research.
Therefore, we must assume that they know they will lose some customers, and must be okay with that.
Couldn’t resist name calling. So you have no argument opposing it. Look offline is not happening. Topics about it should be off limits. Or have you not noticed the influx of the exact same thread littering the forum.
Like I said, luckily for all of us you are not in charge.
Sorry for name calling. But if you really think it’s a good idea to close threads and banning people for having an opinion, I really don’t know what to say.
Yeah I can understand it is annoying, especially for all of you who do not want offline mode.
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It’s not for having an opinion. It’s for begging for for something devs have stated is not an option. Minds will not be swayed, and making thread after thread about this topic specifically does nothing but clog the forums.
You don’t know that though, it’s just what you believe.
Also if you find a topic worthless or not interesting, don’t read or contribute to it.
Problem solved.
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To be blunt, yes.
We don’t need game companies to be serving as an intermediary for multiplayer. In fact, requiring these services to play games with others nowadays has also been one of my longstanding gripes when in the past we could just directly connect by getting a friend’s IP. And sure, there’s nuance to be had between game session and persistent world type of multiplayer, but Diablo has pretty much been the former with its prior and iterations while D4 is trying to blur that line to further justify the mandatory online.
Cloud saves are more of a luxury since it’s not like today’s consoles don’t have hard drives of their own for storage. Memory cards were also a thing prior. Game streaming is also something arguably in its infancy, with the internet a lot of people have (and their data caps) not being ready for it.
Things like subs and microtransactions go on to enter their own grey area since it’s really a matter of how much they generate going back into the game itself. Take WoW at it’s 10m+ sub peak. Do you sincerely believe that the $150m+ it was making per month was going back into it? Frankly, I’d be super surprised if it broke a couple million factoring in all the stuff like server upkeep, network admins, and the people actually working on new content.
Nonetheless, you still can’t see the future. The recent Honk Kong snafu should serve as an indicator that it only takes one move for people to sour to a company’s actions. We should also worry about China’s continued growing market presence and the possibility that someday some company like Tencent may even try to buy Blizzard outright. Yes, system antiquation is also a thing, but this touches back on the preservation movement I also mentioned earlier and how you would have people voluntarily creating systems to make it possible to still play these games. Of course, instead of something like Nintendo making a retro game player for Win10 that could play the entire NES library with the few hundred MB it’d take to store, they’d rather shill something like the Classic with only 20-30 games. Or worse, do the online store thing and sell the same virtual copies for $5-30 apiece. There’s gotta be a point where we acknowledge that there’s simply greed for the sake of greed going on and it isn’t about giving us the premiere and/or safe gaming experience.
Well at this point I think it’s safe to say we agree to disagree, plus it’s starting to get way off topic. I don’t buy into some of the tinfoil hat stuff you are spouting here. Subscriptions and mtx are a scam and operate in a grey area? Good grief.
Also, what in the world are you talking about revenue being generated going back into the game itself? You really think 100% of generated revenue goes back into the product of successful businesses? Of course they don’t, how would they operate? But it doesn’t matter, businesses don’t answer to the consumer when it comes to revenue, only the shareholders.
Anyway, I’m done with this conversation. Agree to disagree. Just wow.
Vote Yes for offline only
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Unfortunately they aren’t holding a vote for this feature. It has already been decided, and was announced at BlizzCon Systems Panel Q&A that Blizzard will not be supporting an offline mode for Diablo 4.
and they asked for feedback. They’re getting it, just not the type some folks want to see. Players are vocalizing their desire for an offline mode. It’s still feedback, it’s just feedback that is negative about their decision to not have offline mode.
I’m sure you’d see other feedback about D4 when they give more details. I’m hoping they acknowledge that they won’t base the entire endgame around something as specific and limiting as sets like they did in D3. I didn’t care much for the huge damage boosts that applied only to specific skills when you use specific sets while any other custom build not using sets was pretty hosed for quite a while until they relented and slapped the bandaid on that is LoD/LoN.
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In the same breath Blizzard asked for feedback, they also said “we will not support offline mode”. So it only makes logical sense that they don’t actually want feedback on this specific thing. Feedback regarding other things, such as skill and itemization, sure.
If it’s just to let people vent their frustration, okay, I get it and that makes sense. But if people think they are convincing Blizzard by asking over and over, well I really don’t think that’s the case here.
In the past they said things were happening or not happening that were altered before final release.
Things that got altered despite what they said was going on:
PvP being supported more
Primals having 30% more stats
If they get enough feedback, they do consider changing things, despite things they’ve said. Hence the reason players are piping up their feedback on this subject.
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Yeah, but this is a long-standing issue of offline mode. Diablo 3 still doesn’t have it to this day, and Blizzard seems firm in their stance on that decision.
If it’s to vent their frustration, okay, sure, vent away.
Otherwise, I really don’t see asking over and over again as if thinking they’re going to change their minds on this particular thing.
Then that in itself would be Blizzard’s answer then, wouldn’t it? But players were asked to leave feedback in general, and requesting offline mode is feedback on just how many players want an offline mode. Just because they say that now, doesn’t mean they won’t change their mind if they hear enough people want it.
Maybe they won’t, but they just might. They did say there were going to leave Primals at 30% higher stats, and just prior to release they thankfully changed that after seeing just how many players didn’t want that kind of power creep. But the feedback for offline is just as valid feedback as anything else.
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Offline mode carries much more weight and things to be considered than just tweaking some numbers. It’s clearly a very important decision to consider. At this point, the feedback that has been given, over, and over, and over again has already been given. There’s nothing more to say that hasn’t already been said.
Funny, the same thing was said about Primals, when Blizzard made it sound like they weren’t going to be changed. Players still voiced their opinions about it and eventually we were heard.
I’ve heard the reasons against offline mode, about cheats and hacks. The simple solution would be to make offline mode literally offline with no way to join multiplayer games with that character. Then it doesn’t matter if a player cheats on an offline character as it would literallly affect no one.
Plus online only hasn’t really stopped cheaters. The rampant bots in D3 make that pretty apparent.
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