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back to article Scammers exploit wannabe demon-slayers hyped by Diablo III

Cybercrooks latched onto the release of Diablo III on Monday with a run of scams themed around the widely anticipated video game. Blizzard's games systems collapsed due to the higher than expected demand for the demon-slaying game, The Guardian reports. The software company is attempting to stop pirates from nicking the new …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    You /need/ to be online?

    That is utterly stupid and would be a very strong reason for me not to get into this game. Which I'm not since I'm anticipating GTA V but that's a different story...

    I'm not even talking about servers which can get overloaded, but what will happen if Blizzard decides to pull the plug out of their servers in, say, 3 - 6 years because they're focusing on the game which is current then ?

    Then you're talking about /not/ being able to play a /single player/ campaign because of some half brained copy protection. That is just stupid and an utter fail in my book.

    And before anyone comes up with the obvious comment: "But who would want to play a game which is so old?". Well, you'd be surprised! Only last week did I decide on checking up on Far Cry 2, a game which is now roughly 3.5 years old. To my total surprise there was still some decent online gaming action going on.

    Sure; not everything. For example; I couldn't get enough people together to play a good game of "Uprising" (you need to take checkpoints to dominate the map) but there was plenty of deathmatch going on. 3.5 years after release.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: You /need/ to be online?

      Yes, the single player game is essentially the same as the multi-player, but without other people in your party to help out. You can even turn your single player run into a multi-player run partway through.

      However, Blizzard has been very good about supporting their online modes. Given that their battle.net servers for Diablo 1 are still running, I'd say that it's a fair bet, the D3 servers will be up for another decade as well. And when Blizzard does decide to shut the servers down, they may offer an additional patch to enable an offline mode.

      In general, I am against this sort of sillyness, except when it's obviously warrented i.e. MMORPGs, but I think if there's a company that can prove that the concept is actually viable, it's Blizzard. I think what remains to be seen is whether the online only setup adds enough to the game to make it meaningful in the eyes of more than just the anti-piracy and anti-cheating brigades.

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      1. Tom 35
        Reply Icon

        Re: You /need/ to be online?

        Blizzard might be great now, but they could be bought by scumbags, go tits up, get hit by a falling satellite...

        MMORPGs need to be online by definition.

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        1. Jedit Silver badge
          Reply Icon
          FAIL

          "Blizzard might go tits up!"

          Blizzard earn a billion dollars a year from World of Warcraft subscriptions. They have already sold ten million copies of Diablo III from pre-orders. They're going nowhere.

          Also, they were bought by Activision before they became so huge.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: You /need/ to be online?

      It's a method of preventing piracy and cheating. Why do I envision a world where Blizzard is a bit lax in their online policies, and you torrent the game/cheat your way into ruining the multiplayer experience for everyone else? Blizzard makes extremely high-quality games (they're like the Pixar of gaming) and one of the main reasons they're so good is that they keep cheaters, spammers, etc out. And of course they want to get paid for their work :).

      So you're right, they must be "utterly stupid" to both have a desire to get paid and a desire to create a high quality product. Can I come work for you?

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        It is sooooo not about "preventing piracy and cheating".

        It is a cynical and corrupt method of preventing second-hand sales, thereby depriving those who have bough the game of their legitimate property rights. It is daylight robbery.

        (WTF would "cheating" even mean in a single-player game played at home on your own machine if it wasn't deliberately crippled by being required to connect to a server?)

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    3. jai
      Reply Icon

      Re: You /need/ to be online?

      GTA V? Yes we're all anticipating that, but it's not going to be coming out any time soon. I'm not expecting it this year. There's been no trailers or teaser details or anything yet. Rockstar love to spend 9 months leading up to the release of their GTA games, slowly stoking the hype and the anticipation. That's plenty of time to play D3 while waiting for GTA V

      Btw - you think GTA V isn't going to require online access via PSN account or Xbox equivalent? I bet it'll happen.

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    4. Yag
      Reply Icon
      Pirate

      "But who would want to play a game which is so old?"

      Heck, i've just finished Baldur's Gate I, time to travel to Amn...

      However, for now, Blizzard is quite consistent on the server side : Diablo II is still going strong more than 10 years after its release.

      Still, needing an internet connexion for a solo campaign is stupid. i guess i'll wait for the "patched" version before buying this game...

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    5. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: You /need/ to be online?

      The servers for Diablo 2 are still live

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    6. Trokair 1
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Re: You /need/ to be online?

      Honestly if you have a problem with always online gaming you had best get over it. Every game is heading that way for security and multiplay purposes. After the utter mess that Diablo 2 was with hacks its no wonder either.

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  3. Tigra 07
    Facepalm

    And so the end result should be...

    Stop treating customers like criminals and damaging their gaming enjoyment, while also limiting the amount of installs a game people BUY can have.

    I stopped buying PC games years ago for this very reason and it's getting worse.

    Roll on the collapse of Sony, EA, Steam and Blizzard

    ...Steam because i wanted to buy Civilization 5 but it has to register with Steam every time and limit the amount of installs i can have, which would mean i have to buy another copy every 6 years.

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    1. Nick Thompson
      Reply Icon
      WTF?

      Re: And so the end result should be...

      "Steam because i wanted to buy Civilization 5 but it has to register with Steam every time and limit the amount of installs i can have, which would mean i have to buy another copy every 6 years."

      Uh, what?

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      1. This post has been deleted by its author

        1. MrZoolook
          Reply Icon
          FAIL

          Re: And so the end result should be...

          Quote:

          forced to buy another copy of the game every time you have to install the game the third time either from getting a new laptop or upgrading the previous one

          Liar : www.weplayciv.com/forums/content.php?43-Civ5-Steamworks-FAQ

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    2. SirStrider
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      Re: And so the end result should be...

      Apart from the FUD your spreading about Civ 5 which has been correctly pointed out to be false, you left out the biggest culprit of always online DRM : Ubisoft.

      Their current philosophy is that every* new PC game must be released as always online and has caused quite a few issues when their DRM servers broke (or were deliberately DDoSed) leaving people unable to play their new games.

      *Including some very obviously single-player only games like The Settlers 7 and Silent Hunter 5.

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      1. Tigra 07
        Reply Icon
        Thumb Up

        Re: Sir Strider

        Amazon reviews tell a different story, i never scoured the web, i just checked the one place i would buy from. And i'm glad there is no limited installs although having to use Steam is still a kick in the face for people who just want to pop the disc in and play without being forced to download adware.

        Ubisoft i have no knowledge from, except Bioshock, but again i have no knowledge of their DRM restrictions so not really got anything there to add

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  4. Tim Brown 1
    Holmes

    As far as I can tell...

    alll inventory and character information is stored on the server, not locally, so there really is no 'offline mode' for D3.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: As far as I can tell...

      Correct. This really isn't secret information!

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    2. Urh
      Reply Icon
      Flame

      Re: As far as I can tell...

      It was the revelation of the always-online bollocks that lead me to avoid Diablo 3 (that, and experiencing how bad the always-online bollocks was with Starcraft 2). As far as I'm concerned, the Blizzard I knew and loved died years ago. I don't give a toss about how my computer spends over 99% of its time connected to the internet, that connection shouldn't be necessary for single player. I have no problem with developers tacking on some bells and whistles which require you to go online, but the core single player experience should not be gated by a bloody login screen.

      Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to disconnect my computer from my router and play some Diablo 2. Because I bloody well can.

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    3. SirStrider
      Reply Icon

      Real Money Auction

      One of the reasons that the single player is online only is the real money auction. If they allowed you to run offline / store your inventory locally on your PC it would make it a lot easier to hack your inventory and then sell these unfairly gained uber-items. If this was allowed, it would eventually destroy any value of the auction and mean only people that cheated could make any money.

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      1. Urh
        Reply Icon

        Re: Real Money Auction

        And the only reason they bought in the auction house was because of all the item trading (i.e. selling for actual money) that happened way back in Diablo 2's heyday. Blizzard have basically acquiesced and said "Screw it. If people are going to be item/gold farming, we should at least get a piece of the action." What I want to know is how Blizzard plans to deal with people who will try to game the system for financial gain (and let's not fool ourselves here, people are going to try, especially when there's real money to be made).

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  5. Matt 58

    Other Scams

    Had this on pre order from Game since Nov 09 and just last Thursday they emailed me to tell me that the order had been canceled. This I later found out was due to my card expiring in 2011 and even though I had put my new details on the website it seems this only applies to new orders. So they have known about this for ages and done nothing to sort it out. I emailed them last year with the problem (no response) and then assumed it was just a matter of changing the card on the site. They did helpfully say I could re order it online, at 39.99. I might go to Tesco - 33 quid on the way home. No wonder they have gone to the wall.

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    1. Danny 14
      Reply Icon
      Go

      Re: Other Scams

      I got mine from tescos, search for a voucher code and you'll find a £5 off code. £28 for D3 wasnt too bad I thought.

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