[:1]you are happy because you get piss poor gaming experience compared to two thirds of civilized world? say what?
how many WoW players are there in australia and new zealand? Don't tell me that not enough to fund a small server farm with their monthly fees. You are happy because they let you to play on NA servers? They don't do you any favors, you could get the same deal (if not better) by simply importing NA version (wasn't SC2 approx US$80 in AUS?)
Afaik in SC2 Russians have their own gateway tailored for their localized cheapass version and there is not that much money to be made. As you can see it can be done but gamers in general fail at being customers.|||I don't try to find the worst in everything like you.
I look for the good in every situation and try to improve on it and be happy with it.
I am happy to be able to have internet and to be able to play Diablo 3 one day. Move to Africa or some place without a stable internet connection (like one of my friends has to deal with) and then no Diablo 3 for you.
I am very grateful for what Blizzard has done for us.
Can you be grateful too? Or will you be ungrateful?|||
Q u o t e:
I don't try to find the worst in everything like you.
I look for the good in every situation and try to improve on it and be happy with it.
I am happy to be able to have internet and to be able to play Diablo 3 one day. Move to Africa or some place without a stable internet connection (like one of my friends has to deal with) and then no Diablo 3 for you.
I am very grateful for what Blizzard has done for us.
Can you be grateful too? Or will you be ungrateful?
There's a difference between being ungrateful and supporting progress. Great things can happen when people seek more - even if it seems disrespectful to those who have nothing (because eventually it could benefit them too).|||My experience shows that when you expect the worst, you are very very often right. You don't get to know the bitter taste of disappointment.
I don't know if you followed sc2 development. There was a discussion going after one event where they showcased sc2, just after the d3 announcement (one of the bullet points of the announcement was that there is no LAN mode in diablo). I said 'i wouldn't be surprised if sc2 had no LAN multiplayer either, looking where things are going'. Other people flamed me with something along the lines of 'are you nuts? STARCRAFT, I repeat STARCRAFT without LAN? Isn't it supposed to be a competitive game? Didn't you see the screenshots from YESTERDAY? There was LAN interface allright so you speak sh!t, gtfo'
oh, look. Few years later we live in a reality where SC2 indeed has no LAN mode.
Offline single mode in d3 is pretty much the same. Diablo - game about a powerful badass who pwns evil all by himself and they turn it into poor man's MMO. Ask any d2 player who doesn't follow d3 developement closely about having to log in to battle.net to play alone - he'll look at you with wtf face and tell you they are nuts. Most certainly the community as a whole didn't see that coming (especially when few months ago single player offline was in according to Mr B.) yet here we are.
Seriously, I started to expect the worst from Blizzard, yet they are still able to amaze me which is an impressive feat (or maybe it's my imagination that fails me hard)|||
Q u o t e:
Australia is AUS and not AU. And secondly the Aussies (like myself) get the choice of the less ping but mostly Asian SEA server or the higher ping but English speaking NA servers. So be happy. it's the best Blizzard can do for us. I'm happy about it.
So please quit the winging about it. If you won't want an online game play something else and not Diablo 3.
End of story.
Blizzard does not hate Aussies. They did us a big service. So quit going on and on about it. If you don't like the good things Blizzard has done for the Aussie gamers then it's time you picked a Non-Blizzard game to play. And leave the Blizzard games to Aussies (like myself) who can actually appreciate what Blizzard has done for us.
Omg.. are you sure you're australian? and not a blind sheep shagger? lol (no offense to the kiwis). My god man, how on earth do you think anything ever gets changed if we do not fight for it?
It isn't complaining, it is stating pure and unadulterated fact. The diablo franchise was a single player game, with a multiplayer component, it is now being made into a online only, game with a single player component (to a degree - internet still required). We, as Australians, have crap internet links once it leaves the country, an this is fact as you should well know. Oh sure, we have access to slightly better North American servers... is that right?... hmm funny that my SEA version of SC2 only connects to SEA servers... so hmmmm what, I should buy another copy of the game, and *hope* that Blizzard does not CHANGE my NA version back to SEA, as has happened? Seriously, i provided the screen shots.. go look!
Seriously, maybe im missing something but last i looked, SC2 does not have any option for picking what server you connect to, as diablo 2 did... you can bet that d3 will be the same!
Dude, as I've said, I would not have a go at blizzard for making the game online only, if the world was perfect, and we all had decent connections (or if they just left single player and LAN in it - I would be happy not to play online at all), but as a long time fan of the diablo series, and as a long time sufferer of poor links to bnet servers through no fault of my own, I feel its only fair that if blizzard wants to take single player and LAN away, they should meet us half way if they want our hard earned, and give us more local servers, as in, in this country.
Seriously, 20mil people here... lets say only 1% buy a copy of diablo3, at $89.95AUD (thats what I had to pay for SC2), even though our dollar is currently better than the USA's, that's still 200,000 copies, totalling approx almost 18 million dollars AUD... again, currently better than the USD.
You cannot tell me that it will not be enough money to pay for a server to be put into one of our data centres for the next 10+ years to come, and still turn a very reasonable profit.... an that's at 1% sales.
I would almost bet my bottom dollar we'd sell more than that here, and you'd generate more later if there was a stable DECENT link to bnet servers here, because of word of mouth.... People would tell people how good it is, and it would pick up more an more...
Instead, you'll be looking at a situation were a heap buy it, and probably return it, and tell everyone how !@%@ it is because of the poor connections.
God I suppose you think that red headed clown we call a prime minister is acceptable too! I mean why complain right....|||
Q u o t e:
I don't try to find the worst in everything like you.
I look for the good in every situation and try to improve on it and be happy with it.
I am happy to be able to have internet and to be able to play Diablo 3 one day. Move to Africa or some place without a stable internet connection (like one of my friends has to deal with) and then no Diablo 3 for you.
I am very grateful for what Blizzard has done for us.
Can you be grateful too? Or will you be ungrateful?
What's wrong with being a pessimist?
I prefer being a realist myself, finding the truth without letting your emotions get involved is usually better than being an optimist and pessimist combined
Why say the glass is half empty or half full without asking how it got that way in the first place to determine the true answer?|||
Q u o t e:
Why say the glass is half empty or half full without asking how it got that way in the first place to determine the true answer?
Nice.|||Disenter, I emphasize with your situation, I really do. I've played with Aussies for years in online games and they've mostly all had the same issue with latency. That being said a business cannot make a large decision such as this based on their Australian customers, or for the small percentage of "others" with a poor Internet connection. I agree it would make sense to make an Aussie server, but the question is are there enough people playing battle.net games in Australia for Blizzard to justify the cost? At this point, the answer appears to be no.
That still doesn't change the fact that online-only is better in the long term for the game. Even if I lived in a place with a crappy connection I would still feel the same, even if I would have to play in a terribly laggy environment. Diablo games are based on items, and you just can't have duping and other security risks taking place. Online-only will not eliminate these effects, but it will mitigate many of them. It's a net gain overall.
I apologize for the backwater comment. I know plenty of Aussies and I know most of you aren't "backwater"
or ignorant people. In fact, Aussies are generally speaking the most pleasant people I know.|||
Q u o t e:
That still doesn't change the fact that online-only is better in the long term for the game. Even if I lived in a place with a crappy connection I would still feel the same, even if I would have to play in a terribly laggy environment. Diablo games are based on items, and you just can't have duping and other security risks taking place. Online-only will not eliminate these effects, but it will mitigate many of them. It's a net gain overall.
net gain for whom? certainly not for me. Certainly not for SC2 scene. Pretty much every major SC2 tournament was affected by lags and some even had drops. Yeah, always online serves them right and is the best thing since sliced bread hands down.
I have never traded a single item on battle.net, only among close friends and I certainly couldn't be bothered to play with lag spikes that could end your hardcore toon right there. Duping? Having avoided bnet play I haven't seen single non-legit item or anything higher than Um. For me BotD and other uberrunewords were as abstract as they were supposed to be in theory. Duping and hacking was never a problem for those who like playing alone and it's them who get the short end of the stick.
Besides since when the official explanation is security? Is that a conjecture of rabid fanboys taking care of their cognitive dissonance? I am pretty sure i haven't seen duping and security mentioned in official sources, only bullsh!t like convenience and confusion between single and multi chars (oh the horror). It's all about money and forcing all people to AH and don't think for one second that there was any noble goal behind this move.|||
Q u o t e:
Besides since when the official explanation is security?
It all started long time ago, before D3 official announcement.
Q u o t e:
convenience and confusion between single and multi chars (oh the horror)
Stupid false reasons are stupid, but that was aimed towards "oh well" guys, there's just so many of them.|||I'm OK with this if it will prevent people from cheating and using trainers to get anything they want (this even bugged me when single player D2 people would do this). Makes sense from a "legitimizing real effort" standpoint.|||why is everyone making a big deal about this.. Go out and get a job and it wont be a problem. if you want to play single player, add a password.
Game Name = Gse2011
Password = 2011Gse
no one will crack it and you get to play single player
holy cow hes david blaine|||
Q u o t e:
Disenter, I emphasize with your situation, I really do. I've played with Aussies for years in online games and they've mostly all had the same issue with latency. That being said a business cannot make a large decision such as this based on their Australian customers, or for the small percentage of "others" with a poor Internet connection. I agree it would make sense to make an Aussie server, but the question is are there enough people playing battle.net games in Australia for Blizzard to justify the cost? At this point, the answer appears to be no.
That still doesn't change the fact that online-only is better in the long term for the game. Even if I lived in a place with a crappy connection I would still feel the same, even if I would have to play in a terribly laggy environment. Diablo games are based on items, and you just can't have duping and other security risks taking place. Online-only will not eliminate these effects, but it will mitigate many of them. It's a net gain overall.
I apologize for the backwater comment. I know plenty of Aussies and I know most of you aren't "backwater" or ignorant people. In fact, Aussies are generally speaking the most pleasant people I know.
Thankyou... apology accepted.
I think there would be certainly enough if there was a Australian based server. I know plenty of WoW users here, along with SC2 and D2 fans as well. It is probably true that a lot may not play online so much as it is, because the latency is so bad. Even if that is true (I can't possibly know for sure) I think you would find that quickly changing if we had a decent server here.
A plant will not grow if you don't give it water, and a pet will die if you don't feed it. It's really no different... a decent server here would make everyone in AUS and NZ happy, and grow more customers because those that played it would tell everyone they knew, and so on...
Sure... putting a server up costs money... but surely not that much. Let's say 10 grand a month.... if only 1% of the population here buy it, thats near on 18mil dollars, or enough to host it for the next 150 years. Ok sure its about profit naturally... so lets just say host it for 10 years. That's only 1.2mil, and almost 17mil profit. That's also not counting NZ who it would also likely service, and that's also from startup... over 10 years, you'd have potentially attracted a great deal more customers.
Of course I know there are other overheads, such as production costs, shipping, retailers bulk volume discounts etc etc, so it naturally isn't quite as black and white, but the point is, there is a massive potential for profit with little outlay, in comparison, and it would only ever grow! You could guarantee good service, rather than taking a gamble on so many sales failing / being returned from here, due to the lack of good service.
I really do not see any negatives in putting a server in here, from both a business and personal standpoint.|||
Q u o t e:
net gain for whom? certainly not for me. Certainly not for SC2 scene. Pretty much every major SC2 tournament was affected by lags and some even had drops. Yeah, always online serves them right and is the best thing since sliced bread hands down.
I have never traded a single item on battle.net, only among close friends and I certainly couldn't be bothered to play with lag spikes that could end your hardcore toon right there. Duping? Having avoided bnet play I haven't seen single non-legit item or anything higher than Um. For me BotD and other uberrunewords were as abstract as they were supposed to be in theory. Duping and hacking was never a problem for those who like playing alone and it's them who get the short end of the stick.
Besides since when the official explanation is security? Is that a conjecture of rabid fanboys taking care of their cognitive dissonance? I am pretty sure i haven't seen duping and security mentioned in official sources, only bullsh!t like convenience and confusion between single and multi chars (oh the horror). It's all about money and forcing all people to AH and don't think for one second that there was any noble goal behind this move.
It is a reasonable assumption that the majority of Diablo customers play online through bnet, otherwise Blizzard would not have a business case for an online-only service. Therefore Blizzard is attempting to meet the market demand.
Contrary to what you appear to believe, integrity in the economic environment is desired by many Diablo players. Reason being that your incentive to hunt items is diminished when they are duped and anybody and their dog has the top game items. There goes replayability. So it's not just about getting people to spend money in the rmah, it's about keeping people playing for a long time, which conveniently enough has the positive effect of likely increasing rmah sales over the long term.
Sometimes a business actually does do something for the benefit of their customers, which in turn benefits the company. I know it's a shocking concept that Blizzard actually wants to make good games that people want to play. I'm sorry that they did not specifically meet your personal needs and instead decided to focus on their entire customer base.|||Security through obscurity didn't work for World of Warcraft or Guild Wars. Security through security did - and the holes there to be found and exploited were still found and exploited. "Economic confidence" is a joke. If things are as rare as in Diablo 2, 98% of the best items will be found by bots. If they aren't, botted items will glut the market and the game won't have much of a tail without the item carrot/food pellets.
And there's no way Australia will get its own server. Just having one guy on call 24/7 to hit the thing with a stick when it goes out, is in the ~$100,000 a year range. A market that'll represent only ~$4 million in revenue, that they can already trick into buying an unplayable game... there's zero incentive there. Maybe when China rises a bit more and they decide to service the region itself to maximize profit..
Q u o t e:
It is a reasonable assumption that the majority of Diablo customers play online through bnet
The majority of players play through Normal once in offline mode and call it a day.
Honest to god conversation I had with one of these fiends: the guy did not know what "unique items" were. Seriously. Swear to god.
Not everyone dedicates their entire lives to one game. You're only hearing from the voice of the "no lifers" - the average Diablo customer doesn't even know offline was removed, and will not be using the RMT in either direction.
Q u o t e:
why is everyone making a big deal about this.. Go out and get a job and it wont be a problem. if you want to play single player, add a password.
Game Name = Gse2011
Password = 2011Gse
no one will crack it and you get to play single player
So you're saying everyone should quit their jobs, uproot their family, spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to move to a big city in the USA, just to play some little LAN game that'll be old catfood a few months after it's released?
Great idea.
