Naturally, the Diablo series was built on online play but the recent revelation that Diablo 3 needs a constant online connection, thereby preventing the use of mods, hasn’t gone over well with the fanbase. Now, the Vice President of Online Technologies for Blizzard has responded to the outcry.
The VP, Robert Bridenbecker, said that he was surprised that fans reacted so negatively - since online play is the main focus of the game. After all, Blizzard has always featured online gaming for the past decade - and further said that the constant online connection for Diablo 3 had more advantages than disadvantages:
While not the first controversy to face Diablo 3, fans already have their own explanation for the online connection - asserting that Blizzard is attempting to stop gaming piracy, much like other companies have in recent months. Bridenbecker responded by saying that copyright protection never came up when discussing the game, and that he actually thinks that most of the DRM solutions are pretty stupid:
So why make the game online only if it’s not to prevent digital piracy? Bridenbecker explained that creating an offline-only mode would create an entirely different set of users, and that there probably wouldn’t be that many interested in an offline experience - especially with the Diablo 3 possibly heading to consoles.
Furthermore, he mentioned the fact that the offline characters of Diablo 2 couldn’t be used for Diablo 3, and explained that the whole point was to put everyone on equal footing, rather than offline players coming in with an advantage over online players. He explained, however, that private servers were still a possibility, and that you didn’t have to play with other people if you didn’t want to:
Do you think Bridenbecker made the right decision in making Diablo 3 online only? Will you still play the game despite this?
Diablo 3 is now believed to be heading for a release in 2012 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
Source: MTV
