Have you started groaning over this decision yet? Yes, Blizzard has decided to make Diablo III only playable as long as players have a constant online connection. While this kind of feature has been utilized for authentication purposes, Diablo III will be requiring a constant connection for a whole plethora of Battle.NET features.
The exclusion of offline play for Diablo III may hurt some players, especially those who live in areas that might not have high-speed internet on a regular basis. Blizzard executive vice president Rob Pardo justified the need for constant connection by citing the increased security made possible, and that the perks of the Battle.NET features outweigh the drawback of not being able to play while offline.
In Pardo's own words, those players who would hope to play Diablo III while traveling on an airplane may have their complaints heard by the developer, but simply put, there are "other games for that." Some people may disagree, but unfortunately, it doesn't look like Blizzard's going to be changing their minds regarding this decision any time soon.
So what kind of features will be available to you with a constant internet connection? The list below is pretty significant and includes the in-game auction house feature, but there are bound to be some individuals out there who would gladly give it up for the chance to play the game whenever and wherever they want.
- Persistent friend list
- RealID Cross-Game chat
- Persistent party system
- Server-side persistent character storage
- Drop in/drop out co-op
- Increased item-stash that gets shared among characters (up to 10)
- Achievements and stat tracking
- The Banner system, which acts like a player's emblem, detailing achievements, win/loss in PVP, whether or not a player is playing Hardcore, and can also be used to teleport to a player's position in-game.
The list is pretty significant, and having just a few of those features can make the need for constant internet a bit easier to take, especially for online character storage. However, there will still be a number of people who would sacrifice all the features for the chance to play their copy of Diablo III while sitting on a flight.
If the need to stay connected to play Diablo III wasn't enough of a disappointment, then alloww us to inform you absolutely no mods of the game will be permitted by Blizzard. We won't attempt to speculate on just how many fans will be infuriated by the announcement, which was provided in a FAQ statement to Kotaku:
"Q: Will Diablo III include support for bots and/or mods?
"A: No, for a variety of gameplay and security reasons, we will not be supporting bots or mods in Diablo III, and they'll be expressly prohibited by our terms of use for the game."
For all the players who had their great dungeon, class, or quest designs in mind, we're sorry to be the bearer of bad news. The exact nature of the security improvements that come as a result of denying mod support to players is open to speculation. But even if there are legitimate reasons, it's unlikely that they'll prevent the inevitable dismay, anger, or feelings of betrayal from the fan base.
With Diablo III in the last legs of development, the decisions made are probably for good. Will these decisions impact whether or not you will be buying the game on PC or possibly on console?
Diablo III is still without an official release date for the PC, but a n Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version is still a rumored possibility.
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