"Online Only" sucks. No LAN and no mods make me a sad boy.
Diablo III coming May 15
11–20 of 125 posts
Re: Diablo III coming May 15
#12I am super excited for this, but a little disappointed that Blizzard apparently doesn't understand exchange rates.
The Australian dollar is currently worth (marginally) more than the US Dollar, and yet the game costs an extra $20 here. I don't understand how this is justifiable.
Re: Diablo III coming May 15
#13Oh, they're fiendish indeed. They're offering the game for free if you sign up for a year of WoW. That's just mean.
I managed to abstain from that, but I did pre-buy and pre-load the game. I was just so excited they had Mac support (which, last I'd heard, was sort of up in the air I thought).
Re: Diablo III coming May 15
#14I am super excited for this, but a little disappointed that Blizzard apparently doesn't understand exchange rates. The Australian dollar is currently worth (marginally) more than the US Dollar, and yet the game costs an extra $20 here. I don't understand how this is justifiable.
No, they understand perfectly.
Re: Diablo III coming May 15
#15I am super excited for this, but a little disappointed that Blizzard apparently doesn't understand exchange rates. The Australian dollar is currently worth (marginally) more than the US Dollar, and yet the game costs an extra $20 here. I don't understand how this is justifiable.
No, they understand perfectly.
+1.
Re: Diablo III coming May 15
#16I am super excited for this, but a little disappointed that Blizzard apparently doesn't understand exchange rates. The Australian dollar is currently worth (marginally) more than the US Dollar, and yet the game costs an extra $20 here. I don't understand how this is justifiable.
The prices in general are quite strange.
amazon.de has it for 55€ and .co.uk wants just 33 pounds.
While Blizzard itself charges full retail prices...
Re: Diablo III coming May 15
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Betas (open, and closed too, to a degree) these days seem more like, "let's subtly have people try our product for free, get hooked and generate buzz while at it". It's the same as a free trial (although calling it like this has less positive response, it seems). Just another marketing stunt, long gone are the days where beta was used strictly for testing. On the Web 2.0 environment, who started this? Was it Google w…
While I would normally agree with you, Blizzard games have always had polish. They do continue to balance the game for years afterwards but you rarely find bugs that would make you say it wasn't ready for prime time.
WoW had some glaring bugs when it came out. Of course, the start of the game is always better, because it has received a lot more attention (it's crucial to get players hooked in) and because it has received a lot more testing (how many testers are willing to go all the way to max level? Way less than the ones who just check out the first few). Starcraft II was better in that regard.
But I'm not targeting Blizzard specifically, just MMO companies in general. All the releases from the past few years all went the same way.
Re: Diablo III coming May 15
#18Oh, they're fiendish indeed. They're offering the game for free if you sign up for a year of WoW. That's just mean. I managed to abstain from that, but I did pre-buy and pre-load the game. I was just so excited they had Mac support (which, last I'd heard, was sort of up in the air I thought).
That's been around since Blizzcon 2011.
Re: Diablo III coming May 15
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Betas (open, and closed too, to a degree) these days seem more like, "let's subtly have people try our product for free, get hooked and generate buzz while at it". It's the same as a free trial (although calling it like this has less positive response, it seems). Just another marketing stunt, long gone are the days where beta was used strictly for testing. On the Web 2.0 environment, who started this? Was it Google w…
You're right and you're wrong. Blizzard DOES use the beta for hype. With SC2 they gave beta keys to preorders to help generate revenue and interest prior to launch. Not a lot of participants actually know the reason for a beta and actually use it as an excuse to play the game early but Blizzard already knows this. Blizzard's job of releasing a public/invite beta is to test: A) How the game functions on the boat-load…
Again, it's not just Blizzard I'm talking about. Every single MMO company since a few years ago is going this way.
Network stability is mostly tested on specific moments like stress test weekends or at the end of a beta, when they let everyone in to see how far they can push their hardware.
Of couse this and general behaviour in various hardware configurations need to be tested. But it's not the ultimate point of a beta anymore, at least not in the later stages.
I can see it all the time, players just want to get into a beta to see if they like a game before they pay for it, rather than to help make it better.
Re: Diablo III coming May 15
#20I am super excited for this, but a little disappointed that Blizzard apparently doesn't understand exchange rates. The Australian dollar is currently worth (marginally) more than the US Dollar, and yet the game costs an extra $20 here. I don't understand how this is justifiable.
The prices in general are quite strange. amazon.de has it for 55€ and .co.uk wants just 33 pounds. While Blizzard itself charges full retail prices...
It's the same with other games and especialy dvd/Blurays. Even with extra shipping cost you normaly have to pay less than on amazon.de.
Never quite understood why, but I order a lot over uk since I know that.