The lights are on
Blizzard president, CEO, and co-founder Mike Morhaime took to the forums to address some of the issues surrounding Diablo III since launching last May.
One of the topics discussed is the inability to play the game offline. Morhaime denies the online-only requirement was added to battle piracy and nothing else. He says the game was designed to be played online with friends from the beginning.
“While we’ve never said that this requirement guarantees that there will be no cheating or game cracks, it does help us battle those problems (we have not found any fully functional cracks),” he says. “More important to us is that the online requirement is critical for the long-term integrity of the game experience.
“Overall, while there are some downsides to the online-only approach, I still believe this was the best long-term decision for the game.
Morhaime also admits the real-money auction house in Diablo III "isn't perfect" right now and hopes to address its problems through additional player feedback. He also says players can expect gameplay improvements in future patch updates.
You can read Mike's letter in full on Battle.net.
Long time fan, but... I consider D3 a fail. Too many mistakes and not enough content.
I've said it so many times...forced online single player is a deal breaker. I was looking forward to this game for so long, I feel betrayed. I may play the game if they ever change the issue, or if a hacker finds a way, I'll even buy a copy and play with a mod. But it's sad to see a game go by that looks so good, but fails to deliver on the basic principle of SINGLE PLAYER.
Actually for longer term, it's worse. What happens when the servers go offline, which at some point they will have to? You will not be able to play again.