Yes. D1 and D2 not so much, just a few hours, but I'll get them and finish them before getting D3.

Not buying it either . Presentation looks good but thats about it. They buggered up SC 2 and now i have little doubt that D3 will just be a money maker for blizzard.

Access to internet isn't a problem for me, but an "Always online" requirement is bad for collectors who want their collection to stay functional. I strongly dislike being dependent on any company or service in order to play a game I bought; who knows how long the servers will run. So yes, having such a requirement will strongly reduce my inclination to buy the product.

With regard to DIablo 3, I don't expect that to be a big loss though.

I guess they will drop this requirement through a patch as soon as it will be sure the servers will be brought down (it already happened to a number of games i.e. using SecuROM).

I know i will play it as its probably something every reviewer has to do. i'm not sure I will buy it day one. After all the problems I had with being constant online with Might & Mahic Heroes VI.

Nor am I. But I was never going to. What was the point of this thread, anyway?

They might, or they might not (IIRC there are examples for both options). In any case customers aren't given a guarantee, they are at the mercy of the company. Which makes the matter quite simple: _If_ the requirement is dropped, _then_ I might buy the game.

I have enough games in my collection, I don't _need_ Diablo 3. If Blizzard reduces customer rights by making customers depend on the company, its servers, and its goodwill to remove the requirement later, then I can confidently vote with my wallet against it. :)

Not buying it either.. but it won't matter, there will be enough stupid people that aren't able to recognise anti consumer behaviour that will buy it.

I wish Korea would just ban the game, that would totally fuck Blizzard.

I don't get why people are sooooo surprised by the online requirement -- the alternatives would be:

1. Separate SP (stored locally) and MP (stored on Blizz's servers) characters. In other words, you wouldn't be able to use your SP character if you suddenly decided you wanted to play with your friend. Not good. Incredibly inconvenient. People would never accept this.

2. Something along the lines of what D2 had with Open Battle.net -- a mode that was separate from the "real" Battle.net and allowed you to use your SP characters to play with others, but outside the actual Battle.net. D2 SP/Open Battle.net characters were incredibly susceptible to cheats, trainers, mods, etc. etc. making games with random strangers completely unpredictable and often frustrating because so many SP characters were cheated to levels of power and wealth far beyond the possibilities of the actual game.

I don't think either of those solutions work, and I like the way Blizzard decided to set things up for Diablo III -- it creates a safe and cheat-free environment for all players and characters. As for the Real Money AH -- there were/are countless shady equipment and character trading sites out there for D2... I had no interest in buying gear or characters for real money back in D2 and I don't have any interest in it for D3, but I realize that, for the players who *are* interested in that kinda stuff, it is much better to have Blizzard in control of those transactions.

Unrelated to the above, but my reply got glued to this post:
Fixed that for you. No need to insult people because their opinions differ from yours.

Not a big deal for me, I'm online all the time anyway. Pre-ordered ages ago.

I fully agree with your remark about limitation of customer rights. It's just the company and the franchise are so incredibly strong most people will endure everything the publisher will throw at them anyway.

1-) Yes it is a great system. I don't need to online with my single player character. And if i want to save an option to play with others in future with my character i would create this character online, play on my own then if i want, go join a game.

2-) Then i won't join Open Battle.net games. Plus there was a great duplicate cheat on Battle.net. Nearly everyone has had high runes that impossible to find. Every character was uber. I was very funny and frustrating and kept me away from playing online. (I just played online with my friends on LAN, mostly on places that have no internet access.)

That's it. It is all about alternatives and decisions left for player to decide. And now you have nothing to chose.

And the most funny part of it all is i think you can play offline in cracked version. Stupid Blizzard only punishes the players who buy the game. Why the f..k i would buy the game if i couldn't play offline. I will go and download a pirated version instead.

No need to go quite that far to extremes, I think. A nuclear war between North and South Korea would be enough.

Yeah, I don't currently intend to buy Diablo 3 either. Always-online was just icing on the cake, I wouldn't have bought it anyway, at least new. I guess mostly I would have been interested in seeing the FMV parts, but I saw the intro/trailer already in Youtube.

I'll play something else instead, possibly a GOG game. Lately I've been playing also Angry Birds quite a lot, thanks to an Android tablet and a phone finding their ways to my home lately. First I thought the free Android versions of Angry Birds require constant net connection as well due to the Google ads, but fortunately that was not the case. If no connection is available, the game still runs fine, even better in fact because then there are no pop-up ads at all during gameplay.

Blizzard should really pay attention and follow Rovio's suit, e.g. turn Diablo 3 into a free ad-game, and make lots of colourful Diablo 3 plush toys.

I really didn't understand much of your reply... No offense. But I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think these alternatives and having separate on- and offline character types would have a negative impact on the game and the player community. I firmly believe that, in a multiplayer-heavy game like Diablo, the solution of having every character securely stored on the developer's servers will benefit the game and its players greatly. The game is not even out yet... How could you possibly know whether you would be able to play offline in a cracked version or not?