Email: On the Diablo server

This is a long email so I will reply in the middle of it. My text will be in red.

Hello Malstrom

I saw your recent post about Diablo 3. I’ve seen a little of the game and I think it’s cool. But on the whole server thing, I’ve been thinking and I think your missing something crucial.

 

You mentioned that blizzard is an internet company and grew thanks to the internet. Well, it’s not much different than Nintendo being a dedicated software/hardware company. But you and many others have scorned Nintendo when they went to far down that path. Devices like the Wii U and others are about being a dedicated hardware/software company rather than making a good game. Basically, the goal of all game companies is to make a good game. Success in gaming is linked to that. I think something you haven’t hit on is why does Blizzard have to put internet into every game? Or more so, why does internet have to be the primary focus (much like Nintendo over doing hardware/software)?

Nintendo’s rise had nothing to do with INTEGRATED hardware and software. The NES, as well as the earlier arcade games like Donkey Kong, were not integrated and ported to many game consoles (well, not the NES games). The NES and SNES was just a box where you could plug in any controller to play any game. Remember the NES Advantage or NES Max? There was nothing ‘integrated’ unless you consider cartridges to be integrated hardware and software (but all games were on cartridges then). Even the Gameboy had nothing to do with integration of hardware and software.The idea of Nintendo gaming being integrated hardware and software truly began with the Virtual Boy and following consoles. The gamer was unable to play Nintendo games except with specific Nintendo controllers. Nintendo consoles ceased being boxes people bought to play Mario. Nintendo embrace of this integration has coincides with a decline. Interestingly, the Wii is the least integrated hardware/software console Nintendo has made recently due to the port on the Wii controller and the Gamecube ports on the console. You can play Mario Kart Wii with a Gamecube controller. But you never could play Mario Kart 64 or Double Dash with a SNES controller.Zelda games began to be designed differently. Modern Zelda games were designed more around the eccentricities of the hardware which was never done in earlier Zelda games. Zelda must have motion controls because the Wii has them. Zelda must have touch screen control because the DS has them. It has been a radical change in how Zelda was made, and it coincides with the decline of the franchise.The reason why Blizzard grew due to the Internet is based on betting on the right trend. Even Bill Gates didn’t see the Internet as that popular until he thought Microsoft was being threatened by Netscape (remember that?). The rise of the Internet ascended any company utilizing the Internet. World of Warcraft came out right when broadspeed Internet became widespread. Riding the wave of rising Internet popularity is largely responsible for making Blizzard from a small third party game company to the behemoth it is today.You say that every gaming company’s objective is to make a good game. This is not true. The objective is to hit revenue targets for financial quarters. This is why so many games are released before they are ‘done’.

Let me explain it this way. Internet is something that adds benefit to the game. It was great because it added to the game. Blizzard’s game like Warcraft 2 and Starcraft were expanded based on this. You could now play with people all over the world. WoW was based around being online and you could talk and interact with many different people. Of course, WoW without it would kind of suck. But the problem is every game doesn’t need to do this. The online component is just suppose to add benefit. But Blizzard’s new games force online down your throat when you don’t want it. What I mean is always being online. You said people were wrong calling it DRM, but it feels like DRM It’s a restriction. They didn;t know what to call it, so DRM was the first thing to come to mind. It’s also telling as I don’t think gamers know why it’s online only.

Gamers are the beginning, middle, and end of all gaming. People do not play dominoes because they enjoy staring at the blocks or the ‘gameplay’. They do it for the company.Gaming isn’t about gameplay, graphics, or any of that. Gaming is about people. Even single player games is a simulation of the player versus people… such as a fantasy bad guy. Internet isn’t a part of computers. Computers are the vehicle, but the Internet is the destination. PEOPLE are the destination. Nothing else matters without people.The Internet may be the first time in recorded history of a concrete idea of the ‘social body’ concept.It is the nature of Man to war on space and time. We rode horses not because we thought it was cute but so we could get from point A to point B in faster time. We ride in automobiles for the same reason but replaced horses because they are faster.The interaction of people is not an ‘addition’ to a game, it is the game. It is why we play games.

I think people who expect features from games like Starcraft 1 to be in Starcraft 2 such as LAN may be experiencing Time Lag. As you get older, it becomes more and more critical that you fight Time Lag. Time Lag is your grandmother not using the computer because a pen and paper will do. She is retro. She is out of the loop. A vice president from IBM used to hang out with high school kids just to know where the next trends are coming and to think with younger eyes. Very successful companies constantly update themselves with new technology and adapt to the new ways of doing things. It is why, for example, you see so many companies using Facebook and Twitter because that is a new tool at their marketing disposal. You must keep updating yourself on the new. If not, you become a fuddy duddy as trends steamroll you.

The issue with LAN is not about LAN but about control. Why does Blizzard think it must take control of multiplayer? (Single player in Starcraft 2 was not online dependent.) The previous RTS game, Warcraft 3, and its situation in various countries is one concern. But the major one is that Blizzard controls all rights to E-Sports with its game by controlling the multiplayer. With Starcraft, people were creating industries around Blizzard’s game without Blizzard receiving any revenue. When you see how strong the law is concerning things like music (just playing music in your business requires you to pay), it is amazing how there are very few laws protecting the copyright owners of the video games. It is already very lax as countless youtubers make little shows using someone else’s content.

I am in the copyright business. It is the only thing that protects my business from being destroyed. I will advocate the right of a company to protect its copyright.

PC games have always had copyright protection. In the old days, they had code wheels and ‘look up an obscure page in the manual’. My favorite was in Ultima VII that failure to put in the copyright protection resulted in everyone speaking in Pig Latin.

If people don’t know why Blizzard games utilize the Internet so much, then the error of misinformation is on those people. Anyone looking at the company can see why these decisions are being made. And those who don’t like it are free to not purchase the product. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. Simple enough.

Blizzard’s games are making online a negative and not a positive, which detracts from the game. Starcraft 2 scarified it’s LAN for online always and Battle.net 2.0. But LAN adds benefit. There are a lot of places in the US with poor online. I live outside of Tampa (in Florida) which is a huge metropolitan area, but if you take State Road 60 east you’ll find a lot of places without a good internet connection. If you go into Appalachia, you’ll find the same thing. Having online as your only option means your dependent on a your connection and hoping it’s good. There is a big LAN even at my college where people bring their computers. We were wanting to play SC2 after it came out, but as we found out, we were off the campus’s internet and had to use a weaker connection. Needless to say, no one played Starcraft 2. We wanted to, but we couldn’t. Instead, we played Team Fortress 2 and other games. Ones where we can still do LAN. That is a smaller problem to what Diablo 3 has created. There are three big problems I’m seeing with online only right now.

If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. There is a reason why Blizzard is ignoring the calls for LAN. Usually, Blizzard follows the flow of behavior from customers. There must be a compelling reason for Blizzard to not do it. I’m tired of people complaining on the Internet instead of looking it up.

1)The servers go down. They went down on release, and they seem they are still going down. It’s bad when people buy the game, go home and try and play it and find out they can’t. This may be fixed one day, but what about maintenance? I’ve heard some Europeans players complaining that the servers go down when they are away in the middle of the day. And there is always a chance they could go down for what ever reason. It’s just a fact of having online.The job of the Diablo 3 developers is to make a better experience than Diablo 2. Diablo 2 had many serious problems such as the duplicating of items which crashed its economy and harmed the value of the game. I’m still waiting for a genius to tell these Diablo 3 developers how to solve the Diablo 2 hacking problem without the online component. I can’t think of any.Online only is not ideal but the job of a developer is not to make ideal utopias. Alas, we are made of flesh and blood. The job is to use the best available solution at the time. And I do not see a better solution to the Diablo 2 problem than online.

2)Hacking. You mentioned that some of the people who reacting to hacking didn’t understand it was in WoW, mentioning keyloggers and what not are common in WoW. But this isn’t WoW. This isn’t an MMO that needs online. I haven’t heard anything recently, but I’ve heard it’s easy to lose stuff. Hacking is a fact of online, but there is just a greater chance of it happening by being online. I may be misinformed here as my greatest sources are articles on the web. 

Get an authenticator, and you won’t have problems.What I dislike is how people know the nature of the issue before they buy it, and then act as if it is a surprise. Diablo 3 was known to have been online only for how many YEARS? If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. That is my response to Nintendo products I don’t like. The only reason why I attempt to go into detail of the nature of my dislike is because of a repeating cycle by Nintendo. I’m trying to help them out. I made this page because I didn’t see anyone else doing it. 

3)Lag. People seem to be upset with the lag and some who said they had died as a result. I have heard of a few players just moving to Torchlight 2 because of this. They would be in a fight and the lag made the difference of death and survival. 

So what is the problem? There is an alternative to people upset with Diablo 3’s online only issue: Torchlight 2. Everyone should be satisfied then. So why is there so much complaining on the Gaming Message Forums? “The woman does protest too much!”

These are all happenings of online games, but the problem isn’t them specifically. It has to do with the fact that the game is always online, so these are always problems. If I could LAN or play single player offline, then I can avoid these problems. If the servers are down, I just don’t play online and play single player. If I’m worried about hackers, I LAN and play offline. If Lag is bad now, I just play offline. But now there is no alternative. Servers offline? You don’t get to play. Hackers? You may just loss your stuff and have to hope Blizzard will help you out. Lag? Looks like you have to deal with it or find a new game. Of course, all these problems disappear when there is an offline mode. The point I’m making is there are all these flaws with are now embedded into the game because it’s online. And in all of this, what’s the point. To me, the player, why would I be happy Blizzard made it online only? Is it better? Does it add anything? It doesn’t seem to. In fact, the online only seems to be more for Blizzard than for players. The auction house allows them to make money off of the sales from players  to players. But all of this comes at the expense of the player’s experience. I assume Blizzard keeps it online only because they don’t want players manipulating the game or avoiding their auction house. 

Blizzard did explain the Real Money Auction House. It is difficult to take these complaints seriously when the rationale Blizzard provided was not addressed.
Above: Start at 2:30 to hear Blizzard’s rationale for the Real Money Auction House

You can either agree with the rationale or disagree. But let’s not pretend it doesn’t exist.What is true is that if Blizzard did not provide a Real Money Auction House, third party companies would make them anyway like they did with Diablo 2. Many of these places were very shady. If you were a Diablo 3 developer, what solution would you have to this problem? The RMAH may not be ideal, but I ask what better solution is there to the problem?

 

Of course, I hate game companies trying to find new revenue sources. There is one they should only use, and that’s sell a bunch of games. Wow’s success was selling a bunch of games, and it’s how Nintendo did the Wii. I have yet to see the strategy fail. So it seems silly to make an auction house to get money and then take away offline play to support the auction house. And truth be told, I’m not sure who really cared for it. I’ve yet to hear anyone getting excited over it and a lot of my friend who play the game don’t care. 

 
I have spoken to people inside the company about where Blizzard gets their money. Surprisingly, they don’t get much profit from the WoW subscriptions due to the massive server costs (and they are expensive) as well as customer service personnel (which was not farmed out to India). While Blizzard does make considerable profit from selling pets and mounts (which is why you keep seeing them appear every now and then), Blizzard makes their money from selling the actual games and, especially, the expansions. Why do you think Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 has two expansions each? Since they use the same basic engine, it is not as costly as making a new game. And think of how much money was made with the WoW expansions. I was told the WoW expansions brought in a considerable amount of profit (which is why I was also told that WoW will keep having expansions until people stop buying them). 

I think the game looks cool, but I think Blizzard is killing themselves with both the online and the auction house (which would be cool if real money wasn’t in the equation). All it has done is blow up problems that every game has. I think that is the weakness of Diablo 3. I might get it in the future, but that’s a wait and see.

 

Anywho, thanks for reading though thing Malstrom. E3 is in a week, so if you still get Error 37, you can always see what Nintendo and friends are up to. TakecareLet’s see if Nintendo can convince the world that they are coming out with a new game console. Last E3, Nintendo failed in this that Iwata had to take a picture of himself HOLDING the new console and release it on Twitter so everyone would know it was a console being talked about.