20 Jun, 2012, Kline wrote in the 101st comment:
Votes: 0
Markov_AU said:
I also and mot fond of my friends jumping into my game when I play as the mobs jump in difficulty and tend to kill me when I am not ready for them to be harder.


You can actually disable this in the options menu. I think it's under social, but there is a checkbox to allow people to quick-join your games or not. Sorry, not at home ATM to check what the specific name is. Disable that option though and friends will only be able to join a game when you invite them. I play with quick-join enabled, and all my friends do, but we have adopted the unofficial etiquette of sending a PM first to make sure it's safe to join / not in a big fight.
20 Jun, 2012, Rarva.Riendf wrote in the 102nd comment:
Votes: 0
Quote
Yes, because your mud has a single player mode that players can play offline and bring the gold/goods/whatever into the online version, amiright? Just because diablo2 did it doesn't mean it was the right decision. The box for diablo3 clearly says it's an online game. I have a lot of complaints about diablo3 but this definitely is not one of them.

Diablo2 did not either. the single player could not bring its item with other player on blizzard server.
The idea was perfectly fine and worked.
Now you have LESS options than with Diablo2….
Like testing stuff on singleplayer with a char editor to see if it is viable before going online…
Or you know just play while you do not have any internet connection available.
This is not a game you buy, this is a game you rent from blizzard…
I play game on Mame from time to time thx god old arcade game did not need a bbs connectivity or we could probably not be able to play any of them now.

ANd you know what piss me off in D2: not be able to import player FROM online TO offline….because I mostly play online, and using an editor to replicate it is just plain a hassle when they could just be a fucking stupid options that does it…


PS:yes my mud has single player mode…it is called my virtual machine where I code/test it…
20 Jun, 2012, Kjwah wrote in the 103rd comment:
Votes: 0
The game is going downhill fast. Adding more and more MMO mechanics to a non-mmo game is just down right silly. On top of balancing it like it's an MMO is another big issue.

They just don't know what they are doing anymore, or know exactly what they are doing which is forcing people to the (RM)AH…

I wanted a fun action RPG to hold me off until Grim Dawn came out, guess I wont get it. lol
20 Jun, 2012, Kline wrote in the 104th comment:
Votes: 0
Kjwah said:
The game is going downhill fast. Adding more and more MMO mechanics to a non-mmo game is just down right silly. On top of balancing it like it's an MMO is another big issue.

They just don't know what they are doing anymore, or know exactly what they are doing which is forcing people to the (RM)AH…

I wanted a fun action RPG to hold me off until Grim Dawn came out, guess I wont get it. lol

I've never seen such a poor reception from any game I've played or wanted to invest significant time into, ever. Not even playing WoW from Vanilla thru Cataclysm were there ever so many issues with stability and general player discontent over seemingly everything. Even the massive uproar over the Mass Effect 3 ending feels more tame than the reaction D3 has had since launch; every day it just seems like a new issue occurs.
21 Jun, 2012, quixadhal wrote in the 105th comment:
Votes: 0
For those of you wondering about the SMS protect nonsense…. perhaps you can use a google voice number, forwarded to your actual cell phone? I haven't tried it, but I use google voice as my home phone, and it can receive (and forward) SMS messages.

I haven't tried this, as I figure until I get a character to Hell mode, the RMAH isn't even worth bothering with, but… I see no reason it wouldn't work.
21 Jun, 2012, KaVir wrote in the 106th comment:
Votes: 0
quixadhal said:
For those of you wondering about the SMS protect nonsense…. perhaps you can use a google voice number, forwarded to your actual cell phone?

Nope, no Google Voice or prepaid phones.
21 Jun, 2012, quixadhal wrote in the 107th comment:
Votes: 0
Hmmm, I'll have to write them a nastygram then… as those are the only two options I have for SMS messages. If Blizzard will pay for a monthly cell phone subscription (taken out of my Blizzard Bucks, of course), I'd be happy to get an android. :)
21 Jun, 2012, KaVir wrote in the 108th comment:
Votes: 0
If they won't even let you use Blizzard Bucks to pay your WoW subscription, I highly doubt they'll let you spend them on a phone subscription :P
21 Jun, 2012, Runter wrote in the 109th comment:
Votes: 0
KaVir said:
If they won't even let you use Blizzard Bucks to pay your WoW subscription, I highly doubt they'll let you spend them on a phone subscription :P


Lol. I really wonder why they won't let you buy your wow subscription with it? I think maybe this is admission that they realize most people won't be able to remove the money from the system, and they don't want people to spend it on something else that they'd normally have to spend real money on.
22 Jun, 2012, KaVir wrote in the 110th comment:
Votes: 0
Runter said:
Lol. I really wonder why they won't let you buy your wow subscription with it? I think maybe this is admission that they realize most people won't be able to remove the money from the system, and they don't want people to spend it on something else that they'd normally have to spend real money on.

I would rephrase that last sentence as "…they don't want people to spend it on something else that they're already willing to spend real money on".

If someone plays WoW then they're already paying the subscription. If they can't use Blizzard Bucks then they'll still pay, but they'll pay with cash instead.

Pretty much the only things you can spend Blizzard Bucks on are their older games (which have already made their money and are now looking pretty dated) and optional extras for WoW (once again encouraging people to pay the WoW subscription…which has to be with real cash). None of these really cost Blizzard anything, it's all digital.

Perhaps just as importantly, the things you can purchase are generally one-shot deals - how often do you really need a WoW name change, or realm transfer? If you could pay your WoW subscription you'd have a constant outlet for the money, but by blocking it the only thing you can really use large amounts of Blizzard Bucks for is the RMAH…allowing Blizzard to charge you another transaction fee.

Combine this with the difficulty and expense involved in actually getting your money out of the system, and you end up with a scenario where (I would speculate) a lot more cash is being funnelled in than is coming back out. From a purely commercial perspective, it's a winner. On the other hand, they also keep nerfing things that players have spent a lot of money on, and I suspect that's going to have a negative impact on the RMAH.
22 Jun, 2012, KaVir wrote in the 111th comment:
Votes: 0
P.S.: On a related note: http://i.imgur.com/YGdKB.jpg
24 Jun, 2012, Idealiad wrote in the 112th comment:
Votes: 0
Wow, that's crazy.
25 Jun, 2012, Rarva.Riendf wrote in the 113th comment:
Votes: 0
Huhu just learned another artificial limitation a la windows like: if you buy your key cheaper (but perfectly valid one) in russian they force you to play in russian,
I hate those immetarial good sold at different prices depending onthe country and that once detected force the limitation on you..I boycott those.
It is like you enter a shop and depeding on your color skin, a different price tag is shown. Somehow that becomes legal on the net..
25 Jun, 2012, KaVir wrote in the 114th comment:
Votes: 0
Rarva.Riendf said:
Huhu just learned another artificial limitation a la windows like: if you buy your key cheaper (but perfectly valid one) in russian they force you to play in russian,

That's the idea - it's because the Russian version is supposed to be cheaper, and they didn't want people importing it. The problem is that Blizzard messed it up.

The Russian version originally let you choose your language, and when players asked about it on the forums (prior to making a purchase) two of the Blizzard staff also confirmed that you could choose the language. Then patch 1.0.3 "fixed" it by forcing them to play in Russian, and the staff went back and edited their posts to say that it was not possible. The players were then told they had to buy another copy of the game at full price if they wanted to play in English.

However many of the players had paid full price, and were still locked into their regional language. It's also been occurring in other countries - and in some cases players are being forced to play in a foreign language because no translation is available for their own country.

There are numerous threads complaining about the issue, but this is one of the more informative ones (if you don't mind wading through 43 pages, 801 posts!), eg:

"I bought D3 cause it allowed me to play in English, now they take that away?"

"Finally yesterday bought a retail copy of the game in the regional language (Spanish), download more than 8 Gb for the English client and when I tried to login this morning the error appeared."

"What about people i country's like Croatia? There is no translation for our language and we still can't play on English."

"WE bought Eu Version for English Not for russ !!"

"I bought my game online, And it says "Global" In the battle.net account. I'm from Israel, I have no clue what to do. There is no translation for Hebrew as far as i know."

"I'm from Brazil, and am experiencing this problem as well…"

"same here, cant play anymore. try to download the game again, but the installer is in russian…"

"I'm really affected by this problem because I do not speak any russian. I was promised everywhere that I could play in any language (even English), and it worked until this morning."

The official response: "After looking into this, we've determined that this is working as intended."
25 Jun, 2012, Nich wrote in the 115th comment:
Votes: 0
On a more meta level, is this kind of stuff inevitable when a company gets HUGE and starts dealing with the amount of players/money? It really feels like it. The budget explodes (I can't even begin to imagine the computing power needed to run Diablo 3 for everyone), and suddenly the biggest stakeholders don't give a crap about making a good game, and there's a lot more politics involved in every decision. That's not to say that Blizzard isn't trying to make a good game, or that the developers aren't focused on making the best possible game they can, but can you imagine any indie developer locking down languages? No, if they're translating it at all (budget), they are looking to sell as many copies as possible everywhere, and at that level, that just means making the game accessible to as many players as possible.

But I guess it gets thorny if you're trying to target different price points in different countries.
25 Jun, 2012, plamzi wrote in the 116th comment:
Votes: 0
Nich said:
On a more meta level, is this kind of stuff inevitable when a company gets HUGE and starts dealing with the amount of players/money? It really feels like it. The budget explodes (I can't even begin to imagine the computing power needed to run Diablo 3 for everyone), and suddenly the biggest stakeholders don't give a crap about making a good game, and there's a lot more politics involved in every decision. That's not to say that Blizzard isn't trying to make a good game, or that the developers aren't focused on making the best possible game they can, but can you imagine any indie developer locking down languages? No, if they're translating it at all (budget), they are looking to sell as many copies as possible everywhere, and at that level, that just means making the game accessible to as many players as possible.

But I guess it gets thorny if you're trying to target different price points in different countries.


I think a lot of it is inevitable, including the missteps and poor decisions that end up being made. For instance, it seems to me that with only a moderate amount of sense, you could decide to lock regional copies to regional D3 servers, and leave the language unlocked. So if someone from the US purchases a Russian copy of the game for less $$, then they can play the game on Russian servers and still get what they paid for. However, when the stakeholders multiply, and people end up having to meet 10 times a day to decide who gets to decide what, then it's very difficult for the company as an entity to act sensibly.

There's also such a thing as corporate culture. In one huge company, there could be enough brilliant individuals in key places to keep the overall behavior of the company in check. Or, these same individuals can be locked down under idiots and operate at 1-2% of their potential. As a consultant, I've seen the whole gamut.

KaVir said:
P.S.: On a related note: http://i.imgur.com/YGdKB.jpg


Well, obviously, the Game Masters don't have any power. It's only the Game Archdukes that have the power to contact the Game Overlords, who report directly to the Game Demi-Gods…
25 Jun, 2012, KaVir wrote in the 117th comment:
Votes: 0
Nich said:
On a more meta level, is this kind of stuff inevitable when a company gets HUGE and starts dealing with the amount of players/money?

I think it is to some degree, but not to the extent we're seeing here. I find the sheer degree of incompetence staggering - every patch introduces new bugs, and even many of their fixes don't seem to work properly. Their customer support is completely swamped as a result.

Example: You can include clickable links in public chats which show item stats, but there was no security in place, so people would invent fictional items with so many slots that clicking on them crashed the client. This was "fixed", but the fix prevented any item with slots from being displayed, instead you'd just see the raw markup sequence as text. Did they even bother testing the fix?

On another note…

There's still a lot of accounts being banned for purchasing things on the RMAH, and I suspect I know why. Imagine the following scenario: You create two new accounts, Alpha and Beta. Alpha puts up 10 items for sale, each for $250. Beta buys the items. As soon as the money arrives in Alpha's PayPal account, Beta submits a chargeback and reverses the credit card transaction. Blizzard bans both accounts, but you're still $2500-$120=$2380 ahead. Yes, this is fraud.

The problem is that some of those chargebacks are being caused by other things. Perhaps the credit card company thinks the transaction is suspicious, or maybe there's a lack of funds, or it's a kid using their parent's credit card, or an angry player wants their money back for a nerfed item. Could also be a stolen credit card, although I imagine that would be difficult to do through PayPal.

Blizzard have now introduced a delay for new accounts to be authorised, possibly because people are reversing the purchase of Diablo 3 as well. However rather than just blocking access to the RMAH, they've put them into a limited "demo" version of the game, and this is impacting real players - some of whom have been blocked from progressing beyond the first stage of the game for several days. The backlog has become so large that the automated responses are telling people to post on the forums for help!

I just find it amazing, watching them blunder from one mishap to another, blaming the customer or denying a problem exists whenever things go wrong. I really think they should have resolved these issues before activating the RMAH.
25 Jun, 2012, Rarva.Riendf wrote in the 118th comment:
Votes: 0
Quote
That's the idea - it's because the Russian version is supposed to be cheaper, and they didn't want people importing it.

And yet they are happy using fiscal paradise for their money and avoid paying taxes. They can go die with that. It is like dvd zoning….
HOpe they will get pirated to hell, they deserve it for screwing their paying customers.
25 Jun, 2012, Nich wrote in the 119th comment:
Votes: 0
KaVir said:
Example: You can include clickable links in public chats which show item stats, but there was no security in place, so people would invent fictional items with so many slots that clicking on them crashed the client. This was "fixed", but the fix prevented any item with slots from being displayed, instead you'd just see the raw markup sequence as text. Did they even bother testing the fix?


To me that seems more like bugfix prioritization then anything. Likely, they class "can crash the client" bugs as being required to fix immediately, and for the moment, downgrading to a lesser bug is preferable. I would bet they are working on a more permanent fix (I'm not blizzard, and that is not meant to be apologetic).

Things get really messy when real money is involved, though. Basically, Blizzard has set themselves up as an investment bank in their personal currency, but I don't know that their system is set up to deal with that scenario properly. If a game drops a transaction or two in fake money, well, tough luck. If it starts losing/duplication/misdirecting real money, then blizzard could/should be held responsible just as if a bank had suddenly invented a whole bunch of cash where there wasn't any before.
26 Jun, 2012, Kline wrote in the 120th comment:
Votes: 0
Not sure if anyone knew this, but RMAH purchases (even in Blizzard Bucks) are taxed, too. I tossed some junk up for sale for Blizzbucks since I didn't want to pay the PayPal fees and generally dislike any business with PayPal. I turned around and ended up buying a piece of gear using said Blizzbucks and…Was promptly sent an email including tax added onto my purchase price. Tax on a digital item using a virtual currency, since I did not send it to PayPal. WTF? The FAQ just says "ask a tax advisor". I could understand tax, if it applied, when using real money, but not Blizzbucks. I'm curious who they will pay the collected tax on my fictitious money to.
100.0/168