So I log into PoE to play and I think to myself. Didn't D3 catch a crapload of flack for requiring people to log into play?

Why does PoE get a free ride? Where are the complaints? Where are the people screaming for PoE to play offline? Why the double standard?????????

I personally don't care if I need to be online or not, but the outcry over this for D3 and nothing for PoE seems pretty one-sided...

Originally posted by Psychow

So I log into PoE to play and I think to myself. Didn't D3 catch a crapload of flack for requiring people to log into play?

 Why does PoE get a free ride? Where are the complaints? Where are the people screaming for PoE to play offline? Why the double standard?????????

The difference is that A LOT of the D3 player base (not me because I'm always online when I play games) came from D2, and I would guess most of them still play single-player or multiplayer games. Heck, most of them still play D2!!! 

So, while I shrugged off some of the launch-day login and latency issues that Blizzard was having with D3, I could understand how many of the hardcore D2 couldn't understand why that was happening.

NOTE: I shrugged it off, but I also thought it was completely unacceptable for a company like Blizzard, creator of World of Warcraft and StarCraft, to be so ill-prepared to serve an online game title that had so much expectation going into launch.

---

Originally posted by BitterClinger

---

Originally posted by Psychow So I log into PoE to play and I think to myself. Didn't D3 catch a crapload of flack for requiring people to log into play?  Why does PoE get a free ride? Where are the complaints? Where are the people screaming for PoE to play offline? Why the double standard?????????

---

The difference is that A LOT of the D3 player base (not me because I'm always online when I play games) came from D2, and I would guess most of them still play single-player or multiplayer games. Heck, most of them still play D2!!!

---

I'd be curious to hear where you think the PoE playerbase is coming from, if not D2?

Originally posted by kadepsyson
It's free.

That´s a good point indeed!

Originally posted by Banquetto

 

Originally posted by BitterClinger

---

Originally posted by Psychow So I log into PoE to play and I think to myself. Didn't D3 catch a crapload of flack for requiring people to log into play?  Why does PoE get a free ride? Where are the complaints? Where are the people screaming for PoE to play offline? Why the double standard?????????

---

The difference is that A LOT of the D3 player base (not me because I'm always online when I play games) came from D2, and I would guess most of them still play single-player or multiplayer games. Heck, most of them still play D2!!!

---

I'd be curious to hear where you think the PoE playerbase is coming from, if not D2?

Well, I think the current batch of POE players are more MMO-centric than the D2 player base as a whole. Also, you can't buy buy POE off the shelf, take it home, and install it like you could Diablo 3.

So yeah, I could be wrong about all of that. I have no insights into the hard data on any of this. However, I personally know a few gamers who purchased Diablo 3 at the store thinking it was basically the next version of Diablo and never expected an "always online" component.

Originally posted by Banquetto

 

---

Originally posted by BitterClinger

---

Originally posted by Psychow So I log into PoE to play and I think to myself. Didn't D3 catch a crapload of flack for requiring people to log into play?  Why does PoE get a free ride? Where are the complaints? Where are the people screaming for PoE to play offline? Why the double standard?????????

---

The difference is that A LOT of the D3 player base (not me because I'm always online when I play games) came from D2, and I would guess most of them still play single-player or multiplayer games. Heck, most of them still play D2!!!

---

 

I'd be curious to hear where you think the PoE playerbase is coming from, if not D2?

Perhaps a lot of the PoE playerbase came from Diablo 3?

Just a thought ;)

The problem I had with the outcry over always-online for D3 was, except in certain circumstances where not everyone has good internet, it really didn't make any difference. Yet it was a HUGE isuue for people that weren't really affected.

Why isn't it HUGE now?

Originally posted by Psychow

The problem I had with the outcry over always-online for D3 was, except in certain circumstances where not everyone has good internet, it really didn't make any difference. Yet it was a HUGE isuue for people that weren't really affected.

 

Why isn't it HUGE now?

I never understood why it was so huge :S I really didn't care then and I don't care now. Does PoE have a SP feature  ? I didn't even check loel.

Originally posted by Psychow

The problem I had with the outcry over always-online for D3 was, except in certain circumstances where not everyone has good internet, it really didn't make any difference. Yet it was a HUGE isuue for people that weren't really affected.

 

Why isn't it HUGE now?

 Beacuse...

It's.....

Free....

Because GGG isn't Blizzard, and hating on Blizzard is the 'cool' thing to do (especially on this site). Also because GGG is a small indie company, so they can do absolutely no wrong. Blizzard is a large corporation, and is therefore EVIL!! EEEVVIIILLLLL!!!!!!

EEEEEEEEEVVVVVVIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!

People aren't making a big deal about  Path of Exile because, unlike Diablo III, it is a brand new IP (Intellectual Property). No one in their right mind looked at Path of Exile and thought "This online game better have single player". The developers laid out their plans, made clear what the game would be, what it would have, and how it would work; In other words the developers lived up to the expectations of their player base  (Putting aside the game play which some people love, other people hate and people's general opinion about the game itself - that's not what this discussion is about.).

Diablo III, however, is the third game in a series that is rooted in pairing both Online and Offline play.  Diablo III is the first game in the series to completely remove Offline gameplay making the game a departure from it's predecessors (In more ways than one if you wish to mention the Auction House and gear implementation but those are, again, conversations for a different topic.) and because of those roots there are many players that expected to be able to play the game offline.

With that being said, however, I should mention why exactly that expectation exists.

In Diablo I and II (1 and 2) there are three forms of play: Single Player, LAN Multiplayer (Local Area Network), and Online Multiplayer. In essence, you had the ability to play by yourself as long as you had a computer, play with friends offline (At, say, a LAN party), and play online with the rest of the world Now yes, I know, you can play Online by yourself but the point is that you still have to be online to play. I can not make bold, italicize, and underline those eight words enough times because they are key to the reason why the expectation of Diablo III having single player even exists.

There's a few solid reasons as to why people want to play Diablo III in single player. (I'll say it now some of you will not give a damn about one of the reasons I will mention; I ask of you, however, to take it on my word that it's something some people liked to do meaning, while not pertaining to everyone, for some it is another valid reason as to why the aforementioned expectation exists.)

I open with this point to simply get it out of the way with, my primary point and argument is in the paragraph after this one.

One of those reasons is the ability to just mess around with your character as you please: Get godly stats, make an SoJ (Stone Ring of Jordan, google it if you're unfamilliar) that gives +99 to all skills and make every swing of your sword or arrow let loose launch a cataclysm of Meteors, Fire Walls, Frost Orbs and Blizzards that'd make even the hardest incarnation of Diablo cringe and make numerous phone calls to his mother. You may not like cheating, you may even abhor it, but there's an army of us who have reached a point playing the game normally where we've been so damn frustrated (Say, due to a rare/unique Monster with the perfect stats to completely counter your character) that we wish we could do exactly that. In Diablo I and II we could. Some of us did. I did and damn was it satisfying to violently explode Diablo after a frustrating time playing on Ranked//Closed Battle.net.

Cheating aside for a lot of us Diablo I and II were games that we could take on the go no matter where we went. Say you're stuck traveling with your family and you had to go to your grandmother's house with little or even no internet. You launched the games, played single player, and had fun! Better yet if your internet went out and you have siblings or you had a friend over you could just launch new characters and enjoy the game. What about if you had an office job? When Diablo 1 was released and even back when Diablo II was released wireless networks weren't something you could find five to ten of every fifty feet. This meant that if you had a laptop chances are you weren't online with it unless you were jacked in with an Ethernet cable. In any of these situations Diablo I and II became games you could just load up on your laptop anywhere you were and have fun with. Better yet you could still play that single player character with other friends any time you wanted to be it an office coworker, local friends at home, or someone a few thousand miles away.

But these days with wireless internet access being standard in most places and as easy to obtain as opening the lid on your laptop, clicking a network and being online, what in the world is the difference? Well, to be able to play online first you require a stable, strong internet connection which is, for the average person on the move, not always possible to obtain. Perhaps your work limits connection speed on a per-computer basis, perhaps you're staying with family and they have the cheapest internet package money can buy, or perhaps you just can't get a good signal. If that's the case you, my friend, are screwed. You don't get  to play Diablo III which, if you really really love and want to play the game, really, really sucks.

"But that's a given for ANY online game!" you may cry and to you I respond "You're damn right it is!". ... So why in the world is Diablo III getting flack about being online only? Simply put, as I've been trying to explain, just as a Percentage-Based RNG loot system is standard any Diablo-style dungeon crawler the ability to play when you wanted, offline or not, was a standard met by games in the Diablo IP until Diablo III was released. Some players expected that standard to be met and are, within reason, still upset that they were never given the option. Perhaps it's because they love the game but can only play it a few brief times a week during their schedule and general lack of internet, perhaps it's because they feel that the move to online only was a method of combating piracy that punishes the general user, or perhaps they just prefer to play the game in a single player capacity any time any where. The exact reason why people bash on Diablo III for it's lack of single player varies from person to person but this should at least explain the origins behind why that expectation exists in the first place.

How much did you have to pay for your single player Path of Exile, vs how much did you have to pay to play Diablo III single player ?

PoE gets a free ride because it's meant to be an online exclusive game; that was it's goal all along. That and PoE didn't have to fight Error 37.

D3 changed the whole atmosphere with having online only features; I don't think it was welcomed by the elder-diablo fanbase.

Originally posted by tollbooth
How the hell to you expect a free to play game to make money if you play it offline?

Exactly.  If their entire money making from release is to come from cosmetic shop items, how would that work if the game wasn't online?

lol silly OP