When I preordered Diablo III, I knew it required an internet connection. I figured this was for additional online content, updates, etc. What i was not prepared for was the harsh reality that if battle.net is down, i cannot play. This is not a MMORPG, this is a single player game and the entire game is stored on my laptop. Years ago, i remember playing Diablo II on my laptop at school, airport terminals, and even in airplanes. (these were the days before in flight wifi) It is unfortunate that Blizzard’s fear of piracy has lead them down a path of poor user experience for their paying customers (in this case prepaying). Better still is the fact that it is very doubtful that this will even stop piracy of the game. Already users of bootlegged versions of this game are able to play without purchase, authorization, or even network connectivity.
The truth is that today is launch day, and there are undoubtably piles of problems to be resolved with the game. Hordes of users log on to play, the servers can get overwhelmed. I just feel that users should be able to enjoy most of the game without connecting to battle.net. Game makers need to understand that sometimes people want to play offline. My favorite example, what can you play when the internet is down? The list is getting shorter every year. Wake up Blizzard. If you cannot provide an excellent user experience with copy protections, you may want to rethink your priorities. Is it more important to continually infuriate customers or temporarily frustrate pirates?
