View Full Version : will they be charging for D3 multiplayer/battle.net?
sarnsereg
30-06-2008, 10:06
something someone else asked so i thought i'd post it.
do you thinkthey'll be charging for the online play? i hope they don't. i feel they need to keep diablo 3 the same as diablo 2. but you never know these days. anything to make a dollar seems the slogan of all companies but that's why i've always liked blizzard is they always seemed to be more concerned about quality...yet since wow came out it's been kinda hard to tell that.
something someone else asked so i thought i'd post it.
do you thinkthey'll be charging for the online play? i hope they don't. i feel they need to keep diablo 3 the same as diablo 2. but you never know these days. anything to make a dollar seems the slogan of all companies but that's why i've always liked blizzard is they always seemed to be more concerned about quality...yet since wow came out it's been kinda hard to tell that.
You might not believe this, but there are a lot of players asking for Blizzard to charge a monthly fee for Diablo III. It's frightening how brainwashed some people are. They don't think Blizzard could deliver a hack-free online experience without getting 15 bucks from a million people every month, even though Blizzard has in the past done a considerable job in Diablo II to combat hacks without a monthly fee.
If only the sheeple banded together and became sheepdogs; and demanded for Blizzard to create a hack-free enviroment, or else they won't waste their money on their games anymore...
Nobody knows, and nobody will know until Starcraft 2 is released (or Blizzard make an announcement), since it will be the first game to go live on the new version of Battle.net. There is very little different in the technical side of multiplayer for SC and Diablo.
They charge a fee, it will be the end of the Diablo series for me. I will have already given them my money for the game, paying monthly just to play it is ridiculous. $15 for example is not much when compared to things like Internet, electricity, cable, etc..But, I do not play D2 throughout the year. There are long stretches of time I do not even log in. So the idea of paying for a service for months I do not use is idiotic.
Also, what happens to my characters if I decided to take a break? For $180 a year I expect a new patch EVERY year. I expect a rich game environment that does not get old. The best part of Diablo is that it is a free environment to play online.
They get more than enough revenue from advertisement to cover the cost of hosting.
sarnsereg
30-06-2008, 11:52
i think it wouldbe the end for me too. while i enjoyed both diablo and diablo 2 a lot.. the single player was just not good enough for me to pay $50... the whole reason the games were worth it was the multiplayer for me. i mean.. d2 is an item game and trading items with others and showing off is the point.. if you have that it doesn't matter what items you are using. the online is what made diabloe and diablo 2 for me.. it's also what made SC2 for me so if they are charging for b.net i'm done with that too which sucks because i loved SC. only way they could do it for me is if it's wow + b.net + anyother mmo they release all for the same price of one. otherwise it's a waste of my money and no matte how good their games are i can play others without the extra fees.
I'm too tired to read through all of that, but here's some info for your brains.
Ok try this on.
Go to GoDaddy and run a simple whois on Diablo3.com
You will get the following
Registrant:
Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment
P.O. Box 18979
Irvine, California 92623
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: DIABLO3.COM
Created on: 01-Dec-98
Expires on: 30-Nov-10
Last Updated on: 18-Jun-08
Administrative Contact:
Blizzard Entertainment, Blizzard Entertainment domainnameadmin-us@blizzard.com
P.O. Box 18979
Irvine, California 92623
United States
9499551382
Technical Contact:
Blizzard Entertainment, Blizzard Entertainment domainnametech@blizzard.com
P.O. Box 18979
Irvine, California 92623
United States
9499551382
Domain servers in listed order:
NS-WEST.CERF.NET
NS-EAST.CERF.NET
Registry Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Registry Status: clientRenewProhibited
Registry Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registry Status: clientUpdateProhibited
But at the bottom you will see the name servers. If you try to go to any of those two addresses it will time out. But if you go to cerf.net then it will bring up an AT&T page. And we all know at&t provides the servers for diablo and diablo 2. If you also notice the two name servers, one is for east and one is for west.
They charge a fee, it will be the end of the Diablo series for me. I will have already given them my money for the game, paying monthly just to play it is ridiculous. $15 for example is not much when compared to things like Internet, electricity, cable, etc..But, I do not play D2 throughout the year. There are long stretches of time I do not even log in. So the idea of paying for a service for months I do not use is idiotic.
Also, what happens to my characters if I decided to take a break? For $180 a year I expect a new patch EVERY year. I expect a rich game environment that does not get old. The best part of Diablo is that it is a free environment to play online.
They get more than enough revenue from advertisement to cover the cost of hosting.
They would do it just like WoW. The only time they actually delete an account is if your caught hacking. Cancelling your WoW account (ie stopping payment) puts your account on hold. Once you start paying again, your access is fully restored, all your characters are available just as you left them. You lose nothing.
But at the bottom you will see the name servers. If you try to go to any of those two addresses it will time out. But if you go to cerf.net then it will bring up an AT&T page. And we all know at&t provides the servers for diablo and diablo 2. If you also notice the two name servers, one is for east and one is for west.
I am not sure how this is relevant. The servers are owned, run and controlled by Blizzard. The hosting itself is in an AT&T facility. WorldofWarcraft.com has exactly the same information.
They announced D3 will be similar to D2 - we will have BNet and SP. If BNet will still have so many disadvantages (lags, hacks, dupes, tempbans, no players command, restricted number od character...) I don't see the reason to play on BNet. Better to stay SP for me. Pay for it? It's ridiculous.
They announced D3 will be similar to D2 - we will have BNet and SP. If BNet will still have so many disadvantages (lags, hacks, dupes, tempbans, no players command, restricted number od character...) I don't see the reason to play on BNet. Better to stay SP for me. Pay for it? It's ridiculous.
You obviously missed the part of the panel where they mentioned version 2 of Battle.net that will be much improved.
Sequitur
30-06-2008, 14:04
I personally wouldn't mind paying if it means more hack control/prevention, more support, patches, etc. I know alot of people feel the same way.
Then there are people who feel that 'paying for D3 would take away from the original feel of the world'...whatever the hell that means. Either that, or they just too cheap. Which is fair enough, I guess.
What I'd like to believe is that with the introduction of Battle.net 2.0(which will remain free)will come some SERIOUS hack/item/bot prevention.
As with every other topic on this forum, its simply a matter of wait and see.
I hope it will be a free battlenet, i dont like paying money to have to play a game i already bought.
mouseman
30-06-2008, 14:22
They have very different resources to combat hacks now than they did with D2. The internet is very different - D2 was planned as much as a SP/LAN as it was MP. Now the battle.net aspect of the game is their main focus, broadbands can be found in nearly every home and generally the amount of gamers have multiplied itself many times over.
In many cases, you can't patch the game that's so clearly broken and so old. You can band-aid, but it's just that, hackers will find a way. But taken the experience and resources Blizzard has, the new improved battle.net could really stop the hackers for good.
As for me, paying to pay is like buying a graphics card and playing monthly fees for the drivers. Or buying windows and paying monthly fees for the updates. You buy the product, you deserve the support afterwards. If players will keep playing the game a lot after the release, like years to come, it can be guaranteed that more and more people constantly buy the game and the revenue will continue. D2 and LoD still sell pretty well because you won't have to make a commitment when you buy the game.
I think it's wise from Blizzard if they tap into the gamers and also more casual gamers who wouldn't pay to play. Like me and a lot of my friends who are clearly past that phase in their life, that they would pay to play, not because of the money, but because of the principle. Having WoW as a MMO and D3 as a ARPG they would dominate all aspects of RPG-like gaming. Pay to play might be valid in MMO's, but not in ARPG's.
I am not sure how this is relevant. The servers are owned, run and controlled by Blizzard. The hosting itself is in an AT&T facility. WorldofWarcraft.com has exactly the same information.
Actually no. If you do research first before you lay claim to something, then you would know that everything is routed. The websites are hosted by AT&T. The west and east coast server-set are hosted by AT&T. Everything is hosted by AT&T. Be it a current game or a future game. Yes they are controlled by Blizzard. But not hosted by Blizzard. You need to learn how everything works first.
I'll gladly buy any expansions but a monthly fee for a game like Diablo 3 is nonsense. If Warcraft 3 is free to play online I don't see why Diablo 3 shouldn't be.
The west and east coast server-set are hosted by AT&T...But not hosted by Blizzard.
That is what i said.
The servers are owned, run and controlled by Blizzard. The hosting itself is in an AT&T facility.
It stands to reason AT&T would be the owner and operator of their own facility :)
If you do research first before you lay claim to something (snip) You need to learn how everything works first.
Maybe ill lay off because if you were tired on your first post, your even more tired on this one and didn't really read mine properly, but you will see that you just said exactly what i did. I know how it all works :)
Once again though, how is any of that relevant to whether or not Blizzard will be charging for D3?
Sorry if I didn't see it, Yeah I am tired as hell but I have work today and can't go back to bed for an hour. All I meant to do with my post was to give more proof that there will be online, like everyone knows. But that since WoW is also hosted there, then it could be pay to play. I'll do some patent searching and see what I come up with. I found out WoW was pay to play before it came out by doing a patent search, so that's what I will do.
NobleAtreides
30-06-2008, 16:12
I would pay $9.99 a month to play D3 for improved content and to support the talent over at Blizzard. well worth it. I never payed nor played an MMO, funny how that is, I absolutely love Diablo, but can't for the life of me bear to stand MMORPG's.
I hope to god they don't make battle.net have a monthly service charge. That would just ruin Blizzard's reputation for me completely.
psykeman420
30-06-2008, 20:09
I'd pay for a better version of B.net if I had to, but would prefer not of course.
Did any of the games on battle.net ever had a fee? No.
Will this be any different? No.
End of post, next.
You might not believe this, but there are a lot of players asking for Blizzard to charge a monthly fee for Diablo III. It's frightening how brainwashed some people are. They don't think Blizzard could deliver a hack-free online experience without getting 15 bucks from a million people every month, even though Blizzard has in the past done a considerable job in Diablo II to combat hacks without a monthly fee.
If only the sheeple banded together and became sheepdogs; and demanded for Blizzard to create a hack-free enviroment, or else they won't waste their money on their games anymore...
For one, your demeanor is degrading. Not a good method to get a point across if you also wish people to take you seriously.
Two--
even though Blizzard has in the past done a considerable job in Diablo II to combat hacks without a monthly fee.
When is the last time you've played D2? The place is a cesspool with illegal programs and activity. Don't make me laugh. Within a DAY OR TWO after 1.12 was released maphacks, loaders, and breakpoint mods were already back.
coldsong
30-06-2008, 21:02
i hope they charge a monthly fee, to keep it free of kiddies and hacks. If it takes 15 dollars a month to keep the game as clean as WOW right now, they have my money.
If it was any one but blizzard I would be worried about a monthly fee. They are a big enough company and they already have a cash cow in WoW. Box sales for this game could possibly be record breaking and that income should last them well into the expansion in which they will get more box sales.
So no, I can say im 99% certain they will not charge a monthly fee for diablo III over battle.net. Though I can understand why people would want too for extra support. I myself would probably be willing to put in 5 bucks a month (what i feel would be reasonable, its not an MMO so I don't think theirs enough they could do to warrant 15 bucks a month)
Again I don't think I will have to though, blizzard will release a complete game with amazing replay ability and items worth trying to obtain (sorry HGL, it was a good try!)
I paid eight years for Ultima Online and a few years for WoW, so it's not that I'm "cheap", but monthly fees turn off a number of people I'd really like to play with, and I think it adds value and longevity to the game.
I agree, though, that free-to-play environments tend to be plagued by all sorts of problems, mostly caused by the fact that it's very hard to keep people out if you don't have their credit card number or address -- or if they haven't spent money on their characters (a lot of people don't consider "time" a valuable resource). CD keys become cheap to obtain after a while.
WoW is not free of some of these problems, however. You still get a lot of anti-social individuals, and farming bots are very much alive and affecting the in-game economy. The fact that people are willing to pay money for gold and such encourages this. D3 will have a RL money market as well, just like D2 did when it was new (what did that first Windforce go for? $2000?), but if everyone can play for free, perhaps that aspect will go away a little sooner or become less relevant.
Perhaps a solution might be to have voluntary pay-to-play servers with no in-game advantages other than that you only play with people who are also subscribers. I'd like that, I think. But I'm not talking about a system like Hellgate's, which I thought was just bad.
Anyway, paying for WoW didn't improve my gaming experience vs. not-paying for D2. The problems were mostly the same.
Apocalypse
01-07-2008, 00:57
i am personally fine with a monthly fee so long as it would provide constant updates and added content. however that fee should not go over 4.99 a month if thats what it is for.
sarnsereg
01-07-2008, 08:21
my big thing is if they don't have a "blizzard pass" whre it's only $15 for wow b.net, etc. i can't afford it. i can handle $15 a month but when you get 3, 4 5+ games you'd like to play it's too expensive to be paying for all of them.
i hope they charge a monthly fee, to keep it free of kiddies and hacks. If it takes 15 dollars a month to keep the game as clean as WOW right now, they have my money.
1.) $15/month fee will NOT keep it clean. Personally I feel strongly that D2 was just never developed with security in mind. But regardless, fees will not provide you with a clean enviroment.
2.) To the contrary, you will find percentage wise more kids will be online with a fee. Why? Well it is quite simple, the older you get the more responsibilities you have, the more you have to think about where your money goes. Young kids have nothing else to spend their money on than games and entertainment. How many kids you know that put 50% of their allowance into savings, stocks, IRA, etc..
mouseman
01-07-2008, 10:51
I don't think ARPG's need additional content, but just the normal bug fixes and customer care every company should be giving their customers with no additional fee. It is not an MMO and that's why people like it. If you want all that, you have WoW. Go play it and leave us our Diablo.
Paying to play for an ARPG is like buying a graphics card and paying a monthly fees to use it. People defending it are like people who would say "but hey, we get drivers for our monthly fee, so it's a good deal."
For one, your demeanor is degrading. Not a good method to get a point across if you also wish people to take you seriously.
If you can't look over my demeanor (which isn't half as bad as you make it out to be), then who cares? I certainly don't. Feel free to ignore me.
The place is a cesspool with illegal programs and activity.
Yeah; and? How long have you been playing D2? One month? Blizzard fought hard against cheating in Diablo II, if you look at its history.
aSimpleFear
01-07-2008, 11:32
If they charge, the diablo series and Blizzard as a company will be dead to me.
If people are brainwashed enough into thinking that the company needs an additional 15 dollars every month to 'prevent' hacks and cover 'server costs' they are retarded.
Blizzard will likely make millions of dollars PROFIT on the box sales of Diablo3, hell they'll probably make enough in the first week to justify not charging a monthly fee.
It's ok to charge for something like WoW. Thats a giant ever-changing gaming universe. Diablo 3 is a set-in-stone point a to point b game. If they intend on adding new content it only makes sense to be in the form of expansions. just like LoD.
JusticeInACan
01-07-2008, 11:37
It will be the day when I actually buy and play a game with a fee. It's the main reason almost all MMORPGs aren't worth it at all for me, and if Diablo 3 will be the same deal, then Blizzard will be losing a lot of customers faithful to the series, myself included.
Sein Schatten
01-07-2008, 14:47
I didn't buy Failgate:London because of the fee and I won't buy D3 if there is one. I would rather pay and play a true MMORPG (WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!).
I wouldn't personally mind a small fee around $5 per month but I think it would affect the playerbase and be a bad decision for Blizzard.
They've got their WOW with its monthly fee that they can keep patching and releasing expansions for for a long time still.
A big market still exists for the medieval fantasy fans not so hooked on the MMO model and that's where Diablo fits in - I very much doubt that we will see a monthly fee here.
As said before - people are still actually buying D2 and even the original Diablo game (Although at bestseller prices).
Keeping players playing on battle.net and discussing as we are on various fan/trading forums is THE way to spread the virus :) Very very valueable advertising channel they've got there - all of their future products will sell themselves and keep selling as long as they don't suck. Don't forget how incredibly expensive normal advertising can get.
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