video Diablo III launch epic FAIL!

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Oops, meant to post this in the Official Diablo thread.

[Order_66]

Mandatory online connection is to prevent piracy...Blizzard works on Diablo 3 game for many years and they do not want to see their hard works will be pirated in day 1 by the likes of Skidrow, Reloaded , Razor1911 etc

Well it obviously didn't work since the game is already in the top 5 most pirated games at one of the major piracy sites with user feedback saying the game is working just fine for them, offline anyways.

[+DKAngel Subscriber²]

lol top 5 my ass

[dead.cell]

Honestly, wasn't all this supposed to be expected? I mean, most launches have server issues and errors galore at release...

Also, how are they screwing you if you know what features it came with BEFORE you bought the damn game?! If you bought it without looking at what the product features, that's your problem.

Now as for what people DIDN'T EXPECT: seeing the game beaten in 2 hours. Now that is something to be upset about. Doesn't matter if it was just on easy mode, 12 years of waiting for the game to be beaten like that on release is just saddening. :/

[Razorwing]

Wha? I just woke up. Time to play Diablo! :D

[neufuse Veteran]

I miss the days of LAN and Null modem game play.......

[Mike Frett]

Wow, totally forgot about Diablo 3. I got the free copy from the WoW deal, unfortunately I'm busy moving my system over to Linux and probably will just never play it. It's not really a loss though since the only Diablo I ever played was the first version and didn't really like it. And as I understand it, eventually somebody will get it working with Wine if I ever did want to try it without being bothered with dirty Windows. Don't think it's a failure though, just hit some technical launch snags. :)

[Anibal P]

So by your logic Blizzard is totally justified in building up massive anticipation, setting an expectation through various marketing channels that it will be available for play instantly upon launch, then totally blowing it? I work in retail and I would have my arse handed to me by my customers, my superiors, and the courts if I pulled a similar stunt in my store. Lemme give it to you in a different light(The Apple folks will love this one) - Apple announces a new iCrap and takes millions of pre-orders, makes no mention of availability issues on launch - in fact speaks as though anyone who wants one can get one, has millions of people waiting in line at their stores, and makes most of them wait for days, even weeks before they can get one. Consumer protection groups here in the US would have a field day. Fortunately for Blizzard they have EULA's that allow them to weasel out of this sort of situation.

Their login servers, just like many others are built for everyday playing, it's your fault you insisted in being one of many that just HAD to get on the game THE moment it went live, the login servers are not built for that, no game has been, and it's not economically sane to build it to be ready for ONE night's mad rush or fanboys and fangirls.

Had everyone used some sense and logic, most would be asleep when it went live and would have had no issues logging in after a normal night's sleep, and their would not have been a mad rush killing the server

[Anibal P]

Honestly, wasn't all this supposed to be expected? I mean, most launches have server issues and errors galore at release...

Also, how are they screwing you if you know what features it came with BEFORE you bought the damn game?! If you bought it without looking at what the product features, that's your problem.

Now as for what people DIDN'T EXPECT: seeing the game beaten in 2 hours. Now that is something to be upset about. Doesn't matter if it was just on easy mode, 12 years of waiting for the game to be beaten like that on release is just saddening. :/

Why, it's not like D3 was a huge change from D2, it comes down to the simple fact that it's still just Diablo with a better graphics engine, gameplay hasn't changed, maps are essentially the same, I played the beta, the game was leading you down the only right path, yes you could deviate but you eventually just loop back and have to go the right way.

[firey]

Now as for what people DIDN'T EXPECT: seeing the game beaten in 2 hours. Now that is something to be upset about. Doesn't matter if it was just on easy mode, 12 years of waiting for the game to be beaten like that on release is just saddening. :/

I played for 2 hours and am barely past where the beta ends. So if you are filling a group and memorizing maps and such to clear the game you aren't really a valid comparison. I can see it taking me well.. another.. 15+ hours total to complete the story unless the act lengths get incredible short compared to Act 1. Then ontop of that I can play with one of the other classes, run through it on Multi-player, etc.

It's not like the game ends at the end of the Acts.

[dead.cell]

Why, it's not like D3 was a huge change from D2, it comes down to the simple fact that it's still just Diablo with a better graphics engine, gameplay hasn't changed, maps are essentially the same, I played the beta, the game was leading you down the only right path, yes you could deviate but you eventually just loop back and have to go the right way.

Beating Diablo II now, compared to Diablo III at release isn't the same thing. Also, we're talking about a 12 year time gap in between the 2 games, you'd think they'd be able to offer more... That's all I'm saying.

I played for 2 hours and am barely past where the beta ends. So if you are filling a group and memorizing maps and such to clear the game you aren't really a valid comparison. I can see it taking me well.. another.. 15+ hours total to complete the story unless the act lengths get incredible short compared to Act 1. Then ontop of that I can play with one of the other classes, run through it on Multi-player, etc.

It's not like the game ends at the end of the Acts.

I know. Hell, I beat the first act in 45 minutes though. Of course, not every act is going to play the same but, for the sake of measurement: 45x4=180/60= 3 hours. :s

I don't care how D2 plays now because I roflstomp my way through it now. I'm just disappointed by the length of time required just to fulfill the main story for D3 at release even. I get that it's not gonna be 100% the same when you go on harder difficulties. All I'm saying is that it's upsetting because I was expecting more...

[shakey]

Oh man, this launch was horrible... but not for me :p

At 1:59am, I had 2 friends over, lanning. We were all just sitting there, entering and re-entering our passwords, because we knew it was going to be one huge cluster ****. Right at 2:00am, I get in. Instantly, my 2 friends get "error: server full" or whatever. Stays that way for 30 mins. So while I'm running around, they aren't even able to play. They end up packing up and calling it a night after about 45 mins of nothing.

Blizzard really screwed this launch. Does it mean anything about the game, no. But they did manage to **** plenty off at the moment.

[firey]

Beating Diablo II now, compared to Diablo III at release isn't the same thing. Also, we're talking about a 12 year time gap in between the 2 games, you'd think they'd be able to offer more... That's all I'm saying.

I don't think the gap in development time has anything to do with length of story. The gap has to do with changing technology, economy, and much more. Yes we have seen previews for many years, but I bet the game has been re-written many times during that. The game it is now, is probably very very very different to how it would of been had it been released even 5 years ago.

I think the art, the immersion, the feel, are all amazing.

[Lovell]

I'll never understand the required server connection for a single player game DRM :/

They had 2 choices the old Diablo way in which you would need to create multiple characters for offline and online to stop cheaters or this way in which you can play online with singleplayer chars personally I prefer this way.

[dead.cell]

I don't think the gap in development time has anything to do with length of story. The gap has to do with changing technology, economy, and much more. Yes we have seen previews for many years, but I bet the game has been re-written many times during that. The game it is now, is probably very very very different to how it would of been had it been released even 5 years ago.

I think the art, the immersion, the feel, are all amazing.

My bad, what I meant was that as a fan, to wait 12 years for the next big thing and get a 2 hour breeze through of the entire game at release is upsetting.

I mean, MW2 for example got a lot of praise and complaint about their story being both amazing and amazingly short (4 hours minimum to complete was it?). I'm not sure why it comes as a surprise that anyone would be upset about D3's story length. Just offering my thoughts on it, because as noted earlier in the thread, the OP was complaining about things many of us knew were coming with D3, or at least expected. What many couldn't expect was the game's run time though, unless they really expected us to base that on a 12 year old game. :/

[+Byt Subscriber¹]

It would of annoyed me if i had taken the day off just to play it, however from all big game launches in recent years, i know the first 48 hours is very flakey.

It is a massively popular game, of course there are going to be problems with the servers.

However the fact you have to auth just to play single player is imo... stupid.

[seethru]

How many of you in this thread stating Blizzard blew it have launched a game of this magnitude?

*crickets*

That's what I thought. Until you've done it I don't think you can judge it. Who knows what went wrong, for all you know they had enough servers and something else went down.

As for the always online, it's their prerogative. You all knew it was going to have it and you still bought it.

[shakey]

How many of you in this thread stating Blizzard blew it have launched a game of this magnitude?

*crickets*

That's what I thought. Until you've done it I don't think you can judge it. Who knows what went wrong, for all you know they had enough servers and something else went down.

As for the always online, it's their prerogative. You all knew it was going to have it and you still bought it.

People who accept mediocricy are sad people. You can expect more from a company, and let them know you expect more. It is sort of how you set the bar for a company to perform..... Or you can sit back and let them do as they please, making it less enjoyable for the consumer.....

Having a game this popular, and not having enough servers ready is horrible. For the United States, they could have easily just opened up the servers at 12am per time zone, thus alleviating the huge influx of people all at once, and giving them time to say, " hey, we need to do something for the next 12am zone. " Instead, they went about it in a fashion that made it harder for them to address the problem quicker, and made it also flow in a way that affected more people.

There are ways to do everything that can help minimize disaster and the effects of it.

[seethru]

People who accept mediocricy are sad people. You can expect more from a company, and let them know you expect more. It is sort of how you set the bar for a company to perform..... Or you can sit back and let them do as they please, making it less enjoyable for the consumer.....

But you're assuming they weren't doing everything they could. That there wasn't a group of Blizzard techs trying to figure out some obscure problem that didn't come up during testing.

I work in this industry. Gamers are an unbelievably hard to please bunch. Give the guys at Blizzard some credit. Even with the problems that we all had things did start to go normally within two hours.

[abysal]

I wasn't going to stay up until 3am to play the game. However I got up early before work @ 5am, and was able to login an play for an hour without issue. I don't think that equals an EPIC fail, like your sensational title makes it appear to be. Their authentication servers were pegged hard during the first few hours of lunch preventing some users from logging in, that's not a surprise, seems to happen with almost every game being launched these days. Yes they should have staggered the launch to lessen some of the burden on the servers.

Everything else you list, while it may be valid, has nothing to do with the game launch.

[dead.cell]

But you're assuming they weren't doing everything they could. That there wasn't a group of Blizzard techs trying to figure out some obscure problem that didn't come up during testing.

I work in this industry. Gamers are an unbelievably hard to please bunch. Give the guys at Blizzard some credit. Even with the problems that we all had things did start to go normally within two hours.

Which is better than many World of Warcraft patch days to be honest. Blizzard usually extends maintenance on WoW for what.. 4 hours on big patch releases? I mean, they don't plan on it happening, but it usually does. :p

[shakey]

But you're assuming they weren't doing everything they could. That there wasn't a group of Blizzard techs trying to figure out some obscure problem that didn't come up during testing.

I work in this industry. Gamers are an unbelievably hard to please bunch. Give the guys at Blizzard some credit. Even with the problems that we all had things did start to go normally within two hours.

And your assuming the opposite. I already gave 1 solution that would have made it very easy for them to tell exactly how much more they would need to do, in a fashion that would have not affected as many people. I would hope Blizzard has the money and more talented people than I to figure out how to do this. There are ways to alleviate server load and give yourself a little breathing room.

[srbeen]

This always happens. You would think they would rent additional servers for at least launch day, or launch week, but they operate on reaction not expectation.

well, we have 500,000 pre-orders and expect launch day to generate another 200,000 sales.

The server can hold 300,000 comfortably - we'll be fine, right?

95% of EVERYONE who buys it will log in on launch - they will be screwing around with the SERVER config to one-time setup their stuff (usually) which is more load for the servers to deal with...

[patseguin Global Moderator]

I was able to log in this morning and it worked just fine. Can't wait to get into it more this evening. Meh, if you don't want to be online to play D3, then pirate it. Seriously, go for it. I want to play online with friends anyway, so it doesn't bother me.

Same here. I was up playing at 6am with no problems and leveled up to 10. Can't wait to get home and play more.

[briangw]

You are missing the entire point. This is about promised vs. actual availability. Last time I checked 12:01AM PDT != 4:01AM PDT. They have betas to work out these problems.

Except that betas usually have 1/10 of what the entire final version game base will be. You can run the algorithms as to what you need, but you won't always be prepared for everything (esp. a mass rush to login at the same time). How is it possible to prepare for that while saving money? Too few servers...angry customer base....Add too many extra servers to process requests = spend way more money and upset shareholders.