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Blizzard acknowledges Diablo III always-on is DRM
Despite weeks of insisting that Diablo III's internet connection requirements were all about improving the experience for gamers, Blizzard has finally copped to the fact that the feature was actually designed to prevent piracy. "While we've never said that this requirement guarantees that there will be no cheating or game cracks, it does help us battle those problems," Blizz co-founder Mike Morhaime said in a D3 state-of-the-game post. As Rock, Paper Shotgun points out, Morhaime claims to "fully understand the desire to play Diablo III offline" despite the fact that the game was "designed from the beginning to be an online game that can be enjoyed with friends." The online requirement "is the best way for us to support that design," Morhaime writes.
Diablo 3 internet hiccups don't penalize players
Some of you may have experienced this first hand, but if you've yet to suddenly go offline while playing Diablo 3, here's what happens. First, your game will lock up for a minute or so, then you'll be sent back to the character selection screen.According to Eurogamer, at this point you'll log back in and find that you've retained all gold, experience and items – no penalties there. Once you get back into the game, you'll start from your last checkpoint.The decision to require a constant internet connection initially received some blowback from the community, but it would seem it's not as bad as initially thought, at least in one regard. Eurogamer even notes that being booted back to the character selection screen didn't happen every time – occasionally the game would resume as if no disconnect even occurred.
No 'always-on' DRM for Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Ubisoft's always on-again, off-again relationship with its restrictive DRM policies is "off-again" for Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Rock Paper Shotgun reports word from the publisher that it will activate an initial check the first time the game boots up -- and then players are good to go with offline play. The publisher gave the Assassin's Creed series a break from its always-on DRM after the first sequel, with last year's Brotherhood spared the inconvenience. Meanwhile, other Ubisoft products, like Driver: San Francisco and From Dust, have been burdened with the internet-required protection at launch. Well, at least one thing remains consistent in the social contract between Ubisoft and PC players: there's no sign of the publisher halting its predictable staggering of console and PC launches.
Blizzard responds to complaints over Diablo 3 connection requirement
Diablo 3 requires a constant internet connection -- a decision that has caused some strong reactions from folks looking to play the game solo, or those pushing against overly demanding DRM schemes. MTV spoke with Robert Bridenbecker, the Vice President of Online Technologies at Blizzard to get the developer's side of the story. "Internally I don't think [always-on DRM] ever actually came up when we talked about how we want connections to operate. Things that came up were always around the feature-set, the sanctity of the actual game systems like your characters," said Bridenbecker. "You're guaranteeing that there are no hacks, no dupes. All of these things were points of discussion, but the whole copy protection, piracy thing, that's not really entering into why we want to do it." Bridenbecker goes on to mention that Diablo 2 offline characters couldn't be used online, which got messy for players and the developer, so this time they decided to "just keep everything clean." As for those looking to play alone, they don't have to interact with any other online players if they don't want to -- but they'll still need that internet connection.
