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Stalk your friends with Diablo III's new character profiles
If you're familiar with World of Warcraft's elaborate online armory database, then you probably already suspected Diablo III was next in line for a character brag-board. Fortunately, your wait is over today because a new character profile system for Blizzard's hack-and-slash title is now live on Battle.net. The new profiles allow you to poke around your characters' gear and stats, view your progression through the game's difficulty modes, and see just how much you love your Witch Doctor compared to the other classes. And when you tire of reminding yourself how awesome you are, you can paw through your friends' profiles too. Your flatmate could really use an amulet upgrade, and you should take any opportunity to tell him so. Says Blizzard, "We like profiles so much that we plan to add even more functionality to them as Diablo III evolves, including detailed statistics and tabs for achievements and artisans." Check out the new toys on Battle.net.
German consumer advocacy group accuses Blizzard of deceptive marketing with Diablo III
The debate over Diablo III's always-online requirement doesn't seem to be over for a German consumer advocacy group. The Federation of Consumer Organizations is officially claiming that Blizzard Entertainment used deceptive advertising when marketing Diablo III and has given the company until July 27th to respond to these claims. If no response is received, the group will be taking Blizzard to court over these practices. This is in addition to a class-action lawsuit being organized by Korean internet cafe owners over the game's non-functional status following launch. Diablo III's current packaging states that players must be online to access Battle.net, but it does not specify that accessing Battle.net is a requirement of continuing to play the game. The outcome of these particular grievances could have a great deal of influence on the implementation of always-online services in the future, but it's unclear what Blizzard's response (if any) will be to this particular complaint.
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.
The Perfect Ten: Amazing amateur MMO cosplay
I find the whole cosplay subculture at conventions to be both foreign and fascinating. On one hand, I deeply admire the dedication and time it takes to put together a complex outfit and then spend all day wearing this custom-made sweatsuit. On the other hand, it does tend to bring out some folks' narcissism and unnecessary cleavage. While many facets of geek and video game culture are adequately represented by those crazy cosplayers, I don't see as much when it comes to MMORPGs. Was it truly underrepresented, I wondered, or have I just never looked? Consider the following 10 costumes the result of an afternoon or two combing through so much amateur cosplay that it vastly exceeded the recommended amount as set by the American Medical Association. I'm glad to make the sacrifice for you, and besides, you just know those doctors are the ones in these outfits, anyway. (Please note that if you're looking for more skin than skill, this will not be the list for you!)
Blizzard admits Diablo III lacks 'long-term sustainable end-game'
Acknowledging you have a problem is the first step to rectifying it. And for Diablo III fans, Blizzard's recent admission that the game is lacking a sustainable endgame gives hope that the problem is on the road to recovery. In a recent post on the official forums, Community Manager Bashiok stated the company believed that the item hunt would would work for a sustainable endgame but now recognizes that isn't the case and admits that players are eventually "going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already)." Bashiok goes on to state that while there isn't currently anything to really keep players engaged, upcoming patches will offer more things for players to do.
Diablo III players say Linux app got them banned, Blizzard rebuts claims
Did a Linux app result in a permanent ban for several Diablo III players? Those affected say yes; Blizzard says no. Players who were using a program called Wine to run Windows applications on Linux machines flocked to the Diablo III forums to report that they were finding their accounts banned. "I got banned last night as well," one player wrote. "Other than running under Wine, I can't imagine why. Level 30ish char and not so much as a gaming keyboard." A Blizzard CM said that the studio investigated the claims and found that this wasn't the case: "We've extensively tested for false positive situations, including replicating system setups for those who have posted claiming they were banned unfairly. We've not found any situations that could produce a false positive, have found that the circumstances for which they were banned were clear and accurate, and we are extremely confident in our findings. Playing the game on Linux, although not officially supported, will not get you banned -- cheating will." [Thanks to greaterdivinity for the tip!]
Rumor: Vivendi looking to sell Activision-Blizzard stake
Rumors are swirling about the possible sale of Activision-Blizzard after the departure of Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy this week. Vivendi owns 61% of Acti-Blizz, and Levy reportedly walked over a disagreement about splitting up the French holding company. How this affects Activision-Blizzard remains to be seen, but Bloomberg says that Vivendi is looking to sell its entire stake, according to "a person with knowledge of the situation." The Wall Street Journal says that Vivendi's board of directors is mulling whether or not to split the company, which could potentially affect Blizzard and its World of Warcraft and Diablo III titles.
Mists of Pandaria opening cinematic will premiere at Gamescom 2012
Folks attending Gamescom 2012 in Cologne, Germany, will be the first to feast their eyes on the opening cinematic for World of Warcraft's next expansion, Mists of Pandaria. Blizzard will also be showcasing the game itself as well as Diablo III and StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. Players can check out the games and also meet members of the development team. If you happen to be at the convention, be sure to check out the company's booth in Halle 6.1 (B21) at the Koelnmesse.
Diablo III restrictions for unverified players changed slightly
Digital purchasers of Diablo III face a special sort of torment. No, it's not extra content; it's the game restricting players whose credit card information has not yet been verified. Unfortunately, when these restrictions were first put into place, they had the unfortunate side effect of hard-capping the player level at 13 and preventing any progress beyond the first boss of Act I. That was acknowledged as a bug, one that has now been corrected, to the great relief of players everywhere. The other restrictions on unverified players are quite intentional and remain in place, including a prohibition on any use of the auction house and an inability to join public games. Players will find these restrictions lifted as soon as their information is verified, but the official post outlining the prohibitions states that this process can still occasionally take up to 72 hours. So if you need to dive right into the game and can't risk having some restricted play, maybe you should go ahead and buy a boxed copy.
The Art of Blizzard is captured in new book
While some might argue the artistic merits of games themselves, few can deny the artistry of the concept art and sketches behind their development. And those who love the artistic style of Blizzard games will now be able to enjoy the inspiration behind their favorite games in a new hardcover book. The Art of Blizzard offers an exclusive look at many of the ideas and images that influenced and defined the various game universes, including World of Warcraft and Diablo III. It covers the timeline of the company from its origins as a three-person console-game development studio to its present day success. It is composed of almost 800 pieces of concept art, paintings, and sketches as well as commentary from VP of Art and Cinematic Development Nick Carpenter, Senior Art Director Sam Didier, and Senior VP of Story and Franchise Development Chris Metzen. The 352 page book will retail at $75.00 US; pre-sales will be available at San Diego ComicCon from July 12th through the 15th. The book can also be pre-ordered on Amazon.com for a discount. [Source: Blizzard press release]
Diablo III forces digital consumers to wait up to 72 hours to access full game
Chalk this up to another great moment in customer service history. With Diablo III's 1.0.3 patch came an interesting change that's hurting those who purchased the title as a digital download. Blizzard's made it so that only a small part of the game is accessible for up to 72 hours following its purchase, after which the rest of the game will unlock. Digital download customers are now restricted to the starter edition section of the game: part of Act 1, a level cap of 13, no auction house access, and limited interaction with other players. These restrictions do not apply to those who purchased the retail box of the game. A Blizzard employee explained the unlock delay in a forum post: "Outside of the issue that we fixed, digital purchases do require a review period before they kick over from Starter to Full editions. We apologize for the inconvenience, but it is a necessary step to combat fraud and other malicious activities that can weaken everyone's play experience. The delay is no longer than three days, and is often much quicker than that. Hang tight." This follows this morning's news that the South Korean government is twisting Blizzard's arm to make the studio issue refunds for dissatisfied customers. [Thanks to Marc for the tip!]
South Korea forces Blizzard to give Diablo III refunds
After investigating numerous complaints that Blizzard wasn't granting refunds to dissatisfied South Korean Diablo III players, the government there demanded that the studio do so anyway. The South Korean consumer protection law ensures a refund if there's a problem with the product that isn't related to the customer. Many South Korean players were angered due to massive server crashes and high latency while playing Diablo III. The Wall Street Journal reports that 66% of Diablo III online traffic in Asia comes from the country. As for the refund itself, there are a few stipulations. It currently extends to players who haven't reached level 40. If eligible, the customer has to file for a refund between June 25th and July 3rd. Past that date, Blizzard said that it will offer refunds for any players under level 20 within 14 days of their purchasing the game. The studio is also extending an olive branch to upset gamers by handing out 30-day trials to StarCraft II.
Patch 1.0.3 released for Diablo III complete with an interesting new bug
The pseudo-MMO nature of Diablo III makes it unsurprising that the development team is still hard at work with polishing patches. The newest patch, 1.0.3, has just been released, bringing with it several adjustments to classes and individual boss battles. It also expands the range for potential high-level item drops, allowing players a better chance at seeing top-end items without reaching Inferno Act IV. Along with the usual bug fixes, it should be all good news, right? Unfortunately, it looks like the patch has brought an odd glitch along for some players -- namely, a glitch preventing them from gaining any experience. Player testing seems to reveal that changing your password fixes the issue and allows you to gain experience once again, and the issue is only affecting players with a digital version instead of the game discs. While no official word has come down from Blizzard as of yet, it wouldn't be surprising to see the issue hotfixed in the near future.
Five Diablo III Wizard myths tested and debunked
When building your Diablo III Wizard, you have two main schools of thought on weapon type: use a high-damage two handed weapon with low attack speed or use a one-handed weapon and offhand and stack as much attack speed as possible. Items with increased attack speed on them greatly increase damage per second on paper, but there is some confusion in the Wizard community as to which spells are affected by it. Some players contend that Blizzard and Hydra are unaffected by attack speed; others report that channeled spells ignore both critical hit chance and attack speed. To find out the truth, I bought a two-handed weapon with 0.9 attack speed and a one-handed weapon with 1.6, both with the same rated damage per second. I then tested every spell on the zombies at the start of Act 1 in hell mode dozens of times and checked the damage difference, finally adding attack speed rings and amulets and re-testing both weapons. For almost every spell, the one-handed setup dealt lower damage but hit more frequently, averaging to the same damage per second. But the story was a little different for Hydra, Blizzard, and channeled spells. In this guide, I put five popular Diablo III Wizard myths to the test and discover the inner workings of Energy Armour, Hydra, Blizzard, Critical Mass, and other abilities.
Max Schafer claims Diablo III was originally an MMO
It always requires you to be online. It lets friends drop in, often without warning, to take part in whatever you're doing. It has an elaborate auction house, complete with microtransactions. Diablo III isn't an MMO, but in the eyes of many fans, it certainly seems to be aping the style of MMOs, and whether or not that's a good thing depends on your point of view. But according to recent statements from Runic Games co-founder Max Schafer, that's no accident, as many years ago, the game was an MMO. Schafer states that prior to his departure, the team was essentially aiming at doing for the Diablo franchise what World of Warcraft did to the Warcraft franchise. Changes in upper management prompted Schafer's departure, and his current studio Runic Games is known for its very Diablo-like Torchlight franchise. While it's been a long time since development on a Diablo MMO was in the cards, it seems some of those roots wound up making it to launch after all.
South Korea to make virtual item trade, bots illegal
Do you want to buy and sell virtual items? Do you live in South Korea? If you answered "yes" to both of those questions, you'd better get it out of your system prior to next month (or be prepared to do it illegally). A new law is being developed that will ban real money trading and block gold- and item-farming bots. The South Korean Ministry of Culture says that "the main purpose of games is for entertainment and [they] should be used for academic and other good purposes," according to a report at Eurogamer. This is bad news for gold farmers, RMT fans, and Blizzard, which has come under fire for Diablo III's real-money auction house over the past few weeks. The Ministry of Culture went on to say that RMT "contribute[s] to many problems in society, including teenage crime."
Diablo III pulls trigger on NA real-money auction house
While Diablo III released weeks ago, Blizzard's held off from launching the game's controversial real-money auction house in North America for its own reasons. All must be good on the studio's end, however, because the auction house has gone live in the game as of today. Unlike the traditional in-game auction house, the real-money variant deals in actual currency (such as USD). Players can sell their hard-won goods for cash, which can then be either spent on the auction house, sent to their own personal PayPal accounts, or converted to Battle.net Balance credit. The real-money auction house requires additional setup if the players have not attached a PayPal or authenticator to the account. Blizzard does take its cut, and business must be good: There are reports of items going for over $200 already.
More details on Diablo III's real-money auction block
It's controversial, it's unique, and it's still not actually running in the game proper. It's Diablo III's real-money auction service, and it's getting a new wrinkle added: In order for players to use the service, they'll need to have an authenticator attached to their accounts. This is being done to help ensure that the auction house is as safe as possible for all players. It also means that players will need to accept a new set of agreements when the feature finally goes live. Community manager Kaivax has also chimed in on the real-money auction house, noting that it's possible that the feature will launch with only item-trading functionality rather than allow players to buy and sell commodities. This is largely based on trying to ensure that the latter market remains active and fair for all players, and if the team decides to go this route, the commodity functionality will be added at a later date.
Infographic shows the numbers behind Diablo III's opening day
A couple of weeks ago, we told you how Diablo III was rewriting the PC game sales record books. Today Forbes has posted an infographic that illustrates just how ridiculous some of those numbers really are. Would you believe that all of the box copies of D3 sold on day one would stretch from the earth to the international space station and back if stacked end to end? Did you know that D3's $210 million first-day take is enough to give every Blizzard employee a cool $42,000? These and other absurd facts are yours for the viewing courtesy of the graphic design wizards at Video Game Design Schools. We've also embedded the infographic for you after the cut.
Diablo III to benefit from big brother World of Warcraft's features
Over on the Diablo III forums, player Matthest posted a thoughtful list of 35 improvements that he wanted to see added to the game. Lo and behold, his list was picked up by the game's CM and treated to a point-by-point response that revealed several upcoming changes, including those inspired by World of Warcraft's design. Coming to the game is a lock for the action bar, font size changes, the ability to sell damaged items, social and quick join improvements, and tweaks to the game's auction house interface. The team's also considering allowing players to resize and move the chat window. Not all ideas were embraced, as the devs had reasons for keeping them out: "We're really trying hard to avoid quickly bloating the game options, and since [numerical countdowns] would be an option, we're cautiously approaching it and a few other toggle/option requests."
