The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


The greener grass

Posted on May 15, 2012 by

Sometimes – okay, quite often – I'm rather jealous of my good chums over on the world-conquering PC gaming site/shopping list Rock, Papers, Hot Gun. I enviously eye their devoted millions-strong audience, weighty peer credibility and enormous paycheques, and think "If only Podgamer could have lasted more than three and a half hours without everyone stabbing each other", and other such wistful regrets.

Then I remember that if I was on RPS I'd have had to devote part of my one precious and irreplaceable life to playing Diablo 3, and everything's alright again.

A few of my favourite lines from this morning's Eurogamer coverage:

"What all the Diablo 3 Error messages mean, and what to do about them"

"UK launch video, images, Iain Lee, people in wizard costumes"

"Though the downloader may show 100%, please allow some time for it to fully complete."

"The server is full. This is likely due to high login traffic. The only solution is to keep trying to log in."

"If you're still running into this issue, there may be an error in your foreign language appdata files. Some players have found a workaround, but please be aware the steps they provide are not something we can currently support."

"Error 3004, 3006, 3007, or 300008 – There are a number of possible causes for these errors."

The future of videogaming, there, viewers. No thanks.

0 to “The greener grass”

  1. Dan C says:

    Ah well there you are, you’ve made yourself obsolete because no console gamer needs you to tell them how to make the damn thing work ;).

    Reply
  2. Hodge says:

    The most terrifying thing about it is that it's not even remotely unexpected. Blizzard have been saying for months that the game would be saddled with this rubbish, and millions of people went out and bought it anyway.

    Reply
  3. daneel says:

    Not only that, but apparently you have to be online all the time to even play the single player version.

    Fuck always on DRM. Fuck Blizzard.

    Reply
  4. asdasd says:

    Apparently error 300008 is caused by extraneous zeroes.

    Reply
  5. Jon says:

    I'm pleased to see they are spending no effort at all to try and market this to people who have never played Diablo 2. Because that could have only gone one of two ways: irritate me, or tempt me and thus irritate me in the longer term.

    Reply
  6. Lenny says:

    What's that, dear paying customer, you'd like to be able to play this game offline? Hahahahahaah! Good one! Don't you know that piracy is evil and killing the industry?
     
    *Meanwhile, back in sanity-ville, hackers work tirelessly to offer a non-broken, internet-drm-disabled version of the game that people would pay to buy, but get it for free instead.*  

    Reply
  7. Tom K. says:

    Click too little, and your mans don't pick up the things and he gets dead.
    Click too much and my mouse break.
    This games is not doing it for me I am not feeling it.

    Reply
  8. Irish Al says:

    @Lenny
    Almost everything in Diablo III is server-side, the client is effectively just a dumb client even in single-player. hence the (don't laugh) online lag when playing single-player. As a result I would be astonished if a hacked server emulator ever appears.

    Reply
  9. Issa says:

    link to guardian.co.uk

    It's bugged. The combat knackers your fingers.  Single player campaign is short and linear.
    4/5

    Reply
  10. asdasd says:

    To be fair to the graun, 4/5 translates to an 80% score – which, considering we're talking about a Blizzard game, not to mention the almost industry-wide adoption of the 7-10 review scale, is getting up there with the Cleansing of the Temple.

    Reply
  11. tigertiger says:

    I'm a die hard PC gamer but won't be touching D3 with a barge pole. Always on DRM is bad enough, though I could perhaps overlook it if the game was good enough. But the single player campaign being run almost entirely server-side? Fuck that. I don't want lag in a single player game and I also don't want to pay for a single player title when I can't be sure it won't stop working in 10 years time. At least other always-on DRM could be disabled with a patch, but there's fuck all you can do if a vast amount of the game is stored remotely and Blizzard decides to shut down the servers.

    Reply
  12. tssk says:

    Have a look at the Diablo 3 fans ripping into John Walker for his article “How Diablo III’s Solo Experience Reveals A Hollow Game”. He makes a valid point about how lag in the single player game almost ruins the experience and how losing the connection and losing half an hour to an hours play. And then he gets ripped to shreds by fans for being unprofessional and being a lunatic.

    Shit, I thought I’d seen some rampart loonys back in my time as an Amiga zealot!

    For the multiplayer component these are acceptable issues. This is just the price you pay for trying to play something complex over the internets. But for single player? Anyway, at least for now gamers who like the Diablo structure have options. I’m not cut up about what Blizzard is doing with Diablo 3 because I can play Torchlight. But if the whole industry moves to server side only single player? Then that’s it, I’m out.

    Reply
  13. Baggypants says:

    Crashed when I try to load the first level. 3/5. Anyway, don't fret about Podgamer because you have Free App Hero. Sorry, I mean the Free App Hero Twitter Account, Sorry, I mean the cheese biscuits post.

    Reply
  14. Archie says:

    This is why I mostly gave up on mainstream gaming and support indie games instead. Kickstarter, 8bitfunding and other sites are a godsend for gaming. I don't experience these sorts of issues with the vast numbers of freeware, retro remakes or indie games. Emulation is about the trickiest and even that doesn't seem as bad as D3 is looking. Shoddy and expensive experience. And I was a very keen gamer forking out for AAA titles of the day before I gave up on it long ago.

    Reply


Comment - please read this page for comment rules. HTML tags like <i> and <b> are permitted. Use paragraph breaks in long comments. DO NOT SIGN YOUR COMMENTS, either with a name or a slogan. If your comment does not appear immediately, DO NOT REPOST IT. Ignore these rules and I WILL KILL YOU WITH HAMMERS.


  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,789 Posts, 1,222,298 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Andy Storrie on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Come on, Campbell. You just canny help yourself, son. Let it go. This bullshit is yesterdays propaganda, lad!Jul 19, 17:33
    • Aidan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “@Alf – but isn’t that exactly what has happened, look at who are the hero’s in this story. The U.K.…Jul 19, 17:27
    • William G Walker on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Dear Rev, I’m pleased that your “report of victories” got a first-class response from all your fans! It must take…Jul 19, 17:21
    • Lorn on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Great piece, Rev. I do hope that you, with all the other people who placed their heads above the parapet…Jul 19, 17:13
    • Alf Baird on The Pillars Of Sanity: “A widna haud ma breith on any UK state quango protecting the rights of Scots, though she may learn something…Jul 19, 17:06
    • Peter McAvoy on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Well done to everybody who refused to accept and challenged this woke fascism and to the deserved victories you have…Jul 19, 16:22
    • Ian le coup on The Pillars Of Sanity: “DEI Diversity Equality Inclusivity is an absolute and utter con, created by the woke by the woke. DEI must DIE!!!Jul 19, 15:57
    • sarah on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Somewhere, over the rainbow… there is a happy land of sanity where children and women, and their supporters, can live…Jul 19, 15:53
    • Marie Clark on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Well done Stuart, you’ve been in this fight for a long time and it’s nice to see the outcome now.…Jul 19, 15:49
    • panda paws on The Pillars Of Sanity: “However deranged this week has been, I have every faith that next week will be the gift that keeps on…Jul 19, 15:47
    • agent x on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Meanwhile I am really enjoying watching the beautiful talented women playing in the EURO’s 25 without seeing big bollocked men…Jul 19, 15:45
    • SilentMajority on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Great article (and many thanks to the author!). Each and every victory an occasion to cheer. I am especially pleased…Jul 19, 15:28
    • duncanio on The Pillars Of Sanity: “And the hits keep coming.Jul 19, 15:24
    • Robert Mellish on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Meanwhile, at Pride Glasgow this morning, we could see on open and ‘proud’ display the extent of capture of corporate…Jul 19, 15:22
    • Mark Beggan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “It looks to me that the whole of Civic Scotland licks the gravy one way or another.Jul 19, 15:06
    • agent x on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Sturgeon: “There are people who have opposed this Bill that cloak themselves in women’s rights to make it acceptable, but…Jul 19, 15:03
    • agent x on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Well done Stu. I note that various press are stating that Swinney and NHS should put an end to the…Jul 19, 14:55
    • dramfineday on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Hear, hear, Jon.Jul 19, 14:47
    • Kerr Wright on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Brilliant !!Jul 19, 14:44
    • Astonished on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Great work from all concerned. Any idea when we will start jailing all the transallies for all the harm they’ve…Jul 19, 14:35
    • Mark Beggan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Monday to-do list; Visit Charity shops and complain about Trans flags. Demand to speak to the manager. It’s going to…Jul 19, 14:32
    • Mark Beggan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Well done Rev. So it’s Operation Citadel. We know how well that worked out for the Wermacht.Jul 19, 14:27
    • sarah on Points Into Prongs: “O/T “Support Legal Fees For A Scottish TV Channel” crowdfunder. David Henry has worked for 10 years to try to…Jul 19, 14:26
    • Pete on The Pillars Of Sanity: “One line that sums up the entire debacle is “We haven’t even covered the latest developments in the Sandie Peggie…Jul 19, 14:22
    • Robert on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Good to see the late, great David Graeber quoted. I have often wondered where Graeber, as a prominent left libertarian,…Jul 19, 14:18
    • Andy Ellis on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Huge debts of thanks are owed to the few brave individuals (including your good self!) who whether willingly or by…Jul 19, 14:17
    • Gav on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Most satisfying article you’ve ever written Stu?Jul 19, 14:13
    • Jon Drummond on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Absolutely excellent article Rev Campbell. I salute you for your dogged determination in bringing this perversion to light and continuing…Jul 19, 14:13
    • GM on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Fine writing and a fine effort more generally. You should come back up to Scotland and put yourself forward for…Jul 19, 14:12
    • David on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Stu, congratulations to you. You fought these people all the way and can now rejoice.Jul 19, 14:03
  • A tall tale



↑ Top