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.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

14 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Dan C

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 ;).

Hodge

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.

daneel

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.

asdasd

Apparently error 300008 is caused by extraneous zeroes.

Jon

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.

Lenny

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.*  

Tom K.

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.

Irish Al

@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.

Issa

link to guardian.co.uk

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

asdasd

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.

tigertiger

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.

tssk

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.

Baggypants

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.

Archie

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.


  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)

    Stats: 6,666 Posts, 1,201,424 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Alan McMahon on How it happened: “The Claim of Right, in which sovereignty of the people of Scotland is enshrined, is a fundamental constitutional document and…Nov 7, 12:36
    • Robert Matthews on How it happened: “Free speech is dangerous says Angry Anderson.Nov 7, 12:25
    • Geoff Anderson on How it happened: “Cheshire Police says “MP Mike Amesbury has been charged with assault following an incident in Frodsham.” He’s been summoned to courtNov 7, 12:18
    • Andy Anderson on How it happened: “Love your tongue in cheek about Musk. His X is a joke and dangerous.Nov 7, 12:04
    • Liz on How it happened: “I think this is called DARVONov 7, 12:01
    • Geoff Anderson on How it happened: “Corporate USA has a Republican glove puppet on one hand and a Democrat glove puppet on the other. They fund…Nov 7, 11:57
    • Mac on How it happened: “Reading wings twitter account is amusing. I have never seen such delusional people as this current crop of democrats in…Nov 7, 11:54
    • sam on How it happened: “Neither the Democrats or Republicans are ever likely to abandon neoliberal policies despite the harm they do. Here is a…Nov 7, 11:29
    • TURABDIN on How it happened: “Whoever occupies the palace of the elective monarch of the US is irrelevant as Scotland is no closer to freedom…Nov 7, 11:22
    • Liz on How it happened: “Better he had backed no one and left the US to get on with it.Nov 7, 11:11
    • sam on How it happened: “The same as TrumpNov 7, 11:09
    • Skip_NC on How it happened: “It’s before 6am here and I haven’t decided whether your latest reply is borne of ignorance or is just downright…Nov 7, 10:48
    • Robert Matthews on How it happened: “Don’t believe anything Joe Scarbrough tells you.Nov 7, 10:39
    • Jay on How it happened: “Please state what is wrong with Pompeo and Cotton. ThanksNov 7, 10:32
    • Sven on How it happened: “One wonders what the learned Dr’s unsought professional opinion may have been regarding President Biden, had he proferred it.Nov 7, 10:28
    • Aidan on How it happened: “Okay, so firstly the Scottish Independence Bill of 2014 wasn’t passed, so isn’t law. Secondly, nowhere in MacCormick is there…Nov 7, 10:13
    • Kit Bee on How it happened: “If I am wrong about that then I am wrong but I wasn’t lyingNov 7, 09:38
    • Mike on How it happened: ““Harris “stepped up and led a historic campaign” that “embodied what’s possible when guided by a strong moral compass and…Nov 7, 09:36
    • Alf Baird on How it happened: “The fundamental difference in the meaning of sovereignty between Scotland is well established, and well-known, in Scotland at least. The…Nov 7, 09:34
    • Robert Hughes on How it happened: “As an example of where * affirmative action * and other such ludicrous * progressive * abstractions have brought the…Nov 7, 09:12
    • Alisdair Mclean on How it happened: “I will certainly vote ALBA in the next Scottish election if i am alive.Nov 7, 09:01
    • sam on How it happened: ““Vanishing jobs, disintegrating families and other social stressors had unleashed a rising tide of fatal despair, Case and Deaton concluded.…Nov 7, 08:58
    • Aidan on How it happened: “I am willing to bet that the Scots language is not just a set of misspelt English words. Maybe you…Nov 7, 08:43
    • sam on How it happened: ““There is “overwhelming” evidence that Donald Trump is suffering from dementia, a leading psychiatrist has claimed, amid speculation about the…Nov 7, 08:42
    • Aidan on How it happened: “Can you provide me with a link to a single judicial decision to support your assertion that in Scotland “sovereignty…Nov 7, 08:34
    • Mia on How it happened: “Where did you get the idea that it might be “faux” Scottish and in what position are you to determine…Nov 7, 08:14
    • Mac on How it happened: “Trump has said his two main candidates for secretary of defense is Mike Pompeo and wait for it…. Tom Cotton.…Nov 7, 07:52
    • Alf Baird on How it happened: “After what the past four years of Biden/Harris and Blinken/Nuland has yielded, you voted for more of the same? Were…Nov 7, 07:50
    • Alf Baird on How it happened: ““Faux Scoatish” is thay Scots wha wad aye raither meemic anither fowk’s ‘superior’ langage. Such people then become culturally assimilated…Nov 7, 07:23
    • Robert Matthews on How it happened: ““If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.” (Julius Caesar)Nov 7, 07:17
  • A tall tale



↑ Top
52
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x