Computer Sense

We met up with Diablo 3 game director, Jay Wilson at Gamescom to discuss Diablo 3′s always-online requirement and some of the issues that PC gamers can face when playing online-only games.

Some players might not have access to a stable internet connection. What should a player do if, say, the internet wiring in his house is flawed?

“Erm… upgrade the wiring in his house?” suggests Wilson. “I mean, in this day and age the notion that there’s this a whole vast majority of players out there that don’t have online connectivity – this doesn’t really fly any more.

“I mean, at our hotel, there’s nine wi-fi networks that I can access. Just from the hotel! And they’re all public – they’re all paid – but they’re pretty cheap, and they’re all publicly available. So the notion that there’s just tons and tons of people out there that aren’t connected – isn’t… I don’t think is really accurate.”

Wilson also told us some of the philosophical and practical reasons behind the decision not to include any sort of offline mode.

“There’s two basic problems with us doing that,” said Wilson. “One is players default immediately to that. So, they basically unintentionally opt out of all the cooperative experience, all the trading experience, and the core of Diablo is a circle-trading game. So for us we’ve always viewed it as an online game – the game’s not really being played right if it’s not online, so when we have that specific question of why are we allowing it? Because that’s the best experience, why would you want it any other way?”

Wilson admits that the decision will alienate some players, but also suggests that it’s impossible to please everyone.

“You’ve got to make choices about what you want to do, and sometimes those choices are going to make some people unhappy, but if you feel like it’s what is the right thing to do to making a better product then you have to do it,” he says.

“An online experience is what we want to provide for this game. Every choice you make is going to omit some part of the audience. Some people don’t like fantasy games, so should we have not made Diablo a fantasy game, because some people don’t like that? Some people don’t like barbarians. Should we not have put a barbarian in the game because some people don’t like it?”

From a practical angle, piracy was also a concern for Blizzard when they made the decision to make Diablo 3 require an internet connection.

“If we allow an Offline mode, it changes the structure of the data that we have to put on the user’s system. Essentially we would have to put our server architecture onto the client so that it can run its own personal server. Doing that essentially is one of the reasons why Diablo 2 was a much easier game to hack than obviously any other game you’d mention and so it’s what led to extensive cheating and item dupes and things like that.”

“I would never guarantee that we’re never going to have those things in Diablo 3, but it’s one of the things that our community has been the most vocal about, wanting this fixed, and if we essentially are putting the server out there…we’re not really going to be able to better than Diablo 2.”

So I came across this video on my Saturday morning and I thought this was hilarious!  Coming from one of my favorite shows xplay, it's always a good laugh, Enjoy!

That's the opinion of EA top dog John Riccitiello, who told IndustryGamers: "Consoles used to be 80 percent of the industry as recently as 2000. Consoles today are 40 percent of the game industry, so what do we really have?

"We have a new hardware platform and we're putting out software every 90 days. Our fastest growing platform is the iPad right now and that didn't exist 18 months ago."

Riccitiello also said the notion of five-year platform cycles is completely outdated and that future hardware is likely to be driven by social experiences and cross-platform play rather than supercharged graphics.

"I would argue that one of the least interesting things about the games industry was that every five years you'd see a new console or platform from everybody at about the same time with about the same or similar upgrades or services... But it's not a particularly smart way to run an industry... bulges in technology investment followed by harvest."

He said of Wii U: "Nintendo is bringing out a new platform that brings together some of what we're learning from new media and new platforms like the iPad and then integrating that with a console. It's the perfect time for that in the industry."

Riccitiello added: "I would argue that there's more to be provided in terms of value for the consumer in micro-transactions and social experiences and driving those better in cross-platform gameplay between a console and a PC and a handheld device and a social network than there is supercharging graphics... I always liked the power, but I don't know if it's the story 
anymore."
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/312269/ea-ceo-consoles-now-just-40-of-the-games-industry/

Tim Schafer has pitched to a lot of executives in his time, but this one looks like a really tough cookie. He’s dealt with Activision and EA, but now he’s in the big leagues, meeting with the Cookie Monster. “Zombies kinda 2007?” Hasn’t Mr Monster seen Dead Island? Still, Tim comes out on top in the end with a characteristically unusual idea. He works hard too, he’s already got a tech demo running.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/13/and-in-other-pc-gaming-news-115/

The list, which EA has now pulled from the internet and replaced with a fetching all white 404 error page, is said to have included the likes of Direct2Drive and GamersGate with EA's own Origin topping the list.

There has been some perceived conflict between the well established Steam platform and EA's new kid on the block, since Crysis 2 was removed from Valve's digital distributor last month.

EA's David DeMartini clarified the position saying that it was Steam's decision to remove Crysis 2 from its library, not EA's.

He also said that there had been some jarring between the two companies but dismissed it by saying that was normal in any relationship and EA intended to make its games available on as many platforms as possible.

It's not clear whether that approach will apply to Battlefield 3.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/311095/news/battlefield-3-not-coming-to-steam/