Buy Diablo 3 digitally and you might have to wait 72 Hours to fight Diablo... WHAT!?

6/21/12 3:00pm

Even if you’re not a fan of the Diablo series, this will most likely have you scratching your head because it is seriously messed up! On Wednesday June 20th, patch 1.0.3 fixed a few bugs in the game when it came to some leveling up and using your followers (I think). Then somebody thought it was a good idea for you to end up getting the Starter Edition up to 72 Hour if you bought the digital version of Diablo 3 (from what I can tell this affects only new players). Here is what the patch has done to new players of the game.

Act I up to the Skeleton King is available
Level 13 cap
Matchmaking available only with other Starter Edition players
No Auction House access (Real Money or Gold)
Global Play is not available. Players attempting to connect to Diablo III Starter Edition in a region other than their Battle.net Account's home region will receive Error 12. See the Global Play support article for more information.

Yeah, even I'm pissed off by this, a NONE DIABLO PLAYER mind you. On the Kotaku article, the writer theorizes this is to reduce server overload (you know that it has since day one of release, making it a Hell of a time to play the game... see what I did their?), but even so this is really not cool. The same writer tried to contact Blizzard Customer Service about this madness and here was their reply.

"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. :)"

So yeah, this is their reasoning behind this besides to fix some bugs... It's to prevent the "Combat Fraud" (whatever the hell that means) and "other Malicious activities"....you know Blizzard this is going to piss a lot of people off especially new players that want to play, you all ready have the always online bullshit for the game and now you do this? SERIOUSLY WHAT THE HELL?!

What do the other g1s think of this insane act that's going on now?

» Source: http://kotaku.com/5920234/if-you-buy-diablo-iii-online-you-may-have-to-wait-72-hours-to-play-the-whole-game
» Tagged In: #Blizzard, #community showcase, #Diablo 3, #digital, #download, #g1 news

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g1 DISCUSSIONS

SireAzmodan

June 27, 2012 - 7:06am

This is not pertaining to you or your article, Kaibaman, but toward all of the people raging across the internet:

I'm seriously sick of hearing every bleeding heart with a controller (or in this case, keyboard) bawling their eyes out over every little thing that happens with Diablo 3. Do you guys have any idea how many games have stuff like this happen? Hell, just a couple years ago PC gamers were making a fuss over Black Ops being practically unplayable for many similar reasons (minus DRM).

Server issues in PC games (and sometimes even console games) are extremely common, whether you like it or not. The cold hard truth is that you'd better learn to expect this kind of stuff when you buy a game within its first few months when that game belongs to a franchise with a massive fanbase. You paid for the game, and you do have a right to play it when you want, but that doesn't make every gamer entitled to wielding a torch and pickfork over every god damn thing that arises. I'm not exactly a fan of the DRM, and I can see people's frustration with the issues so far, but having it taken to this extent is just fucking embarrassing to see. Get a grip, people!

The thing is, the Diablo 3 complaints have gone beyond gripes about DRM and server issues, and have gone toward hyperbole and outright lies. Condemning the game for having no replayability (blatant lie), is unbalanced (sure, but name me one action RPG that isn't), and feeling like a "cheap cash-in from Blizzard." Yeah, I think the ten-year development (4 years of which were scrapped), massive budget, and dozens of jobs that were created just for this game qualify as a cheap money grab, right folks?

spinner981

June 22, 2012 - 5:17pm

Somebody has probably already said this but the word combat in blizzard's response is used as a verb (To combat something, to fight it, to oppose it, to stop it, etc.) rather than an adjective like it seems like you have interpreted.

Chad

June 22, 2012 - 10:35am

Yep, this is what happened to me. Its been WELL over 72hours and I still don't have access to the full game...

NemesisTrestkon

June 21, 2012 - 9:52pm

72 hours? That's quite a long period for customers, now isn't it? I have cut Blizzard some slack before, but THIS? C'mon Blizzard, improve your policies a little and don't punish your consumers just like that?

RobotOcelot

June 21, 2012 - 6:58pm

People love to complain about D3. If they don't like it, then don't play it.

Jagoth

June 22, 2012 - 8:38am

Okay that statment is just retarted. People are complaining about it to try and get Blizzard to change some things because they don't like it. I don't agree with the complaints in alot of cases but I'm not going to tell them. "Oh just don't play it if you don't like it." Because that's stupid. The only way Blizzard will know people are unhappy is if the complain. I didn't mind the always online aspect but preventing people from playing the full version of the game they bought is going too far.

RobotOcelot

June 23, 2012 - 11:01pm

People who can't spell retarded shouldn't call people such.

My point is most people complain without being constructive. In which case they should just stop whining and play or don't.

FilteredWater

June 21, 2012 - 4:02pm

If I'm not mistaken, there has always been a waiting period for digital copies on Blizzard games. Its fraud prevention, AKA verifying your credit card. Its not even a big deal, especially considering that the waiting period is most often less than 24 hours.