With the controversy over Diablo III’s launch continuing to rage, Mark Butler argues that demanding a constant internet connection for single-player experiences is madness – and urges game companies to reconsider such tactics.
Microsoft has 'let Blizzard be Blizzard' following the acquisition of the veteran developer according to World of Warcraft's executive producer.
Diablo 4 storefront being a cash grabbing shitshow does unironically attest to that, kudos.
Microsoft needs to be guiding Blizzard to be what it USED to be, not allowing it to continue to be the greedy bastardization of itself that it has become.
Okay i will be interested if they become old Blizzard but might as well be dead.
They will never be old blizzard. Most of all the OG's left from developers to those on the top (even some decision making folks left).
Shame most of the people that made Blizzard what they were, have already left a while ago.
I was about to say this. How can they be blizzard when they're no longer blizzard from yesteryear?
Exactly. Blizzard hasn’t been Blizzard for a long time.
Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Were you expecting Microsoft to hire everyone that had left Blizzard long before they purchased the company...
Microsoft has let the Blizzard company they purchased continue to be the Blizzard company they purchased.
Wow, PassNextquestion,
You fully understand what that saying means, unlike some people on here who just have to say negative garbage talk.
When someone says, "Just let *blank* be *blank*, "they are just letting them operate how they operate.
It's pretty much how Sony "let Bungie be Bungie."
This comment section is full of outright haters, but you have to "let N4G be N4G"
I don't think people commenting are necessarily blaming MS for anything here, this is just collective longing for what Blizzard/Vivendi was before Activision's meddling.
Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra recently suggested an interesting concept that has sparked a debate among gamers - the idea of being able to tip developers after completing a game.
If I had a 100% way to be sure that this money would go to a fund or a reserve dedicated only to the guys who develop the games, be them designers, artists, programmers and so on, I could think about it.
But we all know that this 'tip' would only end up in a publisher's CEO pocket to buy a new yacht, so, no, I ain't tipping anyone anytime soon on this industry
Exactly these companies were raising money for good causes and gamers were donation and come to find out they are keeping a good chunk of be pie
Yeah tip your developer, 5% proceeds go to developer, 95% to the publisher or whoever. Isn't tipping for staff not making minimum wage? How about they just pay their developers properly and like you know, give them fair bonuses? Too much to ask from Blizzard these days, Kotick saw to that and is now laughing all the way to the bank.
It's the t**ts at the top looking at ways to cut devs wages and get the players to tip them like waiting staff, and I'll guarantee a percentage is skimmed and kept by Activision Blizzard. This is 100% for shareholder and CEO playouts.
I have to agree with this. On the surface tipping devs sounds like a great idea, but in the end it leads to pay cuts and subsidization of pay. Tips then become an expectation or the devs “can’t make a living.” Lastly, especially in the US, tip culture has gotten out of control, and it serves as an excuse not to properly pay employees. Sounds good but doesn’t end well.
@ Popsicle
I think your right on the nose with how much tipping has become rampant. Instead of it being a relationship directly between the customer and the developer or employee, it now has a middle man ingrained in the system. DoorDash is one example. It ends up becoming a metric where the company can measure 'just how much more money you are willing to part with' before raising the price on the main product.
Uh so they’re trying triple dip or more we buy the game that they’re already withholding/cutting content for dlc we was told that season pass would help the developers thrive we felt for it.
Now on top of all that plus their sales bonus they want tips enough is enough whatever happens to you create/built a good game get a bonus for sales milestones you care about your game and community we reward you with more sales not for doing 3/4 of a game then save the other 1/4 for dlc and passes after
Very well said. If it was possible to send the money to either the developer or some organization for the betterment of gaming, sure. But we all know that will not be the case.
No, it would go to those on the top. They will still fire developers, have a bunch of microtransactions, raise prices of games and so on.
So they eventually don't pay their workers and depend on our tips to pay them like the case with waiters!
That kind of practice is only normal in the states, as far as I know anyway, what a backwards system
Ireland is literally the first stop across the pond and we don't have a tipping culture. The only establishments here that would expect a tip are the tourist haunts that Americans visit. Other than that, you might tip in a restaurant as a sign of gratitude for great service and waiting staff would be paid a full wage anyway.
Is this a joke? How about the big wigs giving up some of their pay for their hard working developers.
Blizzard and NetEase have announced that Blizzard's games will return to mainland China under a new publishing agreement.
I am fairly sure I speak for everyone when I say that Blizzard going so far out of their way to prevent piracy has made me even more determined to pirate Diablo 3.
Pricks.
Agreed with the article. Having to be connected to play the single player experience is bull@#$
and for all of u who defend blizzard for this bull@#$ u will wake up one day and realize that u have lost ur ability to play the games u bought whenever u want. What hapens if the servers are shut down by blizzard, how are u oging to play the single player campaign? plus i have to tolerate lag when i dont want to play miltiplayer.
I never say this because i believe developers deserve to get paied for their games, but i hope the pirate the @#$% out of this game.
The same problem happened when MAG launched on PS3. Everyone tried to get on at once, the servers broke and I couldn't even play the game until a week after I'd bought it.
As Internet Connection gets stronger in the future then online-only games will become more acceptable, but at the moment 'always online' games simply shouldn't exist as it seems this exact same problem happens each time one is released.
This was just one of the reasons why C&C4 was a pile of horse-shit.
It's like cable tv, they force us to stay connected. I demand that every single show on tv be available for off line viewing. What if the cable lines go down how can I watch my favorite show?