Blizzard's CEO Lies To Defend RMAH, Always-On For Diablo 3

Gaming Blend "To say that Diablo III has issues is an understatement. The biggest problems with the game is not necessarily the game itself but the services that dictate the way the game functions, namely the Real-Money Auction House and always-on DRM. Well, Blizzard's CEO, Mike Morhaime, took to the Battle.net forums to defend the inclusion of the RMAH and always-on."

[NYC_Gamer]

Blizzard has been full of shady actions since joined together with Activision

[Megaton]

Yeah. There was a time when I would have killed for Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3. I was the ultimate Blizzard fanatic, sinking thousands of hours into Starcraft and Diablo, but I haven't bothered to play either SC2 or D3 beyond a beta/demo. The honeymoon is long over.

[TitanUp]

not sure why you got 2 disagrees blizzard has sunk and i don't believe it can be raised.

[Nodoze]

Agreed 100%. Once I saw that Starcraft would be split up (to grab more money), and Diablo III would be always on I didn't bother with either.

Sorry Blizzard your luster has worn off.

[Perjoss]

Although I still believe they are a top dev, they are just a shadow of who they used to be. money will do that to you I guess.

[Panthers]

SC2 is still one of my favorite games. Not sure why the hate for that game. The "split" as you call it is just 2 expansions instead of 1. The first game still had plenty of missions to justify a standalone release.

I havent nor will I play Diablo 3. But SC2 is just as fun as ever. And probably one of the most competitive games I have played online.

[Ramas]

starcarft 2 is super good for compaign/story and i love it, about multiplayer i dont care.
same for diablo 3 completed just for story and no complaints.

[yeahokchief]

I'm not surprised Blizzard have been total sleezebags lately being so close to activision. Not even wc4 could get me to touch one of their games again. Valve is the new blizzard. They provide the best value and the games that are built to last.

I've noticed this personally at work. People will pick up on my speech patterns and week or two later i'll hear them using the same phrases etc. I'll say something or talk about something and hear them talking about it a week later. It's crazy how much we are influenced by our surroundings. Eventually it gets to the point where you will be saying the exact same thing in response to something. Nature vs nurture. I think you can maintain your sense of self, but to say that our environment does not affect us is bullshit.

I think part of it is that once something gets real big, there's a tendency for people to want to tear it down or hate on it. But in this case I think they have it coming.

[StayStatic]

It's not down to Activision (and I hate Activision), as much as anyone would like to believe, shady stuff was going down post Burning Crusade before they acquired Activision's publishing , but that's all they acquired , all the creative process is down to them.

I remember it like it was yesturday "Call of Warcraft" was the joke everyone would be cracking , dam that was a long time ago lol

If anyone needs brining into line it's Blizzard to tidy things up , anyways still having a blast on D3 despite it's short comings.

[faraany33k]

you missed out of some amazing games, specially SC2

[Grap]

Diablo 3 is really great and fun to play. but and it's a big but if i did know there's will be a big F*** DRM and no single Player. i would have never bought it.

[TheNocturnus]

All of this Diablo III hate made me want to play. I went to log in and.... servers down for maintenance. :(

[karlowma]

Great article. Bravo!

[Bakkies]

I think one player on Diablo 3 general chat said it best: "Diablo 3 is an Auction House with a mini game attached for when you get bored(sic)".

Kripperian, the person who claimed to have finished Diablo 3 Inferno on hardcore first, announced today that he is moving on to other games. He is one of the most fanatical Blizzard/Diablo fanboys out there. This just shows the state of Diablo 3.

Regardless, people must understand that Diablo 3 is not an MMO. Since you do not pay a monthly fee, they do not fear losing players. The money they make off the RMAH is just surplus to them, therefore they have no obligation to release new content like they do in WoW.

[Letros]

"The money they make off the RMAH is just surplus to them, therefore they have no obligation to release new content like they do in WoW.

Since they make $1 off each transaction, wouldn't more players mean more transactions? I think they are doing everything they can at the moment to sustain a player base to make money off the RMAH, a large amount of people are leaving as there's nothign to do but farm...(myself included, it was fun yes, but it's time to move on until xpac)

[Daver]

they do fear loosing people... They count on releasing expansions for it and blizzard have mostly 3 IPs, diablo, starcraft and warcraft so if they fucked up with their games people will remember it in the next ones.

RMAH is maybe surplus for them but it "destroys" the soul of the game for players. Diablo so far was about in good part trading with other player now that theres an auction house the fun is not there.

[VsAssassin]

I think I'm done with this game... sigh...

[sriki007]

i stopped playing this after the introduction of real money auction house.. 300$ for an armour!! You gotta be fukin kidding me.
You could make a real armour for me to wear at that price!!

[sriki007]

activision killed blizzard... Fuck those greedy bastards!!

[vortis]

Umm...where are all the Blizzard fanboys? No rebuttals?

[Skate-AK]

This is how I see it. You can have a badass racing horse but if you let a crappy rider rake the reigns it might as well be a rookie horse.
Blizzard = Badass Horse
Activision= Crappy Rider.