bntran02

I bought it the day it came out and have not had any issues at all. Only thing I can think of so far is a few very short server lag issues that happened once or twice. Nothing to fret about.

I dont know what is everyone referring to as "game content" but I would think that most everything is stored on the physical disc including "game content" because the total installation is 15GB. What the servers are probably used for is to keep track of character progression (level,items,quest completion, etc...) which is relatively low data rates

CheeseForSteeze

League of Legends is probably the most widespread title to date that was released all electronically. I'm not aware of any physical retail distribution of the game. Of course, this jives with its subscription-less payment model.

Anyway, I am too excited about the prospect of cutting out electronic retailers and distributors and going with online distribution. Someone made a point that this removes revenue for electronics retailers but what do those retailers really add of value to the product that justifies them existing? Nothing, it just makes the product more expensive. Making games cheaper upon release is a good thing.

This model has allowed microdevelopers to come into existence and start to thrive. $1-10 games with amazing content coming from small, 1 to 5 man game studios are available on Steam now that the retail market would have destroyed because of the way physical retail distribution and retail works now are available on mobile and pc desktop platforms. I bought a game called "Limbo" for $3 which had about 2-3 hours of content and probably was more creative and had better thought out gameplay than the turds that used to retail for $50 that were nothing more than unoriginal, rehashed Quake clones in the mid to late 90's. These developers can sell these games at this cost without worrying about having a big publisher and still make lots of money for themselves all because the process is streamlined and cheap.

The music industry is going through a similar phase and the RIAA is having none of it. Let's hope something similar doesn't roadblock the gaming industry.

I may hold off on D3 for a few more days.

snowklinger

This stuff is pretty old news. I only physically bought the first iteration of WoW, since then there have been like 3 xpacs, SC2, now D3. Companies like Valve have been pushing the concept with all their retail titles over Steam for quite a few years. With music this evolution has happened simultaneously but gone further with streaming. This step is as significant as any other such as from tape to cd, or cd to mp3. Sure I have a few hundred albums on my microSD card, but when my phone has service, I usually listen to Pandora.

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is it late october yet?

mixie

The real reason they sell the hard copies is fanservice for the obsessive collector crowd. Those people eat that shit up, a lot of people I know buy two copies and one goes in storage in case it's ever worth something. (then it ends up with Barry on Storage Wars )


I do contract work for blizzard....if you have watched any of the videos on the Diablo 3 website (trailers, game play or classes description videos) That's my work!! I hate to brag but Im really proud of some of that stuff it was a big project for me.

I keep thinking I'll buy the game but I don't want to get a new computer.

CheeseForSteeze

The technology has been around but it's only recently that it's facilitated the creation of an entirely new genre.

skip11

Level 43 Monk here.

HoboMaster

Did you take the week off to stare at your computer 16 hours a day? 43 already, that's crazy

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PowderHound and TreeNinja

skip11

57 now ahaha

CheeseForSteeze

Ok, I finally broke down and bought it. Being a huge D2 fan, I had to convince myself it wouldn't ruin Diablo for me. Battletag is PublicEnemy#1397

HoboMaster

Having been playing it for about 3 weeks now, I would have to say it's pretty sweet and addictive. Like anything Blizzard produces nowadays, it does not stray far from the formula and mostly just fixes things that were annoying or petty in D2. The inclusion of deeper boss, monster and player mechanics also makes it much more of a game that requires some skill, vs a mindless grinding fest until your so high a level you just roflstomp shit.

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PowderHound and TreeNinja