Blizzard surprised by Diablo 3 online-only fan reaction

Robert Bridenbecker, the Vice President of Online Technologies at Blizzard, has said that he’s ‘surprised’ at the fan reaction to Diablo 3’s online requirements. This follows news earlier in the week that Diablo 3 cannot be played offline.

“I’m actually kind of surprised in terms of there even being a question in today’s age around online play and the requirement around that,” Bridenbecker told MTV Mutiplayer Blog.

“We’ve been doing online gameplay for 15 years now… and with World of WarCraft and our roots in Battle.net and now with Diablo 3, it really is just the nature of how things are going, the nature of the industry. When you look at everything you get by having that persistent connection on the servers, you cannot ignore the power and the draw of that.”

Diablo 3 requires players to be online at all times in order to play. This allows for additional elements to the game, including a persistent friends list, cross-game chat through the RealID system, persistent characters stored server-side, PvP and game matching, drop-in/drop-out co-op, larger item stash, an auction house, an achievement system, and a banner system which allows you to display your successes in the game.

“You can play by yourself but your character is going to be saved on our servers,” explained Alex Mayberry, senior producer on the game. “You have to authenticate through our servers to be able to play the game. I think it’s not just Diablo 3 but with our games as a whole we’re tying everything into Battle.net these days… We can provide a much a much more stable, connected, safer experience than we could if we let people play off-line.”

So what does this mean for people determined not to have any kind of social interaction while playing the game? Bridenbecker makes it clear that solo players will still be catered for.

“There seem to be folks that believe that because you have to be connected, it’s like you’re on Facebook or out there with the rest of the world. That’s really not the case. Yes, you’re going to have a connection, yes, your character will be stored on a server, but it doesn’t mean you have to socialize with people. It doesn’t mean you have to do anything but play the game by yourself. You’ll still be able to have a private game. You’ll still be able to go off and play the game solo and adventure solo. You can opt to bring other people to your world if you want, but that’s up to you.”

In other Diablo 3 news, Blizzard has revealed that the game will make use of an auction house that will allow the purchase of items with real-world money. This has also worried some fans, who are concerned that in doing this Blizzard is legalising gold farming.

Diablo 3 currently has no release date.