I’m away from home at the moment Dog/House sitting so anything I was writing about is more or less on hold. John Walker’s article for Rock, Paper, Shotgun on Blizzard’s insistence* on turning single player games into MMO’s needed reposting however, if only to get as many people aware of this nonsense as possible.
You can’t pause. In fact, in most ways, the game acts like an MMO. For instance, quit it, and you’re given the optional cooldown to have your player clear the server properly. But it’s not an MMO. It’s not even close to an MMO. So when I’m playing the single-player game, and I’m in the middle of a frenzied mob, and there’s a knock at the front door, there’s nothing I can do. As happened to me yesterday. Twice. On another occasion I was surprised by a phone call that led to my having to do some other things. I’d safely left my character in a cleared area, but long between checkpoints. When I came back to the PC, I’d been idle for too long and the game had logged me out. – John Walker
Anyway, here is the link to the full article, if you are considering buying Diablo III you really should read it before placing that order…
How Diablo III’s DRM Will Affect You.
Diablo III has been delayed until the early part of next year, so there is a while for Blizzard to go back on this ridiculous decision, and a while for you to decide if it is enough to stop you buying the game.
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* In my opinion because it gives them more control and money rather for any of the reasons they claim about making the game better.