Pfft, welcome to the club, I've restarted four different characters so far because a different friend is playing at a different time on a differerent level.
waggy#1889
add me! just hi tlevel 24 barb. but restarted a monk but think will stick with the barb.
Pfft, welcome to the club, I've restarted four different characters so far because a different friend is playing at a different time on a differerent level.
Pfft, welcome to the club, I've restarted four different characters so far because a different friend is playing at a different time on a differerent level.
<snip>
Most my response comes from a programmer's view of things, and the explanation that best makes sense about the servers as that they set up hardware for the average server load, NOT the first day release. As much as this sucks from a customer perspective, it unfortunately makes complete sense from a business perspective.
I have a really dumb question - where is the AH?
Not snipping to get to a point, rather to save space.
Firstly, you are the first person to accurately describe the real issue while raising it to question. D3 is a Multiplayer game with a single player component and has no OFFLINE single player option. This I am personally OK with as I'm only interested in multiplayer and would need internet anyway, although it does suck for those who couldn't care less for the multiplayer aspect.
Most my response comes from a programmer's view of things, and the explanation that best makes sense about the servers as that they set up hardware for the average server load, NOT the first day release. As much as this sucks from a customer perspective, it unfortunately makes complete sense from a business perspective. So, I opted not to play for the first week or 2 myself until the server load gets closer to the average balance that Blizzard (most likely) prepared for.
Even though I haven't experienced anything other than the beta, from what I've read it sounds like they actually did a pretty good job. I expected much worse, even though as a paying customer I shouldn't. The unfortunate truth is this is a company looking for long-term revenue, not to make you personally happy. This is the case with any company.
While I do like Blizzard games, I consider myself more of a realist. So if I defend any company or situation, it is because I truly believe they did well.
As for the gameplay itself, I cannot comment. But boy am I ready to play!
Yeah, it's just like running a business. You build your infrastructure (or staff) for the average, not the peak. Otherwise, you're buying things/hiring people that you're going to get rid of after a few weeks.
I don't know how Blizzard's servers are setup. It might have been possible for them to put up some Amazon cloud based servers for the first few weeks (which you pay for by the specs/uptime). That could have alleviated some of the launch headaches, if spinning up new servers isn't something that takes forever. Then they could have shut them down after a few weeks when demand goes back to normal.
Yeah, it's just like running a business. You build your infrastructure (or staff) for the average, not the peak. Otherwise, you're buying things/hiring people that you're going to get rid of after a few weeks.
I don't know how Blizzard's servers are setup. It might have been possible for them to put up some Amazon cloud based servers for the first few weeks (which you pay for by the specs/uptime). That could have alleviated some of the launch headaches, if spinning up new servers isn't something that takes forever. Then they could have shut them down after a few weeks when demand goes back to normal.
Yeah...the crazy thing about this is that after a solid decade of botched game launches by just about everyone, no one has figured out how to effectively build a reserve. Ultimately this is a software problem, not a hardware one. Blizz gets a pass only because the bar here is SO low.
I have a really dumb question - where is the AH?
Login to the game, but don't "resume game". You'll see it on the left.
Stupid question, where do I pick up items I won through the auction house?
NM!
There's no reason to overallocate; trivial reward with a large to potentially massive cost associated with it. Worst case scenario when aiming low is some short term bitching that people won't remember in a few weeks. Worst case scenario when aiming high is you have racks full of unused, expensive servers sucking up power that are full to the brim with highly valuable proprietary information.
Has anyone found a Unique or a Page of Training yet?
I at 29 now, and have encountered dozens of rares but not a single unique or training item.
There's no reason to overallocate; trivial reward with a large to potentially massive cost associated with it. Worst case scenario when aiming low is some short term bitching that people won't remember in a few weeks. Worst case scenario when aiming high is you have racks full of unused, expensive servers sucking up power that are full to the brim with highly valuable proprietary information.
I find it hard to believe a company like activision/blizzard can't find an eventual use for those servers. It's not like they're going to stop making games.
Right now someone hears about this great game called diablo 3, goes on amazon to buy it, and sees that it has 2 stars and all the reviewers say it doesn't work. Or they go on metacritic and see a 3.9 user score. Not everyone follows this stuff so closely, blizz games have a particularly long reach that many others dont. It's impossible to quantify how many sales they've lost and will continue to lose due to that, but it's probably not an insignificant amount.
Most people playing it won't remember next week...but the people who held off buying it might not care enough to give it a second look.
Except that it's a multiplayer game that you're choosing to play alone.
except you're wrong.
Eventual use? A year later they can buy a better server for the same cost, not to mention the overhead of maintaining those servers and supplying connectivity.
Servers for large companies like Blizzard aren't PC's that just sit there and require no maintenance for a long period of time.
leave game, go back to auction house, click on completed tab. theres my stuff. oh look, i have to send it to myself.
it's amazing what you can figure out by actually paying attention. which i clearly was not doing. heh.
now that i sort of know what i am doing AH-wise, i'm going to be upgrading quite a bit of my gear once I get home.