I suppose that might be one reason they sprang it on us when they did and not earlier. Perhaps — *gasp* — they never wanted our input to begin with. :) How respectful.

Best case scenario, they have some sort of secret emergency plan for removing the always-online requirement for single-player games. Move the missing code down to the client. But even if that were possible, it wouldn't happen fast, or soon. By that point, they've made their billions and they've essentially "won" with their DRM and other nonsense.

So, yeah, perhaps we can't do much here, but I hate not doing anything. Sending a message to other game makers might be enough. Supporting Torchlight 2 instead of Diablo 3 is a good, positive way to send a message to Blizzard, but be sure to visit nodiablo.com and let us know about your decision, or tell Blizzard yourself.

I've put together NoDiablo.com for people-who-would-like-to-but-won't buy Diablo 3 because of the "MMO" additions to the game : the always-connected requirement, lack of LAN play, no mods and the real-money Auction House. I think we can understand why Blizzard's doing it — trying to control the environment to cut down on cheating and adding aggressive DRM to stop piracy — but it's an overly ambitious and unnecessary solution they came up with. The MMO additions don't add real value to the way most people want to play Diablo. It feels like their programmers had the funds to come up with their "dream environment" and they got carried away, focusing on their own "what ifs" rather than asking "what do our customers want?" As far as I can tell, for some people cheating was a real problem in Diablo 2, but only when playing online with strangers. Maybe those players complained loudly and it's all Blizzard heard, I don't know. But most gamers don't seem to think that playing online with strangers is Diablo's core gameplay, so how much of an issue was this really? Enough to justify the changes to the game? Or is Blizzard using this as an excuse to take more control and bring in a few more bucks?

Not sure how much of a chance we have of changing things at this point, but if the MMO additions have made you decide not to buy Diablo 3, please consider lending your support at http://www.nodiablo.com