Diablo III --Impressions start on page 36 --

[PR_GMR]

I've been trying to ignore the pre-release hype for D3 and focus on the bajillion games I'm currently trying to finish, but it's not working.  I'm feeling the pull all over again. 

Same here. I played 'Diablo II' some though not a lot; also played a bit of 'Torchlight' last year. I've been watching 'Diablo III' playthrough videos on YouTube for some days now. It's a Blizzard game, which I seem to buy automatically. I'm getting sucked in and will put likely put in my pre-order in a few days.

... Damn you, Blizzard.

[CeeKay]

whoops.  I wonder if they'll leave it open to anyone who got in.

[Misguided]

Anybody know if you can login to both wow and diablo from the same bnet account simultaneously?

[PR_GMR]

So apparently, this weekend, anyone with a Bnet account can play the Diablo III beta. You can play all 5 classes up to level 13. I'm downloading the beta client now.  

[Gratch]

So apparently, this weekend, anyone with a Bnet account can play the Diablo III beta. You can play all 5 classes up to level 13. I'm downloading the beta client now.  

Figures, the weekend I'm out of town.   

[Haavok]

Misguided   As of a couple weeks ago I was able to play both at same time.  I would tab out of wow while raiding when we had down time and play some D3.

[Misguided]

Thanks, Haavok, appreciate it.

Figures, the weekend I'm out of town.   

Same here! 

[Roman]

wife took my laptop out of town! F*CK!

[Purge]

Just remember kids: King Ulric's crown is always in the LAST TOMB you explore. ALWAYS.

[CeeKay]

Anybody know if you can login to both wow and diablo from the same bnet account simultaneously?

good question,  I've heard no but haven't seen anything definite.

[Soulchilde]

Just remember kids: King Ulric's crown is always in the LAST TOMB you explore. ALWAYS.

pro tip


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[Purge]

I've gotten nine characters to maxed out in the various beta releases (at one point, I had all five).

Not burned out on it either - just being patient.

[Blackjack]

Also for our European members:
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4105609/Diablo_III_Open_Beta_Weekend_-20_04_2012

Keep in mind this weekend is a stress test, and you may well (on purpose really, for troubleshooting purposes) experience your share of problems, lag, disconnects etc.

What if the service is down/laggy/disconnecting me?

It's very possible that players connecting to the stress test could experience issues with the service. While not ideal, this is exactly why we're having a stress test. We want to catch and analyze as many bugs as possible during this stress test period, so that we can try to ensure a smooth launch on May 15.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen stress tests where people run around the Internet kvetching that the game is "messed up" and the "servers are totally borked!"

All I'm sure of for launch is that I'll be focusing on Demon Hunter and Monk initially, then the Barbarian. I'm not sure I'll do much Wizarding and Witch Doctoring (though maybe with the revamped skill-assignment UI, my attempts at those classes won't be so messed up), but that just means I'll be looking forward to teaming up with other players that are more competent at those classes.  

[CeeKay]

dammit, I was all set to play a monk, but noooooo, I had to go and fire up a witch doctor.....

[Soulchilde]

WD is fun but get much better in the later levels.  I was upset when they moved the based AE spell into the later levels but I understand why


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[Elmo]

Apparently the crush of players has broken the servers.  Nobody is getting in right now.  Guess that is what the stress test is for.   

[Harpua3]

So I'm assuming no Mac beta? Just windows...

[Elmo]

I can't remember now but thought I saw an option other than Windows for the download.

[DonD]

So I'm assuming no Mac beta? Just windows...

PC or Mac.  I'm downloading Mac beta as we speak.

[shon]

So far really enjoying the beta.  The sound is pretty awesome in the game and I like some of the throwback sounds that remind me of the other games.

I have vsync turned on but still see some screen tearing, other than that it has ran great and I was able to get in on the first try. 

Playing as the barbarian and watching the enemies fly is pretty awesome.

[drifter]

Very much classic Diablo style play.  Played the Wizard, Demon Hunter, and Witch Doctor (Named OogaBooga).  Nice skill and skill additions as you level.  I got crafting and broke up a few magic items, havent crafted anything yet though. 

By the way your stash is shared with all characters as is your gold.

Kinda fun throwing jars full of spiders at mobs and then tying them down with ghoul hands from under the ground.

[leo8877]

So I'm assuming no Mac beta? Just windows...

Dude this is Blizzard.  Mac is included!

[Azhag]

Just played through the demo as a Monk. I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure it seemed all that more impressive or fun than Torchlight really...

[PR_GMR]

Played over 2.5 hours as a Monk. Got him to level 8 by the time I quit. I'm very much liking the vibe of the game. It feels like good olde 'Diablo II'--the story is there, the npcs are there, the gameplay is there, so is the music--yet it has a new, painterly, attractive coat of paint. And the action is so fast and furious, the loads of loot come at you so fast--I found myself just 'flowing' from one quest to another without pausing. Just having fun, exploring and laying the smackdown on large hordes of creatures. I'm gonna be purchasing it.

I was chatting to Shinino in game, but didn't get to do Co-op. I would like to try that before the weekend's thru. Must be double the fun!

[Zarkon]

Coop is fucking insane.  WAVES of monsters, so there's a lot less tendency to 'run around and see what you find' and more 'holy shit stay close so we don't DIE'.

[Harpua3]

So I'm assuming no Mac beta? Just windows...

Dude this is Blizzard.  Mac is included!

Going to download!

[Tals]

Just played through the demo as a Monk. I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure it seemed all that more impressive or fun than Torchlight really...

Torchlight didn't have a story to speak of, so whilst some of the gameplay wasn't bad at the end I lost interest playing it as it was very much rinse and repeat. When I fired D3 up I was quite disappointed with what I saw but the more I play it the more I am wow this is really really good

[Arkon]

Well, I would love to try this out, but I still can't log in.  Getting error code 37 that the servers are too busy.

[Tals]

Well, I would love to try this out, but I still can't log in.  Getting error code 37 that the servers are too busy.

Just need to go in at off peak times, but hopefully this isn't indicative of release date. Not sure why they culdn't have implemented queues, they have enough experience of this type of thing

[Arkon]

Well, I would love to try this out, but I still can't log in.  Getting error code 37 that the servers are too busy.

Just need to go in at off peak times, but hopefully this isn't indicative of release date. Not sure why they culdn't have implemented queues, they have enough experience of this type of thing

Figured as much, which is why I tried at 6 AM eastern this morning, but apparently that is peak time for somewhere.

[Clanwolfer]

Well, I would love to try this out, but I still can't log in.  Getting error code 37 that the servers are too busy.

Just need to go in at off peak times, but hopefully this isn't indicative of release date. Not sure why they culdn't have implemented queues, they have enough experience of this type of thing

The whole point of this is a stress test, remember? No point if they have the servers at smooth, playable capacity - they want to turn all their fancy queue management off, throw as many players on individual servers as possible, and see just how far they can push it before the server melts down.

Really, I'm sort of shocked by how many people read 'open beta/stress test' as 'official demo' - it's not always about you. 

[Mithridates]

Well, I would love to try this out, but I still can't log in.  Getting error code 37 that the servers are too busy.

Just need to go in at off peak times, but hopefully this isn't indicative of release date. Not sure why they culdn't have implemented queues, they have enough experience of this type of thing

Figured as much, which is why I tried at 6 AM eastern this morning, but apparently that is peak time for somewhere.

I wonder if that is indicative of another problem?  I signed in several times last evening between 8 and 11 PM EST with no problems.  Or maybe I was just lucky!

[Tals]

Well, I would love to try this out, but I still can't log in.  Getting error code 37 that the servers are too busy.

Just need to go in at off peak times, but hopefully this isn't indicative of release date. Not sure why they culdn't have implemented queues, they have enough experience of this type of thing

The whole point of this is a stress test, remember? No point if they have the servers at smooth, playable capacity - they want to turn all their fancy queue management off, throw as many players on individual servers as possible, and see just how far they can push it before the server melts down.

Really, I'm sort of shocked by how many people read 'open beta/stress test' as 'official demo' - it's not always about you. 

I get your point, but are you saying when the servers are maxed that this is what will happen and they didn't predict this. I expected an issue getting in but a little bit bet than having to endlessly retry logging in. It is a beta but I'd view part of the testing to be how they handle maxed servers and how it currently dos it is not acceptable. Cross fingers it will be handled better at release.

Actual game when I get in is pretty impressive

[Azhag]

True, I'm definitely hoping Torchlight 2 has more of a story behind it. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy this... I'm just not sure I will $60 enjoy it...

Just played through the demo as a Monk. I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure it seemed all that more impressive or fun than Torchlight really...

Torchlight didn't have a story to speak of, so whilst some of the gameplay wasn't bad at the end I lost interest playing it as it was very much rinse and repeat. When I fired D3 up I was quite disappointed with what I saw but the more I play it the more I am wow this is really really good

[Clanwolfer]

Well, I would love to try this out, but I still can't log in.  Getting error code 37 that the servers are too busy.

Just need to go in at off peak times, but hopefully this isn't indicative of release date. Not sure why they culdn't have implemented queues, they have enough experience of this type of thing

The whole point of this is a stress test, remember? No point if they have the servers at smooth, playable capacity - they want to turn all their fancy queue management off, throw as many players on individual servers as possible, and see just how far they can push it before the server melts down.

Really, I'm sort of shocked by how many people read 'open beta/stress test' as 'official demo' - it's not always about you. 

I get your point, but are you saying when the servers are maxed that this is what will happen and they didn't predict this. I expected an issue getting in but a little bit bet than having to endlessly retry logging in. It is a beta but I'd view part of the testing to be how they handle maxed servers and how it currently dos it is not acceptable. Cross fingers it will be handled better at release.

Actual game when I get in is pretty impressive

They completely predicted this. From the open beta page:

"It's very possible that players connecting to the stress test could experience issues with the service. While not ideal, this is exactly why we're having a stress test. We want to catch and analyze as many bugs as possible during this stress test period, so that we can try to ensure a smooth launch on May 15."

The whole point of a smoke test like this is to push their servers to the absolute limit, so that when they do the retail launch, they know exactly what their worst-case scenarios are, and how quickly they can get back up and running from them. Basically they have three days to figure out, when this thing goes retail, if they're looking at the load getting so high it crashes their servers, overwhelms battle.net logins, etc. The best way for them to do that is artificially restrict the number of servers, and get right to the threshold where they start to see issues. If anything, I'd guess they're probably taking down even more servers at off-peak times, to try and keep their utilization as close to 100% as possible.

This way, they can spend the next couple of weeks analyzing any crashes, bottlenecks, etc, and figure out what they need to prepare for May 15. If everyone can play all weekend without issues, it probably means they weren't stress-testing right (or their servers are damned amazing). Their ideal should be that everyone has mild issues all weekend - just a little bit of lag, just a little bit of crashing, etc, so they have the maximum amount of useful data - yeah, endlessly clicking retry sucks, but I'd guess they're bringing servers online bit by bit by bit, until they can -exactly- handle the traffic they've got.

[Tals]

You are purposely missing my point, I don't have a problem in stress tests with slowness difficulty to connect, crashing tbh any difficulty on the test, but I expect it to be properly catered for. My issue is that they should treat this as a live event - it is after all less than a months to release so I am surprised that they do not have a better mechanism to handle when a server is full beyond a very basic server full message and having to rinse and repeat with no idea if you can get in or not.

Let's wait to release but I truly hope no one sees a server full message on release and having this random I may get in but most likely I won't. If memory serves me right wow had this on release and shortly afterwards implemented the queues, all the wrong way round IMHO. I could be wrong about which mmo put the queue in after release and no doubt after the stress test when no doubt good intentioned fellows argued as you do

[wonderpug]

Let's say they have a big red button that says "implement queues."  It bypasses all the problems.  

Retail release?  You definitely hit that button to keep your customers happy.  Look into the problems later.

Beta stress test?  Maybe you specifically avoid hitting that button so you can watch your servers actively breaking so you can better spot the problems right then and there.

[Tals]

Possibly, I think I'm on a losing wicket re this argument. I could state queue lengths etc can also be tuned so they can push more or less people to a server. I could also argue that if they are planing to implement queues that it would be pertinent to stress test those as well but I suspect I will be wasting my breath and better just to wait for a release

[Azhag]

I don't have an issue with stress testing... but with advertising it as open beta weekend, an open beta that doesn't work it only such good advertising 

[Blackadar]

There's a difference between a stress test and presenting something that's utterly broken to prospective customers.  If the stress test was an effort to get me to cancel my preorder, Blizz is getting close to "success"

I started this morning at 6:45AM and couldn't create a game. I repeatedly got Error 300008 or something like that.  I never could get a game to start and so I went to run a 5k.
Then I spent 20 minutes trying to log in and getting Error 37 (sounds like I'm not the only one).
Now I finally made it past the login screen, but I'm getting Error 3008 and can't start a game.

So the results are thus far over an hour trying to play the game, 3 different error messages, no play time.  Color me unimpressed. 

I'll give it a bit more time, but If it's this crappy on 4/21, I don't have much hope for it being smooth on 5/15.  It's easy enough to cancel my preorder and transfer the money to another game.