Diablo 2 1.13 Patch possibly as soon as next week! Join us!

[Bleck]

this patch is going to have to be pretty god damn amazing to make me want to sit through Act III again

[HalcyonSpirit]

Here's a question.

I've never owned a Diablo game, but I've played D2 for all of 2 or 3 hours many, many years ago (and enjoyed that small amount a fair bit); should I bother buying it so many years after it's come out? Obviously it seems worth playing for people who already have it, but what of people who don't?

[relyanCe]

Here's a question.

I've never owned a Diablo game, but I've played D2 for all of 2 or 3 hours many, many years ago (and enjoyed that small amount a fair bit); should I bother buying it so many years after it's come out? Obviously it seems worth playing for people who already have it, but what of people who don't?

buy the battle chest for 20 bucks online if you want to play it. It's loads of fun and really addicting. Just make sure to run it in windowed mode if you're using a widescreen monitor.

[Halt]

Did this damn patch EVER come out?!

[Dyne]

I'm joining in D2X again. Find me as Dyne2057.

[prophetik music]

Did this damn patch EVER come out?!

uh, read a few pages ago. there's a post saying that it would have come out if script kiddies hadn't been hacking warcraft III.

[Petara]

Blizzard can go suck it. What a freakin joke.

[Nekofrog]

4 months and nothing. I've moved twice in the time it has taken, and it's STILL not out (I'll probably have moved a third time, too).

[phill]

uh, read a few pages ago. there's a post saying that it would have come out if script kiddies hadn't been hacking warcraft III.

You can never give too much attention to the cash cow, especially when you consider the age of all the other products Blizzard "supports".

[Triad Orion]

In Blizzard's defense, the issues they're patching out of WarCraft III are serious security risks and could cause some real damage to people who end up being affected by it. And I believe WarCraft III has a bigger user base than Diablo II right now, even if a lot of them are just out to play DotA.

And really, just be glad you're getting a content/bug fix patch at all, even if it's delayed. Most any other company would've ditched support for a game as old as Diablo II long ago. I really want that patch too, but shit happens. *Shrugs*

[phill]

I tend not to give Blizzard much leniency because everytime someone comes up with a new way to make money through WoW, they screw the pooch on all their other projects, new and old. I understand security patches, but pulling developers off of other franchises just to pump out another POS WoW expansion or minor bug fix, is stupid.

[Bleck]

In Blizzard's defense, the issues they're patching out of WarCraft III are serious security risks and could cause some real damage to people who end up being affected by it.

yeah but see I'm pretty sure if the Diablo 2 patch was less than a week away than it shouldn't have taken them this long to finish it even if there is some shit going down in other games

[zircon]

I tend not to give Blizzard much leniency because everytime someone comes up with a new way to make money through WoW, they screw the pooch on all their other projects, new and old. I understand security patches, but pulling developers off of other franchises just to pump out another POS WoW expansion or minor bug fix, is stupid.

Stupid according to who? They are printing hundreds of millions of dollars a year from WoW. D2 is old and releasing a new patch is not going to generate even a fraction of that.

[Bleck]

yeah it's not really a stupid move on their part it's just terrible of them is all

[Nekofrog]

Terrible because they announced it as being ready as early as the end of April, and here we are... October. Yeesh.

[Bleck]

yeah see I am pretty sure that they are using the WC3 thing as a cover-up/excuse for the fact that it was probably going to be late anyways

[phill]

Stupid according to who? They are printing hundreds of millions of dollars a year from WoW. D2 is old and releasing a new patch is not going to generate even a fraction of that.

Stupid according to me, and that's all that matters but more seriously, WoW is essentially their only source of income right now and generally, that is a poor business model. And my comment about reassigning developers was actually talking about D3 and SC2 developers being reassigned to the last WoW expansion and not so much the D2 patch group.

It's expected of Blizzard now, if it isn't WoW, then the release date could be anywhere between 2 weeks and never.

[Gario]

Originally posted by zircon

They are printing hundreds of millions of dollars a year from WoW.

Hmm... actually, I'd say they're getting over a billion in subscription fees alone from that damn game. Ah well - good for them, I guess.

I actually had this topic come to mind a few days ago, and realized that I got pumped up for it when announced, and so crushed when Blizzard did it's thang. I was such a fool. Anyone know when it's coming out?

[Triad Orion]

Stupid according to me, and that's all that matters but more seriously, WoW is essentially their only source of income right now and generally, that is a poor business model. And my comment about reassigning developers was actually talking about D3 and SC2 developers being reassigned to the last WoW expansion and not so much the D2 patch group.

It's expected of Blizzard now, if it isn't WoW, then the release date could be anywhere between 2 weeks and never.

Yeah, typically it's a poor business model. But demand still remains high for World of WarCraft. And honestly, it runs higher for it than any other Blizzard franchise. Only StarCraft has a chance to compare worldwide. Diablo is a tertiary franchise by comparison. So, while for most companies it's a poor business model, it's working for Blizzard because they keep stoking more demand for it.

In addition, the fact that StarCraft II and Diablo III are in production, along with another unnamed MMO shows they're moving to diversify. Blizzard already is a powerhouse company and it will continue to do nothing but grow.

...That said, it's still 2 weeks to never for its release dates on anything. At least it's almost always worth waiting for. XD

[phill]

If it ever stops working for Blizzard and there isn't something to fill the void, thats when it becomes a bad business model. That or Activision (it was them who purchased Blizzard?) become fickle and "requests" a little outside the WoW box thinking.

[Triad Orion]

Granted, should that become the case, it would be a problem. But by the time it does, Blizzard will have so much capital banked that they can survive for awhile while they put out a new game or two to fix the issue.

And honestly, Activision's not going to touch Blizzard. Unless Blizzard screws something up big time and costs everyone involved a lot of money, they're still going to remain virtually independent. Activision knows Blizzard works best this way, and it is how they became as successful as they have.

[Global-Trance]

"Update*- 9/30*

The Diablo II 1.13 patch is on temporary hold while we investigate potential impact on the Battle.net service. As we moved closer to launching the patch concerns grew that an increase in the player stash size (a feature in the patch) could compromise the Diablo II Battle.net service. The hardware and configuration could potentially not handle the increased stash size gracefully under heavy load. Currently we’re investigating potential impact as it is one of the larger content features in the patch and we’re hoping it can remain a part of the release. If it does have to be removed it will require additional time to remove it, generate new patches, and test, which will add time before we can go live on the PTR.*

We’re hoping to have our diagnostics and a final decision on how we’ll be moving forward decided by early next week and we’ll have an update for you at that time."

Bigger stash was one of the top three requests for the new patch... do you want to know what the other two were?

"Higher resolution, which we unfortunately just can't do because it would fundamentally change the game and require a huge development investment to have the game/servers spawn enemies farther out, have them aggro from farther out, and even then it increases travel time to the player... it's just a mess. Apparently increasing the resolution in LoD was this gigantic issue so I think the idea of increasing it again makes some of the old time programmers want to curl up in a fetal position.*

And new end game content, which we do want to continue adding, but just wasn't possible for this patch."

SO WHAT ARE WE EVEN WAITING FOR?

[relyanCe]

they seriously should just stop bothering with this whole patch crap and put all the people on D3

[BardicKnowledge]

Stupid according to me, and that's all that matters but more seriously, WoW is essentially their only source of income right now and generally, that is a poor business model.

Diablo II still continues to rank among the most purchased PC games -- it's still making money for Blizzard. That being said, a new patch isn't going to increase the number of people buying it by a significant amount...but when a title has been in the top 10 for more than 5 years, you've done something right.

"Update*- 9/30*

SO WHAT ARE WE EVEN WAITING FOR?

Seriously. There had better be a HUGE secret they haven't shared yet, considering how hyped this content patch was. What a joke, blizz.

[Dervish]

Honestly, even if the change is nothing more than taking Teleport off of Enigma, the update will be worth the wait. That change alone will make the game 100x more fun.