Diablo 3 launch



  • More of a fail than a WTF, but whatever.

    In case you don't know about Diablo 3, its prequels basically invented the action-RPG genre. Blizzard's been hyping the game for several months now, probably a year, calling it the most anticipated game ever. They've had several betas and even a stress test a few weeks ago to judge server load and prepare for the release. They recommended that players who preordered the digital version download and install the client in the days prior to release just to relax the inevitable server strain. Having an unencrypted game on your hard drive that is unplayable is a WTF in and of itself, but never mind that for now. Everyone was pumped and ready to play Diablo 3 the moment the servers came online.

    Well, apparently many people are having problems getting the game to start up. This is because Diablo 3 is always online - there's no such thing as a singleplayer offline mode for Diablo 3. You can play solo if you want to, but you still have to connect to their servers to do so. So the servers are overloaded with login requests and almost no one can get in. Nice work, Blizzard.

    I was considering taking a sick day off work to play, but after seeing the aftermath I'm glad I didn't. Was anyone else excited for the release?


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @lettucemode said:

    This is because Diablo 3 is always online - there's no such thing as a singleplayer offline mode for Diablo 3. You can play solo if you want to, but you still have to connect to their servers to do so.
     

    Sigh.

    They got what they paid for.



  • @lettucemode said:

    preordered the digital version download
    So would pre-ordering the analog version have been a better choice?



  • IMO, Blizzard is a WTF all on it's own.

    I was really into the original Diablo and often spent as much as 80 hours a week in there (hopelessly underemployed back then). Tried Diablo II but hated it. Because of that I didn't develop any interest in DIII. Hell, I'm still slogging around in LOTRO. And there is where I'm TRWTF. Been playing for like, four years (admittedly on-and-off), my main character still isn't up to level 50. I guess gaming just doesn't grab me like it used to.



  • @lettucemode said:

    Blizzard's been hyping the game for several months now, probably a year, calling it the most anticipated game ever.
     

    I thought Duke Nukem Whenever won that trophy, for values of "most" to mean audience times wait duration.



  • @lettucemode said:

    I was considering taking a sick day off work to play

     

     

    This is TRWTF

     



  • @ubersoldat said:

    @lettucemode said:

    I was considering taking a sick day off work to play

    This is TRWTF

    No shit, you're just using up valuable sick days.

    Instead do a "work from home" day and then spend the whole time playing. You still get paid and you don't waste a sick day that could be used for outdoor, away-from-keyboard activities, like a beer garden.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @ubersoldat said:

    @lettucemode said:

    I was considering taking a sick day off work to play

    This is TRWTF

    No shit, you're just using up valuable sick days.

    Instead do a "work from home" day and then spend the whole time playing. You still get paid and you don't waste a sick day that could be used for outdoor, away-from-keyboard activities, like a beer garden.

    There's no limit on sick days where I work.



  • I have learned never to get hyped up over a game just because its prequals were good.  Just because a game follows in the series of good games does not increase its chances of being a good game, only its chances of being a more expensive game.  There is also something about the third game in the series, if the first and second games both rock in your opinion, the third one will likely suck to you (and the bigger the gap between 2 & 3 the greater the potential suckness).



  • @lettucemode said:

    There's no limit on sick days where I work.

    In what kind of commie bullshit place do your at? Do you also get paid in peanuts and goat droppings? Are they hiring?



  • @lettucemode said:

    @morbiuswilters said:
    @ubersoldat said:

    @lettucemode said:

    I was considering taking a sick day off work to play

    This is TRWTF

    No shit, you're just using up valuable sick days.

    Instead do a "work from home" day and then spend the whole time playing. You still get paid and you don't waste a sick day that could be used for outdoor, away-from-keyboard activities, like a beer garden.

    There's no limit on sick days where I work.

    So.. you can just skip work every day? I sure hope you're taking advantage of this situation.



  • @serguey123 said:

    @lettucemode said:
    There's no limit on sick days where I work.

    In what kind of commie bullshit place do your at? Do you also get paid in peanuts and goat droppings? Are they hiring?

     

    He might live some place that you tea party scumbags refer to as "foreign". You know, some place where they not only declared slavery was over, but actually put an end to it as well. Perhaps this place even has affordable health care. Chances are that you're not allowed to carry a gun, though.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    So.. you can just skip work every day? I sure hope you're taking advantage of this situation.

    I do, now and then. No one around here really cares if you work 40 hours a week as long as you get your shit done (on my team, anyway). Having said that, there's an awful lot of work to do around here, so if I start abusing the system I'll miss deadlines and the managers will come down on me. I use sick days for impromptu days off, vacation days for 2 or more in a row, or something planned.



  • @lettucemode said:

    Having said that, there's an awful lot of work to do around here, so if I start abusing the system I'll miss deadlines and the managers will come down on me.

    So you actually do have a limit to your sick days, then. And rather than being up-front about how many you are entitled to, your work prefers to keep it a secret because most people will take fewer if they don't belong to them. This is a fairly common trick used by management to get people to take fewer days; pretend you're giving them flexibility when in reality you're forcing them into a situation where every sick day is something they have to take from the company.



  • @TGV said:

    He might live some place that you tea party scumbags refer to as "foreign". You know, some place where they not only declared slavery was over, but actually put an end to it as well. Perhaps this place even has affordable health care. Chances are that you're not allowed to carry a gun, though.

    Pretty good, but remember: the key to satire is subtlety. If you sound like a raving lunatic, people will think you're a raving lunatic. The goal is to make people laugh through your mockery of something; not to make them think you are actually the thing you are mocking.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @TGV said:

    @serguey123 said:
    @lettucemode said:
    There's no limit on sick days where I work.

    In what kind of commie bullshit place do your at? Do you also get paid in peanuts and goat droppings? Are they hiring?

    He might live some place that you tea party scumbags refer to as "foreign". You know, some place where they not only declared slavery was over, but actually put an end to it as well. Perhaps this place even has affordable health care. Chances are that you're not allowed to carry a gun, though.

    I love that your incoherent rant was directed at the forum's resident 3rd world hellhole totalitarian nightmare dude. Or so he claims. I don't even want to know if you meant it that way.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @morbiuswilters said:

    So you actually do have a limit to your sick days, then. And rather than being up-front about how many you are entitled to, your work prefers to keep it a secret because most people will take fewer if they don't belong to them. This is a fairly common trick used by management to get people to take fewer days; pretend you're giving them flexibility when in reality you're forcing them into a situation where every sick day is something they have to take from the company.

    TRWTF is having something labeled as "sick days" to begin with. Most people don't get sick that often, so we end up lying to avoid losing them. We just get "comprehensive leave," which includes both vacation and sick time.



  • @boomzilla said:

    ...the forum's resident 3rd world hellhole totalitarian nightmare dude. Or so he claims.

    I think he works for the Federal government.

    So same thing.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    Pretty good, but remember: the key to satire is subtlety. If you sound like a raving lunatic, people will think you're a raving lunatic. The goal is to make people laugh through your mockery of something; not to make them think you are actually the thing you are mocking.

    +1
    @morbiuswilters said:
    @boomzilla said:
    ...the forum's resident 3rd world hellhole totalitarian nightmare dude. Or so he claims.

    I think he works for the Federal government.

    So same thing.

    Indeed. Viva la Mexico!



  • @lettucemode said:

    In case you don't know about Diablo 3, its prequels basically invented the action-RPG genre.

    It's a good thing games like Hydlide and Ys weren't created over ten years prior, otherwise that statement might not be true.



  • @db2 said:

    @lettucemode said:
    In case you don't know about Diablo 3, its prequels basically invented the action-RPG genre.

    It's a good thing games like Hydlide and Ys weren't created over ten years prior, otherwise that statement might not be true.

    Filed under: nerdstomp



  • @boomzilla said:

    TRWTF is having something labeled as "sick days" to begin with. Most people don't get sick that often, so we end up lying to avoid losing them. We just get "comprehensive leave," which includes both vacation and sick time.

    I think almost everyone just uses PTO nowadays. I'm not sure that's better. A "sick day" is one that can be taken with no prior arrangement and a "vacation day" needs prior arrangement and is usually taken as part of a string of vacation days. I can see how it would beneficial to make a distinction; if someone has 4 weeks of PTO that's 28 days they can just take off whenever they like, which can certainly disrupt things.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @boomzilla said:
    TRWTF is having something labeled as "sick days" to begin with. Most people don't get sick that often, so we end up lying to avoid losing them. We just get "comprehensive leave," which includes both vacation and sick time.

    I think almost everyone just uses PTO nowadays. I'm not sure that's better. A "sick day" is one that can be taken with no prior arrangement and a "vacation day" needs prior arrangement and is usually taken as part of a string of vacation days. I can see how it would beneficial to make a distinction; if someone has 4 weeks of PTO that's 28 days they can just take off whenever they like, which can certainly disrupt things.

    All the places I've worked don't deduct PTO for sick days. (And the sick days are also "unlimited", which actually means, "don't take so many it screws people up".)



  • @blakeyrat said:

    All the places I've worked don't deduct PTO for sick days. (And the sick days are also "unlimited", which actually means, "don't take so many it screws people up".)

    I don't like the "unlimited" thing because, as I said, it just makes people less likely to take sick days. I have no idea if my sick days come from PTO because I rarely get sick. And I think the couple of times it's happened, my bosses liked me so much they just gave me the day without deducting it from anything.



  • @Anketam said:

    I have learned never to get hyped up over a game just because its prequals were good.  Just because a game follows in the series of good games does not increase its chances of being a good game, only its chances of being a more expensive game.  There is also something about the third game in the series, if the first and second games both rock in your opinion, the third one will likely suck to you (and the bigger the gap between 2 & 3 the greater the potential suckness).

    For example, Master of Orion I (good[1]), II (great[1]), and III (gigantic bug-ridden pile of WTF[2]).

    [1] IMO. YMMV.

    [2] Fact.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    All the places I've worked don't deduct PTO for sick days. (And the sick days are also "unlimited", which actually means, "don't take so many it screws people up".)

    I don't like the "unlimited" thing because, as I said, it just makes people less likely to take sick days. I have no idea if my sick days come from PTO because I rarely get sick. And I think the couple of times it's happened, my bosses liked me so much they just gave me the day without deducting it from anything.

     

     At my workplace, I had to force the doctor's papers in my manager's hand, trying to convince him that yes, the company could get a tax deduction/state subsidy for the days I was sick so yes, he should take the papers and keep score, please. I guess that's small companies in a nutshell..



  • @lettucemode said:

    Blizzard's been hyping the game for several months now, probably a year ...
    More like 2 years, i remember blizzard hyping D3 before Cataclysm launched.



  • @Ibix said:

    For example, Master of Orion I (good[1]), II (great[1]), and III (gigantic bug-ridden pile of WTF[2]).

    [1] IMO. YMMV.

    [2] Fact.

    I mostly played II and I loved it; probably my second-favorite turn-based strategy after Alpha Centauri. I was eagerly anticipating III for years but luckily I got out of gaming* before it came out because I hear only bad things about it.

    *(read: discovered vaginas)


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @morbiuswilters said:

    @boomzilla said:
    TRWTF is having something labeled as "sick days" to begin with. Most people don't get sick that often, so we end up lying to avoid losing them. We just get "comprehensive leave," which includes both vacation and sick time.

    I think almost everyone just uses PTO nowadays. I'm not sure that's better. A "sick day" is one that can be taken with no prior arrangement and a "vacation day" needs prior arrangement and is usually taken as part of a string of vacation days. I can see how it would beneficial to make a distinction; if someone has 4 weeks of PTO that's 28 days they can just take off whenever they like, which can certainly disrupt things.

    As always, it depends on your boss, etc, etc. Around here, people generally do arrange vacation ahead of time, but that's stuff where you're gone for a week or more, so you've probably had to make travel arrangements ahead of time anyways. It's not terribly uncommon for people to just take a day or an afternoon off more or less spur of the moment.

    @blakeyrat said:

    All the places I've worked don't deduct PTO for sick days. (And the sick days are also "unlimited", which actually means, "don't take so many it screws people up".)

    Partly, it also depends on your business model. If your labor is billed to customers, then there's a pretty strict accounting that's required beyond just getting your work done. But everyone is pretty laid back about it here. I generally end up selling back a couple of weeks worth of leave each year. But I'll also often work enough hours so that I can "bank" my holidays and use them when I actually go on vacation.



  • @lettucemode said:

    In case you don't know about Diablo 3, its prequels basically invented the action-RPG genre.
    The only genre Diablo invented was Diablo clones. The first action-RPG I remember playing was Gateway to Apshai, back in 1983.


    Aren't kids today just darling?

     



  • @boomzilla said:

    It's not terribly uncommon for people to just take a day or an afternoon off more or less spur of the moment.

    Well why don't you just move to France with the rest of the Marxists!?



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    So you actually do have a limit to your sick days, then. And rather than being up-front about how many you are entitled to, your work prefers to keep it a secret because most people will take fewer if they don't belong to them.
     

    ...no?



  • @boomzilla said:

    3rd world hellhole totalitarian nightmare
     

    So, USA?



  • @boomzilla said:

    It's not terribly uncommon for people to just take a day or an afternoon off more or less spur of the moment.
     

    If you're an asshole, sure.

    AH: "Hey coworkers, I feel like taking this afternoon off. Later!"

    CW: "What?"



  • @dhromed said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    So you actually do have a limit to your sick days, then. And rather than being up-front about how many you are entitled to, your work prefers to keep it a secret because most people will take fewer if they don't belong to them.
     

    ...no?

    Yes. Many offices are moving to "take what you want" schedules for holidays and PTO; the claim is that this gives the workers more flexibility. But a hidden benefit for the company (and downside for the employee) is that the psychology of taking holidays and sick days changes: a person is more likely to use something that is his own than something he has to "take" from the company.

    Think of it this way: would you rather have a $20,000 tech budget for your department or instead have a boss who says "If you need something, just come ask me and I'll get it for you"? With a budget, you can plan your expenditures; with the "ask the boss" method, you're at the whim of your boss. The latter will make you more cautious about making requests as you're never sure when he'll say "No" or when you'll go over the budget figure he has in his mind (because there's always a line, somewhere) and not be able to buy anything else.

    Consider the other side, too: a boss is likely to let me take my own vacation time, even if he doesn't want me to go. However, if it's not really my time, then it's easier for him to throw up roadblocks. I'm not making this stuff up, this is a well-documented phenomenon. I know because I've worked a few places where they tried this stunt and the other employees were all like "Ohh, all the vacation time we want, this sounds great" until I convinced them that they'd be losing out in the long run.

    Edit: Oh yeah, forgot a few other things. Flexible time off tends to exploit your hardest-working employees, because they're the ones least likely to take vacation days they haven't earned. And they're also the most likely to suffer burnout from working too hard.

    In many US jurisdictions, you are compensated for unused vacation time. By not giving employees an allotment of vacation days, the employer doesn't have to pay you for unused days. All-in-all, it's a big benefit to the company to go for flex vacation. The only benefit to the employee is that they feel more empowered, even though they are getting less (and that also benefits the company because it increases morale). But if you have to manipulate your employees into feeling empowered, then something is seriously wrong anyway.



  • @dhromed said:

    @boomzilla said:

    It's not terribly uncommon for people to just take a day or an afternoon off more or less spur of the moment.
     

    If you're an asshole, sure.

    AH: "Hey coworkers, I feel like taking this afternoon off. Later!"

    CW: "What?"

    Eh, there are plenty of places I've worked where people had enough independent work that if somebody wanted to take an afternoon off, or have a long lunch with a few beers, or whatever, nobody would care. In spite of what some Euroweenies think, American companies aren't generally run like slave labor camps.



  • @db2 said:

    @lettucemode said:
    In case you don't know about Diablo 3, its prequels basically invented the action-RPG genre.

    It's a good thing games like Hydlide and Ys weren't created over ten years prior, otherwise that statement might not be true.

     

    Not to mention Nethack, which Diablo was a shameless ripoff of.  I generally enjoy Blizzard's work, but when I saw Diablo I was just like "umm?  This is nothing but Nethack with graphics."  And I never really got into it since then.



  • @Mason Wheeler said:

    I generally enjoy Blizzard's work, but when I saw Diablo I was just like "umm?  This is nothing but Nethack with graphics."  And I never really got into it since then.

    Because God knows that adding graphics to a game is hardly an improvement over ASCII art.



  • @Mason Wheeler said:

    This is nothing but Nethack with graphics.
     

    Pf, you can extend that argument indefinitely and end up with a nihilistic conception of an "essential" RPG where you have a set of numbers slowly growing larger. That is to say, that link has ground it almost to nothing.

    In other words, you don't have a point there.

    But you do have a (very good) point when you say that the claim "Diablo invented the action-RPG" is bullshit, because everything comes from something that came before.



  • @dhromed said:

    a nihilistic conception of an "essential" RPG

    Nice try. That is nothing but my 7th grade math homework with color pixels.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @Mason Wheeler said:
    I generally enjoy Blizzard's work, but when I saw Diablo I was just like "umm?  This is nothing but Nethack with graphics."  And I never really got into it since then.

    Because God knows that adding graphics to a game is hardly an improvement over ASCII art.

    But that wasn't what people cared about.  Admittedly, it's been a while, but I don't remember people saying "oh, Diablo has such awesome graphics!"  No, what they raved about was the game itself--a series of procedurally generated underground dungeons that led the adventurer on a quest into Hell itself.  That was what everyone thought was so cool, and it was lifted 100% from Nethack.  (Except Nethack called it Gehennom.  And at the end, you got to leave the dungeon and fight your way through higher planes, which you couldn't do in Diablo.)


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @dhromed said:

    @boomzilla said:
    It's not terribly uncommon for people to just take a day or an afternoon off more or less spur of the moment.

    If you're an asshole, sure.

    AH: "Hey coworkers, I feel like taking this afternoon off. Later!"

    CW: "What?"

    Obviously, if there was something important scheduled, or a looming deadline, this might be the reaction. But we don't all work the same hours to begin with. Sometimes it's just going to the doctor or the dentist. Or taking your kids. A lot of it is just time shifting. If it's really interfering with getting your work done, or making trouble for others who depend on you for something, then, yeah, it's an issue. But in general, stuff is pretty flexible.

    Also, you don't have the fake sick days that come with sick leave, which is what people would have done with their sick days.

    @morbiuswilters said:

    @boomzilla said:
    It's not terribly uncommon for people to just take a day or an afternoon off more or less spur of the moment.

    Well why don't you just move to France with the rest of the Marxists!?

    I don't believe in burning cars. And I do believe in antiperspirant/deodorant. I could probably get used to eating horse, though.


  • Garbage Person

    @lettucemode said:

    I was considering taking a sick day off work to play, but after seeing the aftermath I'm glad I didn't. Was anyone else excited for the release?
    About a quarter of my group went farther than sick days - they scheduled vacations for the remainder of this week.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    Well why don't you just move to France with the rest of the Marxists!?
    Because I am strongly opposed to the French in almost every way and feeling that they are good for nothing but surrender, making for the most part horrible things and speaking French?


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @dhromed said:

    Pf, you can extend that argument indefinitely and end up with a nihilistic conception of an "essential" RPG where you have a set of numbers slowly growing larger. That is to say, that link has ground it almost to nothing.
     

    Almost?

    Then you, my friend, have never experiences [url="http://progressquest.com/"]Progress Quest[/url]

    You're welcome.



  • This thread just reminded me to put in my leave application for being off sick on Monday. So I guess that's good.



  • @Weng said:

    @lettucemode said:

    I was considering taking a sick day off work to play, but after seeing the aftermath I'm glad I didn't. Was anyone else excited for the release?
    About a quarter of my group went farther than sick days - they scheduled vacations for the remainder of this week.

    For Diablo 3? Seriously? Diablo games are boring as shit.

    Please tell me they secretly planned a camping trip or something.



  • @Mason Wheeler said:

    I generally enjoy Blizzard's work, but when I saw Diablo I was just like "umm?  This is nothing but Nethack with graphics."

    Except, y'know, that Nethack is turn-based, while Diablo is an action game. Hence the "action-RPG" moniker.

     



  • @Zylon said:

    @Mason Wheeler said:

    I generally enjoy Blizzard's work, but when I saw Diablo I was just like "umm?  This is nothing but Nethack with graphics."

    Except, y'know, that Nethack is turn-based, while Diablo is an action game. Hence the "action-RPG" moniker.

    But Diablo is played on a computer. And Nethack? Also played on a computer. It's clearly just a rip-off.



  • @Douglasac said:

    Because I am strongly opposed to the French in almost every way and feeling that they are good for nothing but surrender, making for the most part horrible things and speaking French?
    They're pretty good at engineering, though; at least, some of them are, or were. Case in point: André Chapelon. He engineered Europe's most powerful steam locomotive. Unfortunately, he did this just after the war, when the big shots at the French national railways decided that electric traction was the way forward. However, his 242A1 (only one was ever (re)built) was so powerful and efficient, that they were forced to up the specs of their planned top model electric locomotive, adding a whopping 1000hp.

    To give you an idea: when compared to the Union Pacific "Big Boy", generally considered to be the most awesome steam locomotive ever built because it's so ridiculously large, heavy and powerful, it had about 80% of its power at less than half its weight.

    As for leave days, we get 24 in this country, and my employer adds another 3 because I've been with them for over 10 years. Sick leave apparently has some sort of limit, which they don't tell you. But if you report sick, the company doctor comes to visit, or you need to bring a medical certificate (by law). Looks like there's been some abuse of the system in the past, but if a family member happens to be a doctor, well, so much the better.

    And then there are the public and national holidays. Most countries have a national holiday, such as the 4th of July in the USA, or the 14th of July in France. Malta has FIVE. The reason for this is political, and rather pathetic. Still, I'm not complaining. Heck, until a few years ago, you would actually get extra leave days for public and national holidays that fell in the weekend.


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