Updated: Come play Diablo II with Boing Boing Gadgets on Battle.net
To celebrate the triumphant announcement of Blizzard's Diablo 3, I'm going to spend the rest of the evening lazily sweeping my mouse icon across hordes of the undead and breezily gelatinating them. Which is to say, I will be jumping onto Battle.net to play Diablo II. Right now.
Want to come play with me? Sure you do. Diablo II is one of the most addictive multiplayer games of all time. After seeing that trailer, you're sure to have the itch. I'll start a game called BBG on US East US West Ladder, password BBG. If you've still got Diablo II, just jump on in. If that game fills up, I invite you to start up bbg2/bbg, and so on. Any game that starts with bbg will be a Boing Boing Gadgets game.
Hope to see a cluster of able warriors in-game. The loot really does improve the more people there are playing.
Update: Joel has been convinced to sell a couple fillings and buy the game, so we're going to play in a couple hours. Rob may be convinced to come along too. If you want to buy the game, you can get it as a digital download from Blizzard's site. You need to get both the core game and expansion for the digital downloads, not the Battle Chest. Hope to see you guys then!
Update 2: Blizzard's having some issues with propogating new CD keys to US East, so we're moving to US West. And we're going in now!
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Apparently I can buy this digital download now, but I'm having a hard time justifying $40 for a ten-year-old game (plus expansion).
Joel, somewhere I have two sets of CD keys for it plus expansion.
Looking now; I still have a lot of stuff in boxes!
Okay, I pulled out for a little bit. There's no way to multitask under OS X, which is a bitch, and I'm trying to sway Joel to pump $40 into a 7 year old game. I'll jump back on in 30 or so... if anyone wants to play, please start the bbg/bbg game.
Why are you paying to rent when you could own for free?
This better be good.
Zuzu: I buy games, especially good ones, because I want companies to make more. Plus I am getting a bit worried that Blizzard may be hurting for cash.
EST or EDT?
EDT. Thanks for the reminder... I always forget that.
It reads to me: You're hesitant to pay $40 for the game, except that you do want to pay $40 for the game "to support Blizzard". Well, which is it?
We're talking about the company that operates World of Warcraft (WoW), right?Zusu, why is it hard to understand that Joel might be hesitant to spend $40 on an eight year old game he's not sure he'll like, yet doesn't believe in warezing it either?
John's got it. Even worse, it wasn't even a question of pirating it, since Rob had a spare set of keys. I just paid $40 so I could play it tonight instead of waiting a day (or more) for the torrents.
The crack about Blizzard running out of money was the joke. Even though they don't *need* my $40 doesn't mean it isn't the right thing to do.
My first install gave me CD key errors. I am not a happy non-pirate at the moment!
Do you have to pay to play? As in if I buy the game do I have to pay a monthly fee to play like on WOW.
No, it's free after you've bought the disks.
Speaking of which, I can't find mine. DAMN.
Update: I hate this game!
Update: Joel spent one hour playing it, then dismissed it as "clicking stuff, killing things and selling loot."
So if you don't like to click things or kill things in your video games, don't pull the trigger on this one!
A couple of points worth bearing in mind.
1. People joke about Diablo's "story," but I didn't get into the game until I played it single player for a while. Picking up some actual motivation and absorbtion is important, and the loot addicts forget that. The multiplayer HUSTLE of it all is confusing and meaningless to new players.
2. Act I sucks, as do the first 10 levels. You need to get to the more interesting stuff in act II and have an idea where you're taking your character skill-wise before it will get its claws in.
Joel, since you've spent the money, here's how to give it a chance: play your way single-player through act I and until Act II "goes dark" -- about 4-6 hours play, tops. Then come online and have another kick around with pals.
And if you don't like it then, you can put it away without being harangued by John and I forever.
As much as I like clicking, shooting and killing stuff - you guys have made it seem like a complete hassle. I'll spend 40 bucks elsewhere. Thanks.
I played it for a few hours tonight in single player. I'm starting to get it a little bit, but it was really grating at first.
SOJ ONLY
The way we play through Diablo reflects the way we move through life.
Some folks see gaming as a personal Bardo training quest.
Monsters are simply obstacles to be overcome in one's evolution.
See "You don't have to kill everything"
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ZX2dZjWbY
Rob's points are on the money... and I really should have thought of that as well. My first multiplayer sessions in D2 were frustrating as everyone rushed from goal to goal with memorized precision, only stopping long enough to pick up items and kill bosses. There is a purity in this, especially since the game only REALLY reaches its peak in Hell difficulty... but I'd also beaten the game single player before I did this.
Basically, Act I sucks because it's an ugly marsh you slop around in for a few hours. You have no real powers. Awesome loot isn't dropping yet. The M.O. of B.net players is to blaze through it as quickly as possible to get to Act II. But for new players, it's also an extended tutorial and period of acclimatization. If you've never played a game of D2 ever and your first exposure is rushing through Act I with a bunch of old hands, you'll very quickly feel overwhelmed by the pace of it.
For many, the announcement of Diablo III has been received with mourning. I wasted the better part of my 20s on a game that turned out to be more than D&D meets slot machines. Never again.
I've just reminded myself why no-one should ever shop at Gamespot or EBgames: I just bought it, but even though it's "new," the box is opened and they gave me only some of the disks. "Play disk" is missing, as is the CD key required to install the game.
Luckily, I still have my old D2 key. But now I have to go back to the shop, with my special smile, to get the rest of what I paid for.
Is there some kind of juju on their store's servers preventing a digital copy being purchased outside of North America?
I've felt like I needed this game in my life since I was 12. Now that I'm 20, have money to spend, a computer to play it on, and some (some) free time (not to mention the prospect of playing with fellow boingers) I feel like it is finally time. However, I am in China right now. I'm assuming that's the reason it's giving me a problem message on my purchase, but maybe people have other ideas about what could be going wrong? (For the same location reason, I'm loathe to call the US 800 number it suggests for customer service).
I got my necro up to level 15. I'm starting to come around.
is this what Brownlee's been up to, instead of posting some cartoons on his own blog?
Will there be another session or was it just a one time nostalgia thing?