Blizzard Tries to Stop Botters Instead Ruins Diablo 3 for Legitimate Players with Stupid Idea

[Shawn Zipay]

As of patch 1.0.3, many players were complaining that either they or their companions were stuck at level 13. Others complained that they were unable to progress past the Skeleton King encounter, which is only a couple of hours into the first Act.

Well, the reason is now known. Blizzard, in an attempt to stop botters from reaching later areas of the game to farm and ultimately break the economy, have put up an artificial barrier that is also catching every legitimate player in reach. For a period of 72 hours after people purchase a digital copy of Diablo III through Battle.net, every player is restricted to the Starter Edition content.

This means that for 3 days after, you, a legitimate player purchases a game for at least $60 (USD), are restricted to a level cap of 13 (out of 60) and content only up to the Skeleton King (about two hours into the first Act).

- Act I up to the Skeleton King is available
- Level 13 cap
- Matchmaking available only with other Starter Edition players
- No Auction House access (Real Money or Gold)
- Global Play is not available. Players attempting to connect to Diablo III Starter Edition in a region other than their Battle.net Account's home region will receive Error 12. See the Global Play support article for more information.

This isn't the first course of action that Blizzard has done to slow the tide of botters but it is certainly the most drastic. Legitimate players running into this issue are already demanding refunds for the fact that they're unable to continue playing the game they paid at least $60 for.

And really, forcing everyone to wait three days to access the content they paid for? Do you really think this move is going to stop botters in the slightest? At worst they'll farm the first two hours of content and once 72-hours have passed, they'll continue to do what they've always been doing anyway. So why ruin the experience for every legitimate player out there with this idea?

(via)

[Thortok2000]

Source? From what I understand, this is a bug. My mom's account ran into that issue and she was able to log in and out and fix it and she could keep playing.

[SgtMattBaker]

They mentioned this on IGN too. Blizzard is seriously going downhill now.

[Iwantcable]

Re: Blizzard Tries to Stop Botters Instead Ruins Diablo 3 for Legitimate Players with Stupid Idea

It's (supposed to be) only delayed until your payment is authorized.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5911721680#1

"For security reasons and to help ensure the integrity of the game and auction house service, players who purchase the digital version of Diablo III may have to wait until payment verification is complete before they can access certain game features. (See below for a full list of restrictions associated with digital purchases.) While most payments are approved and restrictions are lifted within a day, in some cases it can take up to 72 hours to complete this process.

Similar to World of Warcraft, these restrictions were put in place to deter credit card fraud, which in turn helps reduce gold spam and other harmful activities that can have a negative impact on the game experience for everyone.

However, as an unintended consequence of these security measures, players who purchase the game digitally after patch 1.0.3 are temporarily being capped at level 13 and not able to proceed beyond Act I. We are working to correct this as soon as possible and will provide another update when we have more details to share.

Aside from the two unintended restrictions noted above, below are the standard security-related restrictions that will be in place for digital purchases until payment verification is complete:

No public game access for unverified digital purchasersNo auction house access (real-money or gold) for unverified digital purchasersUnverified digital purchasers cannot trade items or drop items for other players to receiveUnverified digital purchasers are not able to chat in any public or game channelsUnverified digital purchasers cannot attach a custom message to friend requests, but they can send/accept friend requests, and play with their friendsGlobal Play is not available for unverified digital purchasers

Again, we want to be perfectly clear that these are temporary restrictions (often lifted within a day and at most 72 hours) associated with digital purchases for the protection of players. We appreciate player feedback and will continue to evaluate the best methods for ensuring a positive game experience for everyone."

[Thortok2000]

Indeed, Iwantcable's information is the last I've heard. Basically, until they know that you have ACTUALLY paid for the game, you get the demo. As soon as your payment goes through, you can play the complete version. That sounds completely fair to me. Emphasis is placed on the fact that for most people, it's often lifted within a day. Whereas the original post of this news article, here, implies that it is always 72 hours, no exceptions. =/ If the reporting here is going to be so often slanted and unresearched (with broken links for sources) I might stop checking this site for gaming news. =/

[K-16]

Re: Blizzard Tries to Stop Botters Instead Ruins Diablo 3 for Legitimate Players with Stupid Idea

Not exactly a broken link if the thread was there before the administrators/moderators took it down from an angry community. At the time of posting, the complaint was shared in more than this site. It's just been updated since then to reflect new information that wasn't there before. The link was good at some point in time before 06-21-2012 11:07 AM (time of Zips' reporting), and the clarification was made on 06-22-2012 9:26 AM. That said, I didn't check to see if both sites were using my local timezone so it's possible the two may have happened around the same time, but out of laziness I'm willing to say new information wasn't available at the time of Zips' reporting.

[nemes1s3000]

Damn you Blizzard, damn you.

[Thortok2000]

Re: Blizzard Tries to Stop Botters Instead Ruins Diablo 3 for Legitimate Players with Stupid Idea

As the original post is not there any more, it's hard to say for certain, but I think all the information in the clarification was already made known, just badly worded. 'Up to 72 hours' I think was said, and many people choose to ignore the 'up to' so in the clarification they emphasized repeatedly that 72 hours is an outlier.

Also in the original they didn't say it was specifically to combat finacial fraud, they said hackers and botters instead, but it wasn't hard to figure out.

So many people are bashing Diablo 3 lately. We go from whining that games aren't made for PC anymore and they're all console ports, but as soon as one of the better ones comes out, it's like they can't do anything right.

[Stev0esque]

Re: Blizzard Tries to Stop Botters Instead Ruins Diablo 3 for Legitimate Players with Stupid Idea

Thats just what gamers are like. Sure games are not necessarily for children, but people are fooled because the players often act like them.

Take EA for example. Their stocks are falling, but their games are still (IMO) good. I think we have managed to almost literally bitch a company to death.