I was expecting such a post to be honest because i knew it could also be seen as me defending all complaints and all posts and threads on the subject. I agree with your general sentiments on this.
I just want to add that those that nerdrage and find their opinion to be a fact excist on both sides of the fence.
+1 to you then sir. I concur.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I grew up gaming without internet forums. The entire phenomenon of being upset with a game developer makes no sense to me. No sense. I cannot imagine spending my time and energy being upset about something I choose to do for recreation.
I was expecting such a post to be honest because i knew it could also be seen as me defending all complaints and all posts and threads on the subject. I agree with your general sentiments on this.
I just want to add that those that nerdrage and find their opinion to be a fact excist on both sides of the fence.
+1 to you then sir. I concur.
+1 for your sig. Seriously, it's a game. You can always go do something else.
I guess they get money from tournaments too, wasn't that rumored as the reason they took out LAN support, to get in on that action? (Just like putting in the RMAH for D3)
They were also going to do in-game ads for SC II, but that is likely going to be in Titan now.
Work with major consumer brands to facilitate product placement and licensing within the world of Blizzard Entertainment's next-gen MMO that enhances the gameplay experience.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Non nobis, Domine, non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam.
Work with major consumer brands to facilitate product placement and licensing within the world of Blizzard Entertainment's next-gen MMO that enhances the gameplay experience.
There are very few scenarios where this makes any sense at all.
... oh God... please don't tell me they're making a near-future MMO MilSim. /vomit
Most 'single player games' get little to no added content, patches are simply to fix major issues like game crashes(they usually dont care about glitches that let people cheat). With D3 i know blizzard will be making a fair amount of money off the game after initial product purchase revenue. So they will have it in their best interest to constantly add new content to the game. Make changes that the community wants, keep as many people playing for as long as possible.
So for me, as a player, i see the RMAH as a godsend. I of course would never spend a penny there my self... but hell if i can make $20 selling some digital item i wouldnt use otherwise... fuck it im gonna get me some money. Plus i know it will help keep the game going, and keep it evolving/changing over time. Giving me more to come back for later on. With MMOs they do this by having a monthly charge, to keep servers up, and pay for continued growth of the game. With single player games the company has no further income from the game once a person has paid for the game, so they have little to no reason to keep working on the title outside of simple bug fixes. The only thing that has more recently changed this is DLC's that can bring in a little extra cash.
So its a win for me. Its a win for Blizzard. Its a win for all of us.... what is broken in your brain if you think its a bad thing?
You had pay to win in Diablo 2 as well it was just done on shady sites.
That is such, such bullshit.
But it was true.
I watched as friends used those sites, or eBay for that matter, to buy gear so they too could have a hammerdin for Power Leveling, a smiter for Ubers and so on... Hell, even I bought gear to pimp out my thrown barb... The only difference between then and now? Now, it's done in house and Blizzard is okay with it.
actually I've played D2 for a decade and never used d2jsp, or FG, and ive had the best gear in the game every ladder season. It's quite easy you see, it's called playing the game, and playing trade chat channel. I could turn 40 chip gems into any item in the game with enough trades. l2barter.
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"...We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he to-day that sheds his blood with me
shall be my brother..."
I think the server strain for D3 in the current model and with the whole "every item being a unique code" might be considerably higher than SC2's server strain. I also think D3 is more popular (since there's no "single player" mode, we're always sucking info from the servers, whereas in SC2 it's just a way to connect to the other player, maphacks there even prove that the whole match info is right on your computer instead of exclusively on the servers as in a game like DotA 2 or LoL).
I think the server strain for D3 in the current model and with the whole "every item being a unique code" might be considerably higher than SC2's server strain. I also think D3 is more popular (since there's no "single player" mode, we're always sucking info from the servers, whereas in SC2 it's just a way to connect to the other player, maphacks there even prove that the whole match info is right on your computer instead of exclusively on the servers as in a game like DotA 2 or LoL).
That goes without saying (well, in a perfect world). SC2 just uses BNet as a glorifed match-making service. I'd expect D3's traffic to look a lot like WoW's, if WoW had no public zones, only endless instance runs.
I dont buy the argument that the RMAH is good simply because ( it was happening anyways), well now it is being condoned... which is not the same thing at all. Cheating was cheating, now cheating is what the game is revolved around
I dont buy the argument that the RMAH is good simply because ( it was happening anyways), well now it is being condoned... which is not the same thing at all. Cheating was cheating, now cheating is what the game is revolved around
Now?
lol, that ship sailed in D2 many years ago my friend.
Look at it this way, at least with the GAH, its just a streamlined form of trading, everyone trades in Diablo, this just makes it easier and less time consuming.
Real Money never has to enter into the mix if you dont want it too.
roflol, they are trying to make EVERYTHING viable, lazy is making trees with top end skills that dominate everything else.
Also, let them balance them FFS, Diablo 2's skills got tweaked a metric TON over the years, and there are STILL tons of unbalanced skills in D2. (you never played Vanilla D2 did you?)
Calling you out right now on a complete lack of knowledge on the Diablo story, they DIRECTLY refereance the established lore and story of D1, D2 and the Sin War trilogy.
PvP is coming, and there was no other "End Game" for D2 outside of brutally outleveling the content and the Ubers. Once PvP hits there will be dramatically more endgame in D3, I dont think you know what "endgame" means.
And FFS, I called YOU out for clearly not knowing how the ladder system even worked in D2, somehow you have warped that into something else entirely, dont put words I did not say into my mouth kid.
And again, since you OBVIOUSLY have never seriously played D2 ever in your life, gear and level DIRECTLY effects PvP in D2, yes, skill matters, but between 2 somewhat evenly skilled players, superior gear and level will always win, this is a basic reality of Diablo 2 that you seem to not comprehend. Maybe you should try and play some REAL pvp games to get an idea of what skill based gameplay actually is, lol. (its becoming clearer and clearer the only PvP/PK you did in D2 was against completely unprepared players with little to no skill in PvP, otherwise you would not be making such hilarious statements)
Yes the skill system is lazy. Majority of the skills in D3 blow, they are weak and un-fun skills. They don't provide much of a game change if any at all.
Diablo 2's skills did not get tweaked a ton. They got tweaked big in 2 patches only. Unbalanced skills? I can clear the game with any skill, normal - nm - hell NP. Vanilla D2, LoD doesn't matter. Should learn the game and get off scrub status before you try and call me out on D2 knowledge boy.
Well lets see, MF was better in D2, trading was better in D2, leveling didn't end in a day tops. Looks like it took a hell of a lot longer to hit "done" in D2, then it does in D3. Who cares about Inferno? Who honestly is still playing and going "Man I need to finish Inferno". People don't give a damn about Inferno, they care about leveling, they care about gear...2 things D3 blows at compared to D2.
I'm not aware of how the ladder system works? The horrible leveling ladder system? The system that proves and means nothing? Let's get 1 thing straight here boy, I was talking about a real system, a real skill system, a PvP ladder system, which obviously you have 0 clue about. Since all you do is rant and rave about how "gear and level" mean anything in high end D2 PvP. Cause they don't, as long as I am within 20 levels of you, and can maneuver my character, I can 5-0 you. That is how D2 PvP works, now I can understand if you are a scrub and think hammerdins are godly or that pub games are an indicator of high end PvP, I mean you did play on West, a server that was always years behind in technology to East and Europe. It's OK, I understand.
Got news for you Diablo2 Classic had no end game either and difficulity levels even in Hell were a joke. If you think comparing a 12 year old game with 1 expansion and over 13 patches vs a 1 month old game is fair then... I can't say anything.
Itemization in D2 Classic was crap too. Also, D2 had the same cheap mechanics in disguise, or did you forget elites that could be immune to up to 2 damage types.
D2 classic had no end game? Level 99 wasn't an end game mechanic? PvP wasn't end game? MF wasn't end game? Trading wasn't ALL game? Practically all of these, are absent from D3. If they are in there, they are sad renditions of their past. Vanilla D2 stomps D3 in almost every way. You whining about immunities? Really? Cause that is hard to take out. Maybe it wasn't taken out because people who didn't suck at the game could handle it? There was gear to handle that situation and skills.
Actually, I dont even care to, this kid has been trying to convice me of his uber leet D2 skills all week, flubbing his "facts" the whole way though, I just cant stop laughing.
Go play D2, and keep trying to convince the world your not a massive try hard, literally no one cares, at all.
oh, and fun fact, people have been power leveling to 80 in hours in D2 for YEARS, something you seem oblivious to from your previous post, yet another clear indication you are talking out of your ass.
Bottom line is: You will never be able to out farm a bot. As gold value continues to decrease it will not be long before buying gold, or spending USD on items is the only method to play this game competitively.
Bottom line is: This is not a game to play competitively. If you're banking on D3 pvp to be competitive, then you're in for a disappointment. The rest of the game is an item farming game. I'm failing to see where you feel the need to purchase these items in order to be competitive.
What I'm understanding (and I could be wrong, only human after all) is that you're getting upset because people with more disposable income are able to advance faster than you are by purchasing items with real money from other players who, after Blizz takes their cut, then get the real money you just paid...
Farm out a few items, sell them for real cash on the AH and build up an account bit by bit. There no need to spend more money. If you're impatient enough, or feel that it's such an injustice that someone else is willing to pay for something that you aren't then I don't know what to tell you...
How is this game not competitive? This is one of the most competitive games I've ever played, and the only game I've ever played where the exploits of others severely gimped the entire population. I could care less if you exploited gold in WoW, because you're still not going to buy most raid loot. However in Diablo 3, the loot is not a reward for in-game accomplishments, but rather something you have to find out of the auction house - which now requires your credit card.
Suggesting that I am upset because I don't have the income to purchase items myself is not only false, but childish. I play video games because they are fun. If I found out that someone else could get Rogue Legendaries in World of Warcraft for $250.00 I would be highly annoyed. I did not go through 3-4 months of questing and raiding to get my Legendary daggers because of their monetary value; I did it because it was a challenge and rewarding.
This is no different with Diablo 3. When I spend 300 hours playing my Monk, and my friend with less than 100 hours of time played spends $30 and now has better gear than I do, I feel like I wasted my time and that the game is no longer rewarding regardless of how much time I spend playing it. You could argue that I could just ignore item buyers, and mind my own business, but the reality is, I can no longer purchase items with gold because most of the items I search for have been moved to the RMAH, and what ever gold I can farm is worthless now that the market has been flooded by farmers.
I guess in your eyes, I should take my "disposable income," and throw it at the screen, and be done with Diablo 3 forever. I am not going to do this for the same reason I never hacked a character in Diablo 2. I like the idea of earning my status in a game, but when that same status can be purchased for pennies on the dollar, it really gives very little incentive to continue playing. I looked forward to Diablo 3 being a game I could spend years developing a character in, and believed that the time investment would feel rewarding, but I now realize that working a 4 hour shift for minimum wage would yield greater results than farming for 100 hours.
First I'd ask that someone please explain to me how this game is competitive? What/who are you competing against? The game has been beat, timed runs have been done and there's not going to be any new content. I suppose you might argue that you're competing to have the best build/stats for each class but that's sort of arbitrary when you take into account the sheer number of possible builds. You can build for damage if you want and you can show other people screenshots of your character info or maybe you'll get a some sort of praise in a public game for your character, but I'm not seeing a competitive game here...
Second: I was not trying to suggest you were poor or lacked the funds to make the purchases, simply that you were unwilling to do so. Other folks are. You said it yourself that you play for the challenge and the reward. That brings up the question of how do other people purchasing in game items with their money affect the challenge -you- have when you play the game? The reward bit I won't touch on, because honestly I have no idea what you find rewarding about the game. I'm not implying there's nothing enjoyable about the game, just that I don't know what -you- find enjoyable about it.
You're sort of contradicting yourself a bit as well. You claim to play the game for challenge and reward, yet you're upset because you can longer -buy- the items you want with the in game gold currency because people are moving the items they found to the RMAH. How does purchasing an item fit into that? Do you honestly garner some measure of enjoyment from farming gold just so you can go purchase an item someone else had drop for them? If so, you're right... what's the difference between spending an hour farming gold to buy something than spending an hour employed so you can buy something? One has a higher return than the other.
Here's the thing about status in Diablo 3. You'll never have it. Simple as that. The game doesn't promote the same sort of stand out attitude that some other games do. You're character isn't going to look unique and/or special because he downed some boss in an endgame instance. There's no "coming content" that's going to push you to be better, or have better gear. At best, you'll be able to faceroll through Inferno Mode. You're not going to be fundamentally better than another player on any noticeable level. Whether you spend years or hours investing in a character, if you're doing in search of notoriety (which is what I get from your post, apologies if I'm wrong) then you're going to be disappointed.
All this talk of D2 reminds me of a line from a song by a band I am very fond of . "There's no such thing as the good old days. The older we all get the better we all were". That right there is the simple truth of things. Memories are like the telephone game, which I am choosing to assume everyone is familiar with. The more people and time added to the chain the more the message becomes skewed. The skewing then becomes amplified on the internet where anonymity + ego is the formula one uses to extract boastful drivel.
Kinda funny to see all the nerdrage about RMAH and this is probably from the same people that consider capitalism the ultimate great economic system.
Look on the RMAH thru the capitalism eye glasses. You are rich you get access to more and better stuff, Just like in real life, endorse it work harder and you might become rich as well. Or do you want socialism and communists destroying your game?
I just see a lot of this whine as i want everyone to be just as poor as me in the game i cant accept that someone is better than me have more $$ than me.
If we can get a game that is NOT having the problems that D2 had in regards to dupes etc we will all be much better of. D2 died due to the hacks and cheats. I know i quit it due to all the hacks and dupes and shit. Playing legit you had ZERO chance to get anywhere in D2 you where always a 2nd class citizen in the game if you played legit since you always stood the risk of running into some retardazon with a bow doing 3 million dmg in 1 hit from across the zone.
Hacks is what killed it for me. And i find it funny that my hardcore characters died to inactive and not a single one died to mobs. sure not that i got 99, didnt have any interest in grinding it out with the risk of having all your work wrecked due a single idiot hacker.
Work with major consumer brands to facilitate product placement and licensing within the world of Blizzard Entertainment's next-gen MMO that enhances the gameplay experience.
There are very few scenarios where this makes any sense at all.
... oh God... please don't tell me they're making a near-future MMO MilSim. /vomit
Activision is making something like that, called Call of Duty China/Asia, and Bungie is also making an unknown MMO, so that should rule out Blizzard making something like that.
The old Daeity from the DigiCas blog apparently had a bunch of concept art, screenshots, details, etc. on Titan in early 2011. His blog was subsequently shut down and all Titan (and financials) related content he had gathered was purged from the web.
From some of his older posts, and a handful of Blizzard leaks that were found, you can sort of guess at what the game may be about.
(I think the big leak he had may have come from this, as I'm not seeing any search results for "Activision Commercial Summit" besides that page and the whois. Whatever it was, if anything, appears to have been swept under the rug)
you have some diablo-like drawings by the d3 team / you have fantasy elves and wow stuff from the wow art team / and then you have stuff like this from the next gen team.
I don't know if he was talking about the 'horseman' from 2010, but if you look at some of the art blogs from the 'Bits and Pieces' post you can sort of see what he was talking about. Lots of sci-fi looking landscapes, futuristic fighter jets. Those two I found interesting as the one from 2010 looks like a WW I cavalryman, then another by a different artist many months later has essentially the same character, except fantasy-ized with a giant lizard/dragon thing. Don't know if it's Titan, or just something they like to draw/from some other IP.
No BlizzCon this year, but still a chance they could reveal some info on it
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Non nobis, Domine, non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam.
If server costs were such an issue, why didn't they offer an off-line version?
And secondly, how do Starcraft 2 servers still manage to stay afloat without a pay-to-win model of it's own?
Wow its not hard to figure out why they made it Online only.
RMAH = Real money being spent.
People could go offline do a hack and go online and sell the items for real money.
Thats why they made it online only to stop people from cheating and gaining real money.
I understand the spirit of debate, but why is this still an actual issue? It's very clear and obvious; It would take no time at all to create hacked items and characters with and offline mode (because you have the entire game on your own computer, including item files) and then, because again you have the whole architecture of the game, load it up to the online version of battle.net, and scam your way into money with the RMAH or worse. The RMAH poses so many legalities that offline just isn't an option. I don't get the attitude that Blizzard just doesn't want to let more people play their game. It boils down to yes some people can't play ( no internet, ect) but the vast majority that can have a thousand fold better experience with the game. Sacrifice the few for the many.
It would take no time at all to create hacked items and characters with and offline mode (because you have the entire game on your own computer, including item files) and then, because again you have the whole architecture of the game, load it up to the online version of battle.net, and scam your way into money with the RMAH or worse.
I don't get it. If in order to play online mode you'd have to connect to their servers, hence every single character data is always in their secure servers (as it is right now), how could a hacker/cheater possibly "inject" character data into the servers that are different from what's there already.
From what I recall, the devs (Jay Wilson) said that the whole online only was to make sure people understood that online is the standard gamemode, whereas if we had an offline mode too many people would probably play it as the standard mode. This would in turn greatly hinder the whole "public matchmaking" feature, and would be a major complaint for the offline players that the drop rates are tuned for the AH usage, and they can't use it.
And it's fine, that all makes sense. That doesn't change the fact that it hinders the gameplay experience too much for many players.
Now, being fully honest, I think this is the one thing Activision actually did influence. In my opinion, even today, this decision was based 100% on DRM, which is kinda sad, specially after what happened to SC2 with no lan features (not even for tournaments).
+1 to you then sir. I concur.
+1 for your sig. Seriously, it's a game. You can always go do something else.
Starcraft II's planned alternate revenue model isn't online yet.
http://www.blizzplan...lyst-day-15.jpg
http://www.blizzplan...lyst-day-31.jpg
http://www.blizzplan...lyst-day-32.jpg
http://titanfocus.in..._1_26_56269.png
I guess they get money from tournaments too, wasn't that rumored as the reason they took out LAN support, to get in on that action? (Just like putting in the RMAH for D3)
They were also going to do in-game ads for SC II, but that is likely going to be in Titan now.
There are very few scenarios where this makes any sense at all.
... oh God... please don't tell me they're making a near-future MMO MilSim. /vomit
So for me, as a player, i see the RMAH as a godsend. I of course would never spend a penny there my self... but hell if i can make $20 selling some digital item i wouldnt use otherwise... fuck it im gonna get me some money. Plus i know it will help keep the game going, and keep it evolving/changing over time. Giving me more to come back for later on. With MMOs they do this by having a monthly charge, to keep servers up, and pay for continued growth of the game. With single player games the company has no further income from the game once a person has paid for the game, so they have little to no reason to keep working on the title outside of simple bug fixes. The only thing that has more recently changed this is DLC's that can bring in a little extra cash.
So its a win for me. Its a win for Blizzard. Its a win for all of us.... what is broken in your brain if you think its a bad thing?
actually I've played D2 for a decade and never used d2jsp, or FG, and ive had the best gear in the game every ladder season. It's quite easy you see, it's called playing the game, and playing trade chat channel. I could turn 40 chip gems into any item in the game with enough trades. l2barter.
for he to-day that sheds his blood with me
shall be my brother..."
That goes without saying (well, in a perfect world). SC2 just uses BNet as a glorifed match-making service. I'd expect D3's traffic to look a lot like WoW's, if WoW had no public zones, only endless instance runs.
Now?
lol, that ship sailed in D2 many years ago my friend.
Look at it this way, at least with the GAH, its just a streamlined form of trading, everyone trades in Diablo, this just makes it easier and less time consuming.
Real Money never has to enter into the mix if you dont want it too.
Diablo 2's skills did not get tweaked a ton. They got tweaked big in 2 patches only. Unbalanced skills? I can clear the game with any skill, normal - nm - hell NP. Vanilla D2, LoD doesn't matter. Should learn the game and get off scrub status before you try and call me out on D2 knowledge boy.
Well lets see, MF was better in D2, trading was better in D2, leveling didn't end in a day tops. Looks like it took a hell of a lot longer to hit "done" in D2, then it does in D3. Who cares about Inferno? Who honestly is still playing and going "Man I need to finish Inferno". People don't give a damn about Inferno, they care about leveling, they care about gear...2 things D3 blows at compared to D2.
I'm not aware of how the ladder system works? The horrible leveling ladder system? The system that proves and means nothing? Let's get 1 thing straight here boy, I was talking about a real system, a real skill system, a PvP ladder system, which obviously you have 0 clue about. Since all you do is rant and rave about how "gear and level" mean anything in high end D2 PvP. Cause they don't, as long as I am within 20 levels of you, and can maneuver my character, I can 5-0 you. That is how D2 PvP works, now I can understand if you are a scrub and think hammerdins are godly or that pub games are an indicator of high end PvP, I mean you did play on West, a server that was always years behind in technology to East and Europe. It's OK, I understand.
D2 classic had no end game? Level 99 wasn't an end game mechanic? PvP wasn't end game? MF wasn't end game? Trading wasn't ALL game? Practically all of these, are absent from D3. If they are in there, they are sad renditions of their past. Vanilla D2 stomps D3 in almost every way. You whining about immunities? Really? Cause that is hard to take out. Maybe it wasn't taken out because people who didn't suck at the game could handle it? There was gear to handle that situation and skills.
Oh man, I dont even know where to begin........
Actually, I dont even care to, this kid has been trying to convice me of his uber leet D2 skills all week, flubbing his "facts" the whole way though, I just cant stop laughing.
Go play D2, and keep trying to convince the world your not a massive try hard, literally no one cares, at all.
oh, and fun fact, people have been power leveling to 80 in hours in D2 for YEARS, something you seem oblivious to from your previous post, yet another clear indication you are talking out of your ass.
Anyhoo, keep on tryin' hard bud.......
roflol
First I'd ask that someone please explain to me how this game is competitive? What/who are you competing against? The game has been beat, timed runs have been done and there's not going to be any new content. I suppose you might argue that you're competing to have the best build/stats for each class but that's sort of arbitrary when you take into account the sheer number of possible builds. You can build for damage if you want and you can show other people screenshots of your character info or maybe you'll get a some sort of praise in a public game for your character, but I'm not seeing a competitive game here...
Second: I was not trying to suggest you were poor or lacked the funds to make the purchases, simply that you were unwilling to do so. Other folks are. You said it yourself that you play for the challenge and the reward. That brings up the question of how do other people purchasing in game items with their money affect the challenge -you- have when you play the game? The reward bit I won't touch on, because honestly I have no idea what you find rewarding about the game. I'm not implying there's nothing enjoyable about the game, just that I don't know what -you- find enjoyable about it.
You're sort of contradicting yourself a bit as well. You claim to play the game for challenge and reward, yet you're upset because you can longer -buy- the items you want with the in game gold currency because people are moving the items they found to the RMAH. How does purchasing an item fit into that? Do you honestly garner some measure of enjoyment from farming gold just so you can go purchase an item someone else had drop for them? If so, you're right... what's the difference between spending an hour farming gold to buy something than spending an hour employed so you can buy something? One has a higher return than the other.
Here's the thing about status in Diablo 3. You'll never have it. Simple as that. The game doesn't promote the same sort of stand out attitude that some other games do. You're character isn't going to look unique and/or special because he downed some boss in an endgame instance. There's no "coming content" that's going to push you to be better, or have better gear. At best, you'll be able to faceroll through Inferno Mode. You're not going to be fundamentally better than another player on any noticeable level. Whether you spend years or hours investing in a character, if you're doing in search of notoriety (which is what I get from your post, apologies if I'm wrong) then you're going to be disappointed.
Look on the RMAH thru the capitalism eye glasses. You are rich you get access to more and better stuff, Just like in real life, endorse it work harder and you might become rich as well. Or do you want socialism and communists destroying your game?
I just see a lot of this whine as i want everyone to be just as poor as me in the game i cant accept that someone is better than me have more $$ than me.
If we can get a game that is NOT having the problems that D2 had in regards to dupes etc we will all be much better of. D2 died due to the hacks and cheats. I know i quit it due to all the hacks and dupes and shit. Playing legit you had ZERO chance to get anywhere in D2 you where always a 2nd class citizen in the game if you played legit since you always stood the risk of running into some retardazon with a bow doing 3 million dmg in 1 hit from across the zone.
Hacks is what killed it for me. And i find it funny that my hardcore characters died to inactive and not a single one died to mobs. sure not that i got 99, didnt have any interest in grinding it out with the risk of having all your work wrecked due a single idiot hacker.
Activision is making something like that, called Call of Duty China/Asia, and Bungie is also making an unknown MMO, so that should rule out Blizzard making something like that.
The old Daeity from the DigiCas blog apparently had a bunch of concept art, screenshots, details, etc. on Titan in early 2011. His blog was subsequently shut down and all Titan (and financials) related content he had gathered was purged from the web.
From some of his older posts, and a handful of Blizzard leaks that were found, you can sort of guess at what the game may be about.
http://daeity.blogspot.com/2010/08/blizzards-next-gen-mmo-details.html
http://daeity.blogspot.com/2010/08/blizzards-next-gen-mmo-environmental.html
http://daeity.blogspot.com/2011/08/bits-pieces-blizzards-next-gen-mmo.html
http://daeity.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-game-ads-planned-for-titan.html
http://daeity.blogspot.com/2011/09/this-is-not-titan-update.html
http://daeity.blogspot.com/2011/08/new-titan-mmo-details-spotted.html
http://daeity.blogspot.com/2011/03/huge-news.html
http://daeity.blogspot.com/2011/08/messages-from-daeity.html
http://daeity.blogspot.com/2012/02/titan-ai.html
(I think the big leak he had may have come from this, as I'm not seeing any search results for "Activision Commercial Summit" besides that page and the whois. Whatever it was, if anything, appears to have been swept under the rug)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_szaR--CV5zY/TKTa4FWRKsI/AAAAAAAAAOY/_rUKUVokK8c/s1600/050_horseman.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0kYukViC5L4/TpO8gKhR5RI/AAAAAAAAAIg/x5_420UUaJo/s1600/desert.jpg
I don't know if he was talking about the 'horseman' from 2010, but if you look at some of the art blogs from the 'Bits and Pieces' post you can sort of see what he was talking about. Lots of sci-fi looking landscapes, futuristic fighter jets. Those two I found interesting as the one from 2010 looks like a WW I cavalryman, then another by a different artist many months later has essentially the same character, except fantasy-ized with a giant lizard/dragon thing. Don't know if it's Titan, or just something they like to draw/from some other IP.
No BlizzCon this year, but still a chance they could reveal some info on it
Wow its not hard to figure out why they made it Online only.
RMAH = Real money being spent.
People could go offline do a hack and go online and sell the items for real money.
Thats why they made it online only to stop people from cheating and gaining real money.
From what I recall, the devs (Jay Wilson) said that the whole online only was to make sure people understood that online is the standard gamemode, whereas if we had an offline mode too many people would probably play it as the standard mode. This would in turn greatly hinder the whole "public matchmaking" feature, and would be a major complaint for the offline players that the drop rates are tuned for the AH usage, and they can't use it.
And it's fine, that all makes sense. That doesn't change the fact that it hinders the gameplay experience too much for many players.
Now, being fully honest, I think this is the one thing Activision actually did influence. In my opinion, even today, this decision was based 100% on DRM, which is kinda sad, specially after what happened to SC2 with no lan features (not even for tournaments).