NOTE: THIS thread is from September, and is old, however I have just updated it with a link, as it stands now 3/15, blizzard does not know when servers will come up (Date you see in press release is for DIGITAL COPIES, not server)
To make clear: I mean playable (as in servers are online)
[Cata was not "turned on" until 12:01 PST for example regardless of your realm time (US) while the rest were always ready the second you got home.]
Before you post, make sure you note, this is not another thread about when do you think the game itself will be released, but what time. Let me explain.
We all know, we will get to go to midnight releases of the game, and pick it up on day X at 12:01 am.
The question is 12:01 AM what time? our time, or PST.
Wow for example was always released at 12:01 am Your time, this is until CATA. In which you could not get to the new areas until 12:01 PST.
So the question here is... will we all get to play as soon as we get home (will the server be up and about) or will we all have to site at home, with our collectors box in hand...twittling our thumbs while we wait for PST time?
Ah, well, playable, not sure about Cata. I think there was indeed a certain wait for the servers... but can't really remember. You should consider though, that Diablo 3 isn't played on realms, which means you can log in at 12:01 and someone else on _your_ realm from the other side of the continent will not be waiting 3-4 more hours.
What I mean is, like in SC2, everyone's playing field is separate and there won't be any "unfair" situations. It's just the time zones in the way.
oy oy! dont forget europe, we got a tootaly diffrent time to go by.
they are proboubly releaseing it on GMT+1 here as most of eu are in that timezone and most guys i know here in sweden that have ever even been close to a computer have played D2. meaning D3 is gonna be _B_I_G_ in sweden.
maybe not what it look like now, but once the beta are out and the release date are closing in... the hype is gonna be HUGE. i study at a game development collage and most of out tests are in the end of December / start of January, the grade curve for the school that term will drop like its hot.
I dedicate the rest of this year to Diablo 3, i'm happy enough playing the beta (demo almost lol) for 3-4 months
Ah, well, playable, not sure about Cata. I think there was indeed a certain wait for the servers... but can't really remember. You should consider though, that Diablo 3 isn't played on realms, which means you can log in at 12:01 and someone else on _your_ realm from the other side of the continent will not be waiting 3-4 more hours.
What I mean is, like in SC2, everyone's playing field is separate and there won't be any "unfair" situations. It's just the time zones in the way.
Exactly my points...theres no "realms" its on a server (well multiple but still).. that blizzard may choose not to turn on until 12:01 their time.
just to make it clear, I did vote it will be our time =P but still, the fear it wont be is there.
Since Diablo 3 is going to always be online, it seems unlikely they would release anywhere without the ability to go online and play, so I doubt it'd be midnight PST as the official launch. I don't think using WoW's expansions is going to be a good comparison since those weren't stand alone products.
There is a possibility that the servers won't go online at midnight in any time zone. We don't know any of the preorder details yet so there might be a short "early access" type thing where if you preordered you can play the day or however long before the actual release with the servers coming up in the afternoon/evening and a short grace period for people to pick up the game on the actual release date. Doing that would also have the advantage of letting everyone have access to the game at the same time rather than having a delay based on time zones and/or regions and people could have the game pre-downloaded to help alleviate some stress on their servers on release when people who didn't preorder start getting the game.
I doubt we'll have to wait. If anything, they'll turn on the servers a day or so before they release the game. (maybe?)
When I got SC2 I didn't have to wait a second and I'm a day ahead of most of you guys. I want to say it's GMT+10 (Guam)
The only time I had to wait was when Cataclysm was released and I couldn't play that for a day or so. =P
I'm HOPING they will do something weird involving pre-order early-access to the "Beta" content, like maybe allow people to create and play characters pre-release that will persist if you upgrade your account with a D3 key.
I'm not suggesting such a thing would happen until very close to when the game launches. But, it would be a decent way to stress-test the launch hardware/architecture!
(The upcoming invite-only Beta will be running on a single instance of test hardware in one location, which will affect what they end up installing at server farms in various locations across the world for launch)
Blizz have always been fair to everyone and has treated all equal when it comes to game releases. There's no "preorder plays earlier". After managing a community of 10s of millions they know that nothing good comes out of letting people that have more money/live in a better country be able to play before others.
Blizz have always been fair to everyone and has treated all equal when it comes to game releases. There's no "preorder plays earlier". After managing a community of 10s of millions they know that nothing good comes out of letting people that have more money/live in a better country be able to play before others.
I do think its VERY unlikely pre-order = make a character you can keep. (However, I'd be surprised if they didn't offer pre-order = beta with characters that get wiped)
But just for the sake of argument: if Blizzard sets it up so that you can pre-order directly through Blizzard in all regions, then how would that be unfair? People with hefty data caps, but decent bandwidth, need to install off disks I guess? I can't think of much else..
Blizz have always been fair to everyone and has treated all equal when it comes to game releases. There's no "preorder plays earlier". After managing a community of 10s of millions they know that nothing good comes out of letting people that have more money/live in a better country be able to play before others.
Thats why people who preorderd sc2 got into the beta?
Theres nothing wrong with given people who preorder a bonus, its what smart companies do, cause it moves products.
Yeah, I was mostly talking about keeping stuff. All betas of Blizz have always wiped out all player progress upon release. But yes, often times preordering gives you beta access. It's cool. :]
https://twitter.com/#!/Bashiok/statuses/180325360574013440
To make clear: I mean playable (as in servers are online)
[Cata was not "turned on" until 12:01 PST for example regardless of your realm time (US) while the rest were always ready the second you got home.]
Before you post, make sure you note, this is not another thread about when do you think the game itself will be released, but what time. Let me explain.
We all know, we will get to go to midnight releases of the game, and pick it up on day X at 12:01 am.
The question is 12:01 AM what time? our time, or PST.
Wow for example was always released at 12:01 am Your time, this is until CATA. In which you could not get to the new areas until 12:01 PST.
So the question here is... will we all get to play as soon as we get home (will the server be up and about) or will we all have to site at home, with our collectors box in hand...twittling our thumbs while we wait for PST time?
Except cata, which was the most recent release, which scares me a little.
Do you mean if it's gonna be released locally at 12:01 at each separate time zone? If so, then yes.
Edit: I got both Cata and SC2 at 12:01 in my time zone.
Ha. Bagstone.
Playable, not released. that was my bad with wording. Remeber they didnt throw the cata servers till 12:01am PST (when you "buy" it means nothing)
Not that it will matter to me anyway, I'll probably start playing about a week after the game is released.
What I mean is, like in SC2, everyone's playing field is separate and there won't be any "unfair" situations. It's just the time zones in the way.
Ha. Bagstone.
they are proboubly releaseing it on GMT+1 here as most of eu are in that timezone and most guys i know here in sweden that have ever even been close to a computer have played D2. meaning D3 is gonna be _B_I_G_ in sweden.
maybe not what it look like now, but once the beta are out and the release date are closing in... the hype is gonna be HUGE. i study at a game development collage and most of out tests are in the end of December / start of January, the grade curve for the school that term will drop like its hot.
I dedicate the rest of this year to Diablo 3, i'm happy enough playing the beta (demo almost lol) for 3-4 months
Exactly my points...theres no "realms" its on a server (well multiple but still).. that blizzard may choose not to turn on until 12:01 their time.
just to make it clear, I did vote it will be our time =P but still, the fear it wont be is there.
There is a possibility that the servers won't go online at midnight in any time zone. We don't know any of the preorder details yet so there might be a short "early access" type thing where if you preordered you can play the day or however long before the actual release with the servers coming up in the afternoon/evening and a short grace period for people to pick up the game on the actual release date. Doing that would also have the advantage of letting everyone have access to the game at the same time rather than having a delay based on time zones and/or regions and people could have the game pre-downloaded to help alleviate some stress on their servers on release when people who didn't preorder start getting the game.
When I got SC2 I didn't have to wait a second and I'm a day ahead of most of you guys. I want to say it's GMT+10 (Guam)
The only time I had to wait was when Cataclysm was released and I couldn't play that for a day or so. =P
I'm not suggesting such a thing would happen until very close to when the game launches. But, it would be a decent way to stress-test the launch hardware/architecture!
(The upcoming invite-only Beta will be running on a single instance of test hardware in one location, which will affect what they end up installing at server farms in various locations across the world for launch)
Ha. Bagstone.
I do think its VERY unlikely pre-order = make a character you can keep. (However, I'd be surprised if they didn't offer pre-order = beta with characters that get wiped)
But just for the sake of argument: if Blizzard sets it up so that you can pre-order directly through Blizzard in all regions, then how would that be unfair? People with hefty data caps, but decent bandwidth, need to install off disks I guess? I can't think of much else..
Thats why people who preorderd sc2 got into the beta?
Theres nothing wrong with given people who preorder a bonus, its what smart companies do, cause it moves products.
I think he was responding to my "and get to keep character/loot" bit, that was just overly hopeful, unrealistic thinking on my part.
I don't know if the Russian servers launched earlier, but i think they did.
Ha. Bagstone.