Blizzard Explains Diablo III's Restricted Access

Update: Blizzard has issued a statement explaining why players who purchase Diablo III digitally from this point forward will need to wait up to 72 hours for full game access.

"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."

"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."

The level 13 cap and progress limit at the Skeleton King boss fight in Act I, as reported below, were not actually intentionally implemented, according to Blizzard. "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."

Here's the full list of restrictions, aside from the mistake with the level and progress cap.

• No public game access for unverified digital purchasers


• No auction house access (real-money or gold) for unverified digital purchasers


• Unverified digital purchasers cannot trade items or drop items for other players to receive


• Unverified digital purchasers are not able to chat in any public or game channels


• Unverified digital purchasers cannot attach a custom message to friend requests, but they can send/accept friend requests, and play with their friends

• Global Play is not available for unverified digital purchasers

Blizzard claims that in most cases restrictions are lifted within 24 hours. Have you purchased Diablo III digitally within the last few days? What has your experience been like?

Original Story: Most of the staff at IGN has been enjoying Diablo III. In fact, many of us talk about it so much that we've convinced friends and other co-workers to buy it. While plenty of people are willing to go out to a store or purchase a boxed copy online, many more turn to Battle.net and quickly pick up a digital copy. As of the new 1.0.3, though, new customers can apparently only unlock the full game three days after purchase.

In a post on Blizzard's support forums, the details are made clear (though not explained at all):

As of patch 1.0.3, when purchasing a digital version of Diablo III through the online store or your Battle.net Account, players are restricted to the Starter Edition for the first 72 hours (sometimes less). Players on Starter Editions have the following restrictions:

• 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.

Basically, people who go out and purchase the game in-full are restricted to the content from the Beta. We've reached out to Blizzard for clarification, since at the moment we're just left wondering why this step would be taken. Perhaps it has something to do with restricting access in order to help server loads? Or maybe keep would-be farmers from buying a bunch of copies to put a ton of auctions up and get around the 10-item per account limit? Let's all speculate together.

Source : ign[dot]com

Kapow! DC: All Access Before Watchmen Panel

A panel of DC executives admitted they are suffering from anxiety in the run up to the launch of Before Watchmen at a DC All Access panel at Kapow! Comic Con in London today.

“To say we’re excited would be an understatement,” admitted Senior VP of Sales at DC Entertainment Bob Wayne, “But, to say we’re nervous would also be an understatement! I think we can let the product speak for itself, and hopefully everybody will enjoy what we’ve got.”

“We went to a lot of trouble to assemble the talent, to make sure we had the right people working on it,” explained Dan DiDidio co-publisher of DC, “Honestly, I can say this for every one of the creatives involved, that they’re doing some of the best work of their careers. They know how important this project is, and they know how much scrutiny it’s going to come under.”

They revealed several variant covers at the panel at the London Business Design Centre including an awesome S&M inspired Ozymandias cover, and a psychedelic Josh Middleton variant for Silk Spectre, the Before Watchmen arc that both DiDio and Wayne were very enthusiastic about.  “Silk Spectre is my personal favourite,” said Dan, “Darwyn Cooke is working with Amanda Conner on this one, and he really wanted to capture the spirit of Silk Spectre in a specific period of time. Darwyn wrote the basic plot and Amanda ran with it from there.”

“This is one of the quietest of the stories, but also one of the most heartfelt. It’s a coming of age story, with Silk Spectre discovering herself, and separating herself from her mother.”

The Rorschach series is fittingly being described as “the most violent series” of Before Watchmen with Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo recreating Time Square of the 1970s for the very first issue of the arc. “It’s pretty intense,” stressed DiDio, “as someone who lived in New York in that era, it’s as gritty as I remember.”

The panel went on to discuss the Curse of the Corsair, the pirate-themed companion piece that will preface each issue of the book run, promising 34 different cliff-hangers for each issue. “It captures the style and tone and the shifts in nature of the stories that are taking part in the main features. We hope it recreates that same feel that Tales of the Black Freighter did in conjuction with the original Watchmen.” said Wayne. “It’s a swashbuckling adventure that just gets darker and darker as the series goes on,” added DiDio.

The panel were keen to deflect questions about Alan Moore's much-publicised negativity towards the project at the start of the Q&A session, but were candid when it came to discussing how much freedom they had given all the creatives when it came to crafting a new backstory for the series.

“When we sat down with all the writers, everyone was very beholding to the source material. They all had a copy of Watchmen in front of them that was operating as their ‘bible’ for the creative process,” DiDio said, “But, the first thing we said everybody should be able to be their own story-teller. Everybody has a lot of freedom in how they approach the material, how the writing is, how the drawing will look, and they all approached it very differently.”

Editor Will Dennis reiterated, “We always said from very early on, we want to let these guys do what they do best. You don’t hire these guys to do what they do so well and make them do something else.”

You’ll be able to find out how successful they’ve been in bringing the classic Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons series back to life when the first issue drops in June. Be sure to check out our first impressions of Before Watchmen here.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/19/kapow-dc-all-access-before-watchmen-panel