BlueStar said:
Full headline "Diablo 3 to require permanent internet connection to play unless you download the cracked version instead of buying it "
Actually, I'm going to do both. And some other people might do so, too.
I want to play multiplayer whenever at least one of my RL friends are available.
My computer is permanently connected to the internet, and it's a fast line.
But at the same time, I often have no internet connection for a few hours, or a few days sometimes, because I live in a street that seems to have some issues with telephone and internet cables.
So, I am, in addition to buying the game, also get myself a cracked version so I can peacefully play singleplayer whenever I have no internet.
That is, if our assumption that there is no "play offline" mode at all is correct.
It is sensible that single player is online only, because you can actually take that same character and play multiplayer with him, even competitive PvP, or trade loot received on him in the real money auction house.
The "online only" on singleplayer is only to make sure all the items that flow through the economy system and are usedi n PvP are "legit".
You can take your character, level and gear him up alone, and then use him in multiplayer and PvP or sell loot from him on the auction house.
If you could do that with an offline character that is stored on your computer, it opens up the possibility to cheat (hack his stats, give him rare loot) and then use the cheated character in PvP or sell cheat-loot to other players who would possibly pay for it with real money.
That's why even the singleplayer characters need to be stored server-side - to prevent non-legit characters and items from entering the online community.
However, they may still end up just putting a button on the front screen of the game that allows you to play offline instead of logging into your b-net account, but will seperate the characters used in offline mode from everything on your account (so you cannot access the auction house with them and cannot participate in any multiplayer or PvP with them).
It's not that unlikely.
Hell, maybe they will even reconsider allowing LAN connections if the community demands it enough (would, of course, also need to be seperate from the b-net account just like offline-singleplayer).
The online-only on singleplayer makes sense and is legitimate, because any locally stored character can potentially screw up the whole economy and PvP balance.
However, it is possible for blizzard to go around it and just make both locally stored and server-stored characters and I consider it possible that they may do so.