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Games Entertainment

Diablo II Beta Sign-Up Monday 169

Posted by jamie from the single-file-no-pushing dept.
MimEnkode writes "Blizzard has announced the beta test for Diablo II. Only 1,000 beta testers will be picked. You'll be able to sign up here." This is not first-come-first-served; sign up at any time on Monday, and you'll have the same chance as everyone else.
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Diablo II Beta Sign-Up Monday More

Diablo II Beta Sign-Up Monday

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  • He did, and they weren't very interesting. Up until about a year ago, there were running stats on the browsers and operating systems that Slashdot users were using. Well over 80% were using Windows if I remember right. A whole 5% or something were using Linux. Then mysteriously the stats disappeared.
    Oh the horror.
  • >You will have the same chance as everyone else, provided you live in the USA or Canada. The rest of the world will have to wait until the second phase beta.

    A.K.A. 'release'

    -RN
  • It was posted here, a bastion of Linuxdom. So I don't know that my odds went down that much. Especially since I would have overlooked it completely, were it not for slashdot, so I guess my odds went up quite a bit.

    And further, how many Dual processor/Win2k users are gonna apply for the beta? Hopefully not too many.
  • And further, how many Dual processor/Win2k users are gonna apply for the beta? Hopefully not too many.

    Well, I don't know how many will apply, but none of them will be accepted.

    From the signup page:

    You must be running Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5. Windows 2000 is not supported for the Diablo II Beta, but will be supported in the final product.

  • People like this linguistic acrobat make me -proud- to be a FreeBSD user.

    Or perhaps I've been trolled. *shrug*

    (Personally, I'm gonna apply for Beta. I've got a windows machine that I could put it on. I quite enjoyed Diablo I.)
  • Read the post again and you'll see that he also has a point (he is using sarcasm to show it).
  • A lot of people have dual-booting systems.
  • Gamers know a lot more about technical stuff than normal users. Remember the gamers are the ones who usually run servers (for games), make maps, mods, etc.

  • Re:FYI (Score:1)

    by QuMa ( 19440 )
    I think your son will be really gratefull for that.

    A bunch of aliens is hanging around mars, looking for a fight or something. They come across a capsule, open it, find a bunch of names and think: Hmm, yes. let's go kill those people.
  • You must remember that we live in a market economcy where money is going to drive everything forward. If people are wanting to spend their time playing video games then let them. It promotes development of video cards, networks, API and other useful tools which propergate outward to other fields.
  • I think that you are wrong... Code from games can be applied everywhere... VR simulators, network code for movement prediction can be used in various applications, etc...
  • But, in the cosmic sense of things, does SMP support really matter? Are you making our universe a better place to live in by harboring hostility towards your fellow man? Admittedly a lot of them are idiots, but they at least are living a lifestyle that at least lets them tell themselves they are happy and ignore their hollow shells of lives. I find it amazing that there are some people who somehow deny that they have gone through any sort of teenage phase. Just because you've sold your inner child to a black market slaver doesn't mean you can treat other's inner children the same way.
    (hah.. defending the game junkies.. madness will ensue..)
    (did i really use the term 'inner child' on slashdot??)
  • good point. After two weeks, every open source developer should be congradufuckinglated. You need air.

    --
    ba-bu-ba-ba-baaa, da-da-dum. Re-boot the ser-ver.
    ba-bu-ba-ba-baaa, da-da-dum. Re-boot the ser-ver.
  • Yes and no. The beta is only for Windows. And I thought most of the people that go here are on Linux? Whatever.
  • I have written several windowmaker dockapps under the GPL, and I am currently working with a major Free game effort. So I do contribute. BTW, I admit that the comment was vaguely inflammatory, but I do think that /. should focus more on small Free projects. Let Blizzard do their own PR. As for why I believe all software should be free, well, see www.gnu.orr/philosophy. RMS can explain it much better than I can.

  • Finally. After such a kick a$$ first game the wait for this one had better be worth it. Gonna sign up as soon as i can.

    ~Jester

  • But, how many of the slashdot readers who didn't already know by checking diabloii.net or blizzard.com every day since they told us it was going to be announced this past week are going to be signing up? I would think that most of the readers who want to beta test already knew...
  • The demo is most likely going to come out shortly after release, which of course means that almost no one is going to bother with it...
  • Maybe in two weeks time, we should have a poll of how many slashdot readers got in? 1) I'm in HAHAHAHA 2) Damn you people! I didn't get picked! 3) Uh, there was a beta sign up? 4) Uh, Dee-ab-lo?
  • Ok, just so long as I don't have to actually install or *use* AOL, I'm still game.
  • Yeah, they are ensuring a variety of machines and connections, but it will still be random. Unless you've got an incredibly unique setup, you're still very unlikely to get in.
  • Wouldn't it be in Blizzard's best interest to pick a good distribution of machine types, rather than picking everyone at random for testing purposes?

    He says, hoping his absolute minimum spec computer will get him higher up the ladder...
  • No, it will support Windows 2000, also. There are other companies in the works attempting to work out poting deals. Either by Blizzard doing the work or by some other company with an agreement. In the beta test only 95/98/ and NT4 will be supported. A mac release is sure to come later on in the year. But I sure hope that they will work out a deal to port the game to BeOS. I mean if they can release a botched up nasto version of Diablo1 for Playstation. I mean geeze, that is totally a waste.
  • Whats with all the hype over this game? Diablo was a good game, but there were and are plently of other good role playing games. Try torment, I just beat it, and it was far better then Diablo ever was.

    This game is never going to live upto the hype no matter how good it is.

  • 6 months?

    I remember a long time ago seeing it scheduled for release in October of 1998!

    Better late (and better) than crap or never :>

    Heath
  • Back in my college days, I was addicting to MUDs and MUSHes. From what I understand, games like Diablo and Ultima Online are graphical, visceral extension of these type of worlds, and horribly addictive. So for me, not signing up for this beta test will be like avoiding a hallucinogenic drug. Then again...maybe I will anyway...:)
  • If you need a lesser-known web-based free email address and want to show off your geekitude, there's always

    GeekLife Mail [geeklife.com] (2000 users small)

    (Well, at least I won't be moderated down for being off-topic (oops, is that a challenge?))

  • Argh!

    I was hoping /. wouldn't post this so that my chances of getting picked would be higher! Nooooooooo! =)

  • hmmmmmmm the Ole "Slashdot Effect" again....

    Anybody wonder if we spun a story (or just commented on one) if we could affect a company's stock trading price? Has this ever happened from /. ?

    What was it Andy Warhol said about everyone being famous for 15 minutes....?
  • Hey, they were 2 days late on it (no doubt they rejected between 300 and 400 submissions of this on the 15th when it was posted on blizzard.com), your wishes were not totally unrealistic ;)

    Esperandi
  • Do a survey sometime, I would bet a very large majority of users don't use Linux. Slashdot COULD keep stats on this very easily by snooping headers, but its funny they don't isn't it? What would hapen is they found out that 1% of the Slashdot community is Linux users?

    Esperandi
  • Take a good look at the front page for slashdot.org. It says: "News for nerds. Stuff that matters." Not "open-source news", not "only free software", not "linux only", not ...

    Looking at the comments posted it seems that this "stuff that matters" for most of the people reading this. Probably a cross section of groups "geeks" and "diablo players" would be rather large. Accept it and live with it or go someplace else if you don't like it.

  • As long as its not Amiga news, its OK to submit. :)
    --
  • And tell me, Just why do you think Moderators Suck!? Where's Eliza when you really need her? CSG_SurferDude
  • Most of us have windows. Even if we use Linux for our daily routines, most of us have Windoze available. Personally, I keep windows for games. Not all game manufacturers are enlightened as yet to release games for linux too.
  • Its these type of people who would find the little problems that more technical saavy people would know how to get around, or not consider a problem. Thus they would add to the polish and eliminate tech suppoert hassle from the millions of end users who only know how to turn on there computer and connect to AOL.


    ------------------------------------

  • To the real Randy Ziskind, if his Linux-infected egotistical self is still looking at this board:

    1. Im 17
    2. I love video games
    3. I know Visual Basic
    4. I know C++
    5. about 60 projects combined in both languages
    6. im not a moron
    7. need to find a spare hard drive so i can freakin learn how to use Linux :)


    More flamebait, yes, but after reading all the rants by Randy-old-monkey, I have to say, you Linux junkies need to realize without games there wouldn't be a computer industry. We'd all be using Playstation and your console would be faster than your computer. I use Windows (id love if Gnome ran Windows apps, i wonder how good Wine is). Can you imagine? We'd be using 8086s cuz the Linux junkies still want to run web servers. You dont need more than a 80586-120 running FreeBSD. Why the fuck are Intel and AMD battling it out with 1GHz CPUs? Because Quake 3 wont run at 10x7 on PII300. Why are memory prices so damned low? Because your PIII800 is worthless with 32MB of ram. Why the fuck did AMD make the KX133 chipset? Because IronGate sucks donkey balls. How come the 440BX chipset kills the i820? Well we won't go there, but these advances are all because of games. If it was up to standard desktop applications to drive the computer industry, the most intense application i can see being used is MS Excel or Access on Windows 3.1, or for UNIX machines, a heavy load ftp server.

    Get off it, loser, gamers are giving you your hardware. Voodoo 3's arent a piece of shit thats bloating Linux drivers. If you want unfucking bloated software go back to the original version of Linux Torvalds created, throw it on your 286 and shut the fuck up.
  • Not true. Didn't you read that double entries will be disqualified?

    I'd say it probably only decreases your chances about 500%

    M
  • > It take years of ignorance, closed mindedness, > and lazyness to make a moron. Glad to see Slashdot is populated by highly trained people. Nicholas
  • When are the playable demo's supposed to come out?
  • I signed up for the Star Trek: Armada Beta test that was held recently (last month) using a hotmail account. I was one of only 100 people selected to test, so I think knowledge of your own system and your system specs have more to do with it.
  • The comment I'm replying to shoulda been marked (Score 3,Troll) instead of -1 flamebait.
    I don't claim to be an old fart (check Jargon File) but I would guess this was a damn good troll.
    I think from now on once someone gets moderator access big lights should flash on there screen explaining
    1) what a troll is
    2) many should be marked UP as Funny or Troll
    ------------------------------------------- ------
    "If I can shoot rabbits then I can shoot fascists" -
  • I went through the trouble of setting up windows to play Diablo 1 when after 5 minutes into the game my guy was pkilled by some NAKED warrior guy with a trillion hacks and spells. Of course I figured, ok... everybody plays with hacks so I made a hacked charachter which didn't seem to hard to do since there were freaking programs with GUI's to generate them etc. even though the game was pretty new at the time. I got on and started on a dungeon and everybody seemed to be pretty cool. After we were deep in, everyone started turning on each other and ambushing and what not. The funny part is, every last person was hacked and nobody could do anything to each other so we pretty much stood around making faces for a while and playing the dozens so then the others said that they were leaving to find newbies to pick on. I surfed the web and it appears that there were like clubs of people who like are NOT cheaters and you can like join a club of people if you want to play the game through... My fun was already killed by this time though so I got some chips and by the time I was done with the bag we went in with unilimited stuff and beat Diablo and all.. Yay. I'm not wasting my time setting up winbloz again for this crud. I was a BIG fan of warcraft /starcraft but the first Diablo was not worth the time I spent installing it and downloading counter hacks. I was looking forward to like another Starcraft or something instead. I don't think I would even play this mess if it were for linux.
  • Its not one of the 1st thousand. Its supposed to be random from what I gather :-) so you just prolly gained realistically a good 50K competitors at least. Slashdot gets a good 450K hits / day I know I prolly come to main page about 4 times a day. post a few comments etc.

    So.. that knocks down the unique hits down prolly ( unless those are unique ) And anyhow You have some addicts (-:lots:-) who refresh many more times than me lol. And a good portion of the ./ community seems to have windows at least for gaming ( I do ). Soo.. Its a good bet you are gonna have your chances decreased a lot actually :-)

  • Wow, good thing you didn't tell everyone about that until the game went gold! Oh wait.. that game's still in beta..meaning even if you weren't full of b.s., they could take your "cheats" out, couldn't they? Okay, so even if you really were a Blizzard programmer and got fired for adding cheats, I'd tend to think you deserved it just for being stupid: if you really wanted them to get into the final product, you'd have kept quiet about it.
  • true devolpment of technology comes from Universities and govermant R&D labs. (not the military).

    Okay, but what is the ultimate benefit of all that "true" technology? If people like to play games, if it makes them feel better, is it so bad?

    Computer games are by themselves a respectable technology, and shouldn't be dismissed with words like "anything except games".

  • What, and have 3 000 people say they got in?
    ~~~
  • Finally it's coming out, how late is it? 6 months I think?

    Make Seven
  • Even if they are reading it, and your spelling of Blizzard and mastery of the shift key impressed them, how would they know who to pick?

    Make Seven
  • I find it humorous that I may be the only person here who gets this as a joke. You see, if I may explain it, this person (WAH) wants less people to sign up, so [s]he's saying that you need to sign a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), remove Linux from your HD, and sign up for AOL to be considered, hoping that people would then decide not to sign up and leave more open slots. You see, it's not hard to understand if you take some time. And to whichever moderator gave this +1: interesting: see this post [slashdot.org].

    Make Seven
  • Oh yeah, that's right! I thought it was something like that but I figured I must be thinking about diablo 1. Oh well, let's just hope that it's good, and they didn't just jack around for two years.

    Make Seven

  • Does anyone know why this is USA and Canada only? As a UK resident I would more than happy to help with the beta, but for some strange reason I seem to be excluded. Personally I feel this is an unnecessary restriction, and a bit of a slap in the face for us non American existing customers

  • .. Darn. I was hoping this wouldn't get posted until about 1 am on 3/20. now I have to compete with an even Larger group of people to be within the 1st 1000!!

  • FYI (Score:1)

    by geekoid ( 135745 )
    Nasa occasionally has programs that allow you to submit your or your childs name to be sent into space on a probe. My sons name will be on mars, and On a comet!
  • not really. how does a 128 meg video card help in anythin except games? Video game makers seldom, if ever, create new ways of using networks. UDP and tcp/ip where not developed by the game industry. They where developed by individuals because they had a neat Idea, and plenty of money.
    Video game companies don't put alot of money into R&D. not enough profit margin.
    true devolpment of technology comes from Universities and govermant R&D labs. (not the military).
  • just a side note
    technology growth != inovation. In the game industry, the goal is to get a product out as cheaply and quickly as possible. There is not a lot of room for inovation.
    Driving for faster clock speeds does not mean better computers. I would love to see Intel/AMD stop this clockspeed pissing war and start working on real bottlenecks in the home PC. But as long as the consumer is told by the game industry that they need faster processors, the real world problems won't go away.
    How does that lead to new technology development?
    if the game industry really drove technology, directX wouldn't be here , in it's current form, today.
  • Yes, Code from games can be applied in alot of places, but the game industry does not Inovate new technology, They may find better ways to inpliment a technology ,but the don't Invent it.
  • I did not intend to imply that Video games are bad, or not enjoyable. For the record, I've been playvideo games for over 25 years. I think Q3 rocks, and I probably qualify as an addict to everquest. I feel that a good game company may be one of the few non goverment places that actual software engineering goes on.
    My point is just that game software may use current technology extremely well, they don't invent it.Not enough money in that.
    Thanks for your reply, I alway appriciate the input.

  • wine (Score:1)

    by bicho ( 144895 )
    I have been told you can run Baldur's Gate with wine. do you think Diablo II will be?
  • If we do could I possibly get the name of the stock first? I need something to help me pay for my horribly overpriced college education. ;)

  • So what? The games been delayed and overhauled more times than the Sistine Chapel cieling, and what are the chances of getting into the beta? Something like a thousand to one. This is just another step in the long, boring wait until the I tear that little plastic off of my CD (Well, the four CD's). Besides, the StarCraft beta took upwards of two months to complete. Personally, I'm looking forward to the open beta more, everyone can download that.
  • You'll note that the dungeons themselves weren't exactly randomly generated. They were randomly picked from a pool of static layouts, the monster locations/types/strengths/quantaties were the most random thing in the dungeons and even they were somewhat predictable (once one saw one monster, one could guess what others were in there with it)
  • You call him stupid/moronic, but you can't hardly write a sentence without a swear word in it. Watch teh language.

    Eric
  • Actually, i was very dissapointed in tourment... but then, i was expecting it to be another baldur's gate (which it wasn't). But I don't think diablo is very comparable to other "d&d" type RPGs... Hell, nothing compares to the games that black isle puts out...

  • Well, well...
    Mr here thinks he's cool just because he went over the game phase and he finally knows C...

    Let me tell you one thing. Maybe you're happy because you just reached "computer puberty", but let me compare this:
    Do you watch TV? Well, you don't even know how a TV works. Damn...

    Video games are now part of the computer community and has helped the development of 3D accelerators and many other computer related hardware.

    Besides, who doesn't like to just sit back and just have fun? If your idea of fun is programming, fine with me. I enjoy it myself. However, I don't start insulting anyone who doesn't share my interests. But hey, Diablo II is gonna rock!!!
  • Didn't you read that double entries will be disqualified?

    I'm not talking about double entries. I'm talking about the sheer volume of Slashdot readers.

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

  • They havn't posted a date for the playable demo, of course, but Blizzard has indicated that after the closed 1000 person beta there will be a larger, open beta, prior to release. I guess the concept is to (1) test the servers under load, and (2) get a few hundred thousand hooked, then yank the rug out from under then and make them buy it. Hey, it works for me...

  • LOG IN (Score:2)

    by Wah ( 30840 )
    Then we'll know for sure.

    (unless you're the same troll, masqing your grits)


    --
    ba-bu-ba-ba-baaa, da-da-dum. Re-boot the ser-ver.
    ba-bu-ba-ba-baaa, da-da-dum. Re-boot the ser-ver.

  • DiabloII.net [diabloii.net] is a pretty decent source of info for this game. They give daily updates and they seem to be able to filter out the real insider info from bs hype.

    I don't read it religiously, but it's nice when I need a "how's Diablo II doing" fix.

  • If someone can't configure their email or call the tech guys at their ISP to baby-step them through it, are they going to be much use in a beta test?
  • Let's see, first you complain about there being "no new open source developers". Then you insult someone you never met, whose code you've never seen, merely because he mentioned that he was a "new open source developer".

    Do you fail to see the contradiction there?

  • God I wish I could moderate you down. In case you've been asleep for the past umpteen years, ROB DOESNT SUBMIT THE ARTICLES

  • yeah, they're going to have you download a game that spans 4 CDs. I think I'm one of the few people on the planet who would actually deal with that download (if it was resumable).

    There's a reason why they ask for your shipping address...

    Esperandi
    I swear I mirrored the entire ftp.etext.org /pub directory over a 56k connection.
  • It doesn't say anywhere on Blizzards site that the selection will be random... it simply says you'll have a chance of getting in no matter how late... they may be doing it random, but I'd guess they're doing as you said and picking a good cross-section of machines and OS combinations and such and also looking for certain types of people to test it... like programmers and junk, they can help more in a test than just some guy who wants to play the game.

    Esperandi
  • Well, most people chosen for beat tests are not chosen because they are Joe Q. User. Pointing out that you are a programmer and would be able to give comprehensive and detailed information about every fluke (for instance instead of trying to explain to them what it looked like when their collision test failed while you were up against a wall, you can tell them exactly that. even if its not right, its easier to decrypt than "I went up to this wall and then half the screen was a yellow-ish purple and somethin that looked like a rock was in the middle, my computer seems slower now, do you think it was a virus?!?!?").

    Altho I think the real reason they want to do this is so that you can't signup a million times. I could have shipping addresses to a PO box, my home, all my relatives homes, my friends homes, my college box, my friends college boxes, etc, etc, etc and a free email address for every single one... but getting that many legit addresses is jus too much effort for most people to cheat to get in.

    Plus, if you fuck with them like giving copies to all your friends, they can find out who you are.

    Esperandi
  • What they don't tell you is that there will be a pre-selected 60-second period during the day. Anyone who signs up during that magic minute will automatically become a beta tester. The rest of the slots will be filled up mostly with chimpanzees and Aibos.

    The magic minute will be: 10:37 AM PST. Have fun /.ers!

  • From the release it looks like it will be Win95/98 or NT4.0 only. This is going to be a good thing. I can't wait.
  • Bah! Pretty pictures and stereo music! Today's gamers grow soft and reliant on their mice! Back in my day, we all played Angband [angband.org]. Er, wait, we still do.

    John
  • I read your post and I must admit I am very jealous. I would have given anything for this type Of open sourse envoroment when I was a teen ager, which seeams like it was a billion years ago.
    Being a first generation computer gamer I can honestly say that people aren't morons just because they game. It take years of ignorance, closed mindedness, and lazyness to make a moron.
    No one is born a moron, there just trained that way.
  • Perhaps I will quell your fears about the future by saying that I love video games, and I also know C/C++. Imagine that! (And to make things worse, yes, I own a Voodoo3 3500). While I support the FreeSoftware community, I also realize (as an amatuer game programmer) that games support 70, if not 80% of the driving force behind the technology growth that we enjoy today. And it could not be possible without monetary input from said parties to the gaming industry and computer manufacturers. FreeSoftware should be used for things like OSs and Email clients, but the entertainment industry should remain within the capital market where it's so firmly seated. (Now, a price drop would be nice... but if you build it, they will come). If you want a discussion about the violence in video games and "it's ability to corrupt the minds of the innocent," see your pastor, rabbi, bishop, whatever. I don't care to become wrapped up in it.

  • Oh Well. (Score:3)

    by jelwell ( 2152 ) on Friday March 17, 2000 @12:04PM (#1194849)
    There goes my only chance at getting into the Beta Test. I figured, as long as Slashdot doesn't find out I might get in. But with only a 1,000 slots, oh well. If you make it in instead of me - please don't email me just to flaunt it.
    Joseph Elwell.

  • Equal Chance? (Score:3)

    by Accipiter ( 8228 ) on Friday March 17, 2000 @11:32AM (#1194850)
    You have the same chance of getting into the beta no matter when you decide to sign up during the 24 hour period....

    ...But now since the story was submitted and posted on Slashdot, the actual CHANCES you will get picked have decreased by 800,000%.

    Good Luck!

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

  • (umm, you want LESS people to sign-up, duh!)

    For those of you that don't know, you must sign a NDA, remove Linux from your HD, and sign up for AOL to even *begin* to be considered for the beta. So it's not worth your while, move along please.

    --
    ba-bu-ba-ba-baaa, da-da-dum. Re-boot the ser-ver.
    ba-bu-ba-ba-baaa, da-da-dum. Re-boot the ser-ver.

  • Re:Video games are for idiots. (Score:3)

    by Wah ( 30840 ) on Friday March 17, 2000 @12:16PM (#1194852) Homepage Journal
    You mean there's people out there using computers who don't even know C!?!

    Quick! Get 'em off Linux, that way they'll never learn...

    Where exactly do you think the next generation of developers is going to come from? Where do you think real innovation is going to come from? How can a generation possibly learn the real value of the Free Software Movement if you want to demonize them for having a good time? How many of them still dual-boot because Linux gaming sucks?

    Thanks to those mindless teenagers I can *use* Linux, (since I have a voodoo3) I thought all you ivory tower folks used BSD (we certainly know you don't like new, fast hardware)

    And how exactly is market pressure forcing you to code, I thought it was just a fun thing to do. Like the occasional blast-fest.

    --
    ba-bu-ba-ba-baaa, da-da-dum. Re-boot the ser-ver.
    ba-bu-ba-ba-baaa, da-da-dum. Re-boot the ser-ver.

  • Re:Video games are for idiots. (Score:3)

    by ucblockhead ( 63650 ) on Friday March 17, 2000 @12:31PM (#1194853) Homepage Journal
    I am:
    • Obessessed by games like Half-life and Civilization.
    • 34 years old.
    • Have spent thirteen years developing professional C and C++ code.
    • Made my first contribution to a (non-game) open source project two weeks ago.

    Rearrange your stereotypes accordingly.

  • Your Name In Space, Or Somewhere Else... (Score:3)

    by GeekLife.com ( 84577 ) on Friday March 17, 2000 @11:36AM (#1194854) Homepage
    A copy of StarCraft ended up aboard the shuttle [blizzard.com], orbiting earth 153 times. Now everyone Blizzard thanked for being a beta tester in their manual has had their name in space.

    The same might happen with Diablo 2...Or (if StarCraft went to space), is there a more appropriate location to take a copy of Diablo 2 (think double hockey sticks)...

  • Re:Whats with the hype? (Score:3)

    by Esperandi ( 87863 ) on Friday March 17, 2000 @01:11PM (#1194855)
    Go back into Torment and replay it. What's that? Everything is the same and its boring?

    Replay value kicks a good games ass almost every single time.

    Esperandi
    Diablo's dungeons and all kinds of crap were randomly generated BTW in case you didn't know... personally I prefer real roguelikes, but Diablo was a good shot.
  • From the Diablo 2 beta signup page: "You must have a valid e-mail address" This sounds straight forward, but in reality this statement is a bit deceptive. When most websites with beta tests say this, what they really mean is that you must have a non-anonymous email account. This means that accounts on hotmail, yahoo, rocketmail etc. are not honored. I think for most of the people reading these comments, this will not be a problem. However, I know a lot of people who don't know how to configure their outlook express or whatever client their using to get the pop3 account their local ISP provides. Because of this lack of technical knowledge, many are forced to turn to services like hotmail. I know your all probably pretty tech savvy, but I think that you should still know this before you sign up for this beta, as well as beta tests in general. One solution to this is to get an email account online at a lesser known place. A great example of this is http://www.hushmail.com This will give a free email account with 128 bit encryption (hence the name). Well there are countless other places you can turn if you have this problem, but I just wanted to inform everyone so that you can all have the best chance of making it into the Diablo 2 beta!!!

  • Only North America (Score:4)

    by PhoboS ( 21600 ) on Friday March 17, 2000 @11:18AM (#1194857) Homepage

    You will have the same chance as everyone else, provided you live in the USA or Canada. The rest of the world will have to wait until the second phase beta.

  • Re:Video games are for idiots. (Score:4)

    by Nicholas Vining ( 104178 ) on Friday March 17, 2000 @12:02PM (#1194858)
    I'm going to have to take serious issue with this, even though it's blatant flamebait. As an adolescent, and a game developer, I see a wide variety of things wrong with your post... sounds like you're just trying to attract attention and get yourself moderated down. Here's my rebuttal.

    1) The attempt to popularize Free Software has not been an unmitigated disaster. The fact that we do have, as you put it, "ten million adolescent morons" is an indication that we have succeeded. The computer in today's society, at least in the home-desktop market, is rapidly moving towards being a tool for entertainment.

    If it wasn't for that "ten million adolescent morons" busy increasing Linux's desktop share up to 4.9% or whatever it is, Linux wouldn't have many of the new and wonderful features that I'm sure that you, as a man who seems to consider Linux totally unsuitable for anything besides hardcore server use and mathematical calculation, simply because not as many companies would have jumped on the band wagon.

    2) Not all adolescents are morons. I am sixteen years old, and do know C, as well as C++, Perl, Pascal and x86 ASM. I've worked on and with a wide variety of open source software, from SDL to Mesa, doing everything from ASM hacking to documentation. My best friend, 17, spends his weekends fixing GNOME. And we are both avid gamers, programming as well as playing.

    3) The developer pool has increased. Just look at Freshmeat these days... and look at all the people that I'm converting. Just a month ago, I ran into a guy at a bookstore (Chapters) happily reading a book on Graphics Programming with Visual Basic. We started chatting, and I asked him why the hell he was doing graphics programming in Visual Basic. Turns out he was actually writing a game in Excel, since that was all that he could afford. He was completely blown away when I said that if he just switched to Linux, he could enjoy free compilers, free GUIs, free debuggers, free everything. Another
    developer, just converted like that.

    4) Not just game obsessed morons play games. As a measure of this, I doubt very many adolescent morons would play "Eric's Ultimate Solitare", which recently got a Loki Software port.

    5) Linux video drivers are NOT bloated. Mesa and Utah-GLX are extremely tight. You want bloat, go look at DirectX.

    In conclusion, may you get your fingers caught in your server while replacing the case, and may they be severed at the joints so that you may never again post this sort of drivel to Slashdot.

    (sorry if I seem grumpy, I've had a bad day)

    Nicholas

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