Writing as somebody who played D2, LoD especially long hours in Other Multiplayer, TCP/IP, 192.168.0.1 or similar, I find it sad that a game from 2000-2001 for LoD, the ‘updated’ game lacks core features of old ones. I do have old CDs, they are functional, writes: Made in U.S.A. With them, I can play TCP/IP in my room with my sibling the way we used to long ago.(2001 onward)
I am a type of user, who never played on the old or new, whatever bnet, again, this as somebody who found the first game/s pretty/very good. That means, battle net is nothing, but an enforcement tool that tries to spy on the user, or if you will, a chain around your neck, for which you are expected to pay for and thank the seller for the chains. I mean, this is such a great example of colonial slaver mentality, which they (colonizer slaver class and their descendants) proclaim to fight against all day and night. I know this brings much pain to those guilty and it will produce rage in the guilty, How Dare you ! (Steal my TCP/IP / chidhood !!! 
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In a similar fashion it used to be the same with old LoD for example, which asked you to insert play disc, cinematic, or the music does not play without the CD. (I guess you can copy the music and place it somewhere to not cause stutters anyway) Yes, I presently do have LoD disc in the DVD drive (‘legacy feature’ )
I understand that there is trembling of the shareholder, the managers, who have to report on ever increasing profits until there is nothing left to profit from, because all there is left is wasteland.
While I suspect that greed taken to inhumane and antihuman extremes can produce this type of behavior, like say 15 years ago, the greedy oligarchs were mocked on the net as those who try to get to your wallet and placate you with illusions of how all is expensive. When you need ever-increasing profits, resources, money will always be scarce, to the point, that you will have to cut on what you eat, because everybody around you taken all you earn from all kinds of rent, rent being something like instead of 5 yuros or dollar haircut you will pay 500, while costs may have been 2. you pay if you are dumb enough, 495 extra for a service/physical product that costs 2. You are taking 495 from real economy into a sphere where it just stacks outside of real economy.
I have long seen those blabbering 15 years and more ago, how you have to support the devs. When the devs whatever they do is first off a money-making operation, nothing else and nothing more. Some especially murricans would think this is all right. If money making is ok, then you could argue that guy from B-rock team was just doing his professional job, at which he failed from a month ago. You know this supposedly loner weirdo guy who was not instructed, paid or whatever to do his pew pew job. But oligarchs if you have no memory, already told it it did not happen
And these types of people go on preaching morality
Blizzard or whatever was left of it, in 2021 was making this D2R. And there came Davey Joneses and Jack Sparrowses did their thing and this suddenly served as a justification to forcing not only forced online play if you wanted multiplayer.
Are american oligarchs so afraid of freedom, that they want to spy on you 24/7 ? Or are they afraid all their loot is going to disappear overnight ? I know, praying to the snake aint gonna help, when reality starts crushing the wicked fantasy.
I would ask, why are they so afraid. I get it that not featuring TCP IP is a good excuse due to those people who dont want to pay for the product, to use it freely. If you already had the tendency toward dictatorial controllership where you want to micromanage everything and everybody, of course, you will jsutify this reversion of cause and effect.
For example, when I first played D2, LoD, it was solely for SP. We didnt have multiple computers at home. Game was good in SP.
Yes, there are programs that today allow you to fake local physical network over the net. Yes, this in case you did the game properly with TCP IP, would allow easy free game for those people over the net or locally. Yes.
What kind of logic commands the decision to put chains over those who pay you ? Yes, I have never played even 1 mod for D2, not once, I do not do this to want to play mods.
I think there are I believe, unfounded beliefs, that those who play the game free for free are somehow taking your income you wish you had. And taking away all features, because they can be used in that ‘type’ of game from your paying customer, I think, you are punishing somebody who is not guilty of what you think is wrong doing. (not delivering you your projected fantasized monies) Do you need to punish anybody in the first place ? Say, they could be 10 years old, not getting any money for any game. If they grow up, if your game is good, such a person might want to pay you out of their good will even when they have the choice of not being forced to. If you cynically think that nobody would ever pay you this way, then you are projecting your own corporate greedy cynicism.
I would have thought that there exist people who do those things to try them out before paying. If you are greedy, you will want people to pay not knowing what they are buying and run away with money before they can ask to return both product and money.
I can survive fine with D2 LoD old graphics. New D2R game additions in many ways are awesome, sure, If I could update at least D2 LoD to equivalent of D2R in LoD, so that I could at least play TCP/IP, moving from 1.14D patch, so if possible, I could at least play MP with new features in the old game, if TCP/IP is not back in D2R, due to the great terror the Davey Joneses and Jack Sparrowses provide.
Because in the old game, you can do multiplayer with an offline character. D2R can take a character from old game that could do multiplayer outside bnet, and new game imposes a menu that does not even have Other Multiplayer.
Another issue I find with D2R is the racist agenda and its ideology, against by colonials who ‘protest too much’ (project guilt onto their victims)
I know there were long posts about this ‘manazon’ and the like, then Assassin also became Asiatic, Barbarian face seemed somewhat like of celtic stock, paladin looked somewhat like south european dunno, Italian, Spanish ? I do not know. I know you had this ideological crushing movement by your oligarchs who are much too spoilt and want to play God.
I do not approve the charactes ‘reimagination’, I dont simply remember, I know the difference between then and now and if you like, the difference between sane and insane. People trying to guilt trip me trying to break me, because of my freedom and non-subscription to obvious lying, they can go pound sand. They do not get to decide what truth and fact is.
D2R graphics, effects, do look like an improvement, but having to switch to the old game, essentially now an old unsupported game feels like being slapped in the face. I do know the reasons, or if you will, justifications for those decisions.
I think in this regard D3 and 4 are a huge step back, when your servers go down sometime, your customer will be left with nothing. Do you really value your customer, or do you think that he is to be abused and in an inferior position ? That he or she has to put up with everything you guys put out ? All I ask is to treat people in the same standard. Waving a flag here and there does not make you or your value higher.
Also, when you let people not be forced into the prison of bnet, you will not need to maintain that many servers, those do cost money.
To be honest, I would be for having physical copies, oh making them costs money.
I do still have the paper packaging of both D2 and LoD, with the ‘3D’ pressed paper, wher eyou can see the characters in their 3D models with which they were made in the old game and then ‘photographed’ into 2D sprites. D2 had Lut Gholein as you opened the front page of the packaging, while LoD has Harrogath. How cool was that ? I think it still is. Yes, some games came with damaged discs and was pretty much impossible to return, repair, just get a new one. Or you lent a game and when it came back it did not receive the same treatment as from you.
If you read this long, didnt tldr, did not explode from reading unpleasant things, which generally truth is like, it is seldomly pleasant, if you managed to see some logic to my argumentation, thanks for reading. Hopefully text was understandable, sort of rant-y, sometimes generalist, but I think it was appropriate to approach the issues and problems as they are. And no, I do not bother about 15 years olds who think Blizz can bdo no wrong and that I should be ordered by anybody what and how to think.