Blizzard relaxes Diablo III new player gameplay restrictions

Last week we reported on a growing number of complaints from new players of Diablo III. It seemed many of them were forced to play under some pretty severe restrictions for the first 3 days after purchase.
The issue turned out to be payment processing and clearance, which can take up to 72 hours to complete. During that period Blizzard puts in place restrictions including blocking access to either auction house, not allowing trade or drop items, and no chatting in public game channels. But it’s a couple of other restrictions that were really upsetting players. Blizzard had decided to limit progress so you can’t go past Act I and your level is capped at 13.
Blizzard said those last two restrictions were unintended, and it has now removed them. New players should be able to progress without caps as long as they have the latest patch installed. All the other restrictions remain in place until your payment has cleared. If you’re lucky that may just mean a few hours before the full experience unlocks.
So if you were thinking of picking up a digital copy of the game today to play over the weekend, you should hopefully be able to patch and play to your heart’s content.
Just like gamers, I’m sure Blizzard’s Diablo III team is getting frustrated with all the complaints and patches they are having to issue. But it’s a situation they got themselves into by choosing to require an Internet connection to play. And that’s a decision unlikely to change for future game releases, so gamers just need to hope Blizzard get it right from day one next time.