All those years playing D2 i dont think i ever got a single player character to higher then level 20.
It was essentially an always online game as has been stated. D3 will be the same for me.
I dont think its the same as a purely single player game having to be online all the time. As those are the type of games i would play on the laptop when im away from home. D3 wont be.
Just because you didn't want to play Diablo offline doesn't mean nobody else did. I had absolutely zero interest in D2 online. Regular non-ladder was full of hackers and ladder took a while before it got hacked but since you couldn't play the character offline that was useless to me. They aren't the only reasons but the end result is the same.
This is no different to any other retarded 'always online' system. And you can almost guarantee an offline version will be pirated at some point.