Software and computing in general is moving into the cloud. Eventually, consumers will run nothing but thin clients that pull video from the net; the actual computing will be done in data centers. From a technical standpoint, this will be awesome. We'll see huge improvements in efficiency, developers won't have to target a million different platforms, access devices will be dirt cheap, etc.

Of course, we aren't there yet. And while we transition, things will be wonky. People are upset at Blizzard because of the half-and-half kind of deal. D3's online component offers consumers no additional benefits. They still have their powerful computers, so why should they have to rely on Blizzard to run their game? It's like trying to move people onto public transport but still requiring them to drive their car to the bus stop every day.

Anyway. Our infrastructure WILL one day fully support a redundant, centralized computing grid backed up by ubiquitous connectivity. And we will be better off for it (again, from a technical standpoint. No telling how that will affect us from a political/privacy/corporate control point of view). Until we get there, however, there will be some significant growing pains. I guess what I'm trying to say is to gloat while you can, because the future will be awesome, and it will definitely be "cloud." However stupid that term may be.