Getting a character from the realm

[JustAGuy]

It's knid of a trophy thing. I spent so much time on my character, and I'd really just like to have a copy locally that I could bust out any ol' time I want. That would be a lot easier if say I quit Diablo II, then 6 months later decide to come back. I wouldn't have to actually remember to keep logging in every 90 days. I'd rather archive my work than have to keep prodding a character on some remote server to a game I might not play again for months (if at all). But if I did come back, it would be nice to have my old gear. When I quit last time, I made the mistake of not saving at least some of my characters (I was really proud of my Paladins) and therefore lost a very valuable item that can't be generated in-game anymore (the class crafted paladin ring).

I played on the realm for the cheat-free environment (relatively), and when I really got into it, I only played private games. So, playing on the realm became moot, since I was playing with close friends and we're not cheaters.

So, instead of worrying about uncontrollable lag (say like on a friday night), games crashing, PKers, or other things like that, if I just play TCP/IP, then we keep things non-battle.net dependant. That, and I can actually use the ATMA program and not have to manage 50 billion mules.

That's another thing; logging in every 90 days or so could be a real chore considering the number of accounts I have (not that many, but still a considerable amout: 9).