D2r, d3, d4 Season lengths — What's at stake

General Discussion
1

Hello everyone.
There is a pattern of behavior that turns d2R into the adjustment variable to optimize other games sales. I find the direction worrying.
Blizzard stated they sticked to 4 months. Why should D2R adjust to the d3 and other ladder schedules ? is d3 going to ajust to d2r’s 4 months schedule ?

D2R becoming an adjustment variable

  • The games are now used to lure people into seasons to boost other franchises sales. But it’s not d2r’s fault if d4 can’t keep players busy in other games long enough, for a new game like it was the case for d2.

  • D2R season3 has already been suddenly shortened to adapt to d4 release date and Season 4 length is again being the adjustment variable.

  • Already, TZ patch turned d2 into a short game with a cheesy lvl 99 making it less prestigious. The longer RPG grind aspect of d2 is harmed, becoming arcady for shorter sessions. This strategy turns games into copycats of Diablo franchises, where game identities become secondary.
    D2R is a remaster. The way level scaling is originally designed is a core mechanic and deserves some respect

  • As a collateral damage of this “standardization”, Hardcore mode is severely hit by the “1 server principle” with a 40s disconnection delay across all games. It does not fit d2’s game mechanics and the way it’s been played for 20 years with 8s.

  • To which extent will the potential next d2R patches be a way to boost the more expensive blizzard games ?

Fixing Cheats against population decline

I understand season length is bound to population decline, which is a domino effect of friends not connecting, others having reached goals too early, and people not playing the last weeks of the season.
But cheating is the problem that creates this overload of gear. And this bore and anger is the reason why the season is killed so early.

Shortening seasons every time people lose interest or new cheats are released can’t be an answer.
Instead, a patch targeting boting/mh would make gearing challenging again, and the grind longer. I invite Blizzard to CHANGE the way the server feeds the client player to build the map.

  • Simply explained : Do not send the client the entire map seed but only the closest tiles (within 5 yards range of the character for example), only for multiplayer. Use a new map seed for every zone.
  • Sure boters would focus on static maps like pindle but it make make them less efficient, more predictable and still prevent a large amount of non legitimate gear to be dropped.
  • Players would then not use map hack, or with very limited working range

Yes it would cost human resources, but this is how it should have been done in the first place. Tell your financial division if a bot requires 5 more times to check the map, they will buy 5 times more cd keys). In a better place, friends will call friends to buy the game again.

Anyway do you also see a pattern of behavior ?
I’ll be interested to read reactions, even if most players don’t use the forums as their season playground like some here.
Thanks for the read.

1 Like
2

i dont know about that
no game costing 70 creeps sounds expensive to me

Rod is the director of the franchise, not only d4
so its pretty obvious the franchise is going to follow one logic

about reset timing
i personally care very little about it
as long its not 6 months im fine with it

3

Blizzard advertised a perk as faster ladder resets. They never committed to a set in stone time frame to my knowledge, only that 4 months was the target. Scheduling conflicts always exist, due to holidays and other game release timings. Never has Blizzard actually planned a timeframe and given a hard set end date on a Diablo season before until recently with D4’s seasonal start cadence.

As for revolving around other Diablo games, it only makes sense to not have them all starting at once. From a server team perspective, it allows the Battle Net server operators time to tackle each season start, and from a player perspective, many Diablo fans play multiple Diablo games, and spacing them out helps those of us that want to play seasons in multiple titles under the Diablo franchise. Personally, I think 3 weeks before each reset would be perfect.

Fast leveling existed before TZs back during 1.09 with Cows. If players really cared for the long haul slow xp grind, people wouldn’t have developed rush culture and abused logic glitches for so long, finding ways around every time Blizzard patched them in the past. Blizzard slowed down the XP process in D4, they got massive backlash. This is a very localized minority of players that this is an issue for, in fact, there were many requests for a return to Cow XP like the good ole days, and TZ is probably a response to that sentiment in terms of the XP nerf to Cows and Diminishing Returns per level variance of player to monster. It also killed two birds with one stone by adding a new endgame activity to do (and I’m not a huge fan of TZs current implementation myself).

This is a mixture of the fact that D2 is old, D2R has not had interesting seasonal patches really since Season 1, Diablo 4, and there are more games vying for a players attention. RE4 Remake, FF16, BG 3, and now Starfield have been long awaited titles, as well as the hype that has come with them.

4

Why would it be worrying?

It’s clearly a goal, not a law. And PezRadar said back in April that they want to avoid overlap in the start of seasons between the games. What happened to ''resets every 4 months'' - #24 by PezRadar1

Is that really so hard to understand?

Bit weird that you wrote all this, it hasn’t even been 4 months yet.

I see someone just discovered cynicism.

You really can’t imagine Diablo fans who like 2 or 3 of the games, and might want to play in each of their seasons?

1 Like
5

Take some profit and put back into game to improve it …

Ban botters constantly and consistently, they already have the means that they’ve used in the past …

Take ladder back to 1 year, w/o botters everything would stabilize again and d2stores would go out of business…

Bring back chatrooms and basic chat in the lobby …

re-separate the realms … asia is killing everything … play for 4 months and in position 186,234 [lol] at level 92??? BOTS!!

8 pages of level 99’s on ladder in less than 2 months???

Can’t anyone else see how “crappy” this has gotten???

No camaraderie anymore, no team play anymore, just single play online, bots, d2stores, spambots ./… it’s not even d2 anymore, it’s bot-net!!!

1 Like
6

Thank you for your respectful comment.

To TanisGunthar
About fast leveling
While you have a fair point that 1.09 was giving lots of exp and fast 99, It was still an early period of d2 where exploits were still getting fixed. I even doubt the exp was intentional from the creators to fast level to 99. Synergies still did not exist nor Uber tristram (If I’m not mistaken).
By the way, ubers bring depth that increase playtime. It’s not content that makes the game shorter like the TZ update.

About you saying some people wants seasons synchronized across other games :
I understand that. But there are also much more people who back to d2 every 5 or even 10 years and who want to recognize home. (From someone who likes patches with new runewords and more depth).
D2R has already been flexible going down to 4 months, it’s already the adjustment variable. If the venerable D2R can adjust down, D3 and d4 could probably adjust to 4 months too then.
As if Granpa always had to adapt to the kids coming at home.
I may sound as if a little bit was a big deal ; but it’s like repeatedly moving the fence when people are not watching.

About Population decline
While it’s true that games lose population over the years, I was talking about seasonal erosion of population linked to the economy and cheats. Which if were fixed would have prevented or would retrieve a lot of population (yearly as well as seasonal)
→ And my suggested solution is precisely about fixing cheats about the way the servers transmits map data. The thread is precisely about suggesting a solution against the erosion of players, I wish readers would have reacted to my solution.

Why do I talk about fixing cheating ? Because population decline, people getting spoiled/bored and season length are linked altogether. And it would games a good place again without having to shrink season spans.

It is good you raise this issue here, but cheaters would still be able to connect to other regions, isn’t it ? Being able to connect to other regions is also what makes video games enjoyable. Instead, applying my solution would tackle cheating directly, making them less profitable and rampant.

I agree, but there are also reasons behind less camaraderie and the game getting lonely

  • Being able to mule on our own reduced relying on friends, on mule games. It was a place to socialize, relax, talk strategy. (Once again, it’s the same idea coming from “modern” games like d3 that Quality of life and not relying on others supposedly make games better. I often combat this idea)
  • In D2R people often miss reading comments, when we address them in the chat. It was not the case in D2/Lod Original, Due to how D2R text chat is designed among other infos, unfolds, size etc.
  • Because of auto invite/Auto party, people don’t salute others, because there’s no need to rely on others, there no need to care for others. (I don’t really criticize it because it can be unchecked, but it’s still an explanation)
  • As you said, no lobby channel anymore which is a shame. And I probably miss more

Banning botters is a good thing, yet the botter probably generates enough money to cover the cost of the game. Instead, I think tackling the way map generation is transmitted to game client is the way to go. But I really agree with your sentiment.

7

I think that D2 has a lot of respect, and snark. Respect as the base of the game is good, despite flaws that become more apparent with age. Snark for some of the player base that never moved on and remain fully stuck in the past (as well as the elitism that gets spawned, which happens in most games, especially online ones).

As for making the season shorter concerns over faster leveling, let’s take a realistic look at D2s endgame. It basically has none; eternally farm for better items to chase the power of your build. With 1.10 and the introduction of Ladder mode, Blizzard unknowingly began a precedent of Seasonal content in ARPGs. What was meant as an occasional resetting realm to bandaid fix the economy of dupes, hacks, and cheats spawned reasons to come back to a game with resets, with expectations of shorter resets (D2 originally had like a year+ for the first ladder).

Outside of the Leaderboard standing, the only true purpose in going beyond Level 87 (which I think is the highest level requirement for an item), is for PvP. TZs actually give a purpose for those higher levels, as it provides a source other than certain bosses for high level affixes. Most people quit during the season when the game ceases to be fun anymore (which is subjective based around the kind of player you are).

Making this process obtusely slow can be detrimental as well. While at it’s core, D2R is still a fairly old school styled game, we are not in the era of mainstream appeal for these kinds of things anymore, especially in an era where aRPGs and online gaming in general is a dime a dozen. Also, whether folks like it or not, content is highly public with streamers and content creators, and as DarkJedi has pointed out many times, it is not healthy to have people pushing ladder rankings and not sleeping for the amount of time, dedication and effort that Season 1 required, multiple times a year (I remember players not taking care of themselves during D3 launch, and dying being in the news).

At the end of the day, it isn’t getting to level 99 that keeps most people playing the game (I don’t remember even hitting 99 back in 1.09, I think 95-97 might have been as far as I made it, and my highest in D2R is a 93 Zealer and Bowazon).

As for cheaters, that is mostly the fault of the game’s design. Open trade, “competitive loot” and extremely rare drops breeds this. It’s a losing battle to fight it, so Blizzard has mostly automated the process of bans. If they put protections in game to stop this (ie trade limitations), folks will scream bloody murder, especially if they don’t replace it with a market board system.

When the meta for farming loot online is for each player to farm their own section of the map and not synergize together, what do you expect. There is no content in D2 that requires another player, no Raids, major boss mechanics, no real quests that require multiple people to perform a task at once, etc.