Everyone is trying to solicit Blizzard to add new features to Diablo 2. This is understandable, of course.
But this particular project is supposed to simply be a better way to play Diablo II as it exists. This means more interesting graphics, a more stable Battle.net, and not much else.
I’ve read some people criticizing players for only being interested in graphics updates - why? Graphics are incredibly important, especially coming from sprites. I love Diablo II, but its graphics are a bit dated for me now. The new graphics look absolutely excellent, and they’ve made me so excited to dive in to the world again. The graphics are absolutely a valid reason alone to remaster the game. In fact, that’s kind of the entire point, people…
But changing important systems changes the dynamics which made Diablo II so fun in the first place. They would change D2R into something other than D2 with excellent graphics and stability upgrades.
Personal loot:
There have been many more technical concerns raised over this, but I want to focus now on the social element of the loot system. I think this social element is a very powerful, though largely unseen, reason for the fun (and success) of D2.
The Diablo 2 world is gritty and grim, and the loot system reflects it very well. There is an edge of competition and hostility in the world itself. The loot system reflects this danger by guaranteeing nothing for anyone. All players are fighting through and surviving in this challenging world, and this shared experience engenders empathy between players. We can automatically bond, at least a little, because we’re all going through the same thing together.
Beautiful things have the potential to come out of this extra dangerous environment, too – communication, cooperation, trust. It is precisely out of this tense environment such “exalted” qualities as these develop naturally, and with much satisfaction.
Some suggest players can coexist choosing either personal or shared loot either per their character or per each game rule setting. Even this is enough to crack a fissure in the player community – we can no longer empathize with each other automatically because we do not know if the other warrior in the game has been surviving in the same harsh world - if they are being spared a deep element of this world’s challenge, which is the competition and need for cooperation inherent in acquiring equipment, we really have very little shared experience between us. And if we have little shared experience, we are much less inclined to be friendly to them, as we correctly assume they can’t really understand what we’ve been through.
This may sound dramatic, but it’s a part of the very sulfurous air we breathe in the world of Sanctuary. It’s a fundamental energy ever-present in the lobbies. It’s a feeling of some intrinsic comradery that appears whenever a new player joins our game.
It is not enough to say “some can choose personal, some can choose shared, why not let people decide their own?” If this decision is split, the community will be very deeply fractured in a way that may not even be obvious at first.
Comparison is another important element of D2’s social atmosphere. Character comparison is all-but negated if some acquire items personally and some acquire them through competition and communication/cooperation.
I find it totally understandable and completely OK if players don’t like this element of comparison. Of course, as we grow up we ideally try to rid ourselves of such negative tendencies. But this is the experience of Diablo II. We certainly do not need to practice altruism and self-negation in a resurrection of a 20-year-old beloved demon-filled computer game.
Thankfully, scores of options abound for those who’d prefer other gameplay modes closer to those shaped by personal loot and like systems. Diablo IV may very likely go that route, even. This is simply not Diablo II, however.
Please, please, please allow us to replay and re-enjoy the unique, very special gameplay experience of Diablo II with the awesome graphics you’ve graciously developed for us and your extremely minor, superficial alterations.
I am so incredibly grateful to be able to enjoy Diablo II again later this year and relive, in a very visually-appealing world, the unique D2 game experience. Changing it would not be that experience, however.
Also, references to David Brevik here are really non sequiturs, as his opinion of what he’d like in Diablo II is not at all what it has been. The entire point of D2R is to allow us to play Diablo II, which is what the game has been.
Please do not bring up “shared stash and autogold are changes, therefore we can have more changes” – shared stash has been explained ad nauseum, and changes nothing. Autogold too changes nothing about the gameplay - there has never been a competition for who can click on the gold the fastest, and gold has never been an issue.
Charm inventory:
This would inflate the power potential for players who otherwise wouldn’t be running with a full inventory of charms. This is literally an issue only for the highest level farmers. What about how this would influence the lower levelers? Suddenly, low levels are keeping all the charms instead of actually evaluating whether or not to keep them, which is a balance the proponents of the charm inventory seem to think doesn’t exist.
Since the issue only really comes up with high level farmers feeling they need to max out on charms, I could be OK with a charm inventory opening up only for level 92 or even higher, or something. It’d create a huge power jump over one level, which sucks. It’d have to be disabled for PvP, which is extra coding. But I think it’d be lame for the lower levelers to get a general power boost due to all their extra charms. And yeah people, the game experience is not just about high level farming, haha.
Stackable potions/gems:
Again, I think this really contributes a ton to the danger of the game world. Not only is it a little more realistic for a character to be carrying fewer of these things, the system reflects the challenge and fear of the dark world overrun by evil.
Sorry this is so long, but at least it’s not one tower!
In conclusion, please reflect on the point of this enterprise to begin with –
it is to rejuvenate Diablo II so we can really have a blast out of playing it again. It could have been named Diablo II: Rejuvenated =P
Changing systems inherent in Diablo II’s design would prevent us from playing Diablo II again.
There are many other options to play games with those other types of systems - so please, please, please allow us to play this old, fun, incredibly unique experience we can’t find anywhere else.
