Turn D2(R) into a subscription-based game for $10/month. Hire GMs, dismantle JSP with legal action (you can), implement an official trading platform.
Up the game to 2023…no 2024 standards. Male/female…ahem…BODY TYPE for every class, endgame, achievements, much needed balance changes, etc. Who am I to tell a video game company this kinda stuff?
Or just continue to let the game rot. You should have realized by now that the new Diablo games are trash, with very negative reviews and people who are still into Diablo are coming back to D2. But atm it’s just a choice between two turds, where one is a just little less nasty than the other.
D2R as great as the game is, is running on 20 year old tech. So the characters are a bit stiff, the network code is trash with rubber banding (D4 also has this) but it’s really bad with placement of doodads in D2R and resetting the character’s position.
D4 has the best character customization of them all but it still could be better. We need to see what the full picture of D4 will be once the whole story is wrapped up which will probably be in a couple of years.
So we need to see if they learned anything about D2. Specifically crafting. Specifically the itemization. Too much crap was inherited from D3 that really soured the mood on D4.
D4 needs a lot of work. No doubt. But at least it runs on new tech and at least has the aesthetic to carry the Diablo name unlike D3 and D2.
This is a game that falls in the “buy once play forever” category. If Blizzard were to suddenly switch it over to a subscription based game, there’d be a lot of ticked off players… You know, class-action suit type anger.
You can’t just expect that throwing money at something is going to solve the problems the game has… Look at WoW, it makes a ton of money, yet it still has problems. Do you see people in the forums saying raise the sub rate to fix the problems? Nope.
Even if they did make D2:R a sub game, how many changes do you think would be considered “OK” while still classifying D2:R as a “remaster” of the original? Some say a lot, some say none, and of course there’s everyone else in between… But who’s right? The safer bet is “None”. I sure as hell don’t want the Diablo 3/4 crew doing much more than they already have… (Just look at the Mosaic runeword)
It sounds to me like you’re looking for the “new” in something that is “old”. They already delivered the “new” in the form of the updated graphics… That’s mainly what we paid for.
Now, time to face the music… D2:R was the bait on the hook (that we paid for) designed to get the old retired-from-Diablo players back into the game in order to boost the interest/sales of Diablo 4. Now that Diablo 4 has made Blizzard a lot of bank, they don’t care about D2:R anymore, as its purpose has been fulfilled.
It’s a bit ridiculous to expect to pay once and get new content forever.
If you want to play legacy D2R that’s fine. It’s not going anywhere. A lot of people just play D2R offline.
This ask is for future content added to the game in the D2R principles of itemization, dungeon layouts, mob design, etc. Something we would actually pay for.
A Link to the Past is the best of the Zelda game series IMO.
Do I want the game to get new content? No, because I like the game how it is. New content would make it a different game experience. The addition of new content is always a gamble… It could make the game better, but it could also ruin it.
Retaining two modes would be the way to go if they did something like this. And that is one monstrous if. I don’t see it happening, simply because there isn’t enough interest in the game for it to be worth their effort.
While they are it, they can just shutdown G2G and Ebay as well…oh wait, they can’t shut down JSP.
Stop thinking just because a Site violates the ToS of the game, that the site can be shut down. It is simply not true.
Makes zero business sense. They could throw billions into d2r and immortal would still make more money in an hour for them. D2r fans can’t accept this is now a niche game, we are a small minority in the gaming community. I have always believed d2r would still get some minor updates from time to time, microsoft isn’t changing that…good luck trying to convince any boardroom that d2r needs more resources…
DI doesn’t print money over D4. In its first year DI made about half a billion dollars. D4 made more money though.
It makes sense that D2R isn’t in the running since it was a remaster of a 20 year old game. The question was always about which game best represented the Diablo franchise. Mobile is going to be different and I honestly don’t care about mobile. D4 should be like D2 though.
You can hold out for that but after d3 it was obvious blizz will never make anything like d2 ever again. D4 will never be like it and neither will d5 or beyond, they are all for a different crowd.
Well it’s just a whole different team on the other side of the country with different leadership and design principles.
They could never do D2 justice with Pardo and Wilson at the helm for D3. Wilson actually said “FU PvP guy” in a comment regarding a question about PvP in D3.
They were probably the most out of touch game developers on a project I’ve seen in my life. From the “painted world” of Bashiok to the FU PvP guy moment it was pretty clear. I got D3 with a 6-12 month sub on WoW. Played it for a few hundred hours before the rest of the south crew got their hands on it.
I’m not sure who should have gotten it however after Blizzard North was closed. They want to keep the IP going but they need people who understand D2 at a fundamental level. Whoever has been advising them for D4 has had it wrong.
Please, please, no. I get that people want to play sandbox type of games and total freedom of choice in today’s gaming landscape since so many people can’t handle too much of what they can’t control, especially their feelings, but can’t we just leave this one as it is? This is an ARPG, a “role playing game”. You should be ok with diving into a character that you can’t change their gender. You should feel empowered to get out of your shell and jump into a fantasy that’s not ideal for your mindset. Why can’t people actually role play?
As an example, I don’t like the idea of a male Amazon, that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. But I love shredding as a female Amazon, and feel that it gives feelings of empowerment towards women. There aren’t male characters in the game that can feel the way the Amazon executes! I like that, I like jumping into my mind and thinking that I’m a powerful female warrior specialized in something nobody else is. Same goes for any other character.
To be honest to the other point, Microsoft absolutely wants to make subscription services for just about everything, especially on the gaming side. You better believe that, and I know it for a fact. I wouldn’t be surprised, but they most likely wouldn’t do it to an existing IP like this. Who knows… I’m very on the fence about that one as a gamer though. I don’t like the idea of just dishing out money for every single game as a subscription just because it’s been done before and it incentivizes a carrot on a stick type of mentality. IMO, this is just enabling bad behavior.
Also just want to add before any flames come in, I don’t mind having a gender/body type option in modern games like D4, etc. This game wasn’t built like that, the current fantasy has existed for well over 2 decades, and I enjoy the original design and selections.