VV: We want to preserve the authentic experience of D2, even if the majority of the playerbase wants this, we’ll be keeping manual combat tetris and tedious stash rune organizing.
Also VV: We don’t actually want to preserve the authentic experience of D2, therefore we’re going to fundamentally change the ladder and non-ladder player dynamic and diminish the ladder experience.
For the love of Mike Morhaime! Why is this happening?
Even the Blizzard WoW team had the sense to at least sometimes listen to their most hardcore players over the casual majority on some key issues. Because one crop of players might actually be more informed for how a change would affect the game, but also because it’s just simply good business to consider all sides of your playerbase rather than alienating a crop of your dedicated fans.
Non-ladder players never needed to play ladder in order to get ladder rewards, and nothing ever prevented Nolads from playing ladder. So what’s the problem?
I love ladder. This change does not prevent me from playing ladder; however, this change does effectively kill ladder for me, because it does prevent me from feeling good about playing something I otherwise enjoy. When am I ever going to find the time to enjoy it when I know it’ll be objectively better for me to keep on farming on my ever-powerful NL character?
This is kind of like how I might enjoy playing D2R, but knowing it’s an ActiBlizzard product, I won’t be able to feel good about enjoying it. See how that works? No offense to the devs, I know you’re trying really hard <3
This change is polarizing and toxic to the community. Ladder players who don’t care about non-ladder will continue to play ladder. Non-ladder players who don’t care about ladder will continue to play non-ladder. But what about the rest of us who do care? I love playing both and now I won’t be able to enjoy playing both. Even if we’re the minority on this issue, we’re still a significant fraction of the playerbase; our opinion matters too.
It’s tempting to just always go with what the “majority wants,” but when making significant changes, it’s important to also consider what your core dedicated players want and how this will affect everyone. This is such a huge change. It’s good for SP; but it baffles me when you’ve put so much care to not tread on minor issues, to then not consider how this would affect the online community, player dynamic, and overall experience. Is this really faithful to the game and to all of the community that has continued to love it for all this time?
No, this change is not faithful to the D2 experience, it was added to the game in the first place with good reason, just as runewords were. All you’re doing is polarizing the playerbase, harming the longevity of the economy, and ruining the ladder experience for many.
You’re just going to have to decide: What is this game supposed to be? A remaster? A remake? A reboot? An expansion? A sequel? What is it? Maybe the game should be delayed so there’s more time to focus on this question, because it seems to me you’re trying to decide between players who want the faithful OG experience and those who want a significantly new experience. Which audience is this product intended for? I’m honestly very confused about it.
Thank you for taking the time to read the concerns from a player who does not disregard the overall experience of the game in order to hyper-focus on any one aspect of the game-- a player who enjoys each and every aspect of D2. Please be considerate of others when thinking about what you “want” and how it may affect others. This is a game that has always been able to be enjoyed by both hardcore and casual players; let’s try to not change that. I love you all. Thank you.
