At Blizzcon, they said the remaster would be “based” off of current live. Didn’t say it would be an exact copy, though mostly the same. Just moving the game off of old servers to modern bnet is a change in functionality, albeit a bit more subtle of one than in your face, but a change regardless.
Using your semantics here, each major update patch would be a remake of Diablo 2, and on console, would have necessitated separate releases. So basically, remastering 1.14d would be remastering a remake as opposed to the original game (silly, I know). Adding shared stash, rebalancing rewards (ladder runewords, ~IF~ ploot gets added, etc) auto gold pickup, etc is not remaking the game. It is updating the game to more modern standards in a remaster, even if not completely modernizing them (instanced loot).
Again, at the end of the day, no matter what gets updated, the game is still a remaster, with the same code and mechanics driving the game underneath. The structure of the game itself has not been altered, nor has the storyline been changed or told in a different way, classes and skills have not been cut from the original, content has not been cut (even if the access of content has been altered to more game modes, or bug fixes change how certain content was tackled), etc.
While I’ve enjoyed this argument more than I figured I would (better than the raging hormones continuing to fight about character models or ploot), those are my final thoughts on it. I’m hoping the devs stay true to their word about updating the game based on the feedback (after launch), and that the data that they have been collecting since reveal, has not just been a waste of time as some people are hoping for.
With all due respect, you’re insane if you’re trying to load this as a point against remasters.
You can think whatever you like. A game’s original development cycle is not the same as a remaster/remake. D2R is not advertised to be an expansion for D2, it’s not a patch update, it’s been promised to be a remaster of the current version of the game.
Then by your logic, any and all mods are only remasters, not remakes.
Much of this is often true for remakes as well.
For example, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D are considered remakes, not remasters.
Well they are already failing at that.
I highly encourage you to check out my other thread where I list a bunch of quotes from interviews. They are either lying or contradicting with their own philosophy.
If they revert some of the significant and detrimental changes such as the ladder change, then I don’t care if people want to consider D2R a remaster or a remake. But if they continue with these changes, then there is no reasonable debate for saying “it’s a remaster, not a remake.”
Hmm…what do ya know, I got one more response left in me, then I’m done, as this conversation is no longer a philosophical debate on what constitutes a remaster vs remake and the degree of being faithful, but feeding a salty troll.
Moving the game to modern bnet, meant that there would be more functionality to how players can socialize in the game. No longer constrained to secrecy on what game we are actively playing, no longer constrained to the limits of the terrible friends list implementation of old bnet, but now with an expanded way to communicate with friends on any modern bnet game. It seems people can join into games directly through friend’s list. While not a major gameplay change, it is a subtle one, as well as the data collection capabilities of modern bnet, which we just witnessed through the beta emails.
Technically, you might be right, depends on the mod though. Some use the engine to actually create a new game, but basic updates and additions such as what PD2 does, could be considered a remaster in an unorthodox and unofficial manner. But these are usually about actually updating the game and less about about remastering them. I would not consider Plugy a remaster for instance, but PD2 allowing for widescreen resolution with new glider filters, again, could be, in a round about way.
But usually, the difference is pretty stark. Take for instance, Wild Arms: Alter Code F, which is a PS2 remake of Wild Arms for the PS1. The remake not only changed the graphics and remixed the sound, it changed most gameplay mechanics, altered the story, altered the dungeons, altered progression, added new party members, remixed skills to rebalance for the new party members, etc. It was a completely different game because it was structured to be different as a remake. Just like FFVII remake is a completely different structure both in mechanics and storytelling.
Love the cut-off cherry pick of my statement.
And here is the heart of the matter, salty over the ungating. The original reasoning behind the ladder mode is no longer applicable to D2R, as there has been no established economy to retain duped and cheated items, which was the reason for implementing it; the content was just to coax players away from the dupes/cheats: Straight from the patch notes -
Introduced a new Ladder System for those who prefer to play free from any characters who may have participated in past item duping or hacking. To use this new feature, a player places a check in the Ladder box upon character creation - in the same way that Expansion and Hardcore selection is done. Periodically, the Ladder may be reset, adding the old Ladder characters to the regular population - who, of course, cannot play games with the new season’s Ladder characters. Thus, every season each new Ladder character truly starts from scratch, as no ‘twinking’ is possible from older characters.
It’s not a gameplay change at all. None of these change the gameplay.
Then it is, by definition, not a remaster; by your very own words.
On the contrary, if you review the descriptions I supplied, it is in line with everything I said:
As you can see, there is consistency-- especially in the matter of remaster vs remake.
It was irrelevant anyway. lol
There was never any gating. No one was prevented from trading or participating in ladder.
Now it’s time for your mind to be blown.
You say the original reasoning for adding ladder is no longer applicable to D2R. Therefore, logically, ladder should be removed from D2R.
Of course, the original intent isn’t always relevant when new purpose/joy is found, such as the many products that were enjoyed for reasons beyond their original intent: Dominoes, Slinky, Frisbie, Play-Doh; etc, etc
However, you refer specifically to the reason for why ladder was implemented-- not incentive ladder rewards.
Adding ladders to the game was good design, that’s why we all want to keep it despite lacking the original reason for their implementation.
Adding ladder items perfected the design, because ladder is not truly separate from non-ladder-- their economies are connected, therefore they needed to complete the design. Now there was compensation for those who want to enjoy both ladder and non-ladder, where both options are competitive; neither option being objectively better than the other. The design was perfect. The ladder change announced for D2R breaks that design.
If it’s unclear to you why the ladder change is a step backwards, I highly encourage you to read my other threads/posts. I go into great detail to list the ramifications (of which there are around 9 that I’m aware).