Yea sort of the whole “its gonna last longer” is what DB is going for.
Super agree Acti is amazing at selling bad games, tbh, any and all gigantic gaming co’s are bc brand name, and the saddest part is its from old devs mostly not all.
Like, “these devs years ago got us this brand that sells now, here, here’s some, misguided, one-sided deving, new release, under the impression we are involving all your choices, when who knows how much value they care or are read”. LIke a giant gaming co can make anything they want, as long as it “looks” decent, it will sell, bc as humans we all “Just have to” check it out. Ill buy D4 for exactly that reason, but for me, only that reason. To blizz, it doesnt matter why we buy a game, bc they’re already “there” and “brand”.
What if it did matter tho.
WHat if it did matter “is your game good 2 years later?”
Like, how back in the day, that was teh case, f/e idk, Diablo 1 era? WC1 era?
Like, the games had to be good more than 2 months or so, so the co can gain rep.
Its like the only thing stopping acti from selling something all over the place is if like unrealistically about everyone formed an opinion on the co based on it’s old devs leaving, and the direction it’s going, and decided it’s not worth buying a game “just to try it”. In fairness to blizz tho, compared to the brevik era, info-share is a gigantic mutated version of what it was in 00. Like, maaaaaasive difference. Video quality guides at your fingertips wherever you are as long as it has 4g or so.
Like, you can probably watch “how to beat diablo 2” videos in like, the middle of the ocean. And its not some text list of skills with paragraphs of explanations, its allllllll video, and usually by full time jobers who do good at their job, of explaining it well.
ITs so so so simple tho to hit the veteran market.
Cater to the gamer who doesnt want to be forced into using youtube to “win” at it.
ITs that simple.
F/e, diablo 2’s main play is playing a slot machine, and the results of that slot machine are NOT youtubable, you cannot type in youtube “how to get Andariel to drop more sojs for me this week”. All you can do is play more, youtube cannot up the odds once you have the ‘best’ build. Thats why d2 is so long term, as, collecting “all the items” takes a long time, no matter how much youtube you pump into it. That cannot be said for builds. Or where to hunt videos.
That’s exactly why diablo 3 isn’t long term, bc the item hunt is so tiny, and the build selection and i guess in-rift play, is so solved from youtube.
SO lesson 1 is do not make the game reward group play more than, and or especially way more than, solo play. Most vets play d2 solo, bc its not required to play group, which means they dont have to play meta. Like, Blizz doesnt even have to care about that anymore, bc they have the brand, they can make a game dominated by youtube videos showing meta comps, and it will sell big, yet isn’t the right fit.
And CoD, idk, shooters were never legit for me, just GE 64 and earlier games.
Once shooters went online, forget about it. I mean Halo 2 was pretty cool but that was my only dip into online shooter, take away the online, and still have multiplayer, thats when games get good bc you play with FREINDS not ONLINE friends you dont actually know well. Rant, my bad, agree w your post.
