Ah, beautiful post, Olbat.
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It’s funny because half the time I go on there I see posts like ‘Found my first ever Shako’, or ‘Found my first ever high rune’, like this is definitely not the place to be surveying.
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Amazingly well said.
I couldn’t create a better analogy.
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Should also be recognized that this post likely had far more responses from r/diablo than r/diablo2. Not saying this is bad or the wrong market but you’re always going to get different results from different audiences.
Also the questions are very tailored, but I’m sure if they want to actually use this post for feedback they can account for biases.
Personally I agree with pretty much all of these responses but timeline wise I still want a pure vanilla experience first, a few seasons in these would be great.
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Agreed. I really think the message of “at minimum, leave it alone at the start”, needs to be amplified.
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Why are there so many people who want QoL changes later on but not at the start?
The game has been in basically the same state for ~10 years, so if you want to experience the current D2 to get a feeling for what QoL changes you might want, then you can log in and play right now 
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I see your point and I’m not against changes if they’re done right with community buy-in. The devs seem to have a pretty thoughtful approach so far at least. For example, with new D2 players and no changes, players might have gone through this sequence:
Start a new char, get all excited getting gear, gems and runes etc and then they come screaming to the forums that they have no more room to put their stuff and they just barely started playing.
Someone calmly tells them to just mule some chars and off they go.
Then they come screaming back saying they’re temp-banned after creating and joining some games - and they don’t know why.
Someone links them the temp ban page and what to avoid - off they go.
And this kind of thing goes on.
So the devs knew issues like that were coming and would flood customer service etc. They’ve made smart decisions to solve those problems - shared and expanded stash, modern Bnet, other improvements etc.
Why would they want customer service flooded? Or new players to throw up their hands and quit? They want the game to succeed. And actually, most players don’t post on forums - it’s a small percentage that post so many might just stop playing without asking anything. I completely agree that some changes are needed pre-launch.
But beyond those kinds of things like above, I see 2 remaining big problems: botting and 3rd-party RMT.
Sophisticated bots can mimic human kbd/m inputs very closely with randomized timing - detection of looking for quick repetition in-game, timings too fast for humans, quick game creations or joins etc just don’t work anymore. Bots can appear very human-like w/ inputs. And with AHK in widespread use, most players will have some level of automation and macros. It will be interesting to see what this new team does with all this.
D4’s approach seems to be that top-tier items are BoA whereas common items and mats will be non-BoA. This approach makes 3rd party RMT and bots less of an issue because there’s not as much incentive - they can’t make nearly as much money on common items. I do not suggest this for D2 - D2 should be wide open for trade imo - but we just have to deal with ridiculous nonsense of heavy botting and 3rd party RMT.
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Except you could because in this analogy it is assuming that it is only tourist who want changes
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I say this as someone who generally supports most of the more reserved QOL changes - i even made a video in support of a charms-only inventory.
I would caution ANY Use of this polling data as the polling data only incorporates people from the blizzard forum/diablo reddit forums which attract very niche players who tend to prefer mods or self-found. Again, they are hardly the majority. They were hardly the majority when diablo 3 dropped but they got exactly what they wanted in terms of itemization when the game dropped - the common complaint was that everyone used shako/enigma and the gear wasn’t different enough. that is how you got jay wilson who ‘listened to the community’ and made items basically unique in every respect where no item had the same stats and uniques only had one ‘unique’ stat in common. It took ROS to “fix” the itemization of the game but that abandoned diablo 2 style system in favour of WoW-lite. Again, pretty much an abysmal failure and i highly recommend being CAUTIOUS as to what you change. Jay Wilson was rudderless because he abandoned the original formula of Diablo 2 in itemization but other things. Do NOT become ruddlerless just because some survey says X people would like it. Its a drop the bucket when you consider how many people BOUGHT diablo 3 and gave an overwhelmingly negative response to it for so many, but valid, reasons.
This survey did not try to consult one of the largest if not the largest remaining reservoir/community of diablo players, d2jsp. I already tried to float a charms-only inventory there and it was overwhelmingly given a negative response. I can gaurantee MANY of the changes surveyed would fair overwhelmingly poorly there. Many people don’t post on the diablo/blizzard forums who actively play this game - in fact and its in part because there isn’t much incentive to outside of trying to gain an audience with blizzard. Its been that way for a long time as someone who actively posted/traded on the Diablo 2 forums instead of d2jsp - d2jsp just remained dominant because it offered far more to everyone as a matter of trading, community, guides, duels, and what have you.
AGAIN, do not take what these people say as gospel. You’ve done it before and you got off on the wrong foot for diablo 3. I say this as someone who SUPPORTs most of the QOL changes - this survey is not representative and is skewed to a demographic who has a tendency to prefer changes/tend to be “noobs” but haven’t realized it.
Of course, the poll has sampling bias. I suspect that Blizzard’s survey will yield qualitatively similar results. Blizzard has stated that they will offer an authentic D2 experience in D2R. They also demonstrated that there will be selectable options that do not faithfully mirror the original game. I suspect that this will continue.
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I know. But the sampling bias is pretty large when you think about it and a lot of these people will drum up the survey to get what they want. Its happened with diablo 3 and that game still remains insanely mediocre and has nothing in common with Diablo 1 or 2 outside of the name and the main antogonists. Just because these communities are ‘large’ by today’s standards does not mean they’re large by diablo 2 community standards 5 or 10 years ago. Those people have not forgotten this game. Again, “big - but not so big fish by standards 5-10 years ago” in a small pond that continues to dwindle.
And i want them to continue along that path - even as someone who wants some of those changes in the survey. I don’t think they need to feel pressured as the diablo 3 team thought they were and to change course from their overriding philosophy for the remaster. I’d rather have it not go as far they could than go too far and change core gameplay just because a bunch of people with niche tastes and too much time post on the last few places that diablo players frequent(not dead game, but its hardly representative of all the people who are going to come back).
Separate, selectable options. Win-win.
I am for optional changes. I am also 100% certain that a version of D2 will exist in D2R that closel mimics the original game.
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I’m not sure that some of these are amenable to seperate selectable options. Personal loot? Increase in inventory space which allows more charms? Not possible.
These options could be set at either character creation (e.g. hardcore versus softcore) or at the game level (e.g. in D3: adventure mode, campaign modem, greater rift, regular rift, bounty, and key warden).
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They change the way the game interacts with other players.
its not possible to have both.
Non-personal loot has a social function. Allowing you to opt out of it messes with a great deal.
Additional inventory space changes game balance.
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Hardcore and softcore exist. Season and non-season exist. It certainly is possible for D2R to have both.
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Personal loot isn’t even necessary.
Anyone who is bothered by FFA loot can play in loot sharing groups.
I have done it and it works perfectly fine.
A charm inventory is different from increased inventory space though.
The space for active charms is still the same 4x10 limit as it is now.
The only difference would be, that the silly workaround with the cube is gone and you actually have space to play inventory tetris again - just like in D2 classic.
No one (at least as far as I am aware) is asking for something like a 8x10 inventory space that can be filled with active charms.
I mean, by all means go ahead and make a game-mode for like no more than 4000 people in terms of population but if that’s the case spend more time on other ‘communities’ like low level dueling etc. There is more appeal for that than self found etc. Oh wait, its called singleplayer?
You can defeat inventory tetris by S/Eing with the item you want from the run. If i understand you right then yes - people are asking for a seperate charms inventory since you can negate inventory tetris entirely just by save and exiting with an item that you don’t have space for, rejoin and have it identified in 10 seconds or less.
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Umm, what survey? I didn’t get anything from Blizzard…