I think partly why Diablo 3 works online, whereas Diablo 4 doesn’t, is that there are leaderboards. Multiplayer games are great for co-op, but that can be done offline with couch co-op. But what really can’t be done is competitive games.
But not just Greater Rift leaderboards, but Conquests as well, which delve into gameplay that’s less grindy. Conquests typically involve speed rather than the ability to grind out and doing them with as little as possible. That’s where the Gauntlet fails. Because while it’s about how fast you can do it, you still need to grind your way to get the gear.
And this is where Diablo 4 has a problem, because the leveling also takes too long. You add conquests to Diablo 4, and all you’ll see are streamers lead them, because most people can’t play 6+ hours on end (at which point, all the conquests will be complete).
This is one of the big fails with Diablo 3 & 4 is that the leveling process is really nothing more than a forced tutorial, and almost nobody likes to play tutorials. Because the bottom line is, the leveling process doesn’t really teach you how to play the game, and it’s just something everyone wants to get through as quickly as possible. Compare that to Diablo 1 & 2, where the leveling was the game. By adding an end game, they killed the game in a way. Diablo 3 eventually made the leveling a trivial nuisance, whereas it’s a major roadblock with 4 at the moment.
s about it though. Literally the example you gave, did he HAVE to say it like that? Maybe he thought it was edgy, maybe he didn’t care either way, maybe he DID want to be condescending, maybe it’s Maybelieve, maybe anything. The bottom line, though? He said what he said, and it made him sound like a total jerk.