Yes, there will be a great deal of players willing to get in on it, regardless if the game’s release date is later or early. As such, it would be better to take the time and have a substantial game which could keep your playerbase occupied for a great deal of time than to release the game early and rushed with content missing, which would definitely kill almost any chance at a retaining your playerbase.
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Sure ARPGs aren’t particularly fun to watch compared to some other genres - I’ve played over a 1000 hours of grim dawn, and 600 hours of torchlight 2, no telling how many hours of diablo 2. I’ve maybe spent like 10 hours watching any of those games.
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I am far less concerned with a shiny UI as I am with them having:
multiple end game options
reasonable class balance and inter-class balance
strong itemization that gives players options
actual PVP rather than some stripped down trash added 8 months later
If they release an actual finished, polished game rather than a game in beta like D3 was, they won’t have to spend 8 years trying fix all the broken things and can actually focus on adding content each patch. Spending all their development time trying to fix all the things they got wrong after release is exactly why they lost as many customers as they have.
D3V had far more than a few bugs on release, they botched so many key elements it is more indicative of a small indie company rather than a AAA developer with annual profits in the 100s of millions to a billion.
It has been 2 years and they still don’t even have a reskinned phone app in beta yet, pumping out a AAA title just to meet an arbitrary marketing deadline will probably be the nail in the coffin for the Diablo series. When companies listen to stockholders rather than their customers, they tend to lose their customers, then their stockholders, then their jobs. Blizz has lost a lot of credibility with many of their fans the last several years. I’ll wait until they get it right.
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Since he’s not getting, I’m now your new best friend ;).
I will be getting a few copies to give away. If I am still alive when it comes out. Some of the Diablo streamers also give things away. My last 2 Blizzcon V-tickets were given to me by WestMarch Workshop.
I want collectors edition tho, take my money blizzard for some limited edition transmog and skins!
That’s the difference between a properly launched game in early access (which would be D4) and D3. In the former scenario you add systems and content, you don’t fix things.
None of these are crucial for release and they know it. The most important things for launch are:
1] Stable game
2] Good replayability
3] Engaging multiplayer
These 3 guarantee your players would still be there when you launch the other systems and content. And for those like you that want a truly polished game the option to wait for it is always there. In fact an early access game gets polished quicker due to players’ feedback.
Reminds me when the simps were throwing his money at Belle Delphine and buying her bath water.
No intention to be offensive, just graphical enough for you to realize the size of the issue.
What Alexismad wrote is part of what creates good replayability. It doesn’t just happens automatically.
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There are many things that contribute for achieving good replayability. The more the better of course, but you can keep the players in your game with very simple systems too.
Look at Hades. I am at 100+ runs atm although the itemization, randomization and zones there are far less/simple than what was shown in the D4 demo. You don’t need enormous content for launch of aRPG game. You just need good combat serving for enough replayability, and that’s already in D4.
Give me good combat, stable online game and multiplayer fun, and I am sold for the launch. From there on add the rest Season by Season, and the players will keep coming. After 3-4 years the game would be fully polished, but in the meantime you’d have built a solid player base that otherwise would be far less on the delayed launch.
It’s very possible they put Diablo 4 for pre-ordering after Blizzconline to see how the numbers go (how many loyal fans they still have) and announce the exact release date after the public test is underway.
But is that game that you mentioned being constantly updated with content that was cut from the base game, just so it could had launched early? Because that’s pretty much what you’re suggesting Diablo 4 do, and doing so would bring the game greater harm than releasing the game later when it’s actually ready.
Also, hardly anyone’s asking for Diablo 4 to launch with enormous content available (although Blizzard themselves pretty much implied that they intend to do just that), they’re only asking for complete and well done content; which would be difficult to achieve if Blizzard rushes to release the game early.
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Just curious as to how you can exclude:
from:
?
What do you consider replay worthy as good?
More the clickity click?
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I am simply saying Hades has 1/10th of what D4 demo has and it had great success on launch. That’s the amazing side of aRPGs - you can achieve replayability with very little in the game. Remember how PoE launched?
Unique gameplay mechanics. Let me farm for item X allowing my build to feel different than what it was. I’d go and farm for it. Rinse and repeat. The aRPG way.
Fair enough. A stable co-op world boss session would suffice for launch. How long until a key feature for D4 gets tired though? Would it be a great idea to allow the focal point for what separates this iteration from its predecessors (20+ co-op in an open world) to carry the weight of an unfinished game on its back?
By the way,
falls under the category:
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We have much more than that right now in D4.
No. D3 itemization is very weak and you still have items enabling builds. What I mean is D4 (or any other aRPG) could launch with bad itemization using it for a few Seasons as long as an update to itemization is coming and the current itemization allows for unique gameplay mechanics (like in D3).
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Naw simps are the ones that pre order, im going to wait for reviews till blizzard gets my
Money
Bad itemization is literally what destroyed D3.
Itemization is a core integral part of game design.
If you launch with it - you’ll have to completely revamp it to fix it. Making such drastic changes post-launch is risky. Case in point. Age of Conan decided to completely revamp their jewel system (gems imbued in gear)
It completely killed the player base.
You don’t want to launch with weak itemization. It is one of those “unique gameplay mechanics” necessities you mentioned.
We can agree to disagree.
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As much as I agree with the rest of your post, I’d say this part isn’t quite correct… D3 has A LOT OF OTHER (potentially more impactful) things being bad, the two-three most important I can think of the top of my head (other than itemization)
- Attribute system
- Skill tree
- Dificulty scales only in Damage/HP
Yes, items in D3 are relatively bad (or at least got such with time), but what really makes D3 as bad as it is are bad attribute system, bad skill tree, and super bad monster scales
I’m willing to bet that even with the current items (with some exceptions) D3 would still be decent game if those 3 were done better
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We are in agreement. However, bad itemization at launch (and throughout) is what these other issues stem from. Essentially, if your itemization is terrible at launch, everything that ties into it will likewise also be terrible.
We agree that itemization is not the ONLY problem that plagued D3. I use past tense because RIP
Not riskier than delaying the game to polish it. When one evaluates risk he has to take the best option of what he’s presented with (although it may be a bad one per se, because there isn’t any good option at all). This is especially actual atm in real life.
I believe the D4 crew right now have mainly good choices in front of them regarding release and when to do it. Delaying the game to polish it however is a bad one. Delaying the game to only improve the current itemization might be worth it 3 months, but not more than that. Each Season D4 is not released means it loses potential player base and income with the risk of being overtaken by other games rising.
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