When a new tweet from the response of a major game developer stated that no new features will be added to D2R at launch, I knew that trying to advocate for an optional system like personal loot is now a lost caused due to Blizzard’s history of promising features that they never ended up adding post-launch (like in their other games such as WoW). Blizzard is known to bank on pre-orders to determine success and when the developer states that a post with thousands of votes on Reddit didn’t even matter about a core feature on consoles like D2R, I knew that advocating for a personal loot option for D2R is now a lost cause. If these non-features in D2R matter to you, then the only way you are now going to be able to get Blizzard to listen is by voting with your wallet by refunding your pre-order and stating why in the feedback portion of your refund.
Here is my two weekend full beta experience that I played for 40+ hours to see if I wanted to keep this game or not, that is regarding the most important feature to me, the loot system in public multiplayer games:
During my beta gameplay, I was only able to pick up around >10% of any good drops from playing. Trying to grab loot from my kills by other players when I played range classes felt like a full time job due to the distance I was from the loot between the melee player and myself. I feel, one of the most toxic systems in D2R is the loot system, and unfortunately the bots, the players who cheat using the pickit scripts and purists who don’t want any changes to their game is going to ruin the multiplayer experience for the majority of the games players, who also make up for the biggest part of Blizzard’s revenue. Blizzard if the only thing that needs to be added as an option that would simply prevent the cheaters (bots and players using the pickit scripts) from stealing loot in public multiplayer games from legitimate players is an option for personal loot, then why wouldn’t you add it and finally fix this ongoing issue in D2 for over the last decade+ to make public multiplayer games enjoyable so players can play with others and make new friends without worrying about cheaters stealing loot? I know that people hate when others bring up D3, but one of the main reason why they added personal loot was to fix these cheaters from stealing other players loot, and it worked.
When I tried using a controller, the functionality made me lose every time since I had to position my character close enough to an item in order for it to be highlighted so I could pick it up. It was totally useless since there are multiple items bunched up close together, so it was extremely difficult trying to position myself close to the item I wanted to loot, by the time I had done that a player with a simple mouse click was already able to take the loot, and once the bots and pickit scripts are added into D2R post-launch it will be impossible. People who play with controllers (i.e. those with disabilities) are going to be forced to buy a console if they want a fair advantage on picking up loot, since it’s impossible to keep up with mouse and keyboard players on PC or those using cheats and now they will be forced to buy an inferior product since it was announced that lobbies won’t be added to consoles at launch, and wasn’t confirmed to be after post-launch.
I can see this being the biggest deterrent from casuals (the biggest majority of your customers) from buying the game since lobbies in D2 was a key aspect of the game that was used for important and social aspects of the game like trading and doing cow lvl runs. Additionally, by not adding in an option to make personal loot games, players will now be spending more time fighting over loot by seeing who can get their mouse to click fastest than the contribution and killing of the mobs and bosses in the game or those who just want to sit back and relax in multiplayer and focus on killing enemies while making friends instead of playing mouse clicking simulator 9000. By Blizzard allowing toxic systems in the game, this only further promotes players being toxic to abuse these features like those who will be stealing loot from other players with the pickit script (Google it, it’s the first link on the search results with the source code and program available to download and use off GitHub) Playing range classes/builds and playing with a controller on PC was one of the most toxic looting experience that I have ever experienced and will only get worse post-launch when valuable loot will be dropping. Now, I can see why the original developer of D2 wanted to have a personal loot system. FFA is pulling the community apart, rather than making it a better atmosphere for team work in multiplayer. The only thing that is stopping this game from being a good multiplayer experience when farming for items is the FFA system. Blizzard please now make the multiplayer experience in D2R about team work by the participation in killing the enemies of hell instead of whoever can click their mouse the fastest for loot.
Blizzard the so called “purists” never even played D2 in recent years because they are not the ones who have kept this game alive, it has been the modding community with their QoL improvements. These so called “purists” are actually doing more harm than good for the future of D2R since D2 is actually being kept alive by the modding community and not them and casuals such as those from D3 are going to be expecting QoL improvements to the game like personal loot when they initially purchase the game. I fear for the longevity of this game if more QoL improvements like the toxic loot system are not fixed by simply adding an option. Additionally, this feature wouldn’t even affect them since it’s an option, so they can just simply choose not to use it and many that stated they were against it also stated in other posts that they only farm for loot solo.
There are many ways that the loot system can be fixed in public multiplayer games. One simple a proof of concept on this system has already been made D2:R Loot Roll Demo - YouTube and again, this feature would only be optional, since pursists could choose just not to use it. The most important thing about personal loot is that it would stop the bots and the toxic players using the automated pickit scripts to steal loot from legitimate players from being used. Just like how it was fixed in D3 and since it’s only an option, you can simply choose if you want this better experience in public multiplayer games when farming for loot or not by choosing to use it. Blizzard I feel that the three most important issues currently with the game that is going to determine game success for the masses and for the company is a personal loot option, lobbies on console, and fixing the current functionality for controllers on PC.
Update: The Reason Why We Still Fight. 
https://twitter.com/Portal_Ingress/status/1438626059553968128?s=20
