D2r
If you have clout with Battle.net, Please take this into consideration, I beg of you.
Diablo 2 Remastered is geared to make some of the mistakes that damaged Diablo 3. This will cost you revenue and hurt our gaming experience.
This message is not meant to be BM, it is a concerned member of the Diablo community that HAS pre-ordered, for the love of the game.
Please consider this post, as feedback from a player who has been around since Diablo 1. I understand that other player’s feedback may disagree, but theres a reason that Diablo 3 experienced a rapidly plunging player-base in a short period of time.
Diablo 3 community died off Very quickly due to three main reasons:
- Seasons. Seasons (obviously) have resulted in hard-earned characters rolling into non-seasonal. Non-seasonal for d2 and d3 historically has modding and duping in Large quantities. This makes non-seasonal not enjoyable unless you’re strictly solo or PVE. Repetitive play of the same thing over and over KILLS Endgame communities unless there is a purpose other than short term leaderboard grinds. Diablo 2 endgame was fun because grinding for runes and runewords and perfect gear was incredibly hard, and after you were successful, You found your hard work rewarded with the best pvp of your life. No one can finish an end-game toon, runewords and all, (without botting) in 6 months in diablo 2. This means we either continue playing but in the modded/dupe filled side of the game, or we start over without purpose.
Solution:
1.1 Add PVP leaderboards based on kills/deaths by enemy players.
1.2 Add seasonal leaderboards that do not result in the “reset” of your toon into non-seasonal, but that track progress in pvp, overall power/defense/stats (rating system for each class), quantity of quests or acts and difficulties completed, and more end-game boards for boss runs completed, fastest completion time, etc (just some ideas, you can make something work I’m sure).
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Lobbies on consoles. Anyone who played d2 knows that lobbies are ESSENTIAL. Many of us experienced Diablo 3 as mostly a single player game. Not to mention we couldn’t trade because instead of fixing the duping bugs you just eliminated seasonal trading altogether. Lobbies for PVP, LFG, WTB or for farming runs are a NECESSITY to maintain a D2 community. This game will die a slow death without.
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Chat on consoles. All of the same explanations as line item 2.
To summarize:
Diablo 2 (unlike d3) had an amazing endgame due to pvp, trading, and the maximizing of builds that came with that. The quickest way to guarantee that this game will die within a year is to have ladders.
Pve brings the players but pvp is what keeps the mmorpg player base alive and strong long term.
To clarify I love d2 and d2 lod, but when I played the game had no ladders or seasons. Every person that Ive ever spoken to that played D3 and quit said it was too repetitive late game. End game content has to allow the building and perfection of your toon. Resetting them to a non-seasonal toon where hacking will most likely be taking place, and only a quarter of the playerbase will remain is not the play.
I know there will be a few PVE and Ladder gods that will hate this post. I get it, but if you love a game and care about its longevity you have to think long term. Even the players with the greatest ladder and seasonal success dont want the community to die off. Many hardcore D3 players were barely born when D1 and D2 were a big hit so they may not understand, but when season rolls over and you are still one HR away from finishing your coveted enigma, get back to me.