Sending a message

General Discussion
1

Hi all,

just wanted to write the reasons why I won’t buy D2r so that MAYBE someone will see it and pass it on upwards and it won’t pass as something else.

1- sending a message that their actions lately have been unacceptable. Mainly sexual harrassment and hong kong debacle.
2- The quality of their games consistently declining.
3- the diablo Immortal announcement fiasco and their reaction to it. I don’t think they even know what went wrong there as of today.
4- The totally horrible art direction, atmosphere, and butchered story of D3.
5- greed

Hence I will let my wallet speak and not spend 60$ to play an old game once again. I loved D2 and would have bought the remake had it not been for this. It has nothing to do with the game itself or my interest for it. Maybe it is good maybe not, that’s not the point.

I’ll wait and see what happens with how they manage all of this until D4.

Thanks!

2

Yeah, see you in the game. That was 10 seconds I’ll never get back.

2 Likes
3

If you’re after original art, atmosphere, and story you’re looking at the wrong culture. Studying the modern day, western culture has been subpar at writing good stories and setting immersive atmosphere. The east created anime, while the west made ‘cartoons’. Sure there have been rare moments when western games struck gold, like the original Diablo, Mass Effect 1, and EverQuest, but outside that it is quite rare to say a western game sets a bar, compared to the Metal Gear Solid series, Zelda series, Demon’s Souls, Pokemon, Final Fantasy, etc… and animes such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Death Note, Cowboy Bebop, or even Dragon Ball, etc…

Every western fantasy TV flops, they all breakdown every single one of them.

One might argue there was a golden age with Marvel movies, but all the westerners did was take the template of comics from the 80’s and modernize them for today’s audience, they picked and choose the very best bits and made a translation. The same can be said for the lord of the rings films, and all the other successful recent adaptions of old media.

Western developers just aren’t good at creating fantasy, really is that simple. They’ve always viewed fantasy with immense scrutiny, it must tick many boxes to be acceptable in their eyes, and many of those boxes lean more into the real world than fantasy. Even if you look back at old spiderman comics they are cluttered with anti-communism. Spiderman at one point spent more time beating up those he thought were russian spies than he did fighting fantasy villians…

If we observe things right now, it really is no different. Western developers are so guilt driven having a white hero in their games, and so on edge making sure every scene is multicultural. It’s all personal to them.

People from all cultures and background love Genshin impact even though it is predominantly Chinese fantasy - nobody is up in arms with their pitchforks, in fact I think gamers enjoy immersing themselves in a mono fantasy world. It’s like cranking up the color saturation, you get more of one thing taking you further away from the hardships of reality. The same can be said by those who enjoy anime, those from all walks of life enjoy anime it is somewhat a universal language - it didn’t have to blend representations of each and every one of us for us to feel universally inclusive.

2 Likes
4

Good thing it’s only 40 bucks then.

5

Dunno what the point of you snide remark is but yeah maybe we’ll see each other in game down the line. Once they fix their shenanigans.

Cheers, buddy

where I live it’s 60.

One can dare to hope, :slight_smile:

6

(American) Comics have a longstanding tradition of being used as propaganda. Not really a good measuring stick for “western fantasy” as a whole.

I can think of more games where that’s not a thing than games where it is a thing.

7

Or you could just pass your own message to them by messaging them directly on their twitter:

https://twitter.com/Diablo

https://twitter.com/RodFergusson

instead of posting in Diablo 3 General Discussion and hoping for the best.

3 Likes
8

good suggestion. Thing is I don’t have twitter or use it.

9

Hmm well… our perspective is similar, we think saying something will cause change but it doesn’t. We seem to believe there was a moment of choice during development between (A) and (B)… but the individuals making western games have (B) ingrained into their DNA. (B) is their identity. It is something intrinsic that cannot be changed. All our posts do is get them upset that we are not (B) - that their is something wrong with us for not being (B).

To give some clarity, i’ll discuss this one individual from HR who doesn’t work for Blizzard, it’s another western game company. Anyway this person is constantly on twitter sharing their every thought, going on about diversity hiring and how their bosses are making it difficult for HR since the boss wants experience, HR complaint is experience can be trained up, so there shouldn’t be any problem. If we take a step back from the situation, it doesn’t look like this HR person who hires talent is interested in making the best fantasy worlds possible, their mind is on some other tangent so concerned about the race and gender of those who are hired, they don’t look at a portfolio and see if the persons creativity and talents will work well with vision of the current projects, HR looks to check their skin color and gender… if their background checks out HR hopes to ‘train them up’ so they can fit in… keep in mind this HR person is in an extremely powerful position ,they’re not some peon or nobody in this world… and this is precisely how western-HR thinks about adding people to the team to create western fantasy in the modern climate…

So the inexperienced people hired might not even care about fantasy, maybe after 6 months of learning the job they figure out building fantasy worlds isn’t for them. Since they already invested so much… they try make the job enjoyable by getting all political about everything, since they are far more interested in politics than making an enriched immersive gaming experience… you can see how easy this all can break down, and how our words mean nothing because we’re not even communicating with those who want to make fantasy… they’re over it… it’s just a job.

Now let’s take a eastern HR department, they would be looking at the coverletter and making sure the person is already experienced and capable of the task and the workload, they would be making sure the person is valuable talent they’re looking for. even then there is still no guarantee for success, but you can see how many issues are avoided using a survival of the fittest strategy. This person would bring a wealth of experience and decades worth of ideas and creativity to the project, there is greater chance they will continue to pursue making the best fantasy world as its their craft, this also makes them better suited over the long term when senior employees become management. It also sheds some light on how a game like Final Fantasy XIV can be on deaths door and be ‘reborn’ into one of the best mmorpgs of our time. Without passionate employees driven enough to bleed for a game, things like this don’t happen.

There are so many caveats… I write this one as it is relevant to today, but even if this one is solved there are more than 20 others that would have to be addressed in the western sphere, you’re just going to have to take my word for it - there is no solution, western fantasy will forever be doomed to make you disappointed.

It is good you mention this, not everyone here is aware westerners use fantasy to spread propaganda.

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You do realize “westerners” entail quite a bit more than just people in the US?

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Sure, that’s why I use the term westerner instead of USA.

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Dunno about that, plenty of great fantasy from Europe and America. Pretty sure any list of “greatest fantasy books” is fairly dominated by the “westerners”.

If you ask me that’s just a horrid work environment.

13

From what era?

I laugh at this mindset, is absurd to me… how families want to go visit the Pyramids or some Wonder of the World, without taking into consideration the immense sacrifice required to build those giga structures… how many people died… how many didn’t want to get up in the morning to push onward… If you want to leave behind a legacy it won’t be cheap… you have to make real sacrifices. Those who aren’t prepared to die for their creations are pretenders, they see creations - want to be a creator, but aren’t interested in putting in the effort to reach the next plateau for the next generation to aim for.

Taking it easy is regular, and regular is everywhere, humans might praise regular to avoid hurting feelings but deep down they couldn’t care less, what brings them true awe is perceptions being broken, things that aren’t supposed to happen - happen. If you haven’t done this one time in your life all I can do is pity… pity the person… it isn’t hard, all you have to do is be prepared to sacrifice! throw yourself on the altar and give yourself up to the gods of time - don’t fear the unknown, don’t hesitate in the face of death. embrace it! bathe in your shadows. swim beyond charted waters… beyond the abyss… trust your mind never trust your body.

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That has gotta be the worst example I have ever seen. Most of the “wonders” was made with the lives of literal slaves. If the choice is getting up or getting killed, getting up is more enticing. And sure, it’s quite easy to make “real sacrifices” when it’s someone else doing the sacrificing.

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15

We are all slaves… we all have masters.

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16

Actually no. We all have choices. Sure, they aren’t always the most pleasant of choices, but it’s not generally “obey” or “get tortured and/or killed” which was the options for the actual slaves.

17

Choices set by our masters!

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Not really. If I dislike my current work, I can quit and get another, or start a business myself. In most civilized countries I even get payed while looking for a new employment, and/or get monetary assistance to set up a business of my own.

19

Anyone can run away…

20

Sure, and the difference is no one will hunt me with dogs and weapons if I do, as plenty of slaves discovered they where.