This video sums explains well the problems with instanced loot :
A game must tell a story and be played like a story. Like a movie. Fairness has nothing to do with telling a story.
A movie tells how characters react to difficult situations, it’s the point of doing a movie.
The diablo is meant to be without filter, to let the players find out by themselves what is good ,was is bad, what is fair and not fair. Who to make friends with. It’s meant to be a mirror of life, in its good and bad moments.
The diablo franchise is a fable, there is no world of interaction if freedom does not take its part in it. There is no sense of achievement if you are not exposed to danger.
In diablo2, keeping a character alive despite other higher level players threats, feels REALLY rewarding. Because it summons in each person survival instinct that makes diablo, a diablo game.
When you remove something from a game for the sake of balance and fairness, it removes a layer of realism and of immersion.
d3 philosophy removed everything punishing from the game, thinking that “feeling good” should never come with any sacrifice. It’s infantile and does not teach you anything about life.
D3 feels like a simple video game with no connection with our instincts.
In d3 every player plays within his bubble and can’t interact. Greed, selfishness, threat, generosity can not be evaluated in order to make friends. Personality is removed. What’s the point of playing online? Friendship in d3 is virtual .
Diablo is not just a horror dark game. It’s about showing reality. Rawness in its simplicity, in its brutality, in its authenticity, Reality of world building without filter.
And if the developers don’t understand that, they will not create a Diablo game.
Freedom plays a role in Diablo, without which a world of interactions can not exist.
What I fear is a lazy answer to please both d2 and d3 communities, breaking the world into parts, and the game will turn into cases and options to activate in a menu. This is NOT a world.
D3 removed the decision aspect thing of the game for the sake of the supposed “quality of life”
But quality of life is myth. There is no quality of life when a game is a “dictatorship” that control every move of everyone.
What makes a player satisfied is his/her capacity to judge any situation, and to take a decision. It’s the feeling that decision making improves the situation of his character, and not lines of code.