Tech Alpha? Not so sure about that!

So I just wanted to create this post to be open and honest with Blizzard and anyone who comes across it.

This is not a technical alpha, this is an advertisement campaign put on by Blizzard to get as many eyes as possible on the game. If that is your stance as a company, that is fine, I get it, you want to make money.

But it would be nice if for a change, you actually used some brand loyalty and stopped focusing purely on money. There are streamers who got the tech alpha that were not even born when D2 was released! Which is honestly fine, but then there are tens of thousands of people like myself that have over 40k hours into the Diablo universe and many more into the Blizzard Universe who are constantly shunned, while we would at the same time have the most to provide in terms of meaningful improvements, it just really makes you question things.

At some point, you have to realize that making money goes further than brand recognition, it also needs to respect brand appreciation.

END RANT

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I agree with you that they should give more access to the OGs, but the advertisement is extremely important for this game. This is a very ambitious project as far as remasters go, I’m sure it wasn’t a cheap game to make. They really need to expose the game to new audiences. There’s a lot of prejudice against D2 (or at least the D2 community) by newer generations because it’s considered a “boomer game” that has it’s community gatekeeped by the game’s veterans. I think their goal is to break that stigma by exposing the game to a younger generation through the streamers they like.

I understand your frustration and felt it too, though.

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Been opting in for the alpha since it came out on there website every other day clicking the opt-in. Didnt get an invite, my guess is only streamers got it and its just like you said all advertising.

the fact that people are DUPING in the “advertisement campaign” proves its not an ad campaign

they would not want that sort of exposure.

“look how flawed our game is and how easy it is to break”

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I am not a fan of streamers, nor their special access. But whether they were born or not when D2 released seems quite unimportant.

Besides, it can be a tech alpha AND an advertisement campaign at the same time. I only watched a tiny bit of streaming the first day, and people already found some bugs there. Serving its testing purpose just fine.

i could namedrop people you’ve likely never heard of, who have done more for the d2 community than most people, does not matter.

like titanseal, grimbeorn, librarian,psyduck and zork,vanB, onderduiker etc
or the guys who programmed longstanding mods, like Median,RoS etc

of course any PUBLIC alpha or beta or anything else, is an advertisement for their product.
it is a demo, not more, not less.

I for one enjoyed the hours I put into the alpha, although it was only limited in scope and in a part of the game that you generally run through in maybe an hour or 2 if you take your time and are unprepared.

The point of any Alpha or Beta test is to offer suggestions to improve a game. Many of these people have never played the game nor do they play ARPG’s even…

It just seems like a big slap in the face you know.

They can find bugs even if they haven’t played the original. They might even see something which someone who knows the game well might not notice anymore.

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If this was a new game, then sure, but what seems like a bug in D2 was actually part of the game. It is core to what made it D2 and it needs to stay in place as is.

I didn’t say otherwise. They might still find bugs that were not part of the original, or should be fixed anyway. Like the game crashing etc.
And no, a game crash should not stay part of the game just because it was always there. Crashes didnt make D2 :smiley:

I feel totally betrayed by blizzard too… this tech alpha is an advertisement campain…
i played d2 lod for about 8000 hours and also i played crappy d3 for 3000hours at least.
Please give the alphas to the real diablo fans …
Your real fans wants to help but devs want to make money… this is sad

Only thing I can add here is that this decision was most likely a revenue based shareholder decision and not a Dev decision.

I want to hold hope that the Devs still want to make a good game, but their personal greed and lack of belief in their abilities prevent them from standing up and doing the right thing. And yes, I think you are greedy if you willingly suffer and let others suffer to “keep a job” especially when you are skilled and can find another job. Any decision that leads to people suffering for your own benefit is greed.

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you can head over to the alpha forums and see there are plenty of non steamers that got into the alpha

That’s one of the points but it’s not everything. Alpha and beta clients collect usage data and send it to the developer, especially in case of crashes or other problems. Reporting obvious bugs doesn’t require experience in the game. In the case of this alpha, it is limited to acts 1 and 2 in normal difficulty, which is a part of the game that is meant to introduce it to new players, so it’s particularly interesting for the devs to see how new players are reacting to the introductory parts of the game and if there are any problems there. Just by playing the game and especially streaming it (so that devs can actually watch footage), is already a big help to developers.

A veteran who can pretty much clear acts 1 and 2 with their eyes closed is unlikely to notice problems of that nature, even.

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Woooo, was with you at parts until this, because a veteran that can do that is going to dig the deepest and offer the most feedback.

Use Mr Llama for an example, the man is pumping everything into finding bugs, offering cosmetic updates, etc…

Not sure where this premise of “If you are good you skip detail” has come from in the last few years, but it is so far from the truth it is a bit disgusting to be fair.

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It’s not a matter of skipping detail. They will indeed see every little detail. But they won’t experience, for example, frustrations with the UI (although I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem in this game that has a super simple UI), getting lost in what you’re supposed to do, etc. They know where everything is. They know how to do everything. They don’t need to learn all the shortcuts or find out what they’re supposed to do. And it’s this kind of first hands experience that provides a type of feedback that is just as valuable as the one from veterans, especially in this part of the game. Sure, they’re not planning on changing anything on the actual gameplay, but if, for example, people are getting lost on how to set up your skill shortucts (which is not a very intuitive thing to do if you only played newer games, the “hover your mouse over the skill and press the key” thing). I see a lot of the new players struggling to find out that feature. That por example, could result in more informative documentation/text for that. Or adjusting the UI if people are struggling to find something in it. Etc.

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if I want a person who has no grasp of game mechanics, I’ll ask for Llama.

the problems with UI etc were mentioned.

imo you cannot really test much with a1 and a2 normal, as you neither have that much in terms of items, that gets you into for example, high cast speed, nor do you have the skills etc that fill a screen, nor do you meet things like say, nightmare MSLeb and the likes.

I mean, your biggest hurdles are gonna be what, pitspawn fouldog if you come across him
or duriel, who can be a skillcheck for everything not sorc (static to 1 hp and have fun, just manaintensive, but not a problem)

You just lost 99% of the people reading this.

It’s advertising but it’s also about getting community feedback on their current work-in-progress.

Though I was signed up for the tech alpha, I’m not too upset I didn’t get it. Sure, I would have enjoyed playing it but I’m already playing the current ladder and my progress is saved every time I play it. It’s great that someone like that D3 streamer (I forget his name) that has a lot of viewers is playing D2R instead of me, glad Blizz is effectively marketing their product cause this is the type of thing D2 needs for maximum success.

D2R should be just like playing D2 but a new take on the art. Not a big deal to miss D2R alpha when the alternative is to just play D2 instead imo.

My biggest hopes for D2R are that:
*The community and support grow for Diablo 2 like content
*Cheaters suffer pain and we get bot/pickit free ladders
*Devs do not fail and get too caught up being SJWs or get too carried away catering to those that cry cause D2 is too hard (it’s not) - that devs stay true to what D2 currently is.

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