To Someone,
“… Class builds and synergies are outside of our bounds for what is reasonable for the health of the game … because it too greatly warps our vision for how combat should be in Diablo IV.”
Blizzard June 3, 2023 - Diablo IV Patch Notes 1.0.2d Build #42131 (All Platforms)
I played D1 when it was first released, in the era of Baldur’s Gate and EverQuest it revolutionized dungeon romp arpgs. So, I was also there for D2, D3 - along with Dungeon Siege, Torchlight, Neverwinter…
Ive had direct experience, over decades, of games that alterd the landscape of gaming, and the companies that developed and published them. In time, I did, and anyone can, (as many of you are now) notice certain patterns.
A shift from player control, to developer control - from a player buying a game and having it to themselves to do with as they wished. For example, being able to not download and install a patch, and so opt to play a game at that certain point, (You could even still play with your friends who agreed and all ran the same version.) to changing all the way to always online DRM, live “updates” that players had no choice but to accept - and everything else that gamers now need to endure.
I cannot find them now, as, they are over a decade old, but in the forums of D3, and Hearthstone, I remember seeing (and you need to remember, for me, it was an eye opener to see first hand developers openly profess this to their customers with no regard or fear of backlash - they did so with absolute confidence) Blizzard reply in forums and say,
“We feel that such and such is in a way that we don’t want. We think that such and such is what should be, and so we are changing the game because that’s how we want the game to be played.”
The psychology and sociology of it is profound.
You see, this meant that the ultimate agenda shifted away from,
“In order to compete we need to make a game where players can have so much fun and enjoy it so much that everyone will want to buy our game over the games of other companies.”
to one where they demand the players play their game the way they want it played, and narcissistically expect that the way that they say is fun, is what the players should accept is fun as well.
It all boils down to, in a word - control.
Im sorry, but you need to know this is only going to get worse - not better.
You need to understand the whole world has reached a point of no return - of critical mass. Control is overtaking every aspect of society - what we are allowed to say, how we say it, and what we do,
“Petition posts are frowned upon.
These are discussion forums, so we ask that you hold discussions. Creating a thread to ask for replies as votes is not a discussion. Threads violating this guideline are subject to removal and users found to be inciting boycotts will risk forum account suspension.”
Blizzard Multiple D4 Forum Locations "Welcome to “x” Category etc…
…and on, it would take me several hours, and 25k words or more to even begin to itemize and list sources of such in all layers and aspects of peoples lives in nations all over the whole world - speech, banking, purchases, mobility, beliefs, ad infinitum.
If they are willing to control all of that, they most certainty don’t think otherwise for even a fraction of a second with telling people how they will enjoy something as small as playing a simple make-believe fantasy game about slaying monsters.
“Controllers” control.
They do not respect boundaries, and do not limit themselves in regards to what they will actively demand that they have a right to control.
Honestly, I do not understand how everyone in the world didn’t wake up to this concept through the pandemic.
The entire world - every nation - espoused a singular common message - and successfully told entire populations of every country what they could, and could not do, could and could not go, could and could not say, could and could not believe, and locked down the world… in just about 4 months.
The. Entire. World.
“We will continue to be your single source of truth.
Unless you hear it from us, it is not the truth.”
- Jacinda Ardern, former New Zealand Prime Minister - Currently teaching at Harvard
You will do as you are told.
You will live how you are told to live.
You will believe wat you are told to believe.
The problem now is, that world has been desensitized, and has accepted the controlling behavior.
sigh
For anyone who is still reading, I present you with this list.
It is “15 signs you may be in an abusive relationship”
All I ask you to consider, is to think of every source you can identify any of these behaviors coming from - rather individuals in your life, to government, media and corporate empires.
You may be in an abusive relationship if “they”…
- Isolate away you from any relationships but them.
- All “freedoms” are only granted with permission.
- Micromanage how you can express yourself - even what you wear.
- Monitor all your communications. (Emails, phone logs, chat logs, social media posts)
- Control your access to, and use of finances.
- Control what information you take in (read, hear, see), and what you say.
- Monitor everything you do. Especially under the guise of “for your own safety”.
- Punish you for breaking rules and expectations that they are always changing.
- Condition you to believe that they know better than you, and everything they do is “For your own good”.
- Don’t allow you to question that, their actions, or anything they do.
- Tell you that you are the one who is wrong (or even crazy) and no one agrees with you. ***
- Call you names, and tell you that you are either stupid or selfish. ***
- Gaslight you - say you remember things wrong, encourage you to doubt yourself.
- Dismiss your perspective and opinions. ***
- Play the victims. When things go wrong, its your fault. Say you are in the wrong for how you respond to any of their abusive tactics.
I marked a few with *** because if you go and pick almost any thread in this forum, and scroll through, and closely read the replies, you will see examples of them en masse.
I don’t know who I wrote this for, but, I know you are out there.
You aren’t the crazy one. Its the world that’s gone mad.
Understand that it is a good thing that you feel so tormented.
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
Stay safe, and God bless. †
~Z