Blizzard should pay for controller replacements because

Console Discussion
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…at the end of the day, there is a large amount of unnecessary clicking required to perform basic, repetitive tasks. Most times I’m at a vendor I want to sell all my items. I either have to click individually on each item to sell it, or toggle the item to scrap it, which also requires multiple clicking, then scrap all. A button to “Sell All” would be nice. Obviously if the item is tagged, it should not be sold. It would also be great if you could scroll through ALL items sold in a particular session with the vendor in case you make a mistake, so you can get it back. Very frustrating.

Same applies to moving items to inventory. “Move all” would be so quick and helpful, whether to or from inventory.

When upgrading gear or changing affixes, or any similar tasks, why does it require 3 clicks to perform the action? Should be 1 click.

The new ability to reroll a stat on items when tempering at the blacksmith is great, but why is the button to add another roll way at the top of the UI, instead of beside the button to roll again?

These repetitive behaviors are causing unnecessary wear and tear on my controller and my hands. I’ve blown through 4 elite controllers and 3 regular MS Xbox controllers. That is a ridiculous amount of cash to burn through in 10 seasons. Close to $1K CDN in less that 2 years. (I used to play exclusively on the PC however the gameplay was even harder on my hands and I had to go for physio for 3 years.)

I’ve started buying the cheaper corded controllers to keep costs down but if game design was more intuitive, then I don’t think this would be such an issue. I doubt the devs play the game enough to experience these frustrations.

I stopped playing D3 for ages because the repetitive actions required to sell, rework, upgrade, etc. were just so unnecessary. It feels like Blizzard and Microsoft are in on this together to force people continuously wear out and replace their hardware.

If they had to cover everyone’s medical bills I bet they’d find a better way to navigate through all these actions.

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:backhand_index_pointing_up:How to not get taken seriously

I have over 1700 hours in D4 along with hundreds of hours in other games and i have all of the controllers i started with. If you have any good points in this diatribe, they’re lost in the gross exaggeration.

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I’m not sure how you could still have them all in working order. I’ve run into drift issues, dead buttons, triggers, etc. I’ve had them repaired a couple of times while still under warranty. I’m not abusing them by any means, they just stop functioning correctly. I’ve read reports from people having these problems all the time. Maybe you just got lucky? Or I have been very unlucky?

EB Games used to have a replacement program but they told me they had to stop because too many controllers were being exchanged and MS decided to end the program.

This has been my experience with controllers going back to the Xbox 360 days. Went through at least a dozen controllers over the years using that console. Mind you most of those were used by my children who were probably a bit rough on them.

Anyway, my message was written out of frustration as yet another control is acting up and I’ve only had this controller for a few months and its only been used on D4. :frowning:

Regardless of the controller issues, the game mechanics could be changed to be less repetitive to save on the fingers and hands. Having played games on a multitude of platforms for many many years, I have experienced a fair bit of pain over that time. Improvements would help.

Cheers!

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Sounds like Microsoft should replace your controller not blizzard. Given EB games won’t replace them in guessing it’s not just Diablo breaking them

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Maybe it’s MS vs Sony. I’m on PS5 using dualsense controllers.

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Well — I found your problem: you’re using an XBox :rofl:

But seriously — I have over a thousand hours on my PS5 controllers (plural) and no issues. The whole point of a game controller is that it’s meant to take (wait for it…) REPETITIVE ACTIONS. What else would you use a game controller for — typing a 1,500 page essay? Don’t answer that.

But thanks for sharing. Now I’m going to cuss out my employer for wearing down the tread on my tires, having to go to the office everyday. They should be paying for replacements!

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Is it a matter of Xbox vs PS5? I wondered about that and did some research. The data doesn’t show one over the other as being better. 10 months to 1 year seems to be the average lifespan of a controller, based on search results I received, so if that’s true, then anyone who can squeeze more mileage out of their controllers is doing better than average. I’ll admit, my play style is probably rougher than most, but I still expect my controllers to be able to handle the “REPETITIVE ACTIONS” they are designed for.

Love the tire joke, however on a more serious side, think about this… how many products out there could last longer, or be better overall, if the manufacturer designed the product better or added a little extra material to reinforce weaker areas?

Example: My son used to buy a particular headset. It kept breaking in the same spot, and after having it replaced under warranty a few times I got frustrated and took it apart. The problem with the design was in a spot that sees a lot of stress/action. It was not thick enough to withstand the abuse it would receive. If the company made this part thicker - by a couple of millimeters even, the product would last much longer. Reinforcing a new pair with tape made all the difference in the world. Tripled the lifespan easily.

When I compared other headsets I found the same problem with most. They are too thin in the area where the strap connects to the ear pieces. They are (purposefully?) designed to fail in this area. Why wouldn’t these companies redesign the headsets to last longer? The product image is better and there’s less waste (materials and money).

How many other products could easily be made to last longer but aren’t because the companies want repeat business? We don’t want to think about it, but I bet that number is a lot higher than we would care to imagine. Quantity over quality is today’s way of doing business. Cheaper comes at the cost of quality.

So tying this back to my original post… Since MS now owns Blizzard, is it too far fetched to assume they are working together to increase hardware sales? If Blizzard employed smarter UI designs, they could eliminate a lot of clicks. But isn’t that bad for MS who’s in the business (for now anyway) of selling hardware?

Sure, this may seem far fetched, but is it? Anyone who makes a controller stands to benefit from poor game design long term. Think about it.

Now, I am sure a lot of people don’t care about this one way or the other… however having been around for a while, you see how these things add up over the years. What’s $50 today ends up being potentially thousands down the road if you are forced to reinvest over and over again. And no, I’m not limiting this just to controllers… but its how it can start.

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Yes “planned obsolescence” is likely figured into most business plans.

As for sony vs microsoft… obviously, you and i are a woefully insufficient dataset… but i’m not doing research or publishing a paper. So i refer you back to your experience and the number of controllers you have killed… vs my EASILY over 4000 hours of gameplay on MOSTLY 2 controllers… and we only recently replaced ONE controller and it wasn’t for wear and tear. The controllers that came with the PS5 have drastically worse battery life than the ones you buy separately. So i got my girl a new one in a fun color.

Do i agree that MS and Blizzard are conspiring to make you buy controllers more often? Not even maybe. Do i think Microsoft maybe has lower standards for their device quality? Maybe.

My favorite oxymoron is Microsoft Works.

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Sorry but he’s got point. It’s pretty clear that the game was designed be used with a mouse, and thus menu navigation and inventory management on console is pretty tedious, cumbersome, and sometimes unintuitive. It’s obvious no member of the D4 team play on console.
It’s a shame because the game itself is great with a controller.