From glancing around in the forums and youtube I’m starting to see a pattern. These patterns emphasize different groups of players and their wants. If anyone thinks there are others that wouldn’t fit into these categories please respond and we can discuss if they are in fact their own category.
Progression Players
Grind Players
Difficulty Players
Theorycrafting Players
Blast Players
-----Arcade Players
Progression Players - want to progress. They want to have a feeling of accomplishment through tasks. They want that bar to keep filling up.
Grind Players - like the loot chase. They are chasing that super awesome item that is best in slot no matter how long it takes.
Difficulty Players - want a challenge. They want to get to that last boss and have a 10+ min fight and win.
Theorycrafting players - really really like UI lol. They can be in town for hours planning, tinkering and seeing if things work. What works how well it works. The toy makers.
Blast Players just want to blast. Movement speed + DPS + mob density = paradise.
------Arcade Players a more casual playstyle than the Blast player.
Having defined these groups, they are all looking for specific things. For the most part D4 gives everyone a bit of what they want. But reading through the forums and other platforms everyone kind of pulls in their own direction.
The cool thing about D4 and other aRPG’s is that with seasons they really have a lot of opportunities to add content that each group would like. Through horizontal progression everyone can get what they want.
For the Progression Player for example horizontal progression can add new areas or events that can only be accessed through leveling up new bars. For example a new area called bleep bloop that the player needs to have their soul hardened with bleep bloop light. To do this there are new events around all of sanctuary that once completed levels up or hardens your souls. Once hardened you can explore this new area and fight new monsters get new cosmetics etc… This is just one example. Horizontal progression can target each player type.
I might make a topic surrounding only Horizontal progression just for fun to see what ideas ppl would have.
Lol. If I didn’t know any better I’d think you were being sarcastic. Hard to tell through text. Regardless on who reads it, it is still a fun conversation imo. Seems like everyone in the forums has an opinion on how the game should be developed. This is just another conversation. Or do we all just come to game forums to PvP?
I feel there’s a lot of grey area and overlapping in your ‘analysis’ of players. Grinders may like difficulty and progression, Difficulty players may want to theorycraft before going out and facing challenges. Blast players may also want progression.
To try and define the player base into categories based on whatever they feel like doing at any given time seems like a rather fruitless endeavor I feel. Kudos to you for slapping labels on activities people engage in with the game, but I wouldn’t lump people up this way personally.
As much as I love putting things in boxes, people will certainly have some of each category.
It is more of a radar chart thing, with people being a certain % into each category.
In any case, yeah, horizontal progression is great.
I dont think it is possible to make a game for everyone, but looking only at these categories, it is possible to make a game for those I would say. Only the Blasting and the Difficulty categories are at odds.
There is a lot of grey area. When I was thinking of this, I saw it more like a venn diagram. For example, the player who likes to blast might not really care to make a build. He’d rather go to a streamer or build site, copy, and then go and kill stuff. Events like the gauntlet might be more of an engaging activity for them rather than killing uber Lilith for example.
I have a buddy IRL who is a progression/grinder player. He usually plays FF. But every expansion he logs on. Grinds all the mats or w.e does all the dailies and finishes the content of the exp. Then he leaves FF alone for a bit. He might still do Dailies but mostly just gets on does the dailies and then logs off. Would dailies be considered a progression activity or grind? Or another category all together? He never makes his own build always goes by the meta on the build sites. And he really doesn’t even like hard content. He’d rather do easy content over and over then do hard content. End game raids for example is something he doesn’t like to do.
Progression players and Blasters are arguably at the total opposite of one another. That being said, no, don’t think the game offers something to everyone
I could arguably state without necessarily being untrue that:
Progression players have been losing both in focus and in content for all this time (since S1)
Practically don’t care the game is skewed into blasting territory already, my problem is they keep doing it as if it’s the right and only path
Keep removing everything that’s even remotely tied with trying different routes of attempts or evolution/depth of progression
And these are the ones that makes Eternal players look bad…
Sad that some people wants to “force” their tastes and opinions over all others instead of look for benefits to them that would not harm the another’s fun.
When we start seeing less “nerf this” and seeing more “hey, buff mine also!” threads this community will get a lot better…
Interesting take of course, but I feel your categories are more based on activities and not players. Even if you used a venn diagram it would be per player, not group of players. Sure there’d be some overlap, but I still feel it would be better to just make categories of activities, which you’ve already done.
Much harder to get an accurate reading on what a Progression player would do for example, one type of player may like progression and grinding, another may like progression and difficulty, etc. the possibilities, while limited within these categories, vary from player to player.
Yes you could potentially make a horizontal progression listing the benefits to each category, but if you go off of ‘Players’ it’ll be under a lot of assumptions and personal bias.
I probably fall somewhere into this one. Probably why I don’t like leveling/glyph xp boosts. I don’t want that bar filled up artificially. There probably is somewhat a feeling of accomplishment and its getting eroded every season so far.
I recognize there’s a new progression activity with the pit tho.
Horizontal progression is probably one of my favorite ideas in video games. It’s basically a great way to introduce a new ride. If you think of video games as theme parks and each of the games systems is a ride. You have a leveling ride, item ride, cosmetic ride, difficulty ride, etc. With horizontal progression you have an extra ride. You build your toon. Gear, stats, passives, etc. Then you fight the end boss. Then get of the last ride and get back on the first. Rinse/repeat. With horizontal progression you can just keep getting on new rides.
D4 kinda does this but not really. Take the new S4 Iron Wolves Honor for example. The quest line is to be done simultaneously with the leveling process (from my understanding). That’s great for the leveling process but then ppl are upset because they’ve made the leveling process shorter so it almost works against itself.
I think if they would have done a quest line that didn’t start till after lvl 100 than you would of had horizontal progression with that very same mechanic. You’d just have to change up the rewards. Now this has problems. The biggest one being now ppl have to wait to play the new season basically.
But if you had something like that you can do some pretty fun stuff. Iron Wolf Honor give tiers of rewards tailored to a more intense or rewarding experience. Think more stuff like profane mindcage.
We don’t know what the rewards are yet but here is basically an idea for a season that I’d have that focuses on Horizontal progression. I’m just spit balling haven’t really thought a lot about it. Just one idea.
Season 9 Season of Darkness.
Quest giver gives you first quest (to stay in line with current practices) first quest “cleanse the world”. You have a new bar on top or under your xp bar that activates at T4. You can add some quest to start telling the story and lvl up before T4. The bar fills as you slay the new monster type. Shadow Ghosts. They are basically everywhere enemies are now more in helltide even more when your threat meter rises same as other seasons. As you do dungeons, helltide, whispers, etc. the standard game loop you progress that bar. Once you hit 100 you should hit that first bar (basically how this season might be). Once that bar is full you get a new quest. “Ignite your inner light” seasonal paragon board activates and you can have 20 or w.e many seasonal points for that specific board. That board gives certain stats for what is to come. Once you hit level “20” you’re ready for the new dungeon/stronghold that you can only access once you are “ignited”. That paragon board has two routes. hard/easy or w/e. depending how you set it that last stronghold is going to have more monster density or some mini bosses around or w.e. Once you beat it depending on your threshhold of difficulty you get the shiny armor or the normal armor. The end. lol
D4 has a lot of puzzle piece type game systems. Thinking specifically of paragon boards. Why not utilize them more.
Actually, very curious to hear what ppl think when they hear horizontal progression. How does that look to them. And some ideas of that.
That’s fair. They are actually categories of activities really but it seems like there are players who want more or less of an activity so that’s why I went with the player route rather than naming it different activity types in D4.
One group of players want more progression so with the new lvling they are upset. Others want to Blast faster so they are happy. They both are speaking of activities but each are pulling for more of their personal favorites.
Football players and Soccer players. Each want more of their sport. Football is an activity, but you get what I mean.
But I don’t disagree. What I am actually talking about here is the activities not necessarily the players. But it’s the players that are upset because they want more of their favorite activity.
Maybe… I would say the difference is how casual the player is, but yes, it could be.
To be clear, the arcade would be more casual. He doesn’t necessarily follow the news, research powerful builds or play on high difficulties… he just enjoys the quality of the game and not necessarily the type of game.
New skills. New modifications to skills.
New items and affixes.
Then there is one of the most obvious ones. One that Blizzard kinda “promised” before release, and then never delivered on; new Paragon boards.
You could also have different defenses, like have gear for the fire boss, frost boss etc. But that would take a bit more rework for Blizzard I guess.
Likewise, if Blizzard added monster resistances, your dmg types could become more of a horizontal system.
And so on.
And that is just focusing on characters and gear.
Instead of having freaking 200 vertical lvls in the pit, if the game had more sensible scaling, and more ways to challenge the player than “oneshot or be oneshot” it would also be easier to make horizontal challenges, not based on increasing numbers.
Blizzard kinda talked about that before release as well, with monster families representing different combat challenges.
Of course, that collides with the Blaster playstyle…
