I see so many complaints about S8 and the vast majority of the ones I have read are complaints about the lack of new content. Coming from 10 years of PoE seasons, I’ve come to expect new seasons to almost always be incremental improvements featuring a core new mechanic. If the particular seasonal mechanic is compelling enough, it gets added to the core game. That’s always been how seasons have worked.
But it seems like a lot of the people complaining about S8 came in expecting a significant amount of exciting new content, rather than the type of incremental seasonal mechanics I’m used to. That’s just not how a company like Blizzard operates, particularly since they are so revenue focused. Their model appears to be to have a small team working on seasonal updates that are free and introduce marginal new mechanics that interact in different ways with the core game loop, while the majority of the team works on major expan$ion$ to drive revenues.
While I agree that the seasonal content is about as minimal as you can get, I personally find it sufficiently interesting to pull me back each new season, mostly because I enjoy the rest of the game play loop, like the Undercity, Hordes, Pit, Helltides, Whispers, and the various iterations to each class, so the new seasonal content allows me to interact with it all over again with some twists. It might be more disappointing if D4 were the only game I play, but since I like to cycle between Path of Exile, Last Epoch and D4, it works out pretty well that I can drop back into each new season after being away for a while.
I pay good money to have a powerful rig and shell out the bucks for all these games, so I make it a point to find the fun in each of them. If there’s no fun, there are so many other choices in the market. It just baffles the hell out of me to read some of the complaints, that seems to be “I came back and beat my head against the same wall again and it still hurts.”
That is all.
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because POE is not Diablo.
come back after playing 10 years of Diablo and see if you can still make the same dumb statements.
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Right, PoE is not Diablo. Duh. And what exactly does that add to the argument. The point, which you apparently missed, is that the way this genre works is that seasons offer free incremental improvements and expan$ion$ are where the new content is.
I can come back after playing Diablo for 10 years and I will still have the same expectations, and I’m betting I’ll see the same game plan and the same reaction from players like you who are satisfied calling a discussion “dumb” without any attempt to articulate a reason. Keep banging your head against the same wall, it ain’t gonna change.
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Replacing witch powers with boss powers is just really lame.
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It’s pretty minimal it’s true, but it’s not just a replacement. The interface is similar sure, but the boss powers are more fun to collect and acquire than just choosing random witch powers. Instead of choosing from the S7 list that unlocks mysteriously as you play, these powers have to be earned out in specific encounters. That alone was an improvement that I enjoyed.
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belial is a cool addition as well.
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Yeah, I’ve enjoyed that too.
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So you agree it’s minimal but do not find a problem in it’s minimality like everyone else. Think that sums it up…If you like it playin booring and in a constant loop then what can anyone on here say about it…
I will however reply to what is dumb in your comment, mostly the fact that if you play D4 for 10 years straight your brain will not comprehend what a real game is with a real development team. Considering you played poe for 10 years you find d4 to be sufficient because D4 != Poe. But that argument would be dumb and shilling if you would have played D4 for 10 years.
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Hear what you’re saying. Some feedbacks a bit overstated imo, not all of it though.
Good to hear your perspective from playing Poe as well and also playing a range of titles to put your beast to work. Lots of different types of gamers in this title now.
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There is a pretty varied audience here. I would not try to label it as one playerbase.
This is Blizzard’s design choice to attract everyone and their grandmother. Then design by consensus. And that usually will upset some people.
I would tell you just let the people who are griping, gripe. They probably are just venting.
If you are enjoying it, enjoy it. Find others like yourself.
I think this season is better so far than the last…but it has nothing to do with the seasonal content. The changes to the base game make it feel better than last season. But I would be disappointed if they just stopped here.
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I don’t find it a problem because I came in with different expectations than those who are complaining.
As for playing Diablo for 10 years, I was there are the beginning when Diablo launched, and had Battle.net #5005. I’ve played more Diablo than most of the complainers so I have all the perspective I need to make my own assessments and I’ve spent enough time talking personally to David Brevik, the original creator of Diablo, enough to know everything I need to know about the progress of the game over the years.
Brevik and the gamers who were his peers are long gone, and the franchise is now owned and operated by corporate operatives who have very different motives. Once you accept that fundamental fact and alter your expectations accordingly, you can dispense with all the drama and try to find whatever fun there is in what’s being sold. Some people can do that, I can. A lot of folks can’t, apparently.
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People probably find it similar to season 7, which I skipped so I’m enjoying this season. I personally find Lilth’s spikes and Belial’s kamehameha more intruiging than a fish tornado and a pet frog but that’s just me I guess.
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Yes, I didn’t mean to lump them all into the same bucket, they are a diverse bunch, but one of the things that is very apparent when you read the PoE forums vs. the D4 forums, is that PoE players were raised with seasonal expectations, and Diablo doesn’t have that history. Diablo occupies such a special place in gaming history as a series of standalone products, some of which were just outstanding, that its evolution into live service of incremental seasonal improvements has been a real shock to many who loved the franchise. I get that. I felt that. But like I said, I try to find the fun in every game I play, whatever way it evolves, and if it delivers there I’m good. If not I move on.
Once Human is another example of a game that just baffled a lot of players who couldn’t understand the concept of seasons. So many complaints about having to “start all over again”. That game had a lot going for it, and I was totally fine with the seasons, especially since a lot of content actually carried over each season. But the game lacked fun, at least for me, so I abandoned it after giving it a couple of seasons.
Some work, some don’t. So far, D4’s model is working for me.
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aren’t poe and diablo seasons supposed to work a little differently?
poe leagues are supposed to be these small incremental changes like you said, in diablo they’re supposed to be gameplay defining and bigger in a way where you can’t add them one on top of another - at least that’s the way I have interpreted it
I’m not sure I ever heard D4 seasons described that way. You may be right, I haven’t followed their marketing closely, I just approached it with my PoE expectations. If you’re correct, that was probably a dumb decision on Blizzard’s part.
I love Once Human it is probably one of my favorite games that I played actively last year. Sadly I have taken a break from it when Rivals came out in Dec, and have been meaning to start up again.
I think it’s important to see the prior 7 seasons in relative context.
There’s frank precedence.
You do. Me not. 
I am also revenue focused. I pay money for a game and in return i want a fun and entertaining game. I do not get it. So i do not play the game.
The sad thing is, that Diablo is a franchise that brought so much joy to so many people and it is a bit frustrtating bli$$ does not care at all on the franchise and the people.
So… i take my money somewhere else. Tq2 looks very promising.
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You listed those mechanics in D4 & said you find them fun… I don’t get it. Hordes got tiresome after 1 season. Helltides were only fun after S1 when they got replaced (green tides) or tuned way up - and then were gimped again (though I hear in S8 they’re frenetic again). I’ve heard from some players that Undercity can be satisfying - never tried it. Take your word for it. But that’s a paid expansion feature, not a seasonal ‘free’ addon.
That becomes part of the calculus: cost of entry. The ‘free’ seasonal content was actually part & parcel of the pricing scheme. GGG does it through optional MTX, Blizz does it via retail licences (85% of revenue in year 1). That’s the equivalence. Same quality expected… except Blizz has had way more resources, brand recognition & bigger customer base, historically. It should be no question but that a studio with this sort of revenue stream & market share should be pooping out golden eggs for its customers. (The reasons it’s not have to do with problems in the development history… but you don’t agree about game quality, so that’s a moot point.)
The perceived quality of those endgame systems also matter. Adding a little bit of meh to a pile of meh still yields meh, no matter how much you keep adding.
Mobs & bosses are boring in D4. Glad if you or anyone else enjoy them, but you’re probably not listing them for a reason.
Items are boring in D4. Idk if you have an opinion on that, but again, left out of the comparisons.
No crafting. Is this comparable to PoE? Bud… come on.
This is just weird. Or enviable. 
One or the other. Anyway, enjoy. 
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I honestly don’t like either. They could remove them for all I care. These powers are much weaker. I guess that’s different.
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