Hello fellow Sanctuary dwellers and Infernal Blacksmiths (devs),
Around seven months ago, Lead Class Designer Adam Jackson shared his thoughts in a live interview with DarthMicrotransaction and GhazzyTV about the idea of larger community events that not only involve player participation (like in “Slay Ride to Hell”) but also allow players to design content for the game. He specifically mentioned the design of a new legendary power, and concluded with what I would summarize as “A scary but awesome thought to have.”
This is the video link with timestamp: `https://youtu.be/OCHr27Bk5VA?t=1314`
Let’s bring that thought back:
How about introducing a seasonal ideas competition where players can submit their own concepts, starting with small, themed additions for items, aspects, runes, etc.?
The winning idea would be refined by the devs and ultimately implemented.
how it could work (click to expand)
Ideas Competition
1. Submission Phase:
Players can submit their ideas through a dedicated forum thread or, better, a submission form. They can include detailed descriptions, relevant mechanics and maybe artwork (not required).
2. Voting Process:After the submission period ends, the real fun begins, where the community can vote on their favorite ideas through a poll. I would like the community to have the opportunity to vote for 3 suggestions or more.
After that, the developers should have the freedom to decide which ideas are considered. They would filter the suggestions to ~10 ideas, from which the community can then vote again. It would do good to have an ingame NPC or other ingame option for that second round, making the poll more accessible (and maybe harder to exploit). But once again, in the end the developers would have the final say.
3. Integration into the Game:The winning ideas can be reviewed by the development team, and the best ones have a high chance to be integrated into Diablo 4 in future updates or expansions. This would not only give players a sense of ownership but also foster a better connection between the community and the developers.
I believe this competition / event could spark excitement within the community and help developers gain a better understanding of what players are looking for. It would certainly be a fantastic way for everyone to contribute to the game (they love). Additionally, it could serve as an easy and effective way to promote Diablo 4 and regularly increase its media visibility.
They could literally rip and repurpose most of Lost Ark effectively.
Guardian Raids replace World Bosses including Hard Mode Weekly versions
Weekly “Co-Op” Raid Content like Ghost Ships (do not need to group)
Clan Battles for Zone control. Winning Clan has control for a month with Daily or Weekly Events that occur in the Zone. The Clan who controls the Zone gains additional reward.
Ranked Arena PVP with completely normalized Skill Points, Level, Paragon, Glyphs, and Itemization. Solo, Duo, and Group Arena PVP queuing all options.
Open World PVP with semi-normalized stats to close unfair advantages and damage highly mitigated to promote more equatable PVP.
Runewords get changed to work similar to Cards in a separate system that can be leveled up (in lieu of Set Item Bonuses)
LA Gem system gets repurposed to Skill Jewels that modify how Skills work and their effectiveness. Most Unique Item Aspects and many Legendary Aspects get moved here to allow Itemization to be more diverse.
Nightmare Dungeons now work like Abyss Dungeons and Hardmode Abyss Dungeons players queue for.
Glyph Leveling gets added to all content types with The Pit providing the highest XP potential.
Renown gets overhauled to be more interesting with a renewed sense of exploration and interesting Open World content.
Fatespire and Shadespire adapted to be a Solo Progression Player Challenge with different challenges at each floor. Rather than Ascending, you Descend further into Hell. The last level is a Prime Evil.
Ok… that answer was unexpected, haha.
What I want to suggest with this “Ideas Competition” is not a rework of systems or development heavy stuff as this needs a lot of thought.
Lets assume the competition theme is:
“How do you think an unique item about Deckard Cain has to look like?”
Then players start to brainstorm an equipment type and they add a power and, for example, submit the following:
Type: Unique Staff
Name: “Cains Whatsoever”
Power - “Teleports a player to the next dungeon treasure chest”
Of course, this example is meant to be a joke, but that is also viable and adds to the fun. A few good ideas are enough to make the whole thing very interesting.
You would think that Blizzard would crowd-source from these forums alone since I have seen a lot of great ideas. I cannot see them being able to handle a competition considering that would involve engaging with players. If anything, they would probably post this on X or whatever the kids call Twitter these days.
Yes this is a problem. As I pointed out, one of the events goals is to improve communication. It requires the developers to jump over their shadow and decrease the distance to the community for a while.
If players get the impression that there is a human component behind D4 that feels, listens and is able to answer (here in form of a contest winner), then it helps both sides. I mean launching an event like this is able to calm the waters to a degree and train both sides to deal better with criticism.
This particular dev team will see a good idea on these forums/from the community and deliberately not use it out of spite because it wasn’t their idea. Then point the blame at us when their bad ideas get negative reception.
There might be a practical reason for that though. There’s the possibility of being sued. There are people they employ whose role is to specifically handle whatever it is (such as say monster design, music, environmental design, etc). I think that whatever comes out has to come from their team but at the same time, the players can sorta point the way and help it along.
I’m not sure it applies to video games, but it likely does. I know in TV and Movies, creatives often actively avoid input from fans…not out of hubris, but legal necessity. If they take a fans idea and use it, then the fan can in theory demand compensation or sue them for copyright infringement
The way that devs can do that is by having Active CMs with an explicit role to engage with the Community frequently in game and on this Platform. I would propose that Blizzard have Class Representatives who solely play the given class and interact with players. Providing a Voice of the Customer is, as you said, critical to the long-term success of the game but also builds Brand Loyalty.
I could care less about minor events and contests and would prefer someone with a Blue Tag who actually talks with players. Even if they cannot provide any information and the expectation would not to be to reply to every post but at least a daily post. A sticky on Class Specific mechanics, a sticky on ongoing issues identified by the Community (to at least know they Blizzard has recognized these things). Instead you get incremental updates that (sometimes) fix stuff, or say they are fixing stuff and then it does not actually do anything. Even worse, the introduction of morr bugs and broken interactions.
It feels like yelling into a void. Not even a recognition that, “Hey, we understand Lucion is not working properly especially with Third Blade and Encroaching Wrath”, or “Yeah, Rupture appears to heals enemies” WE ARE LOOKING INTO IT. Considering the silence and lack of action, it feels like Blizzard either does not care, or thinks it isn’t a problem despite so many players posting to the contrary.
Twitter and other Platforms should be used for Marketing purposes only and NOT as a means to communicate with your playerbase. That should be reserved for the Forums, Diablo 4 Public website, and In-Game via System Messages, Mail etc.
Would be great to have. I mean, it shouldnt be too much to ask for at least one person at Blizzard HQ who has the psychological stability to handle this role. This forum is not that toxic in my opinion.
I think, on one hand, the silence follows a guideline on how to interact with customers and to not set any expectations in order to avoid disappointed players. I dont know if this is true or if this ultimately makes sense to do.
On the other hand, I can’t shake the feeling that the Diablo 4 developers are simply afraid of their players.
I believe it was the mid-season stream in Season 1, where everyone looked exceptionally defeated due to the outcry over balance efforts (aka nerfs) that happened to damage multipliers and other affixes.
My impression is that this created a state of a trauma. Communication has broken down considerably since then (bad, players turn crazy with accusations and theories, see this thread lol), and the developers have consistently given in to many player demands (not necessarily bad).
In any case, I know one thing: There is something wrong when a developer cant talk with the playerbase. We call this being out of touch.
Ideas Competition
