Look, this game is obviously not D2 2.0, which I fully admit is what I want. Having said that, after playing the beta, reading forums, and thinking about it, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s still new ARPG content, which is something I do want, and change is inevitable, so maybe I should at least give it a chance. However, every time I start thinking “well maybe I will go ahead and get this game” I always end up coming back to “but wait, it’s going to be full of MTX and seasons like every other garbage game on the market now.” So, I’d like to put forth a suggestion to Blizzard that I made quite awhile ago on the D2R forums. I don’t think Blizz really reads or cares about these forums, but I’m posting this anyway for my own sake.
If you’ve seen me post here, you know that I am beyond critical of Blizzard, and truly have no faith that Diablo IV will be any good. With that said, I would honestly love for Diablo IV to be a great game and for Blizzard to earn back the reputation that they’ve squandered over the last decade or so. One of the major issues with current Blizzard is their complete lack of ethics, as evidenced by Diablo Immortal. It is clear that they no longer have any respect for their customers.
Considering that monetization has already been confirmed for Diablo IV, it seems reasonable for the average player to be concerned. So, I’d like to offer a suggestion to Blizzard that would add continuing monetization to the game, but also be consumer friendly. Upfront, and most important, monetization has to be limited to cosmetics only. The ideal way to implement this would be a hybrid battle pass/store system.
Each quarter (or whatever timeframe you work out) you introduce a battle pass with however many tiers of unlockable cosmetic items, such as: transmogs, mounts, pets, skill animations, etc. Once this battle pass is released, it is added to the store and can be purchased at any time in the game’s lifespan going forward. There should be no time limit on completing this battle pass. The basic idea here is to provide optional purchases for players without resorting to predatory FOMO tactics. However, it would be fully acceptable to limit players to one active battle pass at a time.
Now, when I said “hybrid” battle pass/store earlier, what I meant by that is that the items being sold in the store should be the battle pass cosmetics a la carte. This allows players the choice to pick and choose their favorite items from the battle pass if, for example, they don’t quite have the funds to purchase the full battle pass, or if perhaps they only like one or two items in the battle pass. The key aspect of this hybrid system is that it offers players choice, rather than nickel-and-diming us by having store only cosmetics along with battle passes, creating multiple forms of monetization in a game that we already paid full price for.
The system I’ve described would offer Blizzard the opportunity to earn continuous income from Diablo IV. The downside to this system (for Blizzard) is that in order to make money off of the players, you would have to create quality products that people want to purchase, instead of pushing out mediocre content that relies on FOMO to manipulate players into spending money. If you were to create an MTX system, such as I’ve described (preferably with reasonable prices), Diablo IV would stand to generate a continuous flow of income while also respecting the consumers time and money.
“I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. It’ll happen to you!”
-Grandpa Simpson
They have said that the shop and battle pass are cosmetics only. Im not sure what else you can do but wait to see if they lie. Im pretty sure if they lie, a ton of people are going to refund. For me, it honestly has to be egregious. You would have to be able to directly buy power. I probably wouldnt wuit over something like respec tokens, though i donunderstand why people would. I loved the gameplay of the game and i had a ton of fun. So much so (and i knew this would happen) that i have trouble playing other games because they arent as fun for me when i want to play diablo 4. I even played lost ark up to the clown as F2P. But i just couldnt keep up with the whales so i quit. If diablo 4 ends up being a lost ark clone, but no p2w. I will play it for a long time.
If you got 6 months of enjoyment out of the game and them changing the cash shop ruins it for you then just quit. You’ve definitely gotten your money’s worth. If you weren’t enjoying it before then, well, you should have probably quit already.
No, you didn’t get your monies worth. You bought the game on the promise that there would be no P2W aspects. If they go back on that, they have sold you a bait and switch. You paid for a game with longevity and a promise. If they break that promise what you were sold was then cut short. They are selling us a franchise title with the promise of replay ability, that is what we ware buying. If they take away that replay ability, then we did not get our monies worth.
Isnt this just as the Developers described their model, with the battlepass. Might have slight variations to your idea, but all in all it is what they are trying to achieve with d4.
I have a slight hope that they learned from past mistakes, and they wont screw this up this time. But only time will tell.
If that is what you feel you are buying the game for I’m not trying to tell you you’re wrong. If you don’t feel you got your money’s worth after 6 months even if you enjoyed the game, however, I’m questioning why you would buy it in the first place. Especially since you seem to believe that Blizzard are chronic liars and you expect them to be hiding the truth from you.
Not quite. Most standard battle passes work on this model:
Pay a fee to access the battle pass while it’s active (we’ll say around 3 months in general)
So, during those 3 months, you have to play enough to accumulate XP toward the pass.
Each ‘level’ of the pass that you unlock grants you some sort of in-game benefit: xp potions, credits, armor transmogs, etc.
Once the 3 month period is up, the battle pass is removed from the game, making any item earnable with that battle pass forever inaccessible from that point on for anyone that didn’t gain those battle pass levels during that time frame. It doesn’t matter if you paid for the battle pass or if you weren’t playing the game during that time, your’e SoL if you want those items.
This design is entirely on purpose and the goal is to manipulate players by inducing FOMO - fear of missing out. By making these items available for a limited time only, and earnable only through leveling up the pass, it goads players into constant engagement with the game, keeping them logging in daily and/or purchasing passes and in-game store content in order to make sure they don’t miss out on anything.
The problem that I have with this system is how it’s built entirely around psychological manipulation. I find it to be entirely unethical, and frankly disgusting, when they can implement these types of continuous revenue systems without resorting to these tactics. If they removed the time limit on battle passes and made them purchasable at any time, they would still be providing new content for the game that players could interact with on their own terms.
I already refunded one of the two copies I bought. Depending on the Patch notes and end game reveal, I will most likely refund the second copy.
Blizzard actively employs psychiatrists to study the behavior of gaming, and gambling with in their games to make it more addictive. They actively prey on the human psyche with paid professionals whose sole purpose is to exploit that.
Fun fact, they cancelled Season Journey because they essentially were doing what the Battle Pass was doing, so they cut them so they could monetize Battle Passes.
personally i dont care that much about such stuff. But i see the danger to easier to manipulate folks u referring to.
I guess it is not a bad take to put the cosmetic stuff into the shop, but i would prefer when they dont immiadetely appear there. So people who worked for the Cosmetics inside the time window, dont feel like they did nothing.
Battle Passes definitely should be required to last as long as the game is running, and be purchasable at any time too.
The only thing we as a society can really hope for, or work toward, when it comes to MTX, is that countries gets up to speed and start legalize on this, getting rid of the most predatory designs.
Other than that, on an individually level, just dont buy any of the MTX Blizzard adds to Diablo 4.
Yeah, this is the stuff that needs to be made illegal.
Battle Passes should legally not be allowed to be time-limited (neither “earning” the rewards nor buying the Pass). If a game want to sell that stuff, keep it up for as long as the game is running.
MTX games should legally be required to have a setting for opting out of the MTX for 1-3 months at a time, with no ways to change it back. Allowing players who might struggle with impulse purchases to prevent their future self from doing so.
There should be an optional setting for disabling any and all kinds of advertisement in-game for the MTX methods (no “Hey look at the shop! 800% more value offer, only today!”, nor premium battle pass being advertised when opening the free battle pass, and so on)
Legal requirement to have a setting that hides all cosmetics on other players you meet in the game, like above allowing players to opt out of the advertisement.
I would like to know how many seasons a battle-pass is worth. 1? 3? 6? That will tell me if this game is worth spending $$$ on after the initial purchase.
This is where I’m at in thought as well, and I absolutely loathe the reality of the industry where it actually has me in favor of government regulation. I’ve been gaming for around 30 years now, and it’s incredibly depressing to have watched the industry go from something rather niche, but propelled primarily by love of the hobby, into something driven primarily by profit, where ‘ethics’ is a considered a four letter word.