To me almost everyone is to blame.
Ceo - down to the writers of the script.
Except for maybe animation and graphics teams…
The game director is nothing but a small pawn on the board.
He talks big words without playing the game and unable to determine its state due to that lack of knowledge.
He isn’t the main driving engine and never was, corporate is, and they will allow him to say anything to keep it interesting.
At this current time, words no longer work, its time for actions. And Season 2 will be the last to try to gather the initial playerbase. After that most will wait for expansion. There is absolutely no doubt if this doesn’t work out, the remaining players will also be out.
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Who are you referring to? Luis Barriga was the game director for IV and hadn’t participated with WoW since Cataclysm, and if you look at the article I linked above, you can see that he had no direct vision for the game. When Joe Shely picked it up, he picked up a poorly mismanaged project with virtually no groundwork established.
Luis Barriga was a lead game designer for Legion. He appeared in multiple interviews for Legion under that title, anyway. Also, the groundwork for the game was laid out under him, otherwise they wouldn’t have shown gameplay footage, skill trees etc. Unless of course that footage was just a mockup. Who knows anymore. Blizzard has almost zero transperancy in their development cycle anymore aside from overhyping with cinematic reveals at Blizzcon.
the issue is just…blizzard. just the whole company is the issue.
100% agree with OP. Bad management.
I think when people talk about the devs they’re talking about the decision makers. No one is talking about coders being the problem.
But the issue is the major shareholders. The shareholders want profit projections. So quantifiable models have to be put in place. This results in engagement metrics being the premier focus of development. So the people that get hired to make development decisions are ones that are good at making games surrounded by metrics. They aren’t hired because they’re good at making fun games.
The problem is top down.
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I didnt know this community was so full of experienced corporate consultants.
I think you’d be surprised on how many people are in leadership positions who play diablo. Remember most of the old guard are all in their 40-50’s plus.
I wouldn’t discount everyone as not having experience at significant management positions in their companies. Hell, even Elon plays overwatch and diablo.
Some of this stuff is standard lean six sigma stuff, project management stuff, so I think it’s within the realm of a lot of people here.
But as all things on forums, take with a grain of salt of course. There are politics we don’t know about that play out in these companies that have nothing to do with game development lol.
Like…sexual harassment and other HR things…
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After reading the article that you posted, it becomes clear why the story of Diablo IV is so terrible. Sensitivity readers? In a game about Heaven and Hell? Good vs. Evil? Lilith being Queen of the Succubi sounds a hell of a lot cooler than ‘Mother’ and also lends to the idea of how she seduced Inarius, an angel, in the first place leading to the birth of Sanctuary. In the game now, I felt conflicted about even killing her, because a lot of what she said made sense and she really did seem like a good mother for Sanctuary, which is weird… A good demon? Bad angel? Regardless, I’m sure Barriga is relieved to no longer have his name attached to this rushed, buggy mess with an incoherent storyline sterilized for those poor sensitive people who for some reason are playing a game about angels and demons. Barriga did promise a darker Diablo, in both tone and story, after all.
i think “game developers” is an umbrella term for most people meaning “the people who made this game”
I mean, I don’t think the Diablo IV story is anything special, but to suggest that it’s bad because it severs the line between bad and good and makes an attempt to tell a narrative within a morally grey area is kind of ridiculous, especially when your argument is “angel good, demon bad.” Several pieces of literature and media prior to Diablo IV have done exactly that, from Supernatural and Good Omens to games like Darksiders and Bayonetta. Even Paradise Lost attempts to frame Lucifer as a tragic hero to some degree.
Also, not sure if you actually read the article, but there’s nothing “darker” about Inarius being in a wheelchair and then magically breaking free of it because it symbolized his “brokenness.” That sounds like writing I would have read in one of my earlier creative writing classes in college when a freshman would try to be edgy and symbolic. Barriga’s writing sounds lame.
“Wars were fought to get underwear on one of the women in the game,” another former employee tells me. “For the longest time, Taissa was the only woman-of-color character, and it was very important to [Stępień] that she only wore a single piece of white cloth — no bra, no underwear.” A female team member fought an “exhausting battle” to cover up more of Taissa’s body, and only “at the 11th hour" was the character’s wardrobe finally changed."
Real hallmark writing.
I’m sure he is. It must be relieving to know that everyone is taking the fall for his lack of leadership and vision.
So much blame to go around. Hard to pick who is most responsible.
Definitely Bobby but if you get rid of him they will replace him with another clone.
The Game Director absolutely as there is no way a competent one let this mess get out of the barn.
Then you have all the project leads who don’t bother to communicate and let people know what is going on and don’t show up to meetings to resolve conflicts. They know things are broken but they have a not my problem attitude on any issue outside their turf.
The list is long indeed.
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yup. bad leadership.
There most likely was a hard release date scheduled and hell or high water the game was going to be released on that date no matter what condition it was in.
That sounds like a call the top brass would make.
either lose the faith of the playerbase, or lose one’s job for not releasing the game for quarterly profits 
Ah so that’s the reason there’s no human nudity in the game, and why every human sacrifice impaled through a spike somehow has pristine white undies on with their intestines draped over them. How comical. No wonder this game doesn’t feel like Diablo at all. They were too afraid to offend anybody.
Also Barriga wasn’t a writer, but it sounds like him and the lead writer fought over what Lilith actually was, and in this case I feel like the writer changed her character just because he could, and not because it was necessary. I feel like the game would have been better without cutscenes and most of the lore relegated to dialogue and letters.
I have been an avid supporter of Diablo since I first played it on a friend’s computer in 1996-97… I have to say, there’s never been a worse RPG game to let me down then D4. I hyped it up in my mind so much that I think that is half the problem. However, there are more issues than anyone actually realizes.
Whoever’s fault it is, matters not to me. I paid Blizzard $100 bucks for a game that was marketed to best D2, arguably the best ARPG game ever - and D4 has failed every category. I don’t think I even want to see what Season 2 will bring because I can’t suffer through Season 1.
SMH
- INVENTORY INVENTORY INVENTORY!! what a pain!!
- Gear - I don’t want to have to read every single piece of gear’s stats to see that a rare piece is mightier than my legendary equipped gear. Time wasted doing that is insufferable!
- The Butcher - why would they spawn an OP monster in the course of doing your main quest that you have no chance in beating, especially in single player. Let’s be real, if you are going to do that make it bearable to the average player.
- PVP is a joke. Just have high level players going below their current level and they kill weak peeps for power & rewards.
- Clans. Why? No purpose what so ever.
- Player parties. Diablo Immortal at least knows how to grab random players in a search/grab que.
- Inventory, did I mention inventory? Why the F are they not adding inventory tabs or additional space ASAP. This can be done in minutes.
- Cosmetics generally suck.
- “Endlessly Customizable” was the term Blizzard marketed this game. I had more customization with my Sims in 2000 than I do in this game.
- Transmog & Colors - Why can’t I transmog everything and why are the colors limited to the combination they preset, why isn’t it actually selective.
- I mean the list is getting petty at this point but this is a game that’s been in development for years and years… do they care about the average player anymore?? They’re focusing so much on DI as it’s an endless $$$ train for them right now.
- Goodbye D4.
End Conclusion: The blame can be passed around… it’s a bad game & I want to defend it, but I can’t. My answer would be to trash the whole management and salvage what you can.
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No it’s not. It’s the rise of entitled whiners. Million players, each of them has a picture of a perfect game. There’s no more majority on a perfect game. If one group were satisfied, there would always be an opposing group that would feel frustrated and betrayed. No matter what Blizzard do, there would always be players that wont be pleased and most of these people are entitled whiners… biased streamers, noobs who cant access the goodies of the game due to laziness, noobs who hates any game that is not the same as their old favorite game, fanatics who cant be satisfied as they want more carrots on stick, etc… they’re everywhere.
I’ve seen them on D4 and on WoW Shadowlands. And I dont care about them. All I know is I am enjoying these decent games.
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Brother, I don’t know how to explain this to you, but the heart and soul of Diablo doesn’t lie within these characteristics. Very strange thing to zero in on.