The issue IS NOT the developers, it is the game director

PC General Discussion
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Many people here blame the developers but the actual issue is with the game director.

Developer is giving a very specific task to work and what end result is needed. They cannot change the end result. They are just translating idea aka requirement, to code. There are place where dev is to blamed, like the memory issue, but the overall direction and the game play, they have no say.

The game failed on the game directors, who happily thrown their dev team under the bus for being “first game delivered”.

If you want this game to do well, a new director has to be brought in. This is what they did to D3 after D3 got Jay Wilsoned.

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I enjoy the game, got about 650 hours dumped into it but recognize there are things that definitely missed the mark, some things they could improve on.

The game director is laying on the floor with Activision’s boot on his face and doesn’t have as much free creativity to fully direct game flow as you might think. There are suits in some office that didn’t come from a gaming background, might have worked at Nike prior looking at charts, how to maximize early and quick profitability with retention as a distant thought. Mostly this is done for the shareholders.

They shot themselves in the foot with that first major nerf patch AFTER homie on the campfire chat said “Bring on the buffs”. Were the nerfs as bad as people made them put to be? Nah, not really…I was still crushing content even after the nerf bat, but for some the news about it was enough.

Blizz has also suffered from it being the flavor of the year to get memed on…some of it well deserved after some terrible releases. Streamers with large audiences jumping on the outrage culture to fuel their views definitely contributed to the “This game bad cause its bad” zealots.

The upcoming changes to vulnerability/crit might be the make or break for me depending on how they handle it.

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The game director was given a trash heap of a game that was in a barely functional state when he assumed his role. It’s a miracle that Diablo IV even works considering the horror stories that came out about its development from 2017-2021.

This has nothing to do with the developers or the director. This has everything to do with Activision valuing short-term performance over long-term performance. And why should they? They’re all effectively leaving the company come next month when the CMA approves the acquisition and getting golden parachutes in the process. It’s not their dumpster fire to fix.

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Even Jay Wilson would be an improvement at this point. Not enough exp? “DOUBLE IT!”

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Just keep in mind who’s responsible for which parts of game development.

People blame Bobby Kotick, and he likely does set the parameters for things like budget and timeframe. “It’s time we cashed in on our Diablo IP some more. I want to see Diablo IV making us another billion within 5 years” would be an example. But he wouldn’t have anything to do with game design.

Then the various parts of the Diablo team go into gear, except they totally muffed it up, changed directions, cancelled parts, restarted, and basically screwed the pooch. Then those guys all got turfed or left anyway (McCree, Barriga etc.).

Check the post article for reference:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/12/08/diablo-iv-release-date-crunch/

Then they struggle with the lawsuit and basically start over again. Then they’re late in development so Kotick hires Rod Fergusson to kick it out the door. Rod’s a poser and attention hound, but he manages to chop off all the parts of the game that can’t be done on time and kick the dismembered corpse out the door for sales. So actually, he did his job, even if his job was to start selling you a half-complete game.

The actual current game “vision” and design come from Stepien, with the game director seat held by Joe Shely, and various producers and directors who’ve added their own choices to the mix.

The game you have is a result of poor executive decisions, poor design decisions, rushed product completion, and yes, low quality and uninspired game coding that mostly just copies from other games.

Pretty much only the graphics, cutscene and combat mechanics teams turned in decent work, with everyone else phoning in a “barely acceptable but good enough to sell” result.

There’s plenty of blame to go all around, although I do cut the actual hands-on production team some slack because they’re basically just inexperienced newbies following directions.

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“Employees described Fergusson, now in charge of the entire Diablo series, as holding regular weekly Zoom meetings he dubbed the “Rodcast,” where several hundred people would join. Fergusson would discuss movies he enjoyed or celebrities he had spent time with. He would also address the team’s problem with attrition and share employee survey results, but employees felt that not much actually came out of these discussions.”

“To me, he came off as a bit of a clout chaser about where he came from, like ‘Gears of War,’” said a former employee. “People got frustrated because we all thought he was gonna come in and fix the game. And when nothing happened, that’s when you started to see this massive turnover.”

Thus, Fergusson proved not to be the game leader many had hoped for. Instead, he came across as someone who prioritized establishing authority through empty rhetoric and constant prodding. The outcome of his leadership style was evident: a half-finished yet popular game. The decline the game is experiencing now calls for a new direction, and Fergusson’s departure might just be the fresh start it needs. If he stays, the toxic work culture he has fostered from top to bottom might drive away those who genuinely love gaming and are committed to delivering surprises for players. What would remain is a marketing team that doesn’t think critically, focusing solely on being “politically correct” and releasing “that” video everyone hates.^

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What? Devs made this code in the game lol not the CEO. Horses getting stuck on sticks and invisible objects have nothing to do with the CEO and all on the dev team, CEO doesn’t tell them how to make a game they give them a deadline and quotas to meet thats about it, the rest is all the dev team

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Would like to add onto your post and link this article:

This provides some key insights into the development cycle of Diablo IV and how the game was being severely mismanaged by the former (problematic) guard up until the lawsuit in 2021, at which point they were booted from the company and replaced by Joe Shely. Moreover, there are several statements that which corroborate the Washington Post article.

I honestly feel for Joe Shely. Dude gets thrust into a position he didn’t ask for and is expected to clean up the mess left behind by some weirdos who can’t keep their hands to themselves. He did the best he could in the time that was given.

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For me to consider continuing with the seasons in Diablo 4, Rod Fergusson needs to step away from the project. He seems to be an upward manager who merely meets expectations without genuine passion for the game. Projects under his leadership tend to be lackluster. He has completed his phase-specific task. To regain player confidence in Diablo 4, he needs to go.

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I do wonder how the game would have turned out under the original game director. He seemed like he really didn’t want to release the game until it was done.

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I still laugh when players complain about this, the absolute most minor inconvenience and players lose their minds. The first couple weeks were a clown show with every other thread complaining that it took them a half second to readjust course cause they got stuck.

These deadlines, and quotas that are delegated also have a major impact on games, they can make or break them in fact. Project manager pitches great idea based on feedback, idea works its way up the chain of command, dev lead tosses it based on time crunch because upper suits needed to get the game out NOW because shareholders were getting antsy.

I still enjoy the game with sbout 650 hours played, there are definitely things that need to be implemented/fixed tho. The coming changes to vulnerability/crit might kill it for me though.

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How is horses getting stuck on invisible objects a minor thing when literally everyone minus a few people that still defend the game all complain about? Next I guess itemization will be described the same?

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Because getting stuck, having to slightly move your mouse/analog stick to readjust your course very slightly to get moving again is the slightest of inconveniences you could lose your mind over…

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Exactly it’s so minor it blows our minds how it isn’t fixed already, you are absolutely right.

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Its so minor that it isn’t even on the radar when so many other things that actually impact gameplay need fixing first. Having you ever so slightly move your character is, and should be last on the list.

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Actually, it’s the shareholders. They’re the greedy S.O.B’s that dictate a lot of the decisions being made.

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We have to remind ourselves they’re a small indie company, it’ll take years before they can figure out how mounts should work in a video game. Hell it took 4 months to fix resistances and figure out that gems don’t go into the inventory.

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Not on the radar but they have addressed it multiple times? All these teams doing different projects they keep bragging about and as you put it can’t even make this minor fix.

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Probably infinitely worse.

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I mean he was the lead game designer for the last good WoW expansion, Legion.