So the basic reality Diablo fans are facing is simple.(I’m talking actual series fans not d3 carry overs or people new to the franchise. I’m talking been here since year 1.)
We are all sitting here hoping appropriate changes are made to increase the ability to enjoy the game right? Maybe the changes are trickling in to slow? Maybe the changes some of us want aren’t even implemented yet? So we sit waiting for things to get better.
Some of us may still be playing d4. Some of us may be playing another Diablo game waiting for d4 to get better and some of us may be playing a different game or series entirely.
For me personally I am still playing D4 but plan to play season 29 of D3 as well.
I’ve seen some of the worst and best of the series over the years… a few things I hated that come to mind are:
- Being promised an expansion for Diablo only for it to be made by an outside source and not be allowed to be played on Battle net. (Truly the biggest scam in the history of the Diablo series.)
*Watching duped and hacked runeword items destroy D2 for a few entire seasons. (Who can forget duped Sojs and ITH weapons sheesh.)
Then there are the years and years of D2 enjoyment. D3 getting gradually better. Diablo being so successful it spawned an iconic series.
I can rant on and on but like most REAL Diablo fans I feel stuck in limbo. I’m here, but I’m disenchanted and hoping for some good things to come sooner rather than later.
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Its like a toxic relationship, right?
If they wanted to (make a good game) they would.
They just prefer to milk us for easy money.
So - we gotta put our foot down and set healthy boundaries.
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The “real Diablo fans” aka, the ones whos favorite memories are playing d2 with the boys need to accept that Diablo (because, while d3 isn’t bad it only got there after completely collapsing on launch, and while d2 launch was also not great, d3 launch was atrocious), and blizzard, peaked long long long time ago.
It doesn’t get good again, it gets better, but that care and attention to detail, that passion, that innovation, and the push to create something that truly fun to play and an incredible experience as a gamer. That’s long gone with blizzard. Long gone.
D4 will likely get better, because financially they have built it to be a cow, and you can’t milk a dead cow so they are incentivised to make it better, but it will never be incredible. It will be passive. MVP. Minimum viable product. Thats blizzard m.o now. Do the absolute bare minimum required to keep people engaged while your monetization mechanisms keep paying out.
And I’m sure there will be someone out here “blah blah blah late stage capitalism” or “blah blah blah companies only exists to make a profit”, and profit isn’t a bad word, but that’s not what I’m saying.
What I’m saying is that hoping anything from blizzard lives up to the golden era of blizzard gaming that was the 2000s is a fool’s errand, and we need to accept that. Not just pay lip service to it. Accept it. You will end up far less disappointed.
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who is getting milked for cash? are you buying everything you see off the store? you dont have to, FYI
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i am one of those fan boy who played since d1 and bought every collector editions including this mess.
my absolute favourite was actually d3 ros, it was banging, fast paced and i did not need to grind like a mfer like i did in d2, gear was not very hard to come by for the basic setup but it was hard enough to perfect that i think it was challenging.
but i think you are being a bit too optimistic about d4 will get better, well in time.
its not that i dont think they will ever get better, i am sure it will. What worries me is when, because they are bleeding players at a fairly alarming rate.
Yes i dont have the numebrs, no body does, but judging from twitch view and in game experience, the player base is shrinking at a pretty significant rate.
I remember around 1 month into the game, i could just walk out and in world bosses and get into a different instance for a different group, now i keep running into the same few people when i do that, either they changed something secretly or there really arent that many players anymore.
also as much as i hate to use the twitch number, it does reflect how the streamers think their audience wants. It is quite apparent that no one is interested in watching d4 right now, that is just a fact.
So yeah, i hope they get better, and i really hope they make it FAST…
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Not just “from blizzard,” though. Even D2 doesn’t live up to D2 from the 2000s. Diablo created a genre and D2 cemented it as a major part of the gaming landscape. Nothing is going to match that.
If you want to look at innovations in the space you are going to have to look at new IPs. At its best, Blizzard can polish the mechanics that are cool from other games to make a compelling version of their own (WoW, Hearthstone, Overwatch, arguably the original Warcraft did this too). D4 does that in many ways also, but it is trying to tie itself to its own previous iterations, which holds it back in ways that those new IPs are not constrained. It was also rushed out the door.
But if what you want is high production value, well-supported seasons, and continual new content, Blizzard is delivering on that. The bones of this game (big open world, whispers/helltides/dungeons, aspects, skill/paragon tree) are good enough that I’m excited to see what each new season brings.
So my point of view is that we are now looking at a situation where we went from 2 Diablo releases in 20 years (late 2001-early 2023) to now getting modest Diablo releases every 3 months and major ones every year. Are any of them as good as D2 LoD? Not likely. But they are still fun new Diablo content in a game that is fundamentally like D2 (slower paced, power doesn’t only come from items, game doesn’t start at max level), but way more playable than the older games (no stamina, no hit recovery, not shuffling potions around constantly, evade button, smoother animations, no TP and ID scrolls, no charms cluttering inventory, way bigger inventory, easier to fix mistakes in skill point allocation).
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Been hear since 1, casual to semi casual, game needs improvements for sure but pretty solid for me.
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Ditto! Pretty much in the same boat.
I take into account the carved out features being saved for future expansions.
One day it will be good, great even, it’s just a matter of time before we get a complete game.
How long? Probably 10 years.
Gen X’er here, been here since the start… and I do believe the state of the game was on purpose. Is the prime evil diablo or cash money?
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It absolutely was released this way on purpose to trickle in content.
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I already accepted it a very long time ago, the moment when the original team behind creating this game dissolved and moved on, that it would never be the same again.
Thief - That is another good example of an old game that just did not feel as good and fun once orignal team involuntarily dissolved.
So when I play like I do Diablo 4, I just take it for what it is by not being that seriously invested at all, have grown to expand and found other games even more enjoyable because of it.
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Most of the big companies peaked a long time ago. As soon as investors got involved things went down hill and in a hurry. I’ve said in other places that once a game company goes public they’re essentially screwed. Quality will suffer. They’ll be forced to do things they know their fans won’t like. In the end they’ll be something people avoid. The only good to come out of it is the fact that indies are allowed to kill it now. Games I would have never considered in the past have turned out to be great. My time is no longer locked by good " AAA " releases. It’s also one of the reasons I gave up on the MMO genre as a whole. It’s too much of a time sink with way too many ways to time gate things, try to force you to play as long as possible. I’m not going to miss out on something like Remnant II or Armored Core VI because I’m too busy grinding some bull pockey mechanic in an MMO. Which is sad because I do miss my EQ and WoW days. I even had fun in Rift and Wildstar.
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I’ve said this before but the difference between d2 and d4 is a fundamental core attitude problem, not necessarily the game itself. It has issues but most can be fixed, the problems with the game are just bleed through from the endemic issues playing the company as a whole.
If you listen to the interviews on d2’s development that came out with the relaunch, the crazy crunch, the chaos, etc it’s similar to what happened with d4 but there’s a fundamental key difference. See, they knew Diablo 2 would be an online multiplayer game… so that was their key focal point and driver for the whole game. It’s why D2R isn’t as good as it used to be, because it’s also it’s largest weakness. It was designed to be filled with players, and the game is centrally built around a merged, social experience. Yes, you can play solo self found, yes, you Dan play single player… but it’s significantly less of an ideal experience because the game was built around it being a multiplayer game… a revolutionary concept at the time by the way to the damn kids always walking on my lawn shakes walker angrily
D4 exists in an era where multiplayer is ubiquitous and essentially an essential since cosmetic sales in single player are a joke that doesn’t typically go very well. Such is the nature of things, but blizzard, in their infinite wisdom is so cooperate and soulless they have done everything EVERYTHING in their power to hide the fact it is a social experience. No looking for group system, no text chat, no searchable lobbies. Because they are worried about the PR and because features that the STARCRAFT ONE AFTERMARKET BATTLE NET STEALTHBOT CHAT MOD BOTS HAD, that being the ability to auto-hide/remove/ban any user uttering a phrase. Is too complex for a company purchased for 68 billion dollars to impliment so they have utterly no possible way to combat third party sellers, as such they simply disable any real ability to socialize in a multiplayer game and end up with this… soulless grind.
D1, d2, wow, all had soulless grinds. But they prioritized socialization and comradery, and you bonded with your fellow players over how soul-crushingly boring the grind is. I remember struggling so hard in d1 till this guy who seemed to be utterly glowing in the craziest looking gear I ever saw joined the world… and helped me out, and I was so inspired to do better and be better by him that I worked so hard at it. In d4 they actively discourage it via every means they have available to them that doesn’t impact their marketing departments push to make you see other players so they can maybe sell you cosmetic horses for half the price of the game to show off.
And that’s not changing. So while the game may get better and be less Grindy, the fundamental issues will forever remain.
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Multiplayer isn’t ubiquitous. It’s a crutch companies lean on so they can shove purchases into the game. Diablo doesn’t have to be multiplayer, it’s perfectly playable offline. These days when they say a game is going to be a live service they mean it’s going to be a trash product, or meh at best, and the only thing that gets fixed immediately is the shop. Everything else supposedly takes months or years to fix. That’s why I have absolutely zero interest in Suicide Squad.
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Diablo has been multiplayer, and a multiplayer focused game for the vast majority of it’s existence.
It’s entire success is based on this fact. Diablo 2 blew up because of its multiplayer. Without that it would have been just another game.
Agree with the rest. Live service just means they are monetizing the last 2 years of development, so instead of finishing, they are launching the buggy mess at full price so they can sell you cosmetics while they finish developing the game, which is just in time for them to drop their new bet… err… “Finished” game on you. This has been a call of duty Hallmark for a decade.
Anthem broke my heart. The gunplay is so amazing. Everything else was a trainwreck but man it has so much potential… wasted. That was the first time “live service” really burned me and it’s been awful and getting worse ever since.
More copies of Diablo were on computers than Windows. That’s a real statistic so no … multiplayer isn’t required. The only thing it really bring is the ability to play with others and the trade thing. Which is good if RNG screws you. I’ve never found a Windforce but I have traded for them. Diablo itself has been online since the second one but I wasn’t really talking about Diablo itself when I said that. It’s more of a modern trend to make everything online strictly for the shop. Otherwise a lot of games don’t need to have an online feature. I was just talking about that instead of games who’re online for the play with others aspect. Basically the usual companies chasing trends thing. Actually after thinking about it I can’t even remember if the first Diablo was online or not. It was so long ago.
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I wanted to try Anthem but I wait on reviews for everything. When I heard how shallow and empty the game was I passed on it. It had the potential to be something great but as usual greed ruined it. What’s sadder is people paid full price for it and now they have a game they can’t even play.
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I started playing Morrowind of all games, recently, well more like building a mod loadout for a playthrough, but eh.
What even is a “Real Diablo fan”? Seems like the community is divided on almost every single individual issue. Wouldn’t hold my breath on things becoming much better either. As long as the first priority is investors and profits, to speak nothing of current day sensibilities, you can pretty much kiss goodbye to developer passion and artistic vision.
Once upon a time a " Real " fan was someone who’s always loved something and knew either everything about it or way too much about it. As opposed to bandwagoners or people who simply like something after discovering it, without really knowing much about it. In the end it doesn’t really matter a whole lot. People just use the line to try and look down on others. A fan is a fan. Some know more than others is all.
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the funny part is nobody gives a flying f about being a fan or not anymore
blizzard certain does not care, as long as you give them money that is.
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