[Casual] - for players who likes everything is easy, e.g. 3 duriels = 1 uber, something like that
[Normal] - for normal sane players, current form of game we are playing right now
[Hardcore] - hardcore but not the single life hardcore, but a hardcore in everything you obtain loots/tempering/masterworking/uber uniques drop rates etc… This is for players who likes the original form of game
If diablo is going into the masses route 
Nah, casuals for the win. Play, fun have good time. The so-called hards can go play d2
or the so called casuals can go play d3.
or leave it how it is? why would they offer difficulty settings in an openworld game?
I really don’t care for this whole casual vs hardcore crap. For one, most so called “Hardcore players” are F.O.S They claim to have played D2 and were hardcore but D2 was full of cheaters.
They duped items all the time and used hacked gear. Now we have whales calling themselfs hardcore. It just gets dummer by the day. Just play and enjoy don’t worry about the others they will run over to POE soon so they can feel like number 1 in their small world.
even if I play a lot of hours I would switch to casual. simply because this will allow to try more builds and classes per season. and for me personally gear means just build breakpoints not some magical drop excitement that will keep me going. the only reason I still play S4 frankly us because I wanted to try infinite shield sorc. casual mode will allow to do it faster and with more classes.
Or everyone can play what ever the heck they like. But maybe with out complaining all the time.
If you think the game is hard and you don’t like it, drop it. Find something else.
If you think the game is easy and you don’t like it, drop it. Find something else.
If you think the game is allright and you like it, go play it.
Said this before and will say it again:
The problem is not “the game itself” but more like the secondary game, i.e. “the game that happens while you are playing the game itself”
THAT is bad and needs to change. The whole “secondary” game of D4 is these 2 things:
1 - Angle-adjusted Treadmill
2 - Slot Machine to spend currencies that you obtained during that treadmill
THAT is the issue with the game (and have to think “outside the box” to fix it). The game needs more “surprises” and unpredictable things (or things with unpredictable outcomes at least)
Can’t go on for much longer with that Slot-Machine-Treadmill (people will get exhausted one way or another, someday)
While I DO like the Release state of the game a bit more, the problem with both is the same
Every single activity/event in the game has 2 things:
This will bore people to death (if not already has), have to mess that “seemless sequencer” up a little bit here and there
We need “rare deviations” and “rare (unstandard) rewards” that may or may not keep people hooked-up with the game… Can start earlier, can do later. Personally would rather start earlier but the important point is - there should be a small but not entirely negligible chance for small surprises (akin to Butcher) that the player mostly (if not totally) unaware of them
Step 1 - Load a Pit (the usual, say level 66)
Step 2 - A certain or a certain few elites in that Pit run gain something totally “random outside of the set” ability to cast or an elite affix upgrade:
And when you kill them there’s a chance they drop stuff you can obtain nowhere else. Not always, but there’s a chance (thematically the mob augmentation itself would “hint” what they could drop however)
We need THAT, more “individualization of final impact” (as opposed to having the game totally keep everyone and everything “within certain set of parameters”). The same could be done with NMDs as well
And now to the final question - it works both ways - in current state of the game this would need to be an “end tier” mechanic (lvl95 at minimum), and in the “original game”, this kind of unpredictability could (and probably should) be incorporated earlier (say starting from lvl35) - that would give people a sense of completion and an impression of milestones as well
Would love it and fully support it.
Btw I have a feeling that “Hardcore” mode would be the most populated server.
You’re in for bad time. You spend your life on thi forum whining about the game going casual, this isn’t the game for you.
Hi, as I said. this game s for casuals, i’m right where I should be. the so-called ‘hards’ are the ones trying to change the game. It’s not the game for them, but casiual is for me so I’m fine 
Just like Hardcore is the most played kind of character? No. Neither is SSF in other games. They have a fanbase, but it’s not the majority, lol.
I think adding a world tier 5 would make more sense. Casuals can play on wt4 if 5 is too hard for them.
Games with a single, well designed difficulty, tends to be better tbh.
Probably not realistic for an A-RPG to have just one difficulty setting, but the goal should be the same; offer fair and challenging combat for players.
Games should never try to cater to everyone. It will only lead to bland and uninteresting games catering to no one.
Okay, but I think the game should offer something the tryhard gamers also. A game should offer something for everyone. And yet here you are gate keeping, and fear these people are going to ruin it. 99% of the game is casual friendly, can tryhards have maybe more than that 1% for them? They are not trying to ruing the whole game for you, they are trying to make little bit more space for them selfs, and feel included.
No game could or should offer this. Genres exists for a reason. People like different things. Some like hard games some like easy games. These two are incompatible.
Some like short games some like long games. These two are incompatible.
Some like complex game some like simple games. These two are incompatible.
Yet Blizz wants to have em all cause they all have the same “Money” to spend.
What happenes if you try to please everyone? You will please no one!.
Make the game harder people will comlain.
Make the game easier the people will complain.
Make it more complex and people will complain.
Make it more simple and people will complain.
this comes not from the fact that people are hard to please, those are different people.
Yet since blizz is aiming for everyone they also will havve everyone complain.
This is why blizzard has no clear focus on the game, no direction. They are never “Acting” and only “reacting” in their development and this is why D4 is the most boring and bland ARPG we have even though it has the biggest budged and manpower by far.
And the vast majority of player will run the casual mode only. If there is an easy route, most people will take it.
You’re idea is basically the normal/ruthless modes from POE. afaik GGG never announce anything about how much poeple play each, but someone did it on reddit a while ago with a fair amount of extrapolation (https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/160oewa/why_is_ruthless_a_thing_at_all_with_numbers/). He conclude that ruthless player is less than 2% of the entire playerbase.
Adding that ruthless mode is apparently a pet project from top management at GGG (which really help it to be a thing), why would Blizzard invest some time into a similar mode that may be barely played ?
Ya but the “normal” gamemode in PoE is miles ahead in terms of challenge of anything D4 does. You do not necessarly need a hard mode in PoE the game is already quiet challenging.
As far as i know that ruthless mode does not make the game harder and only reduced the loot by a lot.(but i am not sure here someone else can tell better i think)
Since Rod fegusson is talking about “Power fantasy here and Playerpower that there” i can barely see any chance for D4 to become a challenging and dark game. He is clearly aiming for a simple clickfest game. Hey fine if poeple like this do it. Why waste diablo on it though, could had been any diablo “sideproject”, World of diablo or so… This is Diablo 4 i except a real diablo.
It’s no longer only less loot and different drop rules, check 3.22 patchnote and you’ll see alot of differences between normal and ruthless (ruthless being less powerful than normal in most cases).
The Diablo series took that route since D3 when they removed the old school difficulty system. I remember that progressing through armageddon was really hard (as a barbarian at least). It make sense that D4 follow that route too and in that regards, the ruthless/hardcore mode would be the sideproject to me.
They would literally be on here complaining that same day and the devs would cave and change it.