As bad as this is going to sound, and trust me I know, D3 pretty much did the same thing. D3’s player base flourished several years after their expansion released.
I could easily see D4 going down the same road, or it could crash and burn trying to get there, or it could improve quicker. At this point we just don’t know.
They listened. That’s my problem.
Well the wrong ones and the loud minority because the game was miles better on launch - content was lacking but could have been added seasons after seasons (not as temporary borrowed crap) - game launched somewhere between d2 and d3, now it’s arcade lootfest and ppl still crying for more loot and more ancestrals yikes.
For one, ‘buying a game’ used to translate to ‘owning a game.’ Even on pc.
You get your game media, it wasn’t likely to get many updates, maybe a patch or two post launch if there are bugs to fix. Otherwise, you bought a game and owned a game.
Something you can still do today, in fact. To answer your question: people bought D4 based on a version of the game that was sold to them at some point. Whether we are talking early access prior to launch, or even a brand new player during vessel of hatred launch, that version of the game no longer exists, for better or worse.
So when you, the informed gamer who paid attention to patch notes, who did whatever you did prior to the game changing, realize the game is now different: that feels bad.
It doesnt feel better when new systems try to give some new loots… because chances are, you were in the middle of some sort of progress, which is now undone, or moot, or even removed from the game.
Its not ‘gamers being uninformed’ that is the problem. Its d4 not being representative of a finished game worthy of anyones legit time investment, not now, not at any point during its life. The problem is the developers dont understand how to design quality games anymore, they insist on iteration, trial n error, and constantly updating bad design, to give players something to pay for.
It’s the equivalent of going to a fancy restaurant and being served mcdonalds. Thinking it’s okey to charge players for this experience, is the reason people want their money back. We arent alpha or beta testers. Hope this helps you understand.
This applies to all online games. Anyone buying an online game understands that changes will be made and everything that goes along with that.
Kind of depends how much of a change, how often, and what scope to be fair.
Voh was an expac so expected, but what happened up to that was…almost as exceptional as cyberpunk.
D4…lolz.
100% this. QA non-existent. Balancing non-existent. Play-testing non-existent.
Pushing an expansion comprised 90% of manure out the door to satify stakeholders/meet arbitrary dates isn’t the way to keep a loyal base on side.
If Blizzard had turned around and said “we’re gonna push back the expansion by X weeks because of [insert quality/polish reasons here]” noone would have complained. Arguably they might have been praised for doing so.
Squenix did it with the XIV Endwalker expansion. GGG literally just did it with POE2. If it’s not ready; don’t ship it.
I don’t regret my diablo 4 game purchases or get angry about them. I get angry about what it could be. Make it a framework and I will takeover the market for you and hand deliver the tax.
Apparently before it was reach level 100, do nightmare dungeons to 100 if you can, and maybe fight Lilith? That wasn’t really enough as loot was complained about, NMD were I guess not popular enough, and so much of the game felt underdeveloped at release.
At beta I was excited though. I liked seeing the stats I did on gear and fighting interesting mobs and somewhat hard hitting bosses. But some of those mobs would just nonstop chain cc you to death too.
I get your point in this statement, however, does the content creator play the way I play? Or am I supposed to decide on what someone else decided without experiencing it with my play style? No streamer is ever biased in opinions… Meta rules in aRPG today for a large portion of the games.
How did I not get what I paid for? Hmm… Sorcerer, frost bolt does 38% damage. Weapon indicated 11 damage, tip on frost bolt showed 3 damage… Fantastic numbers… Take it to test it out and 98% of damage is 1 not 3, not 2, but 1… Streamers did NOT point this out, I tested it and found out.
Nothing in streaming I’ve seen or in marketing and game videos did they cover the imbalance issues in classes. On and on and on…
I play the game, yes I got my money worth and then some in regard to money spent and hours played… This does not equate to losing the feeling of being mislead by Blizzard…
Or how about the current Sleigh Ride to Hell event that without a popup and marketing no one would even know it was happening… Or the prior event if no one went into a dungeon and without seeing marketing they would never have known the event happened…
Sleigh Ride could have been a blast, but avast we don’t even get a counter on the community progression yet alone a counter on your personal progression.
Anyone playing a game online understands that the game could be changed at some point, when there is a reason to change it (bug fixes, asset update, ect). Adding new content isn’t a legitimate reason to change anything, as evidenced by the fact this game has had 6 major patches since it’s launch nearly 2 years ago, and it’s honestly still not even a ‘finished’ play experience. I remember the two open betas they had prior to launch, and the first month of D4 prior to season 1. That was a good game, even if things about it were still very much WIP.
You tell me when D4 is finished, I will tell people when they can buy the game with confidence.
Part of the problem was that people expected a decent end game. It didnt need to be perpetual but it didnt really have one that compared to d2 or d3. So really didnt appeal to either group of players.
But both D2 and D3 had their solid end-game loops after all DLC came out. I just feel like that’s important to note; that is the game that will exist in 3 more years probably.
Weird situation i think, when you look at a lot of peoples i got scammed posts way back when, it was a mix of the season 1 mass nerf that occurred and those people who got to the end and were “now what”.
Many people did point out that d4 was supposed to have an end so they have no bearing to be scammed either.
I think the term scammed is definitely over the top for most, i think you might find a few genuine cases where players felt they were sold a different game from expectation wise and from what they received from the media and streamers.
Keep in mind, “small print” type of rationalizing often doesnt apply to these scenarios from a practical standpoint and how a player “feels”. While legally, clearly have no grounds for any scamming (obviously).
Im sure there are real lawyers playing this game thatcould comment on standing relative to this / class actions, which i imagine is none or no standing.
I started playing at the end of S5. I read forums, listened to streamers. Everyone was saying game was moving to a better direction. Itemization was getting better class balance was getting better new X-Pac was looking good etc.
Played for about 2 weeks enjoyed my time did a lot of things alone. Then just before the launch I bought VoH.
You know what happened? VoH was almost the exact opposite of what was told. If it wasn’t for SB, I would have quit in the first couple of weeks. I wanted to hit paragon 300 but stopped at 296. I can’t bring myself to play since the a certain date in December.
It’s impossible for me to know if I like a game by hearing others opinions about it. It helps, sure, but in many games you must experience the loop by yourself to see if you like it.
Diablo games must be played for hundreds of hours to truly know how the game works, and if is something worth spending big amounts of time on, since the game is designed that way. I had to buy D4 to try it, since D3 was hated by players, and I loved that.
The first ten hours of playing Dark Souls I hated it, just could not figure out how it worked and what made it fun.
Others opinions are only that. Your own experience comes from doing stuff yourself.
Ive never got it either. And this isnt unique to D4 because POE2 has the same exact word vomit on their forums.
“Game is too hard”
" Combat is too slow"
" This isnt like POE1"
“I feel scammed”
All things they would have known had they done a simple youtube search. With all the info that is available I have no sympathy for ignorant buyers.
All you need to know is this: this is the first game in the franchise with ‘Diablo’ in its name, without Diablo in it. We’re beyond the first expansion, and we hardly had a fight with Mephisto. How many expansions will it take?
I’ll tell you what’s happening: Blizz has their entire fanbase over a barrel. It’s all a hook for whales to buy their expensive cosmetics. The End.
Would you be happier to be one-shot farming prime evils with materials from duriel/andariel for 750 uniques, with a sprinkling of ancestrals, and too many mythics? That’s what we’d get with the current state of the dev team.
I thought Blood Harvest showed if they added more events like that it would help. But then they stick things at 100, forcing them to come out and say after nerfing leveling “we just want get you into the fun”. I’m thinking to myself, why do you do that?.. why not make the activity available earlier while leveling?
I am late to the party here, and while I agree in principle, that streaming gives a fairly good way to see if a game might be for you, before buying, there is one issue in this kind of reasoning when it comes to D4;
The game is wildly different today from what it was at release.
Someone might have seen those streams and decided the game was for them. At release. But it very much might not be the case today.
Or vice versa.
Personally though, I had zero faith in blizzard delivering on D4. There was a lot of warning signs leading up to release. So I didn’t buy it, but then got it through some marketing event instead.
The game was honestly much better at release than I had expected.
Not so much anymore.
In any case, I don’t understand getting angry about a game purchase. It is what it is.
Being disappointed is a different matter.
Don’t worry, neither can they.