I have a question for Blizzard. This game is supposed to be a live service, not a product put out for us to play online without responding to any feedback. Emphasizing the service aspect of live services is that there should be a consistent back and forth between the community and dev team. It’s been over a week, 2 weeks since the start of early access. Naturally we’ve gotten bug fixes, thank you, but the gameplay tweaks seem not to vibe well other than the very hardcore fan base. Its as if we got one version of the game for early access, and another version of the game after going live, since then we have been getting game updates with the update notes coming after the updates hit. There is no public list of what you are working on, or response to community feedback.
If this is a service, shouldn’t there be a constant consumer/developer dialogue? That was my expectation for when this game became a service model. The whole meaning of this game being a esrvice is there should be anhonest dialogue, not just developers vaguely telling us they are paying attention. Part of paying attention to your customer base is by keeping us in the loop of what you plan to do with this game as a service and whether or not any comunity feedback is even considered. It feels as if this game is falling into the same pit as other dead live service games. Theres a release, fans buy-in, get ignored, their feedback gets minimally implemented, people get bored and move on to other games as the player base dwindles over time until the servers get shut off.
I am hoping that we avoid this viscious live service cycle by keeping an active dialogue with the community at large. Please stay consistently engaged, even if its a weekly update to let us know what is being acknowledged with realistic time estimates. This current wall between developers and customers kind of defeats the whole purpose of this game becoming a “service” when the gameplay tweaks were put out, falling into another trap of live service games, keeping the game “fun enough” while the community keeps telling you how to make the game more enjoyable before you ask us for more money after having spent $70 to $100 to invest in this service and dialogue. I was hoping that this message board would have more feedback and not just a bunch of people throwing their feedback at a wall. I know it can take months to implement new features into your live service, but in the esrvice industry, when you have active paying customers and it takes time to implement what the customers are requesting alomg with what planned elements are being rolled out. I just wish this esrvice had more transparency with us customers, I would love to see a roadmap as the game is currently live, and vey far from perfect. It feels like the version of the game that got such high praise has already changed significantly for the worse. The potential is there to become the first successful live service, but you need to start a more active community dialogue. Don’t just tell us what is done, please keep telling us what you are working as a service has a consistent life cycle, for everything thats resolved, theres always something new to work on. Since you want to charge a premium price for this esrvice, there should be a premium level of development transparency, thus actually making this a service, otherwise, please convert this game to a single player model and make all characters OP. Diablo 3 had a 3 month cycle for seasonal play, but at least were eventually transparent on upcoming seasons, announcing what the gameplay tweaks and expectations are sometimes more than a month in advance. This is Diablo 4, and I am not seeing any sort of communication or documentation of how you intend to make this game in the coming months and years. Please at least tell us what you plan to be working on, give me something to be excited for as the game gets stale quickly at level 50 with some kind of progression wall, making the grind less fun, or just “fun enough” after completing the story. If the focus moving forward is not on keeping the game fun and engaging, this game might be yet, another dead live service. Please buck the trend be actually engsging your fan base and leaning more heavily on the service aspect. This game can successfully become one of the first successful live service model AAA games if executed in a way where there is an active dialogue between us all. Please be the standout success, not another mediocre attempt at a failed business model. The game looks amazing, but my hopes is for the game to play as consistently amazing as the looks. Please stop aiming for " just fun enough" and create what our expectations should be so I can adjust just how hopeful I should be for the future of this service. If we can all be on the same page, this will continue to be a big success as the crowd seems a bit divided on what we want out of this service, we can naturally rally together behind what you actually intend to do over time as this game evolves, we need specifics, not general terms in order to thrive.
Thank you.