"White knights" and toxic forum

This is mostly it for me. I’ve played most major ARPGs of the past 20 years at or near launch, including all Diablo games since D1, and there’s never been one without constant complaints and frustrations (except D1 maybe, because gamers were built different back then, and by that I mean most of us didn’t talk about our games online, we just played them…or didn’t). They all have their own unique problems, but there are many that they tend to share, such as a short or weak endgame loop, a lack of QoL features, and a whole heap of bad skills, broken skills, exploits, etc. These games invite problems like that because of all the moving parts to balance, though much of it is also due to inadequate pre-release beta testing at all levels of play.

Some of those never quite become great, while others end up setting the standard for others to follow. Diablo essentially established the genre, D2 laid the modern foundations for it and came up with many of the standards we now see everywhere, D3 showed us what smooth combat could look like, Titan Quest offered a lot in the way of in-depth class design and dual class masteries, Path of Exile added levels of skill customization never before seen in the genre and a plethora of endgame mechanics over the years, good and bad, for any other developer to try and riff on in the future.

I’m disappointed that D4 launched in the state it’s in, but it’s not an unfamiliar disappointment. I’m under no illusions regarding the amount of time it takes to fix things and subsequently ascend to greatness though, and for what it’s worth I have confidence that Blizz can take this game to great places in the future. That doesn’t mean they will, but if they can firm up their vision and development pipelines it can certainly be achieved. I think that on the merits of the bones of the game alone it will be a game I continue to play as they add more legendaries and uniques and expansions, but only time will tell if they choose to actually innovate, skillfully borrow or add systems from older titles in the series to really make it something special.

So while I’m not as down on the game as some and find it enjoyable even now, I also know that it could be a lot better and that it should have released in a stronger state given the studio that made it. I honestly feel like they spend so much time on production values that the core gameplay team doesn’t get enough love relative to the other pieces of the puzzle. I hope this balance shifts.

Anyway, sorry for the wall. :sweat_smile: :v:

P.S. I love patches, usually even when they make people angry. :laughing:

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