Well according to google trends, D4 has lost even more active players for opening day of season 1 – now that is a big ‘L’ that can’t be ignored.
https://www.playerauctions.com/player-count/diablo-4/
Edit: Added additional statistic link to support data
https://activeplayer.io/diablo-4/
Edit 2* 600k players down from peak of 3m according to activeplayer stats, 800k down from google search metric. This is not a complete picture – but correlative data for trend sentiment.
The point of the thread title is to highlight a problem that many dev studios can’t seem to understand – this is our game, not yours. But the second we are ignored and told how its going to be, you lose that customer/player.
Everything we asked for, you (blizzard) pretty much did the opposite. Why? Because you wanted to handicap the eternal realm to funnel more players into the season battle pass. We get it – we understand you wish to show quarterly returns for shareholders and make more profit for them, but you (blizzard) need to understand that your best strategy for player retention and returns is to basically throw out your (blizzard) ideas and your vision for the game, and replace it with the feedback and direction that the community is giving. We’re not here to please your needs, its the other way around – no one has a need to slow the game down while becoming less powerful in the process.
It really does baffle so many that all these unwanted changes happen right before the season, but worse than that – right before competing titles like Balders Gate are released. You (Blizzard) have to understand that your relationship with the playerbase is one that does require TRUST to be built and nurtured. That does not happen when you ignore what we ask for, do what we don’t want you do to, and then try to justify it with a sentiment of “we know what is better for you than you do”. I’m sorry, but no – your role is not to shove your vision/ideas down our necks, rather its to attend and deliver to the vision and ideas that we the players guide. In other words – throw your spreadsheets out the window, fire anyone who doesn’t seem to realize that games are to be enjoyed and not a pseudo-career replacement. Sure, adding more challenging content to scale vertical progression is most definitely something we want – but going about it by nerfing defence, increasing mob hp, handicapping damage, and nerfing xp gain; all of this just screams laziness and is received like some kind of punishment – thats just the fact of it, and thats why there is less people playing on opening day of season 1. It does not matter if you (blizzard) have “given back” all the power you took away and nested this in the season realm – because no one likes to feel coerced into chasing a carrot on a string that they had already acquired. Simply put – how have you (blizzard) demonstrated any priority at all to the feedback from players? If anything, you have done much worse than not listen to the community; you have done the complete opposite and that is like a big middle finger to all of us, so the decreasing active player stats is our way of reciprocating the gesture. You do not get to please your shareholders without first pleasing your playerbase – it is us who bring the money in, not shareholders, so you (blizzard) really need to let this community take the lead direction and changes. We play the game (or atleast used too), we know what is best for the game – the wisdom of the crowd superseeds the experience and numbers of your studio. If you want to pay staff to keep implementing silly changes that push players away, then you’re making a fatal business error. STOP prioritizng your studios ideas over the players ideas – you don’t even need game designers at this point, just game developers to attend what the community is saying.
Last point here is to understand the demographic of your playerbase and factor that into the overall ethos of development. That is, most of the playerbase are not Gen Z – it is Millennials in their 30’s. Do you really think we want to come home from working a paid job to play a game that feels like an unpaid job with a demotion? We want an escape to temporally immerse ourselves in fun, excitement and enjoyment. Our available time is limited and we already get our “adversity fix” from our daily lives – once again, stop trying to make the game into a pseudo-career with unnecessary limitations to increase grind and your concurrent player statistics. Obviously you (blizzard) have seen the outcome of this – it did not result in more concurrent players, but much less.
I 100% believe that if you had not released this patch and instead done nothing at all – that would of been a better outcome for player retention. You see, you have actually lost more players with this awful approach to try garnish more players. We do not like to feel leveraged and coerced into the narrow pathway that you have laid out without our consent or considered input.
We’re not here to play your game, we’re here to shape our own game – understand very firmly that we are investing time and money, and for that we expect more than just gameplay – We want a SAY in how the game develops and changes. Actually, more than just having a ‘say’ in things, we expect the game to develop along the lines of feedback that we give.
What you need to do from here if you really want another shot at saving D4;
- Revert the patch, there is just too much crap in it to try gimmick our way through adjusting it better.
// - QoL changes need to be prioritized – often QoL is seen as some kind of lower priority thing that is not “core” to the overall game design. Sorry, but QoL changes should not be a low priority – what is QoL fundamentally? It is a direct change that improves enjoyment of the game with low to no risk of downside balances. So make it a priority and show us that we mean more than profits, or we will show you that consensus and fulfillment (or lack of) IS the vehicle for profit. Prioritize QoL changes.
// - Change your methodology for identifying what you think needs to be changed. That is, stop looking at bloody spreadsheets and consulting your team with camp fire chats to make decisions. Instead, compile the popular requests from player feedback and use this to guide your decision making for changes. It does not matter if your spreadsheets show that 99% of players are using a particular item – what matters is do the players actually want you to disrupt that or leave it be. Which brings me to my last point.
// - Pre-post intended changes before releasing the patch, get our feedback on it first – collaborate with us. Perhaps even a voting poll would be useful, although that may introduce botting issues. Essentially, treat the community like we’re the CEO – run the changes through us, and we will tell you what to adjust and what not to adjust. It really is that simple, and that is the more effective way you will retain players, increase concurrent players, and actually have a community who praises the game to others giving growth through word of mouth and reputation.
If there is only 1 thing you (blizzard) take away from this thread – it is this;
Collaborate, collaborate and collaborate with us. You have millions of minds our there who play your game much more than those in your studio, many whom have been lifetime gamers that do know what they’re talking about.
DO pre-release proposals of patches, and get feedback first before rolling it out – collaborate.
Hand the reins over to us and we will hand our money over to your shareholders – thats the deal. Hope this does not fall on deaf ears like all the other posts. Good luck with hopefully turning all this around for D4, you have a short time to make it happen to avoid a mass exodus to BG3. Even if BG3 is a better game, if you’re able to foster trust, collaboration and actually nurture and respect players time and investment – than we will be loyal to the title that meets those needs.
Unfortunately making a great game is not enough – you have to involve us in the creative process. More than ‘involve’ you have to let us lead the changes whereby we take into consideration your (blizzard) ideas. Otherwise, whos game is it anyway?
Update: 22nd/Jul
The D4 team has attended many of these points in the recent live stream;
- Pre-release patch notes to provide opportunity for player feedback and collaboration.
- Protocol changes to approaching balancing ‘allowing things to be overpowered until there are compelling alternatives for build diversity, however, still intervening readily for game breaking issues’
- Grind from 50-100 reduced significantly, quote not their intent to make it feel like work.
- More emphasis on enjoyment and fun
- Prioritization of QoL changes, inv space namely.
- Clarified intention behind xp changes and recent nerfs
- They will not drop another patch like that again – which would refer to taxing power/progress with lots of nerfing or other means ect.
I think this is a good response to feedback and it is evident that the disappointment is shared with the d4 team. But this is a good show of faith nonetheless, and you can’t really ask for much more than that right now. Still, we do have to see follow through with good execution – but the main progress demonstrated here is a fundamental change in communication going forward, acknowledgement of community points and input, and fast tracked plans to remedy many of the pressing issues.