Slowly abandoning Diablo 3

[VladG]

I just hate the fact that with no choice in character progression, all that differentiates your character from another one from the same class is the items you have equipped.

Why hello there Real Money Auction House, can I buy some items please?

It's sickening, character progression taken away so that the only way to improve the builds is to buy MEGA SUPER ITEMZ from the RMAH.

I'll see you on Path of Exile which is Free To Play and has the mighty Sphere-Grid-like Skill Web.

Or, you know, the skills you chose to use, since out of dozens you can only have a few at a time.

I have many friends playing the same class as me. None use even remotely similar builds.

This system allows for true customization, unlike skill trees that always have a best build.

 

[Baldr]

I still have not found the best skills I want to use. I keep switching them around. Damn you Blizzard I hate choice.

 

[Limecake]

I just hate the fact that with no choice in character progression, all that differentiates your character from another one from the same class is the items you have equipped.

Why hello there Real Money Auction House, can I buy some items please?

It's sickening, character progression taken away so that the only way to improve the builds is to buy MEGA SUPER ITEMZ from the RMAH.

I'll see you on Path of Exile which is Free To Play and has the mighty Sphere-Grid-like Skill Web.

not exactly, my monk is built like a tank right now due to the items he has, but if I wanted to switch to say a dedicated healer I'd have to change most of my items from 'dodgey healthy items' to 'spirit regen items' and change my skills accordingly.

it's true there is no 'permanent choice' when selecting skills but I don't mind since I always hated having to re-roll a new character in Diablo 2 if I wanted to use a different spell or two.

did people really find investing 3 levels worth of skill points in '+5% damage with swords' compelling character choice?

OT: I'm pretty burnt out on Diablo 3 at the moment, I played a lot of it and will probably play more but I'm taking a break because it does get to be repetitive.

 

[Imper1um]

This is one of the reasons Diablo 3 will be forgotten and dropped within a year.

The fact is that Diablo 1 and 2 has survived because of one reason: the modding community. Blizzard didn't really support the game 2 years after launch, but the modding community continued to develop content and add things far after that. In fact, I still know people who turn it on from time to time. However, with D3 being so hard-ass on "NO PLAYER CONTENT" because they "don't want people to cheat" (translation: we don't want people to steal our game (DRM), reality: d3 server emulators already exist (DRM cracked)), this game won't last long.

The real-money auction house will be a huge success for about 2-3 weeks while simple things cost a dollar. However, after that, even items that are really hard to get will cost less than a dollar, and the RL Auction House will end up being flooded by Chinese gold farmers, which will be even worse (we'll probably see the most epic gear being sold at $0.50).

Its just one problem compounded upon another. Blizzard had a great idea, but failed on the execution. It looks like a good game, just riddled with issues that Activision has caused: Over the top DRM, over the top Monetization, and wanting to appeal to the casuals. Activision and World of Warcraft is the worst thing that has ever happened to Blizzard, because before these two issues, Blizzard made amazing games (for the times) that I enjoyed.

 

[Aeshi]

This is one of the reasons Diablo 3 will be forgotten and dropped within a year.

That'd be the same way the creators of Final Fantasy expected to go bust after the first game?

The fact is that Diablo 1 and 2 has survived because of one reason: the modding community. Blizzard didn't really support the game 2 years after launch, but the modding community continued to develop content and add things far after that. In fact, I still know people who turn it on from time to time.

I'm sure Diablo III will be forever reeling from the loss of Auto-mappers, Hacked gear/stats and all the other 'mods' of it's predecessors that everyone forgets about/ignores due to the ever-infinite power of NOSTALGIA.

However, with D3 being so hard-ass on "NO PLAYER CONTENT" because they "don't want people to cheat" (translation: we don't want people to steal our game (DRM), reality: d3 server emulators already exist (DRM cracked)), this game won't last long.

Source? As far as I know current crack process is somewhere between "BETA Emulator" and "uncracked copy on torrents for crackers to download", and the last person who made this claim basically said "I don't need a source,it's PROBABLY happened*" so until I see an actual source I'm just going to assume you're every bit the liar he was.

The real-money auction house will be a huge success for about 2-3 weeks while simple things cost a dollar. However, after that, even items that are really hard to get will cost less than a dollar, and the RL Auction House will end up being flooded by Chinese gold farmers, which will be even worse (we'll probably see the most epic gear being sold at $0.50).

As opposed to seeing it conjured for free and/or duped via the aforementioned hacks?

Its just one problem compounded upon another. Blizzard had a great idea, but failed on the execution. It looks like a good game, just riddled with issues that Activision has caused: Over the top DRM, over the top Monetization, and wanting to appeal to the casuals. Activision and World of Warcraft is the worst thing that has ever happened to Blizzard, because before these two issues, Blizzard made amazing games (for the times) that I enjoyed.

I'm willing to bet that's nostalgia speaking again (also I like how you try to preserve said nostalgia by blaming all Blizzards flaws on the (newer) half of the company that's (slightly) cooler to bash.)

*Of course even after he admitted this people still parroted his word as truth, proving that no matter how much people on this forum look down on "Mainstream sheep" they'll still happily fall in line behind anyone who parrots their line of bullshit

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Living in Brasil, I?m far enough from the servers to have guaranteed lag with an uncomfortable frequency.

Why the hell did you even buy the game then? I have literally no sympathy for you, because you spent your money on something you absolutely knew would not work very well for you.

Your complaint is just as flawed as people who say 'this game is shit because my computer can't run it properly'

 

[Buleet]

Man,I'm starting to get why Half-life is taking it's sweet time.
None of the highly anticipated 3's up until now have had a really good reception.
The rage of mass effect three does not need elaboration and Diablo is getting hit by the mighty stick of "meh".

 

[zinho73]

Living in Brasil, I?m far enough from the servers to have guaranteed lag with an uncomfortable frequency.

Why the hell did you even buy the game then? I have literally no sympathy for you, because you spent your money on something you absolutely knew would not work very well for you.

Your complaint is just as flawed as people who say 'this game is shit because my computer can't run it properly'

I bought it because:

1. The game was translated to my language, was officially launched in my country and should work here as good as it works in the US (which, to be fair, appears to be the case, as it doesn't work well there too).

2. WOW has servers in Brasil, I had no reason to think Diablo3 would have a different treatment. But apparently Blizzard is short on money right now and cannot install servers in other locations.

3. I don't have nearly the same amount of problems playing Tera, which is an action based MMO. I thought that if Blizzard could at least replicate this quality, it would be tolerable. To be honest, I've never had so many problems to play any other game in my life, but, granted, I'm not an MMO player (just Guild Wars, 40 minutes of WOW and now Tera).

Please, the fact that the game is full of problems is Blizzard's fault. If their service was OK, I would not have any problems at all (maybe a latency a little bit higher). Since their service is bad, it is worse to me. It is as simple as that, mr. angry internet person.

Jeez...

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Living in Brasil, I?m far enough from the servers to have guaranteed lag with an uncomfortable frequency.

Why the hell did you even buy the game then? I have literally no sympathy for you, because you spent your money on something you absolutely knew would not work very well for you.

Your complaint is just as flawed as people who say 'this game is shit because my computer can't run it properly'

I bought it because:

1. The game was translated to my language, was officially launched in my country and should work here as good as it works in the US (which, to be fair, appears to be the case, as it doesn't work well there too).

2. WOW has servers in Brasil, I had no reason to think Diablo3 would have a different treatment. But apparently Blizzard is short on money right now and cannot install servers in other locations.

3. I don't have nearly the same amount of problems playing Tera, which is an action based MMO. I thought that if Blizzard could at least replicate this quality, it would be tolerable. To be honest, I've never had so many problems to play any other game in my life, but, granted, I'm not an MMO player (just Guild Wars, 40 minutes of WOW and now Tera).

Please, the fact that the game is full of problems is Blizzard's fault. If their service was OK, I would not have any problems at all (maybe a latency a little bit higher). Since their service is bad, it is worse to me. It is as simple as that, mr. angry internet person.

Jeez...

I'm not saying Blizzard did the best job they could have, I'm saying you should have been more careful with your money, given your locale.

D3 is always online DRM, therefore if I had shit internet, I would not have bought it, simple as that.

 

[zinho73]

Living in Brasil, I?m far enough from the servers to have guaranteed lag with an uncomfortable frequency.

Why the hell did you even buy the game then? I have literally no sympathy for you, because you spent your money on something you absolutely knew would not work very well for you.

Your complaint is just as flawed as people who say 'this game is shit because my computer can't run it properly'

I bought it because:

1. The game was translated to my language, was officially launched in my country and should work here as good as it works in the US (which, to be fair, appears to be the case, as it doesn't work well there too).

2. WOW has servers in Brasil, I had no reason to think Diablo3 would have a different treatment. But apparently Blizzard is short on money right now and cannot install servers in other locations.

3. I don't have nearly the same amount of problems playing Tera, which is an action based MMO. I thought that if Blizzard could at least replicate this quality, it would be tolerable. To be honest, I've never had so many problems to play any other game in my life, but, granted, I'm not an MMO player (just Guild Wars, 40 minutes of WOW and now Tera).

Please, the fact that the game is full of problems is Blizzard's fault. If their service was OK, I would not have any problems at all (maybe a latency a little bit higher). Since their service is bad, it is worse to me. It is as simple as that, mr. angry internet person.

Jeez...

I'm not saying Blizzard did the best job they could have, I'm saying you should have been more careful with your money, given your locale.

D3 is always online DRM, therefore if I had shit internet, I would not have bought it, simple as that.

Let me make this perfectly clear: I do not have shitty internet. I do not have any problems with any online game other than Diablo 3, but since Blizzard work is bad - I will suffer more because I'm distant.

If the service was on par with most other online games in existence, I would be fine.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Living in Brasil, I?m far enough from the servers to have guaranteed lag with an uncomfortable frequency.

Why the hell did you even buy the game then? I have literally no sympathy for you, because you spent your money on something you absolutely knew would not work very well for you.

Your complaint is just as flawed as people who say 'this game is shit because my computer can't run it properly'

I bought it because:

1. The game was translated to my language, was officially launched in my country and should work here as good as it works in the US (which, to be fair, appears to be the case, as it doesn't work well there too).

2. WOW has servers in Brasil, I had no reason to think Diablo3 would have a different treatment. But apparently Blizzard is short on money right now and cannot install servers in other locations.

3. I don't have nearly the same amount of problems playing Tera, which is an action based MMO. I thought that if Blizzard could at least replicate this quality, it would be tolerable. To be honest, I've never had so many problems to play any other game in my life, but, granted, I'm not an MMO player (just Guild Wars, 40 minutes of WOW and now Tera).

Please, the fact that the game is full of problems is Blizzard's fault. If their service was OK, I would not have any problems at all (maybe a latency a little bit higher). Since their service is bad, it is worse to me. It is as simple as that, mr. angry internet person.

Jeez...

I'm not saying Blizzard did the best job they could have, I'm saying you should have been more careful with your money, given your locale.

D3 is always online DRM, therefore if I had shit internet, I would not have bought it, simple as that.

Let me make this perfectly clear: I do not have shitty internet. I do not have any problems with any online game other than Diablo 3, but since Blizzard work is bad - I will suffer more because I'm distant.

If the service was on par with most other online games in existence, I would be fine.

Again: you should have been more careful with your money, given your locale.

Blizzard said that you may encounter some problems during the launch week, so it's up to you to make the right choice and either wait, boycott or just deal with it. Sounds like you made the wrong choice.

 

[chaosbedlam]

Well that was a rather depressing read. I totally agree with most of what you are saying especially the story getting in the way when you just want to mash things, and the character not using their weapons only started annoying me when I started playing the monk class. however all in all I still really enjoy the game though I'm now wondering just how long it will be for me before I am in the same boat.

 

[Snotnarok]

Oversimplified, lacking sense of progress, lacking sense of achivement.

And I really don't find it all that inferior to D2, I wasn't all too fond of D2 system either (especially the stat thing... I did not like that at all). D2 was quite unintuitive after certain patches and it was easy to fuck characters up and render them useless. In the case of D3 I just never had the patience to write it down due to lack of interest.

Fair enough, I suppose, as it has been simplified. After a fashion, anyway. There's still the same breadth of possibilities in terms of which skills you choose, there's just no more pumping points into them, and there's no more locking skills down in talent trees, you can fluidly adjust your build on the fly. I'd disagree about the sense of achievement/progress...I find unlocking a new skill/rune no less satisfying than putting a skill into "axe mastery" and getting a small passive boost to my numbers. Diablo 3 probably has a BETTER sense of "new toys!" than Diablo 2 did, in that regard.

I can't argue simplification because I don't know what you'd consider to be a good level-up reward system by way of comparison. I find D3's more or less appropriate for the nature of the game, which is fast and dirty. It does suffer a little at lower levels as you struggle to unlock enough skills to tailor the class to your play style, and the fact that elective mode is A) not the default and B) hidden away under game play options and never really advertised or explained at all is fairly unforgivable.

I don't really think it's oversimplified when the runes offer different boosts to every skill you can pick. I mean really think about it in Diablo 2, how many of those skills were just worthless stepping stones to get to the next one? Or only were worth putting 5 points into?

Yeah I get it you can't pick where to put your stat points but that never mattered anyway. Bow user? Dex. Sword user? Str. Staff? Mag. It wasn't exactly thought provoking where to put said points. Especially on harder difficulties where you'd just be putting all points into vitality.

 

[Marowit]

The problem i'm finding with D3 is I could give a shiiiiiiiiiit about the story - So, what's happening is there's little attraction to finishing the game for me.

I definitely have fun dungeon crawling, but, I dunno, the story just doesn't mean anything to me despite having played the first 2 games so much as an adolescent.

Ah well, looks like I'm left looking for a game, yet again, now that I no longer play WoW...I guess I'll go play Skyrim *kicks the ground in frustration*

 

[SovietSecrets]

40-45 hours of one game in such a time is insane at least to me it seems like it. Anyone could get burned out on playing one game for all that time.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Just played, got to level 5, my friends who are 45+ joined my game, told me to join their's, so I did, they killed Diablo...and I'm seriously considering uninstalling the game now. The entire game feels...shallow. What took them so long to come out with this game exactly? I'm just curious, not saying its bad, but it doesn't have the same wonder the originals did. When I was playing at first...I had zero interest in the story and nothing caught my eye.

I spent 50 bucks on something I'll probably never bother with again. It's a shame really.

 

[Inkidu]

This is a truly great post. Thanks for sharing it. I agree, I have thought for a long time that Blizzard were pushers. They tried to get people addicted to playing their games in a way similar, if not exactly like, gambling. They don't want to make games, they want to make virtual Skinner Boxes, and now the quality of their product is taking a serious decline.

 

[zinho73]

Again: you should have been more careful with your money, given your locale.

Brazil is not a jungle, you know?

Well, it has been fun, but I will stop feeding the troll now. Well, my fault, I did took the bait quite easily...

 

[zinho73]

40-45 hours of one game in such a time is insane at least to me it seems like it. Anyone could get burned out on playing one game for all that time.

No doubt, but the launch coincided with a gap in the workload and lots of free time.

That said, I do have the stamina to go for long gaming hours (tabletop or videogames) without really feeling it, so I do not think I'm tired of the game just because I'm, well, tired.

But you might be right. Time will tell.