f13.net

I didn't even get to hell before I got that, "the champ packs are just going to get more annoying and less fun to fight" feeling and punched out.

It's just boring.

I didn't even get to hell before I got that, "the champ packs are just going to get more annoying and less fun to fight" feeling and punched out. The loot is most of the reason to play an ARPG and the loot in D3 is hideously boring and pretty much 100% of your drops after you start getting actual level appropriate loot in nightmare are vendor or AH fodder. I sell my junk for gold, then buy whatever the most optimal item is that I can afford. That's not terribly exciting.

I like the variety of skills and being able to respec/mix and match however I wish but it kinda feels like you're slowly being pigeonholed into specific samey builds because you'll die hideously otherwise.

And since the loot is the point of the game, and there's a RMAH for loot, Blizzard will be balancing the game around that rather than fun. Not because they suck or are evil or whatever, but because they have no real choice.

It's just boring.

I didn't even get to hell before I got that, "the champ packs are just going to get more annoying and less fun to fight" feeling and punched out. The loot is most of the reason to play an ARPG and the loot in D3 is hideously boring and pretty much 100% of your drops after you start getting actual level appropriate loot in nightmare are vendor or AH fodder. I sell my junk for gold, then buy whatever the most optimal item is that I can afford. That's not terribly exciting.

I like the variety of skills and being able to respec/mix and match however I wish but it kinda feels like you're slowly being pigeonholed into specific samey builds because you'll die hideously otherwise.

And since the loot is the point of the game, and there's a RMAH for loot, Blizzard will be balancing the game around that rather than fun. Not because they suck or are evil or whatever, but because they have no real choice.

Simply put, the loot system wasn't addictive enough to keep me playing through a mediocre campaign.

*sigh* Is no one enjoying themselves? I don't want to play all alone!  :heartbreak: :heartbreak:

And I'm happy for you, truly, but even you have to admit you're the type of guy that finds punching himself in the dick fun.

Ooh the cleverly disguised "what went wrong thread."

It was funny, my fiancee was watching me play the other night and I was dealing with some packs in Inferno and I got quite low...she was all "I can't take it! It's just too stressful!!!!" and went away. Women just aren't meant to play hardcore, I guess.

Ooh the cleverly disguised "what went wrong thread."

I couldn't care less about either auction house. I was having fun until they fucking took all the destructible rewards away practically and then decided to drain my ability to save gold for just playing the game. Fucking 29k repair bill for 30 minutes of play and one death. They can suck it.

I played the Guild Wars 2 beta weekend, and it reminded me what a game is like when the company balances around "fun" not "RMT".

Mebbe I go fire up D2 again.

Mebbe I go fire up D2 again.

1 - I prefer the Barbarian play style by far.  I put a lot of effort and time and gold into gearing my Barbarian into great gear.  900+ All Resist, 50k hp, 12k dps, etc...  I can't beat Act 2 with him.  I re-rolled a DH, got her to 60 and with mostly crappy blues I can progress faster and farther than my Barbarian can.  This is a well known issue that wasn't really addressed in 1.03.  I have no reason to play my favorite class because the ranged classes are just better.

That graph wouldn't surprise me at all if it were accurate and true.

It pretty much sums up how I felt and I suspect shows just how far they missed the mark.

Ouch.

I don't believe the sample size on Xfire would be random enough to draw any conclusions other than play has decreased.

In fairness Diablo is primarily a single player game so most people buy it, kill Diablo in normal, putter around and stop playing.  The graph is probably similar to most games after a month (http://beta.xfire.com/games/mp3).

I loved Sacred 2, up until the fact that it turns out I couldn't beat any bosses because I built myself for AOE and bosses had massive regen, thus making it impossible for me to even dent his health.  Since i couldn't progress in the main line cause of that I stopped playing.  I do hope Sacred 3 comes out sometime though, and I might pic up sacred 2 again after all these years.

Ya builds can be kind of a hit or miss kind of thing. Just like Diablo 2. Were you a mage because the ae (firestorm?) would multiple hit bosses because of the huge hit boxes they had so if you mod the skill for high dmg it works as a boss killer nicely. The character might be saveable.

Oh btw Sacred2 gold is like 20$ at dlgamer atm.

Not done, but not playing constantly anymore. Pretty sure I already played more than I did D2. Never had any interest in Inferno dickpunching mode in the first place, really, so I have nothing to be disappointed by. The repair costs thing is stupid, otherwise I have no real complaints.

I know we like hyperbole here, but months?  :-P

I know we like hyperbole here, but months?  :-P

I know we like hyperbole here, but months?  :-P

Something or other about pot and kettle or something. I'm not sure where I'm going with this post...

F13 (myself included) burned by overhyped game that turns out to be mediocre/shit. Shock. Horror. Close thread, ban everyone, shutter forums, delete website, salt the earth.

F13 (myself included) burned by overhyped game that turns out to be mediocre/shit. Shock. Horror. Close thread, ban everyone, shutter forums, delete website, salt the earth.

I am still of the opinion that our viewpoint on D3 will shift by year end.

You do realize this is a Blizzard game, right? You really think they're going to be able fix the any of the community's primary complaints before the end of the year?

My strategy was to play the game up to the instant that it began to feel like a chore, then stop playing it!

Yes. Given six months I fully expect them to get an economic fix in place on the itemization. Right now the main problem is two-fold. One, it's not that interesting, and two, inflation is running rampant because nothing comes out of the system. Also, I think part of that will be to do more with damage types and skills. That will make items and skills have more interaction instead of just MOAR DEEPS.

I think they can balance inferno better by adjusting drop rates to exponentially increase in later acts, and reduce the repair bill cockblock by half. I also, think they need to cap the lower end of drops in Act 4 so that nothing less than 60 drops.

They can never reduce the perception that the AH is mandatory, because it will always have that perception to the naysayers by existing. That's a you problem, since there are other groups of people that actually like it (myself included)

I couldn't give two shits about pvp.

They need to figure out their economy fix before they change the drops that drastically, though. That's the part that is going to be hard.

While that's true, it is still a game-ruiningly bad idea. Practically the entire point of ARPG loot systems is that you can twink your later characters with hand-me-down items.

They can never reduce the perception that the AH is mandatory, because it will always have that perception to the naysayers by existing. That's a you problem, since there are other groups of people that actually like it (myself included)

I couldn't give two shits about pvp.

<stuff>

For starters, perception of the AH is tied to itemization, which I think is very fixable.

To me it's so simple they can't possibly miss it for six months.

1 - Bind items to your account
2 - Increase drops, add shit back to barrels.
3 - Add fun titles and cosmetic shit for goldsinks. Add more space to stash, etc.
4 - PROFIT

D3 isn't a loot whore game, it's a trash collector simulator. Sometimes when taking out the trash you find something valuable if you're lucky. Sometimes you throw out valuable things mistaking it for another piece of trash since you're in a rush to destroy it all for recycle money.

To be loot whoring you have to be crossing good loot that you are collecting and replacing your current gear with.

I find it amusing that we have completely switched our faith in Blizzard to deliver a product that will satisfy the playerbase in a matter of a year.

To me it's so simple they can't possibly miss it for six months.

1 - Bind items to your account
2 - Increase drops, add shit back to barrels.
3 - Add fun titles and cosmetic shit for goldsinks. Add more space to stash, etc.
4 - PROFIT

I worry about you Paelos, you seem to have battered housewife syndrome when it comes to blizzard. It's always the last straw until they whisper some sweet words and promise they can change, then you believe them all over again.

While that's true, it is still a game-ruiningly bad idea. Practically the entire point of ARPG loot systems is that you can twink your later characters with hand-me-down items.

They don't need to make the items bindable to account.

They just need to make items lose 10% max durability every time the item is traded or bought on the AH.

Flushes items out of the system after being bought and sold a few times.

I know we like hyperbole here, but months?  :-P

I don't think it's antithetical to the Diablo style to have BoA stuff. Trading models were just a whole lot worse with D2, so you didn't SEE the obvious gear inflation.

People would get over it, because I think they realize it's a giant issue holding the game back.

I don't think BoA/BoE gear would be 'bad' for Diablo, personally, but I also think that ship sailed the minute they enabled the RMAH.

I very frequently hand down items to characters of a different class. Only the barbarian stuff doesn't really overlap.

EDIT: And I hand stuff off to friends all the time as well. Losing that would be pretty shitty.

Y'all are assuming that they lose money on this change. That's not the case. Binding items with increased rates would create more trading, not less. They only care about volume, not value

Increasing ilvl and quality of drops, as well as quality/fun of uniques/sets is also likely easier said then done. If they didn't add interesting modifiers to gear in the 6+ years the game was in development for, what makes you think they'll add them in by the end of the year?

There has to be a middle ground of some kind between those.

Let's be honest here in this discussion.

Is the *REAL* issue that people aren't unique because people can respect at will, or is it that the skills (and complimentary items) are not interesting enough to generate unique synergies and playstyles depending on which ones you play.

I do think had they launched PvP before the real money auction house, they'd have cemented at least a endgame that would then become a high profile much-ranted-about battle of dollars later (unless they planned to separate PvP into with-$$ and without-$$ auction house instances?). Then you have the brinkmanship that sets up the top of the aspirational pyramid which attracts the lower steps of the playerbase pyramid.

Stuff

I think Malakili is right in his assessment of D2. D2 didn't have skill variety - the game was just piss easy. You could gimp yourself and still progress, it just might take a lot longer.

This is kind of a tangent/pet peeve, but it's really sad to see D3 -- and possibly future ARPGs -- take this route, which to me is much closer to gated/gear-checked/high-level MMO content, where the primary question is always 'can you do it?' and never 'how awesomely can you do it?' D2 was firmly a 'how awesomely can you do it?' sort of game, and there are just so many potentially great games and premises that have been ruined by this inability to let games revolve around level-of- and variety-of-achievement, instead of just whether the achievement is possible at all. (See for example most 'superhero' games, where gameplay should so clearly be about just how stylishly you can beat up the eighty-thousand mooks, but instead ends up being watching your superhero get beat up by five faceless goons because you over-pulled or whatever.)

The more I think about it, the more I realize that even though I loved Diablo 2 and I've been vocal that I've been loving Diablo 3, I think I love them for different reasons.  I like that Inferno kicks my ass.  But I liked that D2 didn't...
*shrugs* 

Much as I hate to pull out such well-worn terms, it sounds like a sandbox vs. theme park situation.  I like both of them as well but D3 won't have the lasting appeal D2 did.  Not done yet but will be soon I expect.

It's not really an either/or thing -- D2 could both have had a larger variety of skills and also been easy.

But I agree that the easy thing is pretty key -- because when you are talking about variety of builds for a game like this, longevity-wise, you mean 'variety of viable, end-game builds'. If your end-game is really difficult -- or difficult in particular ways -- that is obviously going to reduce the number of viable builds. It's true that in D2 some builds were better than others, but often that just meant 'can kill Mephisto in 12 seconds' vs. 'can kill Mephisto in 30 seconds and sometimes you might die'. For most players who are interested in farming but not spreadsheet-optimizers, the latter is totally adequate and feels like success. You still get to farm Mephisto, and the fact that some other dude is doing it twice as fast really isn't a big deal.

I'm just pointing out that a lot of people remember D2 to have qualities it didn't actually have.

No, most people remember D2 from now until a few years ago. Talking about how D2's skill tree system sucked at release is a completely pointless, and tired, argument.

This.  Comparing launch D3 to launch D2 is crazy, the people at Blizzard did not get memory wipes before starting on the new game.

I wonder what would happen if they made a WC4 - although I'm not sure I want to know given the turn that WoW lore took

Sadly, I'm pretty sure you can say goodbye to user generated maps in WC4. Which, for a lot of players, kept WC3 interesting way past its 'prime'

This is kind of a tangent/pet peeve, but it's really sad to see D3 -- and possibly future ARPGs -- take this route, which to me is much closer to gated/gear-checked/high-level MMO content, where the primary question is always 'can you do it?' and never 'how awesomely can you do it?' D2 was firmly a 'how awesomely can you do it?' sort of game, and there are just so many potentially great games and premises that have been ruined by this inability to let games revolve around level-of- and variety-of-achievement, instead of just whether the achievement is possible at all. (See for example most 'superhero' games, where gameplay should so clearly be about just how stylishly you can beat up the eighty-thousand mooks, but instead ends up being watching your superhero get beat up by five faceless goons because you over-pulled or whatever.)

This is why I quit.  I never got a piece of loot that I either got excited about or could use.  Everything came from the AH.  Yawn.

Why would you say that? Their last RTS *expanded* mod-ability compared to prior ones.

Really? It was pretty hard to find good custom games in SC2 because I didn't care for the listing system they used in place of just letting people host their own games.

I will continue to play until I have each type to 60/inferno act I, which I find unfun. Getting there, I find fun. I have a monk and WD there already.

(I just started Act II in hell on my wizard - what seems key to me is having Life% on weapon and high damage, and kiting using this build
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#ZXYlOR!WfX!ZZZYZb (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#ZXYlOR!WfX!ZZZYZb) which probably isn't ideal and can be tweaked. I haven't spent more than 20k on any piece of armor except latest weapon, for which I spent 50k; most of my armor is lvl44 or so, with high int, some vit, crit when I can find it. I leveled looking for int and exp%, then int/vit and exp%, now int/vit and crit. I've always ignored MF as it doesn't seem terribly helpful to leveling up or finding stuff until NV kicks in at 60).

I like exploring, but I rushed my first character to 60 only to find it not fun for me. So I still have some exploring to do. Playing with other people is another way to have fun (for me; sometimes solo is fun for me).

I find useful items just often enough to keep playing (although 60 isn't too fun).

How many ex-Blizzard employees are there now?  Every game seems to boast having them.  Although I'm sure the acquisition hasn't helped, it's tough for any large company to keep everyone around that made the magic work before.

Dear Diablo Players,

Now that Diablo III has been out for two months, I would like to take a step back and discuss the launch, the feedback from the community, and talk about what the future holds for the game.

We’ve had an enormous amount of feedback since the launch. I speak for everyone at Blizzard when I say that we appreciate the passion and affection many of you have for the Diablo series. We truly believe “Every Voice Matters,” so I want to thank you for sharing your experiences in an effort to help us improve the game. Your support makes it possible for us to continue doing what we do, and we never take that for granted.

The launch week of Diablo III was memorable for many reasons -- some positive, and some not so positive. We were thrilled that Diablo III had the biggest PC-game launch ever, surpassing the lifetime sales of Cataclysm (the previous record holder for biggest PC-game launch) in a matter of weeks. We’ve been floored by the response.

However, the launch had many challenges as well. It has always been difficult to forecast how many players we will have. With World of Warcraft, it was a challenge to handle the immediate demand when we launched back in 2004, and that was just in North America. We eventually expanded to other regions and reached nearly 5 million players by the end of the first year, and there were a lot of growing pains with that. However, we’ve never gone from 0 to more than 6 million players across multiple continents within a few days with a brand-new game. For Diablo III, we looked at historical sales for Blizzard games and other top-selling PC games and watched preorder numbers. We even upped our estimates to ensure we had additional capacity, or so we thought. In the end, it just wasn’t enough, and that is something we will work hard to conquer for future releases.

In response to the immediate and overwhelming demand for the game, the team worked around the clock to support all regions, increase capacity, ship additional hardware to our datacenters, and troubleshoot and fix bugs as they sprang up. While things have by and large been running smoothly for several weeks now, various game-related issues have come up that we have either already responded to or are continuing to investigate (such as the latency issue some of you are experiencing) and make adjustments for. Rather than address every subject individually, I’ll just say that even as we work to address or resolve current issues, it’s always possible that further issues will crop up. We hope that our actions in the past have demonstrated that above all else, we’re committed to delivering an awesome game experience, and we hope you’ll have faith that we will continue to keep that commitment and respond to any new or outstanding issues quickly.

We are not satisfied with breaking launch records; we want people to continue playing and enjoying Blizzard games for a very long time. The Diablo III team has made an epic, entertaining, and beautiful gaming experience. That being said, we know that it isn’t perfect. Our teams are working hard to improve the game balance, build on our design, and listen to what players are saying to make it the best game it can be.

You’ve seen some of that work already in patch 1.0.3, and you’ll see additional improvements with patch 1.0.4. On the game balance front, this update will contain changes designed to further deliver on the team’s goal of promoting “build diversity,” with buffs to many rarely used, underpowered class abilities. Another topic we’ve seen actively discussed is the fact that better, more distinct Legendary items are needed. We agree. Patch 1.0.4 will also include new and improved Legendary items that are more interesting, more powerful, and more epic in ways you probably won’t be expecting.

We’re also working on a number of interface updates, including social improvements that will allow players to more easily view their friends’ achievements, more quickly join games, and more efficiently communicate with each other. In addition, we’ll be making updates to the auction house in the future to provide players with better information through tooltips and notices, offer improved search functionality, and more.

Regarding the real-money auction house, our primary goal for including this in the game was to provide convenience and peace of mind for those players who might otherwise turn to third-party services to buy items. Black market trading sites can put accounts at risk and create many customer service challenges. We felt that the players themselves also deserved the opportunity to benefit from the extra loot they found, as opposed to having all of the benefit go to the black market/illegal trading organizations. We know the auction house isn’t perfect, but with your help and feedback, we’ll be able to continue making it a better experience for those who choose to use it. On the flipside, we are also committed to ensuring you have a great experience with Diablo III without feeling like the auction house is mandatory, which was never our intention. Thank you for all the feedback about that.

One other common topic we’ve seen in the forums is the always-connected experience, and the perception that the online requirement is nothing but an ineffective form of copy protection that has already been cracked. While we’ve never said that this requirement guarantees that there will be no cheating or game cracks, it does help us battle those problems (we have not found any fully functional cracks). More important to us is that the online requirement is critical for the long-term integrity of the game experience. I fully understand the desire to play Diablo III offline; however, Diablo III was designed from the beginning to be an online game that can be enjoyed with friends, and the always-online requirement is the best way for us to support that design. The effectiveness of the online elements -- including the friends list and cross-game communication; co-op matchmaking; persistent characters that you can use by yourself, with others, and in PvP; and some of our customer support, service, and security components -- is tied directly to the online nature of the game. These and other online-enabled features are essential to our design for Diablo III. That said, there are still improvements we believe we can make to expand the online experience and make co-op play even more rewarding, and this will remain one of our priorities moving forward. Overall, while there are some downsides to the online-only approach, I still believe this was the best long-term decision for the game.

I know many of you are also looking forward to patch 1.1, our PvP update, which will provide new experiences and give you a whole new way to apply the skills you’ve picked up while battling demons. This patch will also build on the social and auction house changes I mentioned above, and the team will continue to fix bugs and further tune game balance as well.

We’re also working on a gameplay system that will provide players who have max-level, high-powered characters new goals to strive for as an alternative to the “item hunt.” We’re not ready to get into specifics just yet, but I can say that we’re actively taking your feedback into account as we plan out the future of the game.

As always, we appreciate your candor and passion. Your constructive feedback and thoughts are valuable -- they will continue to help us be a better company. I just want to reiterate that while we can’t claim to have ever shipped a perfect game, we are committed to supporting our games relentlessly and making improvements where we can. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,
Mike Morhaime

I believe him about the RMAH and the intent behind it's inclusion. We've been saying that for a while, even when people argue that the game is designed to get people to move money around. I still don't believe they truly see it as a bottom line money maker. Even if they moved 100,000 items a day, which I don't think they do, that's still only $36,000,000 in revenue. While that seems like a lot for some companies, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the $360M they made on the game at launch, or the $120M they take in a month on WoW subs. It's nice, but it's never going to be their revenue driver. That is going to be expansions.

Wow, I couldnt type that much nothing if I tried

I'm getting really tired of Blizzard putting palm to cheek and exclaiming "My goodness, we didn't expect THIS much success!"  They knew D3 was highly anticipated.  They knew it broke pre-order records. 

The Blizzard magic is gone.  They are still awesome at grunt level, but Activision is their master now.  Cataclysm was the worst xpac, SC II was a re-skin of the original and D3's sins have been noted here and elsewhere.

I'm getting really tired of Blizzard putting palm to cheek and exclaiming "My goodness, we didn't expect THIS much success!"  They knew D3 was highly anticipated.  They knew it broke pre-order records. 

The Blizzard magic is gone.  They are still awesome at grunt level, but Activision is their master now.  Cataclysm was the worst xpac, SC II was a re-skin of the original and D3's sins have been noted here and elsewhere.

Boring game. I had to force myself to finish it once.
I liked D2.
I'm disappointed about both the game and Blizzard.

I'm getting really tired of Blizzard putting palm to cheek and exclaiming "My goodness, we didn't expect THIS much success!"  They knew D3 was highly anticipated.  They knew it broke pre-order records. 

The Blizzard magic is gone.  They are still awesome at grunt level, but Activision is their master now.  Cataclysm was the worst xpac, SC II was a re-skin of the original and D3's sins have been noted here and elsewhere.

Greetings,

* * * NOTICE OF ACCOUNT CLOSURE * * *

A user of this account has recently been involved in actions deemed inappropriate for Diablo III by the In-Game Support staff of Blizzard Entertainment. This decision was made after a thorough investigation of the situation as a whole. Though we are unable to discuss the outcomes of our investigations due to privacy concerns, rest assured that this incident has been looked into very thoroughly, and the appropriate actions have been taken on all involved accounts.

I tested it for almost 2 months  :grin:

To be honest, the money I made from the bot went to a good source:
The adoption, vaccines, shots, food, litter, etc... for these two lovely ladies:

I tested it for almost 2 months  :grin:

To be honest, the money I made from the bot went to a good source:
The adoption, vaccines, shots, food, litter, etc... for these two lovely ladies:

You should name them Baal and Mephisto  :awesome_for_real:

Was fine until book 2 inferno.  Good grief- even after I pumped my resists up and ran book 1 two or three times I am still getting face melted.

Probably not done but taking a break.

Yeah, Act 2 Inferno is a huge step up in difficulty.  It is a pretty brutal gear check.   What class are you playing and what are your resists at?

Oh, no!  Someone got dozens of hours of enjoyment out of a video game, how horrible for you.

Barbarian.  Running between 500-600 resists at the moment.

Yeah, that is probably just on the cusp.  My friend with whom I play is playing Barbarian, and I know one of the big things that helped us break into Act 2 was when he got a nice weapon with +500hp (or so) on hit.  I can't remember what his allresist was at exactly, but I think 600+. 

Botting is driving inflation more, I suspect, than anything else.

Botting is driving inflation more, I suspect, than anything else.

Botting is driving inflation more, I suspect, than anything else.

What's causing it doesn't really matter.  People thinking inflation wouldn't happen were as optimistic as Curt Schilling.

I really did not think that there would be so many exploits and bugs, nor did I think that it would take Blizzard so long to even start to get a handle on bots.

Clearing out the casual and monetizing the hardcore is the way to profitability here, even if no one would actually say that in public.  If you bought the box and have no intention to use the RMAH they are done with you until it is time to make promises so you'll buy the expansion.  There is no money for them in a well behaved economy for the gold AH.

They already have your money.

And when they bring out the next release/expansion/game you'll give it to them again.  Just go back and read over the last few years of hope and teeth-gnashing that comprises theses forum and you'll be hard pressed to come up with a different view.  Blizzard gave customers exactly what they've been giving customers for years.  For all the talk of voting with wallets, well, folks have and will probably continue to.  They'll get largely the same sell-through on the D3 xpac that they got for D2, this game has hardly been a flop despite any local teeth-gnashing and twice-bitten regrets.

I beg to differ.

It will take a huge turnaround on Blizzard's part for me to buy any game from them in the future. This was not the case a few years ago, when I'd pre-order Blizzard collector's versions as soon as they became available. I haven't changed; Blizzard has. They no longer deliver the quality they used to be known for.

Well for one thing, you're ignoring the fact that many people voted with their wallets in Cataclysm and it cost them huge amounts in revenues.

Paelos: Essentially what you're suggesting is that Blizzard should make major changes that might piss off a large portion of the customer base that they've *kept* (people who are playing right now, using the RMAH, etc.) in the interest of *maybe* getting back some portion of people who will allegedly not buy the expansion later. That would be a pretty crazy choice. Prior examples of companies doing that: SWG NGE, and uh...

It's still whacking stuff to get loot the same way you've always whacked stuff to get loot. Except the loot is good now.

Not to pick on you specifically, but I have a couple questions, and you're the most conveniently located of the "Blizzard is no longer a buy at release company" people. How many hours of D3 have you played? Of those hours, for how many of them would you say you were having fun?

Not to pick on you specifically, but I have a couple questions, and you're the most conveniently located of the "Blizzard is no longer a buy at release company" people. How many hours of D3 have you played? Of those hours, for how many of them would you say you were having fun?

Pretty much the posts from Rekal and Xanthippe sum it up.

I clocked 200+ hours have 2 60s but am overall disappointed with Blizzard, money's worth sure but the way I parted with Diablo3 leaves a bad taste in my mouth compared to games which I remember the good times. The fact that I still visit this forum means I had invested a lot of faith that it would be robot jesus, not bot, grinding, nut punching frustration.

I expect that the feature list for the expansion will be a bullet list of improvements addressing major complaints about the game, but I'm just not sure that they actually *get it*. How can I trust a company to fix the item hunt in their game when they seem so oblivious to what made it fun in the first place?

[...]they just want your box sale and for you to bugger off.  [...]

Compared to what most companies release these days, D3 was easily worth the $60. The big change for me though is that Blizzard games have always been games that I can play hardcore for months without feeling "done": Warcraft 2 and 3, Diablo 1 & 2, Starcraft, WoW and all of its expansions served as my game of choice for a good chunk of time. With D3 however, I lost interest in less than two months and barring major, sweeping changes I don't expect to go back. For me, this is the third disappointment in a row (after SC2 and to a lesser extent, Cata), and it's changed my attitude from "shut up and take my money" to "cautiously optimistic".

If I'm Blizzard, I'm looking for the Ironwoods of the world, the ones who barely made it through normal, and fixing their problems, because those are the big ones.

D3 strikes me as having an "endgame" while neither of the previous ones did. 

But those are also your customers, no matter what.

If I'm Blizzard, I'm looking for the Ironwoods of the world, the ones who barely made it through normal, and fixing their problems, because those are the big ones.

They're customers that got very little if any enjoyment out of the title. You don't try to sell baseball tickets to someone who can't even make it through the 1st inning of a baseball game.

... and the people sitting there aren't suddenly going to get pissed off at a better product on the field.

Sounds a lot like an "endgame" to me.

Really, elitism about something as mindless as Diablo 3?

I will never understand 200+ hours into something you don't really enjoy. That just baffles me beyond words.

Not Catholic are you?  :why_so_serious:

So your definition of "endgame" is simply hitting level cap? And by that definition D2 has no real endgame because you could never hit the level cap?

Wait, what ?

I got further than that.  I just didn't really enjoy doing so.  I gave up at 'Heaven' on the 2nd difficulty.  Not because it was particularly difficult, but because I wasn't getting rewarded for my efforts at all.

At.  All.

Blizzard games used to feel like they were created by people who wanted to play games.  Now they feel like they are created by people who want to drive sales.

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that it was because of a difficulty issue. My point was just, the problems you were having with rewards/fun should be the focus, not the minutia of Inferno grinding stuff.

Well where I was going with this, isn't actually about getting your money's worth. It's about how much work Blizzard should really put into making someone happy when they're already willing to play for 200+ hours while not enjoying themselves.

I would posit this hypothesis: there's really nothing they could have done to make people in that category happy in the long run. If I'm running the studio, the problems those people see are going to be really damn low on my list of problems to fix, because if the problems were really that big they would have quit long before 200 hours.

If I'm Blizzard, I'm looking for the Ironwoods of the world, the ones who barely made it through normal, and fixing their problems, because those are the big ones.

EDIT: I mean yes, I question the logic of "I totally got my money's worth, but the game wasn't worth buying at release." If you got your money's worth then by definition it was worth the price you paid, but that's kind of beside the point.

I don't want someone who didn't even hit the level cap, didn't finish the 2nd difficulty, and quit because the game isn't fun to be who Blizzard is focusing on RIGHT NOW. Nobody should want that. Those players have already moved on. They were never hooked by the game and are going to be the hardest to lure back.

Blizzard is better off keeping their current customers happy, while inciting back those that let the hooks sink in, quit, but keep checking for positive changes. This would generally mean fleshing out endgame along with progression through Hell and Inferno. Once they're comfortable that they're not hemorrhaging players at this stage, then they can focus on bringing in new players while also ironing out issues to hook players more on initial playthroughs.

It has nothing to do with elitism, it has to do with focusing efforts on what matters most right now.

The funny thing is that among the players still around and the players who left I'd say the MAIN problem is the same - they need better uniques(legendaries) at all levels, they need better itemization especially pre-60, and they need to up the drop rate on good items (especially pre-60). For good measure, let Hell mode Act 3 + 4 drop reasonable (but not highest end) loot, and call it a day.

I'm still playing and I'd be totally on board for this, and I think it would probably make everyone else happy too!

I agree, and that's the funniest point. It's like what I'm advocating as change to improve the business would somehow piss off the remaining consumers. No, it would FIX THE GAME FOR ALL. The problem has always been the loot and the crappy decisions around it.

I mean, fuck it, it's a slot machine right ?  It's a goddamn pellet press for gamers.  That's what it is.

So why the fuck would you make a slot machine where you put in 10p and, if you were lucky, 5p would fall out ?  It's just astrofuckinomically lame.  And then, to really pound it right up your fucking shitter, they say 'Oh and if you win all these 5p's for the rest of time, you'll eventually be moved up to a bigger and harder slot machine where the chance of 15p dropping every blue fucking moon might happen.'

Fuck.

That.

(And, what's worse, every other cunt is selling their 5p on the online auction house for 150 quid a time.  Fuck, in fact, That.)

Blizzard games used to feel like they were created by people who wanted to play games.  Now they feel like they are created by people who want to drive sales.

If someone cannot look back fondly on their time spent in a game how many hours they played is in the end sort of irrelevant. (cough cough ME3)

For me all the events I look back fondlly on can no longer happen because they were nerfed out of existance in Blizzard's ongoing war with exploiters.

Perhaps he's pointing out how those ilvl 63 weapons have the same DPS as being licked by kittens.

Or you could go to work for a couple of hours, and spend the rest of your time doing something fun?

Or you could go to work for a couple of hours, and spend the rest of your time doing something fun?

Took about 15 minutes to put everything up on the AH.  Another minute to sell the gold on the RMAH.

Got an email the next day that my sale went through for about $100.

How much time did you spend playing the game? And did you enjoy it, aside from the money you eventually made?

Why, yes, I would imagine it would be much more exciting to get owned by another player who's wearing 600 real life quid of gear.

If you're ranged you are probably getting a nerf. If you are melee you are getting buffed.

That would be my understanding so far.

That's also part of the issue I see with the Barb changes. They are talking about making bash and cleave more attractive than frenzy, but I don't really see how they can EVER be more attractive unless you nerf the speed. More swings per second with higher dps weapons are usually going to beat any damage modifier on slower swings unless it's obviously overtuned. Also, with life on hit trying to extend life expectancies with those other survival skills, unless you directly control the damage done to players in those later acts, nobody will change.

Use the off-stats to pump up the helpful ones.  Barb gets +INT?  Resist for you!  Wizard gets +Str?  Damage reduction!

The stats do work that way.

They need to modify how the skills of dex, int, and str operate across the classes, I agree.

For example, int and dex need to have higher modifiers for Barbs. I would be more likely to look at gear with some INT on it, if I knew that my All Resist modifier was higher. Also, I'd do the same with dex if it increased attack speed. There would be tradeoffs with higher damage from your main stat with other stats.

I actually prefer the way D1 did this, pump up str on your wizzy and you get to wear better armor!

(polished to a mirrored sheen which they are supposedly known for). 

I'd still be interested in that article.

Go to it and good luck.

What's so comical and sad about this is that Blizzard really had a money press here, all they had to do was upgrade graphics and keep the core gameplay (polished to a mirrored sheen which they are supposedly known for).  Somehow they fucked this up and killed all that was fun in D1 and D2 in an attempt to even make more money.  It's really unbelievable hubris.

I'd still be interested in that article.

http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/interview-diablo-creator-david-brevik-discusses-his-feelings-on-diablo-3

http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-3-developers-react-angrily-to-dave-brevik-interview

I don't know who Jill Harrington is, but I want to find out - can you click her name. She can lick all the taints if she thinks she can toss the word "objective" around when it comes to gaming journalism. I invented that fight, motherfucker.

Facebook's a hell of a drug.  

So... you want to excoriate someone for agreeing with you that gaming journalism isn't objective?  :headscratch:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jill-harrington/1/295/b04

She's a technical artist or animator of some kind it appears.

Think it might be best to let this situation breathe and take a break from the internet today. I'm certainly feeling extremely upset and emotional by this bullshit. Ta.

Oh, by the way, fuck it. 7 year veteran of the company, left in October due to personal problems and professional concerns with the state of Blizzard and Diablo III, which I worked on as a member of QA. Anyone paying attention should immediately know who I am. Considering I've already given up on a career in the games industry as of this week, I'm really tired keeping so much of myself hidden out of professional courtesy.

I have no idea what a mindfuck it must be to try to come to grips with how bad D3 is when you spent 5 years working on it and you had such a big party when the box sale numbers came out and PC Gamer or whatever shit gaming mags still exist were giving you 15/10's. I doubt those people will ever understand just how shitty D3 is let alone why its such a piece of shit.

More Facebook Shenanigans. (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=487816)

Fake Edit: I remember when Blizzard QA would instruct each of its members on the importance of professionalism in our work environment and in our industry presence. I felt a particular responsibility to maintain the good name Blizzard had through my conduct both in and out of Blizzard. At gaming conventions, we'd refrain from commenting on other people's work negatively. Nice to see that going down the shitter at the highest levels... and for what?

The whole experience makes them look like buffoons.  I don't run a major game development company, but if these clowns worked at my company they'd all be out the door today, regardless of title.  Every single one of them.

I don't know who Jill Harrington is, but I want to find out - can you click her name. She can lick all the taints if she thinks she can toss the word "objective" around when it comes to gaming journalism. I invented that fight, motherfucker.

That is not what she said, she implied that gaming journalism SHOULD be objective and that Inc Gamers wasn't.

Which is WRONG.

More Facebook Shenanigans. (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=487816)

Fake Edit: I remember when Blizzard QA would instruct each of its members on the importance of professionalism in our work environment and in our industry presence. I felt a particular responsibility to maintain the good name Blizzard had through my conduct both in and out of Blizzard. At gaming conventions, we'd refrain from commenting on other people's work negatively. Nice to see that going down the shitter at the highest levels... and for what?

So would you ascribe these changes to Kotick? After all he has said making games shouldn't be fun.

I read that as:

They hired too many 'just need a warm body with experience' people because the company had to grow too quick. These people are now shitting up the culture and quality of the company product due to a number of factors.

Wow.  Good Job Leo.

You know Blizzard, when the natives are attacking you circle the wagons, not set them on fire and try to jump the Grand Canyon.

Or at least, that job that you had.

When your goal is Moar Money instead of Love of Product, it always will.

Fast, unchecked growth and actually be more devestating for any corporation than anything. By the time the realization sets in that the corporate culture has been lost, and you've birthed this unwieldy behemoth that's leveraged to the hilt, a bad product release or a turn in the economy can sink the entire ship.

I *enjoyed* boss runs in D2. Every 5 minutes tops you got to pull the slot machine level and see what falls out.

Now I have to play for 30 minutes just to max out the potential drop rate, and I feel guilty for logging off.

I feel guilty for logging off.

That's cause it's stupid. Nobody who follows games believes gaming journalism is actually journalism.

As many of you probably know, I recently made a comment on Facebook about Dave Brevik. I want to make it clear that I am very sorry for what I said. I have higher expectations for myself than to express my feelings in such a rash way and disrespect a fellow developer like Dave, someone who deserves to be treated with greater respect.

What I said was expressed out of anger, and in defense of my team and the game. People can say what they want about me, but I don't take lightly when they disparage the commitment and passion of the Diablo III team. Dave is awesome. In Diablo and Diablo II, he made two of the games that have most affected me as a developer. I respect his vision for Diablo, but just like he said in his interview, the Diablo III team must drive a vision for the game that is true to us. We believe in Diablo and have stuck by it through years of hard development to make it a reality. 

The foundation of the Diablo team was built from the remnants of Blizzard North: Our lead programmer, who built the basis of the Diablo III engine while at Blizzard North; our lead tech artist, who drove much of the combat visuals, FX, and skill direction of our classes and is one of the most avid Diablo II players you can find; our lead concept artist, who helped establish the core look of the game; Wyatt Cheng, our senior technical game designer, who writes many of our blogs and works tirelessly on the live game. All these people and many others made the commitment to Diablo even after Blizzard North shut down. It was hard for me to see their contributions be diminished by someone they worked alongside, and even harder for me not to try to jump to their defense. I only wish I'd done so in a more professional manner.

Joining the Diablo team was a dream come true for me. In my house, the name Diablo was always spoken in hushed tones. It meant late nights that turned into early mornings, moments of pure adrenaline and pure joy. It meant countless conversations, debates, scouring websites for good builds, and more than one or two sick days. :) When Diablo II was released, I took a week off work and sent my wife out of state... and she was pregnant at the time! I played Diablo II with my dad during one of the most difficult times of his life, and the experience brought me closer to him, and I hope helped him through it. I joined the Diablo team because the idea of a world without more Diablo seemed like a pretty crappy world to me. I wasn't sure if I'd be good enough. I'm still not sure. But I felt I had to try.

Regardless of how I've done, my team has been more than good enough, and I'm proud of the game we made together. We believe it's a great game. But Diablo III has flaws. It is not perfect. Sales mean nothing if the game doesn’t live on in all of our hearts, and standing by our games is what Blizzard does. Patch 1.0.4 is a step in the right direction, but we have no illusions that our work is done.

Playing Diablo III needs to be a rewarding experience. The new legendaries are a big step in the right direction, as are tweaks to item drop rates. But I'm not convinced that we've gone far enough. If you don't have that great feeling of a good drop being right around the corner -- and the burst of excitement when it finally arrives -- then we haven't done our jobs right. Out of our concern to make sure that Diablo III would have longevity, we were overly cautious about how we handled item drops and affixes. If 1.0.4 hasn’t fixed that, you can be sure we'll continue to address it.

Part of the problem, however, is not just item drops, but the variety of things to do within the game. Many of you have stated that there needs to be more to the game than just the item hunt, and we agree completely. The Paragon system is a step in the right direction, giving meta-progress for your time in the game, but it does little to address the variety of activities you can do while playing. I don't think there’s a silver-bullet solution to this problem, but I do think we can make this aspect of the game better, and as such we're planning more than just PvP for the next major patch. Not trying to be coy, but we're still firming things up and will talk about this as soon as we can.

Difficulty has been a constant source of division when discussing the game. Some players believe Diablo has never been about crushing challenges, but more about efficiency and farming. Some players want a game that tests them to their limits. Neither player is wrong. As it stands, Diablo III simply does not provide the tools to allow players to scale the game challenge to something appropriate for them. We set Inferno as the high watermark and took a one-size-fits-all approach to game challenge. Later in the development of Diablo II, the 'players 8' command -- which let people set monster difficulty -- was added to address this issue, and we're considering something similar for the next major Diablo III patch to allow players to make up their own minds about how hard or how easy is right for them.

The Auction House has also proven to be a big challenge. It adds a lot of power for players to trade and acquire items. Getting a great Monk drop that you can trade for better gear for your Wizard is obviously a great benefit, but it does come with a downside. The Auction House can short circuit the natural pace of item drops, making the game feel less rewarding for some players. This is a problem we recognize. At this point we're not sure of the exact way to fix it, but we’re discussing it constantly, and we believe it's a problem we can overcome.

While these are some of the major issues with Diablo III, they aren't the only things we're looking at. On a daily basis we ask ourselves if the classes are satisfying to play, if rares and champions are fun to fight, if they’re tuned well relative to normal monsters. Can we make further improvements to social elements of the game? How can items be even better?

We made Diablo III because we believe in the Diablo games. We think the gameplay is awesome, the world is compelling, and it's the game we all wanted to play. Because we believe in it, we'll continue to stand by it and make it better. We are committed to making Diablo III the best Diablo game to date, and we hope you'll continue to help us do just that.

Saying that, I'd like to apologize to all of you, the players in our community. You deserve better than my reaction to Dave's comments. You deserve more honest communication about the game and what we're doing to make it a more awesome experience for us all. We care about Diablo very much, and appreciate your passion for it. Without you, we wouldn't be able to do this, and for that I can't thank you enough

You didn't just not make the game that Dave would've made, you fucked it up. You can snicker about his shitty track record but you made a game that actually made people wonder how Dave would have done it.

Alright, I can accept that.

I don't. He made the game all about the AH and denied the basic principal. Now he's been caught out being an arrogant dick and he's all "it's about the drop".

It took him longer than almost everyone else in the community to realise the basic premise behind a successful ARPG - fuck me, even Titan Quest got it right first time!

Yeah, I'm sorry, but that's a whole load of bullshit paragraphs amounting to nothing.

You didn't just reveal your utter contempt of what you do and who you do it with, you revealed exactly who you are as a person and you can't really apologise for that with mealy mouthed, 'Oh, no, wait, I really love Dave'.  You also make it clear that you STILL don't understand what you made and what you did wrong.  Seriously.  There's nothing in there that's personal at all.  Bullshit PR Statement is Bullshit.

What a retard.

The Auction House has also proven to be a big challenge. It adds a lot of power for players to trade and acquire items. Getting a great Monk drop that you can trade for better gear for your Wizard is obviously a great benefit, but it does come with a downside. The Auction House can short circuit the natural pace of item drops, making the game feel less rewarding for some players. This is a problem we recognize. At this point we're not sure of the exact way to fix it, but we’re discussing it constantly, and we believe it's a problem we can overcome.

I wish I'd gotten a similar apology out of WoW. I think yall are hammering him because you hate his guts and the game. The actual message seems to address the points about the problems of the game pretty well. It also admits in places that they aren't sure how to fix things, but they are going to work at doing it.

I really had little to no idea who his guts were before all this.  I really, really do dislike the game, but I think it falls down on two fundamental pegs that are utterly Unfixible and he knows it.

1 - AH.  It shouldn't be there.  At all.
2 - Online Always.  That was retarded from the start.

The other minor problems are Loot, which is utterly shittastic and skills, which are also BAD.

I'm not surprised he has no idea how to fix it.  It's clear that these two 'design' decisions came down from on high to be all about the moolah and they implented them in, well, an awful way.  I can't really think of any GOOD ways, though, so what do I know.

For me, it's like a house with really, really shitty foundations.  I have this image of him talking about 'his first castle that he built on the swamp.  They told him not to, but he did it anyway.  It sunk into the swamp.'

In short, Fuck that Loser.

The bits of the letter apologizing for the state of the game are fine.  I like mea culpas.  He's still an arse for losing it on Facebook over comments that just weren't that harsh.  Something this letter should have been entirely devoted to, and no more.

Not that I really care as I have no investment in D3, but I think that's why it rubs people the wrong way.

He needs to deliver his jokes in front of a camera and not in a letter.

I'm also just kind of lost as to why we care so much about the Facebook thing. Human reacts to criticism with profanity, news at 11.

Ah well, back to your regularly-scheduled crucifixion I guess.

I'm also just kind of lost as to why we care so much about the Facebook thing. Human reacts to criticism with profanity, news at 11.

Yes.  I actually really, really want to hear Schild take on this.  He's been quite quiet about it and, frankly, the Zynga stuff I really wanna hear.

I'm also just kind of lost as to why we care so much about the Facebook thing. Human reacts to criticism with profanity, news at 11.

Alternatively, he made an unprofessional kneejerk reaction to comments from a prior creator who probably has to pull the recent plank out of his eye.

Both guys would have been better off saying nothing. I thought neither was very professional (ie - critiquing your replacement or responding to critiques on facebook).

I think polite, objective criticism of your predecessor is fine.

See, that's horseshit. He was asked what he thought of the project, and he gave an honest and courteous answer. The initial response by the Blizzard guy was a fire-able offence. End of story. Wringing it out to mean "he had is coming" is wank. Let alone then spending two pages squirting out pr boilerplate slash self-congratulatory advertising.

Did I say he had it coming? No.

Take note of something if you ever happen to find yourself in this position. When the press asks to evaluate a former employer who is under fire, you're not required to comment, and you simply don't. It's never going to make you look better, and it's only going to add fuel to the fire. It's not his job to analyze how the job was done, or the development team in question. It's his job to make another game entirely and answer questions about that.

Nothing good can come from you publicly armchair QBing the guy doing the job you didn't get.

"I am also a little happy... I hate to say, [but] it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was, how unique and special... when the people leave the game changes, and it shows how critical people are in this industry."

That's his mild quote. I don't think you have to read between the lines to see he's taking a shot there. He's a little happy they fucked up because it proves how great his team actually was.

You just don't say publically that you're happy when other people are "failing" because it shows how smart you were.

It's fun watching you pair switch roles.

No, not fun.  That other one...

"I am also a little happy... I hate to say, [but] it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was, how unique and special... when the people leave the game changes, and it shows how critical people are in this industry."

That's his mild quote. I don't think you have to read between the lines to see he's taking a shot there. He's a little happy they fucked up because it proves how great his team actually was.

Actually, I am beginning to suspect that Paelos and Rokal aren't actually real at all, that they are just two polar opposite personas fabricated by our brains, and we are all experiencing the exact same hallucination of them together.

The thing that still puzzles me about the whole thing is how long the game took to make. What were they doing the whole time? It feels so ill-considered in many respects.

Edit: Blizzard didn't get *all* of it right. And they don't have the luxury to launch multiple versions of a game and have the improvements show up in sequels. For example, the difference between Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed 2. The core of AC was good, but it didn't shine until 2. Player feedback on a live product is invaluable.

Blizzard didn't get *all* of it right. And they don't have the luxury to launch multiple versions of a game and have the improvements show up in sequels. For example, the difference between Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed 2. The core of AC was good, but it didn't shine until 2. Player feedback on a live product is invaluable.

You could say that Diablo 3 was released when it wasn't ready, but does anyone actually believe that the game would have been better if given another 2 years of development time? We may have ended up with a product that was somehow worse than what we actually got.

On the other hand, AC didn't have the luxury of a beta test. Diablo 3 could have had a more comprehensive beta for the majority of closed testing and would have found many of the problems with the game, especially if they had enabled the AH for beta. They didn't either because they are short-sighted or because of their ego.

Releasing a game "when it's ready" ought not mean "keep fucking with different designs" but rather, "polish."

In the original spirit of this thread: my account was hacked by gold farmers so I was temporarily banned.  Scrambled my password and haven't even tried to log back in since then.

I didn't know which thread to put this in, so I settled on this one  :why_so_serious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBayYWSz0UQ

Stupid Blizzard. Guess I'm done with Diablo3 not because I've run out of fun, but because my account was 'locked due to suspicious activity' I tried out their mobile authenticator at one point, then when I changed providers/phones had to use their sms protect thing to remove it. I didn't port the number, and now have no way access the account without it.

Hacks are bad, I get that. Locking accounts with no way to recover doesn't seem better. At least I didn't pay that much for the game, but put me back on the Fuck Blizzard wagon.

Started playing this again (was on sale)

Is there any way to confine the mouse cursor while in windowed mode?

I've drunk deep of Torchlight 2, and fired up D3 again last night for a change of pace.

Nothing earth shaking to say. I stand by my assessment that D3 is a good game, but not a great one. Which is a shame for the 3rd game in a great franchise.

I still play one marathon session on the weekends while I watch sports. I clear an entire act, caves and all, to see what it nets me at the end of the day. Usually it's about 3 legendaries, and 5M gold.

Diablo 1 was mediocre at best.

How much MF and GF are you running with and what level of MP do you set and which act seems to net you good drops?

It wasn't until D2 that they made the formula work, largely by abandoning the roguelike aspirations and embracing the action side instead.

I think D2 stopped wiping characters years and years ago.

Heh.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/diablo-3-on-the-playstation-3-isnt-just-functional-its-far-better-than-its- (http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/diablo-3-on-the-playstation-3-isnt-just-functional-its-far-better-than-its-)

The console version of Diablo 3 isn't just competent, it's a remixed version of the original game, complete with rebalanced enemies, an improved economy, four player multiplayer on the same screen, no always-on connection requried, no game-killing real money auction house, and an inventory system that allows you to stay in the action while also swapping out your equipment for upgrades you find on the battlefield. Directly controlling your character also changes what was a click-fest into a more measured and intense action title.

It says addition of Offline play, monkey.

In effect, PC users got a beta test while getting simultaneously reamed for real cash via the AH.

Nice.

Woah woah woah. How exactly did the PC people get reamed by the RMAH? It's an optional thing you could completely ignore in favor the gold AH. We're not talking about a PVP game where you have to have a certain threshold of gear to compete.

I mean I'm all for reaming the game where it falls over (no offline play sans RMAH mode is a very legit gripe), but the people that hated RMAH didn't use it.

Woah woah woah. How exactly did the PC people get reamed by the RMAH? It's an optional thing you could completely ignore in favor the gold AH. We're not talking about a PVP game where you have to have a certain threshold of gear to compete.

I mean I'm all for reaming the game where it falls over (no offline play sans RMAH mode is a very legit gripe), but the people that hated RMAH didn't use it.

I recently took another character to 60 actually and am working on a 3rd. For what it's worth, while I like what's happening with the PS3 version, I've realized I probably would not enjoy the inherent removal of a CLICK CLICK CLICK coming from the mouse. The only reason they have fewer, better items in the PS3 version is because it's probably obnoxious to pick a bunch of shit up. Less loot, despite quality, is never, ever good.

Less is More

Between Paragon levels, Nephalem Valor stacks, and all the other assorted buffs and bonuses, it's possible to find a tremendous amount of Rare items during any given play session. But the quality of these Rare items just isn't where it needs to be, so even though players see a lot of them, they no longer feel special. When you identify hundreds of Rares and only a small percentage are worth equipping or selling, those items become a burden rather than something to get excited about. "Great. Now I have to identify them all, read their stats, and I’m probably going to salvage all of them." I feel your pain.

We want to make it fun and rewarding to hunt down new items through play, and really instill the feeling that your next awesome item could come from anywhere, and is just around the corner. We need to get rid of some of the clutter first, so we plan to reduce the frequency at which Rare items drop down the road.
Before anyone panics and posts an angry comment in the forums, this doesn't mean we want players to earn even fewer good items. It just means we don't feel it's necessary to present the player with hundreds of bad Rares for every one that they might want. As an example, suppose items currently roll between 1-100 Intelligence. Now, imagine that we dropped 25% as many items, but the Intelligence range was instead somewhere around 75-100. In the end, you'd find fewer items, but more of the items you find would be worth equipping. That's our goal.

(On the topic of identifying hundreds of Rares, it's worth adding that while most of this blog is about overall item philosophy and our goals down the road, one of the short-term changes we're making is adding an "Identify All" option, which should be coming in 1.0.8.)

Oh For Fucks Sake, Malakili, how can you keep posting stuff like that ?

"Shit Rares drop a lot and rather than change the way in which they drop, we're going to stop them dropping as much, but the ones that do will have MORE of the stat you don't want !!!"

Fucking CLOWNSHOES over there.

Farm Monsters, Not the Auction House

We want players to feel like entire new builds can open up if they get their hand on the right items. Glimmers of this idea are already in the game with The Three Hundredth Spear and Thing of the Deep. The plan is to embrace the idea and push them to more extremes. Potential future Legendary item ideas include a Voodoo Mask that increases pet damage, a Barbarian set that makes Call of the Ancients last until they die (after we give them full pet survivability), a Wizard Orb that allowed for two Hydras to be active at once, or the "Ethereal" boots idea I posted here.

The removal of the AH constitutes a much better economy to me, and makes the game no longer pay2win.

Well it moves the pay to win component back to ebay you mean.

And reintroduces trade scamming.

Where I can ignore it as an unintended consequence, instead of hearing it championed as a feature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSoeRt7Xvlo   :why_so_serious:

My favorite bit is the alligator.

I have to ask ?

I still think the one thing every game should copy is how easy they made the match making. That was a serious accomplishment IMO, and other games suffer in comparison.

Ah, right, right, right.

Sorry, thought we were talking about Diablo III

Silly me.   :why_so_serious:

OOOOOOOBEEEEEEEESOOOOOOOFT

My first thought was DRM.

Login Issues to the European servers are stopping play again.  Apparently have been for a while, but only hit ME this morning.

Seriously.

Login.  Stopping Play.  Always Online.

Can you all fill in the blanks yourself ?  Yeah ?  Do you know where all the 'cunts' and 'fuckheads' go ?  Cool.

Oh, probably not.  I'll just wait for Diablo III: Lady of Shestruction

http://youtu.be/q8U-ylvXcxI

2/3/4 player single-console multiplayer on the PS3. No AH. No always-on. The game it should always have been.

The more I think back on D2 the more I realized that it wasn't till the expansion that I really put a ton of hours in it.