Whenever I think I'm out, they pull me back in.

[Fabricated]

One of my friends started playing again and we've been playing TCP/IP games since Battle.net sucks. I think it's the ring sound that makes me want to click repeatedly on things for hours on end.

[schild]

You shoulda told me. I'd love to play some Hardcore with you. So would Koboshi.

[Cheddar]

Is this Diablo 2?  I never played it.  Is it worth it?  How static is it?

[schild]

Cheddar, I realize there's a fair chance you may have been off saving America when Diablo 2 came out but that's no fucking excuse for having not played it. I'm fairly sure it was standard issue gear to soldiers.

[Cheddar]

Cheddar, I realize there's a fair chance you may have been off saving America when Diablo 2 came out but that's no fucking excuse for having not played it. I'm fairly sure it was standard issue gear to soldiers.

Heh, I read about it but never saw a copy where I lived.  Which is surprising, considering the blackmarkets that exist overseas (in turkey I lived half a block from a street that sold just about any software type thing you could want, for pocket change.  Music, movies, etc.  I miss those days).

Before you people judge me realize we did not have a gamestop in the desert or in Turkey.


edit.  Silly typos.  I seriously need a new keyboard.

[schild]

You could buy Diablo 2 at 7-11 at the height of it's popularity. I think they gave it away in Happy Meals too.

[Xanthippe]

Yes, it's worth playing.  It's just fun fun fun.  Dated now, but still fun.  Especially if you can play UO and think that's fun.

[Strazos]

If I owned a copy I'd give it a shot.

[Merusk]

It still amazes me people get ornry about MMOs, but find RSI from a billion-clickfest that's just as grindy  entertaining.

[schild]

MMORPGs do not have aurally appealing item drop sounds. Nor do they have the pretty colors. Also, they're not fun. Diablo is fun. I know, I know - how can clicking be fun? YOU'D BE SURPRISED. Also, it's the randomization that really makes the difference. Like gambling for lewts. In MMORPGs everyone is chasing after the same loot. What a shitty mechanic. Random loots should be a necessity for any MMOG made in the future. I only wish I'd never heard the word Cloudsong.

[raydeen]

I keep telling myself I have to break down and buy LoD to complete D2. That and the WC3 battlechest. That's pretty much all the kids at school play aside from some shooters and WoW. I keep seeing other things though when I go to EB/Gamestop. Picked up Sacred Gold the other day for $20 and lovin' it.

[Cheddar]

You could buy Diablo 2 at 7-11 at the height of it's popularity. I think they gave it away in Happy Meals too.

Errr, heh. 

Anyhow, I was actually looking at the Blizzard war chest or some such the other day.  It comes with Warcraft 3, Diablo, and Diablo 2.  If people around here are playing I may just pick it up.  Is it casual friendly?

[sinij]

It still amazes me people get ornry about MMOs, but find RSI from a billion-clickfest that's just as grindy  entertaining.

Diablo2 refined continuous reinforcement to Pavlovian perfection, whole game is about getting new shiny in the least thought provoking way in a regular doses. Design cares nothing for players getting enough and just stopping since whole thing is one-time prepay.

Typical Diku-style MMOs grinds are very different since they are mostly designed around variable and intermittent reinforcement to postpone saturation and to keep players as long as possible. Unfortunately frustration is necessary part these reinforcement schedules, so players bitch a lot about it.

[WindupAtheist]

Sinij actually made a salient point.  An MMO is all about delaying gratification for as long as the developers think they can get away with, so as to maximize subscription time.  D2 is content to let you just ding and ding and loot and loot without all the cockblocking.

[schild]

Diablo 2 is no less mindless than any MMORPG. Arguably Diablo 2 (at least on hardcore difficulty) is a survival game while MMOGs are a race ot the shiny game.

In other words - in order to keep your character in D2H, you must - I repeat, MUST - get the best armor you can at all times. In MMOGs it just doesn't fucking matter. People want the best armor in most cases just to wave their epeen around.

[WindupAtheist]

I never did the hardcore thing.  If I get into it again sometime, maybe I will.  The permadeath in Zangband certainy made things... er... tense at times.

[Fabricated]

Speaking of the Pavlovian thing, I swear that a decent portion of Diablo 2's success can be attributed to the sound a ring makes when it drops. Any hardcore Diablo fan gets half a stalk when they hear that sound.

It also did a great job of making you feel heroic. There's just something gratifying about slogging into a group of 30-40+ monsters as a melee-type.

[Rasix]

I'd die to those pigmy fuckers with the blowguns every time.  I've never seen the appeal of hardcore.

Does D2 come in higher resolutions (yes, I could re-install and find out, but gah.. effort)?  800x600 is god aweful, might as well just load up Arcanum. 

PS. Kratos is my new Jesus.

[Viin]

I have a copy of D2 that I played once and is collecting dust on my shelf if anyone wants to come get it.

[SurfD]

Mannn, now i have the urge to install again.....after i just reinstalled Warcraft 3, Starcraft, and Half Life 1 again for the 10th time each.

[MrHat]

Whenever someone mentions Diablo2 hardcore, my mind does this:



I spent way to much time playing hardcore in D2.  It was fun once you got over the whole "hoarding items on alts" mentality of the regular play.  Item have so much more significance if you can accidently die using a multishot point blank on a lightning boss.

[bhodi]

Heh, D2 looked dated the day it was released. They said something like "We believe 800x600 is adequate for enjoyment, and it would have taken us a lot longer to re-tool all the graphics for a higher resolution".

Also, oooh that ring sound, slamming the alt key and frantically hunting before your greedy ass friend gets it... god dammit, I don't get shit in the back lines, you can grab everything up there, why don't you share you ass goblin, oh no you didn't just.. fuck you that's my mother bitch, I'm gonna drive over to your house and rape your dog if you get... god dammit I can use that, give it here!

It's about 10 times as fun with a friend.

[Strazos]

I have a copy of D2 that I played once and is collecting dust on my shelf if anyone wants to come get it.

Send it on over. I'll pay the $3 in shipping.

The game still, amazingly, sells for like $25 or so retail.

[Yegolev]

I seem to remember that max resolution was orignally 640x480 in D2, later increased to 800x600.  I know it was increased, and I am really sure it wasn't to 1024x768.

I still have D2LoD 1.10 on disk, I assume it is "installed", as if that matters.  I was a tad disappointed after installing 1.10, maybe because I had been waiting so long, only to discover that I was still playing D2LoD?  Or that b.net still sucked?

Anyone, post your info, maybe I can find some time to join up and get everyone killed.  My skills are gone, but the twitchy eye I get when I hear a ring drop remains.

[ahoythematey]

LoD gave it the option of 800x600 resolution.  The graphics are adequate for the game, and god it is dangerous for me to read this thread.  I'm pretty sure D2 and LoD were the best combined $110 I've ever spent on gaming.  I think another thing that makes the game work so well is the character skill system.  It really is a just-one-more-level scenario, where just around the corner is that extra skill point to spend on a better Iron Golem and make that dipshit lance barbarian your bitch.

EDIT: 

[Yegolev]

Ha!

battle.net is bad, hmm-kay?

[MrHat]

I can only hope that my inner graphics whore will stop me from playing this.

[Big Gulp]

It still amazes me people get ornry about MMOs, but find RSI from a billion-clickfest that's just as grindy  entertaining.

Ayup.  The Diablo games were horrible.  So were the Dungeon Siege games.  Not entertaining, not even involving, just mind-numbingly boring.

[stray]

Never liked them much either. Liked SC/WC though (and I'm not even that big of an RTS fan).

I can only hope that my inner graphics whore will stop me from playing this.

If Blizzard has proven anything, it is that graphics mean nothing. Somehow.

[Hoax]

SC sucked.

Smarter people then I have explained why Diablo owns MMO's.  Really Schild you need to work in the industry or something, random loot is the win also I would give a toe or three for more inventive combat systems.

I will admit though, I never got into DiabloII like I did the first game.  I beta'd that game so hard I was burned out by the time it released.  The lackluster pvp annoyed me and I was too aware of the class/skill imbalances compared to when I was first gaming (Diablo1 was the first game I played online).

I would love to try it again, now is not the time but if I saw that f13 had a solid group of 3+ playing hardcore in the western timezone you could count me in.

[Jain Zar]

Id be afraid to play hardcore.  I don't even like more than 5 minutes between savepoints, much less permadeath.

But its amazing how much better Diablo 2 is with the LoD expansion.  Alone its pretty meh.  Never beat it.
Got LoD and the original game for the Mac (didn't realize original D2 release was not dual PC/Mac) this winter and
stomped around as a badass Assassin who killed lots of things and beat the main campaign before getting distracted
somewhere in Chapter 5.

[Margalis]

Put me in the "Diablo is insanely boring" crowd.

I tend to tire of games when I know all that they have to offer and Diablo becomes rote after 5 minutes of play.

[Nija]

I've been waiting for some hax0r to increase the default D2 resolution for years. Yeah, I know it's sprites and it doesn't scale, but I don't want it to scale. Just display more pixels.

Even 1024 would make a world of difference. Keep the spell and bow range the same, but let us see more surroundings at once. Playing 800x600 fullscreen makes me feel claustrophobic.

[Strazos]

I get the same feeling when I play the older Infinity Engine games.

[dusematic]

how can clicking be fun? YOU'D BE SURPRISED.

LOL