05-20-2012, 04:39 PM
OK so I didn't play a lot of hardcore in D2. I did get a toon or two into nightmare, but all my big toons were softcore mode. So why did I get a toon to 10 then immediate log and roll a hardcore character? A character that was choosen based on the roll of a 10 sided die because I had no idea what class I wanted to play first since I liked them all in the beta.
I'm not trying to convince anyone to play hardcore. In fact I know I'm going to play softcore too because there are some builds/set-ups I want to try because I think they will be a ton of fun but I don't want to risk with the hardcore toon. I also think that softcore might be my only option for some of the progression options that D3 has to offer, I'll get to that under the replayability section
D3 removed a lot of tedium which makes single player and multiplayer more fun.
So if my HC toon dies, while I lose that investment, I'm not faced with as much tedium to play through again. I don't have to plan skills out again, I don't have to skip entire huge zones to get to something fun. D2 was a big game. I don't think a D3 full clear is much more than doing a full clear through Act II in D2. D3 also gives you reasons to do full clears because the champions, and rares, and special events are more plentiful, more fun, and so far it seems much less likely to be annoying one shots, they also provide good loot which is the point of the game. I'm not saying they are less dangerous either, just less likely to one shot you. I think D3 is harder than D2, but it's more consistent, and there are skills for every toon that allow you to run away from most situations so you can regroup. For HC this means "stupid deaths" are less likely to happen. That means less chance of major frustration.
D3 has more atmosphere than D2
This makes it more fun to play than D2 as well. I played D1 solo a lot, even though multi was more fun just like in D2 and D3, but that atmosphere, the potential for different events, the feeling that you really were a badass hero were much stronger in D1 than D2. Those are back (and potentially better) in D3 and for me they are enhanced by hardcore mode. If my hardcore toon dies I also get to feel the next one is going to prove that he is even more of a badass hero than the one who died. D2 lacking that feeling meant that a dead HC toon was going to be replaced by just another toon. It was harder to get attached to characters in D2.
This allows me to get something different from the game that I value as enjoyment. But as mentioned this doesn't mean I won't get as much, if not more, enjoyment from some of the things I can do in softcore that I don't want to try in hardcore. I have different moods. Hardcore provides enjoyment for some of those moods better than softcore. Softcore provides it better than hardcore for others.
Being able to still have a lot of fun playing solo (after beating normal mode with all the classes in D2, single player became a lot less fun for me) means I don't have to try and find groups to progress. This makes HC more accessible for me as well.
D3 toons provide progression for your other toons
This applies to both hardcore and softcore. You don't actually lose everything. You keep the upgrades on the artisans and the stash, you keep the money and some items, without the tedium of having to mule them off. You have more than just your memories of the past toon. You have stuff that makes it easier to go through the stuff you've previously done without dying. Again I'll also state the content is simply more fun.
A patch or a mistake in planning will never make my toon no longer viable
In D2, patches changed skills and balance so much that a toon could feel nonviable after a patch. Something that looked good in theory did not play the way you wanted and the toon now felt worthless. Perhaps I should have put this under the "D3 has less tedium" but for me this was a roadblock to hardcore. Frustration from death because I wasn't up for the challenge was one thing, frustration from something completely outside my control was another.
In D3 if a patch changes skills a ton, I can just use something else. There is a gear to skill convergence, yes, some skills work better with some gear, but it's small enough that changing skills around because something got changed shouldn't be too big a deal. In D2 you didn't have that option.
Of course gear drives the game, and if the gear gets screwed up by a patch it might screw you. I can scale back to something early and farm up new stuff that will work if that happens. The game is about farming gear anyway so that isn't as big of a change.
That's another point. As mentioned D3 provides more control. It doesn't eliminate things that can kill you that you can't control, but it lessens them. The online only aspect will get brought up, but the only way to eliminate that was to play single player, even LAN play could cause lag deaths. Besides D2 had a lot of stuff that was online only as well because it was easier to play on battle.net for multiplayer even if you were soloing you had this issue there too, and if you played on the ladder, which was the primary source for providing the "I'm a badass" feel that D3 can provide through story and gameplay, there is no difference than what D3 has now.
For hardcore it boils down to another major point of potential frustration being removed and managing the potential for frustration vs the additional rewards of the challenge tips to making hardcore more viable for me.
D3 has a well defined end point
I know D2 sort of had an end point, L99, but it felt like it had two. Beat Hell/Diablo or Hell/Baal (expansion) and you had beaten the content. If you beat them you had "won" but you were probably only in the L70-80 range. Then there was the farm/grind for 99 but the only drive was to get there, you weren't trying to get anywhere new content wise.
In D3 the level cap hits before the content cap. I think this was a good thing to borrow from MMO's. When the point of the game is to get new gear, it helps to have a reason to use that gear.
So while this seems like a universal driver, it affects me wanting to play hardcore mostly because getting there will mean more to me because the end is more well defined. The game provides me with mechanisms and entertainment to the final victory (Leablo dead in Inferno). D2 did this up to a point and then left it all on you to get to the final endpoint of L99. It also means that HC toons will probably get retired if they ever manage to get through Inferno (which I doubt will happen for me) and maybe I'll run out of slots if I'm an uber D3 player. But that would provide value of it's own.
Hardcore is going to add replayability
You've only got 10 character slots. You had essentially infinite slots in D2. While it's possible to finish a HC toon and have them still use up a character slot I find that less likely and again if you run out of slots because you have 10 HC toons that beat Inferno and still aren't bored with the game Blizzard deserves more money for another account. So when a HC toon dies you retire them to the hall of heroes and open up one of the slots again so you can play again.
In MMO's that use the same basic "gear is character progression that enables content progression" system that D3 has, more content could be added to keep you going. D3 won't be adding content at the same speed an MMO does. The claim in D3 is that Inferno is so difficult that it should take a long time to get through, there will be a lot of impetus to farm past content for better gear to help push through later content. Beating content is a stronger drive to play, and provides more enjoyment for most players than reaching a level cap that is 20 some levels beyond what you need to beat all the content.
I know that isn't going to be all that I want to do based on my past experience so playing hardcore where I figure I will lose toons will give me another option for play that I enjoy.
Diablo 1 had variant scum (if you are new that is a term of affection) that could add more replay. Diablo 3 looks like it will have that option as well. A witch doctor that only uses spells that "summon" something (no darts, no poison cloud, no haunt) or one that never summons (no dogs, no gargantuan, no fetishes). You have those options too, yes, so you don't need hardcore for more replay, but it does offer more "standard" replay that softcore won't have because of the character slot limits.
So there you go, this is why I'm playing hardcore more in D3. I'm playing it first because the value I get from the "I'm a badass" is bigger for me if I hit content I've never seen on a toon that doesn't come back from death. This will probably wear off by the end of nightmare if not sooner so you might see me on more SC toons or another HC class more than the Witch Doctor at that point. But so far it's worked very well for me.
I'm not trying to convince anyone to play hardcore. In fact I know I'm going to play softcore too because there are some builds/set-ups I want to try because I think they will be a ton of fun but I don't want to risk with the hardcore toon. I also think that softcore might be my only option for some of the progression options that D3 has to offer, I'll get to that under the replayability section
D3 removed a lot of tedium which makes single player and multiplayer more fun.
So if my HC toon dies, while I lose that investment, I'm not faced with as much tedium to play through again. I don't have to plan skills out again, I don't have to skip entire huge zones to get to something fun. D2 was a big game. I don't think a D3 full clear is much more than doing a full clear through Act II in D2. D3 also gives you reasons to do full clears because the champions, and rares, and special events are more plentiful, more fun, and so far it seems much less likely to be annoying one shots, they also provide good loot which is the point of the game. I'm not saying they are less dangerous either, just less likely to one shot you. I think D3 is harder than D2, but it's more consistent, and there are skills for every toon that allow you to run away from most situations so you can regroup. For HC this means "stupid deaths" are less likely to happen. That means less chance of major frustration.
D3 has more atmosphere than D2
This makes it more fun to play than D2 as well. I played D1 solo a lot, even though multi was more fun just like in D2 and D3, but that atmosphere, the potential for different events, the feeling that you really were a badass hero were much stronger in D1 than D2. Those are back (and potentially better) in D3 and for me they are enhanced by hardcore mode. If my hardcore toon dies I also get to feel the next one is going to prove that he is even more of a badass hero than the one who died. D2 lacking that feeling meant that a dead HC toon was going to be replaced by just another toon. It was harder to get attached to characters in D2.
This allows me to get something different from the game that I value as enjoyment. But as mentioned this doesn't mean I won't get as much, if not more, enjoyment from some of the things I can do in softcore that I don't want to try in hardcore. I have different moods. Hardcore provides enjoyment for some of those moods better than softcore. Softcore provides it better than hardcore for others.
Being able to still have a lot of fun playing solo (after beating normal mode with all the classes in D2, single player became a lot less fun for me) means I don't have to try and find groups to progress. This makes HC more accessible for me as well.
D3 toons provide progression for your other toons
This applies to both hardcore and softcore. You don't actually lose everything. You keep the upgrades on the artisans and the stash, you keep the money and some items, without the tedium of having to mule them off. You have more than just your memories of the past toon. You have stuff that makes it easier to go through the stuff you've previously done without dying. Again I'll also state the content is simply more fun.
A patch or a mistake in planning will never make my toon no longer viable
In D2, patches changed skills and balance so much that a toon could feel nonviable after a patch. Something that looked good in theory did not play the way you wanted and the toon now felt worthless. Perhaps I should have put this under the "D3 has less tedium" but for me this was a roadblock to hardcore. Frustration from death because I wasn't up for the challenge was one thing, frustration from something completely outside my control was another.
In D3 if a patch changes skills a ton, I can just use something else. There is a gear to skill convergence, yes, some skills work better with some gear, but it's small enough that changing skills around because something got changed shouldn't be too big a deal. In D2 you didn't have that option.
Of course gear drives the game, and if the gear gets screwed up by a patch it might screw you. I can scale back to something early and farm up new stuff that will work if that happens. The game is about farming gear anyway so that isn't as big of a change.
That's another point. As mentioned D3 provides more control. It doesn't eliminate things that can kill you that you can't control, but it lessens them. The online only aspect will get brought up, but the only way to eliminate that was to play single player, even LAN play could cause lag deaths. Besides D2 had a lot of stuff that was online only as well because it was easier to play on battle.net for multiplayer even if you were soloing you had this issue there too, and if you played on the ladder, which was the primary source for providing the "I'm a badass" feel that D3 can provide through story and gameplay, there is no difference than what D3 has now.
For hardcore it boils down to another major point of potential frustration being removed and managing the potential for frustration vs the additional rewards of the challenge tips to making hardcore more viable for me.
D3 has a well defined end point
I know D2 sort of had an end point, L99, but it felt like it had two. Beat Hell/Diablo or Hell/Baal (expansion) and you had beaten the content. If you beat them you had "won" but you were probably only in the L70-80 range. Then there was the farm/grind for 99 but the only drive was to get there, you weren't trying to get anywhere new content wise.
In D3 the level cap hits before the content cap. I think this was a good thing to borrow from MMO's. When the point of the game is to get new gear, it helps to have a reason to use that gear.
So while this seems like a universal driver, it affects me wanting to play hardcore mostly because getting there will mean more to me because the end is more well defined. The game provides me with mechanisms and entertainment to the final victory (Leablo dead in Inferno). D2 did this up to a point and then left it all on you to get to the final endpoint of L99. It also means that HC toons will probably get retired if they ever manage to get through Inferno (which I doubt will happen for me) and maybe I'll run out of slots if I'm an uber D3 player. But that would provide value of it's own.
Hardcore is going to add replayability
You've only got 10 character slots. You had essentially infinite slots in D2. While it's possible to finish a HC toon and have them still use up a character slot I find that less likely and again if you run out of slots because you have 10 HC toons that beat Inferno and still aren't bored with the game Blizzard deserves more money for another account. So when a HC toon dies you retire them to the hall of heroes and open up one of the slots again so you can play again.
In MMO's that use the same basic "gear is character progression that enables content progression" system that D3 has, more content could be added to keep you going. D3 won't be adding content at the same speed an MMO does. The claim in D3 is that Inferno is so difficult that it should take a long time to get through, there will be a lot of impetus to farm past content for better gear to help push through later content. Beating content is a stronger drive to play, and provides more enjoyment for most players than reaching a level cap that is 20 some levels beyond what you need to beat all the content.
I know that isn't going to be all that I want to do based on my past experience so playing hardcore where I figure I will lose toons will give me another option for play that I enjoy.
Diablo 1 had variant scum (if you are new that is a term of affection) that could add more replay. Diablo 3 looks like it will have that option as well. A witch doctor that only uses spells that "summon" something (no darts, no poison cloud, no haunt) or one that never summons (no dogs, no gargantuan, no fetishes). You have those options too, yes, so you don't need hardcore for more replay, but it does offer more "standard" replay that softcore won't have because of the character slot limits.
So there you go, this is why I'm playing hardcore more in D3. I'm playing it first because the value I get from the "I'm a badass" is bigger for me if I hit content I've never seen on a toon that doesn't come back from death. This will probably wear off by the end of nightmare if not sooner so you might see me on more SC toons or another HC class more than the Witch Doctor at that point. But so far it's worked very well for me.
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It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.