Events

[Archon_Wing]

Most people tend to see quests as chores, in which case they find every way possible to skip the quests unless it provides a reward. Incentives are always nice, as I've stated before with say, the +20 life quest with Alkor's Golden Bird. It gives a sense of actually playing the game for once.

So Blizzard rightfully thought that people would inevitably seek out the best areas to farm and do it over and over and over again ad nausuem, and the metagame would center on those areas. 1.10 was a godsend for D2 in many ways. While there were still going to be popular areas to farm, there suddenly had a lot more variety, and everyone could carve out their own hunting grounds.

Enter D3. The loot is now concentrated on elite packs, as opposed to bosses that can easily be planned for and exploited. Now, these things are unpredictable and deadly, and hey, it helps curbs botting. The recent patches as of late seem to be forcing everyone in that direction, although the idea of Valors might just be the best thing in Diablo since sliced bread. But now we are too obsessed with valors, as effectively everything else besides valors and dumping them on some act boss is a waste of time. Or you can go the gold find+ valor path but that just feels so one track. Act 2 is especially obnoxious due to the wide area and it can take a while to find a pack.

But there is a certain other aspect of Diablo 3 that has much more potential for breaking this kind of tedium of running around looking for elite fights. These are the events that pop up that deliver potential rewards, and while they can be prepared for, they are also just random enough to not be easily exploited.

An example of an extremely well designed event is where you kill Dargon, that traitorous guy. You are guaranteed one elite pack to refresh/add your valor and you may buy items from that merchant as a reward. It's nothing big, but you know there's some perks to doing this event. There's also the fact that he's labeled a "traitorous cur" that makes me laugh every time I see that. That's entertaining.

There's also fun stuff like rescuing the merchant in act 2 that sells potions off for half price. That was a great thing to discover.

On the other hand, a bad event occurs just before that, in the form of the guy with the iron maiden. You free him... and get what? Some unique hunk that doesn't count as an elite monster and thus drops crap, and... 800 gold? This quest is largely a waste of time beyond normal.

So, tweaking these things around can make the game seem less tedious. Imagine more merchants that sold things of better value but they had to be sought out (cycling town merchants isn't exactly fun and too exploit friendly) but you'd have to beat some tough elite packs for it. That would be a good showing of risk/reward, and maybe at add a bit more surprise than usual. It also synergies with the current system. Remember how most of us loved the imbue quest and sometimes the Anya rare even though most of the time we'd get crap anyways? It's the thought that counts. Guaranteed rare item events? Everyone would be hopping all around the game in search for it.

A lot of this is the same reason people gamble and buy lottery tickets. Sure, you won't win most likely. But it's the thrill of seeing a chance of getting it that drives people. This is why stuff like this, no matter how small or subtle, makes the experience way more fun. Hopes and dreams and most importantly, your ability to guide yourself to this goal, is what fuels people to play. And ironically, that's the point of Diablo 3's story, beyond all the silly plot twists and holes.