(07-03-2012, 10:21 PM)MMAgCh Wrote:Bashiok Wrote:We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game. There are still tons of people playing every day and week, and playing a lot, but eventually they're going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already). Killing enemies and finding items is a lot of fun, and we think we have a lot of the systems surrounding that right, or at least on the right path with a few corrections and tweaks. But honestly Diablo III is not World of Warcraft. We aren't going to be able to pump out tons of new systems and content every couple months. There needs to be something else that keeps people engaged, and we know it's not there right now.
We're working toward 1.0.4, which we're really trying to pack with as many fixes and changes we can to help you guys out (and we'll have a bunch of articles posted with all the details as we get closer), and we're of course working on 1.1 with PvP arenas. I think both those patches will do a lot to give people things to do, and get them excited about playing, but they're not going to be a real end-game solution, at least not what we would expect out of a proper end-game. We have some ideas for progression systems, but honestly it's a huge feature if we want to try to do it right, and not something we could envision being possible until well after 1.1 which it itself still a ways out. (Source)
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Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose, but we believed pre-release that the item hunt would be far more sustainable, and would work to be a proper end-game for quite a while. That didn't turn out to be true, and we recognize that. (Source)
I feel this deserves its own thread because it's probably the single most cogent, honest admission I've seen that as it is right now, D3 isn't everything it should be. Will they manage to fix it eventually? Who knows. That they're realising that no, it's really not working out too well as-is, at least is a start.
Can't fix a game that is basically designed around and funnelled into a flawed concept and that is the RMAH. There is actually nothing to fix, as it does exactly what it is meant to do.
To fix it, they would have to change the game fundamentally and there is no way that would happen. Oh, they'll tweak it and make it somewhat better as far as the little annoyances, they will eventually release the PVP patch which will interest some ppl for a bit, but they will not and at this point probably can not gut it, and sadly that is the only way to make this game comparable in quality, popularity, and longevity to D1 and D2.