What interests me is the admission that they honestly thought the item hunt was a proper end-game. Somewhere along the line, someone at Blizzard decided to take one aspect of what made the Diablo series great and focus on that to the general exclusion of everything else.
It took me exactly two weeks to conclude this, but I'm not going to act like that's special - people were predicting it even before the game's release. At this point, they'd have to go back and change so much to re-tool the game to introduce a proper end-game that I'm not sure how many players will be left.
A bit frustrating to me. They designed a great game, but sort of left it hanging at the finish line. I've watched as so many players now follow this progression curve at various rates of speed:
1) Enjoy the heck out of the game in normal, nightmare, and hell difficulties
2) Get to Inferno / end-game
3) Realize the game is all about items, random gear acquisition, and the Auction House
4) Get bored and quit
Some people hit step 4 in a week! Others are just starting to hit it now. Yet more will be reaching it in the coming month. I still go back and forth trying to figure out if it's the game, or if it's just that it's 12 years later and people (well, me) expect more from the genre in general. I mean, MMOs were a nascent genre (in before the MUD crowd goes "no they weren't!") in the Diablo/Diablo 2 days, and now they're incredibly common - gaming itself may have just moved on from these games.
I realize I sound like a hater, but I'm just honestly stating what I've felt about Diablo III. I want to love the game - really, I mean I run a damn Diablo fansite - but something's just not there for me. I log in from time to time and usually within an hour I remember why I don't log in most nights. Is it me or the game? I'm not even remotely the gamer I was 12 years ago, and I keep wondering if I'd have the same opinion of D3 if it had come out back then. I really don't know, but I DO know that much of what I liked about Diablo II isn't present in Diablo III.
Edit: someone pointed me to Kripparrian's video where he discusses end-game with similar conclusions. For those unaware, this is the guy who beat Inferno Diablo hardcore before the first major Inferno nerfs.
Essentially, he notes that he plays Hardcore because there's just no end game present at all and it's the only thing to do. Not sure what he's doing now that he's beaten Hardcore.
It took me exactly two weeks to conclude this, but I'm not going to act like that's special - people were predicting it even before the game's release. At this point, they'd have to go back and change so much to re-tool the game to introduce a proper end-game that I'm not sure how many players will be left.
A bit frustrating to me. They designed a great game, but sort of left it hanging at the finish line. I've watched as so many players now follow this progression curve at various rates of speed:
1) Enjoy the heck out of the game in normal, nightmare, and hell difficulties
2) Get to Inferno / end-game
3) Realize the game is all about items, random gear acquisition, and the Auction House
4) Get bored and quit
Some people hit step 4 in a week! Others are just starting to hit it now. Yet more will be reaching it in the coming month. I still go back and forth trying to figure out if it's the game, or if it's just that it's 12 years later and people (well, me) expect more from the genre in general. I mean, MMOs were a nascent genre (in before the MUD crowd goes "no they weren't!") in the Diablo/Diablo 2 days, and now they're incredibly common - gaming itself may have just moved on from these games.
I realize I sound like a hater, but I'm just honestly stating what I've felt about Diablo III. I want to love the game - really, I mean I run a damn Diablo fansite - but something's just not there for me. I log in from time to time and usually within an hour I remember why I don't log in most nights. Is it me or the game? I'm not even remotely the gamer I was 12 years ago, and I keep wondering if I'd have the same opinion of D3 if it had come out back then. I really don't know, but I DO know that much of what I liked about Diablo II isn't present in Diablo III.
Edit: someone pointed me to Kripparrian's video where he discusses end-game with similar conclusions. For those unaware, this is the guy who beat Inferno Diablo hardcore before the first major Inferno nerfs.
Essentially, he notes that he plays Hardcore because there's just no end game present at all and it's the only thing to do. Not sure what he's doing now that he's beaten Hardcore.
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.