Blizzard gain a flash of insight?

[FireIceTalon]

I wouldn't. For me the fun part of item hunting is (potentially) finding an item that allows you to do awesome things that you couldn't before. Like in D2 getting an item with c2c amp so you can crack phys immunes or finding a reaper's toll for your merc for amazing crowd control, or making a beast so you can make some off-the-wall werebear build.

The items in D3 are so bland and homogenous that there's no way they would hold my interest alone--replacing one rare with another rare that has slightly higher numbers is not fun, especially once any semblance of difficulty disappears.

It'd be interesting to see the breakdown between players like me and completionists like you.

I want to play PvP, and like Inferno itself, this will demand the absolute best possible gear if you want to be competitive.

What if PvP didn't exist though? It sounds like your endgame is pvp, and as such grinding to be competitive in PvP is a necessary evil, not a virtue.

If that's the case, why not play a game like Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2 which have/will have better PvP and no grind required?

Contrary to what many think here, D1 PvP was very fun and there was skill involved, though it is admittedly, a rather esoteric topic. If PvP didn't exist, I guess the game wouldn't have lasted as long for me, but at least in D1 building a char took time and you got better gear as you progressed. I think PvP in a game like D3, as it is currently, WILL be necessary to hold at least some players interest long enough, whereas in D2 it wasn't needed (though it certainly did make the game last longer for lots of people). But since you hit the max level cap before entering Inferno, it is just a pure item grind that you do to help you get through the difficulty and eventually PvP, if thats what you want to do. If PvP doesn't interest you, most likely you will beat Inferno and maybe do it again with another char at best, or more likely be on your way to another game. I loved D1 from the moment I played it in 1997, and though initially I wasn't into PvP, it certainly extended the games life for me. I just hope when Blizz puts PvP in D3, that they have a custom games system to where you can duel with your friends instead of just a match-making system where you only duel random people you don't know. I don't necessarily mind the item grind, as long as it doesn't punish you. In D1, it didn't. But in D3, it most certainly does.