The Diablo Formula and how Diablo 3 falls short

[Lissa]

Is it not extreme to reject one of the world's best developers, scorched-earth, forever, just on the basis that one of their games got a little frustrating towards the end?

You can spend your money how you like. But as a consumer strategy, this makes no sense to me.

-Jester

They were one of the best and I probably have more blizzard games than any other developer's (except for possibly Bethesda), but they've shown me through the changes to WoW over the years, the direction they took on SC2, and the direction they took with D3 (and what they've said they have planned), they are no longer developing games that appeal to how I want to play. They may still be one of the top dogs in game development, but they are no longer able (or maybe just willing) to make games for how I like to play. Did I get my money's worth out of D3? Sure, but the fact that I stopped playing before I even found another game to pull my attention away from D3 means I really wasn't enjoying it as much as I have their past titles. Maybe there have just been too many personnel changes in the company and maybe I've changed from what I want in games as well, but the fact remains that I just don't have faith in Blizzard making games that I will enjoy for years anymore (I didn't even make it very many months for this last one) and for that, they won't be getting my money after this. Hell, I stopped supporting EA flat out after just one non sports title on the PC because of how immensely frustrating and annoying it was, both installing and playing. I've given Blizzard quite a few chances over the years of watching the sledgehammer approach to balancing, gameplay, etc. This was just the last time.

Edit: I just realized that it's only been 2 months, a little over. That's it. Maybe I didn't really get my money's worth after all. Yeesh. Still, I'm not pissed I bought it, but I could have spent it on something else that was more necessary. Ah well.

I think I can sum up your thoughts a little bit, and this is why I'm not willing to do much with Blizzard at the moment (maybe in the future), Blizzard has gone from a company that cares about their players and the quality of their games to how much money they can make. Simply, when Vivendi bought Activision and then merged Activision and Blizzard together, they royally fucked over the Blizzard culture. Blizzard's culture of making great games has been greatly diminished and been replaced mostly by the "we need more money for our daily money bath!" The things that have happened with D3, with SC 2 (I don't hold much hope for the storylines in Swarm or Void), and WoW have shown to me that Blizzard doesn't care about their games anymore, just how much money they can make.