DII vs. Titan Quest

[--Pete]

Hi,

. . . but it's funny looking at bliz usual creed of 'it's done when it's done, and we make games that we want to play' compared to the patch txt.

Classic D2 shows a significant decrease in quality from act 1 through act 4. And calling it 'act 4' is a big concession -- it has neither the size nor the detail to rate much more than act 3.5. So, the oft quoted 'it'll be done when it's done' is more of a marketing ploy and an excuse for schedule slips. It sounds good, but really just means that when they have a minimally shippable product, they'll ship it. Even if it means that the customer has to download a huge patch immediately after installation (and, yes, I know that was WoW, not D2 -- but it was still Blizzard). Considering the crap that ships under the guise of games, Blizzard does an excellent job by comparison. But, it's the dancing bear story -- it's not that the bear dances well that's amazing; it's that the bear dances at all.

Looking at the bigger picture it's actually commendable that 1.10 even came out . . .

Yes, it is. And it is to Blizzard's credit that they continued to support a game so long after the revenue stream had mostly dried up.

But would I wait another year for a better designed (read: not necessarily more content, but better.) yes. Would I pay an extra 50 for the effort? If it means better replay yes.

Some time ago I introduced the concept of being 'pre-bored' with a game. By that I meant that a new game was sufficiently like an older game which one had played till all the pleasure had been sucked out that the player became bored with the new game after only a few sessions. I think, to a large extent, that is what has happened to Diablo like games. Better balance, better content, etc. will not not restore the feeling you had the first time you heard 'Fresh meat!'. I don't think there is anything that can be done to D2 (or D1) that amounts to more than a fresh coat of paint. It may look shiny, but it'll be the same old 'kill things to get more powerful so that you can kill higher level things' merry-go-round.

I think Blizzard knows this, which is why I suspect that D3 may never be one of their projects.

--Pete