11-07-2006, 07:10 AM
>Precisely. This is exactly what is needed in most games. And if you take it in the form of a treasure-hunt dungeon-crawl, the ideal way to implement this "hardcore" mode, for lack of a better word, would be to elliminate all rewards, or at least scale them down to match the lower difficulties. That way you won't get the general public complaining about how they can't get the powerful stuff, and they'll leave us caffeine-addicted crotchety hermits to our self-mutilation.
You remember games like Doom 1&2 yes? They basically already done what you just described. I remember when there was a similar discussion some patch version past, the same basic idea was kicked around as well. Obviously Doom and Diablo is not in the same genre, but in terms of how to handle the difficulty levels Doom had some merits. (Ie: you won't find a better Shotgun that will only drop in Nightmare mode.) But it's done in context. Doom was built to satisfy many twitch factors, it probably wouldn't work as well if in order to play a higher difficulty setting, you -MUST- complete the easier one first.
Iirc D2 difficulty levels was done the way it was mostly because a large number of the fans wants it handled the same way as D1. The 'general public' are the ones that butters bliz bread the most. The elite few ie: the people who have the technical skills to look under the hood of the game, the players who can solo 8 hard to use characters, players who devise and play challenging variations 24/7, are exactly that. Few. Bliz will most likely seriously pay attention to their issues only if it impacts the rest of the general users.
> None of these guys is ever complaining that he isn't getting anything out of it, because simply going there and surviving is enough. Now if only the cosmetic factor would go away as well...
Wishing the cosmetic factor to go away (especially if you're talking about commercially made video games), is like asking Vegas to remove all those Wayne Newton impersonators, the showgirls, and the neon. Because all that 'glamour' is taking away from the gambling.
You remember games like Doom 1&2 yes? They basically already done what you just described. I remember when there was a similar discussion some patch version past, the same basic idea was kicked around as well. Obviously Doom and Diablo is not in the same genre, but in terms of how to handle the difficulty levels Doom had some merits. (Ie: you won't find a better Shotgun that will only drop in Nightmare mode.) But it's done in context. Doom was built to satisfy many twitch factors, it probably wouldn't work as well if in order to play a higher difficulty setting, you -MUST- complete the easier one first.
Iirc D2 difficulty levels was done the way it was mostly because a large number of the fans wants it handled the same way as D1. The 'general public' are the ones that butters bliz bread the most. The elite few ie: the people who have the technical skills to look under the hood of the game, the players who can solo 8 hard to use characters, players who devise and play challenging variations 24/7, are exactly that. Few. Bliz will most likely seriously pay attention to their issues only if it impacts the rest of the general users.
> None of these guys is ever complaining that he isn't getting anything out of it, because simply going there and surviving is enough. Now if only the cosmetic factor would go away as well...
Wishing the cosmetic factor to go away (especially if you're talking about commercially made video games), is like asking Vegas to remove all those Wayne Newton impersonators, the showgirls, and the neon. Because all that 'glamour' is taking away from the gambling.