D3's difficulties get CNN coverage - again.

[Wessonality]

MongoJerry, I believe YOU could naked no skills punch your way through Act I D3 Normal. Obviously the Butcher and maybe Leoric would be a problem. Bad hitboxes would be annoying.

[Lissa]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2...-and-fast/

Forbes is in on the action now too. D3 is srs bsns, apparently.

The Forbes guy has already proved he's an idiot, coming up with an 'exploit' that never existed to excuse himself being hacked.

Did you bother to read his article at all Mav? If you had, you'd realize that he's not being an idiot this time. He brings up some very good points.

[Kurosu]

It nearly feels like an insult when a blue poster regularly makes updates such as "now you can buy Gold and Gems in the RMAH too!", but the actual issues of importance are not even being commented on.
Whether that is their intention or not, that's how it seems where their priorities lie, and IMHO, that's not what they should be doing right now.

Keep a few things in mind. First, there are different teams of people who work on different things. Second, a spokesperson doesn't want to say anything until something is definitely set in concrete -- in this case, a fix has been found and a date and means of distributing the fix has been agreed upon. Otherewise, they might set up expectations only to have them dashed, making the situation worse. Third, there is not only the current game to think about but also the development of future content patches, so they have to constantly juggle whether it is worth it to take someone working on future content off the project for an afternoon to track down a bug and fix it. It might be worth it to do so, but this is part of the calculation that they have to think about. Fourth, there is not only the issue that you are currently worried about, but the thousands of complaints, gripes, etc., that millions of players are expressing. What may seem absolutely critical to you may not rate as highly to many other people. (In this case, I personally agree with you that the damage issue should rate highly, though).

Your point have merit Mongo, it's just that it doesn't cost them anything just to communicate with the community.
Even just a blue post on their forum saying "we're aware of this issue and looking into it" followed up by "this is taking longer than we expected but..", etc, would be a huge improvement over complete silence.
The lack of communication is what causes dissatisfaction with so many, and that's definitely a problem with their PR section.
Having so many 500+ post threads about this issue and with none of them having any Blizzard presence, it really gives off the impression they simply don't care or are actively ignoring it.

If they just had one guy with some power being reasonable (rather than the often condescending tone some others take) and giving status updates regularly, I think their fora wouldn't be such a mess.

[Mavfin]

I think their fora wouldn't be such a mess.

Doesn't matter what they do, the bunch of selfish children on those forums would be the same as they are now.

[Kurosu]

I think their fora wouldn't be such a mess.

Doesn't matter what they do, the bunch of selfish children on those forums would be the same as they are now.

You're right, the majority there is just impossible to please, but a minority out there will recognize it if Blizz makes a sincere effort at fixing things, and appreciate it.
At least, I know I would.

[FireIceTalon]

I would myself, but this will never happen. Blizz knows VERY well what they are doing......that 15% cut is too juicy for them to want to make things better. "The players aren't having fun? Fuck em', we got their money already, and even if most of them quit in frustration, we will keep a few of them, enough to keep reaping profits from our little AH cash cow. Then we just tell them once in a while that things will be ok and we are working on these issues, even though we really have no intention of ever really addressing them, hehe."

[Quark]

Edit: on second thought, not worth it anymore. You hate the game. Stop playing it.

[Mavfin]

You hate the game. Stop playing it.

I would agree. There's a population of us who are happy with it now, so I would rather it wasn't ruined for that population to make another population happy. Maybe it's not really for you (not 'you, Quark'), but, anyone who has made it to Inferno has gotten more worth out of D3 than most games with the same price.

Seems like a lot of people want the D2 faceroll experience again. I don't. I love the elite mini-game in D3, and the item drops seem about the same. Tons of trash, tons of rares that aren't really for my class, and the occasional nugget that makes it all worth it. I don't buy the great stuff off the AH and ruin that nugget for myself, either. My personal account isn't to Inferno yet, but my co-worker's DH is in Act 3 Inferno, and I enjoy playing it there a few hours a week after work at his place, even with the DH's specific issues. I have no trouble making gold by the truckload vs repair costs, even up at that level. I'm not a great twitch player, and any of you who played WoW with me know that I'm not as meticulous as Frag. I'm pretty much an average player, so I'm really not sure why some of you who claim to be great players have so much trouble post-nerf.

D2 really didn't have 'difficulty' as we know it in D3, even in Hell, because you could, as Elric mentioned, run a naked axe-wielding Amazon there. If you want the D2 difficulty and useful items by the truckload, TL2 is coming, and, you won't have to be unhappy about single-player lag, either. Of course, I wonder if TL2's multiplayer will turn into D2 Bnet's security nightmare. I hope not, but I fear it might.

[FireIceTalon]

What you would define as ruined, we would define as improved. And your "population" is much smaller, btw, as the numerous forums and reviews on Amazon indicate. Making it to Inferno isnt the problem, Inferno ITSELF is the problem anyways. It's clearly a "pay to win" system (in a game that we already paid for!) that Blizz designed as a cash cow to gross ever more profits. Pretty brilliant on their part I must say, and though most people are starting to realize it, it makes no difference now - the damage is done.

---

Edit: on second thought, not worth it anymore. You hate the game. Stop playing it.

Soon enough, I probably will. It just sucks that I have to, because I waited so long for it only to be utterly disappointed - and its even worse because it is completely wasted potential.

Enjoy your 'pay to win', lazy/cheeseball mechanics, AH cash cow of a game. Of course, I'm sure you will. Your post history has shown Blizz can probably make a game where the object is to see who could fart the loudest, and you would still love it. Some of us, however, have higher standards.

[Quark]

Enjoy your 'pay to win', lazy/cheeseball mechanics, AH cash cow of a game.

We aren't the ones who paid in - you are.

[Mavfin]

Enjoy your 'pay to win', lazy/cheeseball mechanics, AH cash cow of a game.

We aren't the ones who paid in - you are.

Exactly. I haven't paid any real money in. I've pulled out a few bucks into my bank account, not a huge amount, but enough to take the family out for pizza, but I haven't (and won't) spend any real money on the AH.

Funny that you accuse us of that, RR, when you're the one who actually bought something on the RMAH, and then wonder why you don't see many upgrades.

What you would define as ruined, we would define as improved. And your "population" is much smaller, btw, as the numerous forums and reviews on Amazon indicate.

That doesn't prove anything. As usual, the people who don't like it are on the forums and on the internet in general bitching, and the people who like it are playing it. Besides, Blizzard *knows* the numbers of those playing vs those unhappy on the forums. They'll take care of the bigger population, which I still think I'm part of. We'll find out as time goes on.

I still love what some of you call 'impossible' combos. It's like having to react and think on the fly like I was in a raid, w/o having to worry if any of the 9 or 24 other people are going to screw up and cause a wipe. It's just me that I have to worry about.

[FireIceTalon]

You WILL use the AH to progress on Inferno, if you haven't already. Or, you will be farming for many miserable hours only to find every drop is garbage. If that is what you find fun, that is you. But that sure as hell isn't me, nor is it most people. You are in the vast minority.

This review from Amazon, rhetorical as it may be, is pretty spot on, and I would say is fairly accurate of how the majority feel about the game:

594 of 669 people found the following review helpful
Nothing But Frustration and Disappointment June 13, 2012
By Eric
Fun:
The best part of this game is seeing the few minutes of cinematics. No, seriously. Just save your money and watch the cinematics on YouTube.

Where do I even begin?

*** Character and Skill Customization ***

There is no appearance customization aside from choosing your character's gender and using some dyes to change the color of your armor. I personally don't care about this, but some people do.

However, I DO care very deeply about skill customization, because different choices create different playstyles, which can make a game interesting. Boy, did they botch this badly. You are limited to using only 6 skills at a time (and forget about changing them during a gaming session in Inferno or you will lose an important stacking buff called Nephalim Valor).

Furthermore, the final difficulty level of the game (which is where most players will obviously end up and want to progress), called Inferno, is tuned to such an extreme degree that only a few class skills and strategies are even viable (Blizzard/Hydra kiting for ten minutes is fun, right?!) and other skills are downright mandatory (Energy Armor with Force rune, anyone? How about War Cry? Know any barbarians without it?).

*** Inferno Tuning ***

Simply ridiculous. A game is supposed to be fun. Don't get me wrong, I love a good challenge. I've spent countless hundreds of hours in World of Warcraft, during Vanilla and in every expansion thereafter, dying repeatedly (aka wiping) to progress on raid encounter bosses. Happily doing so. Because that is what you expect in the end game of MMORPGs.

But Diablo isn't World of Warcraft. Diablo is essentially a hack and slash game, an action RPG. Such games are supposed to be fast and furious and fun, blowing up hordes of baddies in the mad search for cool items. Therefore, not being able to withstand a sneeze from an enemy monster while wearing decent gear is just plain stupid.

Even after stacking Vitality (for health) and Resistances, my wizard dies after 3 hits from anything (and that's only because of a class skill I'm forced to take for survival; other range classes simply die after 1 hit and melee classes are pigeon-holed into tanking). So after three hits from anything (a stray arrow, the tiniest minion's slap, an unavoidable mortar because I'm jailed), I'm dead.

It wouldn't be so bad if you had room to move around or could see far enough away to avoid an ambush, but you don't and you can't. You are going to open a door or monsters will spawn from the ground, and you will instantly die. Don't even get me started on Vortex. So now you get to enjoy a resurrection timer before you run all the way back to your body, revive and die again. Rinse and repeat, and Blizzard just increased the repair costs in game, yay!

Furthermore, players routinely have to Leave Game because elites with certain combinations of abilities are simply unkillable. Is that good game design?! It doesn't get much better with better gear either. Gear which you can't afford or farm for anyway. We'll get to that later.

*** Dungeons and Items ***

You know that awesome feeling you got in other games when exploring a new, unknown dungeon? Wondering what you might face? What awesome items you might find to improve your character or party?

Well, forget about ever feeling that with Diablo 3. The dungeons are short and repetitive. Not to mention, you are proceeding along part of the same quest line for the 100th time just to face the same bosses (great, it's the Butcher boss again). If you were expecting truly randomized dungeons, where you could explore with your friends for hours, forget about it.

And you know, such tedious farming might actually be worth it if you got the rare gratification of actually finding a useful item for yourself. But you won't. You are going to farm the same trash, the same elites and the same bosses over and over and over again, only to vendor everything you find. If you're lucky, you might find an item worth selling to someone else. That brings me to my next section.

*** The Auction House ***

You are quickly going to realize that you are doing nothing in this game but farming gold in order to buy items from the auction house. However, due to bots (programs which farm gold around the clock) and duping (copying of items by exploiting the code), the market has already spun out of control. Blizzard is trying to wrestle some control back, but the damage has been done. Billions of gold is now floating in the market and prices are so inflated that you can't even afford to buy the kind of upgrades you will need to progress in Inferno.

Blizzard intends to make some better items drop (at a very tiny rate) in earlier Acts of Inferno in a future patch (to throw a bone to the vast majority of players who couldn't race to 60 and get into Inferno before prices spiraled out of control, due to pesky jobs and families and whatnot), but it seems to be too little too late. Who really wants to do yet another Butcher farm run? Just the thought of it makes me want to gag.

At this point, you can only hope that Blizzard's stealth game limit cap implemented in the last patch (to crack down on bots) combined with more determined players gradually grinding and farming their way through Inferno will eventually lead to a reduction in AH prices to something more attainable to players who can't spend 8 hours a day graveyard zerging their way through content.

*** Recap ***

You can't progress in Inferno without gear. You can't farm the gear you need yet. You can't afford it either. Your only solution right now is to pay real dollars on the AH and buy your way to victory. That will certainly make you feel like a hero against the hordes of hell!

What a disgusting disappointment for a longtime fan (I flew to the last two BlizzCons and have been playing the franchises since they began) and shareholder (soon to be former shareholder) in the company. After years of development and hype, this is the best they have to offer? With nearly unlimited resources, this is what they produced? It makes me want to vomit.

---

Enjoy your 'pay to win', lazy/cheeseball mechanics, AH cash cow of a game.

We aren't the ones who paid in - you are.

Exactly. I haven't paid any real money in. I've pulled out a few bucks into my bank account, not a huge amount, but enough to take the family out for pizza, but I haven't (and won't) spend any real money on the AH.

Funny that you accuse us of that, RR, when you're the one who actually bought something on the RMAH, and then wonder why you don't see many upgrades.

What you would define as ruined, we would define as improved. And your "population" is much smaller, btw, as the numerous forums and reviews on Amazon indicate.

That doesn't prove anything. As usual, the people who don't like it are on the forums and on the internet in general bitching, and the people who like it are playing it.

The people who don't like it or are disappointed with it have probably played it enough to voice the discontent. Afterall, they have experienced it so they dont like it....so that whole thing of those who dont like it bitch and those who do play it....doesn't really fly.

I probably have more hours logged than most people here, and have reached all 5 classes to 60, so there goes your theory - if you want to measure e-peens in that department you would lose - mine is longer and I shoot farther! Be as it may, the game is a disappointment. So I repeat, you and quarks anecdotes prove nothing, and do not compare to the majority.

[RTM]

What you would define as ruined, we would define as improved. And your "population" is much smaller, btw, as the numerous forums and reviews on Amazon indicate.

Amazon reviews, the bastion of journalistic integrity. I love that you keep bringing that up as a reason the game has failed.

After RMAH sales I've actually made a profit on the game even factoring in the 1-year WoW subscription. I think it's the auction house that will keep me playing this game LONGER than I would have otherwise. If all I can ever do is farm A1 Inferno for a chance at a lucky item drop, that's fine with me. Papa needs a brand new bass cab!

[FireIceTalon]

Amazon isn't the reason the game failed. The reason the game failed, is because the game is very flawed, and the endgame in particular, sucks. That has nothing to do with amazon. Amazon merely is a reflection of how most people who played the game and posted about it feel. And before you use the argument that only the negative people are the ones who post reviews, you would be wrong. D1 and D2 both have 4 stars on amazon, and there are tons of products in general, that have excellent reviews there. In fact, i'd venture to say that as many or more people who LIKE something write a review about it.

You want to play economics 101 it sounds like. I don't, I want to play Diablo. Farming act 1 for items for hours to sell on the RMAH on end isn't my idea of fun. And also, anyone actually doing this for money needs to go out and get a REAL job, no offense. Yea, I made a purchase on the RMAH, because to progress I was FORCED to. You can't find a decent drop (let alone a good one, especially a weapon with over 800 DPS on it) to save your life, and all prices on the GAH are so grossly inflated that no amount of farming will ever allow you to afford one. And I'm in A3 Inferno, farther than 98% of the people on this forum I would guess. But it sure as hell hasn't been a fun journey. It's been very long, arduous, and in general unrewarding, and I have little desire to try and complete it, though I know if I REALLY wanted to, I probably could. But I dont play video games to do chores.

[Archon_Wing]

Amazon isn't the reason the game failed. The reason the game failed, is because the game is very flawed, and the endgame in particular, sucks. That has nothing to do with amazon. Amazon merely is a reflection of how most people who played the game and posted about it feel. And before you use the argument that only the negative people are the ones who post reviews, you would be wrong. D1 and D2 both have 4 stars on amazon, and there are tons of products in general, that have excellent reviews there. In fact, i'd venture to say that as many or more people who LIKE something write a review about it.

You want to play economics 101 it sounds like. I don't, I want to play Diablo. Farming act 1 for items for hours to sell on the RMAH on end isn't my idea of fun. And also, anyone actually doing this for money needs to go out and get a REAL job, no offense. Yea, I made a purchase on the RMAH, because to progress I was FORCED to. You can't find a decent drop (let alone a good one, especially a weapon with over 800 DPS on it) to save your life, and all prices on the GAH are so grossly inflated that no amount of farming will ever allow you to afford one. And I'm in A3 Inferno, farther than 98% of the people on this forum I would guess. But it sure as hell hasn't been a fun journey. It's been very long, arduous, and in general unrewarding, and I have little desire to try and complete it, though I know if I REALLY wanted to, I probably could. But I dont play video games to do chores.

I agree with your general point, but "forced" to make a purchase on the RMAH? GAH yea, but it's hardly forced on the RMAH. TBH, I'm not even sure how you managed to purchase all the gear of that level and had so much trouble getting past act 2 post-patch. I hate to say it, but I'm afraid part of the problem lies within you; have you ever even posted any questions asking help regarding your build? Not that it isn't Blizzard's fault for making the difficulty so unsteady, but yea...

However. I would like to say that since people have spent $60 on a game, and they have a right to play or complain about it.

[RTM]

Yea, I made a purchase on the RMAH, because to progress I was FORCED to.

hahaha, thanks for the chuckle!

[NuurAbSaal]

Yea, I made a purchase on the RMAH, because to progress I was FORCED to.

hahaha, thanks for the chuckle!

Occasionally the quote functionality circumventing the "ignore user" function is a good thing.

take care
Tarabulus

[FireIceTalon]

Act 2 with my current gear wasn't TOO bad until towards the end (ZK and Belial were very large barriers to overcome). It wasn't easy, but it was doable, and I didn't die often enough that I had to go back to A1 to farm for repairs. If I came across a pack that was simply too much, I re-rolled the game, and I think I completed it in a pretty reasonable amount of time. A3 is a different story, however. EVERY elite pack is just ball busting, and while Act 2 gets progressively harder, Act 3 is very hard right from the get-go. With Act 2, I was able to farm just enough to be able to buy an upgrade here and there on the GAH, and I was lucky even to find one or two along the way. That, and with my weapon purchase on the RMAH is what helped me get through Act 2. The upgrades needed for A2 were still within my grasp. But now, the upgrades I need to get through A3 reasonably are simply too expensive, even for things that would be only a very miniscule improvement for what I already have. And with real gold now being able to be bought on the RMAH, I'm afraid the problem is only going to get worse. Sure you could purchase a blue weapon with over 800 dps on the GAH if you look hard enough, but we all know blue items in general are trash, and DPS isn't everything. You have to gear for defense too, and it just isnt feasible to do with blue items really. That auction I won on the RMAH made a HUGE difference in my progression through Act2 - it went from being tedious and almost unplayable to something much more reasonable. But I wouldn't have been able to buy such a weapon on the GAH - it would have probably cost at least 10 million gold easily, if not more (ilvl 63 wand with 7 stats and 883 DPS). Every now and again, you may see something nice for a million, but I've never had anything more than around 900,000 at once anyway, and even if I did, do I really want to spend all my gold on one purchase? Especially when I need a reserve for the outrageous repair bills that I will have to foot? Nope, I dont, since it would be economically unwise to do so.

I don't bash this game for the sake of ranting....I do so because I waited ages for it, and I REALLY want to like and play it, and because I paid for it. Nor would I even say I hate the game. I think hate is too strong of a word in this case. I do hate alot of the mechanics in it, but I think overall the game has incredible potential, which is what makes it even more frustrating to me. Many of the people who complain do so because they WANT to like the game as much as those who already do. Part of the problem could be me, in the sense that maybe I just played TOO much already, and should have spread out leveling my chars more. I've already reached 60 on every class and have well over 450 hours logged on (though probably a third of that amount was doing countless Imprisoned Angel/Butcher Inferno runs on my Wiz - runs that had very little to show for - it was almost all trash to vendor or sell on the GAH to buy an upgrade for me from the GAH, fun fun fun...barfs)....it has taken its toll on me for sure, but this is separate from the in-game issues.

---

Yea, I made a purchase on the RMAH, because to progress I was FORCED to.

hahaha, thanks for the chuckle!

Mhm, we will see how much chuckling you do when you are in A3 Inferno. I've seen so far you have completed A1 only....which is a cake walk compared to A3 or even A2. And looking at your items, I very much doubt you found most of those yourself - it is easy to tell you have used the AH extensively, and with only 48 hours logged on that char, I will know you are lying if you say otherwise. I'd even venture to say that it is probable you have made more purchases on the RMAH than I have (And certainly the GAH just as much) - since A). the items you have would cost much more in gold that would require MUCH more time spent farming than only 48 hours of playing time would net you, B). because the drop rates on ilvl 62-63 items with the kind of stats on your gear are astronomically low, and on MY gear, the odds are even lower, and C.) My WD has slightly more hours of time logged than yours, somewhat lesser gear than yours, though mine granted hasn't used the RMAH at all (but has used the GAH a fair bit). Of course, I could be totally wrong, and you could be a complete statistical outlier that just got really lucky and found all that gear in a short amount of time, but I highly doubt it. So, you are really in no place to do any laughing my friend. And I promise you come A3, you REALLY won't be doing any laughing then, especially if you try with the gear you have on now. My guess is you are somewhere in the first half of A2, and finding it a bit rough, am I correct?

[MongoJerry]

I'm pretty much an average player, so I'm really not sure why some of you who claim to be great players have so much trouble post-nerf.

In Red's case, it's that he doesn't understand or use his defensive skills effectively or equip himself with enough health/mitigation to help him survive. Plus, he's been playing his Wizard for a while, and I have yet to see him post on the Wizard forums asking for help with his build or for advice on how to deal with certain types of boss modifier combinations. However, I'm sure that this is because he's too awesome of a gamer to be able to learn from any of us.

Arm-chair generaling mode: off.

[FireIceTalon]

That is because I know my defensive skills are sufficient and my damage mitigation overall is pretty decent. Well maybe for A3 it's not enough now (44k life, resists in 700's, DPS 42k with the Enchantress), but that just proves my point anyway that Inferno is absurdly over-tuned, and that it is strictly a gear check with little to no skill involved. And now, in a system that is already inferior just for the fact it is based on what gear you have, I don't have the resources to get the gear I need to progress reasonably - because it doesn't ever drop, and because on the GAH, its too expensive. It is a pay to win system, period, and maybe you guys like this concept, but to a true gamer like me, it is a complete ponzi-scheme.

I don't claim to be an awesome player, because that would imply that there is skill involved in playing in Inferno, and quite simply, there is very little if any. You could be the worst gamer in the world, and if you have 100k DPS and so so defense, Inferno will be violated easily. My friend Shade from Germany, who is sitting on 500 million gold, a char that does 95k DPS with near flawless gear, beat Inferno before the nerfs, and is 100 x more leet than me and everyone here COMBINED even said Inferno is nothing more than a tedious gear check - there is little skill involved - it is all item based. So save your "Red is inferior to us" attitude please, ok? Thank you.