Blizzard gain a flash of insight?

[Mavfin]

I agree that many are buying great stuff, and not understanding that doing so precludes getting upgrades out in the world as easily. That's the fault of the player, not the AH.

Yes and no. To say it is the fault of the player is to imply that they know better and do it anyway. I feel that there is a large segment of the players that could not see that.

Again, this old gamer's opinion. YMMV.

We'll have to agree to disagree. Sure, they may not realize it the first time around, but, they can learn. After that, if they crap in their own nest, they can hardly blame anyone but themselves.

I did this to myself on my first DH. Instead of blaming the game, I deleted that toon and restarted, and have had a lot more fun since.

The game has plenty of longevity for me. YMMV.

[Archon_Wing]

I agree that many are buying great stuff, and not understanding that doing so precludes getting upgrades out in the world as easily. That's the fault of the player, not the AH.

Yes and no. To say it is the fault of the player is to imply that they know better and do it anyway. I feel that there is a large segment of the players that could not see that. With all the talk going in and once it was released, I can easily see the mindset that the AH is central to the game and that it is meant to be the main upgrade path. I believe that they unknowingly cheated themselves out of fun without seeing that it was there to be had. In real life, there would have been time to show people a better way to continue on. With the game, it is a bell that can't be un-rung, the damage has been done.

So, weighing in on AH yes or no, I come down on no, it shouldn't have been there. I believe there would have been less criticism of the game's "lack of end game" (although I'm sure many would have found some other reason to whine) and more folks would have the hope for longevity of the game that I do.

Again, this old gamer's opinion. YMMV.

I did play through the game to inferno with little AH interference. I didn't bother with it at all til the end of nightmare and even at that point didn't buy more than incremental upgrades til inferno. I also wasted all my gold on blacksmithing to become self-sufficient and realized it was a horrendous waste of time and I was still wearing jewelry from normal, because the drops later on were complete garbage.

I feel the problem is that there aren't 4 difficulties. There's actually only two-- nightmare and hell. Normal is just to waste your time at the beginning, and inferno is just to waste your time at the end of the game.

The verdict? I'll use the AH from now on from the start as everything else was literally just wasting all my gold. Not to mention there's really nothing to look forward to. I tried starting a new character, but due to normal mode being normal mode, fell asleep somewhere along the way. The blacksmith needs to be a viable competitor. Make high level blacksmithing cost a fortune, but it should not cost low level characters so much gold just to make something they'll be using temporarily anyways.

The real solution is to play hardcore. Softcore, after 1.03, is trash at the moment. It's currently designed that you are horrifically punished for attempting to challenge yourself and forcing you to grind areas you massively overgear to progress. Hardcore's a challenge, though sadly the a large challenge comes from server instability so even that has its pitfalls.

But there is good news. The Blizzard post suggests that they finally admit they have no idea what the hell they're doing, and might be actually testing out the consequences of their next actions. Hope springs eternal, as they say.

[Occhidiangela]

The Blizzard post suggests that they finally admit they have no idea what the hell they're doing, and might be actually testing out the consequences of their next actions.

The bit in red is IMO a bit over the top.

I think they have a pretty decent idea of what they are doing, and are adapting as they see how the community has responded to the game.

What I am not sure of is whether or not they'll re-introduce the Mana Shield Bug, to give the game more of that Diablo I feel.

[Archon_Wing]

The Blizzard post suggests that they finally admit they have no idea what the hell they're doing, and might be actually testing out the consequences of their next actions.

The bit in red is IMO a bit over the top.

I think they have a pretty decent idea of what they are doing, and are adapting as they see how the community has responded to the game.

What I am not sure of is whether or not they'll re-introduce the Mana Shield Bug, to give the game more of that Diablo I feel.

It's over the top a bit, but unfortunately I feel it's not by that much. Then again, I use a lot of hyperbole. The initial concept behind the endgame was just entirely wrong and doomed to have no longevity; they just didn't learn the lessons and mistakes of Diablo 2. My gripes always been that they didn't seem to even have a thought that the concept was flawed. Perhaps PvP took longer than expected, but it would seem they keep aiming at the wrong things, and not things people care about (broken elites, enrage timers, etc...).

And of course, the cheating. Maybe I'm bitter the cheaters won in D2, and they are still winning now. Botting can't really be stopped, and exploits are inevitable, but is this all that can be done?

Still, my point is they are willing to budge, and that can lead to progress. They're also taking their time, which honestly, I think is a good thing too. Unfortunately, for many, its a bit too late, since I have literally no friends on Diablo 3 anymore online.

It's getting really dark and cold in here. I truly hope I am wrong.

[Mavfin]

It's getting really dark and cold in here. I truly hope I am wrong.

Because if you are still enjoying the game, posting here about it is a complete waste of time. If you don't like the game, fine, you're entitled to your opinion, but, anyone who likes the game has pretty much been driven off the forums now, having been told they couldn't possibly think the game is OK, and if they do think it's OK, they're accused of kissing Blizzard's ass, etc. One poster told me that I *couldn't possibly* disagree with his points.

Yeah, it's dark and cold.

Have fun bashing everything, as that's all that's left here.

(Not so much you, Archon, more in general.)

[Archon_Wing]

It's getting really dark and cold in here. I truly hope I am wrong.

Because if you are still enjoying the game, posting here about it is a complete waste of time. If you don't like the game, fine, you're entitled to your opinion, but, anyone who likes the game has pretty much been driven off the forums now, having been told they couldn't possibly think the game is OK, and if they do think it's OK, they're accused of kissing Blizzard's ass, etc. One poster told me that I *couldn't possibly* disagree with his points.

Yeah, it's dark and cold.

Have fun bashing everything, as that's all that's left here.

(Not so much you, Archon, more in general.)

Which reminds me of the other hope for Diablo 3.

Currently, there's just no community unless you met people outside of the game. Private channels and clan channels help foster common interests and organized play. Battle.net is a rather deserted place even though it's not, in which you can try public games but even that tends to get more and more sparse.

So what the hell does that have to do with anything?

Well, it's created a community that's effectively isolated from each other. It's really only them, pub channel spam, and the Auction House. The downswing in pubbie games causes this game to become a large scale single player fest. It's fine for those that stuck to single player, but as we can see here, there's just no sense of community. The insertion of real money has caused quite a few people to be driven by greed and well, once something "ruins business" they tend to get a bit agitated when things don't go around properly. The result is a highly explosive situation.

It's partially Blizzard's fault for not knowing how to deliver calming messages to the masses and the fault of the fanbase for screaming at the first sign of difficulty. I understand you can't please everyone, but someone's going to have to brave the fire. It's not easy. There's currently a pretty volatile situation and nobody wants to take responsibility for it. But someone has to compromise somewhere.

If they want to revitalize the game, then community features must be a priority. Or else this will get even worse.

The community really isn't that bad. They're very passionate about what they got involved with, and many are just angry because this franchise stood for something they loved. If this was random forgettable game of the year, nobody would have made such a fuss. It's just that this passion has gone the wrong way, and battle.net 2.0's lacking features shares some of this blame. Without hope, there's only apathy and rage.

[smegged]

It's getting really dark and cold in here. I truly hope I am wrong.

Because if you are still enjoying the game, posting here about it is a complete waste of time. If you don't like the game, fine, you're entitled to your opinion, but, anyone who likes the game has pretty much been driven off the forums now, having been told they couldn't possibly think the game is OK, and if they do think it's OK, they're accused of kissing Blizzard's ass, etc. One poster told me that I *couldn't possibly* disagree with his points.

Yeah, it's dark and cold.

Have fun bashing everything, as that's all that's left here.

(Not so much you, Archon, more in general.)

Which reminds me of the other hope for Diablo 3.

Currently, there's just no community unless you met people outside of the game. Private channels and clan channels help foster common interests and organized play. Battle.net is a rather deserted place even though it's not, in which you can try public games but even that tends to get more and more sparse.

So what the hell does that have to do with anything?

Well, it's created a community that's effectively isolated from each other. It's really only them, pub channel spam, and the Auction House. The downswing in pubbie games causes this game to become a large scale single player fest. It's fine for those that stuck to single player, but as we can see here, there's just no sense of community. The insertion of real money has caused quite a few people to be driven by greed and well, once something "ruins business" they tend to get a bit agitated when things don't go around properly. The result is a highly explosive situation.

It's partially Blizzard's fault for not knowing how to deliver calming messages to the masses and the fault of the fanbase for screaming at the first sign of difficulty. I understand you can't please everyone, but someone's going to have to brave the fire. It's not easy. There's currently a pretty volatile situation and nobody wants to take responsibility for it. But someone has to compromise somewhere.

If they want to revitalize the game, then community features must be a priority. Or else this will get even worse.

The community really isn't that bad. They're very passionate about what they got involved with, and many are just angry because this franchise stood for something they loved. If this was random forgettable game of the year, nobody would have made such a fuss. It's just that this passion has gone the wrong way, and battle.net 2.0's lacking features shares some of this blame. Without hope, there's only apathy and rage.

Battle.Net 2 was terrible for Starcraft 2 for a while. They slowly made improvements to it and now it's passable. Some of the features (facebook real ID integration) would have been very nice in Diablo, but for many people Diablo had always been a single player game, or a game that they would kick around with a few friends at a LAN. Blizzard seriously misstepped when they made D3 online only and then made the online experience feel deserted.

I got good value out of the game. It was worth the money I paid for it, but it represents the first time that Blizzard have made a game with a very limited shelf life since the Blackthorne days. I think that, more than anything else is what's bothering people. Diablo 3 is a very good game, but it's not a very long game. Or at least it doesn't feel very long because if you don't stop when you hit 60 the game becomes a tedious drag.

It's a real shame, because if it had have been a game brought out by random company X under a different title, I'm sure I (and many others) would see it differently. As it is, the first and last impressions that many of us got both tasted bad, so we forget the juicy goodness in the middle.

[Kurosu]

Just a heads up, 1.04 does not seem to be far away.
Bashiok posted the message below, for those who do not visit the Blizz forums.

Looks like they'll be making many changes at once. I'm eagerly looking forward to how this will unfold, particularly with the item and class overhauls.
This could be the big turn that many are looking for, so I really hope they're keeping the player feedback in mind.

Patch 1.0.4 Information Coming Soon
The Diablo III developers have been hard at work on some exciting new features and updates for the game. Many of you have asked for more details, and we’re busily preparing several developer blogs filled with information on what’s coming in patch 1.0.4. In the meantime, here’s an overview of the information we’re planning to share here on the Diablo III community site in the not-too-distant future.

Please keep in mind that this list isn’t set in stone, but it should provide a useful preview of what we’ll be revealing in the days ahead.

System Changes, by Wyatt Cheng
Senior Technical Game Designer Wyatt Cheng is preparing a high-level summary of some of the system changes planned for 1.0.4.

Legendary Items, by Andrew Chambers
Senior Game Designer Andrew Chambers is working on a blog detailing all the ways we’re making Legendary items stand out.

Magic Find Update, by Jay Wilson
Following up on earlier discussions, Game Director Jay Wilson will be providing an update on how Magic Find is evolving in patch 1.0.4.

Class Changes, by Wyatt Cheng
Wyatt will also be providing a preview of the changes we’ll be making for each class in 1.0.4 (and the philosophy behind those changes).

Patch Notes, by Lylirra
Of course, this is all building up to the actual patch 1.0.4 release, and we’ll be releasing the full patch notes shortly before the update goes live.

We’re also planning to run some interviews and developer chats surrounding patch 1.0.4, and we’ll be sharing those on the Diablo III front page. Be on the lookout, as we’d love to get you involved in any live chats we host.

As always, your constructive feedback is very much appreciated. Stay tuned for the updates to follow!

[Occhidiangela]

Because if you are still enjoying the game, posting here about it is a complete waste of time. If you don't like the game, fine, you're entitled to your opinion, but, anyone who likes the game has pretty much been driven off the forums now, having been told they couldn't possibly think the game is OK, and if they do think it's OK, they're accused of kissing Blizzard's ass, etc. One poster told me that I *couldn't possibly* disagree with his points.

Yeah, it's dark and cold.

Have fun bashing everything, as that's all that's left here.

(Not so much you, Archon, more in general.)

Uh, I'm still having fun. Just got enough time to kill Diablo for the first time, that whole shadow realm thing was sorta weird, and the whole fight in Heaven is NOISY!

Love all of the end of act cinematics, but somehow, they didn't leave me a hook for the expansion, the way Marius got pwned by Baal in D2, and how Aidan stabbed his own self in the forehead with that soulstone in D1 ...

[Chesspiece_face]

Love all of the end of act cinematics, but somehow, they didn't leave me a hook for the expansion, the way Marius got pwned by Baal in D2, and how Aidan stabbed his own self in the forehead with that soulstone in D1 ...

YES.

I've been thinking about this for awhile now. Was meaning to bring it up as a topic on the pseudo-podcasts we were doing but never got around to it. There was no cliffhanger at the end of D3. No implication that things were going to get worse before they got better. There are obviously things left open and not all strings are tied off (Adria is still out there, there was something stated about trying to save Leah's soul, etc.) but nothing that left me with an "oh SHIT!" feeling.

The one thing from D3 that they better not try to explain, as far as I am concerned, is Shen. They implied throughout the game that he may be more than just a crazy old kook and that allowed Blizzard to give him some great 'breaking the 4th wall' moments ("What a fascinating place this is. Look at all this wonderful architecture. You could walk all the way around the world and never find its like." -> "Except for this part. I've seen this somewhere else before.").

[Occhidiangela]

The angel of Wisdom has gone missing.

Fodder for expansion.

[Dozer]

I thought they were pretty much banging you over the head with the implication that Imperius was either corrupted by Diablo, or had just gone crazy.

[FoxBat]

The one thing from D3 that they better not try to explain, as far as I am concerned, is Shen.

Meh they more or less already did if you dug through all his dialogue.

[Archon_Wing]

Well, Adria is at large though.