Games

Diablo is like stacking blocks. Stacking blocks is fun. Diablo 1 gave you some mixed blocks to play with and you could make some fun towers. Sometimes you'd get the Butcher, sometimes Skeleton King, and so on. Some of the uniques items you'd find really defined a playthrough.

Diablo 2 gave you more blocks and more stackable shapes. You got skill trees, more clasdes, more item parameters, and just plain stuff to wedge on a more intricate tower.

Diablo 3 and 4 appear to have attempted to bedazzle the existing shapes and allow players to buy stickers. There was little, if any, innovation beyond revenue.

Like, Blizzaed saw Grinding Gear Games acquire money through cosmetics and thought that was what people were over there for. (And they mostly just implemented Final Fantasy 10 sphere grid... and solved the 'gold/currency' problem.) But I have to admit I was so lacking in interest I never bought 3 and 4--only watched someone play a bit is all.

The same folks that created the real money auction house for Diablo 3, the memes "You think you do, but you actually don't"; "Don't you guys have phones?" and Diablo Immoral, continues to show their complete dissociation from reality because money.

Similar to his recent comments about how gamers turned the series towards live-service, Fergusson claims the “consumptive” nature of modern fans means a true, classic Diablo wouldn’t succeed anymore.

Ah yes, it's the gaymurrs that asked for more fucking live service. Fuck off. To be fair, the actual interview doesn't have anything saying that, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a statement thrown elsewhere, since diablo immoral is full of lootboxes, gems and all the predatory bullshit that works wonders to funnel money. It worked exactly as expected, it's profitable beyond reason. To conflate that with "gamers want more of that" is pure corporate bullshit and they know it.

From the actual interview:

(Fergusson): And so we launched that way with D4 and we found out very quickly that if you don't give me my Uber in my season, then I'm upset. And so we're like, oh, wow, okay. And now it's not like, now we actually have an uber currency, uber unique currency that you can go make the one. If you're not finding it, you can actually go make it for yourself, right? And so, which is very different. It's just a kind of a recognition of how much players have changed in 20 years. You know, what they, that consumptive nature of a live service and that time is money and I don't have much time, so let's go, right? And so that idea of like, oh, you're going to get a unique every six months. So what are you talking about? I need to get all the unique in six months, you know? And so it's been, so that's that clarity that Brent talks about is just putting in players' hands, getting their actions and adapting."

That's a "problem" because of how you decided the game should work, as a fucking live service.

For more Diablo coverage, read about Fergusson’s wish to have the ARPG genre renamed to “Diablo-likes”.

Everything old is new again, I guess.

Sure thing buddy. Diablo 3 sucked big time, even after all the changes. 4 looked like a huge flaming turd from the trailers, played the beta and it was in fact a terrible game I will never buy. D2 remake? Hours and hours of fun. Path of Exile, the actual closest thing to a D2 sequel? One of the best games I've ever played. These people are actually dumbasses.

Edit: Almost forgot Diablo Immortal... Blizzard you can suck my dick and balls with your Diablo Immortal trash.

Diablo 2 was my first and favorite, I played the shit out of that game with my friends. We'd join up and rush each other, share equipment, meticulously plan our builds, and kill the strongest stuff we could find.

The story was stale after the first playthrough, and yeah I killed Baal and Mephisto thousands of times, but it was so much fun. There wasn't an auction house or an ability to buy the best equipment. Leveling up didn't take forever, so I could build a level 80 character in a few weekends of grinding away.

I played Diablo 3 too, but it felt like they lost the storytelling magic and focused more on monetization. Rifts were cool, but I really just felt like it was more of the same with better graphics and different characters / skill trees. It wasn't novel enough to grind away my weekends on.

I haven't tried the latest, and despite having a phone, I refuse to play Immortal or whatever (if that is still around).

I am over Blizzard games at this point ... in the 90s and early 2000s they could do no wrong. Since they hitched up with Activision they completely lost the plot.

I wish they never discovered that all gamers were monolithic.

It was a pain in the ass unless you played everyday. Playing with friends was tiresome because you'd have to do the same boss battles over and over. Diablo was great because of the horror and the levels got more twisted as you went deeper. There was also the secret cow level.

Now, it's open world and a bit soulless because it caters to always online. Art direction was great in D4 but I got so sick of the 40Gb updates everytime I booted up the game every few weeks. Just give me a one and done solo offline story mode and separate online.

They are right about the latter part, but attributing who doesn't want the classic ways back to the wrong group. Developers don't want to go back because people will actually pay for the MTX/Battlepass/whatever the fuck bullshit and they (the developers and publishers) love money.

I notice path of exile has sucked xi xinpings cock exactly zero times and is also a better game even if they had.

I loved D2 and yes D3. But 4... I've tried to play it twice and gave up. It is just such a giant expanse of soul sucking nothing that I've not been able to find any "fun" in the game.

Don't you guys have phones??

Shit like this is why people go back and play much older titles and have a great time with them.

c/patientgamers rise up! Or maybe not. We'll just wait until it goes on sale and maybe give it a try down the road.

The only reason the players are "too consumptive" is because the game is designed to not give the player any other way to play. You wanted that outcome, so you designed it so there was no other option.

IMO Path of Exile 2 is kind of like "Diablo 4 classic".

Sure it lack some QoL just because it wants to be old school but it nails the mood of the older Diablo games.

I also played Diablo 4 and there is no way I will return to that game. They clearly don't have a good formula anymore.