Diablo III Dev: Adventure Mode is Worth The $40 Price Tag

[BunnyKillBot]

b)Quality of the game is subjective and metacritic is hardly something to go by.

Total bull to both halves of that sentence. I represent something of an 'Impartial'. I dabbled in D1 and D2 growing up but wasn't massively fussed with it. I have experience in other dungeon crawling RPGs of the age including boulders gate, dungeon siege, neverwinter nights etc. I neither love nor hate the originals which means by analysis of D3 is not clouded by fan-hate in the same way as my seething anger over the current Dungeon Keeper debacle.

I can tell you this.

Diablo 3 is totally deserving of any low scores or hate it receives, because Jesus Christ its the most boring game I have played in years. Words can not express how boring it is. Thats not 'derpy derp, quality of game is subjective' logic. Its so boring you run around destroying scenery for no reward or reason because there is NOTHING ELSE TO DO. So when posters like you come in with a 'well hold on nouw, i don't think thats quite fair....' nope. Nope nope sorry nope. A spade is a spade, and D3.... is a spade.

 

[black_knight1337]

-Snip-

Not a fact at all. If anything, the support Blizzard has given Diablo 3 shows that they actually listen to the people that play the game. That's why we got the patches we did and that's why the RoS beta and 2.0.1 ptr evolved as they did. And you can blame Vivendi for the loss of Blizzard North, it was them that made the decision after all.

-Snip-

For the former, you say that Diablo 3 is boring and I say that it's a load of fun. Those there are called opinions, we both have different views on the quality of the game. Hence why I said the quality is subjective. Of course there are areas that can be examined objectively but that's limited to things like graphical fidelity and sound quality, both of which have that classic Blizzard shine.

As for the latter, no, metacritic is not a good indicator at all. When any, single person can give a game a 0 hundreds of times without giving any reason why then you know the system is broken. Same as there's no requirement to actually play the game. Honestly, scoring systems in general are useless. I've read reviews before where they rave on about how good most of the game is and then somehow end up giving a score of 3. That's why I always read the reviews, I don't even bother with looking at the scores any more.

But you still can't choose which skills to buy into, or how strong to make those skills through meaningful choices, right? I don't mean to be super-negative towards the game, but the decision to do away with skill points in favor of a rune system wherein every demon hunter of a particular level is essentially the exact same character with slightly different clothes on baffles me. Actually, that's not true. I think I understand it completely.

Yeah, this is the one major downside of the system they went with. It makes the start of the levelling process way to slow and restricting. It does get a lot better further on though and the system really starts to shine at higher levels. And yes, gear is the main way you build your character. They've gone a long way to make this deep and varied though so even if you both chose the same skill spec, they can play completely differently thanks to the gearing choices.

That decision makes balancing the various classes easier and creates an over-reliance on gear. When equipment is the only means by which to "advance" your character, the RMAH becomes a more powerful force. I am aware that the RMAH is now gone, but the echoes of its impact on game design still persist. Paragon points help to bandage that particular wound. They're essentially the base stats in the first two games in the series.

While yes, gear is the key way to advance your character, the way that other systems have been designed in the last patch make it feel like the AH isn't even an option. Loot is exciting and the paragon system (Which is a lot more than the base stats in 1&2) is build enabling. You really should give it another shot, you've got nothing to lose but a bit of time.

But that particular design philosophy is what I mean when I talk about it being designed like an MMO. I worded that poorly, as many MMOs are designed very differently now that we are finally coming out of the very long shadow cast by WoW. What I meant is that it is designed like WoW, but the modern WoW that has done away with talent trees in order to take the variable of character build out of the picture in favor of "gear score" and execution. These aren't necessarily poor decisions for that game since there is a culture within that game to succeed at a particular raid or boss, and success usually meant simply copying the meta-build for that character class anyway. It's a very "economical" model based on set percentages and very carefully calculated diminishing returns. Everyone is kept, quite purposefully, at a fairly level playing field so that every build has a chance to succeed. Of course, this required a massive reduction in the number of available builds, just to be sure there weren't any major duds. I'm not actually sure if even that effort was successful.

Ah, fair enough. That doesn't sacrifice build diversity though. The past week I've been messing around with builds on my Demon Hunter and there's only been a couple that didn't work but I've seen others use those skills successfully with the right gear. With the balance that's there currently, you can pretty much use whatever skills you want and still remain viable.

 

[black_knight1337]

So they didn't give a fuck about our opinions and criticized the D2 fanbase right up until they realized they were hemorrhaging players at an extraordinary rate, and suddenly they care? Does that really tell you that they give a shit about what you think? No, it says their only language is hard cash. Path of exile blindsided them, they thought they were going to enjoy a monopoly and could treat people any way they wanted to. It was only when they realized they were losing revenue that it was all apologies.

In the end, the most important thing for any business is to make money. They need to make money otherwise that can't keep doing what they're doing. What's the best way (for the consumer) for them to ensure that they will make money? By keeping their players happy. The same thing is true for any developer (excluding indies who do it on the side). In the end they all need to make money so they can keep doing what they're passionate about. If it everything they did with Diablo 3 was purely for the money then the Auction House wouldn't be leaving and there'd be plenty of microtransactions. The upcoming closure of the Auction House shows that they do give a damn about their players.

Path of Exile hardly blindsided them either. Sure they took advantage of the hate that Diablo 3 was getting but it hasn't really helped them in the long run. Their numbers have tanked pretty hard since then.

And sure, Vivendi got rid of Blizzard North, but it wasn't Vivendi that openly insulted them and fans of the original games after the fact. The fact that Jay Wilson wasn't fired on the spot for his comments and was even egged on by some of his comrades shows me exactly what kind of company Blizzard is. The prick is still on the Blizzard payroll after all.

Then don't put the blame on Blizzard for North's departure. And "openly insulted them and fans"? Going to need a source on that one. Of course there was the whole "Fuck that loser" comment but, while it shouldn't have been said publicly, it was in reaction to the shit that was already flung by one of the guys you're defending.

EDIT: Ah, you edited it while I was typing. Same things still apply though.

 

[Isra]

Then don't put the blame on Blizzard for North's departure. And "openly insulted them and fans"? Going to need a source on that one. Of course there was the whole "Fuck that loser" comment but, while it shouldn't have been said publicly, it was in reaction to the shit that was already flung by one of the guys you're defending.

Honestly, I think that they did a lot of the things the best they could, it was a very different game than I would have created, the team and personalities, the people, the talent and all the design philosophies of the people that worked on it in Irvine, we called them Blizzard South, those people have their own style and the their own way they like to design. It was very, very different from the Blizzard North.

So I think that when Blizzard South took over the development of Diablo 3 it was inevitable that they were going to create an experience that was in the Diablo theme but concentrated more towards the things that they liked to experience. Including more story and things like that.

When Blizzard North shut down they lost a ton of experience with why the Action RPG works and what about it works. That?s really difficult to recover from. They didn?t have the experience of people that knew it well. This is why you do things with random levels for example, and so when you lose that experience you are going to create a very different experience in the end than we would have created.

(...)

Well, the loot system. They made some decisions with the loot system that were very different than the way that we did it in Diablo 2 and I think that obviously the community has been upset with some of the decisions they made. Having all of your powers work off your main weapon and things like that, to having blues that are more powerful than yellows. Eventually the auction house and how that worked, even something as simple as when you equip an item and it?s bound to your character permanently would have totally changed the dynamic of the game.

It seems odd that they have not really responded in a quick fashion to some of these things. I think they are very well aware of the problems at this point and are trying to fix some of this stuff. It?s a shame that they had to learn some of these painful lessons

I have very mixed emotions about it (laughs). On one hand I am sad that people haven?t enjoyed Diablo because it?s a love, a passion, and its obvious people still have a giant love and passion for Diablo and they are speaking out about it because they have such love for it. That makes me feel great.

I am sad because people are outraged and, you know, some of the decision they have made are not the decisions I would make and there have been changes in philosophy and that hasn?t gone over very well. I think in that way I am a little sad.

I am also a little happy, which I hate to say, it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was and how unique and special that group was. I am hoping that, as this happens very often in the industry, you see it with Call of Duty and things like that , when the people leave the game changes and it shows how critical people are in this industry.

Hardly flinging shit. There's nothing more there than an honest opinion. People were outraged, that is just true. And they were outraged further at Blizzard's response to their outrage. I'm not really interested in digging up all the details. The fact is the whole thing was very nasty. Many from the D2 fanbase were told in prettier words that they were just plain deluded about the art direction, that the older games were just as colorful and chipper, and that they were just blind or something. The secret unicorn level is a direct response to those complaints - there were so many of them I suppose they warranted being mocked. There was criticism about the auction house, the loot design, and after the game's release, the story. All were met with similarly smug responses right up until Jay Wilson was out of the picture, by which point they realized they actually had fucked up.

 

[Zeraki]

As much as I like the changes from the recent patch, I still don't care for this game enough to put any more money into it than what I already spent in its initial release.

You're two years too late to come crawling back to the fans you alienated Blizzard.

and fuck you for saying otherwise.

Well, I can sure see you lasting a long time here.

 

[Nazulu]

Then don't put the blame on Blizzard for North's departure. And "openly insulted them and fans"? Going to need a source on that one. Of course there was the whole "Fuck that loser" comment but, while it shouldn't have been said publicly, it was in reaction to the shit that was already flung by one of the guys you're defending.

What shit was flung by one of the North guys?

 

[black_knight1337]

-Snip-

Hardly flinging shit. There's nothing more there than an honest opinion. People were outraged, that is just true. And they were outraged further at Blizzard's response to their outrage. I'm not really interested in digging up all the details. The fact is the whole thing was very nasty.

Maybe shit flinging was the wrong term there but he definitely threw the first punch. That last part you quoted is what I'm referring to, how he's happy that people are tearing the team to pieces, attacking them personally and even sending death threats. Which he then follows up with a mountain of arrogance where he might as well have said "Haha I'm better than you!". It's not hard to see why Chris Haga felt the way he did from that and why everyone else involved responded the way they did.

Many from the D2 fanbase were told in prettier words that they were just plain deluded about the art direction, that the older games were just as colorful and chipper, and that they were just blind or something. The secret unicorn level is a direct response to those complaints - there were so many of them I suppose they warranted being mocked.

Burden of proof mean anything? And yep, it was a light-hearted jab at the exaggerations people used when referring to the art style. Just adding a bit of colour doesn't turn it into My Little Pony like so many people were saying.

There was criticism about the auction house, the loot design, and after the game's release, the story. All were met with similarly smug responses right up until Jay Wilson was out of the picture, by which point they realized they actually had fucked up.

Ah right, so they never responded to players and add PvP? or the Infernal Machine event? or monster power? or paragon? or rebalance skills? or rebalance loot? or rebalance difficulty? That was all under Jay Wilson. And regardless of what you think the developers were like back when it was released, now they have, undeniably, be doing good things for the customer and putting us first. The Auction House closure makes that clear enough.

 

[Nazulu]

-Snip-

Hardly flinging shit. There's nothing more there than an honest opinion. People were outraged, that is just true. And they were outraged further at Blizzard's response to their outrage. I'm not really interested in digging up all the details. The fact is the whole thing was very nasty.

Maybe shit flinging was the wrong term there but he definitely threw the first punch. That last part you quoted is what I'm referring to, how he's happy that people are tearing the team to pieces, attacking them personally and even sending death threats. Which he then follows up with a mountain of arrogance where he might as well have said "Haha I'm better than you!". It's not hard to see why Chris Haga felt the way he did from that and why everyone else involved responded the way they did.

Yeah, I don't see any thing about being happy they have been attacked personally and receiving death threats, but criticising them he definitely meant.

He really must of been disappointed with something when he left.

 

[Jandau]

I picked the game up over the weekend, seeing as how a lot of people were reacting positively to the changes in the recent patch. I don't see what all the hate is about. Granted, I'm guessing that's the whole point of this patch, but as the game is right now, it seems pretty damn good. I finished Act 1 over the weekend on my Wizard and I've been having a blast. I honestly have no complaints. Visuals are good, gameplay is fun, spells are fun and satisfying, mechanics are solid, etc. My only gripe is that the Crusader is present in the class selection screen, but not playable...

 

[alj]

So you want me to pay $40 (or whatever we get overcharged in the UK) to get the full experience out of a game played full price for and was not even that good to begin with, as you wasted time with that stupid online auction house. Thanks but no thanks. If it was a fair price then i would give it a try but not at this price.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

All Blizzard threads are the same. But I never tire of them for some reason.

Maybe shit flinging was the wrong term there but he definitely threw the first punch.

David Brevik saying "Diablo III didn't turn out like I would have done it" is not throwing a punch.

Jay Wilson saying "Fuck that loser" is throwing a punch. That's why he apologized.

That last part you quoted is what I'm referring to, how he's happy that people are tearing the team to pieces, attacking them personally and even sending death threats. Which he then follows up with a mountain of arrogance where he might as well have said "Haha I'm better than you!".

You're gonna need to source that. All he said was:

I have very mixed emotions about it (laughs). On one hand I am sad that people haven?t enjoyed Diablo because it?s a love, a passion, and its obvious people still have a giant love and passion for Diablo and they are speaking out about it because they have such love for it. That makes me feel great.

I am sad because people are outraged and, you know, some of the decision they have made are not the decisions I would make and there have been changes in philosophy and that hasn?t gone over very well. I think in that way I am a little sad.

I am also a little happy, which I hate to say, it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was and how unique and special that group was. I am hoping that, as this happens very often in the industry, you see it with Call of Duty and things like that , when the people leave the game changes and it shows how critical people are in this industry.

Harmless. "I'm happy people are responding strongly, it shows they care about diablo." He is not condoning or admiring death threats.

It's not hard to see why Chris Haga felt the way he did from that and why everyone else involved responded the way they did.

Sure, sometimes you just have to be an over-reactive asshole who can't respond reasonably.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Civ V is still $70 after 3 years, CoD Black Ops is $90 after 3 years, Delta Force Xtreme 2 is $70 after 4 years, Kingdoms of Amalur is $60 after 2 years and the list goes on. Keeping it at retail costs long after release isn't just a Blizzard thing, it's done by a number of other as well.

Civ V literally just got off a sale on greenmangaming (also all of 2k's games on there, which are all steam keys) where it was marked down 66% off individually, and I don't remember the bundle price, but civ V is put on sale at least once a month, I can't tell you how often I see it on sale (over christmas you could get ALL of civV+the new xcom game for 20 bucks)

black ops is a activision game, which I've gone over already before, activision will stick it's weiner in liquid gold and go bankrupt before it lowers its prices on its games.

delta force I have never heard of in my life, so I can't say anything on that. kingdoms of amalur has been on sale so much it isn't even funny, not to mention the humble bundle it was in where you were getting it for the minimum of a dollar...most sale prices I've seen it at 5-10 bucks too.

what I was arguing at originally, was actiblizz's frequency of sales, which is why most people are HEAVILY sighing their initial prices, because that shit is harder to move than a piece of stonehenge.

There was 50-75% off at Christmas, they had a birthday sale for Diablo 3, they've had pre-order discounts and so on. They do have their sales and even then, if you're not happy with their pricing, go to another store for them, places like Amazon have sales quite frequently.

50-75% off on diablo III? I find that VERY hard to believe, I never once saw that (and I frequently check sales across tons of stores daily if not weekly looking for deals) let alone was it ever mentioned by anyone before, there is a reason why blizzard is known for being scrooge mcduck levels of greed.

if you can actually find that, hell I'll even take 50% off of d3, then I'll concede that point, but actiblizz would have a seizure before letting a sale like that sneak out the door.

and that is true, but that site is a bit....deceiving, it isn't that actiblizz is giving the "okay" for that price, it's that certain vendors are selling the keys at the lowest possible price they can go because they get it through magic, I mean fuck, you could (and still can) get thief keys pre-ordered for 22 bucks on release, and that is a standard 50-60 dollar AAA game that just came out.

Sure, using the same site you used as an example for lower prices is deceiving. I guess using Steam sales as an example for cheap prices can also be considered deceiving then.

steam and greenmanggaming and other such stores have the prices dictated FOR them, kinguin sort of bends around the system a bit for consumers..so it's the exception to the rule, it's not the standard for that, that's what I was getting at from the consumers viewpoint. that pricepoint on kinguin is the bundled price, not the price separately is still pricey. The steam sales was used for the principle of frequency again, not to be decieving. People don't generally complain about the high prices on steam and greenmangaming because of the frequency of sales that come in dumptruck sized loads.

 

[The_State]

So many words.

Wow, you are active as hell on this board. I will say that you've intrigued me, and I will consider giving the game another shot. Truth is, I only played the demo due to my own concerns and base my information on that and the reports of a few friends. So it would still cost me money to dive into the experience.

If you get a chance, and if you haven't already, look into Grim Dawn. It's from the designers of Iron Lore's Titan Quest, possibly my favorite game from the ARPG genre. The game takes a very different approach to character creation and building, making your choice of skills a very important decision. You don't even start the game with a class, but instead build one from a pair of "masteries" you select at first and (I think) sixth level. These combination of masteries become your class. Then there is a bevy of skills that you put points into in order to determine the way your character will play. It's a very fun system that rewards experimentation and really gives the game a great deal of longevity. Titan Quest was still better, at this point, but the game is in late alpha and has improved immensely since the last build. Give it a look.

 

[Isra]

Burden of proof mean anything?

Honestly burden of proof means nothing to me in this matter. This isn't a court of law. I'm also not interested in wasting hours of my life digging up ancient forum & facebook posts that may or may not still exist, my cred as a forum warrior just isn't that valuable to me. I've wasted enough hours of my life on D3 already. I was there, and I stopped being a Blizzard fan for a good reason. I don't just randomly boycott a company because I simply don't like one of their products. Do I boycott Bethesda & Zenimax online because I didn't like the TESO beta? Hell no. I will keep buying their products and I'll keep thinking highly of them. A company has to go a little further than that to actually piss me off, a bad product is something that happens now and then, c'est la vie, and those things are subjective anyway. No, the reason I boycott Blizzard is because they got nasty and sent out the clear message that they didn't need us or our opinions. I simply figured they didn't need my money either.

I mean, what do you think David Brevik's interview was about? He was basically saying that he understood why fans were angry. When Jay Wilson said "fuck that loser", he was by extension saying 'fuck those losers' to everyone David was relating to. He clearly disdained the fans' opinions. This particular episode was just the one that got preserved in history because he was saying it to the guy that created Diablo and he got a corporate smack on the wrist for it and had to issue an apology, but this was their attitude the whole time surrounding D3's release. Whether you choose to believe me or not is up to you. Maybe you didn't see that side of it because you weren't on that side of the fence.

As much as I like the changes from the recent patch, I still don't care for this game enough to put any more money into it than what I already spent in its initial release.

You're two years too late to come crawling back to the fans you alienated Blizzard.

and fuck you for saying otherwise.

Well, I can sure see you lasting a long time here.

Yeah xD Well let's just say that, as a former huge fan, I felt more than alienated by Blizzard and this topic makes me hot headed. I don't usually make a habit of being an asshole to people though. My bad black_knight1337 for getting offensive, it's a topic that ruffles my feathers a bit too much and I apologize.

 

[black_knight1337]

-Snip-

-Snip-

When referring to the response that Diablo 3 got from fans, which includes all kinds of nasty stuff, he said he was happy that it happened. I'd give it to you if it was along the lines of "I'm happy that fans are being so critical towards the state of the game" because then he's just happy they screwed up, still being a dick but not as much. Didn't have to follow it up with a heap of arrogance either.
And yeah, he was really disappointed when he left Blizzard, so much so he takes it out on the guys who were in the same position that he was in rather than the ones that were responsible.

-Snip-

Again with the mixing of regular prices with sales. As proven, their regular costs are standard and the length of them is not uncommon. As was also proven Blizzard do have sales on their own store with some good discounts. And I never heard anyone complain about Diablo 3 costing the standard $60. People are only bitching about the expansion's cost because of the fact that expansions are rarely made anymore and are mostly replaced with handfuls of dlc(which still end up costing more in long run and often offer less content).

Diablo 3 has had a price drop of $20 since release and you can currently cut another $20 if you buy the expansion as well. They also had a $20 off sale when it's first birthday came up along with pre-order credit for the console version. Then if you include 3rd parties(like what you've been doing), then my local store had it on sale for $23 (Regular price here was $80) and I've seen it on sale on Amazon a number of times.

Incorrect, retailers can put sales on what they want, when they want (provided it doesn't affect how much the developer is getting from it). The exception to that is when publishers and developers threaten to pull their games if they don't price it how they want. Of course, this is much easier when dealing with physical copies but there's no reason why digital copies can't be sold the same.

Wow, you are active as hell on this board. I will say that you've intrigued me, and I will consider giving the game another shot. Truth is, I only played the demo due to my own concerns and base my information on that and the reports of a few friends. So it would still cost me money to dive into the experience.

Ah, that'd explain it somewhat then. The demo is pretty bad, can't understand why'd they want to use the weakest part of the game to try to get customers. They probably should of bumped it up to Nightmare or something just so the classes are a bit more flexible. And if you do end up getting it, as mentioned above, Blizzard have a nice deal if you buy Reaper of Souls as well. Getting both of them for $60. I'd be happy to give you a hand in game as well

If you get a chance, and if you haven't already, look into Grim Dawn. It's from the designers of Iron Lore's Titan Quest, possibly my favorite game from the ARPG genre. The game takes a very different approach to character creation and building, making your choice of skills a very important decision. You don't even start the game with a class, but instead build one from a pair of "masteries" you select at first and (I think) sixth level. These combination of masteries become your class. Then there is a bevy of skills that you put points into in order to determine the way your character will play. It's a very fun system that rewards experimentation and really gives the game a great deal of longevity. Titan Quest was still better, at this point, but the game is in late alpha and has improved immensely since the last build. Give it a look.

Already have it Loved playing Titan Quest when I was younger and just threw money at my screen when I first heard about Grim Dawn xD It's shaping up really well so far.

 

[JettMaverick]

Action RPG's are just dull, so asking me to spend $100 in total on one is out of the question.

Not so agreeable on the Action RPG's being dull.. but the pricing...

 

[Lovely Mixture]

When referring to the response that Diablo 3 got from fans, which includes all kinds of nasty stuff, he said he was happy that it happened. I'd give it to you if it was along the lines of "I'm happy that fans are being so critical towards the state of the game" because then he's just happy they screwed up, still being a dick but not as much. Didn't have to follow it up with a heap of arrogance either.
And yeah, he was really disappointed when he left Blizzard, so much so he takes it out on the guys who were in the same position that he was in rather than the ones that were responsible.

He said nothing arrogant, he said nothing inflammatory. You're making a whirlpool out of a glass of a water.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Again with the mixing of regular prices with sales. As proven, their regular costs are standard and the length of them is not uncommon. As was also proven Blizzard do have sales on their own store with some good discounts. And I never heard anyone complain about Diablo 3 costing the standard $60. People are only bitching about the expansion's cost because of the fact that expansions are rarely made anymore and are mostly replaced with handfuls of dlc(which still end up costing more in long run and often offer less content).

Diablo 3 has had a price drop of $20 since release and you can currently cut another $20 if you buy the expansion as well. They also had a $20 off sale when it's first birthday came up along with pre-order credit for the console version. Then if you include 3rd parties(like what you've been doing), then my local store had it on sale for $23 (Regular price here was $80) and I've seen it on sale on Amazon a number of times.

Incorrect, retailers can put sales on what they want, when they want (provided it doesn't affect how much the developer is getting from it). The exception to that is when publishers and developers threaten to pull their games if they don't price it how they want. Of course, this is much easier when dealing with physical copies but there's no reason why digital copies can't be sold the same.

I've noted multiple times, my original point was the frequency of sales and how much they dropped in price, I was not referring to the regular price the games are sold at.

fact that expansions are rarely made anymore and are mostly replaced with handfuls of dlc(which still end up costing more in long run and often offer less content).

this isn't a fact, and is utter horseshit for the most part, we talked about this already and was proven that most dlc's added up are more than what blizzard's expansion is offering, and is sold for ~20 dollars.

The exception to that is when publishers and developers threaten to pull their games if they don't price it how they want. Of course, this is much easier when dealing with physical copies but there's no reason why digital copies can't be sold the same.

you just answered yourself there, most online retailers are still crutched by local physical retailers in price otherwise the publisher can pull a red flag on them for changing the price as such.

I have no idea why you are so hell bent on defending actiblizz for being one of the greedier dev's in the industry (as seen by your white knighting them in this entire thread) but I have no interest in continuing this, so don't bother responding.

 

[black_knight1337]

He said nothing arrogant, he said nothing inflammatory. You're making a whirlpool out of a glass of a water.

Arrogant; "having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities". Throughout the interview he says how bad the decisions made were and how he would do things differently and heavily implies that the game would be so much better because of it. This is the guy who left Blizzard to make Hellgate: London and he's also the guy behind Marvel Heroes. Both of which are considered by most to be pretty average, nothing which shows how he would have made Diablo 3 so much better. Even more so when you look at the post-release sales for Diablo 3. As for the latter, can't be any clearer than explaining it step by step.

My bad black_knight1337 for getting offensive, it's a topic that ruffles my feathers a bit too much and I apologize.

No hard feelings mate, I know the anger was meant towards Blizzard, I just happened to be the guy standing in the way. I won't comment any more on the rest of your post. It's not going anywhere and it would probably just end up getting out of hand.

I've noted multiple times, my original point was the frequency of sales and how much they dropped in price, I was not referring to the regular price the games are sold at.

Except that is what the article is about, that's what my original post was about and you never mentioned otherwise early on either. Fair enough if you consider 2-3 first party sales per year to be a low amount but I don't think many others actually beat that. I monitor /r/gamedeals and rarely do I ever see a developer/publisher's site get linked, it's always Steam, Greenmangaming, GoG, Amazon etc. And tbh, I don't think that many people deal with first party stores all that much for anyone other than Valve. And at the third party stores, there's plenty of good sales on Blizzard games.

this isn't a fact, and is utter horseshit for the most part, we talked about this already and was proven that most dlc's added up are more than what blizzard's expansion is offering, and is sold for ~20 dollars.

Honestly, off the top of my head I can't think of anyone other than Blizzard and Firaxis that have done expansions packs recently. In most cases they are just chopped up into small bits of DLC. And one case(Rockstar) hardly proves the rule, if anything it shows an exception to the rule. Here's an example that shows the opposite; Saint's Row 4. That's already got $65 worth of DLC for it. Let's see what you actually get for that price, you get 2 mission packs($12) and the rest is an assortment of costumes with a few weapons and vehicles thrown in($53).

you just answered yourself there, most online retailers are still crutched by local physical retailers in price otherwise the publisher can pull a red flag on them for changing the price as such.

Sure they can, but would they really care if it never affected their profit margin and in the end just brings in more sales? In most cases that would probably be a no. I know there are some devs that would get shitty over it but they'd be the exception to the rule, not the rule itself.

I have no idea why you are so hell bent on defending actiblizz for being one of the greedier dev's in the industry (as seen by your white knighting them in this entire thread) but I have no interest in continuing this, so don't bother responding.

Is it so wrong to respond to people who want to start a discussion with me? Is it so wrong to defend my own opinion? Seriously, if it was EA who was releasing a $40 expansion to which people called it expensive, I'd still post pretty much the same thing. There's a difference between blindly defending someone, and standing by your own opinions.