Diablo III Is Broken

[Psydney]

Yes, yes. My husband and I are among those 80%. We played to Inferno and just quit a couple of weeks ago. We didn't *want* to feel forced to use the AH - the loot pinata aspect of Diablo is what we've always enjoyed. But some of the champions and elites were so hard (vortex walling arcane sentry just inside a cave entrance anyone?) that we ran ourselves completely out of money on repairs. Not fun. Not fun at all.

 

[Kross]

What terrible pun are you talking about?

Nothing specific, and maybe "pun" was the wrong word (though they are in the game in monster names and such). But there's a constant stream of attempts at adding some form of joke or fan service in every aspect of the environment - and when they're trying to be serious, it's over the top idiocy like "I didn't even need that thing to kill you! Or that other thing. Or the three other things I just threatened you with! I AM GOOD AT LYING"

 

[his1nightmare]

Be fair, man, from a financial perspective Diablo 3 is a pretty much unmitigated, huge success. The next time you want to say something to the extent of what you said before, just say that Diablo 3 is a terrible failure from all non-financial angles.

Fine, you are right. But still I stand the point, that it is such a huge success, is only partly Blizzard's achievement... it's Blizzard North's. The only positive aspect one can think of Diablo 3 is due to it's predecessors and the community they created.

 

[Jachwe]

I am confused by bringing up the drop of users the last two months when the game is like not quiet barley three months old. That seems pretty normal to me that like 80% of people stop playing the game when they fnished it. Get some perspective. Not everyone is putting 200+ hours into the game. Most people will barely even scratch the 30 hours mark and only have little time to play the game.
And the auction house is not a bad idea. There has always been auction houseS to provide that service... illegally. Having a controlled enviorment to trade is consumer friendly because the prices are capped and the probability for fraud extremly reduced.
By the way, Diablo2 was not a god send perfect drop-loot-game. It suffered pretty much the same "faults" if you want to go into the number game of drop chances and how long you can play without getting useful items.

 

[Nimzabaat]

I'm not calling Diablo 3 a failure in any way and i'm not ignorant of in game economies (they're completely stupid and for stupid people and i'm aware of that which is why I avoid them). The only failure I see, is that people are complaining about something that doesn't have to any effect on them in any way shape or form. I mean it's like those people who complain about gay marriage, you don't have to go to the wedding and you don't have to buy them a present. So complain about something that does have an effect... like the always online DRM and lag. Seriously, the auction house is a complete non-issue for anyone with an IQ over... oh thanks for the example captcha, Crest (the toothpaste).

I didn't say you were calling Diablo 3 a failure, that last part of the post was directed at a different person entirely.

In game economies aren't stupid on the count of not being sapient, or even conscious entities. And yes, the auction house does have an effect on people, did I not illustrate how in my previous post?

No, the auction house is a complete non-issue for people who don't know what they're talking about. You have not addressed a single point I put forward, and like before with calling people whiners, talking about IQ scores is something that doesn't reflect well on your argument, or you by extension.

I'm sorry but you didn't actually make any points so I couldn't address them. I've never had to access the auction house, but I get excellent loot, your attempt at a point is therefore invalid. The auction house is a complete non-issue for people who just want to enjoy the game. It's existence has only bothered me because we get so many damn whiners complaining about it. Seriously, if it bothers you DON'T USE IT. It's only there as a stupid tax so don't pay. Simple. And you sir, should appreciate simple.

 

[Oliver Fuhrmann]

Great article, blizzard should read this

 

[Tinybear]

The main problem I had with D3 was how utterly mindboggingly BORING the loot it. "Oh look, attack, health and defence".

In diablo 2, you had stats you had to balance to equip gear, you had uniques that actually did matter, and if you wanted an item, YOU HAD TO TRADE IN PERSON!

This was actually one of the things that made D2 so fun, to trade yourself from a mid tier unique, to a high tier if you knew which items were class-crucial on the way up.

And, you had incentive to play with randoms, at least until pick-up hacks and botting became standard and killed the game (and really, what the fuck happened there blizz? The bots have been using the same fu**ing backdoor to spam games for the last 6-7 years...) Doing an 8 man act 1-5 game was brilliant, lots of fun in the chat, challenging teamplay, while diablo 3 punishes cooperation, and makes every gamer into a social recluse.

 

[Susan Arendt]

The game came out like 3 months ago. It's not really broken if you bought it at launch and you're still playing it. It's not really an MMO after all.

I disagree. If the thing that is preventing you from putting more hours into the game is the game's design, then it's broken. It's a matter of scale, certainly - a game that "breaks" after 200 hours is perhaps more forgivable than one that "breaks" after 2 - but it's still a flaw.

 

[Callate]

Thank you for illuminating some of the things that have kept me from buying DIII, without my quite being able to express them.

And it's probably going to get worse when they release an expansion.

Arms race, ho...

 

[Scars Unseen]

In the end Diablo 3 is simply one thing, a terrible failure from all angles.

Except for the fact that it has sold over 10 million copies [http://www.imediamonkey.com/2012/08/05/diablo-3-overtakes-warcraft-with-10-million-sales/], which is a massive success from Blizzard's/Activision's perspective.

Also, I'm inclined to say that if you buy something and get 200 hours of entertainment out of it, that seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Though that doesn't at all invalidate the criticisms about the endgame and how some of their design choices have thrown off balance and replay value.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if you quit a game and write an article like this, a fair percentage of that 200 hours wasn't entertaining.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Looks like Skinner's Casino Diablo 3 is under scrutiny again.

At some point, Diablo III became less about the excitement of finding a new sword or accessory, and more about cold calculations, the difference between playing poker with friends, and hopelessly trying to outwit the dealer at a casino.

And this is precisely what I said would happen the day they announced the Auction House.
No. I'm not proud of it. I'm disappointed.

If there is one major constant complaint I see from everyone I know who plays (or played) Diablo 3: The drop rates for ANYTHING useful are inhumanly low.

 

[Bruno Beaudoin]

To me, the real problem is that you don't put points in skills, or, there's no way of making the skills you like stronger. The feeling of character progression is completely missing. I don't want to use the skills that work, I want to use the skills I like and boost them so that they work... The whole game feels like a tutorial, with the real game starting at level 60, but then it just becomes an action game, or a slot machine if you will.

If you forget this point, the other problem is that you HAVE to use the auction house. I don't want to shop, what I like is playing games! I want to find good loot, as I play.

 

[Mortamus]

It's sad, when a smaller game with no Auction House or Multiplayer, is better than what was supposed to be the successor to it's genre. I honestly enjoy playing Torchlight more than D3, which is sad, because I find D3's combat to be more engaging.

 

[Mike Kayatta]

And the auction house is not a bad idea. There has always been auction houseS to provide that service... illegally. Having a controlled enviorment to trade is consumer friendly because the prices are capped and the probability for fraud extremly reduced.

You're right that they have merely existed prior to D3, however there are two major differences this time around. For one thing, the majority of players (not the majority of "hardcore" players) did not use them. Items changing hands by this method was an aberration when compared to the whole of people who tried the game. Because of that, the balance of gold, enemies, and drops were not adjusted to it by Blizzard. The problem isn't there simply is, somewhere, an auction house, but rather a centralized auction house large enough to affect design decisions and gameplay.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I'm not really sure how to react to this article.

I mean, I totally agree with all of the points presented so there's no problem there. I do, however, find it a bit tough to agree that a game which provided hundreds of hours of entertainment is somehow a poor value. It's sort of an odd place to be.

Either way, my personal experience with the game is that after playing through once on the default difficulty level with one character, I know I'm pretty much done with the game. I'll likely finish up my second character who's already most of the way through and then call it quits. Regardless of the end game, there just isn't enough pulling me along even at the stage I'm at now to keep me interested.

 

[irishda]

I'm not buying there's no end game just because of the drop rate or the auction house. A: People used "auction houses" for D2, albeit shady auction house you needed a translator to read. It's nothing new that people were buying and selling shit, at least now you don't have to worry about jumping online and being spammed by 500 people looking to offload their Stone of Jordans.

As for the drop rates, I'd have to call bullshit on that too. People are mad because of several months without progress, yet there's people still doing Baal runs 8 years later hoping for their loot to drop.

In truth, it's just not the same world we live in anymore since D2 and dungeon crawlers were hugely popular. In any RPG crawler anywhere ever, the end game has always been (as Yahtzee puts it): "Find pants better than yours so you can find better pants later". Not to mention, it's kind of struck me as ridiculous when people can actually say "I've put 200+ hours into this game, now the end of it seems bad. It must be broken."

 

[Nimzabaat]

I'm not buying there's no end game just because of the drop rate or the auction house. A: People used "auction houses" for D2, albeit shady auction house you needed a translator to read. It's nothing new that people were buying and selling shit, at least now you don't have to worry about jumping online and being spammed by 500 people looking to offload their Stone of Jordans.

As for the drop rates, I'd have to call bullshit on that too. People are mad because of several months without progress, yet there's people still doing Baal runs 8 years later hoping for their loot to drop.

In truth, it's just not the same world we live in anymore since D2 and dungeon crawlers were hugely popular. In any RPG crawler anywhere ever, the end game has always been (as Yahtzee puts it): "Find pants better than yours so you can find better pants later". Not to mention, it's kind of struck me as ridiculous when people can actually say "I've put 200+ hours into this game, now the end of it seems bad. It must be broken."

I'm firmly in your camp. Of all the things people could be complaining about with D3, the auction house is the dumbest possible complaint bar none. It's like me complaining about the women's washrooms. I've never been in one, nor will I ever, but I shall cry to the heavens about how I don't like that they exist.

Though on a side note: why are there still gold-spammers? That makes no sense to me.