My basic problem with D3 is that it kicks your teeth in, but doesn't give you a reason to go through that sort of punishment. The game doesn't give you a reason to actually do anything in it. There's nothing to look forward to. Sure, there are rare spawn monsters, events, and dungeon areas, but there's nothing that you get out of doing them other than to say that you did them. You don't even always get an achievement for it (not that I'm a big achievement hunter).
Not only is the random loot mostly useless, it's often nonsensical. Very often, I've seen items drops that are specific to one class but have abilities and stats that are used by another class that can't even use that particular type of item (belts and weapons are usually the worst for this). Further, the random loot has a ridiculously large downward variance such you can be in Act 2, Inferno and be getting drops that are more appropriate to Act 3/4, Nightmare or Act 1/2, Hell. You're out there getting your shit pushed-in with a telephone pole by some of these elites, and you're handed a drop that's more appropriate to a character at level 52, instead a level 60 working his way through Inferno. Even worse, the item is still not that useful even to the level 52, and may have the non-sense problem that it's specced for a class that can't even use the item.
Once you go through that enough times, you just no longer feel any sense of reward at all for anything. You get to the point you half-way don't even look at the drops, not even the rare yellow drops. You just identify them, head to the vendor, and blindly click the mouse on every item in your inventory.
Also, if you really want to talk about the drop in players, the real thing to understand is that the most severe drop-off occurred at a very specific point in the game's life, the release of patch 1.0.3. The changes that occurred in the game after 1.0.3 just made the game completely pointless. Immediately after the release of that patch, the number of public games went from 20k at peak to just under 2k at peak, and has trickled downward since (last I saw, we were at just a little over 900 at peak). Nowadays, most people just pop on for a few minutes to check the AH for a deal and then log off. They don't even bother to play the game.
Yes, D3 is a short-term financial success because so many of us were stupid enough to buy into it. However, it is difficult for me to shake the feeling that Blizzard may have traded away long-term corporate viability for this short-term gain, because I've read a number of voices expressing that they have little to no interest in buy anymore games from Blizzard, and they are certainly not interested in any potential expansion for D3. Of course, only time will tell on that. We all know gamers aren't very good at sticking to their guns when you dangle a new game in front of them.
Not only is the random loot mostly useless, it's often nonsensical. Very often, I've seen items drops that are specific to one class but have abilities and stats that are used by another class that can't even use that particular type of item (belts and weapons are usually the worst for this). Further, the random loot has a ridiculously large downward variance such you can be in Act 2, Inferno and be getting drops that are more appropriate to Act 3/4, Nightmare or Act 1/2, Hell. You're out there getting your shit pushed-in with a telephone pole by some of these elites, and you're handed a drop that's more appropriate to a character at level 52, instead a level 60 working his way through Inferno. Even worse, the item is still not that useful even to the level 52, and may have the non-sense problem that it's specced for a class that can't even use the item.
Once you go through that enough times, you just no longer feel any sense of reward at all for anything. You get to the point you half-way don't even look at the drops, not even the rare yellow drops. You just identify them, head to the vendor, and blindly click the mouse on every item in your inventory.
Also, if you really want to talk about the drop in players, the real thing to understand is that the most severe drop-off occurred at a very specific point in the game's life, the release of patch 1.0.3. The changes that occurred in the game after 1.0.3 just made the game completely pointless. Immediately after the release of that patch, the number of public games went from 20k at peak to just under 2k at peak, and has trickled downward since (last I saw, we were at just a little over 900 at peak). Nowadays, most people just pop on for a few minutes to check the AH for a deal and then log off. They don't even bother to play the game.
Yes, D3 is a short-term financial success because so many of us were stupid enough to buy into it. However, it is difficult for me to shake the feeling that Blizzard may have traded away long-term corporate viability for this short-term gain, because I've read a number of voices expressing that they have little to no interest in buy anymore games from Blizzard, and they are certainly not interested in any potential expansion for D3. Of course, only time will tell on that. We all know gamers aren't very good at sticking to their guns when you dangle a new game in front of them.
