Thank God I gave up any loyalty to Blizzard a long time ago or I might be miffed by their treatment of some of my favorite franchises. It's okay, I'll always have my memories.
Diablo III's Auction House And Always-Online Aren't Going Anywhere
- Thread starter Steven Bogos
- Start date
The only part of this story that I took away was the line "not a lot of people connect their consoles to the internet" because it struck me as being the inverse of the idea that Microsoft had with thinking that EVERYONE will connect to the internet.
The truth is that a LOT of people connect to the internet with their consoles, just far fewer than ALL of them ALL the time.
Other than that I don't care one bit for Blizzard, its products, or how they function.
But I acknowledge how irredeemably asinine it would be to buy any game that requires always online that ISN'T an MMO, and has a perfectly playable single player option. Essentially Blizzard is telling you how to play your game, and that your desire to do so without the freely available unlimited broadband connection (sarcasm) is INCORRECT!
And then to go and let consoles have offline options, and no RMAH bullshit flooding their gameworld...and even make exclusive in game items for them...did they use any lube when they began fucking with you?
Seriously, why is anyone putting up with them? WoW is on its way out, like all MMOs, and I've heard ZERO positive...anything about Diablo 3.
I've heard the praises of D2 for the last decade or so though, so at one point the may have been on to something.
The truth is that a LOT of people connect to the internet with their consoles, just far fewer than ALL of them ALL the time.
Other than that I don't care one bit for Blizzard, its products, or how they function.
But I acknowledge how irredeemably asinine it would be to buy any game that requires always online that ISN'T an MMO, and has a perfectly playable single player option. Essentially Blizzard is telling you how to play your game, and that your desire to do so without the freely available unlimited broadband connection (sarcasm) is INCORRECT!
And then to go and let consoles have offline options, and no RMAH bullshit flooding their gameworld...and even make exclusive in game items for them...did they use any lube when they began fucking with you?
Seriously, why is anyone putting up with them? WoW is on its way out, like all MMOs, and I've heard ZERO positive...anything about Diablo 3.
I've heard the praises of D2 for the last decade or so though, so at one point the may have been on to something.
Kewl that means the console version will always be better then the PC version.
Seriously there is little more to add that I did really expect this to happen. The gold mine is not something you close down even if it makes the game worse. I understand why the Ah exist and yes even the RMAH but still it makes the game worse. With bad loot drops.
So lets raise our glass to torchlight. And of course the console versions of Diablo III.
Seriously there is little more to add that I did really expect this to happen. The gold mine is not something you close down even if it makes the game worse. I understand why the Ah exist and yes even the RMAH but still it makes the game worse. With bad loot drops.
So lets raise our glass to torchlight. And of course the console versions of Diablo III.
I guess, I'll have to wait a few more years. Clinging to a fool's hope, that maybe, just maybe one day...
- The items will be remade and highly customizable. To the point where you can make builds around them.
- Characters are actually customizable outside of the base minimum of "respec skills".
- The Story will be remade and re-written. Because honestly, right now it's worse than Twilight.
- Off-line only characters for off-line play.
- Loot drop rates aren't gimped for the sake of RMAH
- Mods. 'Nuff said
But, who am I kidding. None of that is happening.
Well, I'll just keep my money for a steam sale or something.
- The items will be remade and highly customizable. To the point where you can make builds around them.
- Characters are actually customizable outside of the base minimum of "respec skills".
- The Story will be remade and re-written. Because honestly, right now it's worse than Twilight.
- Off-line only characters for off-line play.
- Loot drop rates aren't gimped for the sake of RMAH
- Mods. 'Nuff said
But, who am I kidding. None of that is happening.
Well, I'll just keep my money for a steam sale or something.
Just got this on the console. With the exception of the menu system, the port over from PC seems to have been successful.
Still feel Blizzard "dumbed it down" and threw away a lot of great ideas from D2.
But hey! There's always "Torchlight 2"!
Still feel Blizzard "dumbed it down" and threw away a lot of great ideas from D2.
But hey! There's always "Torchlight 2"!
Let us hope. Loot 2.0 sounds really good, but when it drops will it still be infinitely easier to buy the improved loot on AH? I mean, better loot will be dropping, so that means better loot to sell. I guess since it will have more class specific loot drop there will be fewer wasted rare pieces. Only time will tell now.Steven Bogos said:
Anyone get an almost apologetic vibe from this dude? As if he didn't even want Always On so he's doing his best to make it pretty? I feel bad for anyone that has to work for Activision Blizzard's upper management, but this guy has my respect for trying to alleviate things
You still won't trust me with your game.
I still won't trust you with my money.
Doesn't surprise me; Battlenet 2.0 is less of a beneficial service or community hub for gamers and more the electric fence for Blizzard's digital herding system.
"Don't let the stupid consumer cattle free range; they're harder to milk that way."
The fact that they implemented an alternative drop rate system over a solid year after D3's launch pretty much confirms my suspicions that Blizzard was far more concerned with real money yields for the Auction House and not what their customers were saying; either before or after release.
It's probably a matter of "Numbers speak louder than words".
Zods, or more accurately, high level runes, became valuable solely due to their inhumanly low drop rates and necessity for making completely gamebreaking equipment.
SoJ became currency due to an early exploit that let people acquire them stupidly easy, while still being a supremely useful item.
People love to ***** about botters and dupers for reducing the value of their rare drops.
The sick irony is that only a tiny handful of people would ever see those items if not for such methods. To me, that's a lot of wasted content in a game.
My point is that instead of learning from their past mistakes, Blizzard decided to embrace and emphasize the fuck out of the worst parts of D2. It didn't help that they eliminated so much of that game that was good in the process.
I still won't trust you with my money.
Doesn't surprise me; Battlenet 2.0 is less of a beneficial service or community hub for gamers and more the electric fence for Blizzard's digital herding system.
"Don't let the stupid consumer cattle free range; they're harder to milk that way."
The fact that they implemented an alternative drop rate system over a solid year after D3's launch pretty much confirms my suspicions that Blizzard was far more concerned with real money yields for the Auction House and not what their customers were saying; either before or after release.
It's probably a matter of "Numbers speak louder than words".
Oh yes. The in-game black market economies. The worst possible thing to base a game on.Article said:
Zods, or more accurately, high level runes, became valuable solely due to their inhumanly low drop rates and necessity for making completely gamebreaking equipment.
(Raise your hand if you ever owned an Infinity. Now raise your hand if you farmed those runes yourself; no trades, no hacks, no dupe+cubing. Statistically, only 1 person out of several MILLION should be raising their hand honestly working under the assumption that everyone played D2. The drop rates for were that fucking low)
http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Rune_hunting
Per 1 million runes dropped, 74 will be Ber (needs 2) 398 will be Ist, 596 will be Mal.
So, 1142/(1.0*10^6) 0.001142% chance of acquiring an Infinity.
That's from sources that can drop runes up to Ber, and drops at least one rune 100% of the time. No such source exists in D2, decreasing that chance even further by several magnitudes.
Grinding nonstop, it would take fucking YEARS to acquire one legitimately on your own.
And THIS is the part of D2 that Blizzard decided to emphasize.
And people wonder why I find D3 to be an absolutely disgusting game.
http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Rune_hunting
Per 1 million runes dropped, 74 will be Ber (needs 2) 398 will be Ist, 596 will be Mal.
So, 1142/(1.0*10^6) 0.001142% chance of acquiring an Infinity.
That's from sources that can drop runes up to Ber, and drops at least one rune 100% of the time. No such source exists in D2, decreasing that chance even further by several magnitudes.
Grinding nonstop, it would take fucking YEARS to acquire one legitimately on your own.
And THIS is the part of D2 that Blizzard decided to emphasize.
And people wonder why I find D3 to be an absolutely disgusting game.
SoJ became currency due to an early exploit that let people acquire them stupidly easy, while still being a supremely useful item.
People love to ***** about botters and dupers for reducing the value of their rare drops.
The sick irony is that only a tiny handful of people would ever see those items if not for such methods. To me, that's a lot of wasted content in a game.
My point is that instead of learning from their past mistakes, Blizzard decided to embrace and emphasize the fuck out of the worst parts of D2. It didn't help that they eliminated so much of that game that was good in the process.
This is legitimately disappointing but unlike everyone else, I'm not going to freak out just yet. The new loot system could very well fix the main problem I had with Diablo 3, that being the fact that you HAVE to use the auction house to survive later difficulties. If they change the system so that loot drops are as useful as they were in Diablo 2 and the auction house just becomes an option, rather than a necessity, I would be perfectly fine with that
I'm sorry, but the AH (RM or otherwise) was never necessary even when the game was actually hard, it sure as hell isn't necessary now they've made Legendaries so common you can occasionally get them at level 10, let alone when Loot 2.0 inevitably makes things even easier.00slash00 said:
The only thing that's ever been "Necessary" to win D3 is the ability to hold down 4 (maybe 5) buttons at once without your brain turning to slag (and maybe a dose of good reflexes on the side). But I suppose that was too much to ask from a fandom that's not used to gameplay more complex than "Spam potions AND your ability of choice (AT THE SAME TIME?!)"
(And before anyone asks, yes I HAVE done a no-AH run from Normal to Inferno, and that was while playing a Demon Hunter, which is almost universally considered the weakest class, to boot.)
And this is why literally all the many gamers I know quit playing Diablo 3. Way to ruin a series.
The weakest? Interesting, I always found avoiding attacks easier with her than with any other class. In any case, you're right. The game isn't IMPOSSIBLE without the auction house, but the fact that useful loot drops are so much more rare in Diablo 3 than they were in Diablo 2 means that to get good and interesting gear, you pretty much have to use the auction house. The entire reason Diablo 2 took several years of my life was because of the awesome loot drops and it is much much less satisfying to buy gear, rather than just find it.Aeshi said:
Since their purchase and subsequent merger with Activision, the quality of all Blizzard products have gone down, and their behavior towards their players has gone down to the gutter with it. Blizzard is on a path of self destruction. At least EA admitted they were wrong and are going to be removing DRM on SimCity. Blizzard holds nothing but greed and contempt for their players, and thus not surprising, a great many of their former loyal fans, myself included, have given Blizzard the middle finger and taken our money elsewhere.
Bottom line: Activision Blizzard is a toxic greedy company that isn't worth anyones time or money. I've completely removed every single Blizzard product from my PC. And now I just gotta figure out what I want to do with the games themselves, since I refuse to play any Blizzard product ever again, new or old.
Bottom line: Activision Blizzard is a toxic greedy company that isn't worth anyones time or money. I've completely removed every single Blizzard product from my PC. And now I just gotta figure out what I want to do with the games themselves, since I refuse to play any Blizzard product ever again, new or old.
I really wish there were more ARPGs to chose from. As it stands, I have to chose between D3's always online annoyance and TL2's just generally being bad. I tried PoE for about 20 minutes before I hated it, and Grim Dawn isn't going to be out for awhile.
I don't have any statistics but I can personally vouch that the RMAH has negatively affected my ability to play and enjoy the game. My main avatar was unable to progress beyond a certain point in Nightmare mode despite being 3/4 of the way to the level cap due to not receiving equipment drops of the quality needed to make the character survivable. I played Diablo II for years and never spent the amount of time grinding for gear that I did with my D3 character. The loot system remained broken at least until I moved on to more interesting games that didn't punish me for being a single-player gamer who didn't want to waste money on digital goods that only remained useful for a short time and it sounds like it is still broken considering the fact that they are releasing a major revision to it. On the other hand, the always online requirement is not that big of a deal to me as I have a stable high-speed connection. If I were still in the Navy I would be pissed though as I would be completely unable to play the game any time I was at sea.Karathos said:
Well...Actually...That's a pretty legitimate reason to keep Always-On, because if they allowed offline mode, then the game would be hacked easier so people can produce their own in game items, sell them, and basically make money for no work what-so-ever. It's what happened in Diablo II's economy, only now real money is involved. I'm not going to argue for or against the auction house, but it is still a very legit reason to keep Always-On.Phishfood said: