BigTuk said:
I'm an optimist when it comes strictly to Blizzard. Maybe it's a bit foolhardy, but I honestly think the people at Blizzard, people like Metzen, for instance, do actually want to make an entertaining game. It's just hard to look at them nerding out over their own lore and design and say "these are corporate mooks who want to abuse their consumer trust". It just... I don't know, doesn't seem the case. MIND YOU, this doesn't mean that they make good decisions, far from it, but yeah, still. I kind of feel bad when they have their Diablo 3 or Cataclysm moments, because it does seem like people worked for it but just didn't quite get there. Or I'm just melodramatic. It's probably that.
Besides the last point, I don't mind lateral progression, and agree that games like DX or DX/HR use it just fine, but how far are they, truly, from just being shooters/stealth shooters? They're not, but are they actually RPG's? A blend? I'd probably go with the blend, but still. When I look at a game like Diablo, can I honestly want lateral itemization? Probably not. It's kind of ingrained at this point. Would I mind an isometric game that DOESN'T use it? Sure! Just... not this one. What I mean by "True absence" is this: In a game like DMC, or Zelda, or Darksiders (not 2), you technically have gear. All of it accomplishes certain goals and all of it is useful to some degree. Can I say that's an RPG, though? Ehhhh... That's the technicality line that starts being a bit blurry. Genres do that I guess. Even in CoD you have "gear", and it's all "functional" and "accomplishes shtuff", but uhhhh...
Well, you get the idea.
Also, Diablo 3 -did- have lateral skill allocation, which is... new. Needs some work, but not inherently bad.