Slowly abandoning Diablo 3

[Buleet]

Man,I'm starting to get why Half-life is taking it's sweet time.
None of the highly anticipated 3's up until now have had a really good reception.
The rage of mass effect three does not need elaboration and Diablo is getting hit by the mighty stick of "meh".

 

[zinho73]

Living in Brasil, I?m far enough from the servers to have guaranteed lag with an uncomfortable frequency.

Why the hell did you even buy the game then? I have literally no sympathy for you, because you spent your money on something you absolutely knew would not work very well for you.

Your complaint is just as flawed as people who say 'this game is shit because my computer can't run it properly'

I bought it because:

1. The game was translated to my language, was officially launched in my country and should work here as good as it works in the US (which, to be fair, appears to be the case, as it doesn't work well there too).

2. WOW has servers in Brasil, I had no reason to think Diablo3 would have a different treatment. But apparently Blizzard is short on money right now and cannot install servers in other locations.

3. I don't have nearly the same amount of problems playing Tera, which is an action based MMO. I thought that if Blizzard could at least replicate this quality, it would be tolerable. To be honest, I've never had so many problems to play any other game in my life, but, granted, I'm not an MMO player (just Guild Wars, 40 minutes of WOW and now Tera).

Please, the fact that the game is full of problems is Blizzard's fault. If their service was OK, I would not have any problems at all (maybe a latency a little bit higher). Since their service is bad, it is worse to me. It is as simple as that, mr. angry internet person.

Jeez...

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Living in Brasil, I?m far enough from the servers to have guaranteed lag with an uncomfortable frequency.

Why the hell did you even buy the game then? I have literally no sympathy for you, because you spent your money on something you absolutely knew would not work very well for you.

Your complaint is just as flawed as people who say 'this game is shit because my computer can't run it properly'

I bought it because:

1. The game was translated to my language, was officially launched in my country and should work here as good as it works in the US (which, to be fair, appears to be the case, as it doesn't work well there too).

2. WOW has servers in Brasil, I had no reason to think Diablo3 would have a different treatment. But apparently Blizzard is short on money right now and cannot install servers in other locations.

3. I don't have nearly the same amount of problems playing Tera, which is an action based MMO. I thought that if Blizzard could at least replicate this quality, it would be tolerable. To be honest, I've never had so many problems to play any other game in my life, but, granted, I'm not an MMO player (just Guild Wars, 40 minutes of WOW and now Tera).

Please, the fact that the game is full of problems is Blizzard's fault. If their service was OK, I would not have any problems at all (maybe a latency a little bit higher). Since their service is bad, it is worse to me. It is as simple as that, mr. angry internet person.

Jeez...

I'm not saying Blizzard did the best job they could have, I'm saying you should have been more careful with your money, given your locale.

D3 is always online DRM, therefore if I had shit internet, I would not have bought it, simple as that.

 

[zinho73]

Living in Brasil, I?m far enough from the servers to have guaranteed lag with an uncomfortable frequency.

Why the hell did you even buy the game then? I have literally no sympathy for you, because you spent your money on something you absolutely knew would not work very well for you.

Your complaint is just as flawed as people who say 'this game is shit because my computer can't run it properly'

I bought it because:

1. The game was translated to my language, was officially launched in my country and should work here as good as it works in the US (which, to be fair, appears to be the case, as it doesn't work well there too).

2. WOW has servers in Brasil, I had no reason to think Diablo3 would have a different treatment. But apparently Blizzard is short on money right now and cannot install servers in other locations.

3. I don't have nearly the same amount of problems playing Tera, which is an action based MMO. I thought that if Blizzard could at least replicate this quality, it would be tolerable. To be honest, I've never had so many problems to play any other game in my life, but, granted, I'm not an MMO player (just Guild Wars, 40 minutes of WOW and now Tera).

Please, the fact that the game is full of problems is Blizzard's fault. If their service was OK, I would not have any problems at all (maybe a latency a little bit higher). Since their service is bad, it is worse to me. It is as simple as that, mr. angry internet person.

Jeez...

I'm not saying Blizzard did the best job they could have, I'm saying you should have been more careful with your money, given your locale.

D3 is always online DRM, therefore if I had shit internet, I would not have bought it, simple as that.

Let me make this perfectly clear: I do not have shitty internet. I do not have any problems with any online game other than Diablo 3, but since Blizzard work is bad - I will suffer more because I'm distant.

If the service was on par with most other online games in existence, I would be fine.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Living in Brasil, I?m far enough from the servers to have guaranteed lag with an uncomfortable frequency.

Why the hell did you even buy the game then? I have literally no sympathy for you, because you spent your money on something you absolutely knew would not work very well for you.

Your complaint is just as flawed as people who say 'this game is shit because my computer can't run it properly'

I bought it because:

1. The game was translated to my language, was officially launched in my country and should work here as good as it works in the US (which, to be fair, appears to be the case, as it doesn't work well there too).

2. WOW has servers in Brasil, I had no reason to think Diablo3 would have a different treatment. But apparently Blizzard is short on money right now and cannot install servers in other locations.

3. I don't have nearly the same amount of problems playing Tera, which is an action based MMO. I thought that if Blizzard could at least replicate this quality, it would be tolerable. To be honest, I've never had so many problems to play any other game in my life, but, granted, I'm not an MMO player (just Guild Wars, 40 minutes of WOW and now Tera).

Please, the fact that the game is full of problems is Blizzard's fault. If their service was OK, I would not have any problems at all (maybe a latency a little bit higher). Since their service is bad, it is worse to me. It is as simple as that, mr. angry internet person.

Jeez...

I'm not saying Blizzard did the best job they could have, I'm saying you should have been more careful with your money, given your locale.

D3 is always online DRM, therefore if I had shit internet, I would not have bought it, simple as that.

Let me make this perfectly clear: I do not have shitty internet. I do not have any problems with any online game other than Diablo 3, but since Blizzard work is bad - I will suffer more because I'm distant.

If the service was on par with most other online games in existence, I would be fine.

Again: you should have been more careful with your money, given your locale.

Blizzard said that you may encounter some problems during the launch week, so it's up to you to make the right choice and either wait, boycott or just deal with it. Sounds like you made the wrong choice.

 

[chaosbedlam]

Well that was a rather depressing read. I totally agree with most of what you are saying especially the story getting in the way when you just want to mash things, and the character not using their weapons only started annoying me when I started playing the monk class. however all in all I still really enjoy the game though I'm now wondering just how long it will be for me before I am in the same boat.

 

[Snotnarok]

Oversimplified, lacking sense of progress, lacking sense of achivement.

And I really don't find it all that inferior to D2, I wasn't all too fond of D2 system either (especially the stat thing... I did not like that at all). D2 was quite unintuitive after certain patches and it was easy to fuck characters up and render them useless. In the case of D3 I just never had the patience to write it down due to lack of interest.

Fair enough, I suppose, as it has been simplified. After a fashion, anyway. There's still the same breadth of possibilities in terms of which skills you choose, there's just no more pumping points into them, and there's no more locking skills down in talent trees, you can fluidly adjust your build on the fly. I'd disagree about the sense of achievement/progress...I find unlocking a new skill/rune no less satisfying than putting a skill into "axe mastery" and getting a small passive boost to my numbers. Diablo 3 probably has a BETTER sense of "new toys!" than Diablo 2 did, in that regard.

I can't argue simplification because I don't know what you'd consider to be a good level-up reward system by way of comparison. I find D3's more or less appropriate for the nature of the game, which is fast and dirty. It does suffer a little at lower levels as you struggle to unlock enough skills to tailor the class to your play style, and the fact that elective mode is A) not the default and B) hidden away under game play options and never really advertised or explained at all is fairly unforgivable.

I don't really think it's oversimplified when the runes offer different boosts to every skill you can pick. I mean really think about it in Diablo 2, how many of those skills were just worthless stepping stones to get to the next one? Or only were worth putting 5 points into?

Yeah I get it you can't pick where to put your stat points but that never mattered anyway. Bow user? Dex. Sword user? Str. Staff? Mag. It wasn't exactly thought provoking where to put said points. Especially on harder difficulties where you'd just be putting all points into vitality.

 

[Marowit]

The problem i'm finding with D3 is I could give a shiiiiiiiiiit about the story - So, what's happening is there's little attraction to finishing the game for me.

I definitely have fun dungeon crawling, but, I dunno, the story just doesn't mean anything to me despite having played the first 2 games so much as an adolescent.

Ah well, looks like I'm left looking for a game, yet again, now that I no longer play WoW...I guess I'll go play Skyrim *kicks the ground in frustration*

 

[SovietSecrets]

40-45 hours of one game in such a time is insane at least to me it seems like it. Anyone could get burned out on playing one game for all that time.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Just played, got to level 5, my friends who are 45+ joined my game, told me to join their's, so I did, they killed Diablo...and I'm seriously considering uninstalling the game now. The entire game feels...shallow. What took them so long to come out with this game exactly? I'm just curious, not saying its bad, but it doesn't have the same wonder the originals did. When I was playing at first...I had zero interest in the story and nothing caught my eye.

I spent 50 bucks on something I'll probably never bother with again. It's a shame really.

 

[Inkidu]

This is a truly great post. Thanks for sharing it. I agree, I have thought for a long time that Blizzard were pushers. They tried to get people addicted to playing their games in a way similar, if not exactly like, gambling. They don't want to make games, they want to make virtual Skinner Boxes, and now the quality of their product is taking a serious decline.

 

[zinho73]

Again: you should have been more careful with your money, given your locale.

Brazil is not a jungle, you know?

Well, it has been fun, but I will stop feeding the troll now. Well, my fault, I did took the bait quite easily...

 

[zinho73]

40-45 hours of one game in such a time is insane at least to me it seems like it. Anyone could get burned out on playing one game for all that time.

No doubt, but the launch coincided with a gap in the workload and lots of free time.

That said, I do have the stamina to go for long gaming hours (tabletop or videogames) without really feeling it, so I do not think I'm tired of the game just because I'm, well, tired.

But you might be right. Time will tell.

 

[zombieshark6666]

Living in Brasil, I?m far enough from the servers to have guaranteed lag with an uncomfortable frequency.

Why the hell did you even buy the game then? I have literally no sympathy for you, because you spent your money on something you absolutely knew would not work very well for you.

Your complaint is just as flawed as people who say 'this game is shit because my computer can't run it properly'

I bought it because:

1. The game was translated to my language, was officially launched in my country and should work here as good as it works in the US (which, to be fair, appears to be the case, as it doesn't work well there too).

2. WOW has servers in Brasil, I had no reason to think Diablo3 would have a different treatment. But apparently Blizzard is short on money right now and cannot install servers in other locations.

3. I don't have nearly the same amount of problems playing Tera, which is an action based MMO. I thought that if Blizzard could at least replicate this quality, it would be tolerable. To be honest, I've never had so many problems to play any other game in my life, but, granted, I'm not an MMO player (just Guild Wars, 40 minutes of WOW and now Tera).

Please, the fact that the game is full of problems is Blizzard's fault. If their service was OK, I would not have any problems at all (maybe a latency a little bit higher). Since their service is bad, it is worse to me. It is as simple as that, mr. angry internet person.

Jeez...

I'm not saying Blizzard did the best job they could have, I'm saying you should have been more careful with your money, given your locale.

D3 is always online DRM, therefore if I had shit internet, I would not have bought it, simple as that.

Let me make this perfectly clear: I do not have shitty internet. I do not have any problems with any online game other than Diablo 3, but since Blizzard work is bad - I will suffer more because I'm distant.

If the service was on par with most other online games in existence, I would be fine.

Again: you should have been more careful with your money, given your locale.

Blizzard said that you may encounter some problems during the launch week, so it's up to you to make the right choice and either wait, boycott or just deal with it. Sounds like you made the wrong choice.

Dude, he served you your ass on a plate, time to eat it up and forget about it.

 

[zombieshark6666]

40-45 hours of one game in such a time is insane at least to me it seems like it. Anyone could get burned out on playing one game for all that time.

Man, I think I played 50 hours of Final Fantasy 12 on my first week. Ended up playing 150 hours. O_O

 

[BloatedGuppy]

The problem I find (and as the game gets older by a few months other will agree) is that there are always skills that are better than other ones. D2 had this, WoW had this, D3 will have this. When everyone can have any skill at any time, it means that at Level 60, every character's skill set will be identical. What's the point?

Add to that there will be best gear for each class, and a team of Level 60 monks could be exactly the same character, down to the bone marrow.

That's a cogent argument, and I guess we'll see how it bears out. Unquestionably there are balancing issues that are going to come to light, I don't think for a second this thing has polished balance out of the box. I'm not sure allowing people to dynamically respec is a net negative, though. Leveling a SECOND Barbarian because unfortunate skill choices gimped the first is not compelling game play, nor is it a substitute for depth. Ideally you want people speccing differently because different specs suit different playstyles, not because they fucked it up the first time around and they're too lazy to change it.

 

[Vigormortis]

Oh man. Can't believe I'm still seeing people post in Diablo 3 threads trying to make up bullshit excuses for the Always-On DRM, the Auction House, etc, etc. It'd be hilarious if it weren't so pathetic.

I especially love the circular logic. "Diablo 3 has Always-On DRM because it's a multi-player game! And it's a multi-player game because you have to be online to play it!"

:|

Even better, I love when people use the "it stops hackers and item dupers" excuse.

First, no it doesn't. Not on the first part, anyway.

Second, I'd be willing to accept the "stops dupers" argument if it weren't for the fact that that is NOT an excuse for requiring all modes of play being online. There's no legitimate (consumer friendly) reason solo play couldn't be allowed in offline mode. Though, it's not like any other game company figured out a way to stop item duping while still allowing online AND offline play, so maybe Blizzard does have an excuse.

Oh wait... http://www.tf2.com/

Seriously people. STOP defending this bullshit; especially if you love Diablo (and by extension Blizzard). The more you accept all of this, and the more you make up excuse on behalf of Blizzard, the greater the likelihood they'll tack on more and more egregious forms of it in the future.

As I've been saying all along; and as Jim recently repeated in his latest video; if you love Diablo, you should be the one complaining the loudest.

O.T.
Totally agree with the OP. There just feels like an extreme lack of depth and variety to Diablo 3. Especially when compared to Diablo 2 or other ARPGs.

Which, of course, isn't surprising. Blizzard has made it abundantly clear Diablo 3 was trimmed down, dumb-downed, and overly simplified for the World of Warcraft crowd.

Basically, instead of crafting a true sequel to one of, if not the, greatest ARPGs, they played it safe and made a game meant to appeal to the lowest-common-denominator. It's only staying power will be suckering people in by addicting them to grinding for, and then selling, items.

It's a God damned shame, really.

[edit]
To avoid any undue rage, let it be known that I am a HUGE fan of Diablo. I still play Diablo 2 from time to time. I also eagerly awaited the release of Diablo 3. (eagerly is a vast understatement)

However, Diablo 3 not only ended up being almost the opposite of what I hoped for, it's just insulting to a long-time fan. In terms of the mediocre game design, poor writing, and the obnoxious Always-On. (and that's not even going into the absolute disregard and disdain Blizzard apparently has for the community as a whole; modding or otherwise.)

Even worse, Blizzard wants me to pay sixty bucks for it? Ha! Fat chance.

 

[The_Lost_King]

2. WOW has servers in Brasil, I had no reason to think Diablo3 would have a different treatment. But apparently Blizzard is short on money right now and cannot install servers in other locations.

Blizz, short on money? HAH! They have enough money to pay off the U.S's debt and still not make a dent in their fortune.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Luckily WoW and D2 have respec abilities. Just in case.

But the problem lies in that in D2, there was one superior version of your class.

Amazon had JavZon
Druid had Hurridruid
Paladin had Hammer
Barb had Berserker
Sorc had Ice/Lightning
Assassin had TrapSin
Necro had Bone

These were the only builds that you could solo in Hell difficulty and survive reliably. What happened was at the end of the day, every character at Level 90-99 had the same exact gear (the best setup for those classes) and the same exact skills. And D3 has done nothing to change this, but instead encourages people to be similar.

Honestly, it's been too long since Diablo 2, so I can't remember the nuts and bolts of their respec system, but the one in most MMOs (including WoW) is designed to be somewhat punitive. You can respec your way out of a failure, but you can't respec around to try new skills or builds on for size. You're encouraged to pick something and stick with it, lest the exponentially rising respec cost send you straight to the poor house.

I agree with you about Diablo II's "one right spec" situation, which is why a similar future for Diablo III would be unsurprising in the extreme.

The loot homogenization is something of an issue. The loot has less "soul" than it did in Diablo 2, for lack of a better term. It was a problem I had with Torchlight as well.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

My problem is NO OTHER COMPANY could get away with this. None. Valves fans would get angry I think, bioware's fans would be, but blizzard gets away with it because their series is so damn popular.

As someone who's not a fan of blizzard at all, from an objective standpoint there are a huge amount of things wrong with diablo 3, and not just this DRM and RMAH nonsense. The game just seems dull.

Any other company trying to do a RMAH or online only would be shouted at, look at assassins creed 2 with ubisoft.