Permabanned
2022 is more likely than 2020
Caporegime
That's the issue with games as big and as anticipated as Diablo. The number of rumours that circulate is astronomical. It was obvious watching the gameplay from streamers in November at Blizzcon that this was still a long way off.
I'm not bothered how long it takes them as long as it launches as a game that is better or clearly has the potential to be better than D3.
The other issue least imo anyway announcing big games like this so that early it helps generate stories as people search out for any rumour
Imo games should be announced when there at most year away anything earlier is too early and also means barely see anything in first year or so after its announcement anyway
Imo games should be announced when there at most year away anything earlier is too early and also means barely see anything in first year or so after its announcement anyway
Soldato
That's because Blizzard haven't been Blizzard since the parasites at Activision took ownership.
Unfortunately.
You still see the odd thing that reminds you of old school Blizzard though, it's like the corpse is still warm almost.
The way they fixed D3, Legion compared to the prior WoW expansion. Overwatch started life as a genuinely good shooter of the style.
It's all the other guff they tack on or change that screws things up all the more.
Soldato
Yeah. It's still twitching whilst Activision loom over it, beating it with sticks.
Soldato
Years ago I'd have agreed with this. Blizzard absolutely aren't what they were 10+ years ago, many senior employees fans loved are no longer there, it's all profit and greed and it's not the Activision thing, it's systemic. Blizzard employees are paid sub par industry salaries with senior management earning exorbitant salaries. This last week Blizzard have come under fire for yet again more bad practice.
I made a post in this thread about Diablo 4 and my concerns and I'm almost certain most if not all will come true, I'd love to be wrong.
The same could be said of any company really once that scale tips from "making games as it's our passion and vision" toward "making the most amount of money". I'm not defending Blizzard at all, and I wish publishers would stop just maximising every ounce of profit at the expense of passion as their products lose whatever soul was being put into them. It's why I lost confidence in Blizzard a long time ago to make a good Diablo game, and why I'm starting to lose confidence in Grinding Gear with Path of Exile, and also why I'm now looking at companies like Eleventh Hour with Last Epoch to delivery quality ARPG's where greed doesn't seem hasn't completely corrupted them to a point where their product suffers as a result.
Soldato
Activision up to their usual tricks, monetisation up the wazoo.
https://www.purediablo.com/diablo-4-job-opening-to-monetise-the-game/
https://www.purediablo.com/diablo-4-job-opening-to-monetise-the-game/
They have to monetise it, which is totally fine, as long as it's not some silly pay-to-win service. Path of Exile's cash shop, and similarly how other games work like Last Epoch, where you can buy epic bank space and cosmetics is the best approach. They'll not be able to run the game purely on game and expansion sales alone; that's where they failed from Diablo 3 after they took the RMAH servers down and they ended up with no money being generated by the game to fund additional development.
What monetisation has D3 got? nothing, the AH went years ago...
Also, how long we waited for D3 I don't expect to see this for at least another 2-3 years.
Haven't played it for years, but I didn't find it particularly fun when I did. Maybe it improved.
D2 was great but, all things considered, I feel D1 is the epitome of what a Diablo game should be. D2 was a very "different" game to D1, imho.
Over the years, they failed to really improve on D1 whilst capturing the same atmosphere. D1's atmosphere was so thicc you could cut it with a knife.
D3 is a completely different game now compared to years ago, it has so much more content, rifts, greater rifts, kanai's cube, primal ancient legendaries etc etc.
D4 looks to try recapture D1 darkness so hopefully they will capture some of the essence.
Soldato
With regards to atmosphere at the time, the original Diablo was very atmospheric. With today's standard it's obviously crap, the game is near 25 years old.
Diablo II is my personal fav of the series, spent hundreds of hours playing.
While I've not played D1, does D3 still have monetised extra stash tabs and extra character slots locked behind the more expenisve versions of the game?