For what do people play Diablo (and such games)?

[StaticSpine]

Okay, I want to know the opinion of the masses on the hack-n-slash (action RPG, diablo clone etc) RPGs, why do people play it?

I'll tell about my impressions.

I believe my first game in this sub-genre was Diablo II. I really enjoyed it, it was bloody and gloomy, it has a great gothic atmosphere, cool locations and design, it has a story. Most of all I liked the whole desperate atmosphere of the world on the edge of armageddon.

The reason I didn't like Diablo III was - it has lost all of it's gothic attractiveness, it looked like a cartooney WoW style and without that feel the core gameplay to me lost it's sence, the game became boring.

But as I can see most of the people play these games for constant looting/constant level-upping/making the best char build capable of beating the hardest difficulty, which means dozens of grinding hours and nothing more.

Probably I'm wrong with my vision of the advantages of the genre, but still I can't see what's the point of grinding/looting process in an endless circle.

 

[veryalien]

There are lots of reasons.

For me it's all about picking a class/role I think is cool and excelling at it. Then I get to walk around with cool armor and weapons because I learned how to play better. Then I reroll to something else.

Diablo is the microcosm to WoW's macrocosm. In WoW, the grind extends even longer, and the challenge gets ramped up higher and higher as new content is rolled out every 3 months. Diablo is more 'jump in, then jump out' of games.

 

[made]

I'm not a fan of the genre. First time I saw a friend play D2 I was like WTF is this shit?

I still don't like D2, but I play and enjoy POE. I love the setting, atmosphere, music - very bleak and desperate, akin to Dark Souls. The best part, however, is the character system that lends itself to experimenting with various builds and their interaction with certain items. The endgame, however, is pure tedious grind/RMT galore so at that point I stop and make another alt to mess around with. I'd prefer the game to be offline and moddable so I could respec at will and wouldn't have to put up with the atrocious trade mechanic but what can you do.

 

[octavius]

Good atmosphere.
Simple but fun gameplay.
Finding ever better loot to improve your character.
Trying different classes/builds, especially in D2.

 

[Excidium]

An alien concept called fun

 

[theSavant]

Oh come on, more votes, I don't believe only 9 people play Diablo... ( I don't btw.)

 

[Daedalos]

Dem Phawt lewtz, bro!

Why do you think WoW is still so popular? Lewt! Basically most MMORPG/RPG where items play a significant role... Humans are basically collectors, hoarders.. we like saving stuff, leveling shit up, and comparing out shit.. to other guys' shit.

It's basic human nature, really. And Diablo amongst others, caters perfectly to that instinct.

Yea there's the RPG elements, the atmosphere, story and all that shit too, which is nice, but that's not why people waste away 800 hours on a game like diablo.


Killing stuff is fun. Hack n slash... pushing some stuff on your keyboard, and watching stuff explode into bloody shit.. is funny and entertaining to most people, simple, yet effective.. sex and violence, sellssssssssssssssss.

It's like when you were a fucking kid... Hoarding and saving odd stuff, like gum markers, GI joe's or whatever the fuck you wanted to collect.. AND hitting your little brother in the face, so he cried.. that was fun and engaging.. still is... that never goes away fully for most adult humans.

 

[hakuroshi]

Loot and gameplay, I think. For me, personally, atmosphere was a major point for first Diablo, I liked it a lot. Was bored with D2 in first act.

 

[Aeschylus]

I enjoy trying different builds/improving the toon, and the primitive feeling of satisfaction that comes with getting a good loot drop, but I despise grinding so I inevitably give up on any such game halfway through. Oh well.

 

[Revenant]

Great, another newfag thread.

I played D2 to get the best loot available for my necromancer and have him survive in endgame. Trading items on Battle.net was also major fun, the absence of the auction house and primitive trading mechanics made it really satisfying to finally get the deal you were looking forward to for days. Played it for all three points listed in the survey, really. Clones don't do as well. Path of Exile kept my interest for a few months and I haven't looked back to it for a long time now. I didn't even bother to get my hands on Torchlights and similar shit. It was the particular configuration of classes, unique items and environments that made D2 great and it can never be repeated again.

 

[DeepOcean]

I loved Diablo I and II, the phat lewt had something to do with it but it wasn't the only reason. There were many Diablo clones, none came close to Diablo I and II as complete games. I tried PoE and Torchlight 2, the character building is there, the phat lewt is there but those two are lacking something, they are two games that are almost a carbon copy of Diablo II gameplay but with some very small improvements, they play on the same footsteps of Diablo II too much without bringing identity to themselves. Torchlight 2 cartoony looks is a big turn off to me and PoE humid caves, more humid caves and more humid caves to generic catacombs aren't interesting to me.

The only Diablo clone that I played recently that really interested me was Titan Quest and that was because it had a really interesting idea with the greek mythology and each act felt completely different and really beautiful the gameplay was inferior to something like PoE but to me, having something interesting to see and a decent story to follow while you kill monsters for phat lewt is really important. So what made Diablo I and II great? Phat Lewt + the sense of you going on a heroic journey (getting deeper and deeper on the cathedral or following Diablo around the world), the other clones only care about the phat lewt so they are always going to be inferior.

 

[Kane]

fun

 

[ghostdog]

 

[Minttunator]

Simple but addictive gameplay and the thrill of improving your character through levels and loot - also, trying out and optimizing different builds and playstyles. Character improvement is the main hook for me, I think - it's especially fun if the character system is relatively complex and offers many different paths to take (as in Path of Exile, for instance).

 

[hydd]

Without a doubt... Multiplayer.

Not sure how anyone could play through the tedium alone, but when you add a partner it somehow becomes bearable. It's also the only genre (sans mmorpgs) that my Pokemon loving girlfriend enjoys on the computer.

 

[Broseph]

visceral combat and loot hoovering

 

[TOME]

Simply and fun gameplay where you don't have to constantly think and make choices. Great for relaxing. Also the looting and making a good character.

 

[buzz]

Interesting settings and some nice design additions (like the magic system in Kult or line of sigh in Nox). Also I'm a sucker for isometric graphics. I think most of these are worth trying

Divine Divinity
Inquisitor
Prince of Qin
Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption
Kult Heretic Kingdoms
Nox
The Bard's Tale
Lionheart
Titan Quest
Restricted Area

Too bad they were never expanded into "proper" RPGs, tons of wasted potential.

 

[Machocruz]

Diablo 2 drew me in with it's atmosphere , I hung around for character progression and cool powers. POE because it's the proper Diablo 3. Torchlight 2 just because it feels the best out of all of them. Other than those, these kinds of games aren't all that interesting and I hate that they represent the action-rpg in some a lot of people's minds. Would rather play Gothic or Secret of Mana games.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

Fast moving and simple gameplay, loot, sperging over your char build/items. Good for undwinding.

I enjoyed Sacred when it came out, and i've recently tried PoE, but found it boring. Guess i'm probably not into the genre anymore.

These days i play Dota 2 instead.

 

[Xor]

I bought Torchlight 1 and 2 to play with some friends but that ended up falling through and I haven't played either for more than an hour. I'll probably go back and try them again, but neither really appealed to me up front. I played the original Diablo for the first time around the same time Diablo 2 came out, and I've played it again over the years, but never long enough to beat it. Diablo 3 was a huge disappointment but I've gone on about that in the Diablo 3 thread. I've played Sacred and Dungeon Siege 1 and 3 but never beat any of them. So really Diablo 2 was the only game in this genre that I ever really got into.

Diablo 2 did everything well - gameplay, the story, art, etc that make up the "atmosphere", and the grinding/loot mechanics that make the game replayable. I was going to expand on these points but it just turned into a love letter to Diablo 2 which I suppose isn't really the point of this thread.

 

[Minttunator]

You really should try Path of Exile if you haven't already, Xor. I believe it's the best game in the genre since D2 and even surpasses it in many regards.

 

[Sergiu64]

When I played the first one... well let's just say I was easily impressed back then.

 

[l3loodAngel]

Immershun, Innovashun and Addickshun. It's basically farmrville with monsters...

 

[DefJam101]

click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click 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