Editorial How Diablo 3's endgame has failed

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Blizzard Entertainment; Diablo III

Apparently the endgame of Blizzard's smash hit (10 million copies!!) Diablo III was... not so good. PCGamer ponders why.

I wrote in the last issue of PC Gamer UK about my battle with Diablo 3′s repair costs, which were hiked massively after launch. Chris and I broke our equipment in the middle of a co-op session on Inferno and didn’t have the cash to repair it. We could run the final level on a lower difficulty to grind gold, a boring prospect given our characters’ strength, or buy gold with pounds on the real money auction house. It’s the sort of choice I’d expect to face in a bad free to play game, but here it was waiting at the end of Diablo.

 

[Spectacle]

Anyone with a brain could this coming when they announced the Real Money Auction House.

 

[godsend1989]

Stopped playing few months ago, trash, the epic l00t could be right around the corner didn`t last for long.

 

[Volrath]

How the fuck did this pos sell 10 million copies?

 

[DraQ]

How the fuck did this pos sell 10 million copies?

Reputation.

 

[Konjad]

How the fuck did this pos sell 10 million copies?

It's just so good.

 

[ironyuri]

pay 2 win dlc

 

[DraQ]

How the fuck did this pos sell 10 million copies?

It's just so good.

r00fles!

 

[Achilles]

I'm not sure I understand the concept of 'endgame' for a game that isn't an MMO. Unless... Diablo 3 is actually an MMO!

...but then why were we all so angry about the always-on DRM?

My head hurts

 

[Bulba]

someone does not find the game easy enough and actualy managed to run out of gold. we all know what this means - +500% gold drop bonus in the next update

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

I don't remember insufficent gold was a problem in both diablo games, you just sell some items and voila. It must be a really boring game if you want to play it 4 times.

 

[DraQ]

I'm not sure I understand the concept of 'endgame' for a game that isn't an MMO. Unless... Diablo 3 is actually an MMO!

...but then why were we all so angry about the always-on DRM?

My head hurts

Because Diablo 2 was an MMO and didn't have one.

 

[sea]

Maybe the endgame in Diablo III sucks because the entire game was built upon a shallow, unfulfilling loot system that wasn't fleshed out enough to sustain interest past a few hours, had an extremely simplified character system that destroyed the subtleties in creating character builds with respect to item selection, instituted a pay-to-win system to defeat any point in playing the game yourself, and by design was never made to be "finished" anyway?

 

[snoek]

Didn't bother to buy it, just as all the other activision-blizzard crap. And yeah, as soon as they announced the auction house I also knew it was fubar.

 

[Snerf]

Durrrr. The saddest bit is the smattering of people in the comments waging war for their right to be bent over a snowy log.

If you are so dense as to think AH did anything but help the Diablo community, just google D2JSP, or try trading anything but garbage items in D2... go ahead try it... I want to see how many months it will take you to accomplish trading high level items without an auction house...

It's almost as if some people really think a mindless hack and slash arpg needs an unnecessary, wallet-slurping, awkwardly tacked on RMT auction system. Also, Diablo community? Hah.

Blizzard only hits us because they care about us!

 

[Stabwound]

I am astonished at how many people have put hundreds and thousands of hours into this game, just grinding the same areas over and over for hopes of good item drops. How can you not get sick of that? I just don't understand it at all.

 

[felipepepe]

and by design was never made to be "finished" anyway?

True, I beated the game on normal and got bored in the second act of nightmare... to think I would still have to beat thet game 2 more times before finally getting to "the REAL game" was just retarded, no way I'm doing that.

 

[Smarts]

I am astonished at how many people have put hundreds and thousands of hours into this game, just grinding the same areas over and over for hopes of good item drops. How can you not get sick of that? I just don't understand it at all.

Visit a Reno casino, see the rows of people dropping coins into one-armed bandits and pulling the lever over and over and over until their souls shrivel up.

That's what you have in Diablo 3; not an action-RPG, but an action-slot machine.

 

[Alex_Steel]

I am astonished at how many people have put hundreds and thousands of hours into this game, just grinding the same areas over and over for hopes of good item drops. How can you not get sick of that? I just don't understand it at all.

Here you are.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3085/behavioral_game_design.php?page=1

 

[Average Manatee]

and by design was never made to be "finished" anyway?

True, I beated the game on normal and got bored in the second act of nightmare... to think I would still have to beat thet game 2 more times before finally getting to "the REAL game" was just retarded, no way I'm doing that.

You can't complain until you've beaten it 7 3 times. Literally, that is their strategy. Of course anyone who has actually played that much develops the equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome and is psychologically forced to rationalize that the game MUST be good because they put so much time into it.

 

[made]

I ain't even mad that I couldn't pirate it

 

[Stabwound]

I am astonished at how many people have put hundreds and thousands of hours into this game, just grinding the same areas over and over for hopes of good item drops. How can you not get sick of that? I just don't understand it at all.

Visit a Reno casino, see the rows of people dropping coins into one-armed bandits and pulling the lever over and over and over until their souls shrivel up.

That's what you have in Diablo 3; not an action-RPG, but an action-slot machine.

Makes sense.

I'm still just amazed that people can do it for so long. It's not even like World of Warcraft, where you grind shit so you can get equipment to grind harder areas. No, in Diablo 3 you grind shit for no reason at all. Just to hopefully get that lucky drop. You get to the very end of the content, and then grind the items. How the fuck does it make sense? It's not like there are is content that you need better items for. Some people sell items for money, but I'm sure it's not exactly worth it considering the amount of time you have to put in. The majority are people just pulling the slot machine lever over and over. The people making actual money are botting the shit out of the game, not playing it.

Nope, it's just people doing the same thing over and over and over to get items with cool names.

 

[hiver]

What does he mean... failed?
It works as good as a charm.


...



Obvious from his own example.

 

[Bulba]

People do all sort of staff over and over for pathetic reasons... like gambling only to spend winnings on gambling
The thing is D3 is the king of pathetic grind.
It's a very strange game... at the start it feels like it's fun and great but the more you play the more your opinion of d3 declines. can't exactly pinpoint the main reason, is it the loot or levels or game design? everything sucks in it's own way. It's very weird how everyone (at least most people) fails to see it's sheetness in a few first hours and thinks d3 great.

 

[thesheeep]

Diablo 3's endgame fails?

Bullshit! For me, it worked out perfect. With Diablo 2, I had to re-play it again and again, or on the higher difficulties. I was wasting so much time!
With Diablo 3, I finished the story once, and never touched the game again. More time to spend with my friends, work, etc.
Awesome, thanks for caring about my social life, Blizzard!

 

[Jaesun]

Diablo 3 90/100 Editors Choice Award