Can you please give any info about the possibility of adding some end game content, or at least fixing the problems that exist with the current end game content.
I understand people weren't supposed to get so far/so fast, but we have (350 hours played, YIKES).
Act 4 is currently pointless due to the small number of elites and the the drop rates being identical to ACT 3. Act 3 is superior in every way to Act 4, which seems nonsensical to me.....
Maybe you could up the difficulty in Act 4, increase the drop rates, add some elites or allow VALOR to transfer over from ACT 3.
End game solutions?Source
We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game. There are still tons of people playing every day and week, and playing a lot, but eventually they're going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already). Killing enemies and finding items is a lot of fun, and we think we have a lot of the systems surrounding that right, or at least on the right path with a few corrections and tweaks. But honestly Diablo III is not World of Warcraft. We aren't going to be able to pump out tons of new systems and content every couple months. There needs to be something else that keeps people engaged, and we know it's not there right now.
We're working toward 1.0.4, which we're really trying to pack with as many fixes and changes we can to help you guys out (and we'll have a bunch of articles posted with all the details as we get closer), and we're of course working on 1.1 with PvP arenas. I think both those patches will do a lot to give people things to do, and get them excited about playing, but they're not going to be a real end-game solution, at least not what we would expect out of a proper end-game. We have some ideas for progression systems, but honestly it's a huge feature if we want to try to do it right, and not something we could envision being possible until well after 1.1 which it itself still a ways out.
We're working toward 1.0.4, which we're really trying to pack with as many fixes and changes we can to help you guys out (and we'll have a bunch of articles posted with all the details as we get closer), and we're of course working on 1.1 with PvP arenas. I think both those patches will do a lot to give people things to do, and get them excited about playing, but they're not going to be a real end-game solution, at least not what we would expect out of a proper end-game. We have some ideas for progression systems, but honestly it's a huge feature if we want to try to do it right, and not something we could envision being possible until well after 1.1 which it itself still a ways out.
07/03/2012 01:00 PMPosted by huntsThank you very much for this informative and honest answer. Though to be honest what this answer really reveals is "we didn't have a real end game ready or in mind and aren't sure how to retain customers, the game was released before it was quite ready, possibly because of the giant outcry from the fans"
Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose, but we believed pre-release that the item hunt would be far more sustainable, and would work to be a proper end-game for quite a while. That didn't turn out to be true, and we recognize that.
07/03/2012 01:02 PMPosted by TheraiThere are still tons of people playing every day and week, and playing a lot
Can you quantify 'tons' of people playing?
I mean if you are counting the US player base that might mean 7 players if we are using weight ratios here ...
Haha... oh wait, that's mean! I don't know that I'm allowed to release specific concurrency numbers, but we have hundreds upon hundreds of thousands playing every night. Comparing to just normal drop-off post release of a WoW expansion, Diablo III has been very solid, and it's not even out in China yet.
the specific phrase "hundreds upon hundreds of thousands playing every night. Diablo III has been very solid" made my day... thanks thanks thanks Bash for confirming people in the forums calling the end of gaming as we know it are just morons... nice I hope this game never dies.
I don't know about you dude but if i had sold over 6 million copies but i've only got hundreds and hundreads of thousands of people a month after relase. Well christ i'd be damn worried!
Even more so because that would imply that there are 5 million people who Blizzard can't persuade to even use RMAH.
We're talking about concurrency here, not unique players. I think you also overestimate how many people actually play the games they purchase every day, or even every week.
