Initially I was disappointed because the beta really doesn't have much of a "revolutionary" slap in the face... but the more I see and experience, the more I like the evolution and the fact that it feels like a comfortable old shoe.
And I didn't jump on the anticipation and hype bandwagon back in 2008 (it is Blizzard after all), so my rage build-up was minimal if not non-existant.
It's a shit storm of bad PR and communication failure in true Blizzard style. My raging is at a monthly low atm, because Jay and Bashiok finally stepped on enough toes that most people can see they're full of shit now, and that makes me happy. Even the official Diablo III forums are on fire with people pissed off at them, and that's awesome. They've gone too long without any reproach to their actions and it's time they heard what the fans really think. I especially enjoyed the post calling for Jay Wilson's continuing employment to be justified.
It'll be good, I'll play it, I'll enjoy it, I'll never respect Jay or Bashiok again. But will it ever come out?
Here's what I'm interested in keeping an eye on, and you should be too:
We obviously know he made no specific mention of a release date in his long ass article (and in all fairness, made sure everyone knew there wouldn't be one <though that's not much of a saving grace in my opinon>). Then Bashiok throws in his two cents that they never said they weren't still shooting for "early 2012", but also says "it's not close to done".
Now, I can already call both of them misleading and uninformative if not downright liars based on all of that, because Jay Wilson said, last fall, that it was "closer to being done than anyone thought" and "in the home stretch". So by saying those things then pulling yet another series of Shenanigans with this garbage, they have already lied to us.
Now, the thing to watch will be what happens in the next month - month and a half. Within the next week or two we'll know if it's coming out in Q1, period. If the release date is not announced by the end of January, it will NOT be coming out before the end of March, period. 8-10 weeks is their announcement-> release window, and they're not going to step outside of that.
Once this period of time passes (and I give only a 1% chance of a release date being given in the next couple weeks), their believability drops yet again. Why? Because early means Q1. EVERYONE KNOWS THIS. EVERYONE. You can justify, in a very pathetic, fanboi way, that anything before July might be construed as early, though we know that they were shooting for the first couple months when they said early, and then messed up somewhere along the way. No one in their sane mind says "early next year" and means anything but the first 1-2, maybe 3 months.
So once March i.e Q1 is off the table, that leaves us with the question of whether or not they'll make the first half of the year at all. We'll have to wait until the end of May to really know the answer to that question. Until then I'll just sit here and see just how much bullshit they're full of.
I am getting less and less excited about the "news." I'm not raging, but there's been a lot of... lets call it mismanaged hype. I'm still going to play it, I'm in the beta, and its going to be awesome. But I don't really care about "new features anymore." Beta is playable and fun, and as long as the end game was challenging and fun, then the game would have been phenomenal. All the "adjustments" should probably have been made from the beginning and changing the things they have changed at this point, were kinda meh.
The problem though is that they can't release a game thats not 100% finished because of the ramifications / shitstorm the RMAH would cause by tweaking it after release.
for a long time ive thought the people on d3 beta forums were way too negative. maybe that crowd is just something blizzard attracts, maybe those people are just everywhere. but the negativity and childishness is one reason why i got sick of WoW. I dont remember ever having to deal with it that much in my d2 days, mainly because you could just make a private game, or any of the other online games ive played a lot of.
Cant believe this process. Ya. Im at the raging point. Irrational raging just because its a release and gets my negativity out on an online forum rather than bringing it into my outside life.
Its really depressing that I turn 30 in 5 days and still have yet to even hear a release date for this game I played as a kid.
I think if more people got into the beta there would be a lot less rage. I for one have been in over 10 contests and have been opted in since you first could and still haven't gotten in. I've watched more full playthroughs then most people in the beta have probably done. And I know there are people who want in more then I do. Random sucks for the addicts, but I guess is good for blizzard.
The betas been out forever too, and the 8 people I know frantically trying as well have had no luck.
I just want something solid to believe in... Blizzard has been so back and forth with everything making promises they can't keep and overall not making decisions they seem to be picking and choosing what is getting down rather then getting the core down and fixing the frills later... most of the changes lately just look like frills and a dillusional attempt at perfection.
question: can i go around and make things bleed without major problems?
if yes: Good then release the game and add/remove stuff later thats what patches and expansions are for.
if no:Ok then, set a deadline and some goals to reach that deadline work overtime if you have to.
I'm just getting tired of all this jerking around and leading on... don't say "We're on the home strech" if your just rounding 2nd. I've been plenty patient and now starting to lose interest, I want to see results or I'm going to find something else. Take forever on making the expansions I don't care, why? because at least I have something to look forward to while i'm pre-occupied. With the free time that I do have I don't have much to do Rexburg Idaho is pretty boreing when you don't have any kind of work to do. If there isn't going to be any kind of solid stability in the development of D3 I'll just go and buy CoD:MW3 like i've been wanting to do. I was saving my gift cards for D3 but I am starting not to care...
I'm going to remain as patient as I can, games take time and I would rather wait and do something else with my time until the game is finished. I'm not angry at blizzard, I just can't understand the reasoning behind taking out the cauldron and cube. Spend a significant amount of time flushing out the flaws of the game and trying new things only to implement a solid alternative, announce how good it works within the system and how cool it is at blizzcon. Only to remove it?
Somewhere a fine line must be drawn as to exactly what thier shooting for, the possibilites of what they can have in the game are endless but they have to make a decision.
This is what I was looking for all along! Some rational conversation I knew if I could put people on the spot about raging I could get a calm and collected talk about what Blizzard just released (article). Thank you to everyone that has posted!
Neither ragng nor sick of it. I'm just not buying it. The product as represented by Blizzard does not meet my requirements So, why am I posting? One of the most important things for any business is feedback. There's positive feedback and there's negative feedback. Of the two negative feedback is more important because it's negative feedback that indicates to the business where improvements/changes need to be made.
Emotion (read 'fanboyism') should play no part in this. An honest assessment is worth more than any amount of overstated enthusiasm. Thus this post.
And now allow me a moment to prepare for the inevitable flames from those who would dictate what I should/should not be prepared to accept or like/should not like/require/not require as far as the product itself is concerned.
I love how people have this fantasy that once they get the beta, updates and changes wont piss them off?
you will get bored of the beta within a day or two, and go right back to being pissed off. Or be one of the rare few who is easily amused dealing 80+ dmg to mobs that have like 40 fucking health going lulullululululu.
It's boring, there is no challenge, you get to see none of the real features or experience much of anything.
^ the feeling of most people in the beta that ive talked to, including my own.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"...We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he to-day that sheds his blood with me
shall be my brother..."
Battle.net Profile / Diablo Progress Profile
I think I might need some morphine or something on release day to calm me down, though.
And I didn't jump on the anticipation and hype bandwagon back in 2008 (it is Blizzard after all), so my rage build-up was minimal if not non-existant.
It'll be good, I'll play it, I'll enjoy it, I'll never respect Jay or Bashiok again. But will it ever come out?
Here's what I'm interested in keeping an eye on, and you should be too:
We obviously know he made no specific mention of a release date in his long ass article (and in all fairness, made sure everyone knew there wouldn't be one <though that's not much of a saving grace in my opinon>). Then Bashiok throws in his two cents that they never said they weren't still shooting for "early 2012", but also says "it's not close to done".
Now, I can already call both of them misleading and uninformative if not downright liars based on all of that, because Jay Wilson said, last fall, that it was "closer to being done than anyone thought" and "in the home stretch". So by saying those things then pulling yet another series of Shenanigans with this garbage, they have already lied to us.
Now, the thing to watch will be what happens in the next month - month and a half. Within the next week or two we'll know if it's coming out in Q1, period. If the release date is not announced by the end of January, it will NOT be coming out before the end of March, period. 8-10 weeks is their announcement-> release window, and they're not going to step outside of that.
Once this period of time passes (and I give only a 1% chance of a release date being given in the next couple weeks), their believability drops yet again. Why? Because early means Q1. EVERYONE KNOWS THIS. EVERYONE. You can justify, in a very pathetic, fanboi way, that anything before July might be construed as early, though we know that they were shooting for the first couple months when they said early, and then messed up somewhere along the way. No one in their sane mind says "early next year" and means anything but the first 1-2, maybe 3 months.
So once March i.e Q1 is off the table, that leaves us with the question of whether or not they'll make the first half of the year at all. We'll have to wait until the end of May to really know the answer to that question. Until then I'll just sit here and see just how much bullshit they're full of.
The problem though is that they can't release a game thats not 100% finished because of the ramifications / shitstorm the RMAH would cause by tweaking it after release.
Its really depressing that I turn 30 in 5 days and still have yet to even hear a release date for this game I played as a kid.
The betas been out forever too, and the 8 people I know frantically trying as well have had no luck.
What a horribly unjustified and ambiguous comment, thank you for contributing nothing tangible to this discussion.
question: can i go around and make things bleed without major problems?
if yes: Good then release the game and add/remove stuff later thats what patches and expansions are for.
if no:Ok then, set a deadline and some goals to reach that deadline work overtime if you have to.
I'm just getting tired of all this jerking around and leading on... don't say "We're on the home strech" if your just rounding 2nd. I've been plenty patient and now starting to lose interest, I want to see results or I'm going to find something else. Take forever on making the expansions I don't care, why? because at least I have something to look forward to while i'm pre-occupied. With the free time that I do have I don't have much to do Rexburg Idaho is pretty boreing when you don't have any kind of work to do. If there isn't going to be any kind of solid stability in the development of D3 I'll just go and buy CoD:MW3 like i've been wanting to do. I was saving my gift cards for D3 but I am starting not to care...
Mind showing us some references to when they 'promised' us anything?
Somewhere a fine line must be drawn as to exactly what thier shooting for, the possibilites of what they can have in the game are endless but they have to make a decision.
So, why am I posting?
One of the most important things for any business is feedback. There's positive feedback and there's negative feedback. Of the two negative feedback is more important because it's negative feedback that indicates to the business where improvements/changes need to be made.
Emotion (read 'fanboyism') should play no part in this. An honest assessment is worth more than any amount of overstated enthusiasm. Thus this post.
And now allow me a moment to prepare for the inevitable flames from those who would dictate what I should/should not be prepared to accept or like/should not like/require/not require as far as the product itself is concerned.
Flame on!
I love how people have this fantasy that once they get the beta, updates and changes wont piss them off?
you will get bored of the beta within a day or two, and go right back to being pissed off. Or be one of the rare few who is easily amused dealing 80+ dmg to mobs that have like 40 fucking health going lulullululululu.
It's boring, there is no challenge, you get to see none of the real features or experience much of anything.
^ the feeling of most people in the beta that ive talked to, including my own.
for he to-day that sheds his blood with me
shall be my brother..."