So I'm going to start off explaining what the title is referring to if it's not obvious. This is the war between people who like the game and dislike the game, why they can't take their hands of each others' throats, and why both groups are wrong and no one is right.
Now I will explain my own status. I am currently not playing Diablo 3 anymore, spare an hour a week if a friend needs a bit of help. I beat Inferno within the first few weeks spending around 2mil gold on the AH in total. I also did quite a bit of farming when the RMAH was released but I think I only really made around $250 before I got bored. I did not rush through the game, I did it at my own pace and things just happened as they did. I did it in the way it would benefit my enjoyment most. I enjoyed the bosses a lot, I think Blizzard did an amazing job with the D3 boss encounters and I think the skills are brilliantly made. Mechanically, I think this is the best game I have seen in a long time. However, I just got bored. It is my opinion that the items do not appeal to me, as they just feel like random stats placed on items that don't make them exciting like in Diablo 2. No Poison Nova flying out on hit, just nothing interesting to me. There is also really nothing to do. I don't think PvP would hold my interest for more than a week and there is no ladder, no real reset that would make me have to work hard to achieve a goal again and again and again.
Now, to some with my outlook on the game itself, people who like this game are ruining the game and any chance for Blizzard to possibly fix it in the near future for those who want endgame. For people who are currently enjoying the game, people like me are ruining the game for beating it and wanting more to do.
Both groups are wrong.
People who are still enjoying the game have every right to do so and can have fun leveling alts, finding gear, not using the AH, etc. People who have completed the game, however, have limited options. People who have completed the game farm, farm, farm, and then maybe look at an AH window for a few hours. In Diablo II, people farmed a lot too. In Diablo II, however, it all lead to a goal. Items were exciting, helped you reach your goal faster, and more importantly items dropped if you spent two days farming for hours on end each day. Stuff just happened that told your brain;"this feels good." We just aren't getting that in Diablo III.
The fact is that people will always think their opinion should be followed by all. If people don't like your opinion they are either;"lol QQ causal noob wtf" or "lol can I borrow mommie's credit card? lol no life nerd. enjoy the game the way I enjoy it." This might come as a shock, but people are different. Just because someone enjoys beating a challenging game as fast as possible and looks to grind to the top as a means of fun, or just because someone chooses to level each individual character to 60 at the same time and beat Inferno by farming weeks on end w/o using the AH, does not make either opinion right. Unfortunately, Blizzard has to appease both groups of players in order to make a truly great game. They are not doing this at the moment. As large as the player base that has not beat Inferno yet, or even made it to Inferno yet is, there is a large enough group of players finding nothing to do but treat Diablo III as a job farming for the AH.
I've played many games where there have been similar scenarios. Either content makes elite players bored, or casual players get frustrated. Balance is difficult to achieve, and Diablo III is capable of getting better for players looking for unending content. Unfortunately at the moment, both groups of players have to understand each other and take their hands off of each others' throats.
Edit: This post is somewhat in response for the way Force is being treated by some for announcing his departure. He did so gracefully w/o saying anything to entice either side into an argument, but it happened anyways. He is being treated poorly by people who believe the game is fun and think him announcing his departure was wrong, and that is of course making those disappointed with Diablo III wage war on the other side.
Its a Blizzard game, the exact same thing has happened to D3 as what happened to SC2 and WoW, all the man babies flock to the forums, and group together to concoct an alternate reality.
They then proclaim hilarious things such as "the game is dieing!" and "Blizz joo suxors". And they continue to do this for YEARS on end, lacking any sort of life. (while still in fact, playing the game they proclaim to hate)
(For reference, please see the SC2 forums, and the WoW forums)
Delusional hypocrisy, Blizzard games are so big, that the haters even cannot stop talking/playing/thinking about their games, they have to fabricate a reason to make an excuse for why they just cannot fathom playing another game, or doing anything other then enveloping their lives with what they seemingly "hate".
They are akin to drug addicted teenagers.
Humorously, both titles this community of insanity has proclaimed as "dead" have in fact set records for playerbase retention, overall sales, and are literally at the very top of their respective genres. (I believe the calls for WoW's "death" started in 2010? And the QQ against SC2 was pretty much right outta the gate (they move pretty fast now), yet, SC2 is still the #1 Esports game in the world.)
Their complete inability to realize how horribly disconnected from reality they actually are causes them to spiral into some kind of Trolling vortex, that they can never seem to escape from.
My generation is largely a group of entitled ragers, looking for instant gratification. The likers and dislikers attack each other while they are waiting to attack/defend the blues. Some people just gotta rage on the internet about something.
While I constantly seem to get demoralized and even sad from all this doom and gloom and hate, I also find it interesting that they are so emotionally invested. People who quit the game months ago still go to forums to complain about upcoming changes, they just can't stop thinking about the game. It's not rare to see "Oh my god, this change is so stupid, but I don't care because I quit the game a year ago. Man, Blizzard really sucks.". Hypocritical at its best, since they obviously care so much about the game to stay on a forum dedicated to said game for a year or more, simply to announce how good they are for not playing the game anymore.
It's also unavoidable to see posts and videos about Torchlight 2 where people don't talk about how much they despise Diablo 3 and how it ruined their lives and how much better Torchlight 2 has to be. I can't imagine what will happen to them when Torchlight 2 doesn't turn out to be the Messiah they want it to be.
Torchlight 2 will surely be immensely popular due to player-designed mods like in Skyrim, but this is also equal to Runic Games basically saying "We know we can't design the perfect game for you, so we let you do it yourselves.". And they are correct in this indirect statement. No studio can make a perfect game for everyone, especially not for these types of gamers who want everything to be their way.
Want to get un-demoralized?
Run with a good group of people, and have fun!
Makes a surprising difference. (Many from this very forum are great.)
Also, for pure laughs, find a "hater" who has proclaimed they have "quit" on the D3 offical forums, and look at their Battletag name and #, then send them a friend request in game.
Always funny to see "PlayerXXX#123 was last logged in 1 hour ago...... (9/10 times this happens, and I laugh every time ;p)
At any gear level, you will get more i63s / hour farming act 1 than acts 2+ due to the difficulty & health of mobs.
This isn't opinion, it's fact. And that's terrible game design. There's no arguing this.
Blizzard turned from a company putting out quality games, into a company riding its reputation to strongarm its way to profits. They'd earn more by going back to making quality games, but to people like those who currently run Blizzard, it's better to be more evil than more successful. It's like offering a gangster double his salary to work in daycare instead - won't happen. Evil greed is what he knows, so it's what he'll continue doing.
Now I will explain my own status. I am currently not playing Diablo 3 anymore, spare an hour a week if a friend needs a bit of help. I beat Inferno within the first few weeks spending around 2mil gold on the AH in total. I also did quite a bit of farming when the RMAH was released but I think I only really made around $250 before I got bored. I did not rush through the game, I did it at my own pace and things just happened as they did. I did it in the way it would benefit my enjoyment most. I enjoyed the bosses a lot, I think Blizzard did an amazing job with the D3 boss encounters and I think the skills are brilliantly made. Mechanically, I think this is the best game I have seen in a long time. However, I just got bored. It is my opinion that the items do not appeal to me, as they just feel like random stats placed on items that don't make them exciting like in Diablo 2. No Poison Nova flying out on hit, just nothing interesting to me. There is also really nothing to do. I don't think PvP would hold my interest for more than a week and there is no ladder, no real reset that would make me have to work hard to achieve a goal again and again and again.
Now, to some with my outlook on the game itself, people who like this game are ruining the game and any chance for Blizzard to possibly fix it in the near future for those who want endgame. For people who are currently enjoying the game, people like me are ruining the game for beating it and wanting more to do.
Both groups are wrong.
People who are still enjoying the game have every right to do so and can have fun leveling alts, finding gear, not using the AH, etc. People who have completed the game, however, have limited options. People who have completed the game farm, farm, farm, and then maybe look at an AH window for a few hours. In Diablo II, people farmed a lot too. In Diablo II, however, it all lead to a goal. Items were exciting, helped you reach your goal faster, and more importantly items dropped if you spent two days farming for hours on end each day. Stuff just happened that told your brain;"this feels good." We just aren't getting that in Diablo III.
The fact is that people will always think their opinion should be followed by all. If people don't like your opinion they are either;"lol QQ causal noob wtf" or "lol can I borrow mommie's credit card? lol no life nerd. enjoy the game the way I enjoy it." This might come as a shock, but people are different. Just because someone enjoys beating a challenging game as fast as possible and looks to grind to the top as a means of fun, or just because someone chooses to level each individual character to 60 at the same time and beat Inferno by farming weeks on end w/o using the AH, does not make either opinion right. Unfortunately, Blizzard has to appease both groups of players in order to make a truly great game. They are not doing this at the moment. As large as the player base that has not beat Inferno yet, or even made it to Inferno yet is, there is a large enough group of players finding nothing to do but treat Diablo III as a job farming for the AH.
I've played many games where there have been similar scenarios. Either content makes elite players bored, or casual players get frustrated. Balance is difficult to achieve, and Diablo III is capable of getting better for players looking for unending content. Unfortunately at the moment, both groups of players have to understand each other and take their hands off of each others' throats.
Edit: This post is somewhat in response for the way Force is being treated by some for announcing his departure. He did so gracefully w/o saying anything to entice either side into an argument, but it happened anyways. He is being treated poorly by people who believe the game is fun and think him announcing his departure was wrong, and that is of course making those disappointed with Diablo III wage war on the other side.
They then proclaim hilarious things such as "the game is dieing!" and "Blizz joo suxors". And they continue to do this for YEARS on end, lacking any sort of life. (while still in fact, playing the game they proclaim to hate)
(For reference, please see the SC2 forums, and the WoW forums)
Delusional hypocrisy, Blizzard games are so big, that the haters even cannot stop talking/playing/thinking about their games, they have to fabricate a reason to make an excuse for why they just cannot fathom playing another game, or doing anything other then enveloping their lives with what they seemingly "hate".
They are akin to drug addicted teenagers.
Humorously, both titles this community of insanity has proclaimed as "dead" have in fact set records for playerbase retention, overall sales, and are literally at the very top of their respective genres. (I believe the calls for WoW's "death" started in 2010? And the QQ against SC2 was pretty much right outta the gate (they move pretty fast now), yet, SC2 is still the #1 Esports game in the world.)
Their complete inability to realize how horribly disconnected from reality they actually are causes them to spiral into some kind of Trolling vortex, that they can never seem to escape from.
Its actually kind of fascinating.
Want to get un-demoralized?
Run with a good group of people, and have fun!
Makes a surprising difference. (Many from this very forum are great.)
Also, for pure laughs, find a "hater" who has proclaimed they have "quit" on the D3 offical forums, and look at their Battletag name and #, then send them a friend request in game.
Always funny to see "PlayerXXX#123 was last logged in 1 hour ago...... (9/10 times this happens, and I laugh every time ;p)
This isn't opinion, it's fact. And that's terrible game design. There's no arguing this.
Blizzard turned from a company putting out quality games, into a company riding its reputation to strongarm its way to profits. They'd earn more by going back to making quality games, but to people like those who currently run Blizzard, it's better to be more evil than more successful. It's like offering a gangster double his salary to work in daycare instead - won't happen. Evil greed is what he knows, so it's what he'll continue doing.