Hi everyone, today I want to give you guys my thoughts on why (a game like) Diablo 3 becomes boring. As someone who's played video games for over 20 years now, I've been noticing a trend for replay value. A game must excel at either competition or consistent progression and must continuously bring at least some money to the company in order for proper development team allocation.
In this video I discuss both of these concepts including some outlier examples like League of Legends, Counter-Strike, and WoW, where D3 is lacking, and some fixes now that it finally has a good core - micro transactions, PvPvM team racing, standardized grifting, and seasons worth playing. Enjoy!
I pretty much agree on 99% of what you've said, however as it comes to case of direct pvp, simply introducing special pvp sets like in WoW would solve the problem of balance (of course also some skills/passives could be disabled during pvp duels/arenas in order to bring some more balance).
I don't understand why blizzard can't give it a try, game has pretty much not so great opinion among hardcore gamers, so even a little fail in terms of unbalanced pvp system wouldn't affect regular (casual) players who contribute to sth like 95% of d3 population
Honestly pvp in d2 - there was no balance at all, talking about 1v1, many specs were broken especially Hdin with ABS and full DR... you couldn't really stack any resits against his attacks (as it comes to TvT it was pretty much okay), but still people loved pvp in D2, although it had some flaws.
In case of microtransactions, yes i think it's the right way to go.
My personal ideas:
*Full customisation of ingame banners
*Customisation of your character (face, hairs etc. pretty much same like in WoW)
*Custom effects for certain skills/abilities like in PoE
Coming to the last point of my post, instead of introducing Ancient items (which i believe is not the worst idea) blizzard should simply copy-> paste their own solution for endgame gearing.
RUNEWARDS imagine, certain runewards requiring runes with such a low droprate like 'Zod' back in Diablo II, and finally when u gather all the necessary runes, you don't get any guarantee that it will be very well rolled item, so gearing process would be at least 10-20 times longer as it is in case of 2.0 loot, (you may believe or not but i geared my Stempade crusader in 1 day and made Grift 30 with full Akkhan set...)
I would totally pay for quite a few of these transmogs myself. Yes, runewords would be beast, but I have a feeling that won't be happening any time soon.
The problem with introducing competition in a game like Diablo 3 is RNG and luck. You really need to remove all the aspects of RNG for competition to have any meaning at all. Like you said in your video, to get rank 1 all you need is to fish for the perfect rift with the right layout, mobs and monster affixes - there is zero competition in that. In all honesty I don't think there will ever be meaningful competition going off what the developers have said recently regarding pylons; instead of removing them, they're buffing them and adding more ?!?! For what purpose...
You could have two players, of the same skill level and the exact same class/build/gear and results would vary, solely on the fact one person could get an extremely bad grift and the other got a super easy rift filled with zombies and pylons. What if we had a set of rifts that were exactly the same for everyone. If I could do the exact same GRift as every other Wizard, same layout, same mobs, same affixes, then that would be much more meaningful in terms of competition than just fishing for good rifts. If you ran the same exact map over and over to improve your time instead of running completely different rifts each time.
This wouldn't even be a hard change, instead of Greater Rifts being randomly generated, they were fixed and static. At the start of a season, 10 rifts would be randomly generated and these rifts would be the exact same for everyone. For the entire length of the season, people would play these rifts and try to beat each others completion time. No RNG, no ridiculous monster scaling, no trials, no banging your head on the wall hoping for zombies.
I am not going to waste time bashing my head against the wall, farming keys and then fishing for rifts all day till I find one that suits my liking, that's just not fun. Not at all. If the playing field was even, and another player didn't have an advantage over me purely because RNG, then I would play that shit religiously.
In 2.1.2 I think they'll be more normalized (I'll be testing this in PTR), and I'm not against SOME degree of RNG in grifts, just not how much there is now. It's just way too much variability.
"and some fixes now that it finally has a good core - micro transactions, PvPvM team racing, standardized grifting, and seasons worth playing."
micro transactions & seasons worth playing...
I don't get it. Micro transactions will bring in the money blizz needs to allocate proper resources to the dev team to keep making the game better at a good pace. Seasons will be worth playing (more) with better legendaries for EVERY class, along with transmogs for higher achievements.
Asking for micro transactions in diablo ? This isn't a free to play, we paid twice 40€ for d3 + ros. Everything they release has to be free. That's most stupid thing I've ever read on any forum, EVER.
Give the dev team the money they need ? WTF are you talking about ? blizz just gave 3 milions $ for a metallica concert at blizzcon, that's enough money to pay a dev team for years, they don't need money, they have plenty, they just don't care.
Edit : OMFG i knew it, you're the guy who keeps making these stupid videos with absolutly no idea what you're talking about.. ffs stop trying to make money off of youtube and get a real job.
'Everything they release has to be free'. Synonymous with 'I paid for 2 pizzas, all future pizzas made by the pizzeria should be free'. You really don't understand the concept of a business, do you? Hint: WoW players pay every month to play and it has a very large number of micro transactions and guess what - there continues to be new content on a regular basis! Who would have thought...
They could make a lot MORE money, and re-invest that back into content, if the morons against micro transactions would actually stop and think before blindly saying "BUT WE ALREADY PAID FOR THE GAME."
I love your highlight of those games like LoL and counter strike....and I love your mention of how those new games both have competition and very little new content....and Im sure you will already be aware of this statement but let me say it anyway and see what you think:
The competition in those games IS the content. its the human minds playing within the games an exponentially unfolded game of rock paper scissors.
same with chess monopoly, MTG, Settlers of Catan,...Star-bound....according to their painfully drawn out development.....
WoW arena, Hearthstone....STARCRAFT.......thats whats so absolutely stunning;
that these competitive games, a whole fleet of some of the best in existence...made by the same company no less.............
Are wholeheartedly shunned by Diablo 3...just completely gone..........
just disgusting if you ask me. DISGUSTING.
I cant even think of a game that was a bigger overall let down.....no matter how kind I become, no matter how diplomatic a tone I try to adopt....no matter how rational......its just so tragic that D3 took the route it did............PVP with legitimately less features that Atari Tank Battle.
and I did not even set foot in D2 PVP....and I was without question the worst WoW arena player you ever met. But I have so much respect for the concepts......
Give the dev team the money they need ? WTF are you talking about ? blizz just gave 3 milions $ for a metallica concert at blizzcon, that's enough money to pay a dev team for years, they don't need money, they have plenty, they just don't care.
Just to clear one misconception up, since I see it all the time. Irvine CA is one of the most expensive places in the US to live. Also programmers are not cheap. 3 million USD will hire 10 people for 3 years. That's it. Once you factor in all other costs of simply running the game (Servers, and consequently, the network admins, and so forth), 3 million is... nothing really. Anyone of any competence working for Blizzard is getting paid 60k USD minimum, only goes up from there.
How many copies did D3 sell. Any company would be happy with a quarter of the sales the game got heck they would be happy with 1/10th the sales Diablo 3 has.
Also the other games from Blizzard makes money, make that buckets and buckets of money.
Diablo 3 is one of the largest selling PC games of all times. Let me restate that it is one of the largest selling PC games of all time.
You guys make it sound like it was one of the worst selling games of all time and the devs have to go begging on the street for change so they can eat.
Sorry I sound upset. but this is just getting to me.
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Quote from AlbatareAsking for micro transactions in diablo ? This isn't a free to play, we paid twice 40€ for d3 + ros. Everything they release has to be free. That's most stupid thing I've ever read on any forum, EVER.
Give the dev team the money they need ? WTF are you talking about ? blizz just gave 3 milions $ for a metallica concert at blizzcon, that's enough money to pay a dev team for years, they don't need money, they have plenty, they just don't care.
Edit : OMFG i knew it, you're the guy who keeps making these stupid videos with absolutly no idea what you're talking about.. ffs stop trying to make money off of youtube and get a real job.
IT WOULD BE OPTIONAL, NOT OBLIGATORY, NOT MANDATORY I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY MORE SYNONYMS DO YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND 'THE CONCEPT OF MICROTRANSACTIONS'.
People who can't afford additional spendings on game (in this case microtransactions) wouldn't lose any core content of the game as well as people who purchased microcontent wouldn't have any advantage over other players in terms of gameplay and performance in 'competetive scene' which is actually dead due to the RNG in Greater Rifts and lack of ANY form of pvp.
So what is your problem with letting people spend their earnings on customisation of their characters and increasing the chances that Blizzard will eventually put some more effort into this awesome franchise and at least try to make as good game as Diablo II was back in 2000s.
As a diablo 2 fan, i want Blizzard to either completely change the D3 or make another part D4 which would be closer to Diablo II concept than to WoW both of those steps requires additional funds, which could be obtained via microtransactions.
Life is brutal, if you have two games let's compare WoW and D3 and you earn from 1st one 300 mil $ monthly and from second one less than a million would you pay as much attention to both games? Probably not.
+1. Granted D3 is nowhere near the scale of WoW, but without a stream of income specifically for this game, it's not going to pick up in development. There have to be some sort of transactions, otherwise that $100 or so you spent gives you unlimited server time. Which is why I'm a huge proponent of something like purchasable stash tabs - it costs more for blizz to store the extra data, but you can pay for it.
div>Quote from ShurgosaI love your highlight of those games like LoL and counter strike....and I love your mention of how those new games both have competition and very little new content....and Im sure you will already be aware of this statement but let me say it anyway and see what you think:
The competition in those games IS the content. its the human minds playing within the games an exponentially unfolded game of rock paper scissors.
same with chess monopoly, MTG, Settlers of Catan,...Star-bound....according to their painfully drawn out development.....
WoW arena, Hearthstone....STARCRAFT.......thats whats so absolutely stunning;
that these competitive games, a whole fleet of some of the best in existence...made by the same company no less.............
Are wholeheartedly shunned by Diablo 3...just completely gone..........
just disgusting if you ask me. DISGUSTING.
I cant even think of a game that was a bigger overall let down.....no matter how kind I become, no matter how diplomatic a tone I try to adopt....no matter how rational......its just so tragic that D3 took the route it did............PVP with legitimately less features that Atari Tank Battle.
and I did not even set foot in D2 PVP....and I was without question the worst WoW arena player you ever met. But I have so much respect for the concepts......
Compared to other ARPGs, I still think D3 is the best, it's just that gaming as a whole is heading in a certain direction and D3 is missing some of the elements which (currently) make games highly replayable.
Quote from AlbatareGive the dev team the money they need ? WTF are you talking about ? blizz just gave 3 milions $ for a metallica concert at blizzcon, that's enough money to pay a dev team for years, they don't need money, they have plenty, they just don't care.
Just to clear one misconception up, since I see it all the time. Irvine CA is one of the most expensive places in the US to live. Also programmers are not cheap. 3 million USD will hire 10 people for 3 years. That's it. Once you factor in all other costs of simply running the game (Servers, and consequently, the network admins, and so forth), 3 million is... nothing really. Anyone of any competence working for Blizzard is getting paid 60k USD minimum, only goes up from there.
I'm thinking the same thing. As a (somewhat former) digital designer I can attest to the amount of hours you have to put in to make something look 'perfect' given certain restrictions, so I can't imagine anyone working for blizz making less than that, especially in Cali. In a lot of interviews they say how long they stay working and I completely believe it, as I've been there myself. It's not fun, unless you're passionate about what you're doing.
The company expenses are astronomical. Yes they brought metallica and I bet it cost them a pretty penny, but it's the kind of pay it forward strategy that will help them tremendously with sales in the future. After all, there's no other convention for gaming that I know of that's close in scope. Then all those people who attend rave about seeing metallica - a band that a lot more people know than blizzard as a company - and you can see the strategy behind it.
How many copies did D3 sell. Any company would be happy with a quarter of the sales the game got heck they would be happy with 1/10th the sales Diablo 3 has.
Also the other games from Blizzard makes money, make that buckets and buckets of money.
Diablo 3 is one of the largest selling PC games of all times. Let me restate that it is one of the largest selling PC games of all time.
You guys make it sound like it was one of the worst selling games of all time and the devs have to go begging on the street for change so they can eat.
Sorry I sound upset. but this is just getting to me.
Any company ... with 10 employees, sure. For all the buckets Blizzard makes, do you have any idea how many buckets they spend? The amount of servers in their 17 datacenters along with hundreds of employees and who knows how many contractors,,,
In this video I discuss both of these concepts including some outlier examples like League of Legends, Counter-Strike, and WoW, where D3 is lacking, and some fixes now that it finally has a good core - micro transactions, PvPvM team racing, standardized grifting, and seasons worth playing. Enjoy!
http://youtu.be/ZIxn9g1wxyg
MeatHeadGaming - YouTube - Twitch - Facebook - Web
In 2.1.2 I think they'll be more normalized (I'll be testing this in PTR), and I'm not against SOME degree of RNG in grifts, just not how much there is now. It's just way too much variability.
I don't get it. Micro transactions will bring in the money blizz needs to allocate proper resources to the dev team to keep making the game better at a good pace. Seasons will be worth playing (more) with better legendaries for EVERY class, along with transmogs for higher achievements.
MeatHeadGaming - YouTube - Twitch - Facebook - Web
'Everything they release has to be free'. Synonymous with 'I paid for 2 pizzas, all future pizzas made by the pizzeria should be free'. You really don't understand the concept of a business, do you? Hint: WoW players pay every month to play and it has a very large number of micro transactions and guess what - there continues to be new content on a regular basis! Who would have thought...
They do, just not as much as some other games.
MeatHeadGaming - YouTube - Twitch - Facebook - Web
They could make a lot MORE money, and re-invest that back into content, if the morons against micro transactions would actually stop and think before blindly saying "BUT WE ALREADY PAID FOR THE GAME."
The competition in those games IS the content. its the human minds playing within the games an exponentially unfolded game of rock paper scissors.
same with chess monopoly, MTG, Settlers of Catan,...Star-bound....according to their painfully drawn out development.....
WoW arena, Hearthstone....STARCRAFT.......thats whats so absolutely stunning;
that these competitive games, a whole fleet of some of the best in existence...made by the same company no less.............
Are wholeheartedly shunned by Diablo 3...just completely gone..........
just disgusting if you ask me. DISGUSTING.
I cant even think of a game that was a bigger overall let down.....no matter how kind I become, no matter how diplomatic a tone I try to adopt....no matter how rational......its just so tragic that D3 took the route it did............PVP with legitimately less features that Atari Tank Battle.
and I did not even set foot in D2 PVP....and I was without question the worst WoW arena player you ever met. But I have so much respect for the concepts......
Also the other games from Blizzard makes money, make that buckets and buckets of money.
Diablo 3 is one of the largest selling PC games of all times. Let me restate that it is one of the largest selling PC games of all time.
You guys make it sound like it was one of the worst selling games of all time and the devs have to go begging on the street for change so they can eat.
Sorry I sound upset. but this is just getting to me.
+1. Granted D3 is nowhere near the scale of WoW, but without a stream of income specifically for this game, it's not going to pick up in development. There have to be some sort of transactions, otherwise that $100 or so you spent gives you unlimited server time. Which is why I'm a huge proponent of something like purchasable stash tabs - it costs more for blizz to store the extra data, but you can pay for it.
Compared to other ARPGs, I still think D3 is the best, it's just that gaming as a whole is heading in a certain direction and D3 is missing some of the elements which (currently) make games highly replayable.
I'm thinking the same thing. As a (somewhat former) digital designer I can attest to the amount of hours you have to put in to make something look 'perfect' given certain restrictions, so I can't imagine anyone working for blizz making less than that, especially in Cali. In a lot of interviews they say how long they stay working and I completely believe it, as I've been there myself. It's not fun, unless you're passionate about what you're doing.
The company expenses are astronomical. Yes they brought metallica and I bet it cost them a pretty penny, but it's the kind of pay it forward strategy that will help them tremendously with sales in the future. After all, there's no other convention for gaming that I know of that's close in scope. Then all those people who attend rave about seeing metallica - a band that a lot more people know than blizzard as a company - and you can see the strategy behind it.
Any company ... with 10 employees, sure. For all the buckets Blizzard makes, do you have any idea how many buckets they spend? The amount of servers in their 17 datacenters along with hundreds of employees and who knows how many contractors,,,
MeatHeadGaming - YouTube - Twitch - Facebook - Web