The beautiful thing about blizzard is they think long term. They aren't short sighted like EA or even Bobby "Take the fun out of making games" Kotick... and trust me I'm super glad Blizz is still autonomous from Activision. The goal here is player retention.
It's exactly this. For us it's hard to imagine, because we grew up with D1, D2 ad whatnot. We got eased into finding our way quickly around these games. But I have friends who never played any kind of rpg before and are planning to play D3. I can imagine that some extra pointer here and there would just improve their playing experience. Heck, I remember watching a let's play of the D3 demo by the guys from the Yogscast, experienced players. One of them hadn't played Diablo before, and he sucked It was horrible to watch. If they made atc 1 normal harder, or the interface less simple, these players would be discouraged right away, and that's not what the company wants.
The same goes for the "play normal before you can access HC". Do you really think that all players who have never played Diablo before fully realize right from the start what "hardcore mode" entails? That this is a game where you spend a lot of time building your character and that's all gone if you die just once? Those players will never play again if somehow they ended up thinking hardcore mode would be a good idea for a first character. We may think "good riddance", but that's not something a company wants to put its customers through.
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The same goes for the "play normal before you can access HC". Do you really think that all players who have never played Diablo before fully realize right from the start what "hardcore mode" entails? That this is a game where you spend a lot of time building your character and that's all gone if you die just once? Those players will never play again if somehow they ended up thinking hardcore mode would be a good idea for a first character. We may think "good riddance", but that's not something a company wants to put its customers through.