The bigger issue here is that Diablo III has very little replay-ability value. With all character classes being fundamentally the same in terms of stats and skills at end-game, there is no reason to start a new character of that class to "re-roll" them.
Diablo III became a game that focused entirely on the gear of your character and their skill/passive build. The issue with that however is that good gear is far harder to farm in this game, and most people end up finding a lot of trash even after MP10 Inferno Act 3 runs, even with a decent amount of MF from paragon levels. Since trying to farm on large difficulties is hard enough as it is, it encouraged everyone to run the AH to the bones, having characters completely forged out of gear purchased at the AH. This caused us to have no reason to even farm items, but instead farm areas that gave us the most gold.
With one of the core character build mechanics now easily bought out from the AH, it simply left us with two things. Farming gold, and running different character builds. Another issue though is that despite our vast number of skill/rune/passive combinations, only few of them are viable and some entirely useless. When they told us that they had thousands of possible builds, they left out two problems with that. While mathematically true, it didn't take into account the viability of those builds in the game. This is why we have plenty of build guides, but with only few viable ones to choose from for each class.
In the end, we are left with little to actually try and accomplish in this game. Our only true goals are to beat inferno mode for normal and hardcore, go to pony town (which is a waste of time some might say), do the infernal machine event to try and get a Hellfire Ring, and get to paragon level 100, and obtain as much gold as possible. While that is a fair deal of things to do, there is little incentive to do it at all if the game's core game-play mechanic is easily overshadowed by shortcuts.
The true end-game of Diablo III should have been a very robust PvP system and plenty of very challenging PvE events to do with others, and it should have had the potential for lots of community involvement, such as player made maps/events/mods and so on. An even funner end-game result would have been to allow us to control our stat allocation with the paragon levels, and in turn give us access to new abilities, runes, and passives that would have given us more viable and more diverse build options. Finally, they should have just allowed the game to be offline-compatible and gave us the traditional open and closed ladders. Even if people found a way to cheat in their offline mode, it wouldn't have mattered to anyone else, it wouldn't even affect them unless they played open ladder, and if they were bothered by it they could have easily played closed. People have still found ways to dupe, people have found ways to hack, and in the end, the only thing online only did was prevent us from having a fun offline experience. If we wanted a fair and balanced online system, we would have played closed ladder as we did before.
I'm not against change and new ideas, I support them, but that doesn't mean that we should completely ignore what has worked in the past and has faced the test of time. We should incorporate these new ideas and evolve things on the foundation of what has worked in the past.
Remember back in Act 2 where you killed a few bandits attacking the farm girl? Well, I'm pretty sure the big guy said that "the rest of the thieves guild will find ya". Maybe it's just me, but I never ever saw that one go down.
It would be a pretty cool new event to add to the game where you take on these guys, maybe give them a big hideout or something to explore.
I've been playing around with a card making tool that allows you to make Magic: The Gathering cards, and I came across the idea of making a few based off of D3. For those whom enjoy playing MTG (and even those who don't), tell me what you think.
I tried to make the cards resemble the five classes and the two creatures as best as possible, while still maintaining a constant and valid MTG card structure.
The art used in the pictures belongs to their respective artist, which should be labeled on the cards themselves. The class pictures (other than the Barbarian) were found from the Diablo 3 website itself (I couldn't find the artist name, so I just put down Blizzard as the artist), and the Fallen and the Barbarian belong to people on Deviant Art, whose account names should be on there.
Oh, and in case this post get's moved somewhere else, I didn't know really where to post it. It involved Diablo 3, MTG, fan art, etc, etc. So I just decided to toss it in D3 General Discussion.
Nothing against the guide writers themselves, but rather the people that request them. I mean, is it just me or have some people lost their ability to make their own decisions? I've been seeing a lot of this on this forum in particular, and I'm not sure about the other forums.
Ignoring the fact that it's funner to farm your own gear, what is the point in playing if you can't bring yourself to experiment with gear choices (the only thing we really can experiment with that has a negative consequence, losing gold)? We cannot screw up characters, and you can always get more gold/gear later if it's a bad choice.
To start, I'm fully aware of the fact that this topic has been discussed several times. I have hope that I won't get several replies stating the obvious and how I need to go QQ back to Diablo 2, but there is the chance that someone might entirely decide to reply to me based solely off the thread title itself. To everyone who decided to read first, I thank you. With that out of the way, let's continue.
The whole concept of the auction house was something that I had thought of negatively from the very beginning ever since it was first revealed to us before the game had launched. I suppose it was just hard to grasp at the time. Admitably, I am the sort of person who doesn't respond well to change when it comes to video games. Nostalgia is a prick, and it's a prick that gets under my skin in a very particular way. I had my hopes though after much un-necessary rant post about it.
Regardless, I bought the game, played it to the end, beat inferno, searched every crevice, and pretty much came to the same conclusion; I don't like the auction house one bit. Neither the gold or the real money one to be exact. In all honesty, I used it to, but I didn't use it because I liked, I used it because I wanted to find a reason not to hate it, but it didn't really work out that way.
Here is a list of mostly arbitrary reasons as to why I don't like the AH:
1. It's A Loot Based Dungeon Crawler
For a game that is designed around the concept of grinding for reward, I don't understand the reason for the AH. Sure, it gives you access to great things at the cost of either gold or hard earned cash, but to what reason? All gear in the game is designed for one reason; to kill things more effectively in some way. However, the very reason you choose to kill those things past completely the game and revealing it's story is to gain experience and obtain better gear. Once you are at the max level, the only reason you have left for killing is paragon levels and more loot, but mostly the loot. With a game that had and still has no PvP (soon to be released), buying anything in the auction house simply contradicts the very reason you choose to play, for the reward. When I bought something in the AH, I never found a single item that could compare when killing monsters (sometimes I did, but on very rare occasions). The only items that ever did compare were just other AH items. It eventually got the point where my grinding reward was gold for the AH.
2. It's Boring
This is a little bit of a side note really, but I actually like the idea of trading in person. Going out to other players in game and shopping for your items through trade was a nice experience and also gave the opportunity to pay for your gear through means other than gold. Now, I know I said that I disliked the AH for the very reason of buying gear, but trading is different. It takes more work, and it's harder to find what you're looking for. I believe in small quantities, getting your gear through means other than grinding is okay and a legitament part of the original Diablo experience. It brought the community together in an interesting kind of way. You actually got to chat with the guy you're trading with, and was able to work out deals and even make friends. That being said, the AH is really boring because it doesn't offer any of this. It's nothing but what seems to be a anti-social waiting game of selling your items or looking through a list of everything that has every been placed. No negotiations, no chatting, gold/USD trading only, and having instant access to any item (as long as you got the coin) turned the AH into a boring concept for me.
3.It Helps You Win Faster and Easier
This is obvious. Those who buy good gear from the AH will clearly have an easier time. That is just the thing though, you're first go to in the game if it was getting to hard was the AH, not continuing to grind. It seemed as if the AH was the key to fixing all of your problems. Not enough attack? New weapon (dirt cheap ones that are always better than yours are everywhere), dying to easily? Better armor is always at your fingertips. What was once a game that required building and careful planning to go forward has seemed to become a game where the door before you is locked and the key is gold. Gold + AH = Opened Path. It felt as if you bought your way through the game in some aspects. Now, we all know that we occasionally bought items from vendors in D2, but that was usually only at the beginning of acts. Speaking of vendors....
4. Vendors Are Useless Because of It
Since you can buy anything from the AH, in game stores are only good for potions/dyes and selling and nothing much else. Their inventory has been greatly reduced to a laughable state, and I think I visited one only a few times for dyes and that was it.
So, there's my list. It's a topic that has been worn out, I'm sure, but a topic I felt like discussing nonetheless. Diablo 3 really isn't my kind of game, and nostalgia will always beckon to me when I come across new games of old series. It's a good game, yea, but I guess I'm just not into the newer things these days. Now, I do know that the AH was also designed with the third party vendors in mind. If you can't beat them, join them right? Well.. I mean, I guess, but that seems more like a bow of defeat to me than anything. Sure, it worked, but it still ruined the game for me in a way.
To start, no Diablo 3 is not an MMO game. Don't use the dictionary, use your common sense The dictionary is not a gamer, you are. You know more about games than the dictionary does.
Now, with that out of the way.
No, I don't think the game was designed to be boring. Rather, I think the game was designed to cater to a different audience. You might think the only target audience is the old Diablo veterans of the past, but they are not the only people. A large portion of the audience is newer gamers, younger (or maybe even older) people that had yet to experience Diablo. Now, I'm not trying to be judgemental or anything (and its probably going to end up being that way), but I think newer gamers (whether that be the young or the recently started) are not mentally built to enjoy (or perhaps even comprehend) older games like Diablo 1 and 2 (and other notable mentions). I'll tell you why.
Today's games are composed of an entirely different market than what existed in the past, especially in the RPG portion of the industry. Also, games are far more accessible than they were in the past. Today, you can find tons of free games on your phone, the computer, and you can purchase just about any game online at any given time. What does this do? It gives you options, and people with options tend to change between them frequently. So, more games means less time spent on each game, and that time is spread out to other games that are available. If a game is remotely even too hard at some point or slightly confusing, it's far more likely that a newer gamer will move onto a different game. Games that require a lot of time and effort to get good at due to skill trees, complex stat systems, and so on so forth, are actually not what today's gamers are looking for.
That's the challenge that today's gamers and game companies are being faced with. Game companies are making games for the newer generation of gamers, because they know that their older audience is most likely starting to get a life or becoming less interested in video games, while the older generation of gamers that still linger with the hobby frequently are being faced with playing games in a generation that is not particularly meant for their taste and older ideas. While there are plenty of notable exceptions, games for the most part, are not meant to entertain the older audience.
With all of that being said, it's time you realize that if a game is boring to you, it's probably because that game wasn't built with only your taste in mind.
I would like to see a mechanic that allows us to save previous builds. This will let us switch to them instantly and not have to waste our time changing them one by one every time I want something different.
Give us the ability to search for Public games based off Monster Power. If this is already a thing, I haven't seen it and I'm blind or something.
Allow us to see the differences of defensive, offensive, and Vitality scores of the combined 1-Handed and Off-Hand stats when looking at a 2-handed weapon, as opposed to just seeing the difference between the 1-Hand and 2-Handed weapons. Some people get suckered into thinking that the 2-Hand they have is better than their previous 1-hand and off-hand just because they saw green stat scores on it, when it wasn't even factoring in their off-hand.
Give set items a green background in your equipment screen (similar to how they are in the profiles) instead of the amber background that legendaries have.
Why are there even unidentified items in the first place? I mean, really? Seems a little arbitrary, since we can just identify them at no cost, as if our characters are complete masters in figuring out items. Maybe legendary or set items can be that way, but I don't see the point in it for rare items.
Some Significant Changes
Bring back runewords, or for that matter, runes that can be inserted into weapons. As mentioned above, the gem system is boring. The only gems you'll ever use are purple gems and which ever gem goes along with your primary stat. Its practically a predetermined choice. Runes that could be inserted into weapons could have different effects other than just stat altering ones, like giving skill bonuses, AP on Crit, and other things.
Make it worth owning the entire set of set items. I haven't seen anyone actually wear a full set before. Why? Because it's totally useless. What is the point of having set items if nobody even wears them as a set? I think set items could be made much better.
Just wanted to list some things I haven't seen mentioned yet. I won't bother listening the countless things others already have. I would mention that having your skills damage be based off weapon damage is kind of dumb and boring, but I know that it won't change.
Really what I think they did with the classes was more of a combination of previous ones. The reason for doing so might simply be to pack more flavor into each class. Some examples.
This isn't confirmed of course, this is just how I am looking at things. Remember, they were only introducing five classes at first, just like the previous. It would feel like the game would have less class variety than the LoD expansion for D2 had otherwise. Also, games always need something new so that alone is enough reason to try out new class designs.
As for the environment, I can say it looks a lot better and much more fluid than before. Sure, ground level seems a little bright, but the dungeons are very true to their "Gothic" nature and quite frankly, the monsters seem to be all about team Satan, so I don't know why you think they don't look intimidating at all (Have you seen that fucking Siege Breaker Assault thing?!)
1
Diablo III became a game that focused entirely on the gear of your character and their skill/passive build. The issue with that however is that good gear is far harder to farm in this game, and most people end up finding a lot of trash even after MP10 Inferno Act 3 runs, even with a decent amount of MF from paragon levels. Since trying to farm on large difficulties is hard enough as it is, it encouraged everyone to run the AH to the bones, having characters completely forged out of gear purchased at the AH. This caused us to have no reason to even farm items, but instead farm areas that gave us the most gold.
With one of the core character build mechanics now easily bought out from the AH, it simply left us with two things. Farming gold, and running different character builds. Another issue though is that despite our vast number of skill/rune/passive combinations, only few of them are viable and some entirely useless. When they told us that they had thousands of possible builds, they left out two problems with that. While mathematically true, it didn't take into account the viability of those builds in the game. This is why we have plenty of build guides, but with only few viable ones to choose from for each class.
In the end, we are left with little to actually try and accomplish in this game. Our only true goals are to beat inferno mode for normal and hardcore, go to pony town (which is a waste of time some might say), do the infernal machine event to try and get a Hellfire Ring, and get to paragon level 100, and obtain as much gold as possible. While that is a fair deal of things to do, there is little incentive to do it at all if the game's core game-play mechanic is easily overshadowed by shortcuts.
The true end-game of Diablo III should have been a very robust PvP system and plenty of very challenging PvE events to do with others, and it should have had the potential for lots of community involvement, such as player made maps/events/mods and so on. An even funner end-game result would have been to allow us to control our stat allocation with the paragon levels, and in turn give us access to new abilities, runes, and passives that would have given us more viable and more diverse build options. Finally, they should have just allowed the game to be offline-compatible and gave us the traditional open and closed ladders. Even if people found a way to cheat in their offline mode, it wouldn't have mattered to anyone else, it wouldn't even affect them unless they played open ladder, and if they were bothered by it they could have easily played closed. People have still found ways to dupe, people have found ways to hack, and in the end, the only thing online only did was prevent us from having a fun offline experience. If we wanted a fair and balanced online system, we would have played closed ladder as we did before.
I'm not against change and new ideas, I support them, but that doesn't mean that we should completely ignore what has worked in the past and has faced the test of time. We should incorporate these new ideas and evolve things on the foundation of what has worked in the past.
1
It would be a pretty cool new event to add to the game where you take on these guys, maybe give them a big hideout or something to explore.
2
I tried to make the cards resemble the five classes and the two creatures as best as possible, while still maintaining a constant and valid MTG card structure.
The art used in the pictures belongs to their respective artist, which should be labeled on the cards themselves. The class pictures (other than the Barbarian) were found from the Diablo 3 website itself (I couldn't find the artist name, so I just put down Blizzard as the artist), and the Fallen and the Barbarian belong to people on Deviant Art, whose account names should be on there.
Oh, and in case this post get's moved somewhere else, I didn't know really where to post it. It involved Diablo 3, MTG, fan art, etc, etc. So I just decided to toss it in D3 General Discussion.
3
Ignoring the fact that it's funner to farm your own gear, what is the point in playing if you can't bring yourself to experiment with gear choices (the only thing we really can experiment with that has a negative consequence, losing gold)? We cannot screw up characters, and you can always get more gold/gear later if it's a bad choice.
Am I the only one who thinks this?
1
The whole concept of the auction house was something that I had thought of negatively from the very beginning ever since it was first revealed to us before the game had launched. I suppose it was just hard to grasp at the time. Admitably, I am the sort of person who doesn't respond well to change when it comes to video games. Nostalgia is a prick, and it's a prick that gets under my skin in a very particular way. I had my hopes though after much un-necessary rant post about it.
Regardless, I bought the game, played it to the end, beat inferno, searched every crevice, and pretty much came to the same conclusion; I don't like the auction house one bit. Neither the gold or the real money one to be exact. In all honesty, I used it to, but I didn't use it because I liked, I used it because I wanted to find a reason not to hate it, but it didn't really work out that way.
Here is a list of mostly arbitrary reasons as to why I don't like the AH:
1. It's A Loot Based Dungeon Crawler
For a game that is designed around the concept of grinding for reward, I don't understand the reason for the AH. Sure, it gives you access to great things at the cost of either gold or hard earned cash, but to what reason? All gear in the game is designed for one reason; to kill things more effectively in some way. However, the very reason you choose to kill those things past completely the game and revealing it's story is to gain experience and obtain better gear. Once you are at the max level, the only reason you have left for killing is paragon levels and more loot, but mostly the loot. With a game that had and still has no PvP (soon to be released), buying anything in the auction house simply contradicts the very reason you choose to play, for the reward. When I bought something in the AH, I never found a single item that could compare when killing monsters (sometimes I did, but on very rare occasions). The only items that ever did compare were just other AH items. It eventually got the point where my grinding reward was gold for the AH.
2. It's Boring
This is a little bit of a side note really, but I actually like the idea of trading in person. Going out to other players in game and shopping for your items through trade was a nice experience and also gave the opportunity to pay for your gear through means other than gold. Now, I know I said that I disliked the AH for the very reason of buying gear, but trading is different. It takes more work, and it's harder to find what you're looking for. I believe in small quantities, getting your gear through means other than grinding is okay and a legitament part of the original Diablo experience. It brought the community together in an interesting kind of way. You actually got to chat with the guy you're trading with, and was able to work out deals and even make friends. That being said, the AH is really boring because it doesn't offer any of this. It's nothing but what seems to be a anti-social waiting game of selling your items or looking through a list of everything that has every been placed. No negotiations, no chatting, gold/USD trading only, and having instant access to any item (as long as you got the coin) turned the AH into a boring concept for me.
3. It Helps You Win Faster and Easier
This is obvious. Those who buy good gear from the AH will clearly have an easier time. That is just the thing though, you're first go to in the game if it was getting to hard was the AH, not continuing to grind. It seemed as if the AH was the key to fixing all of your problems. Not enough attack? New weapon (dirt cheap ones that are always better than yours are everywhere), dying to easily? Better armor is always at your fingertips. What was once a game that required building and careful planning to go forward has seemed to become a game where the door before you is locked and the key is gold. Gold + AH = Opened Path. It felt as if you bought your way through the game in some aspects. Now, we all know that we occasionally bought items from vendors in D2, but that was usually only at the beginning of acts. Speaking of vendors....
4. Vendors Are Useless Because of It
Since you can buy anything from the AH, in game stores are only good for potions/dyes and selling and nothing much else. Their inventory has been greatly reduced to a laughable state, and I think I visited one only a few times for dyes and that was it.
So, there's my list. It's a topic that has been worn out, I'm sure, but a topic I felt like discussing nonetheless. Diablo 3 really isn't my kind of game, and nostalgia will always beckon to me when I come across new games of old series. It's a good game, yea, but I guess I'm just not into the newer things these days. Now, I do know that the AH was also designed with the third party vendors in mind. If you can't beat them, join them right? Well.. I mean, I guess, but that seems more like a bow of defeat to me than anything. Sure, it worked, but it still ruined the game for me in a way.
1
Now, with that out of the way.
No, I don't think the game was designed to be boring. Rather, I think the game was designed to cater to a different audience. You might think the only target audience is the old Diablo veterans of the past, but they are not the only people. A large portion of the audience is newer gamers, younger (or maybe even older) people that had yet to experience Diablo. Now, I'm not trying to be judgemental or anything (and its probably going to end up being that way), but I think newer gamers (whether that be the young or the recently started) are not mentally built to enjoy (or perhaps even comprehend) older games like Diablo 1 and 2 (and other notable mentions). I'll tell you why.
Today's games are composed of an entirely different market than what existed in the past, especially in the RPG portion of the industry. Also, games are far more accessible than they were in the past. Today, you can find tons of free games on your phone, the computer, and you can purchase just about any game online at any given time. What does this do? It gives you options, and people with options tend to change between them frequently. So, more games means less time spent on each game, and that time is spread out to other games that are available. If a game is remotely even too hard at some point or slightly confusing, it's far more likely that a newer gamer will move onto a different game. Games that require a lot of time and effort to get good at due to skill trees, complex stat systems, and so on so forth, are actually not what today's gamers are looking for.
That's the challenge that today's gamers and game companies are being faced with. Game companies are making games for the newer generation of gamers, because they know that their older audience is most likely starting to get a life or becoming less interested in video games, while the older generation of gamers that still linger with the hobby frequently are being faced with playing games in a generation that is not particularly meant for their taste and older ideas. While there are plenty of notable exceptions, games for the most part, are not meant to entertain the older audience.
With all of that being said, it's time you realize that if a game is boring to you, it's probably because that game wasn't built with only your taste in mind.
1
- I would like to see a mechanic that allows us to save previous builds. This will let us switch to them instantly and not have to waste our time changing them one by one every time I want something different.
- Give us the ability to search for Public games based off Monster Power. If this is already a thing, I haven't seen it and I'm blind or something.
- Allow us to see the differences of defensive, offensive, and Vitality scores of the combined 1-Handed and Off-Hand stats when looking at a 2-handed weapon, as opposed to just seeing the difference between the 1-Hand and 2-Handed weapons. Some people get suckered into thinking that the 2-Hand they have is better than their previous 1-hand and off-hand just because they saw green stat scores on it, when it wasn't even factoring in their off-hand.
- Give set items a green background in your equipment screen (similar to how they are in the profiles) instead of the amber background that legendaries have.
- Why are there even unidentified items in the first place? I mean, really? Seems a little arbitrary, since we can just identify them at no cost, as if our characters are complete masters in figuring out items. Maybe legendary or set items can be that way, but I don't see the point in it for rare items.
Some Significant Changes- Bring back runewords, or for that matter, runes that can be inserted into weapons. As mentioned above, the gem system is boring. The only gems you'll ever use are purple gems and which ever gem goes along with your primary stat. Its practically a predetermined choice. Runes that could be inserted into weapons could have different effects other than just stat altering ones, like giving skill bonuses, AP on Crit, and other things.
- Make it worth owning the entire set of set items. I haven't seen anyone actually wear a full set before. Why? Because it's totally useless. What is the point of having set items if nobody even wears them as a set? I think set items could be made much better.
Just wanted to list some things I haven't seen mentioned yet. I won't bother listening the countless things others already have. I would mention that having your skills damage be based off weapon damage is kind of dumb and boring, but I know that it won't change.2
I hope you are just messing around. If you are serious, then I question whether or not you are any good at most RPG games.
1
That has the Tea Party written all over it.
1
Demon Hunter = Amazon + Assassin Traps
Monk = Paladin + Assassin Martial Arts
Witch Doctor = Necromancer + Druid Summoning
Wizard = Sorceress + Druid Offensive Spells
This isn't confirmed of course, this is just how I am looking at things. Remember, they were only introducing five classes at first, just like the previous. It would feel like the game would have less class variety than the LoD expansion for D2 had otherwise. Also, games always need something new so that alone is enough reason to try out new class designs.
As for the environment, I can say it looks a lot better and much more fluid than before. Sure, ground level seems a little bright, but the dungeons are very true to their "Gothic" nature and quite frankly, the monsters seem to be all about team Satan, so I don't know why you think they don't look intimidating at all (Have you seen that fucking Siege Breaker Assault thing?!)