Just picked up game again after patch 1.04 was thinking about the repeated complaints about lack of endgame and how it could be remedied. Diablo 2 had no endgame beyond grinding to level 99 which was not fun or practical for many people, so why did people play for a decade?
Simple, Diablo 2 had character customization. The REAL endgame was starting a new toon and creating a different build, since the game allowed for a variety of specialized builds, this provided an endless well of motivation for players to keep playing. Diablo 3 completely removed character building and customization from the equation, any build can become another build in a few seconds. The itemization fails to replace this system since virtually all items are equally good for any build of a particular class, chances are that my Inferno item set will serve your barbarian as well as it served mine. There no reason on earth why anyone would ever create more than one softcore monk, the end result would be two identical characters competing for endgame loot.
The solution is to bring back permanent character choices on level up, and to greatly diversify skills and passives to allow for weird, wacky builds that completely alter the way characters are played. When this is done it should be supported by the creation of items that cater to unique styles of play. The charm of creating some really unorthodox unarmed barbarian build will keep people busy for years just like with D2.
The other path the team can follow is to try and constantly create new content for players to tackle, like an MMO releasing new dungeons/areas for endgame players. I believe this is the wrong path since the team will never be able to produce meaningful content faster than players play through it. They would need to release a new act every few months for players to not grow bored, and it is just an unreasonable expectation for a non-subscription based game. Character creation and customization was fundamental for Diablo, and its removal is the reason why people struggle to find new content, if it is brought back it will ultimately give the game more replayability than even the best implemented endgame content.
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Simple, Diablo 2 had character customization. The REAL endgame was starting a new toon and creating a different build, since the game allowed for a variety of specialized builds, this provided an endless well of motivation for players to keep playing. Diablo 3 completely removed character building and customization from the equation, any build can become another build in a few seconds. The itemization fails to replace this system since virtually all items are equally good for any build of a particular class, chances are that my Inferno item set will serve your barbarian as well as it served mine. There no reason on earth why anyone would ever create more than one softcore monk, the end result would be two identical characters competing for endgame loot.
The solution is to bring back permanent character choices on level up, and to greatly diversify skills and passives to allow for weird, wacky builds that completely alter the way characters are played. When this is done it should be supported by the creation of items that cater to unique styles of play. The charm of creating some really unorthodox unarmed barbarian build will keep people busy for years just like with D2.
The other path the team can follow is to try and constantly create new content for players to tackle, like an MMO releasing new dungeons/areas for endgame players. I believe this is the wrong path since the team will never be able to produce meaningful content faster than players play through it. They would need to release a new act every few months for players to not grow bored, and it is just an unreasonable expectation for a non-subscription based game. Character creation and customization was fundamental for Diablo, and its removal is the reason why people struggle to find new content, if it is brought back it will ultimately give the game more replayability than even the best implemented endgame content.