21 replies to this topic

[Nikdik]

If D3 was the fastest selling computer game of all time, why the does the dev team have so much apathy towards its players? An ARPG shouldnt have as much content as an MMO, but even for Blizzard standards the game is lacking a fun factor in the end game. A game that sells 10 million copies deserves continuous content updates, end of story.  Paragon levels was a start, but the fundamental problem of one act being the best for farming still exists.

Adding the RMAH to the game while cutting out several pieces of content for no reason is one thing, but I feel like Blizz is just damaging their reputation by neglecting the player's  outcrys. I post this not to criticize the dev team, I am a concerned player who wants to keep enjoying the game.

Edited by Nikdik, 24 December 2012 - 08:04 PM.

[Rxrlol]

Blizzard will create alot of content for the game. Just be patience

[Ducha]

They do take what we say into consideration, it's just that some of the ideas we tell them may not be the best thing for what they're working on, or it might work against something they're thinking of releasing in the near future. That being said there are some ideas I've seen on the Blizz forums that I think are gold, but there is also a bloody heap that just seem to look like a tonne of players wanting to turn the game back into Diablo 2.

I have a feeling we won't be getting a lot of content until the expansion maybe a fix or two after pvp

[Nikdik]

Ducha, on 24 December 2012 - 02:25 AM, said:

They do take what we say into consideration, it's just that some of the ideas we tell them may not be the best thing for what they're working on, or it might work against something they're thinking of releasing in the near future. That being said there are some ideas I've seen on the Blizz forums that I think are gold, but there is also a bloody heap that just seem to look like a tonne of players wanting to turn the game back into Diablo 2.

I have a feeling we won't be getting a lot of content until the expansion maybe a fix or two after pvp

That's an interesting and valid perspective. Im sure the dev team is slaving away to make the game as good as possible. Jay Wilson said that if "pvp doesnt come out this year it will be a disaster". They have 8 days to fulfill that promise which will not happen. Then again it is probably best that the patch get delayed, I'm sure balancing all the classes to some level equality is difficult.

Edited by Nikdik, 24 December 2012 - 02:42 AM.

[Ducha]

Nikdik, on 24 December 2012 - 02:41 AM, said:

Ducha, on 24 December 2012 - 02:25 AM, said:

They do take what we say into consideration, it's just that some of the ideas we tell them may not be the best thing for what they're working on, or it might work against something they're thinking of releasing in the near future. That being said there are some ideas I've seen on the Blizz forums that I think are gold, but there is also a bloody heap that just seem to look like a tonne of players wanting to turn the game back into Diablo 2.

I have a feeling we won't be getting a lot of content until the expansion maybe a fix or two after pvp

That's an interesting and valid perspective. Im sure the dev team is slaving away to make the game as good as possible. Jay Wilson said that if "pvp doesnt come out this year it will be a disaster". They have 8 days to fulfill that promise which will not happen. Then again it is probably best that the patch get delayed, I'm sure balancing all the classes to some level equality is difficult.

Couldn't  have said it better myself!

[overneathe]

I know this will sound defensive and fanboyish but you have to take in mind that the Diablo team is compromised of very little developers. That's the sole reason the game wont be having great content patches. The game is a one time sale with some small RMAH income that mostly goes into server maintenance. There aren't a lot of money to pay more developers that would work on those content patches.

As much money as some people may think Blizzard is making off the RMAH, it can't even start to compare to WoW subscriptions. It's not even 1/50th. The only time they'll be getting a comparable amount is when they release an expansion.

[Ducha]

*ALERT Fanboyism incoming*

It's definitely something that escapes a lot of peoples minds when Diablo development is the topic. But considering the such small team they have, they certainly do an amazing job of what they do. Some may say that they took less time to introduce patches for D2, (bare in mind I'm no game designer so I don't have a lot of knowledge when it comes to new systems and such) but the D2 was run on a different engine, making it easier to tweak things and such. D3 is a lot later so things take a lot longer to develop because of all of the codes involved and the process involved in creating new environments and systems (like monster power, not space lol).

That's just what I think about when the game's development comes to mind.

[cidien]

Its blizzard, we have to wait a lot for the stuff they make. Now imagine that diablo was made by guys who made call of duty series, by now we would have diablo 9 with paid dlc every few months and everyone would be sick about it.

merry christmas!

[Bagstone]

Nikdik, on 24 December 2012 - 01:47 AM, said:

If D3 was the best-selling game of all time, why the does the dev team have so much apathy towards its players? An ARPG shouldnt have as much content as an MMO, but even for Blizzard standards the game is lacking a fun factor in the end game. A game that sells 10 million copies deserves continuous content updates, end of story.  Paragon levels was a start, but the fundamental problem of one act being the best for farming still exists.

Adding the RMAH to the game while cutting out several pieces of content for no reason is one thing, but I feel like Blizz is just damaging their reputation by neglecting the player's  outcrys. I post this not to criticize the dev team, I am a concerned player who wants to keep enjoying the game.

1) "D3 dev team question"? You realize that these are not the official forums...

2) "apathy towards players"? "neglecting the player's outcrys"? => If I was working at Blizzard, I would feel insulted. The have regular Q&A panels at Blizzard events, there are occasional tweets, there was an AMAA on Reddit, and loads of interviews. The dev's representatives, the community managers, are reading the official forums and have responded to almost every constructive (and sometimes even unconstructive) topic at some point - it's difficult to find a topic about D3 which wasn't touched with a blue post at some point.

If you want to criticize them, then I would be totally okay if you say that they made wrong design decisions in terms of skill design, item design, and some aspects of overall game design (atmosphere etc). However, they at least tried to come up with something new, tried to re-invent the genre one more time and not just creating a sequel with updated graphics but 1:1 same content and mechanics.

3) "A game that sells 10 million copies deserves continuous content updates, end of story." You don't play too many other games, do you? There are crappy games with similar number of sold copies that never got any update. Plus, D3 gets content updates, end of story. The last one was just about ~2 months ago. It's not like any other non-MMORPG game gets 5-10 content updates a year - hell, many games get zero.

[pikke]

mmm...I too would have expected at least some "miniquest" introduction but we have to concede they did a lot of work in these past few months.
Lot of bugs to be fixed, Paragon levels, skill changes, game balancing, performance issues on many different hardware setups and so on.

The problem is: something about this game went terribly wrong in the final stage before the 2011 planned release, they had to postpone the launch to half 2012, scrap PvP, tear away runestones and an artisan, scrap togheter something that would seem a game, start beta to keep people happy and drag it longer than expected while polishing all they could polish and then release it.

Now they are working on PvP, which, as posted above, is going to be tricky.

After the PvP patch release (and maybe some PvP balancing ones) they may be able to work on content, but I would not be surprised if they will focus on the expansion, which could drag the whole D3 caravan back on track AND bring some money into Blizz pockets.

Considering all written above I think the devs are not doing so bad now, but what happened before is a sorry mess.

I still like the game and have fun playing it, hope the future is brighter.

[Vooodu]

Nikdik, on 24 December 2012 - 01:47 AM, said:

If D3 was the best-selling game of all time, why the does the dev team have so much apathy towards its players? An ARPG shouldnt have as much content as an MMO, but even for Blizzard standards the game is lacking a fun factor in the end game. A game that sells 10 million copies deserves continuous content updates, end of story.  Paragon levels was a start, but the fundamental problem of one act being the best for farming still exists.

Adding the RMAH to the game while cutting out several pieces of content for no reason is one thing, but I feel like Blizz is just damaging their reputation by neglecting the player's  outcrys. I post this not to criticize the dev team, I am a concerned player who wants to keep enjoying the game.

I don't know what blizzards mental issues are, Jay Wilson included.

There have been tidal waves of posts regarding pvp in Diablo 3 and nothing ever gets discussed.  Even Jay Wilson at the Spike VGA dodges the question and goes all' Its super secret".


Im sorry but when the majority of pvp fans are angry with its current state of NOTHING in D3, anything is better then nothing. Especially when this feature was a major selling point for some people and  it still doesn't exist 7 months later.

[Vooodu]

Bagstone, on 24 December 2012 - 09:02 AM, said:

2) "apathy towards players"? "neglecting the player's outcrys"? => If I was working at Blizzard, I would feel insulted. The have regular Q&A panels at Blizzard events, there are occasional tweets, there was an AMAA on Reddit, and loads of interviews. The dev's representatives, the community managers, are reading the official forums and have responded to almost every constructive (and sometimes even unconstructive) topic at some point - it's difficult to find a topic about D3 which wasn't touched with a blue post at some point.

The most important part of the game never gets touched by blues, devs or even Jay Wilson...... As in P  V  P.

Besides "It won't be in the expansion and we can use our own gear''  Alls they do is ignore anyone with PVP questions.


AMAZING!!!

[Vooodu]

overneathe, on 24 December 2012 - 07:46 AM, said:

.

As much money as some people may think Blizzard is making off the RMAH, it can't even start to compare to WoW subscriptions. It's not even 1/50th. The only time they'll be getting a comparable amount is when they release an expansion.

So basically D3 being garbage is because of WOW and their panzy subscriptions?


I think your are right if thats yor point.


Any normal game dev that sold over 3.5 millon copies of a game on opening day would be very grateful to their fans.   But not blizzard. thanks to WoW they think they are entitled to MOUNTAINS of cash on a daily basis.

[IgnatiusReilly]

Quote

Any normal game dev that sold over 3.5 millon copies of a game on opening day would be very grateful to their fans.

How exactly should he communicate this, and why does this affirmation matter so much to you? Not to mention most of the "fans" spit vitriol at just about anything that comes out of their mouth. I'd avoid their fans like the plague if I were him.

An update every so often is fine, if they have information, if they don't, then whatever, life goes on. It's not in Jay's job description to make use feel good about ourselves.

[Vooodu]

IgnatiusReilly, on 24 December 2012 - 05:33 PM, said:

Quote

Any normal game dev that sold over 3.5 millon copies of a game on opening day would be very grateful to their fans.

How exactly should he communicate this, and why does this affirmation matter so much to you? Not to mention most of the "fans" spit vitriol at just about anything that comes out of their mouth. I'd avoid their fans like the plague if I were him.

An update every so often is fine, if they have information, if they don't, then whatever, life goes on. It's not in Jay's job description to make use feel good about ourselves.

Well then obiviously he can't handle if he 'gets his fellings hurt'' and should be fired. Or let someone else do it... Simple really.

There are ton of games out there where Devs always answer "FANS'' questions.  Or at least acknowledge them.  With D3, the fastest selling/best selling PC game they should be more than happy to answer any and all questions... Especially after the huge pay day the got from it.

Problem is they sold a very different game than what was originally 'shown' to the public.  The removed alot of great features from D3 and released a game that wasn't even finished yet.  And after selling a TON of copys of an unfinished game they then started to ignore the majority of great posts which involvve questions/idea for the game.


This game makes me want to snap... Especially the forums on Diablo3.com.


A few posts asking for some info on pvp, buffing skills and over all balancing get no attention while the BLUEs post about what kind of music the enjoy listening to while playing...............Really?


Do i have to tie Jay Wilson up to a pole and beat the the answer out of him?  Because any normal person would just simply answer the question, especially after making SO MUCH MONEY OFF THE GAME...meh.

Edited by Vooodu, 24 December 2012 - 05:54 PM.

[maka]

Bagstone, on 24 December 2012 - 09:02 AM, said:

The dev's representatives, the community managers, are reading the official forums and have responded to almost every constructive (and sometimes even unconstructive) topic at some point - it's difficult to find a topic about D3 which wasn't touched with a blue post at some point.

Whaaaaat. Despite the fact that they deal with the 'créme de la crap' that the internet has to offer (forum trolls), the CMs are pretty trollish themselves (some more than others). Plus, some of the best, most well written, and most poignant threads get completely overlooked (perhaps because they ask uncomfortable questions), while we get blue posts like "what hero do you most resemble". I'm really disappointed with the official forums CMs, to be honest.

[Nikdik]

Bagstone, on 24 December 2012 - 09:02 AM, said:

Nikdik, on 24 December 2012 - 01:47 AM, said:

If D3 was the best-selling game of all time, why the does the dev team have so much apathy towards its players? An ARPG shouldnt have as much content as an MMO, but even for Blizzard standards the game is lacking a fun factor in the end game. A game that sells 10 million copies deserves continuous content updates, end of story.  Paragon levels was a start, but the fundamental problem of one act being the best for farming still exists.

Adding the RMAH to the game while cutting out several pieces of content for no reason is one thing, but I feel like Blizz is just damaging their reputation by neglecting the player's  outcrys. I post this not to criticize the dev team, I am a concerned player who wants to keep enjoying the game.

1) "D3 dev team question"? You realize that these are not the official forums...

2) "apathy towards players"? "neglecting the player's outcrys"? => If I was working at Blizzard, I would feel insulted. The have regular Q&A panels at Blizzard events, there are occasional tweets, there was an AMAA on Reddit, and loads of interviews. The dev's representatives, the community managers, are reading the official forums and have responded to almost every constructive (and sometimes even unconstructive) topic at some point - it's difficult to find a topic about D3 which wasn't touched with a blue post at some point.

If you want to criticize them, then I would be totally okay if you say that they made wrong design decisions in terms of skill design, item design, and some aspects of overall game design (atmosphere etc). However, they at least tried to come up with something new, tried to re-invent the genre one more time and not just creating a sequel with updated graphics but 1:1 same content and mechanics.

3) "A game that sells 10 million copies deserves continuous content updates, end of story." You don't play too many other games, do you? There are crappy games with similar number of sold copies that never got any update. Plus, D3 gets content updates, end of story. The last one was just about ~2 months ago. It's not like any other non-MMORPG game gets 5-10 content updates a year - hell, many games get zero.

I know it's not the official forums. I was unjustly banned from those many moons ago. I was asking the players on this forum for some insight. Sorry for the confusion!

I know I seem very heated and QQ'esque in my OP. I do love Diablo 3, I just wish that Blizzard pooled more of their resources towards it. I just don't understand why the dev team is so small for the sequel to one of the bestselling and most critically acclaimed franchises of all time.

I do play plenty of other games. Im balancing Guild Wars 2 and SWTOR on top of Diablo 3 right now.  A lot of people slam SWTOR for it's lack of content but the devs are really turning that game around. The first expansion is coming out in January which is one new planet, 5 more levels and several equipment and character upgrades. All for 10$. There were 200 players in the republic fleet when I logged in last night. Now let's compare that to Diablo 3, which rarely has 100 on a good night. Guild Wars 2's head developer just posted an open letter stating his intentions to improve pvp. Where is the pvp blog Jay Wilson promised us this year, and why is the rest of the dev team silent?

Edited by Nikdik, 24 December 2012 - 07:15 PM.

[Gheed2010]

Nikdik, on 24 December 2012 - 01:47 AM, said:

If D3 was the best-selling game of all time

Sims 3 has sold well over ten million, and the Sims series has sold over 125 million.

Much of D3's "sales" are subscribtion giveaways, in any case.

The most important point, though, is that WoW has made more revenue on much better margins since D3 only since D3 was released.

WoW regularly makes 1.5 billion a year, with a solid billion of that as profit, while D3 has made a half-billion, tops, after marketing and development costs of about a quarter billion.

When you consider the damage that D3 has done to the Blizzard brand despite making only a quarter's worth of WoW's regular annual profits, the fact that the stock peaked for the year the day D3 was released and is much lower now, despite a generally higher stock market and the continuing success of CoD and skylanders (and WoW), makes sense.

All of the above might explain why some folks are a bit defensive and touchy.

Edited by Gheed2010, 24 December 2012 - 07:26 PM.

[Nikdik]

Gheed2010, on 24 December 2012 - 07:25 PM, said:

Nikdik, on 24 December 2012 - 01:47 AM, said:

If D3 was the best-selling game of all time

Sims 3 has sold well over ten million, and the Sims series has sold over 125 million.

Much of D3's "sales" are subscribtion giveaways, in any case.

The most important point, though, is that WoW has made more revenue on much better margins since D3 only since D3 was released.

WoW regularly makes 1.5 billion a year, with a solid billion of that as profit, while D3 has made a half-billion, tops, after marketing and development costs of about a quarter billion.

When you consider the damage that D3 has done to the Blizzard brand despite making only a quarter's worth of WoW's regular annual profits, the fact that the stock peaked for the year the day D3 was released and is much lower now, despite a generally higher stock market and the continuing success of CoD and skylanders (and WoW), makes sense.

All of the above might explain why some folks are a bit defensive and touchy.

Thanks for pointng out that error, i meant to say fastest selling.

[Indimix]

99% of the ideas that can improve the game enormously, just don't follow the Bl$$ard's philosophy.