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Alright, brace for rage!
Now, let me start off with saying that I love this game, but more on that later. Rage first!
Ever since Diablo 3's release, there have been numerous rage posts about "The game is too hard", "The game is boring", "RNG sucks!", "I want dueling pvp QQ", "My -insert class- sucks!" and other bile-spewing. While some of the negative feedback does ring true to an extent, MUST people go on such a rampage!? I'm not even just talking about Diablo 3 anymore, you see this behavior popping up all over the place!
I'll give you my experience, an anecdote for comparison and then a summary for those who are already bored of reading my sh*t.
My experience
I started playing the Diablo franchise starting at Diablo: LotD 1.09, ages before the ladder items and ubers. I loved the game so much, I even made a Vanilla char (without LotD) and a Diablo 1 char, though the latter not as much. I leveled a paladin (Zealot!), an Amazon (Dexazonpewpew!), a Sorceress (pvp tank) to level 99 and even a barbarian (scythe-whirlwind) and a Necromancer (bone spear) after 1.10. Safe to say I spent A LOT of time on that game, so far only one other game managed to waste more of my time. Truth be told though, that game wasn't balanced at all! it took my paladin and sorc as long to kill 3 cow packs as it took my dexazon to get the leg, open the portal and clear the entire place with a full party of slackers!
In 1.09, you'd only have like 1-MAYBE 2 viable specs PER CLASS. While that was annoying, people just waited patiently for the fabled patch 1.10 (which might never come). When the patch did hit -POOF- it was like I was playing an entire new game! The funny thing though, the patch that changed EVERYTHING landed WAY past release date and we'd hardly have any info beforehand, either.
So then eventually I moved on from Diablo 2 (let's face it, it DID get old eventually). Started playing WoW and a huge range of other games in between, occasionally play some offline chars on D2 for nostalgia. Then Diablo 3 was going to release. While I did look forward to it, I always try to live without expectations, keeps me happier in general. The day of release, I got to play like 2 hours with some friends before I went off to eat and came back to Error 32, so I got some sleep in as well. The next couple of days the servers stabilized and we could play again... then we hit hell (I was playing a DH and kind of forgot how to play top-down games), the going got tougher and reaching inferno, it seemed insurmountable. I didn't read forums THAT much then and just assumed it was supposed to be that way, so I just kept going.
When I grew tired of dying to the same elite pack a few too many times, or Belial smacking me a tiny bit too hard because I'm a slowpoke, I'd just turn off the game and go play something else. Watch a movie. Read a book. Be productive... See, I'd already paid for the game which, knowing Blizzard, would only improve over time and was great in its own right, I wasn't paying a monthly or annually subscription, so it's not like I lose anything for not playing it for a while. I knew what to expect from the get-go, I've been playing Blizzard games (Diablo and WoW, anyway) for a while, so I KNEW there'd be hiccups along the way. WoW was great, but it was never 100% balanced and neither was Diablo 2.
An anecdote for comparison
You know what ticks me off? Cyclists and pedestrian. Why? They think they're special, privileged. The gov spend a ton of money "improving safety" for these 2 groups of people that are called "weak road users (?)" (literally translated) in my country. As if they're a baby carried by motorists and there's an angsty mom screaming "WATCH IT, DONT DROP MY BABY" every five seconds. When they get hit by a car, a bus or a truck, the first thing that gets investigated is the motorist's situation. "Was he on the phone/texting/playing with his radio?" "Was he speeding?" "Was it intentional?" Then, if that fails, they look at the vehicle and/or the road conditions. "Was the car malfunctioning?" "was the road wet?" "Is the speed limit set too high?" etc...etc...
If all else fails and it really was the cyclist/pedestrian's fault for crossing the road without looking or for embracing his "weakness" and assuming the motorist will stop anyway... Guess what.
By now, you probably think I'm an angry car owner and lost my license because I hit a "darn youngster" on a bike. No, I'm 28, never had a drivers' license and have been biking EVERYWHERE for the past 16 years. I've never had an accident because I'm allergic to getting hit by big metal objects, so I don't act like a moron(YOLO!) Near AND far, warm AND cold. You might wonder why I'm telling you all this, well purchasing anything is comparable to deciding you'd like to get hit by a truck or not.
My opinion (or summary)
You knowingly spent 50€ or an equivalent in dollars, pounds or whatever on a game. Did you read any previews? Played beta? Knew a friend who's cousin's wife knows a guy who's played Diablo 3 on beta and said that Diablo 3 IS GONNA BE DA BOMB. In other words, are you sure that truck is stopping? Because if you're not sure, you might just as well wait until it's passed before you can 100% safely cross the road.
If you're going to tell me you bought Diablo 3 because "it's all hyped and everyone's buying it!", then I feel sad for your mom who'd have to identify your mangled remains among "everyone's" bodies who crossed the road without looking. NO ONE made you buy the game/cross the road. So you can't expect a big corporation(or huge truck) to do your bidding on the fly, it never has and never will happen. I don't know about anyone else, but when I spend 50 hours on a single player game for which I've paid 50€, I feel like I've gotten a decent game. When I've played 200+ hours on a game, I'm sure I got a really good game on my hands.
My top 5 most played games:
1. WoW ( well over 300 days /played, including afk of course)
2. Diablo 2 (well over 150 days played)
3. Battlefield 3 (1200+ hours played, effective)
4. Mass Effect games (450+ hours played, effective)
5. Diablo 3 (300+ hours played, effective)
Of course, I can't exactly play as much now as in the past, since I'm neither going to school, nor am I unemployed, but seeing the amount of games I play, Diablo 3 scores well, from an objective point of view. Do I play every day? No, I sometimes do get pissed off when my wizard oneshots herself on a RD pack, or my DH's own turrets kill her from RD. You know, 90% of the things that I disliked about Diablo 3 have been settled.
Did Blizzard make a few mistakes with announcing some things before they realized them? Sure, you could name Dueling for one, but if you'd want duelling like it was in D2, you'd be in for a nasty surprise if you were expecting balanced fights. All I can remember from D2 is fights lasting 2-3 seconds depending on LOS.
As I said, this bitching and moaning is happening on every. single. game. Sometimes I just hate the internet and long for the days when no one could afford it. Or when internet time was too valuable to waste on complaining about games.
TL;DR: Know what to expect, bitch less and stop acting like Blizzard OWES you something. Technically, you've already paid and they don't owe you squat, enjoy your game.
PS: sorry for the wall of text.
PPS: I realize I'm raging about raging. I'd just hate if raging about EVERYTHING became a thing.
