Greetings my fellow Diablofans! I haven't advertised a segment here on the forums in awhile as I usually want it to be something worth creating a discussion over. This is pretty much why I stopped spamming my WD playthrough even though I got permission to use a thread for it (plus it only seemed polite to not spam).
This time I've created a segment I call Diablo Digest which is a podcast style segment where I went over the news of the last two weeks. For anyone who didn't want to read all those blue or news posts on the front page, it's all handed to the viewer in audio format with editorial commentary from your's truely. I think it provides some good discussion points and I'm really looking for feedback from you guys to determine if it's something that would be good to do again in the future or what I could do to improve upon it.
Normally I like to put up a summary write up here on the forums for those who can't view videos while browsing the forums (and it is a froum so written discourse is encouraged) but this one is pretty broad and I'm hoping you guys won't mind watching (listening really, the footage is just filler) and letting me know what you think of it.
Thank you for your time in advance, I'm intersted to see what feedback or discussions get created from this segment.
I'm not a huge fan of video commentaries, and I usually don't have the time to view large videos. But even though this is 1:22h, its presentation is easily one of the best we've ever seen here. The summary is awesome and I could just jump into some aspects that I liked to hear some thoughts about, and I didn't need to open Youtube for that but I could check your post *here*. Really really really nicely done.
Oh, only one minor thing: it'd be the icing to the cake if the links after each summary point would link to the specific time in the video, e.g., http://www.youtube.c...8m611g#t=60m10s
I agree to many of the points that I listened from the video while jumping in, like the efficiency train - I completely agree with you, it's so sad if interesting builds are downvoted because they're not efficient.
Btw, +1 for video format - I prefer just a random D3 action in the background over having someone's face in there (you commented on this in another thread and I didn't want to post it there, but I really don't get why people need to put their freaking face up on Youtube, unless they're playing charades).
Before I do individual replies, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who's stopped by to listen and who's contributed in the form of feedback or discussion. Podcasts are new territory for me and it's been nice to see the overall reaction has been favorable.
I'm not a huge fan of video commentaries, and I usually don't have the time to view large videos. But even though this is 1:22h, its presentation is easily one of the best we've ever seen here. The summary is awesome and I could just jump into some aspects that I liked to hear some thoughts about, and I didn't need to open Youtube for that but I could check your post *here*. Really really really nicely done.
It's been a style I've done for awhile, reviewing what I've said and trying to provide a set of links for major topics or points of interest. It's time consuming, certainly, but I like having it.
Oh, only one minor thing: it'd be the icing to the cake if the links after each summary point would link to the specific time in the video, e.g., http://www.youtube.c...8m611g#t=60m10s
I'll have to consider that, it would require a bit of manual editing to make it work. The links were not intended to carry over, oddly enough. I copied the video description directly from YouTube and I guess Chrome took the links as well. I know the links work when used from the video description, but I do like the idea of having them easily reachable from here as well.
I agree to many of the points that I listened from the video while jumping in, like the efficiency train - I completely agree with you, it's so sad if interesting builds are downvoted because they're not efficient.
Btw, +1 for video format - I prefer just a random D3 action in the background over having someone's face in there (you commented on this in another thread and I didn't want to post it there, but I really don't get why people need to put their freaking face up on Youtube, unless they're playing charades).
Unfortunately I don't think we'll ever get away from efficiency, but they can at least give us more options so there's not just ONE route. Even Diablo 2 had this problem but it had a few zones that people would farm over time.
As for the facecam, we're of the same mind on that one. Even if I didn't think the way I do about facecams I have two things that would keep me from doing one. 1) no webcam and 2) a face better suited for radio than video
Yeah, not bad at all, but for me, it's just a tiny bit too long (read: at least one hour ) and I don't quite get why you're speaking about what Travis Day wrote for almost an hour and then you say who that guy is another 30 minutes later. Should've combined those parts. And if you're not discussing topics, I wouldn't even mention them in a commentary. "We're getting Offline-Mode on console." ... Yeah, who'd have guessed.
Well, I kinda like it, but just really is just TL:DW for people like me that are just having a look at the forums during a break.
Thank you for the feedback, length was something of a concern when creating it, especially since I had missed so much news over the two weeks that were covered. There were a few things I considered when I ultimately went with the long format. This being a podcast more than a real video (the video used is just filler) my hope was that people might turn it on just to listen in the background. So the fear that I needed to hold absolute attention wasn't as great. Secondly I looked at other podcasts such as the TGS podcast which often goes long. That's what ultimately made me decide to go ahead and release it.
now, that being said I still think that I'd like to start trimming my videos down in length in general. This segment, should I make another one in the future, will most likely become shorter as long as I'm able to keep up with the news. Hopefully that will help.
I agree that the Travis Day explanation should have been moved up. in the end, what happened was I read the news as it came up in order. I didn't have a set discussion plan, I just wanted to talk about the news as I read the articles so my discussion was very off the cuff. The post on Travis Day didn't come up until a few days after his blog post, which is why it ended up at the end of the podcast. Still, even if I didn't move other news articles around, that one I probably should have talked about first to avoid confusion. I just didn't want to spend too much time rearranging topics as I already had lost a lot of time by not covering everything when it happened.
It's rough and was a first attempt. I can take these issues and try to improve on them. I really do welcome the feedback and will take it all into consideration, I just wanted to at least give context to help explain why some things were the way they were.
Thanks for sharing, Enkeria. I never considered the whole thing about hearing english being a little easier than reading it. Makes sense I suppose as most people learn to speak before they learn to read/write. It also explains the analytics I see such as increased views and views from other countries on patch notes and news updates.
Thank you for translating and presenting that feedback and if you would pass on my gratitude I'd apreciate it.
EDIT: Just an amusing note since I chose the phrase "most people"... as while trying to learn Japanese myself I ended up learning to write and read the basic alphabets before I learned phrases and words. Guess i'm just backwards.
I see that you failed to understand why some people want a "No AH" checkbox. You obviously failed to realise that the drop rates would have to be adjusted accordingly. It's not a matter of "show a little restraint, you weaklings".
I've played without the AH from day 1, but if there was a "No AH" checkbox (with the respective increase in drop-rates) I wouldn't hesitate in checking it.
Granted, the increase of drop rates could have direct affects on the AH, items would flood and would become less valuable, however I feel the drop rates of rare and legendary items is a completely separate talking point from the AH. Removal of the AH (were that to happen) wouldn't mean that item rates would go up and I feel that item rates can be improved without needing an AH removal. They're already talking about ways to make item drops better such as higher stats on rares (just less of them) and ways to get more legendaries to players.
There are many ways to handle it, but like it or not the AH is here to stay. Barring a last minute reversal from Blizzard they've said they do not want to remove it because people like it. Trying to create a "no AH" group of players will just further segregate players, instad of having 2 groups (hardcore and softcore) you'd have players divided into four microcosms. This could mean that friends that want to play together can be limited because they chose to use the AH over their buddy that didn't. You could prevent that by not allowing them to trade, but that becomeas a pain and means you can't share really cool items you found either. Thre's just too many issues on both the social and technical side with creating this "no ah" gameplay that you'd just be better off removing it entirely (which again, they've stated they do not want to do).
Should they ever follow through on their high end ideas (so far it's been all talk) then I think things could work out. The idea of opening up all legendaries to 1-60 means that there's more chances for them to drop. I especially would like to see the drop rate for low level legendaries improved and by the time you find one it's usually too late. Torhlight 2 gave me several uniques near the begining that make me want to try them out with other character classes and I feel D3 has lacked that.
In short, I fully agree with you that item drop rates are sub-par right now. I do not agree that a "no AH" option would be the solution to this problem and would only add more issues to the meta-game.
I fully recognize I failed to see the two points being considered as one whole when I originally talked about it. I understand, however I still wanted to provide my rebuttal to that argument. It causes too many problems to be a workable solution. I think there are ways that can resolve the issue that won't resort to player base segregation.
It's a big topic and I rather enjoy the debate it brings. Personally I don't hate nor love the AH. It could be removed today (without item drop changes) and I'd be fine. I do think that some item drop changes need to happen either way.
Hm, interesting. I haven't listened to that particular bit of the video, but from what I read here, I agree with both of yo @maka and @KageKaze. Is that weird?
If I understand maka right, your point is that if they were to remove the AH they need to increase drop rates (I concur), but also that self-control is not a good argument to counter the "no AH" debate (I personally fail to play without the AH since it's just there; at some point I get frustrated enough by my drops such that I buy an upgrade every now and then - but I would gladly choose a "no AH mode if it was there").
If I understand KageKaze right, your point is that Blizzard said they won't remove the AH (which is true), because some players like it (and for me this happen to be my friends - so I probably couldn't join a no AH mode if it would mean that I'd have to play separated from them). So, I have to agree that the no AH option is not a solution because for me it would separate me from my friends - and they were the only reason I played D2 for 12 years.
Yeah, I get your point, that's why I said "I personally fail to play without the AH". And about having separate MP/SP characters: that's like having B.Net/offline character in D2, and then you find an item on either of them which makes playing with the toons on the other mode feel "meh".
I'm really impressed that you are not tempted to use the AH - I told myself not to do so, too, but at some point I just feel like I need an upgrade. I guess the fact that you can have a bad streak and don't get updates for a loooong time contributes to that - in WoW I never used the AH at all, because you had a constant stream of upgrades (even though they were small) coming in.
Thanks for sharing, Enkeria. I never considered the whole thing about hearing english being a little easier than reading it. Makes sense I suppose as most people learn to speak before they learn to read/write. It also explains the analytics I see such as increased views and views from other countries on patch notes and news updates.
Thank you for translating and presenting that feedback and if you would pass on my gratitude I'd apreciate it.
EDIT: Just an amusing note since I chose the phrase "most people"... as while trying to learn Japanese myself I ended up learning to write and read the basic alphabets before I learned phrases and words. Guess i'm just backwards.
Done, hope they read it!
Other comment came in to, translated
"This was a good view since I missed out of a lot of gameplay being away from Sweden (work). Thanks!"
Nice surprise to be featured on the main page. Thanks to everyone that's come by and commented either here or on YT, been some really good posts. Far less counter-arguments than I expected, maybe I'm just good at persuading people?
While you are a great commentator I think I'm starting to feel like either of two things have happened. The general audience is starting to like where Diablo 3 is going or the more negative bunch has started to lose patience with us overly positive people.
While you are a great commentator I think I'm starting to feel like either of two things have happened. The general audience is starting to like where Diablo 3 is going or the more negative bunch has started to lose patience with us overly positive people.
I think you may have a point, a lot of those who were already deeply upset with the direction have probably already moved on. Those that still look for D3 material are most likely the ones who still have hope the game will improve with a few changes.
I'm mostly happy where the game is, I spent a ton of time on it and I never regretted my purchase. I still want to see the game improve and the first expansion to bring in some much needed gameplay changes. If there's one time they can redesign skils, gear and items it'll be then.
First let me thank you for your work and great vids!
I have been follwing diablofans since D3 Beta, but just decided to create an account. So let me say "hi" to all of you.
Greetings! Obligatory: Stay awhile and listen
Now on topic (auction house good or bad?):
Can you please get more into detail at your comment around minute 47? You say you can just buy the best item on the AH. Do you mean by this throwing in real money? If you throw in real money, of course gameplay becomes meaningless.
Reason for my q: I don't think it is bad, that I am able to buy the best item in a save enviromnent of the AH. There is always a better item out there and if I want to work my way towards it, there should be a save way!
Example D2:How did you get your 1st BER rune? Did it drop, you were a lucky bastard! But no, you traded items and IST runes until you were able to
AFFORD the BER rune. Unfortunately trading in D2 in D2 environment kept you away from playing the game.
So with the AH you can play the game while trading savely. That is awesome! Why do you guys don't mention that advantage, when answering the question, if the AH is good or bad?
Buying upgrades is one thing. Buying the "best" item you can have is another. My point is that you can buy nearly all the gear you need or want either by gold or real money. If you buy items with gold, at least you need to use an in game resource, so this isn't inherently bad. The issue with buying perfect gear, or something near perfect, is that you limit the amount of good items you're going to want. Something that drops is going to be disappointing most of the time because you already bought the gear that you really needed so that hope of getting something better diminishes.
I'm not saying it's bad to ever buy gear, I'm saying that it just becomes too easy to go overboard and get the best items then you're left with nothing but killing monsters for the sake of killing monsters because you already have the best.
In this way the AH has failed because it allows the selling of the best items. Making the most powerful items findable or craftable only might be the only solution here. Especially since blizzard didn't include an item binding system (a system where you cant trade equipped items). This means that good items will flood the AH as no one wants to disenchant them (craftable mats were pretty much a dime a dozen) and they never get destroyed. We've seen this problem first hand with gems. The low level gems are worthless because they flood the AH, everyone can get them. at least in D2 they were used in recipes which made them somewhat valuable. No gems ever get destroyed, no one will vendor them when they can just be put on the AH, thus the market has a ton of gems that don't go away and the Marquis gems were created.
I can answer that one: it's too easy. So easy, in fact, that it trumps getting drops from killing monsters. Everything you get, you sell, so you can buy tailor-made items.
I think this sums up the argument above nicely. Very specific items are usually wanted with the current itemization that waiting for a drop just becomes tedious and so people would rather buy it. This is why they need more interesting item affixes (more options = less reason to need to buy) and to limit the most powerful items away from the AH.
This time I've created a segment I call Diablo Digest which is a podcast style segment where I went over the news of the last two weeks. For anyone who didn't want to read all those blue or news posts on the front page, it's all handed to the viewer in audio format with editorial commentary from your's truely. I think it provides some good discussion points and I'm really looking for feedback from you guys to determine if it's something that would be good to do again in the future or what I could do to improve upon it.
Normally I like to put up a summary write up here on the forums for those who can't view videos while browsing the forums (and it is a froum so written discourse is encouraged) but this one is pretty broad and I'm hoping you guys won't mind watching (listening really, the footage is just filler) and letting me know what you think of it.
Thank you for your time in advance, I'm intersted to see what feedback or discussions get created from this segment.
-KageKaze
Topic Summary:
Looking forward to hearing this later on.
Oh, only one minor thing: it'd be the icing to the cake if the links after each summary point would link to the specific time in the video, e.g., http://www.youtube.c...8m611g#t=60m10s
I agree to many of the points that I listened from the video while jumping in, like the efficiency train - I completely agree with you, it's so sad if interesting builds are downvoted because they're not efficient.
Btw, +1 for video format - I prefer just a random D3 action in the background over having someone's face in there (you commented on this in another thread and I didn't want to post it there, but I really don't get why people need to put their freaking face up on Youtube, unless they're playing charades).
:: Enkeria [Twitter / Twitch / Website / Tattoos]
It's been a style I've done for awhile, reviewing what I've said and trying to provide a set of links for major topics or points of interest. It's time consuming, certainly, but I like having it.
I'll have to consider that, it would require a bit of manual editing to make it work. The links were not intended to carry over, oddly enough. I copied the video description directly from YouTube and I guess Chrome took the links as well. I know the links work when used from the video description, but I do like the idea of having them easily reachable from here as well.
Unfortunately I don't think we'll ever get away from efficiency, but they can at least give us more options so there's not just ONE route. Even Diablo 2 had this problem but it had a few zones that people would farm over time.
As for the facecam, we're of the same mind on that one. Even if I didn't think the way I do about facecams I have two things that would keep me from doing one. 1) no webcam and 2) a face better suited for radio than video
I caught your message on that, thank you. It's great to know the content was considered good enough to post as news and I appreciate it immensely.
Thank you for the feedback, length was something of a concern when creating it, especially since I had missed so much news over the two weeks that were covered. There were a few things I considered when I ultimately went with the long format. This being a podcast more than a real video (the video used is just filler) my hope was that people might turn it on just to listen in the background. So the fear that I needed to hold absolute attention wasn't as great. Secondly I looked at other podcasts such as the TGS podcast which often goes long. That's what ultimately made me decide to go ahead and release it.
now, that being said I still think that I'd like to start trimming my videos down in length in general. This segment, should I make another one in the future, will most likely become shorter as long as I'm able to keep up with the news. Hopefully that will help.
I agree that the Travis Day explanation should have been moved up. in the end, what happened was I read the news as it came up in order. I didn't have a set discussion plan, I just wanted to talk about the news as I read the articles so my discussion was very off the cuff. The post on Travis Day didn't come up until a few days after his blog post, which is why it ended up at the end of the podcast. Still, even if I didn't move other news articles around, that one I probably should have talked about first to avoid confusion. I just didn't want to spend too much time rearranging topics as I already had lost a lot of time by not covering everything when it happened.
It's rough and was a first attempt. I can take these issues and try to improve on them. I really do welcome the feedback and will take it all into consideration, I just wanted to at least give context to help explain why some things were the way they were.
What comments I have gathered this far from our community (from swedish to english).
"Wow! Very informative! :)"
"Thanks for this, something to listen on while driving my truck on the job."
"Good thing we have audio on these things, I understand that way better then reading walls of text in english"
:: Enkeria [Twitter / Twitch / Website / Tattoos]
Thank you for translating and presenting that feedback and if you would pass on my gratitude I'd apreciate it.
EDIT: Just an amusing note since I chose the phrase "most people"... as while trying to learn Japanese myself I ended up learning to write and read the basic alphabets before I learned phrases and words. Guess i'm just backwards.
Granted, the increase of drop rates could have direct affects on the AH, items would flood and would become less valuable, however I feel the drop rates of rare and legendary items is a completely separate talking point from the AH. Removal of the AH (were that to happen) wouldn't mean that item rates would go up and I feel that item rates can be improved without needing an AH removal. They're already talking about ways to make item drops better such as higher stats on rares (just less of them) and ways to get more legendaries to players.
There are many ways to handle it, but like it or not the AH is here to stay. Barring a last minute reversal from Blizzard they've said they do not want to remove it because people like it. Trying to create a "no AH" group of players will just further segregate players, instad of having 2 groups (hardcore and softcore) you'd have players divided into four microcosms. This could mean that friends that want to play together can be limited because they chose to use the AH over their buddy that didn't. You could prevent that by not allowing them to trade, but that becomeas a pain and means you can't share really cool items you found either. Thre's just too many issues on both the social and technical side with creating this "no ah" gameplay that you'd just be better off removing it entirely (which again, they've stated they do not want to do).
Should they ever follow through on their high end ideas (so far it's been all talk) then I think things could work out. The idea of opening up all legendaries to 1-60 means that there's more chances for them to drop. I especially would like to see the drop rate for low level legendaries improved and by the time you find one it's usually too late. Torhlight 2 gave me several uniques near the begining that make me want to try them out with other character classes and I feel D3 has lacked that.
In short, I fully agree with you that item drop rates are sub-par right now. I do not agree that a "no AH" option would be the solution to this problem and would only add more issues to the meta-game.
It's a big topic and I rather enjoy the debate it brings. Personally I don't hate nor love the AH. It could be removed today (without item drop changes) and I'd be fine. I do think that some item drop changes need to happen either way.
If I understand maka right, your point is that if they were to remove the AH they need to increase drop rates (I concur), but also that self-control is not a good argument to counter the "no AH" debate (I personally fail to play without the AH since it's just there; at some point I get frustrated enough by my drops such that I buy an upgrade every now and then - but I would gladly choose a "no AH mode if it was there").
If I understand KageKaze right, your point is that Blizzard said they won't remove the AH (which is true), because some players like it (and for me this happen to be my friends - so I probably couldn't join a no AH mode if it would mean that I'd have to play separated from them). So, I have to agree that the no AH option is not a solution because for me it would separate me from my friends - and they were the only reason I played D2 for 12 years.
I'm really impressed that you are not tempted to use the AH - I told myself not to do so, too, but at some point I just feel like I need an upgrade. I guess the fact that you can have a bad streak and don't get updates for a loooong time contributes to that - in WoW I never used the AH at all, because you had a constant stream of upgrades (even though they were small) coming in.
Oh man. I know this is inappropriate... but... sorry... can't resist...
yeah, my posts always gets ignored because of those spammers
Done, hope they read it!
Other comment came in to, translated
"This was a good view since I missed out of a lot of gameplay being away from Sweden (work). Thanks!"
:: Enkeria [Twitter / Twitch / Website / Tattoos]
Ha. Bagstone.
I really enjoyed listening to your commentary and feedback about recent Diablo III announcements, and I look forward to hearing more.
I think you may have a point, a lot of those who were already deeply upset with the direction have probably already moved on. Those that still look for D3 material are most likely the ones who still have hope the game will improve with a few changes.
I'm mostly happy where the game is, I spent a ton of time on it and I never regretted my purchase. I still want to see the game improve and the first expansion to bring in some much needed gameplay changes. If there's one time they can redesign skils, gear and items it'll be then.
Greetings! Obligatory: Stay awhile and listen
Buying upgrades is one thing. Buying the "best" item you can have is another. My point is that you can buy nearly all the gear you need or want either by gold or real money. If you buy items with gold, at least you need to use an in game resource, so this isn't inherently bad. The issue with buying perfect gear, or something near perfect, is that you limit the amount of good items you're going to want. Something that drops is going to be disappointing most of the time because you already bought the gear that you really needed so that hope of getting something better diminishes.
I'm not saying it's bad to ever buy gear, I'm saying that it just becomes too easy to go overboard and get the best items then you're left with nothing but killing monsters for the sake of killing monsters because you already have the best.
In this way the AH has failed because it allows the selling of the best items. Making the most powerful items findable or craftable only might be the only solution here. Especially since blizzard didn't include an item binding system (a system where you cant trade equipped items). This means that good items will flood the AH as no one wants to disenchant them (craftable mats were pretty much a dime a dozen) and they never get destroyed. We've seen this problem first hand with gems. The low level gems are worthless because they flood the AH, everyone can get them. at least in D2 they were used in recipes which made them somewhat valuable. No gems ever get destroyed, no one will vendor them when they can just be put on the AH, thus the market has a ton of gems that don't go away and the Marquis gems were created.
Thank you very much, I shall do my best
I think this sums up the argument above nicely. Very specific items are usually wanted with the current itemization that waiting for a drop just becomes tedious and so people would rather buy it. This is why they need more interesting item affixes (more options = less reason to need to buy) and to limit the most powerful items away from the AH.