DiabloFans

Quote from miles_dryden

Apparently there are some people who really feel this way,

Yes, and some even bothered to document these feelings.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/diablo-iii/user-reviews

There are also some people that copy and paste long posts without bothering to discuss any of the material in them. It takes all kinds.

Quote from eman41

Guinea pig for what?

A bunch of things.

"Can we use it as a loss leader to extend wow subs and get a one-time cash out?"

Yes!

"Can we use it as a trial balloon for in-game real money markets?"

Err.... no

"Can we prove that we have the talent and experience to make something as good as former off-site teams?"

No, not even close.

"Will players still buy if it's always online?"

Yes! But many of them will hate it, and related performance issues.

"Can we move an IP to console?"

Well, sort of. Relative to the PC release, a triumph, I guess.

"Could we put a brick in a box and still have a solid core fanbase and not affect WoW subs?"

YES!

It's a great research project. Too bad it damaged the brand so much. The only thing for sure is that they would NEVER monkey with the RTS or WoW fanbase in such an abusive, high-handed way.

This xp seems to be trying hard for the "gothic horror" vibe, which they're really just kind of bad at.

It also offers nothing in regards to PVP and only one character (which seems like a warmed-over paladin only with less personality).

It would be an impressive free patch.

I think it's pretty obvious that the Diablo IP is just a "guinea pig" for execs and the better devs there have been on HotS.

The "haters" had an impact on sales, clearly.

It looks like it sold well under a mil on each non-pc platform. When you realize that margins on console are much worse, you realize that it probably barely penciled out relative to dev costs, unlike WoW, which makes something ridiculous like 20x dev costs on a constant basis.

This is despite the console version being much superior to the PC by all accounts.

"...or else we might as well make a new game."

Nice, a straightforward admission that all they are doing is retreading.

At least they're honest about it.

"Not as bad" is far from "good".

It would be great if itemization and character-identification issues went from "disaster" to "almost acceptable". That's optimistic.

That only leaves the other major issues - the horrible story and ham-fisted implementation of it, the levels totally lacking effective randomization and hence immersion, rubberbanding and hitboxes, an attempt at PVP that plays like something from a five-digit budget kickstarter title, etc.

Anyhow, faith is a real blessing. Some people believe in people rising from the dead and floating into the sky, some believe that guys who heard voices were hearing the true words of the creator of existence, some people believe that a company with billions in the bank deserves yet more money despite a decade of uninspired, shoddy reiterations and increasingly shady consumer practices. De gustibus...

Quote from Shad3slayer

and people have hope that D3 will finally be a worthy successor to D2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battered_person_syndrome

Quote from CardinalMDM

Lately, so many more people are showing support for the game, instead of just posting the same dumb crap all the time about D2 and POE.

That's because the millions who were dissapointed with the last couple of years finally got sick of whining and waiting and just left.
The extremely large "community" that loved (and loves) D2 is basically gone, and the minority that doesn't see D3 as a flaming train wreck remains. Which is probably a win-win for both groups.

The weak console sales and relatively very slow forums, like this one, reflect this. I don't think we'll be seeing any confetti parade "fastest sale ever" news blurbs about the expansion, for that matter, unless they find a way to tie it into WoW subs.

In the bigger picture, the genre itself has been pretty well driven into the ground. No one is particularly excited about anything in the ARPG space at the moment, and this most recent generation didn't have a single title that really filled the gap left by D2, or even came close.

The beaten-wife syndrome evidenced today is truly hilarious.

People want so badly to believe in something which really hasn't existed in years, and will line up to be the first to give their money now that mean ol' hubby has changed his ways.

They didn't miss the launch window for the new consoles because of any obsession with quality - they missed it for the same reason they shipped a mediocre game, never really made PVP, and will be lucky to ship an expansion in under two years.

But this is inevitable when a corporate culture spends a dozen years moving away from actual focus on their products and promotes people based on their ability to play politics.

An utterly trashed economy and confusing mess seems like an appropriate way to finish up year 1 of D3.

Gratz!

Quote from shaggy

Because we don't want an MMO?

D3 is an MMO. A very, very gimped MMO.

Obviously, it's Blizzard All-stars - because the world needs another dota/smash bros in a world where LoL and Valve's dota exist. Not to mention the original war3/dota.

Beyond jumping the shark... Between this, the movie, the lukewarm reception of Diablo to PS, and the increasingly obvious vapor that is titan, it might be a long couple of years for bliz.

Now we only need offline and the arena-style pvp they showed off years ago!