Stop thinking of ilvl as we know it in WoW. That whole completely randomized stats thing... yeah, that's not something we content with in WoW. In a sense, you are right... at least from reading your title. ilvl doesn't really mean anything for D3, other than to indicate that an item has the potential (based on greater base stats, dps or armor) to be better than other items in the game.
My point is that they worried about something that doesn't mean as much as the game being fully functional on release. Did they use beta to see if people liked the game or to see if the game worked as close to "functional" as possible? I know that optimally, both should be achieved or should at least be the goal, but were either of them even near achieved?
What part of the game isn't functional? Out of the box, the game works. It may not be what people were hoping for, but from a functionality standpoint, it seems just fine. Being a Software Test Engineer, things like this peak my interests.
I'm referring to what was considered one of the worst game releases ever by many sources. I don't care about the NV stacks or skill swapping or any of that. I'm referring to beta being so short and seemed to have a severe lack of stress testing that caused the launch to be... well... poor. So many class changes were made in recent patches that have virtually made previous achievements for some DH's and Wizards pretty much worthless. Do your best to do the tedious balancing act before people actually beat the game. Don't wait for people to clear content and then be like "Oh guys, hey, they did that too easily, lets fix it!".
Thank you for your response. If I am reading this correctly,.. You are unhappy due to the lack of stress testing resulting in Error 37s on launch day and you are unhappy with the class balancing that has happened post launch.
As for the stress on the servers. A beta isn't going to solve this per say. It would have required the beta to be open to everyone all the time. Even then, it's hard to base final sales numbers on turn outs for a Beta. Understand, this isn't coming from my love of Blizzard. This comes from 9 years in QA working for multiple game studios. This comes from an extensive background in network testing for game franchises such as GoW, Halo and Guild Wars. Opening up the beta to all players would have helped, but in the end, it's not reliable enough. I share your pain, well... kind of. I really only dealt with the Error 37s for the first couple of hours, then things were stable for me. I know this is not the normal case... I was an exception to the rule.
Stress testing a network is incredibly difficult. Trying to simulate that kind of traffic on your own network is possible but flawed. Because all of the simulated connections are coming from within the network itself.
As for the class balancing that has been done in recent patches. Personally, I feel like it stems from an overtuning of Inferno, to the point where Blizzard wasn't able to beat it (without the use of testing tools). So some of this was to be expected. Not saying that I necessarily agree with the changes...
Oh and one more point to add concerning the Beta. To be able to attempt to stress the servers anywhere near what the total number of users is, they would have needed to purchase more servers to hold the players. While that doesn't seem like a bad idea (Blizzard has gobs of money so it should be a no-brainer) It doesn't make much sense to me. Soaking a bunch of money into servers you are using for beta and testing purposes, servers that would be isolated from the Live servers and only used every so often... It doesn't seem like the right thing to do (at least in my mind.)
I do want to agree with you, there has been a lot of frustration that is seemingly caused by Blizzard. It's a rough go.
My point is that they worried about something that doesn't mean as much as the game being fully functional on release. Did they use beta to see if people liked the game or to see if the game worked as close to "functional" as possible? I know that optimally, both should be achieved or should at least be the goal, but were either of them even near achieved?
What part of the game isn't functional? Out of the box, the game works. It may not be what people were hoping for, but from a functionality standpoint, it seems just fine. Being a Software Test Engineer, things like this peak my interests.
It's only an absurd response to you. The rest of us are reading it as intended. The feedback was based on skill swapping and not specifically about Nephalem Valor.
And as for the problems that should have been fixed for release... I guess that depends on what you are calling the major problems. If you are referring to the difficulty curve in Inferno, no. Beta shouldn't have helped with that. Remember, Blizzard stated that they tuned Inferno to the point of not being able to beat it themselves. If you are referring to the lag that people are getting... Well, maybe. Though it depends on who participated in the beta and who reported things. As for any other bugs, It all kind of depends on what was reported during the beta.
Why does everybody bitch and whine constantly, going over the same shit that has been said a thousand times. Diablo III is fucking amazing, regardless of its flaws and shortcomings. Nobody discusses what Blizzard did right.
What did they do right? What did they do that is worthy of the Diablo franchise name?
What did you do to make your opinion matter more than the rest of ours? I think the game is awesome and worthy of Diablo franchise name. It's a lot of fun. That's all it needs to be. Many others share that opinion with me. We don't need to justify to you why it's good, because we could really care less if you play or not.
What makes you think people who dislike the game need to justify anything to you? Or to anyone for that matter. At what point did the guy you quoted attempt to push is opinions on the rest of us? Do you feel this way because he/she didn't add something like "I think" or "In my opinion"?
Really, who cares about your opinion of the game? Why should the person you quoted give two shits about what you said? It's funny, the person you quoted made a blanket statement about a studio that made a game, and YOU took it as a personal attack.
This whole idea of "Oh god, someone doesn't like something I like... I should argue with them, belittle them, insult them and break their spirits until they believe as I do." needs to stop. It's okay to have your opinions. It's okay for someone to opose your opionions. It's fine to argue the reasons why your opinions are what they are... What we don't need is the condesending attitude, the belittling and the insulting that seems to go along with the opinions.
What did they do right? What did they do that is worthy of the Diablo franchise name?
If you're so narrow minded to even ask "What did they do right" then sadly my opinion of your intelligence and maturity is vastly diminished. Not that in your immaturity would care.
Are you really insulting someone over opinions? You are essentially saying that the person you quoted is less of a person than you are, because they don't think the way you do. Yet you call them "Narrow Minded"?
Some people love D3 (I am in that group), other people are going to hate it and blame Blizzard for ruining a good franchise. It's fine that we can all argue our points for our side, but to blatently insult a person because of their opinions... especially when those opinions relate to a fucking game...It's ridiculous.
You had pay to win in Diablo 2 as well it was just done on shady sites.
That is such, such bullshit.
But it was true.
I watched as friends used those sites, or eBay for that matter, to buy gear so they too could have a hammerdin for Power Leveling, a smiter for Ubers and so on... Hell, even I bought gear to pimp out my thrown barb... The only difference between then and now? Now, it's done in house and Blizzard is okay with it.
Good.
When the going gets tough, the noobs & casuals get going.
Blizzard is paying for their own spoiled WoWscrubs.
It's people like this who never do anything great, because they give up.
Take this as an example everyone. Laugh at this person when the BIG BAD HORRIBLE BUGS are fixed, expansion(s) are out, & this game is thriving.
65 hours.. Jesus fucking Christ. 65 hours of gaming for $60 & you asked for a refund.
Fuck off. I don't care if I get banned for saying that.
That's unacceptable for any product. That's like eating a whole bag of chips & returning it because the crumbs on.the bottom weren't big enough.
God damn crybaby. Get the fuck off the forums & leave the people with common sense & patience alone while we enjoy the game.
Wow, and you. You are an asshole. To get this upset because someone asked for and was granted a refund. It seems to me that you need to unplug for a while, eat a big bag of shut the fuck up and rethink your life. Who the hell cares if he got a refund. If you want to be pissed off about it? Be pissed at Blizzard for granting the refund request. Obviously Blizzard decided that his reasons were good enough to grant the request. As I mentioned earlier. Your enjoyment of the game is in no way changed by one person asking for and getting a refund.
I really don't see what the fuss is about. The guy asked for a refund and Blizzard granted it to him. There is no point in asking why Blizzard would do such a thing. There is no point in getting on the guy because he wanted a refund. Played time doesn't matter if Blizzard decided to give him the refund. So to all of you who are getting on the OPs case, back down... let it go, move on with your life. Your satisfaction in the game is not in any way related to one person's opinions. Smile, nod and move the fuck on.
Embros, you pose an interesting question. It does seem like use of the AH is required to keep progressing. That said, it's not the intent. If we look back at the previous incarnations of the game, we see that they are based on gear grind. From my personal experience in Diablo 2, I wasn't able to solo Hell Diablo or Baal without a great deal of time spent farming. It took me months to acquire the runes I needed to put my hammer pally together. It took even longer to get the +1 combat skills grand charms to make him potent (17k per hammer at his max). Granted, this is my experience and others may have been able to do it faster or slower than I did.
As for your second post, regarded the most efficient way to clear the game. At this point, I think you are right. If you are looking to go through the game without the constant gear grinding, the AH is the way to go. To me, what that comes down to is play style. If you are the kind of player who wants to progress quickly and linearly, then the AH is currently the more efficient way. If you are the kind of player that enjoys grinding the same (but more difficult) content to find your gear, then efficiency isn't something you are too worried about.
In the end, I think Blizzard stuck with the same gearing model as Diablo 2 (and potentially diablo 1) thus intending for people to grind lots and lots to get the gear to progress.So, it will come down to the playstyle of each individual. Essentially, what they want out of the game.
I also think that the idea of efficiency via AH is a result of Inferno being as difficult as it is.(Not that its difficulty is a bad thing in my mind)
It sounds like you have had your account compromised. Head to the official Diablo 3 site, follow the steps to secure your account once more, change your password, start the recovery steps and think about investing in an authenticator if you don't already have one.
0
0
0
Thank you for your response. If I am reading this correctly,.. You are unhappy due to the lack of stress testing resulting in Error 37s on launch day and you are unhappy with the class balancing that has happened post launch.
As for the stress on the servers. A beta isn't going to solve this per say. It would have required the beta to be open to everyone all the time. Even then, it's hard to base final sales numbers on turn outs for a Beta. Understand, this isn't coming from my love of Blizzard. This comes from 9 years in QA working for multiple game studios. This comes from an extensive background in network testing for game franchises such as GoW, Halo and Guild Wars. Opening up the beta to all players would have helped, but in the end, it's not reliable enough. I share your pain, well... kind of. I really only dealt with the Error 37s for the first couple of hours, then things were stable for me. I know this is not the normal case... I was an exception to the rule.
Stress testing a network is incredibly difficult. Trying to simulate that kind of traffic on your own network is possible but flawed. Because all of the simulated connections are coming from within the network itself.
As for the class balancing that has been done in recent patches. Personally, I feel like it stems from an overtuning of Inferno, to the point where Blizzard wasn't able to beat it (without the use of testing tools). So some of this was to be expected. Not saying that I necessarily agree with the changes...
Oh and one more point to add concerning the Beta. To be able to attempt to stress the servers anywhere near what the total number of users is, they would have needed to purchase more servers to hold the players. While that doesn't seem like a bad idea (Blizzard has gobs of money so it should be a no-brainer) It doesn't make much sense to me. Soaking a bunch of money into servers you are using for beta and testing purposes, servers that would be isolated from the Live servers and only used every so often... It doesn't seem like the right thing to do (at least in my mind.)
I do want to agree with you, there has been a lot of frustration that is seemingly caused by Blizzard. It's a rough go.
0
0
What part of the game isn't functional? Out of the box, the game works. It may not be what people were hoping for, but from a functionality standpoint, it seems just fine. Being a Software Test Engineer, things like this peak my interests.
0
And as for the problems that should have been fixed for release... I guess that depends on what you are calling the major problems. If you are referring to the difficulty curve in Inferno, no. Beta shouldn't have helped with that. Remember, Blizzard stated that they tuned Inferno to the point of not being able to beat it themselves. If you are referring to the lag that people are getting... Well, maybe. Though it depends on who participated in the beta and who reported things. As for any other bugs, It all kind of depends on what was reported during the beta.
2
What makes you think people who dislike the game need to justify anything to you? Or to anyone for that matter. At what point did the guy you quoted attempt to push is opinions on the rest of us? Do you feel this way because he/she didn't add something like "I think" or "In my opinion"?
Really, who cares about your opinion of the game? Why should the person you quoted give two shits about what you said? It's funny, the person you quoted made a blanket statement about a studio that made a game, and YOU took it as a personal attack.
This whole idea of "Oh god, someone doesn't like something I like... I should argue with them, belittle them, insult them and break their spirits until they believe as I do." needs to stop. It's okay to have your opinions. It's okay for someone to opose your opionions. It's fine to argue the reasons why your opinions are what they are... What we don't need is the condesending attitude, the belittling and the insulting that seems to go along with the opinions.
0
Are you really insulting someone over opinions? You are essentially saying that the person you quoted is less of a person than you are, because they don't think the way you do. Yet you call them "Narrow Minded"?
Some people love D3 (I am in that group), other people are going to hate it and blame Blizzard for ruining a good franchise. It's fine that we can all argue our points for our side, but to blatently insult a person because of their opinions... especially when those opinions relate to a fucking game...It's ridiculous.
0
But it was true.
I watched as friends used those sites, or eBay for that matter, to buy gear so they too could have a hammerdin for Power Leveling, a smiter for Ubers and so on... Hell, even I bought gear to pimp out my thrown barb... The only difference between then and now? Now, it's done in house and Blizzard is okay with it.
0
Wow, and you. You are an asshole. To get this upset because someone asked for and was granted a refund. It seems to me that you need to unplug for a while, eat a big bag of shut the fuck up and rethink your life. Who the hell cares if he got a refund. If you want to be pissed off about it? Be pissed at Blizzard for granting the refund request. Obviously Blizzard decided that his reasons were good enough to grant the request. As I mentioned earlier. Your enjoyment of the game is in no way changed by one person asking for and getting a refund.
0
0
As for your second post, regarded the most efficient way to clear the game. At this point, I think you are right. If you are looking to go through the game without the constant gear grinding, the AH is the way to go. To me, what that comes down to is play style. If you are the kind of player who wants to progress quickly and linearly, then the AH is currently the more efficient way. If you are the kind of player that enjoys grinding the same (but more difficult) content to find your gear, then efficiency isn't something you are too worried about.
In the end, I think Blizzard stuck with the same gearing model as Diablo 2 (and potentially diablo 1) thus intending for people to grind lots and lots to get the gear to progress.So, it will come down to the playstyle of each individual. Essentially, what they want out of the game.
I also think that the idea of efficiency via AH is a result of Inferno being as difficult as it is.(Not that its difficulty is a bad thing in my mind)
0
0