On August 29 2023 19:19 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: I was never really starved for gold during D4, but if they wanted to arbitrarily give everyone a gold and experience boost, they should have realized by now that a tiny, incremental, temporary boost isn't going to cut it. I think they either should have released a more drastic boost (like doubling all experience and gold, not just +25%), or improved the game in such a way that players don't get bored grinding. Or both of these solutions, because this 4-day boost isn't going to keep players around for any longer than that.
They should just go all in on being the casual mass market ARPG. A lot of the pain points that are being complained about the most come from trying to appeal to both casual players and hardcore grinders. If I could level a new seasonal char from 1-100 and get full BIS gear in 50-80 hours, I'd play the game more.
Yeah, I think this is the right take. They had enough feet in the door from brand power, and had strong enough aesthetics and gamefeel to impress all those people initially. They've also already shown an unwillingness to give up the larger, probably more profitable casual audience. So why not just fully commit to them?
Arguably dangling a meaningless +25% boost is doing so, perhaps, lol
But I guess they lose a lot of their name power if they throw away all their old fanbase. Honestly I would've thought Blizzard had already kinda done that, but Diablo 4 was still huge.
Some of their old, hardcore fanbase are among their loudest, most vocal detractors, yes. But there is also a huge part of their fanbase that has become casual as they got older. Some don't even play videogames much anymore but still come back whenever some old series releases a sequel (like lots of my friends and relatives). Blizzard has also picked up plenty of new fans from their newer games like Diablo 3 but those people are invisible to us because they grew up on reddit and don't really visit fansites like TL.
25% boost is laughable. The time to level from 40-100 should really be cut roughly in half.
And they should just remove half or more of the item affixes in the game because they serve nothing but to dilute the pool.
For the game's longevity, they should rely instead on people coming back every so often to start a new char. With 5 classes and multiple viable builds per class, that's enough to keep people playing for a long time. Stretching one level 1-100 play through too long just risks people not having the desire to start a new char in the first place.
On August 31 2023 05:09 andrewlt wrote: Some of their old, hardcore fanbase are among their loudest, most vocal detractors, yes. But there is also a huge part of their fanbase that has become casual as they got older. Some don't even play videogames much anymore but still come back whenever some old series releases a sequel (like lots of my friends and relatives). Blizzard has also picked up plenty of new fans from their newer games like Diablo 3 but those people are invisible to us because they grew up on reddit and don't really visit fansites like TL.
25% boost is laughable. The time to level from 40-100 should really be cut roughly in half.
And they should just remove half or more of the item affixes in the game because they serve nothing but to dilute the pool.
For the game's longevity, they should rely instead on people coming back every so often to start a new char. With 5 classes and multiple viable builds per class, that's enough to keep people playing for a long time. Stretching one level 1-100 play through too long just risks people not having the desire to start a new char in the first place.
100 % agree with this take, although im quite certain that this will never happen.
what i would like to add that will help a bunch for casual players (like myself these days) is all the QoL stuff that is still missing in the game, those tend to shy away casuals way more then more dedicated players
with that said, i kinda like the buff on exp AND gold (would it be permament) since it helps both playstyles, alt-levlers and respecers. and i kinda dont mind the long road to lvl 100 since its not mandatory for most content, and the mindless rush to max lvl like in D3 wasnt fun at all, so it should take some time imho
On August 31 2023 05:09 andrewlt wrote: Some of their old, hardcore fanbase are among their loudest, most vocal detractors, yes. But there is also a huge part of their fanbase that has become casual as they got older. Some don't even play videogames much anymore but still come back whenever some old series releases a sequel (like lots of my friends and relatives). Blizzard has also picked up plenty of new fans from their newer games like Diablo 3 but those people are invisible to us because they grew up on reddit and don't really visit fansites like TL.
25% boost is laughable. The time to level from 40-100 should really be cut roughly in half.
And they should just remove half or more of the item affixes in the game because they serve nothing but to dilute the pool.
For the game's longevity, they should rely instead on people coming back every so often to start a new char. With 5 classes and multiple viable builds per class, that's enough to keep people playing for a long time. Stretching one level 1-100 play through too long just risks people not having the desire to start a new char in the first place.
Exactly. I got one Char to lvl 60 in the pre-season and have now my second char at almost 60 in the first season. I hate leaving things unfinished, but as a family man these days, the amount of time one has to put in to get close to 100 is just impossible. And even if I had the time, I probably wouldn't grind all the way.
Bigger inventory and gem satchel + more exp and gold would be nice. Right now I need about 15min per nightmare dungeon. 10 min playing and 5 min sorting through stuff. With a daily playtime of somewhere between 30-60min I can do 2-4 dungeons, which is about a level which means I need at least another 40 days ...
I got one char to 90+ before I mostly stopped playing mid-July. I have the same experience in nightmare dungeons, 10 mins to play and 5 mins of administrative stuff per dungeon. It was taking me around 2 hours for 1 level when I stopped. I finished 3 dungeons with my brother the other day and gained less than half a level. It didn't feel like anything changed even with the supposed density changes. 2 of those runs looked like it was a new NM dungeon with crappy density.
Soooo is it dead yet? ^^' Twitch numbers say it's down from 220k average in June to 2k average in September. I guess player number are somewhat similar. With Season 2 about 4,5 weeks away it feels much more lika a one and done game and not a GaaS game. Will you guys give it another go with S2 or somewhere later down the line?
On September 13 2023 15:52 Harris1st wrote: Soooo is it dead yet? ^^' Twitch numbers say it's down from 220k average in June to 2k average in September. I guess player number are somewhat similar. With Season 2 about 4,5 weeks away it feels much more lika a one and done game and not a GaaS game. Will you guys give it another go with S2 or somewhere later down the line?
I probably won't. I got level 100 on rogue in preseason, and then got a barb to low 70's over a few weeks before losing motivation.
The gear hunt is just annoying, because literally everything that drops with ancestral could be a minor upgrade until you get something near perfect. Until then you're stuck poring over inventory every time you go back to town. I think on my rogue I got maybe 2-3 upgrades from 90-100, because most of my gear already had ideal stats, just needed better rolls. Didn't really want to go through it again on the barb. Getting to a point where he could easily farm WT4 is enough.
Releasing a game without endgame activities (Uber Lillith and NM100 are just achievements, not activities).
On September 13 2023 15:52 Harris1st wrote: Will you guys give it another go with S2 or somewhere later down the line?
I'm not sure I'll have the time. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I put into each character, but unless an enormous patch is released or a new character is released, playing D4 isn't a priority for me right now.
Probably because the players have generally received the video chats, explanations, and thought processes favorably, especially compared to just reading the patch notes without any context or understanding as to why the developers are making the changes that they are.
On September 13 2023 15:52 Harris1st wrote: Soooo is it dead yet? ^^' Twitch numbers say it's down from 220k average in June to 2k average in September. I guess player number are somewhat similar. With Season 2 about 4,5 weeks away it feels much more lika a one and done game and not a GaaS game. Will you guys give it another go with S2 or somewhere later down the line?
I'll give it a go much later down the line. Starting to play for an hour or two every few weeks to finish the eternal season chars I already have. I really thought the game had a good start. But some of their patches made the game worse instead of better.
Honestly, I would rather have the game be mostly dead in month 2 of a season. I'm a bit of a binge gamer. If I can't finish a season in 2 weeks, then they made the grind too much and I'm not interested in coming back. I prefer being able to finish content in the initial rush without having to play the entire season.
Glad Diablo 4 is bad cause it gave him a chance to enjoy all these other, better games like Starfield, Armored Core, Last Epoch, Baldurs Gate 3
I wholeheartedly agree with him :D
Yes, pretty much this. He mentioned he intended on going deep on D4 and making it the main focus of his channel but because D4 is so bad he tried other things instead (should add PoE and Sea of Thieves to what you mentioned before) and had a blast. It also made him realize how empty the AAA promises are and how their games are often a trap when some indie or AA studios produce much better titles that are actually fun to play with much more player agency and without it feeling like a chore.
I can definitely understand him. When I still had D4 installed I had this constant nagging feeling that I should play it because there's season progress to be made, stuff to be unlocked and at the same time whenever I thought about actually launching the game and how I need to play it I immediately started looking for other things to do. When you actively seek excuses not to play a game it can't be good so I made the decision to not give a crap about season progress and all that bullshit and just uninstalled it. It turned out to be a great decision as it instantly freed me from the chore loop and it felt like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.
Glad Diablo 4 is bad cause it gave him a chance to enjoy all these other, better games like Starfield, Armored Core, Last Epoch, Baldurs Gate 3
I wholeheartedly agree with him :D
Why are they better?
Because they are more fun to play than D4.
I disagree on starfield, BG3 and armored core x.x its just very person to person
Yep, we can disagree individually, but the numbers speak by themselves, and d4 interest dried rather quickly compares to those.
On personal note, elden ring was what made me stop playing d4, and then Coop bg3. I have been having a blast that i didn't have in years, but d4 contributed zero, It was just another bland Blizzard attempt to stat relevant and grab cash from a dwindling playerbase that would eat their crap.
EPT
