By Nathan Grayson on August 20th, 2012 at 8:00 pm.
If nothing else, it’s been intensely fascinating to watch Blizzard do its damndest to rapidly evolve its Lord-of-the-Damned-damning ARPG’s endgame. Whether the intentions underlying it all are misguided or not, Diablo III’s certainly taken some interesting twists in the past few months. And now, Blizzard’s announced what is by far the biggest addition yet: an entire new system of progression for folks who are currently busting their blades on the level cap. Specifically, that means 100 new “Paragon” levels that imbue you with improved Magic Find, better base stats, and – most importantly of all – a “distinctive increasingly-impressive border” on your character portrait.
Here’s a basic rundown of how the new system operates – straight from Blizzard’s sub-zero snowcapped mountain lair in sunny California.
- After you hit level 60, any further experience you earn from killing monsters will begin to count toward Paragon levels
- There are 100 Paragon levels
- Every Paragon level will reward you with:
- Core stats such as Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Vitality in amounts similar to what you’d gain from a normal level
- 3% Magic Find and 3% Gold Find
- In addition, a distinctive increasingly-impressive border will surround your character portrait in the in-game party frame to denote your Paragon progression, with a new frame earned after every ten levels. Your Paragon level will also be visible to other players wherever your normal level is shown
Blizzard also noted that the first leap into Paragon-hood should take roughly as long as the leveling process from 59 to 60. It’ll then increase from there. So basically, if you were hurting for new giant numbers to chase for all eternity, now you’ve definitely got them.
It sounds like a fairly interesting system, too. Apparently, the Magic and Gold Find stats will remedy the need for high-level gear-swapping, which Blizzard claims many players only did out of necessity. Still though, it’s sort of a shame there’s no new story content to support this. I mean, I know these things take ages to make, but – even with Paragon levels – it’s still just glorified farming at this point. Also, some players have raised the concern that high-level characters can already tear through enemies as though they’re pinatas of both the loot and regular varieties, so I’m interested in seeing how Blizzard handles the issue of challenge once insane people hit Paragon level 100 35 hours after the system launches.
20/08/2012 at 20:04 Freud says:
It looks like 1.04 will be a good start to making D3 what it should have been. Much better legendaries and the start of endgame systems with this Paragon thingie.
20/08/2012 at 20:07 stretchpuppy says:
Agreed.
20/08/2012 at 20:09 fish99 says:
Yup, but will anyone come back to play it? If the Blizz plan was to make money off the RMAH for years they really had to get these changes in before launch.
20/08/2012 at 20:13 Hoaxfish says:
The effect of additional Magic Find bonuses seems like it’s going to screw the RMAH even more.
20/08/2012 at 20:58 BluElement says:
I’ll be back to play it. Even without a story continuation or anything, at least there’s some sort of progression now past the easily-reached level 60. And I’ve only ever found one Legendary, and it’s a crappy level 14 legendary, so I’m looking forward to actually having items to strive for.
21/08/2012 at 00:02 Victuz says:
The reason I stopped playing was because I’m a ridiculously unlucky when it comes to drop so I literally NEVER got a thing I could use, even early game. I’ve heard they’ve tweaked some of that so maybe my horrible luck won’t be as painful.
And the paragon levels might help a bit. Maybe it’s just me but I like having some goal that I strive for other than “ok i’ll end this session after I earn 10m gold”. And hey they actually give legitimate bonuses to mf and stats so there is more point to them than say COD paragon levels.
21/08/2012 at 03:43 Kablooie says:
You weren’t ridiculously unlucky. I found the drops equally dismal, and so did a lot of folks – the reasons we quit. I had something like 300+ hours or so sank into the game, a good amount of it was farming Hell Act 1&2 trying to get the uber loot I need to progress. To no avail. I finally became convinced (true or not) that the drop odds were deliberately made as improbable as they could be in order to drive business to the RMAH.
As for this news, well, I could care less about progressing past 60, if those odds remain unchanged. Magic Find buff? Cool. Does it actually work, or does it mean that just more crap drops?
21/08/2012 at 08:43 frightlever says:
I’ll be back to playing after 1.04, but if loot drops improve in quantity (due to MF bonuses) or quality (due to legendary tweaking) they’ll be improving for everyone so it’s still going to be difficult for average players to make any gold from the AH – but if I can equip myself without the AH, just using my own drops the way I did with D2 then I’m fine with that.
For all the mistakes made with the end-game and the RMAH, I still have had a lot of fun from D3.
22/08/2012 at 02:44 skittles says:
There are still a surprisingly large amount of players ingame.
20/08/2012 at 22:22 mouton says:
Any game that requires that “endgame” thing is fundamentally flawed.
20/08/2012 at 22:48 Freud says:
Any game without a story with a beginning and end (which D3 also has for those that are happy with just one playthrough) need to have mechanics in place to encourage people to play.
Multiplayer games are basically just endgame, with an increasing focus on grinding these days. MMOs and games like Diablo are about grinding. People can play those games for thousands of hours.
I’m not sure if criticizing Diablo for having mechanics in place to motivate grinding is all that valid. If anything Blizzard has been blasted by gamers for not having enough of them at launch.
20/08/2012 at 23:08 Hoaxfish says:
The other end of the scale would be puzzle games like Tetris, with high scores etc…
I’m not sure they’re really Endgames though when it constitutes the whole game.
Perhaps the issue isn’t just the Endgame… it’s games that have a Beginning, Middle, but then an Endgame instead of just an End.
21/08/2012 at 00:36 mouton says:
Multiplayer games that require “endgame” usually have a large part that is mostly boring filler or grind, until you get to the “good stuff”. Multiplayer games that I prefer, like RTS or FPS are not sequenced like that. The whole game experience is valuable and remains largely the same.
21/08/2012 at 02:14 linknin1655 says:
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20/08/2012 at 22:54 derbefrier says:
but its the players that are demanding it, does that mean gamers are “fundamentally flawed” and not the game itself? Its blizzards fanbase thats seems to have this idea all games must have unlimited re-playability or its a failure. They simply cant beat a game and set it down it has to last for thousands of hours or they feel ripped off. All of this is what the community has asked for ole jay didn’t come up with this himself.
I like it it provides another form of character progression, something D3 was sorely missing.
21/08/2012 at 08:42 Toberoth says:
“does that mean gamers are “fundamentally flawed” and not the game itself?”
Yes. Well, maybe both.
21/08/2012 at 02:56 Walf says:
Sound like good changes. I’m looking forward to putting them to the test when the patch hits here (hopefully tonight). Hoping they’ll continue to add more alternative advancement stuff and PVE content when the PVP patch comes out.
Also, wondering if the DOTA style game map still made it into the PVP patch?
20/08/2012 at 20:05 Moraven says:
People wanted the same grind as getting lv 99 in D2.
20/08/2012 at 20:08 Hoaxfish says:
I find the “other” Diablo news much more funny, where-in the devs of Diablo3 sling insults at the Ex-Blizzard North dev of Diablo/Hellgate (David Brevik).
Including Jay Wilson’s “fuck that loser”
http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-3-developers-react-angrily-to-dave-brevik-interview
20/08/2012 at 20:34 fish99 says:
Haha :)
You know it is kinda bad form to rip on someone elses work, especially when you were involved in making Hellgate:London.
20/08/2012 at 20:36 Jenks says:
I feel like there is an exemption when you are the creator of the series you’re criticizing.
20/08/2012 at 20:39 RandomEsa says:
You know it is kinda bad form to rip on someone elses work, especially when you were involved in making Diablo 3
20/08/2012 at 20:42 psyk says:
Why? Why can he not say it sucked and why can they not say his a twat?
20/08/2012 at 20:47 RandomEsa says:
Because they’re professionals, they should know better.
If you make a product and someone criticises it and in this case with rather legitimate arguments you don’t go and straight out and insult him. Sure they can say that hellgate: london sucked ( and it did) but that doesn’t prove him wrong.
20/08/2012 at 23:56 Roshin says:
He doesn’t actually say “it sucks”. He’s being fairly diplomatic and avoids any personal attacks.
21/08/2012 at 14:08 RavenGlenn says:
He said that he was a little happy that it’s crappy. That’s pretty insulting to the people that put years of their lives into it. I’d say the same thing about someone that said that about a project I put years into.
20/08/2012 at 21:01 Hoaxfish says:
Reading through the original interview, I wouldn’t really say he “ripped” on them. Sure he basically said he would’ve made different design decisions, and basically repeats some of the issues that the community generated (loot not feeling “good”)… he doesn’t seem to be insulting the final product, or them in general.
That the D3 devs seem so upset by it is a little weird, when they’ve apparently shrugged off the same criticisms from their own community… but clearly coming from the series originator is a stronger “peer review”.
20/08/2012 at 22:42 Yimmeryams says:
Agreed.
20/08/2012 at 22:23 SiHy_ says:
I don’t get it. His answers seemed very diplomatic and considered to me. He seemed like a genuinely warm person who cares about the community of the game series he helped to birth. He said he was proud of the work his team did back in the day, however people seem to read into that praise as denigration of the current team.
He was clearly disappointed with the game but he didn’t outright say that. He said that the game was very different to the one Blizzard North would have made, which is true. Would it have been better for him to lie?
Man, people will make a drama over anything!
20/08/2012 at 22:43 Yimmeryams says:
I also agree with this.
21/08/2012 at 05:38 fish99 says:
Point taken, TBH I didn’t read what he said, just the blizz responses.
21/08/2012 at 00:35 Deltadisco says:
And yet for all of the crap that Hellgate:London receives – even as a failure it is still more interesting (and IMHO entertaining) than Diablo 3. Even years later I still wish there had been a LAN mode so my wife and I could play a non-Hanbit-ized version together.
21/08/2012 at 01:05 Lemming says:
I’d argue that Hellgate London was, actually, more of a successor to Diablo 2 than Diablo 3 has turned out to be.
21/08/2012 at 03:01 Walf says:
I’d argue that it stank and wasn’t worth plodding through even once and paying a 300 dollar lifetime subscription for content that should of been made available to everyone. That a group of PC developers should of never teamed up with a company like Namco and be expect to make a “diablo Killer”. That it was even more riddled with lame pop-culture references then WoW. That all the areas looked the same. AND, it was one of the biggest let downs I have ever seen in the PC gaming scene.
21/08/2012 at 10:14 Namey says:
Oddly enough, I still ended up playing HGL longer than D3.
21/08/2012 at 14:16 CrookedLittleVein says:
“That it was even more riddled with lame pop-culture references then WoW.”
Dear Lord . . . how many members of the A-Team did they have running around in game?!?
20/08/2012 at 20:39 psyk says:
Who gives a shit? Why are “famous” people held to such different standards to everyone else? I hope you guys seriously think about what you have posted on the web and how it can be linked backed to you by anyone who puts a little effort in.
EDIT –
Why are people stalking the dudes facebook page?
20/08/2012 at 20:51 Beelzebud says:
These designers don’t really meet the criteria for “famous”. Besides, it is not about fame, it’s about professionalism.
20/08/2012 at 21:05 Hoaxfish says:
I try to think about what I post… including the simple idea of not posting under my real name when possible, and in the case of Facebook… not setting my account to public viewing.
So, yes, this is really just office gossip for the industry… but I still find it funny.
20/08/2012 at 22:45 Yimmeryams says:
Famous people aren’t held to different standards; it’s just easier to see when they do something stupid because of the amount of people watching them.
What Jay Wilson did was rude and unprofessional. If I said that, it would also be rude and unprofessional, with the differences being my lack of fame and importance.
20/08/2012 at 23:02 derbefrier says:
they stalk his facebook page because they are nerds, the scary obsessive type. whats funny is the same people will tell you how much D3 sucks and how jay wilson should be fired, yet they hang on his every word and lurk the forums 24 hours a day. Blizzard fanboys are some of the strangest around.
I heard about this morning and didnt care and i still dont, as far as i am concerned its just a dude cussing out another dude on facebook hardly a rare occurrence and to those that say but but hes a professional blah blah blah!! yeah he is but hes also a person and people break from time to time. anyone with a high stress job understands this and after the constant abuse he takes on the forums and everywhere else on the internet it looks like this guy was just the straw that broke the camels back. Give him a break turns out hes human after all.
21/08/2012 at 03:10 Walf says:
I can’t really excuse what they said, but I do feel like it’s dumb that people are blowing everything out of proportion. Even if Bevrik was giving a fairly even handed comment on what he disliked about the game, I imagine the people who poured the last 5 years or more into the project only to be told that they were basically never be as good as the original team would take that a bit personally. So I can’t blame them for their reactions.
And seriously, #&*! everyone for feeding off it like it’s going to vindicate their decision making process. This isn’t kindergarten or grade school. Most of you people should know better and the comments I am seeing make this whole issue look even worse for the community of gamers as a whole.
21/08/2012 at 09:23 Milky1985 says:
People have been fired from lower paying jobs for less than that with relation to thigns said on facebook, so its a bit silly to be posting comments that bring a company into disripute via your actions.
21/08/2012 at 17:58 psyk says:
Posted by DzX
“I know it’s kind of hypocritical given I commented on this when it was first posted, but the fact this has blown up into a great controversy is just proof of how immature the gaming community at large can be. Nobody should care this much about the reactionary comments of people they have never met regarding another person they have never met just because that person was part of a team that made a game they like over a decade ago… ”
Says it all tbh and this representing your company in everything you do needs to be stopped quick.
20/08/2012 at 21:01 Yosharian says:
Hahahaha omg that is fucking hilarious! That old D2 dev fucking called them out on their shit and I LOVE it. And they are so far up their own asses that they can’t even see the truth of his statements… that’s really sad.
20/08/2012 at 21:42 Dances to Podcasts says:
Actually, it sounds more like ‘this game isn’t like D2 and people were disappointed it isn’t D2′. I suspect it might have something to do with him having worked on D2 ;)
20/08/2012 at 21:54 Yosharian says:
Nah it doesn’t sound like that at all.
20/08/2012 at 22:47 Yimmeryams says:
Actually, that is how it sounds. The problem is people twisting Brevik’s words for their own purposes.
20/08/2012 at 23:29 Yosharian says:
What it actually is, is “this game is crap, unlike D2″.
Deviating from D2′s formula isn’t the problem, and in actual fact is a good thing. The problem is that what they’ve come up with isn’t even as good as D2.
21/08/2012 at 13:54 Nick says:
you mean him creating the diablo series..
20/08/2012 at 21:03 andrewi31 says:
Mr Brevik was setup by the journalist to humiliate Mr Wilson.
IncGamers: “Do you think they bought the wrong people in? As we understand, Jay Wilson, for example, his background was RTS… blah blah loot blah … What are your thoughts on that?”
Brevik responded basically saying the loot system had some design issues. Why does a journalist want to dig out opinions on an individual like that? Seems kind of unprofessional, especially with all the the ridiculous typos in the interview. Does it make this journalist feel smarter, or like they are better at their job because they know what the fuck these guys names are? Oh, they hired so and so, well that’s why the game sucked. What a load.
20/08/2012 at 21:45 Dances to Podcasts says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leading_question
20/08/2012 at 21:23 Namey says:
That is absurdly immature from someone in Jay Wilson’s position.
20/08/2012 at 21:50 ReV_VAdAUL says:
Given how badly he takes such mild criticism one has to wonder if any of the bad design decisions were flagged internally but no one dared to raise them out of fear.
21/08/2012 at 07:07 kio says:
Rumours I’ve heard and seeing the results of their games are starting to confirm that for me. It seems like a lot of the clueless and egotistical head producers/presidents are suffocating the rest of the very talented development team. It’s kind of depressing.
20/08/2012 at 21:53 ReV_VAdAUL says:
This reminds me of the news from a week or two ago where in spite of the evidence their own database showed them that people mostly played Diablo 3 in single player, thus undermining the only “legitimate” excuse for the always on DRM, Blizzard insisted that most people actually wanted to play co-op just something was somehow stopping them.
Their opinion is always the correct opinion it would seem.
21/08/2012 at 12:02 Nallen says:
Much like after the overwhelming negative feedback on the story, both on Reddit and the official forums they said “the majority of feedback we have received on the story is positive”.
21/08/2012 at 00:02 zeroskill says:
Wow that’s so sad!
20/08/2012 at 20:09 Azradesh says:
“Arrgl barggrll farrrggrlll! Diablo 3 sucks monkey balls!!!11!!ONE!!11 GRRRrrrr Rage whine cry!
People are still playing this?
Fuck Blizzard!
Jay Wilson is a fart!
Diablo 2 is teh bestest!
Enjoy your crap game, I’ll be playing Guild Wars 2.”
Did I miss anything or are we covered for this post?
20/08/2012 at 20:15 Emeraude says:
Missing a lot still.
20/08/2012 at 20:23 Nice Save says:
DIABLOFACE
20/08/2012 at 20:25 RandomEsa says:
You forget the one where diablo 3′s devs bash on Brevik ( the original creator of the series) because he would have done few things differently. Before you ask its not fake and original post ( Wilson deleted his post)
//Thanks, I saw one guy pointing out how close they are so it sort of stayed in my mind.
20/08/2012 at 20:31 LTK says:
David Brevik, without the i, please. Breivik is a completely different person.
20/08/2012 at 20:33 NathanH says:
You didn’t even mention DRM. Come on, man, try harder.
20/08/2012 at 21:32 Obc says:
also kungfupanda
20/08/2012 at 21:46 Dances to Podcasts says:
There’s a diabolical lack of puns in this thread.
20/08/2012 at 21:59 Emeraude says:
Naaa, the puns are always on, you just need to be properly connected.
20/08/2012 at 22:50 Skabooga says:
Cut us some slack, it’s hard RMAHing all these puns into every article.
21/08/2012 at 09:24 Milky1985 says:
I would post a pun but i have 37 errors to deal with.
20/08/2012 at 21:56 MarloBrandon says:
You forgot “Skinner box”, among other things. Good effort though.
20/08/2012 at 23:13 jaheira says:
Not bad at all. Remember to insult anyone that bought D3 on the grounds that they’re killing PC gaming though. Also, try to remind them that they’re not really enjoying the game – they just think they are, that’s very important.
20/08/2012 at 23:33 NathanH says:
Yep, it’s not a proper post unless it includes “enemies of gaming”, preferably in bold.
20/08/2012 at 23:57 faelnor says:
- Torchlight 2 > Diablo 3
- Servers suck, error 37
- Koreans
- Fuck naysayers, Diablo 3 is a fun game
- Always-on internet connection is the devil/the future of gaming
- WoW gayness
- RMAH farce
- Typical Activision tripe
- Chinese farmers
- Account hacking, I hate authenticators
- My account was banned because I quoted the word “cavernous” on the forums
- Me and my friend spent at least X hours on D3 and[...]
20/08/2012 at 20:10 aliksy says:
I said they should’ve added something like this pretty early on. Ending leveling reduced one of the few working carrots in the game.
Now if only they’d add an endless dungeon so you can kill monsters without the awful story or gimmicky bosses getting in the way, maybe I’d reinstall. Probably not because of the hit detection and gear>skill thing, but maybe.
20/08/2012 at 20:11 Fenriff says:
This could just be me but I don’t see the point in this at all. You’ll be doing the EXACT same thing as you’re already doing at the end of D3 but now with a number associated with how much you’ve done it. The way leveling worked 1-60 was really well done because it spaced everything out perfectly so that every level you gained something, be it a new skill or a rune for an existing skill. These new levels don’t actually ADD anything at all to the game.
But this is also from the point of view of someone who doesn’t see the point of grinding at the end of D3 in the first place. Killing the same enemies in the same settings for gear that there’s no use for because you’ve already beaten everything just doesn’t make sense to me.
20/08/2012 at 20:23 aliksy says:
I liked the idea of the runes unlocking as you leveled at first, but in practice there were a bunch of dead levels where nothing I wanted unlocked.
As to the reason, I take this as extra icing on top of the whole get-better-gear thing. Previously if you were trying to get through Inferno, all the xp you’d earn would be good for nothing. At least now these “paragon levels” should give a slight advantage.
Probably gonna be one more thing to fuck up PvP, though.
20/08/2012 at 20:28 stretchpuppy says:
The levels sure do add something to the game. Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Vitality, GF and MF.
20/08/2012 at 22:31 Tacroy says:
I’m pretty sure that grinding these new levels in D3 is more likely to remove GF than add new ones.
20/08/2012 at 23:48 Wang Tang says:
You mean it’s like an anti-girlfriend mode? But what about gay people, or straight girls playing Diablo?
Besides that, I salute you, or, as some would say, “n1″.
21/08/2012 at 03:18 jrodman says:
We gaymers (ick) and straight women (i’m both, shut up) appreciate the removal of unwanted girlfriends from our lives by this quality software.
Clarification: Ick refers to the ungainly neologism.
20/08/2012 at 20:34 SirKicksalot says:
I expect items, dungeons and events with Paragon requirements.
20/08/2012 at 21:16 mmalove says:
Oh no, prepare to get kicked out of a public inferno game you joined because your paragon level wasn’t high enough.
20/08/2012 at 20:37 stretchpuppy says:
I wasn’t being sarcastic and I do understand your point, but there is “stuff” with the level increase, however small it may be.
I fully expect actual content to in the form of expansion/DLC, etc. You know, so we have to pay.
20/08/2012 at 20:23 MythArcana says:
It sounds like some users ran out of game already for their $60. All of this should have been researched fully instead of investing 4 years into the auction house. Ridiculous.
20/08/2012 at 20:41 psyk says:
I’ve got more play time out of free games than some games I’ve brought, so that must mean all games have to be free……
21/08/2012 at 06:00 alundra says:
First, what you said made absolutely no sense and is nowhere related to his/her statement.
Second, the entire argument of # of hours multiplied by amount of $$$ equals perceived ROI wasn’t invented by him/her.
What the fuck is it with fabois anyway?? You spend $60 on a game that lasted you at most 50 hours before falling into endless repetition
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Diablo-3-Player-Count-Drops-Big-Time-Consumers-Fed-Up-44005.html
and you are ready to jump at the throats of those who spent half as much and enjoyed twice as long ??
One thing is to be a sore loser, a different thing is to be wanting to bring others down with you to share some your misery.
21/08/2012 at 17:39 psyk says:
What you said made absolutely no sense
20/08/2012 at 20:24 BatmanBaggins says:
This, combined with the revamping of legendaries and some major class overhauls, might make me take another peek at D3.
Feeling like you’re always making progress toward something, even if that something is admittedly ultimately pointless, is pretty important for a game like this. With the way the item grind was set up til now, it just felt like a huge waste of time. Which it is, of course, but it shouldn’t FEEL like it.
20/08/2012 at 20:41 Pajamas939 says:
This. I’d encourage anyone who wants to see what proper tiered endgame progression and build variety are like to check out the Median XL mod by BrotherLaz for Diablo 2. Not only are there about 10 times as many viable character builds, but the endgame is full of challenges and a huge array of uberlevels and zone mechanics that actually reward intelligent play and clever gear combinations, rather than just grinding. This is the kind of replayability that disgruntled D2 fans were hoping for. It’s unfortunate that most review sites I’ve seen seem to dismiss this much replayability as an outdated feature. At the very least D3 could have been mod-friendly so that people like Laz could breathe life into the engine. Crossing my fingers for Torchlight 2…
20/08/2012 at 21:03 Yosharian says:
For me this feels like too little, too late. It’s been a very long time since I touched my Witch Doctor and the urgency of this game is nonexistent.
20/08/2012 at 22:25 Vorphalack says:
I have to be honest, the first thing that entered my mid after reading the opening paragraph was ”April fools joke”. I cannot believe they chose to tackle the underlying game play and connectivity issues by adding in more numbers to grind out.
20/08/2012 at 23:54 Azradesh says:
There are a LOT more changes then just the paragon levels in patch 1.04. A number of the key ones have been detailed by the devs, you can find it all on the D3 website.
20/08/2012 at 22:36 mr.ioes says:
Magic find is now limited to 300%.
I’m sad no media covered Jay Wilson’s recent social media debacle. It shows how little he cares about any of you.
21/08/2012 at 00:03 kyrieee says:
I’m glad RPS are above internet witch hunts.
Or sorry, what I meant was that Jay Wilson’s three words on facebook tells us that he is actually Saddam Hussein and everyone who bought his game should get a refund.
20/08/2012 at 22:46 JoeyJungle says:
I feel like a lot of my problems with this game is that they used a lot of the information that they used in WoW and ignored what they learned from making Diablo. Maybe I’ve reached a point where this type of game is just not interesting to me, but there was something about D3 that I just found unfun and none of these patches are making me go “oh, that’s what my problem was, and they fixed that!”. I don’t know what I want though, the idea of an expansion or DLC or something that adds more story instead of a chain of beating the game to unlock increasing difficulty levels is what excites me, but that chain is exactly what hooked me on the original Diablo.
I guess I don’t understand that point of adding these new levels without adding new content, except to make the never-ending treadmill of D3 even longer, but I guess that’s the game that D3 is.
21/08/2012 at 06:45 Adekan says:
Honestly, being a fairly serious player of Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 it feels to me like D3 just lacks what made the other games special. The loot system was flawed from the start, I don’t know who came up with the idiotic idea to make blues better than uniques/set items but that, with the inclusion of forced checkpointing making the game a linear snorefest ( I can’t join a game in progress and go to waypoints i’ve already unlocked? Really? ) did a good job of killing the game for me.
The sense of community in public games is completely gone, the idea of running characters through content is much more annoying/difficult because your own waypoints can’t be used in your friends game, the bewildering decision to limit multiplayer to 4 people a game and the inclusion of the auction house ( RMAH or otherwise ) all combine to make playing multiplayer un-enjoyable.
Trading, Unique/Rune farming are both nonexistant. You never meet the person you’re buying from face to face. Hell, most of the friends I met playing D2 were through trading or taking turns running oneanother through content on alts. The social aspect of the game has been streamlined completely out. It’s flawed from the core in its design and there is no fixing it, no amount of patches will change what has ruined the game for those of us who loved the first two.
21/08/2012 at 10:02 chris1479 says:
The part where I have to repeat the same fucking levels over and over because people leave or give up is a big part of a huge mosaic of things that killed this game stone dead for me.
20/08/2012 at 22:57 Jesse L says:
I married my first two wives for increasingly impressive borders. I see nothing wrong with this.
Susan, baby, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry.
20/08/2012 at 23:14 Vorphalack says:
For the joke about borders or admitting you have a 2nd wife?
21/08/2012 at 05:54 Bobtree says:
How are they supposed to know if they had any fun unless the numbers continually increase?
21/08/2012 at 06:12 alundra says:
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/diablo-3-jay-wilson-tells-diablo-2-designer-fans-f-ck-off-45895.html
“Jay Wilson saying to Brevik to “F*ck that loser” is basically Wilson telling the entire Diablo III community to go “F*ck off”. I’m also inclined to side a bit more with the guy who made Diablo a legendary name as opposed to the guy who helped bury that name under Real-Money Auction House: The Game.”
21/08/2012 at 10:37 Zepp says:
I agree. D3 sold godly mostly because the brand that Brevik worked for. Calling him loser is like shitting in your nest. :/
21/08/2012 at 08:12 Slinkyboy says:
Teenagers still play this garbage?
21/08/2012 at 09:25 Skeletor68 says:
Just to address people saying they got plenty of hours of entertainment for their money: this argument makes sense in general but people expected more because D2 provided it.
I was really excited for D3 but haven’t played in months. I would actually go back and play D2 first at this stage. I’m not a fan buy in any way or trying to start arguments. I was just genuinely disappointed by D3.
21/08/2012 at 09:46 Snack says:
Blizz: What? No end game? Two sec …. aaaaaand ….there!
My feeling is that Blizzard lately is struggling to keep a serious face. But for me they stopped being creative a good while ago, even before the merge with Activision. It’s really sad to see an old friend going down.
21/08/2012 at 15:58 zeroskill says:
I don’t believe Blizzard truly understands what made Diablo 2 so great, what made people play that game for years on end. I think therein one whould find the true problem.
21/08/2012 at 18:01 UncleLou says:
To be fair, I don’t think anyone understands that, and the D2 community in the last few years was allegedly quite tiny. The vast majority of people will probably have shelved the game after one or two playthroughs.
21/08/2012 at 10:01 chris1479 says:
I can’t even be bothered to get to 60 (i’m 56) so if they think I’m playing this barely-average game for X number of hours to get more garbage because they couldn’t be bothered to make a proper game they’ve got another thing coming.
21/08/2012 at 12:43 2late2die says:
I figure the next Blizzard game is going to involve the player clicking a button on the screen that will randomly result in some shiny coins being thrown out onto the screen with much pomp and circumstance. The button will have a number on it indicating the level of it and each consecutive level will require twice as many clicks as the previous one. The sleek, easy to understand interface, the straightforward gameplay and the nice graphics will make that game the best selling game of all times.
22/08/2012 at 19:19 glum says:
No way! Is there a trailer out for it yet? fap fap fap
21/08/2012 at 14:01 alundra says:
http://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/blizzard-entertainment-diablo-3-offline-single-player-patch
21/08/2012 at 16:18 Quatlo says:
You.. you filthy pirate you!
21/08/2012 at 15:56 zeroskill says:
I would love a Rock Paper Shotgun interview with Jay “Fuck those losers” Wilson. I would pay money for that. I don’t think Jay has the balls though.
21/08/2012 at 17:15 Cerzi says:
Never seen an AAA game backtrack so massively on so many issues. It’s crazy how out of touch the devs were when originally designing the game.