The merger with Activision killed Blizzard. They went from a small studio passionate about games to a large one passionate about money.

Tax Boy: The Flexecutioner: i have no problem staying 1-2 years behind the curve in gaming. i buy the products for WAY cheaper and several patches/dlcs later they are fixed and lots of the community that made games laggy are also gone. it is pure win for me. the same works for the hardware needed to run it, they were 50+% cheaper than when launched.

[imgs.xkcd.com image 640x217]

I resemble that remark...Just bought Neverwinter Nights Complete. Included NWN 1 (copyright 2002) with 3 expansions and NWN 2 with 3 expansions for $20.

//Won't buy Skyrim until the GOTY Super Everything Platinum Gold Box is under $30.

Corporate Self: The merger with Activision killed Blizzard. They went from a small studio passionate about games to a large one passionate about money.

Sadly, Bioware seems to being going the same route with EA.

foo monkey: Rent Party: You know, I don't play this game, but I read all the threads about it on Fark, and it makes me wonder why in Gawds name would *anyone* put up with this and give this company their money?

Is the game that awesome?

No. You finish the game on normal mode in 15 hours. Thats a blast. Then you unlock hard mode. Then you unlock harder mode. Then you unlock hardest mode. The story never changes. The gameplay never changes. The loot system is completely random. You're forced farm the same content over and over for gold. Then you buy gear off the auction house. That's it. That's the game.

D2 was the same basic system, and many people continued to play it up until d3 came out (and some wierdos still do). The orginal game was fun, and throughout its life patches came out which added new things (as well as an expansion adding ~25-40% more content). People who say that the game is a giant treadmill probably weren't going to like the game anyways - I know i created 20+ distinct and interesting characters in D2, and expect at least as much replayability in D3.

Complaints about the RMAH are from a different perspective. In the second half of D2's life a number of money-for-items systems were developed (notable D2JSP) by outside groups. The community using the outside systems were very happy with the systems but wanted them to be more secure. There was issues with trusting both the exhanges they used as well as insecure trading in game. The community that didn't use those systems were annoyed at the ubiquity of $$ and the incentives that gave for duping, cheating, botting and other exploitation.

With D3, blizzard is trying to legitimize the black market, and thus gain some control over negative effects that were felt in D2. The always-on requirement and no single-player is DIRECTLY a counter to duping, botting, and cheating. The RMAH is just like legalizing marijuana in the US - instead of hunting down people violating the TOS, banning accounts, and dealing with tons of adverts/spam they just create a regulated system and tax it.

Occam's Disposable Razor: meat0918: //Damn I freakin hate the Templar though, he's obnoxious.

"THAT WAS A WORTHY FOE. GLOOORIOUS!"

Rent Party: You know, I don't play this game, but I read all the threads about it on Fark, and it makes me wonder why in Gawds name would *anyone* put up with this and give this company their money?

Is the game that awesome?

No. They got my money, and I got 30-40 hours of entertainment, which isn't a bad deal however you slice it. But it's not what it could have/should have been.

Furthermore, I've received two emails from Blizzard today stating my account has been banned for 1 hour for spamming. Which is odd since I haven't logged into Bnet in about 4-5 days and have never used the chat or the forums. Hacked account or phishing attempt? Not good regardless.

The phishers have gotten very good lately.

Rent Party: You know, I don't play this game, but I read all the threads about it on Fark, and it makes me wonder why in Gawds name would *anyone* put up with this and give this company their money?

Is the game that awesome?

No. You finish the game on normal mode in 15 hours. Thats a blast. Then you unlock hard mode. Then you unlock harder mode. Then you unlock hardest mode. The story never changes. The gameplay never changes. The loot system is completely random. You're forced farm the same content over and over for gold. Then you buy gear off the auction house. That's it. That's the game.

meat0918: White.

People.

Problems.

Just get your lazy ass to the store, they still have copies.

I've got a better solution: Don't buy this game.

I'm done paying full price for games. I'm done bothering with games that require more than me walking into the store, buying it and being able to play it without being online when a single player game. I'm done with being nickle and dimed to death for DLC, be it Day 1 DLC or Day 30. GotY editions at half price is all they'll get out of me. It's been one let down after another. ME3's ending, having to create a GFWL account to play the B:AC's HQR DLC I bought from Steam, CoH turning into a worthless sack of crap after supporting it for 8 years...

The final nail in my gaming enjoyment is this idiotic Pay2Win model that everything is moving towards. I about shiat myself when I saw that Mechwarrior was entering closed beta. Now they've got a "legendary founders pack" for $120 bucks and a total F2P model that has completely stripped away any thought that I'd enjoy it. Yea, I'm still in pending status waiting for a CB invite.

Just give me a damn single player *PC* mechwarrior game that's as good as MW3.

InfamousBLT: This is like a car company building crappy cars on purpose so that nobody will want to steal it. As a result, because the car is crappy, why would anyone want to buy it either when there are plenty of other great cars on the market?

Not quite. The car is still good, but the dealer and manufacturer are skeevy shiats and the contract they make you sign - for a pretty decent, powerful, nice car - requires that you submit yourself for drug testing, a full criminal background, DNA testing to be held on file with state and local governments. Also, maybe your mother slept around a bit so your father isn't who you thought; for good measure let's get a paternity test. Also, you may be adopted. Should order a maternity test too. You'll have to pay to exhume your parent(s) if they're deceased. If they're cremated or a DNA sample cannot be obtained, you're out of luck.

Meanwhile, the guy who stole the very nice car off the lot had a fun joyride, and is still treated better than you if he's even caught.

InfamousBLT: Every time a company decides that screwing their actual paying customers is a good way to get more people to pay for their game, I die a little more inside.

This is like a car company building crappy cars on purpose so that nobody will want to steal it. As a result, because the car is crappy, why would anyone want to buy it either when there are plenty of other great cars on the market?

Same thing with video games.

/you wouldn't download a car
//yes I would

Pretty much the reason why I'll be happily pirating SimCity when it comes out.

/ What a clusterfark of DRM disguised as "features" that game is turning out to be.