This actually sounds like a pretty solid solution to a myriad of problems with the game.

I played through Normal, liked it well enough. Got about 1/2 way through Hell and boredom quit.

Same thing over and over. 

Not sure what keeps people playing.

MilesTeg: Not sure what keeps people playing.

An artificial sense of accomplishment each time they hit the next arbitrary plateau or some fancy-colored doodad falls out of some corpse's bunghole.

Blizzard doesn't make very good games, but they've gotten very good at making games that keep addictable people playing them, and that's even more profitable.

So...basically you can grind out 99 more levels on the same 4 Acts you ground out the first 60?

Pass.

Vegan Meat Popsicle: An artificial sense of accomplishment each time they hit the next arbitrary plateau or some fancy-colored doodad falls out of some corpse's bunghole

So, pretty much every RPG ever...

Gwendolyn: EvilEgg: Snarcoleptic_Hoosier: In other words, "Keep playing, so we can keep billing you"

Seen as you only pay for Diablo III once, I'm ok with this.

I don't think even this will make me play again.

They are also redoing all legendaries so they are awesome now and changes to each and every class.

But this is the internet so the loud minority of people who don't like the game will be loud and the millions who play diablo will continue to buy my items on the rmah and i can make more moneys playing a fun game. And I'll be making even more with the new legendaries.

Scooty_Puff_Sr: Vegan Meat Popsicle: An artificial sense of accomplishment each time they hit the next arbitrary plateau or some fancy-colored doodad falls out of some corpse's bunghole

So, pretty much every RPG ever...

This,

Except the very huge mega big difference is that D3 pays you for it.

In D2, I liked the fact that you continued to gain xp and even though it was more or less impossible to get to 99, it gave item farming the illusion of progress even when you didn't find anything. I guess it's telling that I am lamenting the absence of an obvious psychological ploy. Shrug. I enjoyed Diablo 3 a great deal up until about halfway through nightmare, which didn't stop me from playing until I hit inferno. Meh.

js34603: So...basically you can grind out 99 more levels on the same 4 Acts you ground out the first 60?

Pass.

Grinding has been exactly what the Diablo series has ever been about.

It's like complaining about all the shooting you have to do in Call of Duty.

whizbangthedirtfarmer: Bleg, I am glad I passed on Diablo III. It sounds like a complete boondoggle.

It made just about every mistake you can make with an arpg dungeon crawl. It's short, the story isn't all that great, and the gear drops suck more often then not, even rare or legendary ones.

It's utterly pointless, really.

I already got my money back on that pitiful excuse for a game a month ago and Blizzard knows where they can shove it.

Scooty_Puff_Sr: So, pretty much every RPG ever...

In the sense that a Lamborghini and a Lumina APV are both vehicles, yes, I suppose.

It's a matter of degree. Most RPGs have, at some level, a numerical grind system for levels, equipment, combat, etc.

But Blizzard makes those numerical models the central point of the game and then wraps other things around it. Some RPGs are open-ended world explorers where you make your own story up like Skyrim or EvE Online. Others rely on a strong central story like Dragon Age or Mass Effect.

And then are dungeon crawlers.

And then there's Blizzard. You don't play Blizzard games for the story or because you're creating a cool little world, you play them because you're playing them. It's that constant tweaking of the reward system in humans that is the game, not any other part of it. If you could create a little electric charge that would trigger that one spot in your brain, you'd get exactly the same experience with an electrode as you do with Diablo or WoW.

Which is fine if you like it, and I do to an extent enjoy it myself, it's just that after a while I get a little bored playing a spreadsheet with fancy spell effects.

Vegan Meat Popsicle: An artificial sense of accomplishment each time they hit the next arbitrary plateau or some fancy-colored doodad falls out of some corpse's bunghole.

It took me a year to figure out that's what Warcraft was. I quit once my brain de-stupified.

I've been having fun with this game since launch.

Granted, I only play a few hours a week. but when I want to kill monsters, this satisfies that desire quite nicely.

And for anyone that didn't buy it, you can try it for free now. If you enjoy AARPGs this one will give you quite a few enjoyable hours of gameplay.

Cheers.

<b><a href="http://www.fark.com/comments/7278163/78832980#c78832980" target="_blank">Antimatter</a>:</b> <i>It made just about every mistake you can make with an arpg dungeon crawl. It's short, the story isn't all that great, and the gear drops suck more often then not, even rare or legendary ones.</i>

I'd say the biggest immediate problem that a lot of players hit was the way they relied on a bunch of short-term achievable goals (hitting level cap, getting to Inferno, maxing your crafters, etc) that end when you suddenly hit a massive brick wall of progression. At that point, there is zero feeling of progress beyond being able to get slightly farther in whatever act you're stuck in. It's an utterly bizarre pacing decision, and its responsible for many people having little problem with the grind till late hell/inferno.

This is why I like Neverwinter Nights. Once you go through the senarios there are more expansion packs. Also there is a great online community that converts old AD&D modules to playable NWN modules and many persistant worlds that you can connect to.

Great game to play solo or get a group of friends together and play every sunday night.

Vegan Meat Popsicle: Scooty_Puff_Sr: So, pretty much every RPG ever...

In the sense that a Lamborghini and a Lumina APV are both vehicles, yes, I suppose.

It's a matter of degree. Most RPGs have, at some level, a numerical grind system for levels, equipment, combat, etc.

But Blizzard makes those numerical models the central point of the game and then wraps other things around it. Some RPGs are open-ended world explorers where you make your own story up like Skyrim or EvE Online. Others rely on a strong central story like Dragon Age or Mass Effect.

And then are dungeon crawlers.

And then there's Blizzard. You don't play Blizzard games for the story or because you're creating a cool little world, you play them because you're playing them. It's that constant tweaking of the reward system in humans that is the game, not any other part of it. If you could create a little electric charge that would trigger that one spot in your brain, you'd get exactly the same experience with an electrode as you do with Diablo or WoW.

Which is fine if you like it, and I do to an extent enjoy it myself, it's just that after a while I get a little bored playing a spreadsheet with fancy spell effects.

I know you think you're hip and all, but people were pointing this out about Everquest over a decade ago.

Vegan Meat Popsicle: MilesTeg: Not sure what keeps people playing.

An artificial sense of accomplishment each time they hit the next arbitrary plateau or some fancy-colored doodad falls out of some corpse's bunghole.

Blizzard doesn't make very good games, but they've gotten very good at making games that keep addictable people playing them, and that's even more profitable.

So they are what Zynga aims to be.

Carousel Beast: Which is fine if you like it, and I do to an extent enjoy it myself, it's just that after a while I get a little bored playing a spreadsheet with fancy spell effects.

I know you think you're hip and all, but people were pointing this out about Everquest over a decade ago.

I'm not sure what your point is. Please elaborate. Everquest is long gone, probably because of this reason. Shouldn't Blizzard games have the same fate?

I quit playing WoW because seeing all the end content became as easy as joining a pug and one-shotting everything. I just really like the artwork/animation. The thrill for me was fighting my way in to see all the new places. It's pretty stupid when playing the game and watching the YouTube video have the same difficultly and reward.

sprawl15: I'd say the biggest immediate problem that a lot of players hit was the way they relied on a bunch of short-term achievable goals (hitting level cap, getting to Inferno, maxing your crafters, etc) that end when you suddenly hit a massive brick wall of progression. At that point, there is zero feeling of progress beyond being able to get slightly farther in whatever act you're stuck in. It's an utterly bizarre pacing decision, and its responsible for many people having little problem with the grind till late hell/inferno.

It was a more fundamental problem than that: it was a dungeon crawler where you got more upgrades from the auction house than from actually playing the game. They managed to so colossally screw up the underlying philosophy of the game as to take any joy out of it. People ran endless Meph runs because they wanted to see what cool stuff would drop. People in D3 do the same sorts of runs, except in order to get gold in order to buy something cool off the auction house. People were willing to run the same things over and over again forever, just like they did in D2, and Blizzard managed to forget the reason why they were playing in the first place.

Carousel Beast: Vegan Meat Popsicle: Scooty_Puff_Sr: So, pretty much every RPG ever...

In the sense that a Lamborghini and a Lumina APV are both vehicles, yes, I suppose.

It's a matter of degree. Most RPGs have, at some level, a numerical grind system for levels, equipment, combat, etc.

But Blizzard makes those numerical models the central point of the game and then wraps other things around it. Some RPGs are open-ended world explorers where you make your own story up like Skyrim or EvE Online. Others rely on a strong central story like Dragon Age or Mass Effect.

And then are dungeon crawlers.

And then there's Blizzard. You don't play Blizzard games for the story or because you're creating a cool little world, you play them because you're playing them. It's that constant tweaking of the reward system in humans that is the game, not any other part of it. If you could create a little electric charge that would trigger that one spot in your brain, you'd get exactly the same experience with an electrode as you do with Diablo or WoW.

Which is fine if you like it, and I do to an extent enjoy it myself, it's just that after a while I get a little bored playing a spreadsheet with fancy spell effects.

I know you think you're hip and all, but people were pointing this out about Everquest over a decade ago.

Ahhh EQ... the good old days...

/got my SMR from LGuk and thought it was the best day of my life.
//then i got my Carmine Robe from the PoF
///I miss casting Ice Comet on that stupid hill giant in ECL near the entrace to Befallen.

I don't know what's more discouraging: that Blizzard spent 11 years to build a multiplayer claw machine, or that said claw machine is the fastest selling PC game to date.

TheBeastOfYuccaFlats: There's no rage that is more delicious than gamer rage.

What, you never heard of religion?

Downloaded their trial Diablo III and it borked my account several times in a row. Decided that I was not going to play Diablo after all.

BTW -the business model for Blizzard is like a pusher only the drug is our own natural dopamine. Push the lever, get a hit, push the lever, get a hit.

root88: Everquest is long gone, probably because of this reason

It's still technically around. It went F2P IIRC.

didhedropanygoodloot.jpeg

AngryPanda: /best way to get out of it? Start school, then you don't have time to yell at your friends to switch to Magmatron every week

Or link meatspin in trade chat and tell people that it datamined more patch notes.

sasbazooka: Am I missing something in the whole Diablo III grinding thing? I mean, I beat the game, and lost interest, I didn't go on to nightmare or hardcore mode (I honestly forget what they called it) because it was just the same game all-over again.

Probably. You don't play many RPG's do you?

This and the other planned changes are good.

I might even re-install it. Maybe.

sprawl15: root88: Everquest is long gone, probably because of this reason

It's still technically around. It went F2P IIRC.

Yep, gamers love to consider games "dead" when they themselves no longer play them.

Snarcoleptic_Hoosier: In other words, "Keep playing, so we can keep billing you"

It's free to play. Nice try.

kab: sprawl15: root88: Everquest is long gone, probably because of this reason

It's still technically around. It went F2P IIRC.

Yep, gamers love to consider games "dead" when they themselves no longer play them.

I usually only consider a game dead when dev basically ends for the game, and most of the player base have moved on. EQ 1 and 2 are still alive and well, while the ps2 games like EQOA, Con and Con 2 are dead and buried. EQ 1 and 2 continue to get new expansions and content, even if they are not the most popular mmo's around anymore.

sasbazooka: Am I missing something in the whole Diablo III grinding thing? I mean, I beat the game, and lost interest, I didn't go on to nightmare or hardcore mode (I honestly forget what they called it) because it was just the same game all-over again.

It's actually not the same all over again, the levels are different with random quests etc.

I would have put money on Bliz upping the cap to come along with expansion pack 1 and not as a patch.... I guess they did not count on so many fanboys maxing out in days thus putting their expansion timeline well past when the fanboys would have ragequit.

Saiga410: I would have put money on Bliz upping the cap to come along with expansion pack 1 and not as a patch.... I guess they did not count on so many fanboys maxing out in days thus putting their expansion timeline well past when the fanboys would have ragequit.

Interestingly enough, this causes problems if a patch adds character levels. It defeats the purpose if someone with maxed Paragon retains full MF going into the new areas, so it'll have to have some kind of a reset, but then the playerbase will get buttmad like they always do so who knows?

HARDCORE MODE
An auction, but no real money. Items are restricted from the regular game. You actually need to work a character to level up safely. And one death and that's it. No return, no items back, just dead.

I gave up on the regular game very quickly. You could close your eyes and play.

On hardcore mode, when I am in trouble, I really feel the adrenaline pumping. I concentrate 100%, make precise actions, get people to group up and play together. A death is horrible. Oh hey, got to level 52. What's that, someone running from a fireball leads it directly into your face and kills you? Well you should have been watching that idiot. Start over with another class and I hope I saved some of the good low level items so I can get through the first acts quickly.