Diablo 3 - First Year in Review Parts 1-4 @ diii.net

Dhruin said:

If it were that simple, the hardcore players would just be spending their time playing "hardcore" hours but there'd be little need for complex guides if the game really were that simple. Have a look at the mercenary guide and some of the maths - it's not as simple as you think.

The core of the issue is that you think Diablo is about the simple minute-to-minute combat ("two actions"). It's not. It's about character building. The combat simply serves to distract players between upgrade choices.

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You speak truth here.

The challenge of Diablo 2 is to find a build that can withstand Hell difficulty. It's not easy even with all the guides out there, and there's also a myriad ways of adding variety - both in terms of build adjustments but also gear setups. But the game isn't about following guides like a robot. It's about DISCOVERING those builds, or at least experimenting with them. It's not like the game came with them, nor has it remained static in nature - quite the opposite with the various patches and the expansion.

It's anything but casual once you get to Nightmare and beyond. Anyone who claims that it is, simply doesn't understand the nature of the game.

The game is MEANT to be played in Nightmare and Hell, unlike most games that just use difficulties as completely optional additional longevity with little to no new content. Diablo 2's best content is experienced at higher levels of difficulty, which is what most people who don't (really) enjoy the genre don't get.

DArtagnan said:

The game is MEANT to be played in Nightmare and Hell, unlike most games that just use difficulties as completely optional additional longevity with little to no new content. Diablo 2's best content is experienced at higher levels of difficulty, which is what most people who don't (really) enjoy the genre don't get.

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The problem (for me then) seems to be that it takes too long to get there. It seems I get tired of the game a few ages before I get to the interesting part.

Übereil

Ubereil said:

The problem (for me then) seems to be that it takes too long to get there. It seems I get tired of the game a few ages before I get to the interesting part.

Übereil

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I think this means the game doesn't appeal to you very much, not that it is casual in nature. Perhaps the entire genre doesn't really appeal to you?

It's not that the normal difficulty is uninteresting as such, it's just that it's balanced in such a way that pretty much anyone can get through it with a little effort. Basically, it's the casual part of the game.

Dhruin said:

Do you have a link or something about that? I've never heard that.

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Uh, I think it will be very difficult to dig out press releases that ancient ... I wouldn't even know where ...

What I do know is that Armalion was cancelled, because the developer, Ikarion, went bancrupt, and Ascaron bought the remains.

For some time, there was a "normal" RPG planned (without the TDE license, of course), and apparingly worked on for a while, but at one point someone changed it all, and decided to make an Action-RPG out of it.

A few people have seen it, I think even the original RPG, before it was turned into an Action-RPG.

German Larian Forums member Rei has been visiting Ascaron a looong time ago and she actually wrote a kind of article/preview on her own web site, then. Together with some screenshots.

I asked her several times in the past to send me this material, but she always said she would perhaps do it in the future, so I gave up at one point.

I believe she would still have this material and could be a source for this early Sacred game.

Hmm, I agree that the game got more interesting at Hell difficulty, but not because of huge content change per se. But because the difficulty itself made you really think hard about character build choices and equipment selection / modification. It also encouraged obsessive shopping until the perfect item showed up in the random shop contents.

The maps remain the same, given that they are somewhat randomized.
The monsters just have harder stats but are the same.
The item drops are better though.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

What I do know is that Armalion was cancelled, because the developer, Ikarion, went bancrupt, and Ascaron bought the remains.

For some time, there was a "normal" RPG planned (without the TDE license, of course), and apparingly worked on for a while, but at one point someone changed it all, and decided to make an Action-RPG out of it..

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Yes that is true, I also remember reading about that years ago.

From Sacred Wiki..

Sacred has a lot of Easter eggs hidden in it; for example, there is a "Pac Man" cave, lightsabers, and even a rebuild of Diablo's famous Tristram.

One tombstone reads "Here lies A.R.Malion" which is a reference to the fact that the game had begun development as Armalion - a game set in The Dark Eye-universe - by developer Ikarion Software. Ikarion was forced to declare itself bankrupt and was acquired by Ascaron, who built Sacred on top of Armalion.

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I'd forgotten about Armalion - thanks for the reminder.

I don't tend to look at hardcore / casual as some light switch choice, but rather as a continuum, and as Dhruin alluded to, there are multiple dimensions that a game encompasses in that regard.