Blizzard - New Diablo Game Coming

You are calling me a hypocrite for preferring a game with more open-ended class & skill design. That has always been a staple of Path of Exile.

By the way, I'm still waiting on some examples as to why D3 is better today than it was 3 years ago. Sorry, I don't subscribe to the whole "IT"S BETTER, HONEST!" opinion from some random dude that I've never otherwise seen post on these boards.

So, examples please. And try to refrain from personal insults in every single post you make.
 
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Well this escalated rather quickly. Kind of funny actually...no, no, PoE flaming sword of evisceration is better than Diablo's.
What's the fuss about? This whole genre is more a time killer.
 
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No, you're a hypocrite for comparing the state of 2 games with ongoing development at 2 different times - one at launch and one 5 years later, and calling one better than other. You might be right, who knows, but that basically comparing apples to oranges. Just as I could say I tried PoE 5 years ago and it was a monkey balls sucking grindfest worse than D3 at launch, nomatter how good it could be in 2018.

I'm not going to bother with examples, since it's so obvious your mind has been made up 6 years ago and nothing I can say will change your mind.

Also, no person starting the name calling should accuse someone else of personal attacks, you might want to think about that.
 
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@Polyester;, it's clear from that last post that you're probably not worth the effort at a real discussion (if you are indeed capable of one). So have fun wherever.
 
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Waaaaaaat!? Blasphemy - how *dare* you….! :roll:

Well I liked D2, but couldn't hold my attention with whatever afterwards. They're a bit too much focused on powergaming/loot and lack in other areas.
Don't have that same feel:...and so it came to pass, that the countess, who once bathed in the rejuvenating blood...
 
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Well I liked D2, but couldn't hold my attention with whatever afterwards. They're a bit too much focused on powergaming/loot and lack in other areas.

That was definitely the appeal of D2 for me and is now for PoE: how crazy overpowered you can make your character; how quickly you can annihilate an entire screen of enemies at once. There's been a lot of expanded lore, enemy types, and locales in Path of Exile, but it always comes back to player power (with highly dangerous boss enemies strewn in as well to maintain some trepidation).
 
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@Bobo - I never played D3 actually, I looked at reviews watched some stuff, and thought, nah not for me. Nothing I have seen since has convinced me to give it a go. I loved D2 - had a lot of fun with friends, no worries about special builds or legendary loot or wotnot- just good old fun. I've actually gone off ARPGs for the most part. I think Grim Dawn was my last - it was OK for awhile, but since I'm not into power builds/gaming etc, I finished it and then never went back. Probably because I'm getting Old ;-)
 
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Kind of funny actually…no, no, PoE flaming sword of evisceration is better than Diablo's.

That about sums it up.

What's the fuss about? This whole genre is more a time killer.

That's pretty much how I feel about it to be honest. I'm hoping Warhammer 40K: Inquisitor will feel a little different, but I'm going to wait till after the first wave of obligatory patches before diving into it.
 
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You're correct that sales don't equal quality, but you're fooling yourself if you think a game of objectively bad quality is going to sell 100M copies.

That was to illustrate the point. A game can sell a ton of copies and still not get rave reviews from the buyers on average however. D3 had a lot of sales for being the successor to D2 and hype alone for example.

Yeah, the expansion only sold close to 3 million copies in its first week. What a catastrophe! ;)

still not getting the point I see, you are still using sales numbers… no one said it did not turn a profit, but please give me a scenario in which a game sells great, the players love it and the planned second expansion is then scrapped regardless.

The fact that it did get scrapped is proof that it disappointed Blizzard, and the reason it did that is that RoS did not sell as expected and players / interest dropped off too soon. That in turn happened because players were disappointed.

If you want to see how well received a game is, look at player ratings / comments. At metacritic D3 is at 4.1. Not exactly a stellar success…
 
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That was to illustrate the point. A game can sell a ton of copies and still not get rave reviews from the buyers on average however. D3 had a lot of sales for being the successor to D2 for example.

A shitty game is only going to sell so many copies no matter how much marketing it has or what it's a sequel to. See Star Wars Battlefront II as an example. A game isn't going to sell 10 million units on name alone. D3 sold well due to a combination of reasons, and one of those reasons is that a lot of people liked it. I wasn't even even a fan and I could plainly see that.

still not getting the point I see, you are still using sales numbers… no one said it did not turn a profit, but please give me a scenario in which a game sells great, the players love it and the planned second expansion is then scrapped regardless.

The fact that it did get scrapped is proof that it disappointed Blizzard, and the reason it did that is that RoS did not sell as expected and players / interest dropped off too soon. That in turn happened because players were disappointed.

Did you pull that out of your ass just now? Show me some proof that that was the reason why Blizzard scrapped a second expansion. From what I've read, it seems Blizzard didn't want to devote the resources for a second expansion to D3 because titles like Overwatch and Hearthstone provide more revenue from microtransactions.

Also, D3 was released in 2012, so I wouldn't say player interest dropped off too soon. On the contrary, it stayed popular for far longer than most action-RPGs.
 
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Most of ‘us’ who loved D2 vastly prefer graphical realism and the heavy visceral feel of POE combat. The absurdly massive skill tree and varied loot system in POE is simply better than the piles of garbage you acquire in D3 and the D3 skill system is a bit of a joke even compared to the relatively simple D2 system. Apparently lowest common denominator design is the new Blizzard motto. I’ll take POE and keep an eye on Wolcen as it develops.
 
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I couldn't even force myself to finish the campaign in PoE. I think I got to the end of the 3rd act before calling it quits. D3 didn't exactly turn my crank either, but at least it was fun enough to play to the end.

I wouldn't go back to either game though.
 
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Doesn't it really depend on what you want out of the game? I actually quite enjoyed D3 after they got rid of the RMAH because I was simply looking for something to play when I'm short on time. I also tried PoE which I disliked so much due to constant need for inventory management - "too much clutter". The control and movement also felt rather clunky compared to D3.
 
I didn’t like the POE system initially either. It grew on me. After playing D2 & LOD without the inventory mods nothing can bother me.
 
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Did you pull that out of your ass just now? Show me some proof that that was the reason why Blizzard scrapped a second expansion. From what I've read, it seems Blizzard didn't want to devote the resources for a second expansion to D3 because titles like Overwatch and Hearthstone provide more revenue from microtransactions.

Blizzard would never admit that, so call it an educated guess. Their timeline clearly had a second expansion planned. D3 clearly disappointed fans (see eg metacritic rating), RoS definitely did sell below industry average rate for an expansion (% wise), even though this is harder to show these days with Blizz not showing separate sales numbers (which in itself is an indication). Finally, the areas they had already developped for the second expansion found their way into the game as a content update, so it definitely was being worked on and then abandoned.

No matter how you want to rationalize this, it does not scream success…

Also, D3 was released in 2012, so I wouldn't say player interest dropped off too soon. On the contrary, it stayed popular for far longer than most action-RPGs.

define popular and ‘too soon’, out of the 25M sales, how many did play it more than through once ? The majority was not even around for RoS any more, let alone a year or so later for the second expansion had it been released.
I am not arguing 2017/18 player numbers, the decision to not go on with the 2nd expansion was made a lot earlier.
 
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Blizzard would never admit that, so call it an educated guess. Their timeline clearly had a second expansion planned. D3 clearly disappointed fans (see eg metacritic rating), RoS definitely did sell below industry average rate for an expansion (% wise), even though this is harder to show these days with Blizz not showing separate sales numbers (which in itself is an indication). Finally, the areas they had already developped for the second expansion found their way into the game as a content update, so it definitely was being worked on and then abandoned.

No matter how you want to rationalize this, it does not scream success…

I'm not the one rationalizing here. You keep pointing to things that don't really mean much while ignoring the bigger picture. Metacritic scores? Who cares? It's well known that a lot of meta scores are weighed down by people who have an agenda, and in D3's case it's easy to see all the trolls who gave it a '0' because they had an axe to grind. You also failed to mention that it has a critic metascore of 88. Not showing separate sales numbers an indication of something? Try again. Lots of companies do that.

As far as them cancelling a second expansion, that was already confirmed so why repeat it? You've already failed to show how that supports anything you've said.

define popular, out of the 25M sales, how many did play it more than through once ? The majority was not even around for RoS any more, let alone a year or so later for the second expansion had it been released.
I am not arguing 2017/18 player numbers, the decision to not go in with the 2nd expansion was made a lot earlier.

Define popular? I'd say 25 million is pretty damn popular. Who cares how many people played through it more than once? That's completely irrelevant as are most of the things you keep bringing up.
 
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I'm not the one rationalizing here. You keep pointing to things that don't really mean much while ignoring the bigger picture.

you are presenting an alternative picture, so you have to explain / rationalize that. You cannot demand me to explain / defend mine but show nothing that backs up yours.

What is the bigger picture you are referring to ?

Metacritic scores? Who cares? It's well known that a lot of meta scores are weighed down by people who have an agenda, and in D3's case it's easy to see all the trolls who gave it a '0' because they had an axe to grind.

agreed, I did not say the 4.1 is fair, I said it shows that many people were disappointed. I am confident it does reflect that.

As to who cares ? Show me a better way to measure player rating of a game and we can use that, until then you just dismiss it because it does not fit your line of reasoning.

You also failed to mention that it has a critic metascore of 88.

I did not mention it because it is irrelevant to the point that players were disappointed.

In a separate discussion it was also pointed out that review scores by magazines are dubious to begin with as they do not want to lose access to early versions etc. by being too harsh. Are you trying to argue that 88 is an accurate reflection of the initial D3 quality, as that is what they reviewed ? if so, we are done here.

Define popular? I'd say 25 million is pretty damn popular.

that was not the point, the point was what does popular look like 3 years after release, 5 years after release, 10 years after release ?
That 25M sales is a good number is not disputed.

Who cares how many people played through it more than once? That's completely irrelevant as are most of the things you keep bringing up.

No, that is very relevant, as people not doing so is the drop off in players that was high and lead to them abandoning the 2nd expansion (along with sub-par sales of RoS, which also are a consequence of that).

I am not sure what you are trying to argue here. Nothing you say makes D3 a great game. Nothing you say can show that they did not abandon the second expansion because D3 did not meet their expectations in some way, which is the most likely scenario for why there was no 2nd expansion. It's not like Blizz cannot throw money and developers at multiple projects.
Seems you just disagree for the sake of disagreeing.
 
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