This indirectly illustrates yet another reason why game developers leave the industry. Gaming culture is toxic, unfortunately, and developers deal with tons of abuse. This post is a fine example of it.

Diablo 3 got bad press mostly because of its auction house. That has been removed, the game received a lot of patches and it's said to be significantly better in its latest version. People who worked on these improvements did a great job. Also, Diablo 3 port to Nintendo Switch is done well too.

It's significantly improved, but D3 lost almost the entire PC ARPG market to Path of Exile, which had its initial release around the same time. Blizzard also failed to come up with any ongoing monetization of D3 after removing the auction house, whereas my understanding is that Path of Exile is essentially printing money.

> Diablo 3 got bad press mostly because of its auction house

But it was all balanced and designed around that auction house, so it still impact the whole game, even after a bunch of patches.

It's not a game true to the diablo franchise. released under any name it would've been a great game, but it didn't stay true to what made diablo diablo.

This is exactly why I hate it so much. We didn't get Diablo 3, we got some other game with Diablo branding.

As someone who never played Diablo 1 & 2, I feel that too. I saw people play Diablo 2 and it felt awesome. Playing through Diablo 3 to the end felt... like something was missing.

And how many of the people working on it do you think were in a position to change that?

You represent everything that is wrong with "fans" in entertainment culture and games in particular. Your comment is not only hateful but ignorant and anti-worker. The people who suffer in layoffs are workers, not high-level directors; even if a few directors got laid off, they have a financial cushion and can pick up the phone and have new offers within the week. The directors don't deserve your hate either, but gloating over mass layoffs is especially cruel and stupid.

I enjoyed Diablo 3. What's wrong with it?

I think the following is what's wrong:

- no pvp and if there is pvp nowadays from blizz its always arena-type pvp where everything is super fair. Boring.

- personal loot instead of free for all

- Compared to D2, diablo 3 felt too cartoony and light.

- Story sucked compared to diablo 2. Not the same feeling or suspense at all. I still remember what several in-game characters and bosses say in d2. I don't even remember half the bosses in d3 or even what happens in later acts. I don't care for the characters at all.

- It is way, way too easy the first time you play it.

I also felt that the world felt more locked down or more narrow for some reason. The d2 world was very open in comparison.

Fair PVP and Personal Loot are both rapidly becoming genre standard, since the only people who complain are griefers/trolls.

I can't argue about the tonal shift at all. Acts 3+4 were a lot of fun, but nothing that held a candle to Diablo 2.

Both games are painfully easy when you're starting out. I think Diablo 1 is the only game in the franchise that was even slightly challenging in the first half?

Really surprised by the "locked down/narrow" aspect, though. Diablo 3 has the option to play the linear Campaign, or you can do Rifts (randomized dungeons), or Bounties (flit around to complete 5 mini-events across the act). There's also a ton of randomized and optional mini-events that will come up as you do the campaign. It was one of the few things I really appreciated over D2 :)

> Fair PVP and Personal Loot are both rapidly becoming genre standard, since the only people who complain are griefers/trolls.

Or people who simply thinks everything being fair all the time is boring. Guess why free for all, super unfair battleroyale games is so popular? Fair is boring and has always been boring.

> Both games are painfully easy when you're starting out. I think Diablo 1 is the only game in the franchise that was even slightly challenging in the first half?

I am too young to have played D1, but I remember D2 first act being very hard. Dying many, many times starting out and the first act boss was very hard. In d3, its pretty much impossible to die the first time you play through it. Since I like playing hardcore, it's not even a bit frightening.

I don't know if these things existed when it came out, haven't really played d3 since then. But I just thought D3 was much more linear with a narrow path to push forward. I think it could be the artwork, often you are on some mountain, bridge or something like it with a background of something that is far away making it feel like you're on a narrow path.

I don't really care if it is narrow though, it's the other stuff that is so frustratingly annoying. Blizzard has forgotten how to make fun games. That is why you will probably see surge to World of Warcraft: Classic because it is like most their other games, much better in it's classic form than the shit we have today.

Agrees about difficulty. Game is so dumb and easy, might as well take a nap instead

How many of the people working on those games do you think had any say in the stuff you didn't like?

Are you actually saying that complicity in government censorship and oppression is morally equivalent to making a video game you didn't like?

This is peak gamer-entitlement.

quote of the year: don't you guys have phone?

Isn't it kind of selfish to think "I love the Diablo franchise" and then get mad when Blizzard tries to bring the franchise to the widest possible audience? Now billions of people have the opportunity to have as much fun as you did. Phones are the new PC. PCs are for hardcore gamers or specialized professions (nobody is going to do CAD on their phone). It doesn't matter how this makes you feel, that's the reality. People do not have home computers anymore. 33% of all HTTP traffic on the Internet is from mobile Safari!

(I do like the Hearthstone model. Most people play on their phones. I play in front of my nice PC. Everyone's happy.)

So is your life philosophy that everything should become awful just to make it accessible to absolutely everyone? Should Mount Rainier have a paved road to the top with climate controlled bathrooms, just so grandma can enjoy a hot toddy from the summit?

Maybe we should get rid of the "devilish" parts of Diablo, so it's safe and accessible to kids.

Maybe Tesla should stop selling high-end cars. People do not have $100k to spend on a car. 33% of all traffic on the roads is people below the poverty line!

> Everyone's happy.

Uh, no.

Noone is mad that they're producing a mobile game. It's the way they presented it that was disappointing, and the way they handled feedback that makes people angry.

Can you imagine being at a Apple/Node/Linux/Microsoft conference and actually booing at one of their product announcements? What would it take for you to actually boo as opposed to just standing up and leaving that presentation, or simply start fiddling with your mobile/laptop and ignore the presentation?

I presented the same case to a friend of mine who has been driving a truck for 20 years, who each year pays to attend an international transport conference. He saw the severity of the situation instantly.

If you're unable to imagine yourself _ever_ booing literally at such a scenario, then remember that it was a minority of the audience at Blizzcon that booed. Probably not more than a handful of people. Out of hundreds, if not a thousand attendees.

You can't make this the big announcement at Blizzcon. The audience there doesn't give a shit about mobile games.