Re:Activision Blizzard goes indie after CEO Kotick buys back...
by foobarian on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @04:51PM
(#6136754)
Speaking of love of and devotion to games, if you want to see what the original Diablo team has done lately take a look at Torchlight II - it still has that something that D3 is missing and D1/2 had.
Re:Activision Blizzard goes indie after CEO Kotick buys back...
by Negitivefrags on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @05:18PM
(#6136906)
Blatant self promotion, but have you tried Path of Exile?
Re:Activision Blizzard goes indie after CEO Kotick buys back...
by criley2 on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @05:23PM
(#6136944)
I enjoyed TL2 and Path of Exile! Both were great games that did the ARPG genre that Blizzard pioneered (and then abandoned) very proud.
I also enjoyed Guild Wars 2 -- the latest game by a team of ex-Blizzard staff.
Since the merger, Blizzard has aggressively moved towards in-game real money transactions including one high profile fuckup where they irreparably ruined the economy of an entire game, ruining the game itself for many players (especially their older and more devoted fans).
They've scrapped their major next MMO, pushing it back and folding much of the staff into other projects while this one goes back to the drawing board.
They predictably released StarCraft 1.5, the graphics update, but StarCraft is a known commodity and they didn't have the leeway to make substantial changes without massively disrupting the playerbase.
I can't find a single product of theirs that screams character and love and devotion to video games like their classics do, but every single product does appear to be a financially calculated move to extract as much money as possible from gamers.
From this long time (and no longer) Blizzard fan, modern Blizzard looks more like Zynga than the company they once were. More interested in ARPU than making wonderful games.