Quote (Modulok2405 @ 28 Mar 2024 07:42)
Here's what I dont understand (I am probably a little dumb, I know):
Blizzard could certainly make an ARPG with D2 as a foundation. And I dont mean a similar game with just bettet visuals, I mean a new, great game based on the pillars of D2. Thats what PoE is by the way. It is standing on the pillars of the legendary D2.
So Blizzard could do that and as we know, it would work brilliantly and people would absolutely love it - which is why even a clunky game like PoE (from a casual perpective) draws so much attention from players to itself.
Yes, D4 sold massive amounts, but that wasnt the case because of how they made it. It was because they made it look great, advertised it great and had the mighty brand name Diablo behind the game.
But if you look at it right now you see for example not even 700 people watch D4 right now on Twitch while the old bloke PoE is watched by 6,3k. Without even being accessable or player friendly at all. It is because it is motivating and inherits the D2 spirit.
And why did Blizzard not learn from that? It is because, despite the massive success of D4, they didnt think further into the future.
Yes, the shop probably makes insane amounts of money as well, I dont doubt it, but if Blizzard is greedy - which I think they are and have the right to - then why not make a game that people love to play on top of it being that auto success? Why not make even more money?
If people wanna tell me that Blizzard makes more money that way, people are talking bs. Not even casuals ptefer this shitfest over a real ARPG. They just accept it, thats why. Blizzard wasnt even lazy...D4 wasnt easier or daster to make than a game based on D2. There is no benefit for them in making D4 the way they did compared to what they could have done with another system in mind.
So is it really the case that Blizzard, a whole, big team of gifted professionals, did and also does not understand what would have made D4 a legendary game? And no we are not an old basement dwelling minority of D2 boomers, bathing in nostalgia, we are RIGHT. And everybody who played ARPGs before D3 knows exactly what made the genre great or what even made the genre as a whole even. No one would prefer D4 over a modern game based on a D2 foundation.
My little brother is born in 1997, so he was too small to play D2 when it came out but he loved D3. Fair enough. When D2R released and I bought it, he laughed at me and told me how fuckin old I am (I am 40 btw.) and that its funny how I get excited over a 20+ year old remaster thanks to nostalgia.
I bought it for him as well then. If its free, you can install it. Doesnt hurt, right? Right. He installed it.
After 3 hours he came back to me
"Dude, that shit is clunky af, legenadries are lame too"
"Why? And please call them Uniques"
"I found that armor. Just a few stats, no special. Also 15 levels below me. Makes no sense. Also I cant compare anything. No idea what better or worse with all this crap"
"Uniques have a fixed Level. They dont level up with you. They have no "special", dude. What did you find?"
"Cant remember, but it sucks".
I joined him and explained him a bit more. Showed hima few things cause those sponge minded people nowadays arent used to any brain work at all.
That evening he told me that the game grew a bit on him and that it is better than he thought, but D3 would still be WAY better for many reasons.
I didnt ask him what those were, I just asked him to continue to play.
3 days later, he told me that he has never had so much fun in an ARPG and that it actually makes so much fun to collect stuff and look at the stats. Something D3 or D4 players could never ever imagine. He plays it aince and didnt even bother to buy D4. I did tho. I was weak.
Blizzard is a corporation so they are focused on cashflows, by whatever means possible. And all of the corporate managers look short term, to cash out on their stock options.
The best thing to do in a rotten, soulless corporation with all the good devs long gone, short term, is to copy what you have (d3), repackage it so it looks fresh to noobs and sell it to them thanks to good marketing campaign.
I don’t think there is much more to it. I actually don’t even think they understand what made d2 so good. They just focus on some surface level effects when talking about arpgs, not about the core game mechanics (which d3 and d4 don’t even have).