Quote (Korb @ Jul 4 2021 10:23am)
Exaclty, it's not an argument. It's an assertion. But we can only arrive at any kind of new perspective or deeper understanding by challenging assertions, especially the ones that sound obvious.
It is undeniable that bots changed the game, and that they had some effect. But is it the bots that ruined the game, or was it a combination of different effects?
Generally blaming or scapegoating one thing, is a dead giveaway for BS, sophistry, bigotry. As far as logic goes it's an oversimplification. And because it's perhaps half-true, nobody can easily refute it outright.
In this case a lot of things ruined the game: like the passing of time, having played it a million times over, LOD, Blizzard, the corporate psychopaths who run that company, naturally declining interest, the understanding of the mechanics behind the game and item generation.
I mean, if you watch "The Godfather" 20 times over, eventually you come to realize it's not that amazing of a movie, not that smart of a script and Al Pacino is not that great an actor.
At the end of the day, the very expectation to be amused infinitely by slot machines (or anything), is the one thing you can hold over anybody here. The fact that they stuck around or set up shop. When in fact this behavior is pathological, and that frustrating feeling that you maybe should seek amusement or fulfillment elsewhere is actually a rather healthy intuition.
The truth is that video games get boring fast, usually as soon as you uncover the mechanics. The ones the don't, it turns out - aren't great games, rather they use psychology to trick us. They provide a fake purpose, fake goals, fake progression, fake accomplishments, a fake social environment, fake gold etc. But they also provide real peer pressure, real emotions and real misery.
Maybe classic isn't as bad as LoD or the Modern AAA-"game" World of -radioactive-trash-evil - Online, and maybe it's worth a replay. Just to relive the progression, the wall and the agony. But d2 is one of the progenitors of modern video game evil, we should know better. The unfortunate truth however is that some are stuck with their naive beliefs, in the notion that "everybody's different", and that liking something is an expression of that individuality.
To conclude: Your emotion is real, I don't dismiss it or deny it. I however blame something else, real evil-doers. The version where d2 is an amazing game beyond reproach, ruined by evil hackers, just doesn't sound like the reality we live in. This stuff is on github, it's open source, and botting is not nearly as fun or as profitable as it is made out to be.
So then the question remains, which state of Diablo is more sad? An empty list of public games, or a list of games234 populated by automata. I think a barb who steals drops, but only when he gets to the star first, is both a decent compromise and a bit of a public service, creating games. Playing with/against a party of 4, however is a different story, being immediately outnumbered and outgunned, no fun at all. If they were all necromancers or something fun and clever, then maybe but the old hammerdins headed by a taxisorc ..., please! Even given the supremacy of such a tried and true setup, the person who has to sell that stuff here, remains the weak link and the combination of forum/marketplace remains the last social gaming interaction engaging with the item system. When games tried to replace that with anonymous shops/marketplace/auction house, they got really boring. At the same time MMOs solved the problem of too quick progression, by introducing all kind of time-gating, timers and schedules, which made them into "lifestyle-games" and even more manipulative and evil.
The reason why these bots are so annoying, is that they demonstrate why it is futile to hope for something good, when playing at a leisurely pace. But even botters hit that wall, well a slightly different wall, when they can't progress and can't sell. Sad though it is, it is the universe telling us to move on.
well written m8
I guess most of them don't understand you due to limited thinking ability......not a single comment to your lines
