Why Diablo went mobile

I like how this thread manages to keep going well beyond its intended lifespan -- meanwhile someone else bumped their anti-vax thread.

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鬼殺し wrote:

I imagine some parents feel the same way.

Oh that's harsh, but very likely true.

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Gotta admit - those mods impress me with what they catch given the leeway they do give.

The last thing I quoted got obliterated and given the rage I'm not surprised.

https://kotaku.com/the-past-present-and-future-of-diablo-1830593195

a good detailed article that gives some insight into blizzard today

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Necromael wrote:

https://kotaku.com/the-past-present-and-future-of-diablo-1830593195

a good detailed article that gives some insight into blizzard today

You know, its funny that management thought D3 was a failure, when you have to believe it was 90% their fault. Anyone remember the initial D3 info? It had way more depth, way more going on. All of that was scrapped. None of the elemental effects did anything, the skill-stones were completely scrapped, all PvP systems were scrapped, etc. I mean I doubt the development team came up with all of that, showed it multiple times over the course of D3 reveals, just to decide to scrap all of it themselves.

Also, where do they get their information from? I thought most people respected Blizzard's decisions to scrap games that weren't good enough to release? You would continually see actual praise for their scrapping of SC:Ghost because it wasn't Blizzard quality, so who exactly is giving them blackmarks for scrapping Titan? I do wonder where exactly they get their market information from considering how they announced a mobile game before a d4 and didn't expect backlash. They need to hire someone else for those positions. Same with actually letting cancelled SC:Ghost and Titan sway their release of information. I remember reading that constantly not only in publications but across the web the actual praise in them cancelling that game instead of releasing it, further cementing the idea that Blizzard only releases games "when its ready" and won't release trash games.

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鬼殺し wrote:

The change to skill runes during the closed beta of D3 from loot and tiered to unlocked as you level is what sent me here. That one change. We were all so excited for the literal millions of builds you could do with different skill rune configurations. To take that and then make it linear with no power levels...man, lame.

Yea I played that little Skeleton King Beta stuff they had out, seemed fun(its hard to argue that D3's actual gameplay isn't fun), and came back to PoE. I had kept up with D3(or so I thought) up till release, but I didn't even know they took all that out. It was a surprise to me that elemental effects were visual only and there were no skill gems. Not to mention how bland everything was. Weren't uniques and set items just by default worse than any rare? I dont even think they did anything different. Maybe sets did, but I cant remember. Overall it was just bland.

Well PoE IS a complicated and complex game to get into, no way around that. I started playing back in the open beta and never got a decent build working, tried really hard during Legacy League and still could just barely do T3 maps. Only finally got the hang of it towards the end of Abyss with a slayer cyclone I built and with over 600 hours in the game I still struggle with some parts of the game (namely actually completing the atlas because of the map drops but that's a different issue).

The thing is that at the end of the day when you look at how PoE works it's such a daunting game. First off the huge passive skill tree which you have no idea how to use. Then how skills work, and how support gems work (yes even with the tutorial). Then not really understanding how skills scale for melee and spells, so you end up with subpar builds all the way to act 10. It's not easy for the average person to just get through the game.

I have a friend who plain didn't get into PoE for this very reason. Too much stuff to learn according to him and he's a 38 year old dude going on 40. Meanwhile I gifted him Grim Dawn and he's been having a blast with it, given that it's a MUCH more simpler game (not that GD is bad, I'm enjoying it a lot too but it's definitely 100x easier to just pick it up and progress right away).

But to all this the real reason Blizz went mobile is because the chinese maket for mobile games is huge. Hell any market for mobile games is huge, but IMO Blizzard missed their mark by at least a couple of years now. Besides, even a mobile ARPG requires too much time investment compared to more generic games and the only profitable platform for ARPGs is on either console or PC, mostly favoring PC.

It's basically for china with the hope of attracting a couple gamble addicted western idiots and the occasional kid who's parents failed in parenting.

Any sympathy, wonder or respect for Chinese culture and "people" disappears like ash in the wind once you take the red pill.

If I was a Blizzard fan I'd be insulted. Supporting a developer for a long time only to be pissed all over is infuriating. Kinda like how Bethesda is doing with Fallout 76 and putting ES6 in jeopardy as a result, with rumors and even hints towards reusing a old engine again being even more alarming.

I'll say it. 2018 is basically the year of #DeveloperGate. Developers
in the game industry have been particularly shitty this year. Shady practices, bad faith, scandals and drama.

I am sure others have already said this but my opinion is that it would be stupid of them to ignore that market. Mobile games make a LOT of money. There are millions of mobile gamers. My wife is a mobile gamer. Both my kids are too. If they can hook a segment of that market into a mobile Diablo they can make millions. You can't blame them for heading there. But we can blame them for how they handled it.