I came here from Diablo 3!!! [Please post here if you did as well!]

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Thyrandor wrote:

It's a real shame that this thread exists. It's an even greater shame that a lot of people utter the phrase "PoE is what Diablo 3 should have been!" How could Blizzard - a company whose games I used to love - fail so spectacularly?
Warcraft 2 was my first ever multiplayer game, Diablo kept me farming for a King's Sword of Haste for God knows how long, Starcraft + Brood War made me really appreciate the RTS genre, and Diablo 2 was just too awesome...
And now? More and more people leave D3 behind, waiting for Torchlight 2, Guild Wars 2 or playing PoE (hopefully the latter ;-)). I still hope that Blizzard will rewrite the game, emphasizing on its strengths and ironing out its flaws, but I wouldn't bet anything on it anymore. I wouldn't even bet on an add-on being released.
Enough ranting for today, but these thoughts make me really sad :-(

I agree...

Also its time to face facts that Blizzard has been wholly possessed by Kotic's greedy aura. The team that created D3 are not the same team that made the games we remember blizzard for. Personally for me, they took out the soul of the game with the terrible plot and the skill tree. I was really disheartened to see the skills for my barbarian were pretty bad. Where is my passive skill to allow dual wielding 2 handed swords??

Almost everything about Diablo 3 is a slap in the face to those who have been awaiting a true sequel to Diablo 2.

Path of Exile not only meets the expectations of our envisioned Diablo 3, but it takes it much further with creative and new concepts for an ARPG. I love the idea of a no gold economy, where the money actually has a physical value, and can be consumed itself. I don't think most companies understand how to create a proper and balanced economy in a online video game. GGG does. They also know how to make enough content to keep you interested for a long, long time. This game is unique, and I can guarantee it will end up being more popular than Diablo 2 ever was.

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Thyrandor wrote:

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Fartfinder wrote:

If D3 wasn't a total failure of greed I would have never come across this gem of a game.

Unlike many others, I don't think D3 is centered around the auction houses. I think they just made the first three difficulties far to easy for experienced players (maybe to appeal to casual gamers?) - and then they completely botched the endgame.
I think it all went down somewhat like this: They were behind schedule ans wanted to release before the competitors did. So they cooked up inferno without thoroughly testing it for long-term motivation and balance. Thus, they created a game without any long-term motivation except for they most die-hard players. But EXACTLY THAT was the magic of Diablo 2 IMHO: Long-term motivation for hundreds of hours.

Actually my tinfoil hat tells me there were some internal problems when, I surmise, Kotic intervened and demanded things that did not sit well creating a disparity between the devs and the head honcho. There was a D3 mmo in the works (came from the mouth of Schrafer brothers (Max) in TL2 forums) and, I am guessing once again, that there were some conflict of interest with the then Blizzard North and a new team was brought in (one that was malleable like Wilson as he probably did not have much input about the game) and Erich and Max left to join Runic.

During this time of development I believe a decent chunk of the first Act 1 and few other acts were already in a semi functional state. Majority of the time was spent with Wilson and his crew trying to figure out the gaming mechanics and how to solve some of the flaws the predecessors had. Perhaps the flaws were intrinsic with the game design of D2 and things had to be simplified further to allow for some balance. The E3 gameplay demo showed of a lot of changes but still held a lot of meat (skill trees, skills that can actually allow for strategic escapes, runes, gems with elemental effects, scrolls, in game conversation window during NPC quest interactions, ability to climb ladders and interact with other objects etc). On the other side, Activision is fighting a legal suit against the creators of MW2 series which is further hemorrhaging money as WOW's declining player base reduces the cash flow to trickle. Causing Bobby to bend Blizzards arm to make the game appeal to a wider category of audience and provide a stable income of cash flow.

To make this happen Kotic HR reps quell any misgivings or negative feedbacks from testers and designers. I am guessing the plot and script were haphazardly made for the rest of the acts (since Blizz N had already worked on majority of the act 1 and consequently was one of the most polished acts in the game)by the dev's themselves focusing heavily on a PG 13 rating.

Eventually open beta came and wilson and their crew had by this time taken all the fat and meat from act 1 (the siege beast was supposed to be in act 1) and spread over the rest of the 3 acts. There was an article with a small Q and A from a recently fired tester from Blizzard who describes the whole HR dept was there more to contain than to assist and the state of the game (which he was correct for the most part). This was however, buried within a few weeks by disregarding fans (but has now shown up once again in D3 forums in a new light).

Blizzard started delaying the release of D3 yearly as the leak of some of the info from the article needed to be addressed (or rather changed). The plot was further skimmed down and the final act was most likely taken down in order to be a later addition to the story via DLC. Along with this act a chunk of the level cap and skills were also taken off so there would be a a preset DLC that would only require tweaking. The reason for this would be the force inclusion of the AH/RMAH into the system as a perpetual flow of money from players greed for online validation of supremacy. The reason I surmise this is because of Jay's and Cheng's response to the AH conspiracy by unwittingly admitting that they never played the game with AH installed. Wilson also unwitting admits in an Q&A that they only played till the first act of inferno difficulty and realizing there is always going to players that can out perform the creator an so they blindly just "doubled it".

Closed beta is live and a small community giddily explores the next chapter in Tristram roads 91210. The skill tree is still there but much of the other effects and concepts were missing. I once again, surmise that just cutting out and making minor crude logic nerfs made the game almost unplayable. After the overwhelming negative feedback the closed beta ends with fans hoping the devs take heed of their warnings.


Open beta is live and excitement quickly turned into disdain. There was nothing left in the RPG dept of the ARPG formula. The skill tree was now entirely gone replaced with a COD or to be more precise a Kill zone 2 like barebones progression system that unlocks skills and slots as you level up. Builds were nullified as you can now swamp between skills meaning anyone can have the same combination of skills and presets with a click of a few buttons. The outrage was loud but the devs were silent. Only responding to the self inflated ego easter eggs (oh look now you can be cool by knwing the devs liked to watch Lost.)

Open beta closes, fans are in shock and still believe Blizzard will fix it.

Day of Release: Fans are happy for a week then starts the growing dissatisfaction of a game that oozed greed with a game that felt more like a side game to trading system in place. No pvp, underwhelming loot and it turns out saw all the skills that the game had during the open beta. Still online co-op options a few random drops kept hopes up for a few weeks more.

2 months later: Forums are ablaze with fire. Trolls have invaded the forums and demand a reckoning for the usurpers (Wilson) transgressions on sacred territory. The trolls first tried the "civil" approach of suggest plethora of "fixes" and buffs to the game. The end result was the exact opposite...
This was more than any troll can take, years of patience and support, disdaining nay sayers, offerings of money has wrought them THIS??? Their sacred lands have been tarnished by the usurpers greed. There seems to be no indication of hope.

Present: The troll counts continue to rise and only a few handful of the fanatical royalists remain at Blizzards side while the rest either flea to more rewarding lands or convert to the trolls cause and join their brothers in the siege. Ultimately when things will die down there will be a reckoning, a realization of the truth, that Jay Wilson was a hapless puppet turning the wheels to the giant machinsm of the one true heart of sin... Bobby Kotic.





Also upon finishing this post another thought just hit me...

I don't have any tinfoil! Whose hat is this? This can't be real because tinfoil's don't talk back. I keep telling myself its all lies its all liesits all liesits all liesits all liesits all liesits all liesits all liesits all liesits all liesits all liesits all liesits all liesits all lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies...

"The greatest trick the Devil ever played, was convincing the community that he wasn't Bobby Kotick".

lol yea i god d3 the day it came out and it was horible so i made an acc here

I have happily come here from Sanctuary and wish never to return.

Been waiting for beta access to PoE for a while (around the same time 1.03 dropped) so I could check this game out, but never got my beta invite. Now there is an open weekend so I get to try it now.

I'm not a complete exile from D3, I am pretty much addicted to selling things in the RMAH but that well is running dry I guess since I haven't sold anything in over a week.

I hope PoE is better, after this weekend, if I enjoy it, I will buy a beta key.

I'm ex-Blizzard.

Played D3 for a whole month with 2 lvl 60 chars to act3 Inferno to give it a fair go. 250 hours play time.

They have killed the franchise.

UK RMAH is a waste of time. I've never seen anything sell. EVER.

im still a loyalist for D3 though,just retiring for a while till they fire Jay Wilson :p btw im a barb,that Act 3 wall is almost impossible to penetrate..

Haha, ex d3 player here. 400 hours played half of them hardcore.

I live in the same city as Kripp and I follow him instensely, he will be playing Gw2 apparently but I bet he will also give this game a whirl as he hasn't made up his mind yet I don't think.

As well I would love a beta key when you decide to release some more.

Cheers

Well i'm yet another one on the list that left diablo 3. Hard to do after diablo 2 was such an impact on me with my online gaming as a kid lol. Unfortunately the problem with money being involved in games is destroying them to a point where games are just not difficult anymore with auction houses etc. And BTW I am a kiwi haha boom waiting on client download now can't wait :D