Played D3:RoS since release till now, heres the results!

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

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xSyK0TiC wrote:

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

Syk0tic: it's interesting to note that you put so much emphasis on the quality of customer support, which is something Blizzard has never really been known for, even as far back as early Bnet stuff like D1 and StarCraft. Do you think it would be such a big deal if the actual product were polished and stable enough not to need such intensive support?

I suppose what I am asking is, if a choice has to be made between top customer support for a very problematic game or sluggish customer support for a game that by and large runs just fine, which would you choose?

Odd as it may sound, I prefer the latter. Once I have a game, I would rather be playing it than wrestling with support over technical issues.

And I am very over GGG's trying. They had over a year of closed beta to try. By now, they should be doing. The charm of the indie company driven by passion, essentially very rough around the edges but full of heart gosh darn it wore off a while ago.

Good point I guess when you put it like that then I would choose the latter as well.

I'm just saying I feel GGG should have evolved by now. That would probably mean some compromises (doesn't all evolution demand that?), and I know how stubborn they can be. Things like outsourcing (not for Support, but for development), a certain step away from being 'personable' and 'direct' in their communications to just get on with the job, players be damned. Of course, that's a lot harder to do when you're free to play and you're essentially relying on player good will rather than being able to use their lump payments to make the game better, if not get to work on the next game. So we're back to that old chestnut!

This is the rut I think GGG are in. Most developers who 'sell' games can take the profits from one game and pour the majority of them into developing the next, thus ensuring the studio's longevity. This goes for both buy-to-play games (traditional computer and console financial models) and free-to-play, pay-as-you-go games (most MMOs out there these days, not to mention oodles of phone/tablet games and now some console games such as Tekken Revolution and Soul Calibur: Lost Swords). The former makes a big lump of cash; the latter is typically cheaper to develop, given it relies more on the gimmick of 'just one more purchase' to play.

Path of Exile has neither of these. The money coming in from mtxes is likely steady and sufficient to keep GGG going with PoE development but a mixture of that and the commitment to a single game model that doesn't have anywhere near the immediate potential for expansion as a traditional MMO is concerning.

Where is the true longevity of PoE? Races and leagues. They can't afford to add substantial content frequently, so instead they are pushing the boundaries, the envelope, of what is already in play. Modifying the parameters. And that's clever. But is it enough to keep players of this day and age, and more importantly, is it enough to draw in the cash required to allow GGG to grow beyond just PoE?

Because whether we like it or not, that's what has to happen. That's the biggest difference between GGG and Blizzard North right now: Blizzard North grew substantially not long after D1 came out. Sure, the end-result isn't so pretty but without Blizzard North's willingness to grow beyond Diablo 1, we wouldn't have had Diablo 2, Hellgate (for better or worse), Torchlight, Marvel Heroes, and whatever else anyone from Blizzard North is now working on.

It's tough, y'know? You want to love GGG for how they're doing this, how passionate they are and their single-minded devotion to this one amazing title, but I think we also know, deep down, that PoE should be a learning experience for them, that they need to hit 'maintenance mode' asap and get to work on something that takes the best of PoE and leaves the worst behind.

Because there's so much to praise about PoE. So much. It's just being held back by earlier decisions that cannot be revoked and shaky foundations not worth the effort to fix. Blizzard could have kept working on D1 but I think they knew they had a bigger hit waiting, something they could only do after the test run of D1. I pray and dream that GGG come to this realisation too, and that they muster the resources to pursue it.

Because I believe GGG made Path of Exile, not the other way around.