Diablo 3 Multiplayer - Input Needed!

[Dogbones]

So I heard there are 4 acts and the entire game takes about 24 hours to complete, so correct me if i'm wrong but multiplayer is essentially co-op mode where you play through the same content again along with your friends. So all in all 48 hours of gameplay for 2 play throughs and 13 years of development. I can't understand how people are going to be playing multiplayer for years if its the same story and run-through everytime...I guess what i'm saying is why would people keep replaying the same thing over and over again to see the same quests and environments from before...maybe i'm missing something from multiplayer but why include a Auction House if most people 80% will play through the 4 acts and uninstall because a lot of people don't like co-op. So can somebody enlighten me?

[kel]

well, first of all its not just 2 playthroughs, there is many levels of difficulty, each time the game gets harder and harder, meaning it will take more time to finish. Also its not co-op, you can play with random people and just do what you like, you can just go around and explore then come back next day and do the quests.

80% will uninstall? Nice of you to pull a random statistic out of your ass, if anything most of the people will NOT uninstall after the first 4 acts because they can still go play the AH or push them selves to play and (hopefully) defeat inferno, which will no doubt take much longer than 24 hours.

Well, in the game you can just reroll a different class, work on your current class or just randomly go around and kill shit. There is so much to do.

[Rafax]

24 hours ? where did ya get that number ? There will also be 4 difficulties each harder then the last and you can be sure that Hell per example wont be done in 24 hours , and the multiplayer will also have PVP in an arena system that will be put in the game later on .

[Igloo]

There will be 4 acts in D3 to begin with, additional acts might be added in possible expansions. Each act can be played through on 4 different difficulties, ranging from normal to Inferno. There is no difference between single and multiplayer except that monster difficulty scales up for each person on your server. Items bought and sold on the Auction House can be used when playing both single and multiplayer.

The "80%" who according to you will play through the story once and then quit are more like 0,1% of the player base. Most people who played Diablo 2 didn't quit after finishing the story. After that comes the item grind, reaching max level on all classes and beating every difficulty level. On top of that most things in Diablo are randomized, so every play-through will be vastly different.

[Joxer]

24 hours ? where did ya get that number ? There will also be 4 difficulties each harder then the last and you can be sure that Hell per example wont be done in 24 hours , and the multiplayer will also have PVP in an arena system that will be put in the game later on .

You forgot the part with Inferno getting harder and harder the further you get because of the recent change.
So completing the game to 100% will take quite some months, if not even years due to things that can be implemented later on.

In Diablo 2, you could go from Act 1 Normal to Act 5 Hell in less than 24hours and complete every quest, but that does not mean you are done with the game.
You still had quite a lot of lvls left to go, and quite some gear to get, which could take 1-6 months, if not even more to get.

[Deleted]

The point of D3 is not to see the story and then quit, it's to get the best loot in the game from the highest difficulty - which Bashiok stated there are internal bets of how many months it will take to complete - months - for the first people to complete inferno.

And if you complete inferno once, well you probably haven't got the most awesome gear in the game from one playthrough, and if you have got the most awesome gear, well you've only done it on one of the five characters so you're still only 20% through "completion".

And that's not even getting started on hardcore....

Honestly, anyone who is buying D3 for one playthrough with one character on normal is definitely not going to get their moneys worth.... that's really not the point of D3.

[Deleted]

You can tell the people who have never played Diablo 2.
I played Diablo 2 all the way up to 1.11b ( 3 years I think~) and the only reason I stopped was because of exams at School, just couldn't get back into it after.

If you intend on buying this game for a single playthrough without stepping up the difficulty and finding niche ways of playing then it's going to be a letdown.

[Palisis]

So I heard there are 4 acts and the entire game takes about 24 hours to complete, so correct me if i'm wrong but multiplayer is essentially co-op mode where you play through the same content again along with your friends. So all in all 48 hours of gameplay for 2 play throughs and 13 years of development. I can't understand how people are going to be playing multiplayer for years if its the same story and run-through everytime...I guess what i'm saying is why would people keep replaying the same thing over and over again to see the same quests and environments from before...maybe i'm missing something from multiplayer but why include a Auction House if most people 80% will play through the 4 acts and uninstall because a lot of people don't like co-op. So can somebody enlighten me?

This is a very short-sighted view of games in this day an age. They can add patches of content and expansions. New gear sets. New storylines to develop. Also, just because the previous version was launched 13 yrs ago, doesn't mean the game took that long to develop. Hope this enlightened you a bit.

[Beazy]

Way to pull an entire post out of your ass. 24 hours? Did you just make that number up because beta takes about 45 min?

LOL! "So Ive heard the game takes 24 hours to complete". Where did you hear that? I would LOVE to read that blue post.

[Deleted]

Dogbones, I think it's time for you to stop this crusade of yours. You've now compared it to a Diablo clone, trying to make a point that it's not worth it. You've compared it to an RTS, which makes no sense whatsoever. It's clear you don't grasp what the soul of the Diablo series of games is, and as such you don't need to understand the game. Let me try and enlighten you once more, though...

Diablo isn't meant to be played through once, or twice. For the vast majority of Diablo players, the story itself is secondary as far as getting your money's worth goes. We didn't stop at killing Diablo on normal difficulty at the end of act 4 back in Diablo 2. We didn't stop at killing Baal on normal difficulty at the end of act 5 back in LoD.

Also, you're confused as to how the multiplayer aspect of the game works. You don't start a multiplayer/co-op playthrough, which you then continue from start to end. You simply go through the campaign either alone or with friends. You can start solo, then invite someone into your game to help you, continue playing with them for a while, then continue solo as they leave.

The whole essence of Diablo is to level as many characters to max as you feel like, which in this third iteration is basically five, since the characters can be respecced, which wasn't possible back in early D2. Back then you would level a 99 speedazon and a 99 javazon, a 99 fw sorc and a 99 orb sorc, and so on, because all the skill choices were permanent.

Once you have your character(s), you start grinding for items. This is the essence of Diablo. You find a boss and a difficulty level where the time spent and the chance for items to drop is in the best possible ratio, and then you repeat it a million times.

Clearly this is something you don't seem to understand, and that's OK. You don't have to understand it. Just don't go making asinine assumptions such as 80% of the players will uninstall the game after killing Diablo, when that's not what the game is about.

[Deleted]

This guy obviously never played D2

[Orangetai420]

On top of everything already said, we have hardcore mode.

The thrill and difficulty of completing the game on hardcore is enough motivation for me

[Deleted]

^ exactly, the first person to complete inferno on hardcore mode will be a legend, ppl will tell tales and stories to their kids in a few decades, they will turn into fables and fables will turn into myths. Eventually these will wither away and only legends remains... the scrolls that tell of these legends will be hidden till a new society rises. All this for keeping a sacred hero remembered!

[Deleted]

But what OP says makes some sense. I really wonder that D3 will be too short with its 4 acts and that would be some kind of disappointment after so many years of development and waiting. They could make at least 6-8 acts, less linear questing path, many alternative zones, so that I would need at least week to finish the normal difficulty, not 1-2 days. It's a legitimate complaint.

[Deleted]

But what OP says makes some sense. I really wonder that D3 will be too short with its 4 acts and that would be some kind of disappointment after so many years of development and waiting. They could make at least 6-8 acts, less linear questing path, many alternative zones, so that I would need at least week to finish the normal difficulty, not 1-2 days. It's a legitimate complaint.

It's not really a legitimate complaint at the moment, because
a) no one knows how long the game is. So there is no way of saying it's a legitimate complaint because it may take you at least a week to finish normal difficulty, making up an arbitary number of 1-2 days does not make it legitimate at this stage.... let's wait and see first, and THEN complain if you don't like it :P

and

b) You say you want normal to take you a week. Is that a week of playing 10 hours a day? A week of playing an hour after school? Is that a week for a complete newbie who's never played any diablo games before, or a week for a hardcore veteran who spent 2000 hours on D3 and 100 on the beta?

My point there being that it's going to be personal and relative to every single person so even if we knew that the normal game was 20 hours long (which we don't, we have no indication right now), that could be 20 hours for you, an experienced gamer, and 40 hours for someone else. Someone is always going to feel that it's "too easy" or "too quick", and that's exactly why there are harder difficulties.

[Deleted]

Complaining about the length of the Diablo 3 campaign is a bit like complaining that Oblivion or Skyrim is too short and has too little content, when all you do is the main quest. You can finish Skyrim in a couple hours if that's how you play it. You'll just miss out on about a thousand quests, areas and items. Similarly, you can most likely finish the Diablo 3 normal mode campaign in a matter of hours if you rush through it.

Diablo isn't a game like for example Neverwinter or Dragon Age, or even Mass Effect, where when you've finished the campaign and seen the entire story, you most likely stop playing the game. That's not at all the point of the game. If that's how you're going to play Diablo, then you really shouldn't buy it at all. The whole point of Diablo is to max out your characters' levels, and then max out their gear. The Diablo 3 story is meant to be played through at least four times per character (normal, nightmare, hell, inferno), and even those four playthroughs won't allow you to find the best gear possible. That'll require farming items for ages.

We did this in Diablo 2, even though the only PvP was outside the rogue encampment getting killed by guided arrows, but Diablo 3 is supposedly even at some point going to have an arena system, where you can show off your awesome gear.

Basing your assumptions of the length of Diablo 3 on it's beta is just ridiculous, and even if you do find yourself at the end of the normal mode campaign "too fast", then you should realize you've only scratched the surface of what Diablo 3 is about; that's not where you're supposed to stop.

[IEatRoflWafflz]

But what OP says makes some sense. I really wonder that D3 will be too short with its 4 acts and that would be some kind of disappointment after so many years of development and waiting. They could make at least 6-8 acts, less linear questing path, many alternative zones, so that I would need at least week to finish the normal difficulty, not 1-2 days. It's a legitimate complaint.

They have a less linear questing path and many alternative zones. Almost every zone you enter is randomly generated, so you will almost never run through the same "zone" twice, sure the place may look similar but the layout and maze will change. As far as questing they have multiple hidden and random event quests throughout the game. In beta going through up to the skeleton king you can find a jar that has stored hundreds of souls which you have to purge and eventually destroy the jar, but that may not be in your game. You may have to help a slain maiden who's (also) dead husband has gone mad that she has died. These are "Side" quests that satisfy both your non-linear and alternative zone dilemma.

[Jurwi]

So I heard there are 4 acts and the entire game takes about 24 hours to complete, so correct me if i'm wrong but multiplayer is essentially co-op mode where you play through the same content again along with your friends. So all in all 48 hours of gameplay for 2 play throughs and 13 years of development. I can't understand how people are going to be playing multiplayer for years if its the same story and run-through everytime...I guess what i'm saying is why would people keep replaying the same thing over and over again to see the same quests and environments from before...maybe i'm missing something from multiplayer but why include a Auction House if most people 80% will play through the 4 acts and uninstall because a lot of people don't like co-op. So can somebody enlighten me?

Did you also uninstall WoW once you hit 60 on your first character?

---------- Post added 2012-04-11 at 01:58 PM ----------

But what OP says makes some sense. I really wonder that D3 will be too short with its 4 acts and that would be some kind of disappointment after so many years of development and waiting. They could make at least 6-8 acts, less linear questing path, many alternative zones, so that I would need at least week to finish the normal difficulty, not 1-2 days. It's a legitimate complaint.

Yea, cause D2 had much more acts than 4. Oh wait...

Yes, it's a legitimate complain if you want the game to be a MMORPG. That's what it sounds like. That's not what Diablo games are. They are pure hack'n'slash action, linear questing, killing big bosses for loots, PvP, trading (or AH now) etc.

[Cairhiin]

Guess you never played Diablo 2? I'm fairly sure however that a large amount of players will stop before reaching 60 or before finishing hell. It was the same in Diablo 2. Diablo either hooks you or you get bored of it quickly and never play it again. I've played 10+ years of Diablo I and II, and I still once in awhile play Diablo 2. The fact that you can play whenever for whatever time is a huge attraction to me. I can just start over without anything and I still love it. Diablo is just the epitome of ARPG.

[Drifted]

But what OP says makes some sense. I really wonder that D3 will be too short with its 4 acts and that would be some kind of disappointment after so many years of development and waiting. They could make at least 6-8 acts, less linear questing path, many alternative zones, so that I would need at least week to finish the normal difficulty, not 1-2 days. It's a legitimate complaint.

No it's not legitimate complaint. D3 is not Elder Scrolls. You can't even classify is as a proper RPG. Diablo 3 is hack 'n slash. It doesn't need non linear questing with rambling areas. People are still playing Diablo 2. And I can tell you they are not playing it because world breaking story, interesting quests or mind blowing graphics.