Mike Morhaime on the state of D3

[Maximus4004]

milking their loyal fans for everything their worth!

They are running a business not a tea party. Ever been to the grocery store? What do you think they do to you there?

[Darsithis]

I was about to do the same. and then actually realized I don't really care enough. I play Diablo III cause I still think it's fun and that's all that matters to me.

Absolutely. I try to stay active in this forum, but the negativity gets to me sometimes, and then I think: what the hell does it matter? I still enjoy the game!

[Maximus4004]

"On the flipside, we are also committed to ensuring you have a great experience with Diablo III without feeling like the auction house is mandatory, which was never our intention. "

I TRULY hope he means to fix this. This is one of the things that made me stop playing D3, the need to equip using the AH.

I´m pissed as hell from having to farm gold to proceed. And I mean farm GOLD, not gear... By the time I get a more or less useful piece of gear from any of the elites in Act 1 Inferno, that my useless monk NEEDS to proceed in Act 2, I already have gold to buy a better piece in the AH. There really is no advance in gear outside of the AH.

I refuse to use my Mastercard to equip, but that would be the only sure way to win.

Theres a link of a monk that passed act 2 using less than 500k worth of gear, don't blame the game when you can't play it very well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fu9zw1J0EE

[Morogoth]

"Patch 1.0.4 will also include new and improved Legendary items that are more interesting, more powerful, and more epic in ways you probably won’t be expecting."

Sure... something like "The cooldown on Wrath of the Berserker is reduced by 2 sec" (2 min cooldown)
Anyway, if they buff legendaries, they will probably nerf the drop rate, it's just a logical step no?

[connectz]

They are running a business not a tea party. Ever been to the grocery store? What do you think they do to you there?

This is the shittiest reason for their behavior that comes up in the forums. Yes they are a business, but they are as popular as they are because of the quality of the products. Whatever happened to SOON TM? Well, something changed, they're pumping games and expansions out on a conveyor belt these days to maximize the buck.

[Maximus4004]

This is the shittiest reason for their behavior that comes up in the forums. Yes they are a business, but they are as popular as they are because of the quality of the products. Whatever happened to SOON TM? Well, something changed, they're pumping games and expansions out on a conveyor belt these days to maximize the buck.

Yes maximizing profit is part of business for ANY company regardless of popularity unless your working for a non-income/charity business.

[connectz]

Yes maximizing profit is part of business for ANY company regardless of popularity unless your working for a non-income/charity business.

They made better games when they had half the customer base and profit that they do now. Their business should be about games first...as it was then.

[Nerraw]

Really? So what would you call the fact that everyone already knows what items are before they ID them by using item codes?

Aslo found this at Diablofans:
•(End-Game) "We’re also working on a gameplay system that will provide players who have max-level, high-powered characters new goals to strive for as an alternative to the “item hunt.” We’re not ready to get into specifics just yet, but I can say that we’re actively taking your feedback into account as we plan out the future of the game."

So how exactly do we get high powered characters with a rediculous RNG system in place combined with any decent item that would probably let you do this "high end" costing 50+ million gold. Also since items either sell for next to nothing or sell for 10s of millions of gold and since most items fall under the next to nothing category which means you will never be able to afford those 50 million gold upgrades. How do they plan on removing this Catch 22 to allow people to participate in their End Game? I farm for 6-7 hours a day and maybe get 2 items that will sell on the AH but nothing that will sell for millions. Thats running with 275 MF.

To the first one, I think he meant actual working copies of the game that could be played without connecting to Blizzard's servers. Which hasn't happened yet.

And to the second one, that's actually in his post as well, not just on Diablofans.

[Lilly32]

Anyway, if they buff legendaries, they will probably nerf the drop rate, it's just a logical step no?

How the hell could they nerf them anymore than they already are. I have played every day since the game went live. I can count on one hand the number of Legendaries I have gotten. I can count on one finger the number that were actually level 60. Legendaries need to be the same level as the difficuluty they drop in. So level 1-30 in Normal, 31-50 in Nightmare, 51-59 in Hell, and 60 in inferno. No one buys them while leveling because you level so fast they become useless in a few hours. Also all of them regardless of elvel need to salvage into fiery brimestones. This will also help make crafting less of a pain and lets you get rid of useless stat legendaries or low elvel ones besides vendoring them.

[Nerraw]

And something all the haters seem to have missed amongst all the Blizzard-bashing going on in here. They have actually bumped up the buff of Legendaries.

inb4morehate

[quras]

Yes maximizing profit is part of business for ANY company regardless of popularity unless your working for a non-income/charity business.

yup and when you maximize profit over a quality product it tends to generate large amounts of negativity. Such as this case. Sure it's opinion based but clearly enough to get the CEO involved.

Now I wonder if all this is done due to the quarterly call coming next month.

[connectz]

And something all the haters seem to have missed amongst all the Blizzard-bashing going on in here. They have actually bumped up the buff of Legendaries.

inb4morehate

Seriously...legendaries are the least of Diabo 3's problems.

[Deleted]

tldr: "We're extremely smart and talented and good looking and rarely fuck up, but if we crudely tack on some minor features will you stop quitting our game en masse?"

Yeah, that covers it pretty much.

And the features they're adding are fine and all, but if they don't fix the economy then it's all for nothing.
Inflation/AH issues are ruining the game most of all.

[Nerraw]

Seriously...legendaries are the least of Diabo 3's problems.

Do you not remember a month and a half ago when every single forum was ablaze with people hating on the legendaries? Now they're actually shit to actually push out a change sooner, but nooooo. Can't give Blizzard any credit whatsoever.

Why must all of this rabid hating on something be so cool on the internet. Doesn't matter what it is. As long as it's something big coming from big companies trying something different, there's hate. One would think people have better things to do than sit on the internet complaining about things that they hate instead of spending time on things they like.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go back to my very enjoyable Mass Effect 3.

[Maximus4004]

They made better games when they had half the customer base and profit that they do now. Their business should be about games first...as it was then.

In your opinion yes, I'm sure there are as many people to combat negative peoples opinions about D3 as there are complainers about D3. Personally I enjoy D3, and I enjoyed Cata/LK/BC and in beta testing MoP it will be just as fantastic. I also love EA, Activision and Sony, which many people probably dislike. They can't as a business cater to everyone's personalities/opinons its not possible, if people feel the need to take their business elsewhere, by all means try to find a replacement for one of the BEST gaming companies out there period.

---------- Post added 2012-07-19 at 02:31 PM ----------

Do you not remember a month and a half ago when every single forum was ablaze with people hating on the legendaries? Now they're actually shit to actually push out a change sooner, but nooooo. Can't give Blizzard any credit whatsoever.

Why must all of this rabid hating on something be so cool on the internet. Doesn't matter what it is. As long as it's something big coming from big companies trying something different, there's hate. One would think people have better things to do than sit on the internet complaining about things that they hate instead of spending time on things they like.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go back to my very enjoyable Mass Effect 3.

Nerraw, I'm with you, I think people are upset that they can't fix everything in one patch. God these developers must really suck at their jobs

[Skroe]

Classic damage control letter. CLASSIC. Mike basically wrote the gold standard here.
http://www.inc.com/magazine/19940101/2717.html

Paragraphs 1 and 2: Explain the situation. "Without trying to pass off responsibility, we always let customers know where the problem was.
Paragraph 3: Explain what you're doing about the basic problem.
Paragraph 4: Say this ["We value your business."]. "We say this because we do. We're in such a highly competitive field that the loss of any customer means something."

And a whole lot of thanking and strong-front showing, underscoring success.

So typical...

[connectz]

Do you not remember a month and a half ago when every single forum was ablaze with people hating on the legendaries? Now they're actually shit to actually push out a change sooner, but nooooo. Can't give Blizzard any credit whatsoever.

Why must all of this rabid hating on something be so cool on the internet. Doesn't matter what it is. As long as it's something big coming from big companies trying something different, there's hate. One would think people have better things to do than sit on the internet complaining about things that they hate instead of spending time on things they like.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go back to my very enjoyable Mass Effect 3.

lol mass effect 3...tells me everything i need to know.

Farmville has more endgame than D3...what are you going to do with these awesome new legendaries? Farm for more? please.

[maky13]

Problem is blizzard created D3 around the RMAH and almost every aspect of the game supporting and controlling drops for the RMAH. blizzard wanted D2 longevity in D3 but the kicker here is D2 was not based on or created around the selling of items. It happened on it's on.

No, they didn`t. Drops are the way they are because they initially intended for inferno to be completed months after release; at least, that`s the idea if you play it single player. If you look at how the game plays out, this is kinda true.

However, what they didn`t expect was the actual impact of the AH on the gameplay. Because of two things:
1. There are a lot more people playing the game (compared to D2, and even their expectations)
2. Everyone is involved in the trade, which is made a lot easier due to AH (no need to go to forums/3rd party sites/spam channels/make games).
These two things mean that trading is happening at a way, way higher frequency compared to D2, and due to the number of people playing, the chances that you find an item in AH are far higher than the chances that you find an item yourself.
This issue is very hard to solve though, because it needs some way to take items out of the economy, but once you think about it seriously you will see that it is a very difficult game design problem.

And really, I know it`s the trend now to blame Blizzard for "being greedy" with RMAH, but the practice of selling gear for money already existed way before RMAH, and with the amounts of scamming going on right now (even with the AHs), I don`t want to think how many more of those scams there would be without AH. RMAH provides a safe environment for trading. They are probably making profit from it, but that is a good thing, because it is a useful feature; and no, they don`t design the game around the RMAH.

[Maximus4004]

lol mass effect 3...tells me everything i need to know.

Farmville has more endgame than D3...what are you going to do with these awesome new legendaries? Farm for more? please.

Lol, so your saying you prefer playing farmville over ME3? No wonder your opinion is so diluted on gaming.

[connectz]

Lol, so your saying you prefer playing farmville over ME3? No wonder your opinion is so diluted on gaming.

where did i compare farmville to me3? no wonder your opinion is so diluted, cant even read.