Diablo 2 lead Brevik on Diablo 3's design

[Deleted]

Sure but when you have the fastest selling PC game ever, I don't think their shareholders think they "lost".

I think it's more adequate that we lost.

fair point.

[Grumply]

its a multi billionaire? company and when it comes down to it no matter how much you think they strive to make our gaming experience impeccable all they really care about is the money. atleast with a game like diablo, that is. with a game like world of warcraft they must keep putting out content that pleases the customers consistantly at a good rate or else they will lose there subscribers, thus losing alot of money. with diablo the moneys already in their pockets and the moneys only flowing more with the endless items in the rmah.

[The Ogdru Jahad]

definitely agree with him. The re-playability is definitely hurt because of what is essentially a gold grind. Also the AH....

[Deleted]

Having Auction Houses (especially the Gold AH) in Diablo III was about as smart as removing BoP items in WoW.

Aka, it goes against the entire point of the game and fundamentally undermines every mechanic in it.

It was by far one of the dumbest design decisions I have ever seen in a triple A video-game.

[Lysah]

Sure but when you have the fastest selling PC game ever, I don't think their shareholders think they "lost".

I think it's more adequate that we lost.

Considering they DO make money from daily transactions via the AH, the higher volume of players they can RETAIN as opposed to the sheer amount of copies sold is a more significant figure. Seven millions copies of a $60 game pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of interactions that could be taking place daily on the RMAH for the next several years - IF they had made a game nearly as retainable as Diablo 2 was.

No one will see things this way, of course, it's difficult to compare money earned to money that could have been earned, we can only guess how much more money they could have stood to gain by changing this or that about the game. The fact remains that saying it was a success just because it sold well is short sighted. Certainly you can argue it was an immediate success, but a long term one? The shareholders might be happy, but if they are, they seriously need to consider more about the video game industry before buying a part of it.


In the end, I don't disagree it was us that lost. Hopefully Diablo 3 took care of the legion of people who will buy anything Blizzard put it's name on, but most of these people consider D3 a flaming success that was worth their $60, which is the inherent problem with all of Blizzard's games. Too many people accept average work from some of the best producers in the world.

[Deleted]

In the end, I don't disagree it was us that lost. Hopefully Diablo 3 took care of the legion of people who will buy anything Blizzard put it's name on, but most of these people consider D3 a flaming success that was worth their $60, which is the inherent problem with all of Blizzard's games. Too many people accept average work from some of the best producers in the world.

that's not a problem at all to be honest. In the end the only question is:

"Am I having fun?" If the answer is yes, for me does not really matter who has made the game, I had tons of fun with Diablo III I had tons of fune with Minecraft, Starcraft 2, Orcs must die, World of Warcraft, Anno 2070, Settlers 7, etc etc

I measure the value on fun, and how much I got entertained by the game, I do not put in any other factor like who made it, cause it is irrelevant to me. If the game is fun (for me) is fun. That's the end of it.

If I want "more fun" I look for a "game" that is more fun, I do not ask myself the "what company makes games that are more fun?"

I only apply this logic when the company has produced too many games I'm not having fun with, and at that point I use the most awesome power I have as a consumer: I stop buying game from that company. And that's it.

[rated]

blizzard lost? i dont see how making the fastest selling pc game of all time listed at $59.99 and selling 7 million copies(the game is still selling, despite people being done with inferno having a dead game), and taking 15% of what ~7 million people are fighting over pixels for real life money on an auction house. and a game with no monthly subscription making there be no real requirement for them to add any additional content other than pvp which is already done and is just getting balanced. I really dont see how blizzard lost here lol

This is not about financial success. Everyone knew d3 was going to sell a lot based on its reputation with the previous 2 games. This game had more hype than a Lady Gaga album.

[Glorious Leader]

Sure but when you have the fastest selling PC game ever, I don't think their shareholders think they "lost".

I think it's more adequate that we lost.

That's why ATVI stock continues to plummet...

[Deleted]

blizzard lost? i dont see how making the fastest selling pc game of all time listed at $59.99 and selling 7 million copies(the game is still selling, despite people being done with inferno having a dead game), and taking 15% of what ~7 million people are fighting over pixels for real life money on an auction house. and a game with no monthly subscription making there be no real requirement for them to add any additional content other than pvp which is already done and is just getting balanced. I really dont see how blizzard lost here lol

Yeah, they lost. Maybe not with the selling of the game, but they lost fans.
Many people have quit the game already and won't buy the expansion, so they most definitely lost.

And not everyone buys items with real money. Maybe it's big in the US, but not in Europe. Most of us aren't into that.

[Deleted]

I read "Breivik" and thought, didnt he play wow and some fps game? Well he sure did quite some spooky things when he was behind his mask all days long in his moms house

[abijax]

That's why ATVI stock continues to plummet...

You keep posting that all over the place.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=E...rce=undefined;
EA stock plummeted (though the term is exaggerated even in their case) and apparently starts to pick up again, ATVI one kinda follows the market.

[Kraenen]

wait...is this the same brevik that did the killings in norway?

[reckoner04]

I agree with him on most parts (though his points aren't really all that detailed), and I'm sure Blizzard is working hard to adress those issues (or at least I hope so). D2 got patches and LoD expansion and improved over time.

[Thage]

selling so much is also a result of high expectation, it has been surely a financial success, but a game success not that much

Don't see why not. The story has kept me engaged through multiple replays on multiple characters (I enjoy seeing how the different classes' personalities interact with NPCs'), the different relationships that spring up between the different classes and your Followers (as well as the random conversations themselves) are often a good chuckle, combat is much more streamlined than in 2, being able to swap between skills often adds another layer of strategy in the game until you figure out a solid combination for a given boss/elite/whatever, and multiplayer has finally smoothed out.

The only thing I find holding the game back is a proper PvP system, which I do acknowledge should've been ready when the game shipped.

[ZeroEdgeir]

However, I find myself returning to Torchlight 1 instead, because D3 doesn't allow me to get that ever-so-important feeling of "alright, I'm playing the game and I have a baseline drop-% on items, which might be useful to me". Instead, I'm faced with "I'm playing the game, and the baseline drop-% on items is correlated to items on an auction house". It just feels a lot less exciting, tbh.

Except Blizzard has, multiple times, stated that the item drop chance has ZERO bearing on what is in the AH. That is nothing more than a forum-based rumor with no actual basis. Unless you've managed to clone the game servers, dissect the code, and find that it is true, you either go with a belief you found on the internet, or take the company's word. Not to mention, what would Blizzard gain by out-right lying to us, given that eventually everything gets found out in this day and age of global information.

The only issues with drops are the fact of how wide of an ilevel range exists in the upper ranges (ilevel 51-63 is a BIG range for items), and the stat bonuses they can get is equally huge, when they can pull the lowest affix or the highest too. Honestly, I hope they narrow the higher items affixes a bit, so that we don't see ilevel 63 items with only +50 Strength, on Gloves, as a single affix. That is just painfully wasted value. And maybe narrow the ilevel range in later acts of Inferno... get to like 53-63 for Act 2, and 55-63 for Act 3/4. That way, you are rewarded with a narrow ranger of better quality items (in terms of ilevel), and less trash.

[BoysBoysBoys]

I don't really understand the hate for the AH. The amount of Diablo 2 stores and bots is horrifying. It seems quite essential for a game with a big player base such as Diablo.

I haven't played Diablo 3 yet, but about replayability/things to do at end game players will likely just have to give it time. LoD, Baal runs, Uber Tristram/Uber Diablo all came with time. PvP is a really big thing too.

Not going to comment on MF runs because I have no idea how treasure classes work in Diablo 3. ❤

[MerinPally]

Little bit off topic, but that's a really unfortunate name. At first I misread it and thought "oh god, first wow, now Diablo - Blizzard has been really unlucky on their subscribers"

[Deleted]

Sure but when you have the fastest selling PC game ever, I don't think their shareholders think they "lost".

I think it's more adequate that we lost.

After reading so much about Diablo 1 and 2 (I never played them), I was really hyped for 3 thinking I would join the franchise and have a lot of fun. I was grossly disappointed and I don't play anymore. It might be a success for Blizzard now, but down the road when D4 comes out - I won't be buying it and I am sure others will stay away from the series now just because of their experience with D3.

Short term success is a good way of getting investors to leave before their 'well earned' cash loses value next time around.
Long term success is a much better way to do business and keep your company and investors together for the long run.

[Deleted]

Awesome, another guy who worked at Blizzard, left, and has accomplished nothing but failure. I truly value his opinion.

Fail to see what that has to do with anything, but as far as it goes my opinion is that I care a lot more about the opinion of someone who was that involved in making a great game like Diablo 2 compared to anyone who worked on the steaming pile of shit that is Diablo 3.

[Glorious Leader]

You keep posting that all over the place.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=E...rce=undefined;
EA stock plummeted (though the term is exaggerated even in their case) and apparently starts to pick up again, ATVI one kinda follows the market.

What does EA have to do with anything other than to serve as a convenient misdirection I'm not sure.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=ATVI...=on&z=l&q=l&c=

You'll notice it tracks a massive dump shortly after the release of Diablo 3.....

---------- Post added 2012-08-18 at 07:19 PM ----------

Except Blizzard has, multiple times, stated that the item drop chance has ZERO bearing on what is in the AH.

That is completely inaccurate. Simply it doesn't have a direct factor on the drop rate BUT it is something they factor in. Wyatt Chang is very clear about this on reedit although he doesn't go into any detail about how they factor it in...