Mike Morhaime on the state of D3

[Nerraw]

Dear Diablo Players,

Now that Diablo III has been out for two months, I would like to take a step back and discuss the launch, the feedback from the community, and talk about what the future holds for the game.

We’ve had an enormous amount of feedback since the launch. I speak for everyone at Blizzard when I say that we appreciate the passion and affection many of you have for the Diablo series. We truly believe “Every Voice Matters,” so I want to thank you for sharing your experiences in an effort to help us improve the game. Your support makes it possible for us to continue doing what we do, and we never take that for granted.

The launch week of Diablo III was memorable for many reasons -- some positive, and some not so positive. We were thrilled that Diablo III had the biggest PC-game launch ever, surpassing the lifetime sales of Cataclysm (the previous record holder for biggest PC-game launch) in a matter of weeks. We’ve been floored by the response.

However, the launch had many challenges as well. It has always been difficult to forecast how many players we will have. With World of Warcraft, it was a challenge to handle the immediate demand when we launched back in 2004, and that was just in North America. We eventually expanded to other regions and reached nearly 5 million players by the end of the first year, and there were a lot of growing pains with that. However, we’ve never gone from 0 to more than 6 million players across multiple continents within a few days with a brand-new game. For Diablo III, we looked at historical sales for Blizzard games and other top-selling PC games and watched preorder numbers. We even upped our estimates to ensure we had additional capacity, or so we thought. In the end, it just wasn’t enough, and that is something we will work hard to conquer for future releases.

In response to the immediate and overwhelming demand for the game, the team worked around the clock to support all regions, increase capacity, ship additional hardware to our datacenters, and troubleshoot and fix bugs as they sprang up. While things have by and large been running smoothly for several weeks now, various game-related issues have come up that we have either already responded to or are continuing to investigate (such as the latency issue some of you are experiencing) and make adjustments for. Rather than address every subject individually, I’ll just say that even as we work to address or resolve current issues, it’s always possible that further issues will crop up. We hope that our actions in the past have demonstrated that above all else, we’re committed to delivering an awesome game experience, and we hope you’ll have faith that we will continue to keep that commitment and respond to any new or outstanding issues quickly.

We are not satisfied with breaking launch records; we want people to continue playing and enjoying Blizzard games for a very long time. The Diablo III team has made an epic, entertaining, and beautiful gaming experience. That being said, we know that it isn’t perfect. Our teams are working hard to improve the game balance, build on our design, and listen to what players are saying to make it the best game it can be.

You’ve seen some of that work already in patch 1.0.3, and you’ll see additional improvements with patch 1.0.4. On the game balance front, this update will contain changes designed to further deliver on the team’s goal of promoting “build diversity,” with buffs to many rarely used, underpowered class abilities. Another topic we’ve seen actively discussed is the fact that better, more distinct Legendary items are needed. We agree. 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.

We’re also working on a number of interface updates, including social improvements that will allow players to more easily view their friends’ achievements, more quickly join games, and more efficiently communicate with each other. In addition, we’ll be making updates to the auction house in the future to provide players with better information through tooltips and notices, offer improved search functionality, and more.

Regarding the real-money auction house, our primary goal for including this in the game was to provide convenience and peace of mind for those players who might otherwise turn to third-party services to buy items. Black market trading sites can put accounts at risk and create many customer service challenges. We felt that the players themselves also deserved the opportunity to benefit from the extra loot they found, as opposed to having all of the benefit go to the black market/illegal trading organizations. We know the auction house isn’t perfect, but with your help and feedback, we’ll be able to continue making it a better experience for those who choose to use it. 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. Thank you for all the feedback about that.

One other common topic we’ve seen in the forums is the always-connected experience, and the perception that the online requirement is nothing but an ineffective form of copy protection that has already been cracked. While we’ve never said that this requirement guarantees that there will be no cheating or game cracks, it does help us battle those problems (we have not found any fully functional cracks). More important to us is that the online requirement is critical for the long-term integrity of the game experience. I fully understand the desire to play Diablo III offline; however, Diablo III was designed from the beginning to be an online game that can be enjoyed with friends, and the always-online requirement is the best way for us to support that design. The effectiveness of the online elements -- including the friends list and cross-game communication; co-op matchmaking; persistent characters that you can use by yourself, with others, and in PvP; and some of our customer support, service, and security components -- is tied directly to the online nature of the game. These and other online-enabled features are essential to our design for Diablo III. That said, there are still improvements we believe we can make to expand the online experience and make co-op play even more rewarding, and this will remain one of our priorities moving forward. Overall, while there are some downsides to the online-only approach, I still believe this was the best long-term decision for the game.

I know many of you are also looking forward to patch 1.1, our PvP update, which will provide new experiences and give you a whole new way to apply the skills you’ve picked up while battling demons. This patch will also build on the social and auction house changes I mentioned above, and the team will continue to fix bugs and further tune game balance as well.

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.

As always, we appreciate your candor and passion. Your constructive feedback and thoughts are valuable -- they will continue to help us be a better company. I just want to reiterate that while we can’t claim to have ever shipped a perfect game, we are committed to supporting our games relentlessly and making improvements where we can. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Mike Morhaime

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6080663481#1

[Deleted]

My thoughts on his thoughts:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_gGb...tailpage#t=38s

Especially the bits about the auction house and DRM.

[Comis]

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?"

[ZeroEdgeir]

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?"

If this was a sub-based game, you might have a wild, semi-relevant, almost-plausible point.

But it's not. There isn't even any ads in Battle.net 2.0 (unlike the original Battle.net, even if they were almost entirely for Blizzard products).

You paid for a box, like you would any other non-subscriber-based game. They've made fixes, and balance changes, and are set to make more, even adding some content for endgame (PvP being one, that they felt was NOT ready for launch release. Rather do it right, than release it half-baked... and the other is something new for end-game players that isn't "the item hunt", which should be interesting), without charging you a DIME.

And don't dare raise a word about how the RMAH is how Blizzard makes their money off of players: It is bloody optional. I've used it, for all of maybe $20 worth of items... $20 I made off OTHER PEOPLE. I've not paid a dime into it, and don't even intend to. For me, it is nothing more than a self-serving loop. My sister and her fiance are using it to pay for my sister's new MacBook she just got for university.

[helheim]

If this was a sub-based game, you might have a wild, semi-relevant, almost-plausible point.

But it's not. There isn't even any ads in Battle.net 2.0 (unlike the original Battle.net, even if they were almost entirely for Blizzard products).

You paid for a box, like you would any other non-subscriber-based game. They've made fixes, and balance changes, and are set to make more, even adding some content for endgame (PvP being one, that they felt was NOT ready for launch release. Rather do it right, than release it half-baked... and the other is something new for end-game players that isn't "the item hunt", which should be interesting), without charging you a DIME.

And don't dare raise a word about how the RMAH is how Blizzard makes their money off of players: It is bloody optional. I've used it, for all of maybe $20 worth of items... $20 I made off OTHER PEOPLE. I've not paid a dime into it, and don't even intend to. For me, it is nothing more than a self-serving loop. My sister and her fiance are using it to pay for my sister's new MacBook she just got for university.

this post is ridiculous. i like how you use your opinions as if they are facts. i am in total agreement with the poster you are replying to. gl w/ that king shit of fuck mountain mentality though.

[quras]

Blizzard screwed up a great franchise and plan to do anything to keep players in the game. Cause after all, no way to make that extra cash if they can't nudge you into the direction of the RMAH.

This was not a game created to be a great extension of the Diablo universe, it was made from a business standpoint alone and it shows.

Now what free content can they add to keep you in game and one step closer to the RMAH. After all, you can't be influenced or temped to buy and/or sell if your not playing.

[DisposableHero]

Well, it doesn't charge a subscription fee, but it does in fact have a similar model of revenue through the RMAH. Given that this is blizzard's long term strategy for monetizing the game their commitment to it must follow similar lines to subscription of micro transaction based games. They may have met a lot of their goals with the huge launch sales, but ultimately if they don't cater to the players in a fashion similar to the attention they give to wow, they are leaving money on the table.

You and your sister and her fiancee may have not paid a dime into the game, and neither have I, but she wouldn't be paying for a MacBook unless someone had, and ultimately, Blizzard got their cut so its in their interest to treat the long term health of the game seriously.

[malistair]

this post is ridiculous. i like how you use your opinions as if they are facts. i am in total agreement with the poster you are replying to. gl w/ that king shit of fuck mountain mentality though.

He's right though. Nobody has to pay for the additional content and blizzard from a financial standpoint couldn't really care less if players stop playing D3 after they've paid the $60 box price, barring some (admittedly plausible) conspiracy regarding the money they're making from the RMAH

The item fixes and extra gameplay mechanics are being added to improve the player experience

[Squishy Tia]

Hah. They are deleting posts (and banning accounts) of players that provide any negative feedback whatsoever in that thread.

I've never been banned in my entire time on the official forums until today for posting this:

So basically no offline mode for those of us sick and tired of both the "scheduled" maintenances (which actually aren't), and the constant lag/rubberbanding. Fun. You didn't learn much from the SC2 crowd I take it... Until you put this in with actual halfway decent drop rates, your PR spin on the subject about whether or not the AH determines drops and whatnot means jack all.


And then there's the AH bruehaha. Don't want it to feel mandatory? Then why do LV 38 (yes, thirty eight items drop in an act where I'm almost set to enter Hell (Act 4 NM)? By the time an item of virtually any level drops past Normal Act 1, it's ten levels behind where it needs to be. Diablo 2 had scenarios where sometimes the item that dropped was above your level (wow, unreal concept, I know). But you'd save that item and make good use of it (usually) when the time came. D3? Just about the only upgrades I find are in the AH unless I stick to the pathetic blues that drop. And it goes without saying that the sheer lack of any unique (legendary) drops and virtual nonexistence of set drops (and NO low level sets to speak of) makes for one very lopsided and bland (and boring) leveling experience.


Oh, how about those crafting costs. Yeah, the ones that actually mean something. 130k to craft an iLV 62 item, on top of the mats. That'd be cool if its rolls weren't almost always on the low end of the scale or just a mix of stats that plain suck (who thought Increases Health Globe and Gold pickup by X yards" was a "fun" mechanic anyway?). And the gems...15 million gold, and 1600+ tome of secret items for one gem. One lousy gem. AH still not looking mandatory to you?


How about the NV situation? LV 60s get it great. They can get nice guaranteed rares for "playing the way you want the game to be played". How about us lowbies? Past the first boss kills on Normal, we get nothing but blues 99% of the time. We maybe get a rare or two in any given full game session, and good luck on any of those ever being an upgrade. Why not at least let pre-60s have some NV love once you've obtained LV 60 on at least one character? It's really a lovely feeling knowing that the only thing I have to look forward to on my way to 60 on subsequent characters is....leveling. Yeah, that's some really compelling gameplay there, yes?


How about the situation in Inferno where the iLV 61-63 drops (63 especially) are almost all now rolling on the lower end of the scales compared to what they were before 1.0.3? I've yet to get a good iLV 63 from anything post 1.0.3. None. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Kaput. Every last one of the item changes had to come off the AH. Ya still able to tell us the AH isn't mandatory for progression with a straight face? I'd love to see it.


I'm inclined to agree with most other postere that this hasn't told us anything new, except for one very important thing: Blizzard's head deadhead is beholden to one Robert Kotick. Because that's what this all amounts to - PR spin on a moldy e-coli-ridden Failchelada. I feel like a hamster whose wheel is running him, not the other way around.


The only saving grace for my sanity's sake so far is that D3 didn't cost me anything really on top of WoW, since I got it via the annual pass. I gave up caring about the Collector's Edition long ago, once I realized just how much this game lacked in form, function, and just plain fun. Not that I blame you for not making more CEs than you did - it was almost a given for anybody with half a brain to figure out this game was going to start tanking pretty fast in the form it was released in (and subsequently updated to). I would have liked to have had the physical items from the CE, since I do like collecting those kinds of things, but meh, the magic is gone.


Here's a sad irony for you to digest: In D2 players bemoaned seeing Isenhart's Case drop from Hell Mephisto. Frankly, with the lack of any set items, the paltry selection of low level legendaries (which are anything but), and just pathetic drops pre-60 period, I'd almost jump up and down for joy if I saw one drop at any point in this game. That's how bad your itemization spread and usefulness is lacking.


Oh how I wish Blizzard could perform a hostile takeover of itself and wrest itself away from the jaws of greed known as Activision. We'd have a much better game if that were the case...

Perhaps not as constructive as a MVP might "look", but considering most MVPs these days are their yes-men (with a few exceptions such as Drothvader), that isn't really saying much. I guess they really don't like the truth getting to the head honcho. Oh well, their retaliation against me just guaranteed any future money I might have considered for them is gone. Permanently. Once my annual pass is up, so is any loyalty to Blizzard.

Perhaps it's for the best. I see Blizzard eclipsing whatever currently sits atop the pyramid in causes for high blood pressure fairly soon. Actually, I'm seriously considering just killing my recurring payments and saying "whatever" to the loss of access to D3 via the annual pass. Not like I'd really be losing much to be honest.

[Comis]

He's right though. Nobody has to pay for the additional content and blizzard from a financial standpoint couldn't really care less if players stop playing D3 after they've paid the $60 box price, barring some (admittedly plausible) conspiracy regarding the money they're making from the RMAH

The item fixes and extra gameplay mechanics are being added to improve the player experience

This statement by Mike PROVES that Blizzard cares that they are losing players after they've already spent their $60 box price. If they didn't care, they wouldn't be doing any of this. They wouldn't be frantically and pathetically promising updates and justifying their launch failures. They know they released a bad game, and they're desperately trying to reassure players that it will become good eventually (in their "but we're still fucking awesome" corporate-speak way).

[Squishy Tia]

This statement by Mike PROVES that Blizzard cares that they are losing players after they've already spent their $60 box price. If they didn't care, they wouldn't be doing any of this. They wouldn't be frantically and pathetically promising updates and justifying their launch failures. They know they released a bad game, and they're desperately trying to reassure players that it will become good eventually (in their "but we're still fucking awesome" corporate-speak way).

Herein lies the problem: "in their 'but we're still fucking awesome' corporate-speak way". The jab about the offline mode not even being considered when the servers (which aren't burdened by too many players, but instead horribly bad networking code) constantly rubberband you or desync you (or flat out disconnect you) was the licorice flavored icing on the moldy cake. That right there put to rest any doubts of mine whether or not they actually care about the players' gameplay experience or whether it's that they care about the players "just enough" to find a way to keep them funneling money through the RMAH. Unfortunately it's the latter.

I'm not exactly looking forward to the BMAH in WoW either, since in all likelihood, with the RMAH's gold buying ability live now, it's only a matter of time until WoW sees the equivalant and it gets tied in with the BMAH. It's all become a huge money grab, as if Blizzard (or more likely Activision) knows things are going downhill so fast that they have to get it all while they can before the playerbase leaves like SoE had happen to then with EQ/SW:G.

I honestly wish it weren't the case, but the almighty buck has become more important than the person spending it toward the seller. I think we may have finally reached the point where corporate greed/capitalism has become more harmful than good. I don't see it getting any better (across the board) anytime soon.

[quras]

He's right though. Nobody has to pay for the additional content and blizzard from a financial standpoint couldn't really care less if players stop playing D3 after they've paid the $60 box price, barring some (admittedly plausible) conspiracy regarding the money they're making from the RMAH

The item fixes and extra gameplay mechanics are being added to improve the player experience

Yea, you'd be way wrong in thinking blizzard doesn't want customers to stay. blizzards cares a great deal but not in the way we all hope.

The initial selling of the box game was a guarantee. Even they knew the hype was huge along with the presales.

However, D3 was created to have sustained cash flow. They looked at D2 and it's longevity with selling of items and banked on that happening with D3.

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.

Blizzard cares so much about players staying, their really is no telling what they will do to keep you in game. Who knows what perks are coming. blizzard wants that constant cash flow they saw in 3rd party companies from D2 and have done massive amounts of work to make it happen but by putting and keeping that much control over drop rates and putting that much business into a game is killing it.

Like I said above, you cannot be influenced by the game design or tempted by the RMAH if you're not playing and judging by the CEO making a statement like this, it's pretty bad on blizzards end and the projections they hoped for.

[Anjerith]

I wish I had the energy to make a long-winded statement about how my opinion is somehow more valid than any other crackpot/troll opinion posted on these forums.

I don't.


So I will just say this - His statement addressed the issues. His statement did not say "Blizzard Fucked up, Diablo 3 is a failure" because Diablo 3 is not a failure. He isn't going to lie about it in order to smooth the butthurt of the playerbase out.

[OrcsRLame]

Hah. They are deleting posts (and banning accounts) of players that provide any negative feedback whatsoever in that thread.

I've never been banned in my entire time on the official forums until today for posting this:



Perhaps not as constructive as a MVP might "look", but considering most MVPs these days are their yes-men (with a few exceptions such as Drothvader), that isn't really saying much. I guess they really don't like the truth getting to the head honcho. Oh well, their retaliation against me just guaranteed any future money I might have considered for them is gone. Permanently. Once my annual pass is up, so is any loyalty to Blizzard.

Perhaps it's for the best. I see Blizzard eclipsing whatever currently sits atop the pyramid in causes for high blood pressure fairly soon. Actually, I'm seriously considering just killing my recurring payments and saying "whatever" to the loss of access to D3 via the annual pass. Not like I'd really be losing much to be honest.

To be fair, if I was a Blizzard mod, I'd have banned you for a post like that.

Almost all of what you said was anecdotes and emotion. And then you called Blizzard greedy. There was no constructive criticism in your post.

[dokilar]

milking their loyal fans for everything their worth!

[Lilly32]

we have not found any fully functional cracks

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.

[connectz]

if they want to "fix" diablo it's probably quicker just to shut down the servers and start from scratch.

[Cairhiin]

I wish I had the energy to make a long-winded statement about how my opinion is somehow more valid than any other crackpot/troll opinion posted on these forums.

I don't.


So I will just say this - His statement addressed the issues. His statement did not say "Blizzard Fucked up, Diablo 3 is a failure" because Diablo 3 is not a failure. He isn't going to lie about it in order to smooth the butthurt of the playerbase out.

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.

[quras]

I wish I had the energy to make a long-winded statement about how my opinion is somehow more valid than any other crackpot/troll opinion posted on these forums.

I don't.


So I will just say this - His statement addressed the issues. His statement did not say "Blizzard Fucked up, Diablo 3 is a failure" because Diablo 3 is not a failure. He isn't going to lie about it in order to smooth the butthurt of the playerbase out.

I think the fact that the CEO had to write the letter in the first place speaks volumes on how things are looking and the damage control (AKA smoothing over the butt hurt as you say) that blizzard is working on.

[Madruga]

"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.