1.07 looks great

[Orange Joe]

Are you intentionally being this thick?

Let me see if I can explain it in a way you'll understand.

Players were *already* disappointed that things had been cut from the game (except those who always think Blizzard makes the right decision, but not everyone drinks the Kool-aid so readily). Blizzard had already not met the expectations they set for the game a couple years ago, by cutting things from the game - not with the inclusion of something better, but the promise that want to make the cut feature even better before adding it. They created a set of expectations specific to Diablo 3 and then failed to live up to those expectations before the game ever released.

There is no "expecting something that was removed 5-6 months before release."

It's that failure to live up to the expectations they created, separate from any expectations created by it being a Diablo 2 sequel and what originally kicked off the frustration with Diablo 3, that I was talking about in my original response. I'm not going over my point again, so if you're not up to speed at this point, sucks to be you.

All that, of course, occurred before we discovered that they failed to create an interesting loot chase due to poor itemization, drop rate issues, lackluster unique items, and with literally nothing to do but farm for these items and hope for the best at launch, or go shopping when poor drop after poor drop leads to continued frustration. That just added fuel to the fire.

Are you being this dense? Why buy a game you are disappointed with before it releases? That puts even more blame on the consumer for buying a product they are already disappointed in.


You say it doesn't live up to expectations. I'm saying you had false expectations you should not have had.

---------- Post added 2013-01-18 at 07:47 AM ----------

Not really, you could find something fantastic with 0 MF. And you were guaranteed to get something when doing a boss.

I understand their philosophy to try to push us out into the world and not repeating Baal runs ad nauseum, don't have to agree with it though.

About that, how do you feel about them sucking it up and bringing someone from the old North Team back, hypothetically, for damage control? Now that "fuck that loser is gone"

No you weren't. Unless you count blue items. I did many many many meph/pindle/hell/baal runs Very few times did I get anything useful.

[Lolsteak]

Used to be? 10.000.000 people pay subscriptions to WOW without having a gun to their heads.

While the rest of the MMo's is free to play and is at a fraction of these numbers...

At least try to discuss with facts when jumping on the Blizzard hate bandwagon to "look cool".

D3 is just that: a casual on line game in the post MMO period.

D2 was mostly played off line with cracked copies in the pre MMO era. No sane person would touch D2 with a 10 foot pool while D3 is played massively on tracking tools.

All there is to say really except the D3 engine blows D2 out of the water.

---------- Post added 2013-01-18 at 11:56 AM ----------



That loser Jay Wilson was the most successful game designer in the last decade dude:

2006 - Company of Heroes - Senior Designer
2004 - Warhammer 40k Dawn of War - Design and Story
2003 - Homeworld 2 - Additional Design Support
2003 - Impossible Creatures - Lead Designer and Story
1998 - King's Quest: Mask of Eternity - Quality Assurance
1998 - Blood II: The Chosen - Game Concept and Lead Designer


No one of Blizzard North came even close to these titles.

I laughed at how ignorant those words really are...

Firstly, if you want to state most people played cracked copies you got any proof? nope? thought so.

Secondly the engine being better doesn't make it a better game, take minecraft for example, a game with simple mechanics and visuals which has sold over 17.5 million copies.

[Cairhiin]

I can confirm this is an accurate example of playing Diablo 2 for any serious player of the game.

Running the most lucrative segment of the game forevermore is the meat and crux of the series. That is why you play Diablo, in total.

Well this was entirely the problem with D2. If you cared for XP you really only could do Baal runs. If you cared for loot, you really only could do Baal runs, Pit runs and a couple other areas. It was incredibly boring, and mindnumbing in the long run. The Pindleskin nerf didn't help.

D2:LoD was an excellent game but I think people like to ignore the issues the game had as well.

[Deleted]

No you weren't. Unless you count blue items. I did many many many meph/pindle/hell/baal runs Very few times did I get anything useful.

Lets just agree to disagree.

[BenBos]

Ok Half of my games are part of Act 3 runs, but actually I do all Acts when I am in the mood to do them.

The only thing I can think of is that other Acts give slightly less Gold or items when running them, so...

All you guys are still playing for fixed amount of Gold (to buy/sell) ? That's very narrow minded.

You can't blame a game YOU play with such narrow minded thoughts.

As I said: I play D3 for fun, the Gold and possible money afterwards is just some added coins.

The crafting runs in patch 1.07 are spread over several bosses in different Acts btw. You will need to go after the Lich King to start with.

[Enkidulgaa]

Ok Half of my games are part of Act 3 runs, but actually I do all Acts when I am in the mood to do them.

The only thing I can think of is that other Acts give slightly less Gold or items when running them, so...

All you guys are still playing for fixed amount of Gold (to buy/sell) ? That's very narrow minded.

You can't blame a game YOU play with such narrow minded thoughts.

As I said: I play D3 for fun, the Gold and possible money afterwards is just some added coins.

The crafting runs in patch 1.07 are spread over several bosses in different Acts btw. You will need to go after the Lich King to start with.

Do you actually have any real arguments besides
"I have fun with the game so it must be good"
"You're still playing it so it cant be that bad"
"It sold X number of units so it must be good"
I'd like to hear which aspects of D3 are supposed to be better than in D2 because personally I cant think of any

[BenBos]

Do you actually have any real arguments besides
"I have fun with the game so it must be good"
"You're still playing it so it cant be that bad"
"It sold X number of units so it must be good"
I'd like to hear which aspects of D3 are supposed to be better than in D2 because personally I cant think of any

Things D3 has over D2.

1. Engine. Miles better.
2. Graphics. Miles better.
3. Grinding grounds. Miles better, since you meet all kinds of Elites in challenging gameplay (according to your gear and chosen MP play).
4. No longer single boss runs, but like point 3 said: unexpected Elite play that makes it much more interesting.
5. The skill system. Dynamic changes on the fly ... it beats the hell out "let's restart from scratch since I now found gear that no longer suits my skills OR (even worse) "damned I clicked the wrong button somewhere 20 hours ago").

Much more than this though:

6. Potions actually were replaced with dropping health globes. Better mechanic.
7. No worry about massive duping websites who sell fake copied gear.
8. No need to go to shady websites anymore to do some trading where you could ONLY buy things.
9. AH mechanics: I like them: Selling things for some real coins and buying other games with that money (2 boardgames in my case and I just happen to go visit tomorrow a store to buy a third one with ./.. money earned in D3: 197 Euros until now to be exact). If you want to know the games names: Sword and Sorcery (SPI - 1978), Ardennes 44 (reprint 2012 GMT) and hopefully I can find ASL starter kit #3 (2012 reprint MMP).

Try this with another video game. ) Playing casually and buying boardgames just by having fun in a what I consider a deep arcade like game...Nothing more nothing less.

10. Fast internet play: I find me a casual group in WHATEVER Act/content in 1 second.
11. Avatar armory. Great addition along with 3rd party websites that are WAY better than in old D2 times.
12. D3 is much faster and far more responsive than old D2. The action for an on line game is 10x better than the old D. By faster I not only mean the engine, but ALSO the pace of the grinding, the loot distribution, the going back and forth of general gaming flow. Incredibly fast compared to the old D2.

13. Choice of gender. Achievements. a MEANING to Gold, etc etc ,,, actually I could go on for a few more pages really.


Likes to be added:
- some formal PvP (but Blizzard gave priority to their balanced e-sports games). A pity but frankly D3 is not made for balanced PvP.
- some more crafting (although patch 1.07 is a GREAT addition in this grinding/crafting mechanic).
- some more motivation for crafting by halving the production costs.
- the rest will come with an expansion.

[Enkidulgaa]

1. Engine. Miles better.
Except for the fact that melee enemies still hit you even when you're 10 feet away plus homing arrows
2. Graphics. Miles better.
Granted. Doesnt make it a good game though
3. Grinding grounds. Miles better, since you meet all kinds of Elites in challenging gameplay (according to your gear and chosen MP play).
4. No longer single boss runs, but like point 3 said: unexpected Elite play that makes it much more interesting.
Yeah I really enjoy having to restart because theres an unbeatable elite pack. D2 also had monster affixed so I dont know how thats supposed to be better
5. The skill system. Dynamic changes on the fly ... it beats the hell out "let's restart from scratch since I now found gear that no longer suits my skills OR (even worse) "damned I clicked the wrong button somewhere 20 hours ago").
Personally I found the skill system to be a major step down, so this is very much an opinion.
6. Potions actually were replaced with dropping health globes. Better mechanic.
Opinion.
7. No worry about massive duping websites who sell fake copied gear.
Dupes still exist.
8. No need to go to shady websites anymore to do some trading where you could ONLY buy things.
You never had to do that in D2 because the game actually supported offline play
9. AH mechanics: I like them: Selling things for some real coins and buying other games with that money (2 boardgames in my case and I just happen to go visit tomorrow a store to buy a third one with ./.. money earned in D3: 197 Euros until now to be exact).
Granted.
10. Fast internet play: I find me a casual group in WHATEVER Act/content in 1 second.
No different than D2
11. Avatar armory. Great addition along with 3rd party websites that are WAY better than in old D2 times.
Completely irrelevent to gameplay
12. D3 is much faster and far more responsive than old D2. The action for an on line game is 10x better than the old D. By faster I not only mean the engine, but ALSO the pace of the grinding, the loot distribution, the going back and forth of general gaming flow. Incredibly fast compared to the old D2.
That sounds incredibly vague
13. Choice of gender. Achievements. a MEANING to Gold, etc etc ,,, actually I could go on for a few more pages really.
Minor stuff. Would have been nice icing on the cake, but by itself doesnt really affect the quality

Lots of opinions and praise for Blizzard but very few ojective arguments

[BenBos]

1. Engine. Miles better.
Except for the fact that melee enemies still hit you even when you're 10 feet away plus homing arrows
2. Graphics. Miles better.
Granted. Doesnt make it a good game though
3. Grinding grounds. Miles better, since you meet all kinds of Elites in challenging gameplay (according to your gear and chosen MP play).
4. No longer single boss runs, but like point 3 said: unexpected Elite play that makes it much more interesting.
Yeah I really enjoy having to restart because theres an unbeatable elite pack. D2 also had monster affixed so I dont know how thats supposed to be better
5. The skill system. Dynamic changes on the fly ... it beats the hell out "let's restart from scratch since I now found gear that no longer suits my skills OR (even worse) "damned I clicked the wrong button somewhere 20 hours ago").
Personally I found the skill system to be a major step down, so this is very much an opinion.
6. Potions actually were replaced with dropping health globes. Better mechanic.
Opinion.
7. No worry about massive duping websites who sell fake copied gear.
Dupes still exist.
8. No need to go to shady websites anymore to do some trading where you could ONLY buy things.
You never had to do that in D2 because the game actually supported offline play
9. AH mechanics: I like them: Selling things for some real coins and buying other games with that money (2 boardgames in my case and I just happen to go visit tomorrow a store to buy a third one with ./.. money earned in D3: 197 Euros until now to be exact).
Granted.
10. Fast internet play: I find me a casual group in WHATEVER Act/content in 1 second.
No different than D2
11. Avatar armory. Great addition along with 3rd party websites that are WAY better than in old D2 times.
Completely irrelevent to gameplay
12. D3 is much faster and far more responsive than old D2. The action for an on line game is 10x better than the old D. By faster I not only mean the engine, but ALSO the pace of the grinding, the loot distribution, the going back and forth of general gaming flow. Incredibly fast compared to the old D2.
That sounds incredibly vague
13. Choice of gender. Achievements. a MEANING to Gold, etc etc ,,, actually I could go on for a few more pages really.
Minor stuff. Would have been nice icing on the cake, but by itself doesnt really affect the quality

Lots of opinions and praise for Blizzard but very few ojective arguments

That's what playing games are for: having fun by having different opinions. But frankly some of your arguments were weak to say the least:

Like a skill system that you needed to restart a character after 30 hours of play or more, that's not very intelligent to defend.
Earning real money by playing a video game is awesome to me.
And the rest of the BASIC things a game is based on: like fast responsive engine and very fast pace. Calling that 'vague' is really discussing the very core things of video game play.

it reminds me of some lone Warhammer defenders back in 2008. "Yep the pace and fights are "slower" in X, but I like that".

Sorry: faster is better for a video game. If you don't like fast paced video games, play boardgames sometimes or some real turn based wargames.

You can see the original trademark of Blizzard in D3, perhaps because D1 was originally planned as a turn based game that you like the first 2 more.

But Blizzard Irvine has ALWAYS been known to put (fast) gameplay first. They scrapped ALL their products with the word "turn based" in the last 20 years.

D3 is a pure Blizzard product, far more than D1 or D2. Perhaps that's what's bothering you. That's why I like D3 more.

[Shinzai]

1. Engine. Miles better.
Except for the fact that melee enemies still hit you even when you're 10 feet away plus homing arrows
3. Grinding grounds. Miles better, since you meet all kinds of Elites in challenging gameplay (according to your gear and chosen MP play).
4. No longer single boss runs, but like point 3 said: unexpected Elite play that makes it much more interesting.
Yeah I really enjoy having to restart because theres an unbeatable elite pack. D2 also had monster affixed so I dont know how thats supposed to be better
5. The skill system. Dynamic changes on the fly ... it beats the hell out "let's restart from scratch since I now found gear that no longer suits my skills OR (even worse) "damned I clicked the wrong button somewhere 20 hours ago").
Personally I found the skill system to be a major step down, so this is very much an opinion.
6. Potions actually were replaced with dropping health globes. Better mechanic.
Opinion.
7. No worry about massive duping websites who sell fake copied gear.
Dupes still exist.
8. No need to go to shady websites anymore to do some trading where you could ONLY buy things.
You never had to do that in D2 because the game actually supported offline play
9. AH mechanics: I like them: Selling things for some real coins and buying other games with that money (2 boardgames in my case and I just happen to go visit tomorrow a store to buy a third one with ./.. money earned in D3: 197 Euros until now to be exact).
Granted.
10. Fast internet play: I find me a casual group in WHATEVER Act/content in 1 second.
No different than D2
11. Avatar armory. Great addition along with 3rd party websites that are WAY better than in old D2 times.
Completely irrelevent to gameplay
12. D3 is much faster and far more responsive than old D2. The action for an on line game is 10x better than the old D. By faster I not only mean the engine, but ALSO the pace of the grinding, the loot distribution, the going back and forth of general gaming flow. Incredibly fast compared to the old D2.
That sounds incredibly vague
13. Choice of gender. Achievements. a MEANING to Gold, etc etc ,,, actually I could go on for a few more pages really.
Minor stuff. Would have been nice icing on the cake, but by itself doesnt really affect the quality

Lots of opinions and praise for Blizzard but very few ojective arguments

1: Sounds like a connection issue for you. As a Barb MP4/5 solo player I'm very well aware of melee ranges and whether or not I'm in range of attacks or not. It's not an issue.
4: If a pack is unbeatable to you, maybe you should rethink your tactics, consider whether the difficulty is too high for you or whether you should rearrange your talents to handle it. No pack is flat out unbeatable unless you've wedged yourself into a niche style and refuse to leave it: The game gives you the ability to handle this yourself.
5: It's generally agreed that the new system is more effective than being locked into changes. It allows for a huge variance of style and refining your own play to suit your own style in comparison. There will always be cookie cutters, but at least you can flex them a little.
6: So your opinion is that being able to infinitely spam potions was better?
7: Dupes still exist, but in tiny amounts in comparison to Diablo 2's ridiculous levels.
8: Not sure what your point is there.
12: The game does flow at a much higher pace than Diablo 2. Though it is genuinely down to opinion whether this is preferred by players or not.

What I'm curious about though: What exactly did Diablo 2 do so much better than Diablo 3 in terms of gameplay, not including loot stats distribution?

[Redblade]

1: Sounds like a connection issue for you. As a Barb MP4/5 solo player I'm very well aware of melee ranges and whether or not I'm in range of attacks or not. It's not an issue.
4: If a pack is unbeatable to you, maybe you should rethink your tactics, consider whether the difficulty is too high for you or whether you should rearrange your talents to handle it. No pack is flat out unbeatable unless you've wedged yourself into a niche style and refuse to leave it: The game gives you the ability to handle this yourself.
5: It's generally agreed that the new system is more effective than being locked into changes. It allows for a huge variance of style and refining your own play to suit your own style in comparison. There will always be cookie cutters, but at least you can flex them a little.
6: So your opinion is that being able to infinitely spam potions was better?
7: Dupes still exist, but in tiny amounts in comparison to Diablo 2's ridiculous levels.
8: Not sure what your point is there.
12: The game does flow at a much higher pace than Diablo 2. Though it is genuinely down to opinion whether this is preferred by players or not.

What I'm curious about though: What exactly did Diablo 2 do so much better than Diablo 3 in terms of gameplay, not including loot stats distribution?

1. You not suffering from it doesn't mean it's not an issue, while it doesn't happen to me a lot I still get rubber banding and the occasional melee mob hitting with specials way outside of what can be seen as melee range (the engine handles hight differences very poorly, stairs being a good example), this with a 100/10 connection and 30-100 ping.
4. I'd agree to your argument if it wasn't for the fact that everything of use and value is tied in to having 5x NV, claiming that we can respec to handle it is about the same as saying we can play in Hell, sure we can but it's still pointless.
5. The skill system was primarily born out of Blizzard's dislike for talent trees, only benefit of it is streamlined development, it doesn't solve cookie cutter builds (which it was supposed to), it reduces re-playability and due to NV being tied in to everything it's as restrictive as keeping the old skill trees and allow for expensive respecs.
6. Yes and no in my opinion, the globes adds a different element to the game for sure, it does however add a layer of RNG that really isn't needed, it think there could be better solutions to remove the RNG without allowing pot spam.
7. But they do exist, something always online was supposed to be the solution to, they could have made a offline mode and it wouldn't have impacted the duping in online games. That wouldn't allow them to use it as DRM though.
8. Those sites still exist so it's really not an argument to start with tbh.
12. The subjective improvements here is quickly negated by the lack of free movement between acts and bosses in my opinion at least.

I'd say the question is more what did D3 actually improve on and what was made worse by changing the tested formulas that gave D2 it's soul, something tells me it's harder to fill the first column than the second.

[Nebria]

I'd say the question is more what did D3 actually improve on and what was made worse by changing the tested formulas that gave D2 it's soul, something tells me it's harder to fill the first column than the second.

Why don't you start? You said it is easier so go on please.

[Kelimbror]

That loser Jay Wilson was the most successful game designer in the last decade dude:

2006 - Company of Heroes - Senior Designer
2004 - Warhammer 40k Dawn of War - Design and Story
2003 - Homeworld 2 - Additional Design Support
2003 - Impossible Creatures - Lead Designer and Story
1998 - King's Quest: Mask of Eternity - Quality Assurance
1998 - Blood II: The Chosen - Game Concept and Lead Designer


No one of Blizzard North came even close to these titles.

I laughed really hard until I realized you were serious. Did you even look at that list of games?

[Redblade]

Why don't you start? You said it is easier so go on please.

Why don't you add your constructive views instead, think my views, reasonings and logic is fairly clear by reading this very thread.

[Enkidulgaa]

Why don't you start? You said it is easier so go on please.

Well how about the fact that it removed replayability for people that are not interested in thousands of hours of farming
Even as a casual player I played through D2 about 10 times with different characters. And before you tell me its exactly like D2 in that regard, no its not. Replayability literally means playing through the same content again. If a game allows you to do it in a radical different way multiple times, thats good replayability. In D3 there is no point. I can test out a new spec in 5 minutes, the levels are all mostly linear (less randomisation than in D2). The only thing that makes for replayability are the few random events that happen once in a while.

The item system is a step down. I dont care about drop rates really, what irks me is how boring items are. Its just a bunch of very shallow stats. +defense +health +damage +crit +attackspeed
D2 had items that let you cast spells, improved your spells plus a bunch of other stats I dont even remember anymore. D3 also has scaling spells, but it is implemented in an awful way by tying it mostly to your weapon dps. When I played D3 I would look if an item had my main attribute on it, and if it didnt I could throw it away immediately. So right off the bat 33% of items were absolutely worthless for me.
Itemisation revolves around 4 or 5 stats that you just stack on every item.

Everything about online play
The fact that they took away the game brower is also something that is overlooked often. In D3 there are essentially 2 ways to play. With friendslist or by randomly joining a game. No baalruns, no fastcowlevel 51, no NIGHTMARE A3 BOOST ME PLZ. The action house is an unneccessary tool that only hurt the game overall. Reduced drop rates to prevent the market (that is now completely centralized in one location) from crashing thereby forcing people to use it.
I dont buy the argument that the RMAH's existance is justified because RMT existed in D2. 90% of the players never had any contact with RMT back then. 90% played the game in singleplayer or with friends over lan or Bnet. I personally know that neither I nor anybody of my friends at the time ever bought or sold items. RMT in D2 is something that was always grossly exagerated before launch to justifiy the cash grab that is the RMAH and always online DRM (or rather, the absence of singleplayer)

[Bad Ashe]

The item system is a step down. I dont care about drop rates really, what irks me is how boring items are. Its just a bunch of very shallow stats.

i share your sentiment, but i think the solution is so simple that blizz will not only never see it, but even if they did they would never implement it:

the items as is are fine, but the basement for the stat rolls simply need to be raised (by a LOT) based on item level.
seriously, a want or sword for example, iLvl 63 with 120dps????
dont raise the max rolls and add more crap recipes like they're doing now with bound gear, just make the stat range rolls make sense.

[Orange Joe]

I'd say the question is more what did D3 actually improve on and what was made worse by changing the tested formulas that gave D2 it's soul, something tells me it's harder to fill the first column than the second.

1. Being able to change talents without having to level another toon

2. Not worrying about having to spend every stat point in the exact right place or start over.

3. The choice to use the AH if you want to gear faster. 3.5 Not having to go buy items from shady sites as they have the RMAH

4. The ability to farm more than just the same bosses over and over again

5. A challange

6. Not having to stack MF gear if I choose not too. (Between paragon and NV you can cap MF without gear.)



Give me some time I can think of more things they improved upon. <- my opinion.

Things I didn't like


1. Level cap. (fixed with paragon levels)

[Shinzai]

1. You not suffering from it doesn't mean it's not an issue, while it doesn't happen to me a lot I still get rubber banding and the occasional melee mob hitting with specials way outside of what can be seen as melee range (the engine handles hight differences very poorly, stairs being a good example), this with a 100/10 connection and 30-100 ping.
4. I'd agree to your argument if it wasn't for the fact that everything of use and value is tied in to having 5x NV, claiming that we can respec to handle it is about the same as saying we can play in Hell, sure we can but it's still pointless.
5. The skill system was primarily born out of Blizzard's dislike for talent trees, only benefit of it is streamlined development, it doesn't solve cookie cutter builds (which it was supposed to), it reduces re-playability and due to NV being tied in to everything it's as restrictive as keeping the old skill trees and allow for expensive respecs.
6. Yes and no in my opinion, the globes adds a different element to the game for sure, it does however add a layer of RNG that really isn't needed, it think there could be better solutions to remove the RNG without allowing pot spam.
7. But they do exist, something always online was supposed to be the solution to, they could have made a offline mode and it wouldn't have impacted the duping in online games. That wouldn't allow them to use it as DRM though.
8. Those sites still exist so it's really not an argument to start with tbh.
12. The subjective improvements here is quickly negated by the lack of free movement between acts and bosses in my opinion at least.

I'd say the question is more what did D3 actually improve on and what was made worse by changing the tested formulas that gave D2 it's soul, something tells me it's harder to fill the first column than the second.

4+5: 5 stacks of NV can be completed in a single map area on higher difficulties, I don't see that being an issue.
6: Most people resolved it themselves - you either design your spec around it, or your abilities, or you simply play to avoid/mitigate damage yourself.
7: Again, the majority of duping has been erased so it's still an improvement.

As to D2's "soul", that was more just something the hardcore farming fans invented. Most people just thought it was a fun, breeze through and forget type of game. The majority of arguments I see against D3 aside from the obvious RMAH gorilla, is that they don't want to play a farming simulator. Then in the same breath, they start going on about how much they farmed in D2.

[Redblade]

1. Being able to change talents without having to level another toon

2. Not worrying about having to spend every stat point in the exact right place or start over.

3. The choice to use the AH if you want to gear faster. 3.5 Not having to go buy items from shady sites as they have the RMAH

4. The ability to farm more than just the same bosses over and over again

5. A challange

6. Not having to stack MF gear if I choose not too. (Between paragon and NV you can cap MF without gear.)

1. Reduced re-playability, changing skills resulting in a 10-15 minutes "downtime" forcing you in to cookie cutter builds.
2. I'll give you this but the solution could be much better done than the current system tying everything to 5x NV, expensive respecs for example.
3. AH effectively forcing you to trade gear if you want to be the least bit competitive, AH is a two sided coin that is hard to balance around. Two big mistakes I think they made assuming it had to be implemented was making two of them, they should have had GAH only and allowed players to sell gold for cash, second was to not bind gear to account on use, especially considering the lack of re-playability derived from the talent tree removal.
4. Well it's only a reversal, there is no reason to farm bosses at all now, equally bad as far as I see it.
5. There is no challenge any more, Inferno was challenging, now it's only a question of gear how high you can set MP as it's only a question of being able to kill at the same pace.
6. Well in a few months they can effectively remove MF and GF as stats, the concept was ok ish to start with but once they started pushing people along to reach Paragon 100 it makes the stat redundant.

So far I only see one actual improvement that could have been solved in better ways while I see several changes that removed some of what was parts of the soul of D2.

---------- Post added 2013-01-18 at 07:05 PM ----------

4+5: 5 stacks of NV can be completed in a single map area on higher difficulties, I don't see that being an issue.

Until you need it and you already used up the elite dense areas...or when you don't have time to waste 10-15 min...or perhaps having to do it between multiple packs wasting more and more of your play session. Using the argument that you can adapt your spec to fit the encounter has to naturally assume you could end up in a position where you have to do it for every encounter, otherwise the argument is nullified as you effectively can't change spec to fit the encounter.

6: Most people resolved it themselves - you either design your spec around it, or your abilities, or you simply play to avoid/mitigate damage yourself.

Yet it's down to RNG if you have a globe in the area where you need it, pots don't have that limitation, both designs is something that could be improved on though so I'm far from saying either is perfect.

7: Again, the majority of duping has been erased so it's still an improvement.

As far as you know, I'd say the only once really in the know would be the people duping, besides the same level of duping protection would exist offline play or not, it really doesn't change how the online part works if they allow you to store offline characters on your computer.

As to D2's "soul", that was more just something the hardcore farming fans invented. Most people just thought it was a fun, breeze through and forget type of game. The majority of arguments I see against D3 aside from the obvious RMAH gorilla, is that they don't want to play a farming simulator. Then in the same breath, they start going on about how much they farmed in D2.

The soul of a game is what makes it popular and fun to play for extended periods of time, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is in most cases but you do notice when that feeling is gone in comparison, and D3 really doesn't tickle me in the same way D2 used to.

[Orange Joe]

1. Reduced re-playability, changing skills resulting in a 10-15 minutes "downtime" forcing you in to cookie cutter builds.
2. I'll give you this but the solution could be much better done than the current system tying everything to 5x NV, expensive respecs for example.
3. AH effectively forcing you to trade gear if you want to be the least bit competitive, AH is a two sided coin that is hard to balance around. Two big mistakes I think they made assuming it had to be implemented was making two of them, they should have had GAH only and allowed players to sell gold for cash, second was to not bind gear to account on use, especially considering the lack of re-playability derived from the talent tree removal.
4. Well it's only a reversal, there is no reason to farm bosses at all now, equally bad as far as I see it.
5. There is no challenge any more, Inferno was challenging, now it's only a question of gear how high you can set MP as it's only a question of being able to kill at the same pace.
6. Well in a few months they can effectively remove MF and GF as stats, the concept was ok ish to start with but once they started pushing people along to reach Paragon 100 it makes the stat redundant.

So far I only see one actual improvement that could have been solved in better ways while I see several changes that removed some of what was parts of the soul of D2.

1. You say reduced replay-ability, I say more time spent doing what I want. Forced replay-ability because of bad game design is not fun.
2. I wouldn't mind if NV didn't disappear on spec change.
3. Who are you competing with? Do they know you are competing with them? How do you know what someone else has? If you are a competitive person how is getting gear faster bad?
4. I agree you don't have to do bosses if you don't want to. But it is still an option if you would like to. In d2 it wasn't an option. This isn't maybe the best way to go but it's better than D2.
5. diablo has always been about the gear?
6. Still remains, I now have another option for finding more than stacking gear alone.