Blizzard tells gamers to lower expectations for Diablo III

[gmike]

A Blizzard community manager has told gamers to lower their expectations for the upcoming Diablo III hack and slash RPG, a surprising comment that might cause some fans of the Diablo series considerable concern.


“On a more serious note, I too worry that we won't be able to meet the expectations people have built up for themselves,” wrote community manager Bashiok. “Part of my job is managing people's expectations, so... eh... stop it. Stop thinking about how awesome this game could be. Just imagine it's a new M. Night Shyamalan movie. Sure Sixth Sense was amazing and Unbreakable had it's moments, but this right here is the sequel to The Village ... or The Happening ... or Signs ... or any of the movies besides the two I first mentioned. So just like, lower those expectations, but still definitely buy the game please, and everything will be just fine. K?”

This honesty may come as a shock to many who are used to community managers acting like part of a company's PR team, refusing to accept any blame and constantly twisting a situation so that it reads as positively for the company as possible.

Bashiok makes some good points about the hype surrounding Diablo III. It's been 12 years since the last Diablo game and 11 years since Blizzard began working on Diablo III. An announcement only came in 2008, but it's easy to see why players are expecting great things, given the long development process.

The problem is that if players are being told to expect just a good game rather than a huge improvement over the previous ones, Blizzard could run the risk of losing a lot of its frenzied customers. Given that the release of the game is only months away, that's probably a very unwise thing to do.



http://vr-zone.com/articles/blizzard...iii/14997.html

[Endeavor]

Maybe they themselves dont like the game? Or the direction that it went? Maybe they're saying it because they're too far to scrap it completely? Who knows.

[Fullgore]

If they spend 11y working on it, it better be good.

[Raven]

Or he says so becouse he knows that to much hype and expectations are never good for any game, and there will never be a game that lives up to what the gamers expects of the game.

[mtawney1313]

You're taking what he's saying far too seriously. Learn to be a little more light-hearted??


On a more serious note (see what I did thar?), I have access to the Diablo 3 beta atm. If you liked D2 or the original, you're definitely going to enjoy this game. That's all I really have to say so far.

[Donald Hellscream]

as they should, honestly a overhyped game that turns out not to be what people expected can get a bad name even if the game is great simply because it was overhyped beyond reason. If it can bring as much joy to me as D2 did then i will be more than happy to invest time into it besides im gonna get it for free anyway.

[Deleted]

Whether or not it will be an awsome game or a flop. It is always better for the producer that the expectations are modest.
If you have two equally good things, but one was expected to be better. Than the thing that was expected to be better will be viewed as worse even if they in fact are equal.

[Comis]

Or he says so becouse he knows that to much hype and expectations are never good for any game, and there will never be a game that lives up to what the gamers expects of the game.

Like Diablo 2?

[Deleted]

If they spend 11y working on it, it better be good.

This is what he wants to address.
People expect D3 to be the greatest game in history, which is something Blizzard are quite sure they can't deliver.
So while D3 might be a great game, too many people want it to be the greatest of all, which could unnecessarily ruin their experience with it.

In short:
Think of D3 as "a great game I'm excited for", not as "If it isn't the best game in existence, I'll curse every developer and their children for centuries to come".

[Sanguinare]

it is a one player game that all you do is click on the mouse over and over to kill stuff and grab loot it has never been that complex a game.

[Donald Hellscream]

it is a one player game that all you do is click on the mouse over and over to kill stuff and grab loot it has never been that complex a game.

'

the concept of the game is simple yes, however if people gets overly hyped and it won't live up to their expectations they are gonna frame it as a bad game even if it in reality isnt, it got multiplayer aswell btw so calling it a one-player game is a false statement.

[Dundebuns]

If they spend 11y working on it, it better be good.

Duke Nukem Forever

OT: Very surprising behaviour but with the track records of the CM's recently you kind of come to expect it.

[Synche]

A Blizzard community manager has told gamers to lower their expectations for the upcoming Diablo III hack and slash RPG, a surprising comment that might cause some fans of the Diablo series considerable concern.

Hardly, all he is doing is to have people manager their expectations properly. Take all hype with a grain of salt, I have the beta and although it will be a great game from what I can tell, it is not going to be THE GREATEST EVER IN ALL EXISTENCE which is what he is addressing.

[darkwarrior42]

Ok, first off let me preface my following statements with my opinion on the game I"m going to cite as an example, as well as my opinion on Diablo III so far: Duke Nukem Forever was a terrible, terrible game, and I love what I have played of Diablo 3 so far (short though they beta may be).

That said, it wouldn't have mattered if it was the best game ever; it was so hyped up that no matter how good it was, no matter how hard the developers worked to make it awesome, it would have been a let down. Nothing they could have done would ever have lived up to the expectations. I don't think it's wrong to try and avoid that type of scenario. Again, DNF was horrible, and D3 so far has been a great amount of fun (more fun that D2, which I started playing around with again just because it runs well on my old crappy laptop and I hadn't ever gotten around to making an ice/lit sorc).

I took his statement as less "the game will be mediocre, so don't get your hopes up", and more of "it's going to be a great game, just judge it for what it is, not for what you thought it might be for the past X years".

[Skiball]

If they spend 11y working on it, it better be good.

My thoughts exactly. I felt the same with Starcraft 2 and that turned out awful. Maybe Bashiok is warning us.

[Magjee]

Very odd comments from a game developer.

At least I'm getting D3 from the Annual Pass.

[Flappy]

People make death threats to developers of WoW almost every day, I can see why he wouldn't want everyone to be so expectant. You literally cannot please everyone, I look at how he is handling this like how Steven King handled the Dark Tower series.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the situation Steven King wrote a book as good fun, it was one of his first books he ever wrote so quite naturally he really liked it. He left it as a cliffhanger and it followed him, irking him to complete the series. After publishing some of the books that made him who he is today he pursued what he really wanted to finish (the gunslinger) and went on to write what many people consider 5 and a half more great novels.

But all good things must come to an end.

When he was writing the 7th and final book King realized that he had been unintentionally dangling this carrot in front of his fanbase for almost 25 years and people really craved closure more than good storytelling. So he ended it about as abruptly as he could. This enraged a LOT of people. It got to the point that he later included as part of the Authors notes a message to the readers to "Please leave me alone and don't contact me ever." But I don't think he even put it that kindly.

So as you can see rabid fans do nothing but harm to great people. It's disgusting and it needs to stop.

[Deleted]

D3 started going downhill ever since they went with buy to win.

[Sivick]

valid point. then again i wish gearbox told us "hey, lower your expectations for duke nukem forever. it'd take an act of god to make this steaming pile of crap into a good game." honesty is a little refreshing.

[notorious98]

valid point. then again i wish gearbox told us "hey, lower your expectations for duke nukem forever. it'd take an act of god to make this steaming pile of crap into a good game." honesty is a little refreshing.

I think Gearbox was just trying to push it out the door. There had been enough bullshit from 3Drealms for years that they didn't want to look like them. It's pretty obvious, had anyone been truly paying attention, that 3Drealms, as a company, had been going into the shitter. Anytime you see a company continuously downsizing it usually means that their product is suffering. I mean, it's kinda tough to develop when you don't have a development team. Honestly, the company hadn't actually developed anything since '97. Anybody who thought DNF was going to be some massive achievement in gaming was, to put it nicely, a moron.