I've been onboard with Blizzard for decades. Hell, I even enjoyed Cataclysm and thought SC2 was awesomesauce. But Blizzard is progressively taking steps towards becoming The Man with Diablo 3.
The recent developments with D3 are prime steak examples. Gold drops have been nerfed heavily. Bosses have been buffed. All drop rates have been nerfed except for ilevels in later difficulties. Worst of all, repairing real equipment costs thousands upon thousands more. What does this all mean? Slower kills, slower upgrades, more money sinks. THEY WANT THE GAME TO LAST LONGER.
It gets worse.
I am not against the concept of the RMAH. But the way Blizzard is using it is a horror. The concept of introducing a free market place to a game is simply wonderful. It gives players more options and more fun. But that is not what Blizzard is doing. The game was tailored around the RMAH as a means to force players to make microtransactions to complete the hardest difficulties. That the RMAH is a great asset in the abstract and that Blizzard is using it to make D3 PAY TO WIN are completely exclusive ideas. Sure, we got an innovative new feature, but the hidden costs outweigh the entire game. Currently, the average/good player that farms Inferno for items will still have to spend more than the cost of the game on items that will give him or her the edge to beat the game. I think we can all agree that cost would be $60 at the very least...
Other games are opening their doors for their respective communities, with advanced world editors, and mod packages that ship with their games. What Blizzard is doing with Diablo 3 is the exact opposite. They are tightening the noose. Narrowing the content. And forcing their customers to pay more and more for less and less. And don't get me wrong, Blizzard has every right to maximize their profits. But with D3, they have finally jumped the shark by giving us less than what we are paying for. Diablo 3 is a fun game to play through a couple times, but it is short, and its design motivation is based more on greed than fun. I am calling bullshit.
Blizzard's model with D3 has effectively transformed from
Make Game That is Fun Enough to Attract Maximum Customers = Profit
to Profit from Current Customers = Make Sure Game is Just Fun Enough to Retain Them
This is a horrible direction for games, and personally, with the less than stellar reviews that are surfacing, I sincerely hope that they lose customers and are forced to change their priorities.