2012 report: D3 sold 12 million copies

[Coldkil]

Isn't this one of the core issues with Blizzard games these days though, there is few ways if any to actually be better at the game, and if there is eventually Blizzard will help anyone dragging behind. I saw the effect of this during my years of WoW raiding, the pool of decent to skilled motivated players shrunk more and more for each time they catered to the lowest common denominator. The same thing is happening in D3 now with Paragon levels, really no idea why they would want to reduce the re-playability that Paragon provides.

At the end of the day there simply is no reason to strive too be good in Blizzard games anymore, you will get everything handed to you eventually anyway.

I agree with you - usual playerbase becomes worse and worse because of the catering to big numbers of people, so sw houses feel that the games need to be simpler otherwise they don't sell.

But i see a very big difference between a guy that can rock to the end of the game even with not good gear because of good skills, and the ones that get to finish because they have been lucky or spend more money with no effort at all (virtual or real doesn't matter).

The actual point wasn't against good players, was about bad ones bragging their "superiority" because of the AH.

And tbh i'm fine with the current paragon levels/time, compared to other people it will take for me forver to cap paragon.

[melodramocracy]

As FREE to play PoE starts to bomb on Xfire and it is not even decently launched yet.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...5#post18617575

^BenBos, 4 months ago, saying how inaccurate and pointless Xfire is.

Were you hacked? Evil twin brother stole your login?

[BenBos]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...5#post18617575

^BenBos, 4 months ago, saying how inaccurate and pointless Xfire is.

Were you hacked? Evil twin brother stole your login?

When D3 looses activity over 3 months <Xfire graphs explains it all.

When another game's activity bombs in 2 weeks time <Xfire graphs are worthless.

Xfire graphs show the eaxact same (but with a worse degree) in other ARPG's.

Odd.

[Redblade]

I agree with you - usual playerbase becomes worse and worse because of the catering to big numbers of people, so sw houses feel that the games need to be simpler otherwise they don't sell.

Sadly due to Blizzard's player base overall a lot of their designs and arguments for them are being treated as gospel and carried over to other games, in the end affecting the whole market.

But i see a very big difference between a guy that can rock to the end of the game even with not good gear because of good skills, and the ones that get to finish because they have been lucky or spend more money with no effort at all (virtual or real doesn't matter).

The actual point wasn't against good players, was about bad ones bragging their "superiority" because of the AH.

And tbh i'm fine with the current paragon levels/time, compared to other people it will take for me forver to cap paragon.

Fair enough, don't mind me much I just sized the opportunity to rant a bit. :P

[BloodGutter]

You may relook again.

As FREE to play PoE starts to bomb on Xfire and it is not even decently launched yet.

A symbolic 11th place today ... BEHIND Diablo 3 and patch 1.07 is not even out yet. DO check the LATEST global figures, not the paid publicity on the front page (where it still is advertised as 5th played)...

so the "we're" part is the usual small number of forum guys talking here (as usual).

xfire is outdated. i would look at twitch.tv numbers if you wanted to make such a claim.

[Speedlance]

Most people who are sick of D3 played through it the first week and spent months farming gear so they got burned out and therefor it's automaticly a bad game. I wouldn't put to much into it.
I personally love D3, it's definite the best ARPG out there by far but lack of content or end game like ladder, races and proper pvp it falls behind path of exile atm.

[Kelimbror]

You were fine with this statement:

I personally love D3

However this one:

it's definite the best ARPG out there by far

Is entirely subjective so isn't 'definite'.

This is coming from someone who doesn't have a lot of problems with D3 other than lack of things to do, which has been rapidly improved on. You touched on that in the rest of your comment. Similarly, TL2 has a different aesthetic and approach to character progression and I happen to like it better than D3. Does that make it the best? No.

These 3 games have a lot of polish and substance for what they are going for. Unfortunately D3 had a very large precedent established that it didn't live up to. TL2 did live up to it's predecessor, expanding on and improving concepts from the first game. Don't mistake this as comparing the games and their quality, but merely a simple representation of what people wanted out of D3.

Take D2 and expand and improve it. What we got at launch and still haven't gotten past is nothing even close to that. This is one of the larger issues that people have always had.

[Redblade]

I personally love D3, it's definite the best ARPG out there by far

How can it be best if...

but lack of content or end game like ladder, races and proper pvp it falls behind path of exile atm.

?

[Joey Ray III]

But frankly the SAME 600+ new public groups numbers being formed in prime time a whole 5 months after the last patch shows D3 is being played WITHOUT you guys

wow, 600 games! with 10+ million copies sold! ain't that a fucking achievement ;p

i'm pretty sure D2 has more.

[Leonard McCoy]

wow, 600 games! with 10+ million copies sold! ain't that a fucking achievement ;p

i'm pretty sure D2 has more.

At launch I saw it as high as 3000. Not that it matters to Ben Bos. Hes the Alex Jones of these forums, hell pull something out of his ass to refute that.

---------- Post added 2013-02-07 at 07:49 PM ----------

Take D2 and expand and improve it. What we got at launch and still haven't gotten past is nothing even close to that. This is one of the larger issues that people have always had.

That's a bingo.

[Gerion]

xfire is outdated. i would look at twitch.tv numbers if you wanted to make such a claim.

Twitch.tv isn't a good measure either IMO. People follow the streamer not necessarily the game they play. For example: Kungen is one of the biggest non-LoL streamers out there with around 4000~ concurrent viewers. His main game currently is PoE. Prior to that he was playing WoW with the same number of viewers. It's pretty obvious all the viewers weren't watching it for WoW streaming but rather Kungen streaming. Hell, people watch Kripp make spreadsheets for hours.

[Madruga]

These 3 games have a lot of polish and substance for what they are going for. Unfortunately D3 had a very large precedent established that it didn't live up to. TL2 did live up to it's predecessor, expanding on and improving concepts from the first game. Don't mistake this as comparing the games and their quality, but merely a simple representation of what people wanted out of D3.

Take D2 and expand and improve it. What we got at launch and still haven't gotten past is nothing even close to that. This is one of the larger issues that people have always had.

You, sir, spoke my thoughts exactly on Diablo 3.

[Kornath]

I have just played a bit of PoE and it is quite fun, BUT it has one major flaw in my opinion.

It's for hardcore gamers and there's nothing wrong with that at all, but PoE will not cater to a large market.

Why? The passive talent tree is enormous and most of the time you are leveling the same stat over and over again, only to pick another passive.
It doesn't feel very rewarding unlike D3 where a skill could change in various ways, making it feel rewarding to achieve that level. PoE's passive talent tree is a bit like the one in Diablo 2, you can f*** it up and there is no way to reset it all although you can gain points over time that will allow you to set it back a few points but never enough to completely redo it.

Diablo 3 caters to me and many others, the casual guy, a game like PoE caters to hardcore players who like spending time figuring out talents and if need
be level the same class with a different talent tree.

[Redblade]

I have just played a bit of PoE and it is quite fun, BUT it has one major flaw in my opinion.

It's for hardcore gamers and there's nothing wrong with that at all, but PoE will not cater to a large market.

It's not a flaw, the developer intended to cater to the hardcore crowd with the game so it's all by design.

[Resentful]

It's not a flaw, the developer intended to cater to the hardcore crowd with the game so it's all by design.

Dam right you best learn if you wanna play this game which is a good thing.

( Hey noob Add me Apathy_Vile ) PoE

[Nafrayu]

Love it for the ability to just jump in, play what I want when I want for however long I want. Really dislike the gear and well it would bring my laptop to a screeching halt at times lol

[Ravenblade]

In my opinion Diablo series does not cater any longer to the same crowd as Diablo 2 did which is why it earned the scorn of many - it's a Diablo for WoW fans and it seems to have been designed that way to the point that these both games actually are sharing design paradigms. PoE is the whole opposite of D3 in that its audience is that one which played Diablo 2 for competitive and - as has been said: for hardcore reasons. TL2 is really in the middle. People should be happy that there is a choice and no definitive best game. I backed PoE up to Gold level and also contributed at maximum level for upcoming Grim Dawn.
I personally - in retrospect anyway and despite me trying to play down its issues initially as well - do not count D3 as a milestone in gaming history in its current condition. Whatever technologies it promoted they didn't undo its game design pitfalls. For that matter technologies never really saved a game and using these as proof in the same way as sales shows that some people don't understand that games are not gadgets. You can't solely advertise used technologies in a game in order to promote its qualities!

Also in my opinion the game tried to cure too many evils at once but without adding many good gameplay-related things as compensation. They created a corset which they can hardly break out of so they are left thumping at their sales numbers (basically that D3 sold as much units as Assassin's Creed III) and botox'ing up their game until they fix it all in one expansion. Which would be within Blizzard's traditional canon anyway: Release the original game, fix the core issues which people were disappointed about in an expansion.

[Haadesda]

if only the stuff they have release in all the patches so far and the upcoming 1.0.7 were in at live.. it would be the best game out

[Coldkil]

Sadly due to Blizzard's player base overall a lot of their designs and arguments for them are being treated as gospel and carried over to other games, in the end affecting the whole market.

If something works, why change it? From a business pov it's a bad move. If i have to be really REALLY honest, the best game i have played recently is darksiders/darksiders2. Maybe not much innovative and very simple in design, but the story and characters are just awesome (Madureira just rules). A pearl lost in the ocean of vastly publicized games. And now Vigil games is dead with THQ (and it seems no one is going after the project even if it's REALLY a good one).

Now it's all about bestsellers and big numbers - no one makes games for small niches, making the market more various; it's all about taking the working formula and rehash it in a new dress so people is lured to buy the game and then when they see it's the same of the old ones leave.

A someway good thing wwith Blizzard is that make long-term plans, their games are made to last (at least).

Fair enough, don't mind me much I just sized the opportunity to rant a bit. :P

Everyone wants to rant I'm just trying to be as much objective as possible (but the AH crap just drives me mad - to me it's thw worst thing ever happned for diablo)

[Deleted]

Everyone wants to rant I'm just trying to be as much objective as possible (but the AH crap just drives me mad - to me it's thw worst thing ever happned for diablo)

Many people felt the same and migrated from D3 to PoE with one of the reasons being the AH. Guess what? ... numerous threads are emerging asking for some type of AH
Its ironic .. one values something only when it is missing.