Diablo 4 to feature microtransactions

[Charge me Doctor]

You seriously have to ask why in 2019 rolling into 2020?

What triple A package game doesn't have microtransactions these days? I honestly can't think of one.

Yes, it's almost 2020, that's why i have to ask why, because it's already wide-known that microtransactions are cancer of gaming world - nobody wants them, even those who buy them don't want them, everyone would be better with like it used to be - you get rewards for playing the game, not for throwing money at it.

- - - Updated - - -

I wonder if they can get away with this. If anyone can then it's Blizzard, but even they can fall flat on their face as we could see with Hots.

You don't need to look at hots, it's kinda fine. Remember D3 release? And real money AH? And loot drama? How much time it took for blizzard to turn D3 into a playable game can you remind me? A year? Two?

It'll be so damn stupid if they'll make the same mistakes again.

Honestly, i was burned by buying D3 on release and i'm not going to do this again - i'll just wait and see if the game will turn into some sort of sims game DLC-wise and how bad micro-transactions are, then wait for a discount.

[jstnw89]

Just mind blowing how it's just a shoulder shrug "eh" for blizzard to triple dip. I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore, I don't even care about cosmetic mtx myself but paid game, expansions, and mtx.. holy hell

[llama122]

If it's entirely cosmetic: Okay.

If it impacts the game: Not okay.

I really don't care that much if it's just some cosmetics. Whatever!

yes ^

we ran D2 for so long... well we also ran D3 but you all sooked about it...
games have to make money....
you pay... or you dont...
if it gets to the point we pay to be the best....
cool... we get upset and boycot the game...


but are we there now?

like the game... or dont..
after playing blizz games for 25 years....

if its broken i wont play.
if it seems ok ill try...

you are all the same..

get over yourselves... support the game if its good...

fuck it off if its not...

come on...

[Charge me Doctor]

Simply put, I don't believe it's a foregone conclusion that a game with MTX is automatically going to be bad or that the MTX will automatically interfere with or hinder the quality of the game or it's entertainment value in any meaningful way. It's a possibility, sure, but I'll wait for that to be proven before I judge and not act like a pessimistic stick in the mud.

The game is designed around cash shop (as in "the game is designed around its features"), there is simply no other way to design games, if it's in the game - then developer put their time and thought into it. If developer wouldn't intend you to use microcransactions he wouldn't put them into the game in the first place. Similarly, if he did put microtransactions into his game, he will put levers to make you use them, being it a flashing "FEATURED" tab on your login screen, or a pop up that you have to close every time you log in, or a giant "LOOk HERE AND BUY OUR NEW SHIT" tab that won't go away until you throw money at it

So yeah, that's a simple nature of things - if the game has a cash shop, developer will put the means to make you go into that shop, even if you don't plan on buying anything.

[kail]

we are paying full price for these games. there shouldn't do ANY micro or macro transactions within the first week of release let alone the first minute. it's just stupid that we pay $60 for games and yet most of the art development gets spent on getting us to pay more. it'd be different if the microtransactions weren't going to be there with release but it will be. we're paying full price for a partial product.

So it's just the timing you have an issue with?

[Ragu4]

Remember when you played the video game to unlock cosmetics?

[Rendark]

I wonder if they can get away with this. If anyone can then it's Blizzard, but even they can fall flat on their face as we could see with Hots.

They are spoiled by being the MMO monopolist for so long that they think people will swallow everything due to name recognition alone. But Diablo isn't World of Warcraft, it will be interesting to see how the release goes.
Best case for everyone would be another ARPG release close to D4.

Also curious if this might also be a cultural thing. Maybe people from the US are just more willing to put up with the double and triple-dipping going on.

Of course they will get away with it, just look at all the people saying "meh it's just cosmetic so it's cool!".

[acinos]

The way i look at this is i do't care if it has micro transactions. especially if its only cosmetics. all that matters is how much time vs money i get out of the game im playing. if im enjoying a game a lot i wont mind throwing more money at it to support the devs and keep the game going.

Let me break this down a little. I added up the playtime from all of my characters. i had 582 hours and 35 minutes of game time. now if i had jsut gotten the base version of d3,d3 ros, and the necromancer pack i would have gotten my money out of the game 5 times over. that makes this a fantastic buy and i would have gladly spent extra to help keep this game being developed that i'm clearly enjoying. but no i bought the physical collectors editions of each. factoring that in i still got my moneys worth a little over 3 times over.

Now if i can have that many hours of fun in diablo 4 after it comes out i would have no problem spending money on some micro transactions here and there as im clearly getting my moneys worth out of the entire experience.

My main point is as long as im enjoying the game and getting my monies worth out of it. it having micro transactions isn't going to change that and may be a welcome thing for showing my appreciation for a game i can have so much fun in.

[Katchii]

The game is designed around cash shop (as in "the game is designed around its features"), there is simply no other way to design games, if it's in the game - then developer put their time and thought into it. If developer wouldn't intend you to use microcransactions he wouldn't put them into the game in the first place. Similarly, if he did put microtransactions into his game, he will put levers to make you use them, being it a flashing "FEATURED" tab on your login screen, or a pop up that you have to close every time you log in, or a giant "LOOk HERE AND BUY OUR NEW SHIT" tab that won't go away until you throw money at it

So yeah, that's a simple nature of things - if the game has a cash shop, developer will put the means to make you go into that shop, even if you don't plan on buying anything.

Okay?

The feature itself and the underlying systems around it also don't automatically make whatever game it's in bad or not entertaining.

I'm with you that I'd rather not have to see a bunch of reminders about some in game cash shop, but so long as it's just "there" and reminding me that it's "there" I don't see the harm.

The D3 Necromancer example is annoying, for sure, but it doesn't directly affect your gameplay....does it? I don't play D3 and haven't seen it so I don't know if it pops up at ridiculously annoying times. If it does do that, then yeah, fuck that, but if it pops up on login and it goes away for the rest of your play session after you "X" out it's tolerable.

[Rafalga]

So many whales in this thread. Papa Blizz loves you so much.

You are the cancer killing video games.

[asil]

People still defending MTX in games which you pay full price for and are made by companies worth billions? I never understand it.

MTX in games is a cancer.

POE runs an MTX model and is vastly superior to diablo in every way.

[SoulSoBreezy]

https://twitter.com/SkillUpYT/status...02103212802049

So on top of the paid game and expansions, there will be microtransactions. Shame, my excitement had almost made it through one entire week.

I won't buy the microtransactions. Crazy thought huh

[froschhure]

Mentioning the human friendly alternative =)

[Jerot]

Anyone else concerned they added mounts just for another things to sell MTX for? From a gameplay standpoint, it seems like an odd inclusion. If its too slow, no one bothers, if its too fast people complain about having to mount up to be efficient, if the maps are too big they feel empty and boring, if they're too small, mounting/dismounting breaks the flow of gameplay too much.

And with this focus on a dark and gritty artstyle, is it going to be a problem with MTX armor and public zones/towns? People want to look cool, fancy glowing armor, flaming wings, etc. Are they going to reign in the design team to make armor that looks like it belongs in a Diablo game, or are they going to try to make as much money as possible and create a variety of armor, including flashier options that wouldn't have been considered for in-game obtainable designs. PoE has the problem of neon circus public zones, but they never made coherent artstyle a major selling point in their marketing.

And I wouldn't hold out hope for many additional classes down the line, because of all the class specific affixes, they're going to need to design an entire games worth of gear everytime they want to add another character. And does it make sense doing that? Or working on another dungeon for people to run, armor set or mount to sell, etc.

[oplawlz]

I mean inflation is a real thing, and it makes perfect sense for prices to slowly rise over that amount of time. I'd pay extra if it meant funding future development and ending the idea of MTX.

No it doesn't. Games sell significantly more copies on average year over year - a far larger increase in profits than accounted for by inflation.

[OokOok]

Seems like a way to support the game. I don't condone them but....its going to be awhile being D4 is released.

A way to support the game? Diablo isn't an MMO, it's supposed to be released fully ready to go without needing patches/nerfs or fixes. But Blizzard loves releasing games in the Beta stage, you basically pay 70$ to beta test the game, and then pay them through microtransactions to work to actually fix the fixes put it at it's release stage.

It's a crime and scam.

They only get away with this cause it's on PC. You'd never see a game on console and only console release and then patch it every week cause they released it when it was only 40% ready to be released. You see this shit all the time in other blizzard games but never in any other companies games. When's the last time FFXIV had a balancing patch? like once in the last year, blizzard has one every week cause they release expansions before they're fully tested

[Tabrotar]

And there are cosmetic microtransactions...

(I have no issue with them, but, if people don't mind PoE, they shouldn't mind a Diablo 4 with cosmetic microtransactions either, unless they just like being hypocrites, because it's Blizzard, or something else.)

Hm lets see, position 1, a game which is completly free and only make smoney trough said microtransactions and position 2, a game which you ha dto buy and also have to buy the addons
Now lets put them together and maybe, just maybe even you are able to see the problem here...

[jstnw89]

And there are cosmetic microtransactions...

(I have no issue with them, but, if people don't mind PoE, they shouldn't mind a Diablo 4 with cosmetic microtransactions either, unless they just like being hypocrites, because it's Blizzard, or something else.)

The base game ($60) and expansions ($40 per) are buy-to-play along with mtx being included.. I know mmo-champion isn't full of the best and brightest, but why is this difference so hard to understand?

[Charge me Doctor]

Okay?

The feature itself and the underlying systems around it also don't automatically make whatever game it's in bad or not entertaining.

I'm with you that I'd rather not have to see a bunch of reminders about some in game cash shop, but so long as it's just "there" and reminding me that it's "there" I don't see the harm.

The D3 Necromancer example is annoying, for sure, but it doesn't directly affect your gameplay....does it? I don't play D3 and haven't seen it so I don't know if it pops up at ridiculously annoying times. If it does do that, then yeah, fuck that, but if it pops up on login and it goes away for the rest of your play session after you "X" out it's tolerable.

As long as cash shop is in the game your loot drops will be based around having that shop. Without shop you'll get all your cosmetics in the game, with shop some of those cosmetics will be gated. Then there will be a push towards "saving your time", so you won't have to rely on a random drop chance. We've seen this in other games, we've seen this in diablo already (in terms of RMAH and old loot drop system), we've already been there and we know that it's bad for a AAA title with upfront cost of 60$ + DLC to have a shop in game - cosmetic or not.

That banner disappears only when you buy the dlc, it doesn't go away, there is no "X" to click on - it's just there constantly when you return to login screen. Diablo 3 is a AAA game, it shouldn't have such things in it, i understand when warhammer online used to pop up a window with "BUY THE GAME!" message every time you level up, but it only exists before you pay for the game. Now i have bought the game and i still get this "ad" right on a login screen.
There is just no place for those predatory tactics to get people rid of their money for stuff they may not want nor need in a non-free to play game

- - - Updated - - -

A way to support the game? Diablo isn't an MMO, it's supposed to be released fully ready to go without needing patches/nerfs or fixes. But Blizzard loves releasing games in the Beta stage, you basically pay 70$ to beta test the game, and then pay them through microtransactions to work to actually fix the fixes put it at it's release stage.

"A way to support the game" would be to buy the game, play it, recommend to your friends and spam how glorious it is on twitter. Buy an expansion pack later, when they've done with making it and release it, instead of releasing DLCs on some sort of a schedule

[[Apok]]

Wonder how many people would support paid for additions to other aspects, wonder how many people would be outraged if film compnies suddenly started releasing base editions of films with things such as directors commentaries and faturettes as mtx.