Oh Blizzard, how you have fallen (Diablo Immortal).

[Jastall]

Imagine if Diablo: Immoral hadn't had all these MTX and predatory gambling mechanics. Imagine if Blizzard set such good standards and a precedent to what a good mobile game could be, we all know Diablo Immortal is a good game underneath all that rubbish that caked on top of it, so why did they add all these microtransactions in to begin with? (don't answer that I was being rhetorical).

Can you imagine the good will Blizzard could have gotten by proving that they could make a mobile game without microtransactions in it. Is that hard? But Blizzard gonna be all like 'fuck that shit we need to destroy any remaining good will we have in case we still haven't some left in the corners of our shitty business they call a company'

Didn't even need 0 MTX. Asking money for cosmetics and perhaps some QoL features like Path of Exile does (larger stash, for example) and/or the premium Battle Pass would have been fine for the vast majority of people, I'd wager. Everyone who hasn't already decided they hate Blizzard knows mobile games have their own... peculiar monetization. The issue is that even by mobile gaming standards D:I goes balls deep into the player's pockets if they want to optimize their character, something Diablo as a franchise is based on since Diablo 2. People aren't surprised that it has microtransactions, they're surprised at how insanely, nakedly greedy those are.

As well, making almost everything purely character-bound is just next level scummy.

[Beefhammer]

Jesus, finding out you can only sell gems dropped from the cash-shop epic emblem thingy - and only one specific type, the other that are parts of bundles don't allow dropped gems to be sold - is fuckin hilariously gross.

I expected the usual gross mobile monetization despite Blizzard still pretending they're not a soulless corpo or something, but this is arguably the most aggressively and shadily monetized mobile game I've ever played in my life.

Which is a shame, because the core game is pretty bloody great with solid production values. They've just locked the whole point of playing - farming loot and getting sick drops - behind massive cash walls asking players to spend hundreds/thousands a month.

You can sell random crafted gems. You don't need emblem dropped gems to sell.

[Osmeric]

The game has been review bombed from the get go.

That's why the IoS version has just 147 positive reviews (and the PC version 18 (!) positive reviews) on metacritic. Because of review bombing. Clearly.

[MoanaLisa]

Can you imagine the good will Blizzard could have gotten by proving that they could make a mobile game without microtransactions in it.

It wouldn't be free then. Unlikely they would have sold a lot at the price point they would set to match the expected revenue from the current model. Even a game store with cosmetic MTX would have been heavily criticized. I mean, let's not mince words: There's a certain group of people who are unwilling to extend any good will to Blizzard under any circumstances. That's their business and fine but it makes their criticisms less believable. The same goes for those who can't see any problems in Blizzard games either. It's a very low-information business here.

My recommendation (which others have called 'defending' Blizzard) is to load up the game, play it a while and see what you think. Your own opinion is the only one that matters. Not posters on this or any other forum, not streamers, not MetaCritics or anyone else.

[Tojara]

Jesus, finding out you can only sell gems dropped from the cash-shop epic emblem thingy - and only one specific type, the other that are parts of bundles don't allow dropped gems to be sold - is fuckin hilariously gross.

I expected the usual gross mobile monetization despite Blizzard still pretending they're not a soulless corpo or something, but this is arguably the most aggressively and shadily monetized mobile game I've ever played in my life.

Which is a shame, because the core game is pretty bloody great with solid production values. They've just locked the whole point of playing - farming loot and getting sick drops - behind massive cash walls asking players to spend hundreds/thousands a month.

All of your crafted gems can be sold BTW.

Which leads to the next problem in the game. Soft/Hard caps on grinding in an ARPG. Regardless of how inefficient grinding rifts would be to sell them on the AH, it should be a viable option, but it isn't because of hard caps.

There absolutely should be better distinction between legendary and eternal legendary crests. They are both eerily similar with small distinctions in the frame (and obviously text until you reach the end of the text blurb). If the eternal ones were like RED or something I doubt there would be any confusion as people would probably read the pretty similar text blurb to find the difference between the two. I was actually incredibly lucky as a F2P player and found a 5 star seeping bile gem using one of the few legendary crests awarded to me, and while it's incredibly good, I thought it might be better served on the AH to buy gems that are better suited to my playstyle. This is what led me to research a bit more on why some gems are bound, and some gems are unbound.

Personally I think the biggest faux pas of DI is just the caps that are thrown at you in the game. Just feels weird to have them in an ARPG, regardless of whether it has the distinction of being a mobile game or not. The D2 equivalency would be telling you that act bosses are cut off for loot today after you kill 10 of them a day.

[Cthulhu 2020]

That's incorrect. There are indeed BoE and BoP gems depends on whether they are drops or rewards. Which appears to be random. The Crest itself can affect the chances of getting unbound ones, sure. But f2p players can definitely get unboung gems to sell on the market. And I believe they can also craft them

This entire post is incredibly wrong. The crests that give sellable gems are from eternal orbs only, which you can only get via spending money. The reward crests ONLY give BoP gems. Read their descriptions. It's right there in plain english. You also could have watched the youtube videos showing this, but you continue to refuse reality and won't even watch anything that proves you're wrong.

- - - Updated - - -

I also bet that like every Diablo game ever - they will release update/expansion down the road that will soft-retire this all anyway.

The initial burst of revenue might fund an expansion, but if they don't seriously cut out the predatory monetization, this game will be on life support and effectively dead in the near future. Everyone's talking about it and playing it now because it's new. But with how Blizzard can release 20 hours of gameplay once every 2 years, I don't think they'll be able to keep people engaged with this game.

[Orby]

It wouldn't be free then. Unlikely they would have sold a lot at the price point they would set to match the expected revenue from the current model. Even a game store with cosmetic MTX would have been heavily criticized. I mean, let's not mince words: There's a certain group of people who are unwilling to extend any good will to Blizzard under any circumstances. That's their business and fine but it makes their criticisms less believable. The same goes for those who can't see any problems in Blizzard games either. It's a very low-information business here.

My recommendation (which others have called 'defending' Blizzard) is to load up the game, play it a while and see what you think. Your own opinion is the only one that matters. Not posters on this or any other forum, not streamers, not MetaCritics or anyone else.

I have seen the game play, and I do believe it is good, from what I have seen, I saw a few boss fights and they looks pretty creative. Unfortunately I promised to not give Blizzard my money or time, even if the game is free, I haven't played Blizzard games for nearly 2 years. But for those saying the game is good and feels good to play, I believe them.

Unfortunately its the MTX in general I have an issue with. Its the ethical side of these franchises that I used to love, I have no issue with those having fun, and those that haven't spent a penny on MTX, I also feel bad for the devs who honestly look like they worked their ass off on this. Personally I shouldn't care since I don't play blizzard games anymore, but a part of me just wants them to make good games again one that isn't covered in horrible practices governed by greedy execs.

My big issue is when your love for the game allows you to defend the MTX... I am not attacking anyone for loving the game, but if you choose to defend the MTX thats when I will start judging :P

[Cthulhu 2020]

I think the "Fans" of this disaster need to realize that this has both permanently hurt Blizzard and the Diablo franchise.

This game has a metacritic score of 0.2, the lowest in gaming history. People almost universally hate this game.

If you just search "Diablo Immortal" on Youtube you get auto corrects like "Diablo Immoral" and auto fills like "Diablo Immortal Pay to Win" and "Diablo Immortal Scam" as two of the top auto fills, and when you actually do a search for JUST the game's name, the entirety of the first two pages of search results are all negative aside from one that's a "top 10 noob mistakes" video.

Blizzard spent two decades building up goodwill of good games. Now Activision is trying to milk every last bit of built up trust among their fans before it's ultimately handed off to Microsoft. Some of you are making excuses for it, while the rest of us lament just how much damage Blizzard has done to their own reputation and the gaming industry.

[Elim Garak]

This entire post is incredibly wrong.

No, it's correct. The description of Crests only speaks of a guaranteed Gem. But any other gems that drop due to using Crest are sellable. Eternal Crest just makes the guaranteed one sellable as well. But even a rare crest Rift can drop a gem, and you can sell it. Not to mention that you can even randomly craft a 5-star gem - and sell it.

[cuafpr]

well hit my issue with the game which has zero to do with MTX, got to 60 completed the story did some stuff, ready for a hell 1 dungeon.. and BAM not allowed unless in a group.. WTF. groups should not be required for basic dungeons in diablo. I really hope that doesn't carry over to D4.

[Cthulhu 2020]

1. Diablo Immortal is now the worst rated game on Metacritic - and probably many other rating sites as well. Its user score has fallen to 0.2 and even the professional reviewer score has dropped since launch.

2. Kotaku published an article a few years ago about a Match Making System that Activision patented which pits people in match making situations such that it encourages them to spend more money. That's literally part of the patent. https://kotaku.com/activision-patent...ers-1819630937

“This was an exploratory patent filed in 2015 by an R&D team working independently from our game studios. It has not been implemented in-game.”

“For example, if the player purchased a particular weapon, the microtransaction engine may match the player in a gameplay session in which the particular weapon is highly effective,” the text of the patent reads. “This may encourage the player to make future purchases to achieve similar gameplay results.”

The matchmaking system would analyze player trends such as latency and weapon preference in order to place them in scenarios that might lead them to buy certain items:

“For example, microtransaction engine 128 may identify a junior player to match with a marquee player based on a player profile of the junior player. In a particular example, the junior player may wish to become an expert sniper in a game...Microtransaction engine 128 may match the junior player with a player that is a highly skilled sniper in the game. In this manner, the junior player may be encouraged to make game-related purchases such as a rifle or other item used by the highly skilled sniper.”

[KainneAbsolute]

Wudijo enjoys the game, but he reached the limits of free to play. He is being displaced by whales.

[Elim Garak]

1. Diablo Immortal is now the worst rated game on Metacritic - and probably many other rating sites as well. Its user score has fallen to 0.2 and even the professional reviewer score has dropped since launch.

2. Kotaku published an article a few years ago about a Match Making System that Activision patented which pits people in match making situations such that it encourages them to spend more money. That's literally part of the patent. https://kotaku.com/activision-patent...ers-1819630937

That's basically marketing. Sales. Demo weapons. Nothing special. You play the game see a weapon you like - want to buy. And the last thing you want is for the player to buy the weapon and then go into a match that is that weapons nemesis and upset the player, which will obviously reduce any chances of them buying anything again.

But you of course can read it in a sinister voice with a mwuahahaha at the end and Bobby doing kaching.

[dope_danny]

Wudijo enjoys the game, but he reached the limits of free to play. He is being displaced by whales.

and thats a mobile scam working as intended. The F2P user only exists as "content" for the whale. Thats the actual design brief for these kinds of games. You exist to get mowed down by a whale to make them feel like they have a big dick, but have just enough of a chance to make them panic and need to whale again. Thats the entire end state cycle of this kind of scam.

But in this case its a 2017 chinese mobile game with a brand people like slapped on so people are not seeing the forest for the trees.

[Elim Garak]

Wudijo enjoys the game, but he reached the limits of free to play. He is being displaced by whales.

Nobody cares about scrubs in Diablo PvP, they gotta get gud and master the CC

[chorx]

I think the "Fans" of this disaster need to realize that this has both permanently hurt Blizzard and the Diablo franchise.

This game has a metacritic score of 0.2, the lowest in gaming history. People almost universally hate this game.

If you just search "Diablo Immortal" on Youtube you get auto corrects like "Diablo Immoral" and auto fills like "Diablo Immortal Pay to Win" and "Diablo Immortal Scam" as two of the top auto fills, and when you actually do a search for JUST the game's name, the entirety of the first two pages of search results are all negative aside from one that's a "top 10 noob mistakes" video.

Blizzard spent two decades building up goodwill of good games. Now Activision is trying to milk every last bit of built up trust among their fans before it's ultimately handed off to Microsoft. Some of you are making excuses for it, while the rest of us lament just how much damage Blizzard has done to their own reputation and the gaming industry.

Everyone i know personally, loves it. Something tells me we’re going to hear a lot of bragging about DI at investor calls. I feel like DI is probably the best thing to happen to the Diablo IP since before Diablo 3 was launched, and I suspect many others feel the same way.

[pahbi]

“This was an exploratory patent filed in 2015 by an R&D team working independently from our game studios. It has not been implemented in-game.”

“For example, if the player purchased a particular weapon, the microtransaction engine may match the player in a gameplay session in which the particular weapon is highly effective,” the text of the patent reads. “This may encourage the player to make future purchases to achieve similar gameplay results.”

The matchmaking system would analyze player trends such as latency and weapon preference in order to place them in scenarios that might lead them to buy certain items:

“For example, microtransaction engine 128 may identify a junior player to match with a marquee player based on a player profile of the junior player. In a particular example, the junior player may wish to become an expert sniper in a game...Microtransaction engine 128 may match the junior player with a player that is a highly skilled sniper in the game. In this manner, the junior player may be encouraged to make game-related purchases such as a rifle or other item used by the highly skilled sniper.”

That is so slimy

[james2400]

Jesus it has a 0.2 rating on Metacritic its officially the worst game of all time.

[Bakis]

JoshHays summed it up pretty well.
He doesnt mind that BLZ make money on a mobile game but the purposely and predatory design is just over the top by a longshot.
And the "clever" way of bypassing laws against loot boxes is too obvious.

That he ends it all up with pointing out that the game is the opposite of BLZ public stated values of player experience comes first etc made me chuckle.
"They made it fun to play, but just fun enough to make people spend insane amounts of ingame money when they could instead focus on making it as fun as possible. (which is what BLZ state as one of its core values)"

[Flaks]

That's basically marketing. Sales. Demo weapons. Nothing special. You play the game see a weapon you like - want to buy. And the last thing you want is for the player to buy the weapon and then go into a match that is that weapons nemesis and upset the player, which will obviously reduce any chances of them buying anything again.

But you of course can read it in a sinister voice with a mwuahahaha at the end and Bobby doing kaching.

Funny enough when this match making system thing was initially posted about everyone was saying how it's not used in any blizzard games and it's obviously and Activision only thing to be used in CoD and the like.

And here we are blatantly having it CLEARLY BEING UTILIZED IN A GAME WITH CLEARLY PREDATORY MICROTRANSACTIONS and you think a "sinister voice" isn't warranted?

- - - Updated - - -

It wouldn't be free then. Unlikely they would have sold a lot at the price point they would set to match the expected revenue from the current model. Even a game store with cosmetic MTX would have been heavily criticized. I mean, let's not mince words: There's a certain group of people who are unwilling to extend any good will to Blizzard under any circumstances. That's their business and fine but it makes their criticisms less believable. The same goes for those who can't see any problems in Blizzard games either. It's a very low-information business here.

My recommendation (which others have called 'defending' Blizzard) is to load up the game, play it a while and see what you think. Your own opinion is the only one that matters. Not posters on this or any other forum, not streamers, not MetaCritics or anyone else.

Utterly wrong take. You are clearly 'defending' blizzard with your input here. This is the few times where your own personal opinion on the game is secondary to the overall perspective on it. And the overall perspective on it is that it's a horrid, disgusting cash cow that is pushing the envelope for microtransaction in gaming such that you can expect this and worse to seep into gaming as a whole. Anyone who wants to enjoy a mildly competitive game now has to go in knowing that more and more developers are going to jump on this ship of pay to win. Even WoW has gotten to a point that you can easily pay to be more competitive and blizzard's ridiculous laxity directly contributes to this (they've made it harder to report real money ads on group finder in retail even though they've "officially made it bannable"). It's a horrible precedent that makes the whole gaming environment just all around worse.

All they had to do was take a page out of hearthstone's playbook: absolutely make things that are worth lots and lots of money. But don't make it to the extent that free to play players are completely shut out of competing in any way shape or form. Hearthstone f2p players can easily make it to legend and even high legend without paying a single cent ever even starting out new. Hell even WoW still allows players that can be super competitive without touching RMT or bulk token buying/selling at least in retail. Why did this have to be this disgustingly over the top? F2p players getting stomped in pvp, having negligible contribution in pve. It's all just a bad trend being set.