Diablo 4 could end up having microtransactions

[Zenfoldor]

Nothing wrong with premium products, especially if they are cosmetics.

I agree with the exception of pay 2 win in multiplayer games. I believe pay 2 win in multiplayer games is using human psychology to sell products in a way that could be considered immoral in certain cases, which may indeed eventually make it a target for regulation. These are the wild west days of video game monetization though, so anything goes as far as mtx, but eventually, these days will be behind us similar to how gambling was eventually regulated.

[Daedius]

Cosmetics, sure... but power gain MTX like DI I highly doubt.

[Zenfoldor]

Maybe you should play a game because it's fun, not because of some imaginary rankings?^^

Character progression is the primary driver of fun for most people in a multiplayer game without much narrative heft.

Asking people to just not compete in a Blizzard game would be removing the fun for many.

Basing the character progression on the wealth of the user would not be a good thing imo.

[Lady Atia]

I agree with the exception of pay 2 win in multiplayer games. I believe pay 2 win in multiplayer games is using human psychology to sell products in a way that could be considered immoral in certain cases, which may indeed eventually make it a target for regulation. These are the wild west days of video game monetization though, so anything goes as far as mtx, but eventually, these days will be behind us similar to how gambling was eventually regulated.

I guess that's fair. Again, I couldn't care less about "player power" or rankings so I really don't get the outcry. It's a mobile game, what else do people expect from that?

[exochaft]

I think the shop and the p2w crap in immortal is absolutely dogshit, but i am not a phone "gamer" so its rather simple to just ignore it and move on. The game was not made for me, or most of us realy, Its made for the asian phone market where it sells like hot shit. I have no fear what so ever that any of this will come to D4. What we gonna get is probably mounts, frames, dyes etc. Purely cosmetic shit.
Worst shit they might add in the store is extra stash space. Just like POE which basically forces you to spend money on storage to deal with the overwhelming amounts of shit they throw after you

I think the big difference when it comes to PoE is that the game is baseline free to access all the content, so there needs to be a way to make money. The thing with the stash tabs is that while they're nice (especially the specialized currency/league tabs), they're really cheap to get them all (especially on sale) and are permanently yours. They also have a ton of cosmetics and supporter packs that are MTX, but that's it.

If this was the Blizz of 10-15 years ago, I wouldn't be concerned of non-cosmetic MTX stuff in D4. However, there has been a shift over the years where there is way more priority put on monetization and squeezing money from players via psychological/manipulative means versus providing a great game that players generally want to support by giving money. D:Immortal is the most recent example of how far Blizz is willing to go to nickel and dime their players, to where even some Lost Ark whales I know think it's even a step too far. Considering how Blizz has tried to handle this issue now and in the past... yeah, they could tell us straight to our faces that there's only cosmetic MTX in D4 with no player power attached to MTX, and we get player power MTX galore. WoW blue post responses have already shown that they'll gaslight to make themselves look better or to covers their butts when they get caught with their pants down, and that Blizz is willing to say and spin anything in order to achieve this end.

This is where the morality aspect comes into play. A big misconception I see in these forums is that the reason why Blizz (or any corporation) does immoral things is because they need to make money, however the two are actually mutually exclusive. You could be immoral and not try to make money, you can be moral and try to make money. Morality comes in through intent, not just the action on its own (in this case, making money). Even just using the examples we have here, I have no doubt that almost everyone would say that PoE appears to be WAY more moral than D:Immortal in terms of monetization. The companies need to make money in order to maintain their games and support their employees and so forth, so there needs to be revenue... and honestly the amount of profit that's made doesn't matter in the calculus of morality, but how they go about it is a different matter. If someone wins millions in the lottery or someone makes a great product that everyone just throws money at without even asking, those are probably considered moral ways to make money. If someone purposefully tries to manipulate people and exploit them to gain the same amount of money as in the previous example (or just straight up steals money), those are probably considered immoral. Heck, there's even the amoral angle, but we'd get a long list of examples and caveats if I kept going down this route.

Regardless, the main point is intent matters, and the current Blizz is showing intent that's extremely immoral... which isn't surprising given all the bad stuff the company has had to deal with over the past year in other non-monetary fields. Blizz could have taken a less extreme MTX approach and likely have been just fine with their finances and even shareholders, but the fact they're going to the extreme means that the company as a whole has very immoral tendencies right now.

[StillMcfuu]

Maybe you should play a game because it's fun, not because of some imaginary rankings?^^

I don't disagree.
But Diablo isn't really a fully single player game, and being F2P will lock you in to being just SP. Which means you won't have access to everything. The unfortunate truth is every day you play, you will be that much farther behind. At some point that will build and build until you quit or open your wallet.

In some ways its a little more sinister than regular f2p style mobile games. Many of them limit access to the game, where doing things costs a resource such as keys. Luckily these games give you a ton of that resource up front. Basically carrying you as you play the game somewhat casually, for fun. Archero is a good example of this. Unless you go full time into the game, you'll never really reach the point of being limited.
Diablo on the other hand doesn't limit game play, but much like Lost Ark, gates it's tiers to power level. Which means that as players progress, paying players will get to more content faster, further increasing their power over non paying players, even more than the normal level. Since the game is generally multiplayer it means you will get left further and further behind and pure FOMO and peer pressure will get you to open your wallet.

[Xilurm]

Maybe you should play a game because it's fun, not because of some imaginary rankings?^^

Listen to yourself.

Who are you to tell others how to play games?

[PC2]

If MTX is financially optimal then I'm okay with it as long as the gameplay experience is fun like in D2 and D3.

In Diablo Immortal I've played with a whale who put in over $4k and it doesn't annoy me that he gained power faster than me. I'm a casual player so it doesn't bother me if another player has slightly bigger numbers/stats.

[Mamut]

They somehow seem to forget that they have to compete against PoE 2

They do not have to compete with PoE 2 at all. People play different games in same genre for different reasons. Many play more than 1 simultaneously. I really don't know why people think theres only place for 1 game or that people play only 1 title.

[Azerox]

I agree, you can just play the game. Nothing stops you from that.
But to play in any kind of competitive manner, and I mean that in the leaderboard lowest common denominator kind of way, it's simply impossible to compete. You can still play though, I'm not denying that, but you'll never be near par, and knowing Blizz gamers that will mean less access to party content at some point.

True that is sad, but whatever. Not my main game anyway.

[Zardas]

Never heard off this or the first but after watching the trailer for POE 2, holy shit... Wow
Is it worth playing the first one now or just wait?

Definitely worst it yes, even if the devs are working on POE, there is also quit a lot of updates on the first one, with regular new leagues that actually bring new content and features.

[Ghost of Cow]

They do not have to compete with PoE 2 at all. People play different games in same genre for different reasons. Many play more than 1 simultaneously. I really don't know why people think theres only place for 1 game or that people play only 1 title.

Because that's how games have tried to train people. Mostly by putting so many grinds and long-term progression systems in after the actual content is exhausted.

You've got a lot of people now that not only play just one game at a time, they'll rage at a given game for not letting them pour enough hours into it. It's a very real playstyle that people have developed.

[Mamut]

Character progression is the primary driver of fun for most people in a multiplayer game without much narrative heft.

Asking people to just not compete in a Blizzard game would be removing the fun for many.

Basing the character progression on the wealth of the user would not be a good thing imo.

I'm not sold on this one. Most of my friends don't give a fuk about PvP or rankings in ARPGS. They play them just for the gear grind and working on their builds in their own pace. I also don't care at all if someone is like 1000x more powerfull than me because of the shop.
I would like to see shops only with cosmetics but we all know how mobile games looks now. But even with all those cashgrabs from DI I still enjoy it without spending even 1$ and If I will get bored I simply will stop play.

[Daronokk]

And where is the problem?^^ Modern games usually have some kind of microtransactions anyways.

You are the fucking problem if you think this is okay in any shape or form.

[ParanoiD84]

Would suck seeing as its going to be a btp game now if it was a ftp game like poe its another story. Well aslong as its only cosmetics but seeing blizzard lately i doubt it.

Some of my favorite arpg games did very well without anything of the sort like grim dawn and d2 so dont really see a reason to add it to be succesfull.

[Gaidax]

It will have cosmetics without a doubt and I feel that Immortal is an important testing ground for them just how far they can push the thing.

It won't reach level of Immortal as a whole though, because unlike Immortal it will likely have classic seasons where you remake character every few months, so specific character power bound stuff won't work very well there.

[The Stormbringer]

Diablo Immortal was marketed as a mobile game, D4 has not

Was marketed, until they decided it was also going to be a PC game.

[xmirrors]

It will have cosmetics for sure, which I don't mind at all.

Obviously nobody knows, but I would be extremely surprised if it had anything even close to DI level MTX.

[Nymrohd]

Poe microtransactions don't include gear/power ups. Basing on Diablo: Immortal we can safely assume that D4 will have power ups available in shop.

Really? Based on a F2P mobile game you can safely assume a B2P PC game will have p2w elements?

- - - Updated - - -

Was marketed, until they decided it was also going to be a PC game.

If you've played it, you'd know it's not even a port. It's emulation. They just decided to let people play it on PC through their platform instead of Bluestacks or whatever people are using. So no, it's not a PC game.

[Toby451]

Most people have come to accept MTX is the new norm. Its not leaving so adapt or find a new hobby.



However, MTX does not mean P2W. If someone wants to drop 60 dollars on a flashy Transmog set, more power to them. Just keep the P2W shit in the Mobile genre and im happy.