The earlier post outlining a lot of the flaws I see in Diablo 3 was a bit pessimistic and was written after dying repeatedly to ridiculous combination of elite packs in Act 2 Inferno. Now that I’ve had time to step back and get perspective on the subject I think I can definitively say I am still VERY optimistic about the future of D3 despite any perceived faults in the game currently.
Here’s a video I made talking about the subject if you’d rather watch instead of read.
1) The game has only been out for ten days!
We as gamers tend to get tunnel vision when it comes to games and forget to see the big picture. D3 has only been out for ten days! Give it some time for the devs to really balance the game.
Remember how frustrating “error 37” was on launch day? And it felt like literally the end of the world? Well, ten days later, that’s all fixed, and thoughts of the frustrations of error 37 don’t even cross our minds anymore.
I think this will be the same with Inferno difficulty tuning. Once the dev team implements some tuning to the scaling difficulty between Acts in Inferno we won’t even think about the time when a pack of elite wasps would totally ruin your day.
Remember WoW at launch? Here’s what I remember…
- No battlegrounds or honor system.
- Lag was horrendous and players were actually credited with several days of play time because of all the server outages.
- Balance was kind of terrible in some cases. My Rogue used the barman’s shanker and could 2-3 shot clothies. I loved it. I’m sure it wasn’t nearly as much fun for them.
- No looking for dungeon tool
I could go on and on. So let’s not be too quick to judge Diablo 3 based on the first ten days of gameplay.
And we also have to consider that people don’t really know how to even play the game yet! I know I’m finding new builds everyday and new tactics for different mobs. Finding different gear to be much more helpful than I originally considered as well. So give it time, people will gear up, and learn to use more optimal builds and the difficulty curve should lower noticeably.
Bashiok, a community manager working for Blizzard posted these two comments on their forums in this thread
Bashiok wrote: We are actually looking at Revenge, but I was … attempting to be funny. I apologize. I realize it’s serious business, but I’m trying not to allow my soul to be crushed by exclamations that Legendary items and class balance are the end of the world and will never be fixed and the game is simply the worst thing ever excreted by humans. I humbly recommend a healthy dose of chillaxification, but I understand some people take that as an act of dismissal.
Quote by a forum user “The game is still very young, and it’s an amazing game (as most will agree.) But there does have to be some changes in the way classes play out. We were promised various viable builds for customization, but it seems like everyone is following 1 person’s build just so they can survive past Act 2 Inferno.”
Bashiok replied: Absolutely! That’s the problem exactly. These outlying OP skills need to be handled before we can pinpoint any content adjustments we need to make for the difficulty to feel a bit better, fight the need to kite everything which is killing melee’s souls, address items, like, we understand and are working on all of these things. We’re going to be working on and supporting this game for years to come, two weeks out, sure it’s probably going to need some sanding. Bear with us. We love you.
These posts give the impression that they are actively working on balancing the game especially for melee characters, and addressing itemization issues.
2) Humans focus on problems and ignore positives
This is an evolutionary development. In the caveman days if you didn’t pay attention to the dangers and problems in the world, you’d end up as dinner for the T-rex neighbor(cause let’s be serious, we all know man and dinosaurs lived together six thousand years ago, that’s just science).
This development of evolution carries over to us even in video games. If I really step back and look at the game as a whole I should see that
- I’ve been kept pretty damn entertained for over 100 hours and still feel compelled to play.
- There is a ton of content still to discover.
- Playing alts can make the game feel fresh and new again.
So let’s all step back, take a few deep breaths, and see D3 from the larger perspective. That of a fun and compelling game with huge potential.
3) It’s in Blizzard’s financial interests to FIX the issues and LISTEN to their playerbase
You might think, “well Blizzard already has my $60, why do they care if they improve the game or not?”
I’ll tell you why!(Say this in your head with Mr. T’s voice)
- There’s hundreds of millions of dollars up for grabs with the Real Money Auction House. There’s been quite a bit of grumbling over Blizzard’s acquisition by Activision and what’s seen as a move away from quality gameplay and more toward a model of rake in as much cash as you possibly can. Well… in this instance, this negative might actually result in a positive. Namely Blizzard using their tremendous resources to fix and balance the game in a timely fashion.
- So if Blizzard wants to keep people playing and keep them spending money in the RMAH, they will have to make the changes necessary to keep the game compelling and interesting for the large majority of the playerbase.
- From my quick calculations(I have my degree in Accounting, so these are AMAZING calculations) Blizzard stands to make $420,000,000 from an expansion if they can retain their current D3 playerbase.
- Who wants to bet that Blizzard will be willing to invest a few million into fixing and balancing the game when the potential payoff is $420 million in future revenue from ONE expansion?
There you have it. This is why I am still very optimistic about D3.
In the meantime if you’re just finding the game too frustrating/difficult here’s a few tips:
- Farm the highest level difficulty that you can easily farm to get gold and items to sell on the AH, then buy gear upgrades.
- Find good players to play with. Co-op is IMO 3-4x easier to progress through than single player.
- Make alts! If you have 2-3 level 60’s when Blizzard tunes the game you’ll be in a great position to capitalize on the best builds and the best characters to dominate Inferno.
- Watch my youtube video guides at http://www.youtube.com/user/HappyJacksChannel and learn how to play better 🙂
I want to end this post by telling you that your thoughts dictate your reality. And your mind can only hold one thought at a time. If you get frustrated when you play D3 simple start thinking the thought “I’m happy and having fun”. It sounds really goofy but it works! You literally can’t hold two conflicting thoughts at the same time!
Stay healthy, stay active, reach your goals both in-game and in real life. Remember Diablo will still be here next month if you neglect it, but YOU may not be here next month if you neglect your health.