I’m in the camp of “I think the game is fine, and I’m having a freaking blast with it.”

However, this is some straight up Bullshit.

This article makes me so sad. Blizzard is my favorite game developer (other than maybe Square Enix). Diablo II was the first PC game I ever owned, I put over 3000 hours into WoW and I have a couple thousand in HotS (which I still play semi regularly). Even though you say Activision’s influence can be subtle I don’t…

Man what an article. A lot of work went into it am sure.

Let’s not hyperbolize Diablo 2. There was no “fear about what was hiding behind each door”. There were no “impactful skill choices”. The only thing impactful about the skills was finding out too late you invested too heavily into a skill that scaled horribly because the dev team knew nothing about how REAL RPG stats…

You said that Diablo’s biggest quality was that fighting against the hordes of evil shouldn’t be easy. And it’s just hard to take you seriously about caring about difficulty if you only played the easiest difficulty

It just comes off like you care about difficulty in Diablo, but then chose to avoid anything difficult in the game. I mean, Diablo 2 wasn’t difficult on the base difficulty either, you had to beat the game a couple times before the difficulty ramped up.  Judging D3’s difficulty without touching Reaper of Souls is…

Ok, but I think it would still be perfectly accurate to say that Activision ruined Blizzard over a long period of time. Diablo Immortal (and the numerous other mobile games in development) is just the latest example.

Wow, a Warcraft mobile game too.  China-driven and money-driven doesn’t roll off the tongue quite the same as developer-driven.  But at least they have cool project names...right?

I cleared normal in Diablo 2 without any difficulty, it wasn’t hard.  What’s the highest greater rift you’ve cleared in Reaper of Souls, and what was your time?

The intricacies of how idiotic corporations can be are so interesting. Really interesting article. We live in this unbearable culture of profit margins and BS and it’s just so pathetic. Like - how stupid and greedy do you have to be to take one of the most successful gaming teams in the world and say “you’re not doing…

Cultural shifts aren’t always blatant. Anyone who’s worked for a major corporation can attest to the invisible pressures that can emerge over time.

it still surprises me how poorly some people received Diablo 3 and haven’t touched it since Blizz reversed course on a lot of things (specifically the RMAH)  It’s in a much better state now but i understand why fans of the 2 would not enjoy 3 as much.

Good read again, enjoying the real journalism.

I don’t play Diablo or other ARPGs thinking how I want an over-the-shoulder view. What the hell? I get that from Warframe but that’s not what I want out of a Diablo game. 

This exactly! I wasn’t looking stuff up online much during Diablo 2 so when I hit the third difficulty I was hosed because I hadn’t specced my assassin in to traps forty levels ago! No one wants to give up all that progress. Being able to respec on the fly to fit whatever gear and bonuses I have was one of the best…

I really doubt you put in “hundreds of hours” into D2 because of “the world, the story...”. The story is important for context, as you need context for the actions you’re performing, but it’s the loot-based gameplay loop that keeps players around. I’ll admit the atmosphere in D2 was better.  But if they move too far…

I personally like Diablo 3’s approach in most regards. The ability to quickly respec without needing to reroll for instance is something I appreciated immediately. Theory crafters might miss not needing to make a new character every time you want to make a change, but I’ve always believed that theory crafters make…

I was annoyed ....and no matter if some people say its “entitlement “ or “overeacting” I have a real fear that gaming will go into a different direction, say the mobile Diablo game does well....Blizzard may put more resources into mobile games and possibly worse the money making stuff may then start to creep into the…

This is definitely an interesting subject. No one stays on top forever, the question is this a rebuilding time for Blizzard or is this the sign of a steady decline?

I just saw a youtube video the other day that talked about how a lot of Blizzard vets were leaving the company due to a bonus scale restructuring and a…

Nay I say.