Board 8 > Diablo 3 just got a new class.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Mac Arrowny posted...

The backlash would be tiny. Look at Team Fortress 2.

This. Turns out people enjoy having a community more than getting to be the only funhavers.
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people are already paying insignificant amounts of money for what most of us paid for D3.

Besides that any early adopter got their moneys worth off the RMAH. Game paid for itself.
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Honestly I think you could make backlash like nil if you made Diablo 3 freemium but gave everyone who actually had the game most of the retail value of their purchases in freemium credit
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Is it really $15 for just one class or does it have more stuff?
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D3's sales mean nothing. Blizzard ruined the franchise, and such things aren't felt until the next game in a series.

My review lays out the D3 failure very well: https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/930659-diablo-iii/reviews/151408
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I imagine that they didn't really build monetization into Diablo III outside of the RMAH. 15 seems like a poor value but then again if they added microtransactions for less value, the average might be about that much? And it's $15 for a 5 year old game to have a new character class, so take that into account.

So I would say, it doesn't seem like great value, but it's a reasonable price?

They come up with new content speed bumps and stuff like that Tristram deal, all free of charge. I've spent about $300 on diablo games over the past 2 decades and have played each game thousands of hours.

path of exile is also good
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Path of Exile seems like a game I should like more-- something about the gameplay just isn't satisfying for me. Like Diablo 2 and 3 carving through hordes of dudes is just fun in and of itself whereas in POE it almost feels like work in a way. I think there just might be a bit too many steps in setting your skills up. Like all the POE skills are kinda boring unless you modify them with modifier gems, but to do that you need the skill gem, the modifier gem, a piece of equipment that has the gem colors linked in the certain way. And then that needs to be in gear you're using too so you constantly need to be updating your gear with the gems slots in that specific combination you need.

Diablo games it's just one skill, and in D3, one rune, and you generally get a more fun to use skill than you would without the most elaborate skill gem combo in PoE.

To me the solution to "there's no point to playing Diablo 3 much" isn't "play Path of Exile" in any case. Tried it and couldn't get into it. I appreciate what it's doing but yeah I'd really like Diablo 3 to actually have support.
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BowserCuffs posted...

I've seen other games try this. It doesn't work that well. At best, they're still angry over people getting to play without paying for the game. At worst, they feel insulted for it.

Where was the fan backlash over Guild Wars 2, The Old Republic, Team Fortress 2, Awesomenauts, Lord of the Rings Online, EVE Online, TERA, City of Heroes?
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There was plenty of hate aimed at TOR and its sorry excuse for f2p.

Leafeon13N posted...

There was plenty of hate aimed at TOR and its sorry excuse for f2p.

Really? I've heard a lot of good things about it.

I played at launch for about 6 months and haven't tried the f2p myself, though.
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CoolCly posted...

I LOVE Diablo 3. The base gameplay is EXCELLENT. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it's *better* than Path of Exile. All of the classes are cool and fun to play. The unique mobs were all well designed with varying abilities that made them fun to fight. There's lots of great zones to play through.

I agree on all of this. Path of Exile has very cool customization and builds, but in terms of actually playing, I like Diablo 3 a lot more. The skills are a lot more fun/satisfying to use, and the enemies are more interesting (something like arcane enchanted >> "increased accuracy and physical damage").

iiicon posted...

BowserCuffs posted...

I've seen other games try this. It doesn't work that well. At best, they're still angry over people getting to play without paying for the game. At worst, they feel insulted for it.

Where was the fan backlash over Guild Wars 2, The Old Republic, Team Fortress 2, Awesomenauts, Lord of the Rings Online, EVE Online, TERA, City of Heroes?

You have a point, but I think the Diablo 3 fanbase is especially touchy. All the people who were flipping out over the auction house would re-flip out over microtransactions in a F2P model.
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In any case, it seems clear that Blizzard intended another expansion pack for D3 and canned it, if the big hanging plot threads at the end of RoS are any indication.
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Gatarix posted...

All the people who were flipping out over the auction house would re-flip out over microtransactions in a F2P model.

The bulk of Diablo 3 sales - ~12 million - came in the period after the initial launch hype wore down, and the end of the real money auction house. With the end of the RMAH and addition of Reaper of Souls, Diablo added another 10 million in sales. I don't think Diablo fans are as fickle as you claim, nor do I think there would be any backlash over a business model used by the most popular PC games
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RMAH wasn't even that big of an uproar. It would have been fine long term. The problem was that the entire loot system was awful so you couldn't find good gear yourself, you had to go to the gold or RM auction houses which felt terrible. they decided to dump the AH entirely, and that meant getting rid of the RMAH too, but it wasnt because of huge backlash about the RMAH itself.
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Can you still trade items like you could in D2?
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ClyTheCool posted...

RMAH wasn't even that big of an uproar.

This is factually wrong. People complained about both this and drop rates so much that the original director quit, and the identify animation got meme'd in a video. RMAH was a complete mess and there is zero defense for it.
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No, they went from being an extremely fluid market were you could buy and sell stuff to anybody via the auction houses but with extremely shitty drops to balance how easy trading would be, to a completely bind on pickup loot system where you constantly find drops and outfit yourself.


The current system is MUCH MUCH better than the original launch system. But it still leaves a lot to be desired. I like the bartering and trade system D2 had, and PoE has really perfected that with the orb based economy.

I think the bind on pick up system D3 currently uses could be fine though.. earning all your gear yourself is fun and very satisfying in its own way. But it really needs to be improved so you can work towards specific gear goals in different ways.
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Were you actually on the Blizzard D3 forum at launch? Maybe 2% of people were defending the auction house. I remember this stuff like it was yesterday and it's in my review for a reason. The entire thing was a colossal failure.
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Ulti's the kind of person who looks at a forum with 100 trolls and thinks it's representative of the whole population
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The original d3 loot system was awful. You had to spend hours hoping for a drop you might be able to sell so you could afford gear that would be useful for yourself. There was no sense of self progression. Not to mention how much most legendaries were anything but. You were basically farming the game for a strangers benefit.

And the only way to do it reliably was with a demon hunter rune glitch.
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The only thing to do in the game as most classes was to farm the warden all day.

ClyTheCool posted...

I like the bartering and trade system D2 had

Actually, D2's economy is one of the things I hate about that game.

Having only two skill slots is another thing I hate.

I'll still play it though.
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I didn't mind the auction house, but I like the game better now.
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I've honestly heard good things about Diablo 3 from most people who aren't still holding a grudge over how it was when it was first released.

And even one friend who doesn't like the game even in its current state told me that I'd probably enjoy it.

I just don't really feel like spending money right now.
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UltiWasRight posted...

Were you actually on the Blizzard D3 forum at launch? Maybe 2% of people were defending the auction house. I remember this stuff like it was yesterday and it's in my review for a reason. The entire thing was a colossal failure.

That's also about the percentage of people in society who aren't idiots so....
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having messed around with necromancer for a bit I can confirm that corpse explosion is indeed dope.
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D2 economy was the real game. The early game (beating the story through Hell) was great though. I think that's the big difference. D3's early game isn't (wasn't) that great, so even if the end game economy gameplay was great (which it wasn't), you wouldn't get to it anyways.
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foolm0r0n posted...

D2 economy was the real game.

That's boring.
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Sure, if you somehow think virtual economies run by twelve year olds are boring
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foolm0r0n posted...

D2 economy was the real game. The early game (beating the story through Hell) was great though. I think that's the big difference. D3's early game isn't (wasn't) that great, so even if the end game economy gameplay was great (which it wasn't), you wouldn't get to it anyways.

Yeah it's all about getting the best equipment since maxing out a character/completing hell wasn't that hard
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foolm0r0n posted...

Sure, if you somehow think virtual economies run by twelve year olds are boring

When you put it like that it sounds even more boring.
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Also the only real problem with Necro is I find myself just defaulting to the basics a ton. Just seems like Spikes/Spear/Corpse Explosion/Skeletons/Decripify is the best setup, though I assume with later runes my opinion might change a ton
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VeryInsane posted...

Also the only real problem with Necro is I find myself just defaulting to the basics a ton. Just seems like Spikes/Spear/Corpse Explosion/Skeletons/Decripify is the best setup, though I assume with later runes my opinion might change a ton

That's pretty much what I'm doing still and just hit 60. Haven't tried simulacrum. Although I swapped out decrepify for the "kill at 85%" curse with the aura rune and the curse lasts forever passive. Will likely try different stuff at max level when it's easier to compare effectiveness and I start getting skill boosting gear.
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Is the D3 necromancer at all similar to the witch doctor since they summon and poison?
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It sounds like how the Amazon is similar to the Rogue in that they both use bows.
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I don't even know that it's fair to compare D1 classes to later ones since they predate skills and the only real difference is the amount of each stat you can get.

I just played a Warrior and smashed my way through everything.
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OK it's like how the demon hunter is similar to the amazon because they both use bows
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