Poll of the Day > Season and Ladders in games, in a way, hinder me playing a game.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Right now I kinda wanna get into Diablo3 again but I know that depending on how late in the current season it is(haven't looked), I may not play it.

I mean whats the point of getting into a game again that is geared towards wanting to play the current season/ladder and finding it resets in a couple of weeks or something.

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A new season began yesterday, apparently. That's rather good timing on your part.

I get what you mean, though. While off-season play can still be perfectly enjoyable, the notion of a season ending soon does dissuade me from picking up a game until the new one rolls around, since they're offering an incentive that will make the game more interesting if I wait.

From the developer side, though, I can see the benefit. You're ultimately going to end up with fewer people getting back into the game at any given moment because some of those people that opted to wait will move on to other stuff, but those who do get back into it will all be starting around the same time. That means you've got more concurrent players, which translates to a more active community (both in terms of multiplayer and in terms of online discussion), which makes the game more attractive to people who are on the fence about buying it. I haven't seen detailed stats, by any means, but I suspect sales/account creations for games like this see a small boost for roughly a month or so after a new season starts (which means I doubt it's a coincidence that this one has started right before Black Friday).

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