Worst case disaster? Judging by my friends

General Discussion PC
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(The following is just my opinion, and yes I’m still a bit angry, but I feel my opinion holds weight as I and my friends are of the Significant primary age group playing this game, 31-40 year olds, have been playing games since the age of 3 and Diablo games since release for every instalment and have been watching gaming trends for my whole life… I don’t care about the replies to this post, I simply wanted to express my opinion, take it or leave it :slight_smile: I’ve tried my best to keep this wall of text structured but it’s not perfect, sorry).

So how are the Diablo 4 numbers looking I wonder? So many openly quitting the game on the forum every day, quite angry! Myself complaining about a game for the first time in my life! 95% of my friends quitting. How many people silently put the game down without a fuss for every forum post? Ice-Burned by Bliz? Never to be conned again. (Not the best business model), Diablo 4 needed a few more years in development, they’ve jumped the gun.

Judging by the behaviour of my friends I think we are looking at worst case scenario. We will never know because you can bet Bliz will never release stats for this game, if they were good they’d have reported them already. (Still waiting)

All they have to boast about is the first week of sales (Blind-purchases). Where is the first month celebration? The billions of hours played in the game? Average hours played? Not so good?.. Nothing! The silence is deafening… worse than Diablo 3 I’m betting… ignorance is part of their marketing strategy, I’m sure. I expect more data from a game in 2023.

At least in Diablo 3 we had the grouping feature “Available group games: Zero” across the board at the end, it was obviously dead, compared to hundreds (Maybe even thousands?) of open games in its hay-day, it felt good playing a game that you knew a lot of people were playing! It felt so much more social, it felt very popular and that felt good! Diablo 4 has no way of telling, no official stats, no multiplayer, it mostly feels dead and empty… you may be on the last world with the last 10 people for all you know.

(Except for in Helltides, where you want the whole place to yourself but are constantly finding empty space due to others clearing ahead of you).

Anyway… I feel that generally ARPGs are short lived these days, the genre is dying, younger people are turning up their noses, players my age are getting to an age where they stop playing games so much (And we are the majority), player numbers across so many games have dropped off a cliff, Diablo 3 included (15,000 in the final year was it?), the hype is over, we need new innovative and fun ideas for the ARPG genre for all games (But especially Diablo as it is the AAA Game!!!). It seems they have all copied each other just a little bit, resulting in the genre evolving very very slowly.

A lot of people had high hopes for Diablo 4 and from the looks of things a lot of people are very disappointed.

Personally I think it:
Lacks complexity.
There is not much to do beyond the campaign so it gets repetitive Fast.
The campaign is too short.
And too easy. (At the hardest difficulty setting).
The loot system… too unrewarding.
Not wanting to start from scratch every 3 months just to be able to experience new content (such as “The Malignant” theme), punishing casual players.

I don’t think many D3/PoE/Lost Ark (etc) people have it in them for another 10 years of the same thing as the previous 10 years, only worse some how (Diablo 4 has taken a major step backwards, sorry for all the negativity).

I do think games like PoE2 will flop in equal disaster. But maybe they will surprise us with something new and fun! Diablo 4 certainly didn’t (Oh god I can’t stop!).

Is the new generation into games like Diablo 4? A Reddit poll says no, not at all, 31-40 year olds playing this game outnumber 0-20 year olds by 30 times, six times more than 21-30 year olds, and then it drops right off after 31-40, which is me and my friends age group and it does not look good judging by the activity of my friends. Bliz needs to work to retain its 31-40 year olds because they aren’t being replaced!

Sure, that is all speculation and projection (My informed opinion) but I’ve got a long list of gamer friends that I play various different games with but we’ve all gone off gaming like we used to, going for more unique games, retro, pixilated, none of it matters as long as they have CONTENT! All have tried Diablo 4, all are disappointed, 5% of them lasted more than 2 weeks.

Sort it out Bliz! Or is it Microsoft now? Fire and re-hire :wink:

To anyone wishing to contribute to this topic please provide statistics / data that will enlighten me (No, Google Trends does not count).

Good luck Diablo 5, you’ll need it!

Guess we will wait for Season 1 and the Livestream shortly after with sullen looks saying “We are listening to feedback!!!” then totally missing the mark for the next 10 years.

I don’t want the genre to die! :frowning: I want it to evolve! Nobody who plays these kinds of games pays that much money for a game they are expecting to play for less than 2 weeks. So many of us were so hyped about this game! It’s such a shame.

Incoming NIDCLXVI “Nothing but a page of drivel”, being unable to accept that they are not the only one with decades of experience in the gaming industry.

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Oh jeez I wrote a second post almost half the size of this one but decided not to post it, I could go on and on! … the campaign/storyline… (And I almost did!) but I’ve already covered that subject! Would like to see your rant some time :slight_smile:

I think he might have just gone to sleep, so we’ve got an hour before he’s back ;p

Yeah I’m especially peeved that they continue to only release new (fun?) content for seasonal players. I might want to do one or two seasons one day but generally would prefer the option of enjoying new content on a character that may take me a year to hit level 100. (Slowly = no burn out). It’s a shame that they are so wedded to seasonal tunnel-vision.

(I’m not asking for the seasonal buffs to stay, resulting in a super-OP character by season 20), just the seasonal content to be released to Eternal (Give players a choice in case they want to play the basic game with no changes).

But also end-game content is a big one, Malignant is not gonna do it for me, gimme more varied tasks to do! Even if it does not offer greater rewards than the current content! Just stuff, different stuff to do.

Edit: And world tier 4 for the campaign for a proper challenge.

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I think my rant might honestly offend everyone in the forum :joy::joy:

After hitting 100 on a character before the EXP patch, and then hitting 100 on a different character, being told the game isnt for me cause im too hardcore whilst simultaneously being called a casual cause I dont find the idea of hitting 100 on a new character (seasons) appealing, Im dumbfounded.

Is what it is, ill play the season and thrash out a few characters to 100 - not ‘against’ seasons, more so appalled at how constricted it all is…

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I envy you :smiling_face_with_tear: only made it to 73 on one character! Near the end it took me 4 days to get from 72 to 73 hehe… log on, move 5 feet, log off…

That was before the XP patch, but XP was not the major issue for me :frowning:

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Yeah, met a lot of people and ran high level nightmares quickly.

I understand peoples qualms with no queue finding tool, but personally I didnt have any issue - Simply whispering randoms, or inviting randoms to party was a simple ice-breaker.

Its surprising to hear so many people havent reached 100 yet, as I feel I did it ‘relatively’ slow. I have so much footage of me just standing in cities whilst joking around in discord calls with the new people I had met along the way.

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I quit weeks ago :slight_smile: I’d say I played for around 14 days then idled for another 4 and that was it, the burn out was so fast, did 10 NM dungeons, 1 over 50 and that was enough. Judging by how long I’ve played other games since I left I expect I only played for around 60 hours, perhaps less! Which is a good 30hours short from my “good game” criteria!

Sadly the campaign was over before I could blink and that really threw me off balance.

I’m sure I’d have at least 1 level 100 had I stayed. Maybe even 2 :slight_smile: I did give every class a little try.

Thought I’d be playing for a few months at least! Turns out I’d rather watch TV, talk on a forum and play no games rather than force myself to play it more haha… attempting to find a new game as we speak.

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Yeah, I wouldnt force the level 100. Being greenhorn to the Diablo franchise, I did purely cause I kept thinking “Surely this isnt what kept the community so active for so long”. Then did it again on a separate character to see if the results were replicable - carbon copy.

D4 also killed my ambition, where I would rather do anything else.

Fingers crossed something drastic changes, but like you said, game definitely needed more development…

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I think this is partly the reason why alot of people are complaining.
Yes alot of people didnt know about the seasonal style of arpg’s, but alot do.
We know how it works. But do we like it?
I think most would say no (im sure there is some yes sayers thou).
And thats the thing.
We have been playing arpg’s with seasons for years and years, and we have been doing it because we dont have any other option.
No other game company have been innovative enough to come up with a different system, something fresh.

Many people had their hopes that Blizzard would be that company. But no, Blizzard has just become another copy and paste company at this point and not the future creative one we used to know.

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Thank you for your comment, it really added to the point / feel of this thread, agreed on all you said/added, I appreciate it :slight_smile: You’ve filled in the blanks! It has been a good discussion in my mind :slight_smile: a nice little vent with contributions from all.

Thankfully not made into 100+ inane comments by a certain someone (yet), (although he does have his entertainment value, he’s grown on me… like a fungus… but grown none the less).

Maybe he is the voice of Blizzard? (There’s no other voice) Allowed to spam comments on every single post, 1,400 posts, a good example of how out of touch they are?

Hehe yes I must admit I’m almost looking as forward to the backlash to season 1 as anticipation of the game before release ;p I’ll wish Diablo 4 great success, get some popcorn, just stay quiet at that point the peak of hate comments ;p

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Just wanted to post that i have similar thoughts, arpg formula is outdated. I was expecting more innovation from D4. I thought that maybe they did cut a lot of content to include it in season 1 but nope. Formula was great in 2000 but it doesn’t mean it should be a golden standard for modern games. If that was the case then everyone would still play tetris.
Also people should realize that players which grinded D2 for years were a tiny fraction of all players even back then

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I can only say that nobody will be interested in this in a few months / years.

Blizzard simply designed the whole thing for a long time. Decreasing and increasing numbers of players are certainly planned there.

The forum has been flooded with a lot of howling every day for decades… unfortunately everyone is used to that. But that also means that nobody cares.

Personally, I’m not that disappointed with the game.
I didn’t let streamers or YTer drive me crazy and I’m almost 1 week before season 1 release soon lvl 100 with my 1 char. Haven’t played a meta/imba build.
So I’m right on Blizzard’s planned timing. Have no problems with the season system because I’m used to it from D3. I’ll just pull up a 2nd char there and therefore have no problems with the new leveling!

Of course the game could use more content but the basic “Hack&Slay” is totally there. It doesn’t matter to me whether I do it “there” or “there”.
I didn’t expect anything else from a Diablo.

My friends list is still full of people who have been playing every day since release. They didn’t expect (and got) anything more than killing the normal monster.

Expectation is the problem. Instead of seeing what you have, you just want more.
I’m just humble and happy with what we got. Seasons are just a bonus for me and if the content is not great I don’t care because I get THAT (Hack & Slay)!

Therefore, as always, to all those who are dissatisfied:
Go play something else!
Diablo 4 has already offered you more than the games of the last few years. These were (according to the streamer) always boring after 1 or 2 weeks etc…

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Sadly I cannot be bothered to play anything else at the moment, the disappointment from Diablo 4 has killed my love of games temporarily. This smell might linger for a while longer… sorry.

I can clearly see what we have and I most certainly want more! I don’t think it’s asking for much to have a game 10 years in the works contain more content than its predecessor… from launch.

But I’d even settle for them simply offering new content to Eternal realms rather than just seasonal. It would hurt nobody.

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Nah man, a game which existed that long and had that many updates always has more content.
That’s really not the issue…
The issue is that this game doesn’t have any endgame content at all… except Lilith which the majority wont be able to kill anyway.

Most new MMORPGS really don’t have that many dungeons/endgame content either…
But, they still a hell of a lot more fun at launch than diablo 4…
At least you can farm gold there to get ready for the next patch…
Or do some pvp, help friends/your clan to farm gear and get strong/ready for upcoming dungeons/raids etc…
There is no reason for any of this in Diablo 4,.

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Felt the same way but then I remember that D2 will always be there. Booted it up and have been having a blast for the past 2 weeks. Maybe give it a try again? The feeling of a lucky drop is something that no other aprg will ever match imo and it just might be the thing to snap you out of this dissapointment.

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True. Lets pray they open D2R up for mods. Unlikely but this would be awesome!
Imagine d2 loot + lost ark combat and dungeons/bosses/world bosses + PoE mapsystem + D4 graphics. IMAAAGIIINEEE omg

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I think that Blizzard doesn’t care about what we write here and to our opinion

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It is actually bad time to make judgments with player activity numbers. A lot even myself dont play often anymore as i got bored knowing season 1 is coming soon. Second reason is stash space. I dont have any room left to save best aspects for 3 classes. Even mules are full and 10 char slots. So i cant play if i wanted unless i clear all stashes and loose well rolled items.

Second thing is we can come back to active numbers after season 1 has been live for at least 2-3 weeks. Then we can tell if D4 changes and season 1 is good enough to keep at least some healthy amount of players for season 2. Season 2 battle passes have to be bought so that will tell how many will stick around (S1 pass was included for many preorders).
The Microsoft take over can also affect in some way Diablo4 franchise. So this will also create uncertainty.

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This will be the day of hate. 100000% forums will explode. Cant wait!

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2-3 weeks into Season 1 the game will be as dead as it is right now. Even more so maybe when people figure out how little actually has been added to the season.

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Well its bound to happen ether way. A lot still dislike season mechanic but it has been part of Diablo franchise long time. I’m curious about the actual new content and end-game after season1. Because i know already season 1 wont be as good many think. They didnt have enough time to change that was already done before game was released.