Not a peeve as such, more looming existential dread but;
There’s a band playing in the park 5 minutes from my house, and I’m walking all by myself through a mass of chattering friends and happy couples, all to go home and sit in complete silence preparing for next week at work
I look the narrator of my life right in the eye, and he simply replies;
“if only you knew how alone you really were, Garfield…”
I honestly think that will not happen. It didn’t with D2R, nor with D3 (in fact, AH for real money was removed from D3), and D4 looks like just basic transmog shop, which, I mean, is whatever.
They will not make it P2W as it was with Immortal, I truly believe it will exist only in that game as it is still making money to the company, whilst they will try to “repair” their reputation with D4.
Because, I guess, even they realize that this would be sacrilege.
AH was a big, but not the only problem the game had. What the game turned into for the sake of player retention is, imo, not a good thing. It also didn’t have the dedicated cash shop and battle passes, which d4 has (battle pass coming a bit later), immediately setting some expectations. I think it’s okay for the game to be “finished”, but that would go against live service bs philosophy.
Hot take (maybe?), but p2w isn’t the only bad thing about microtransactions. Perhaps it’s my boomer sensibilities, but I’d rather it was buy to play + an expansion or 2 later down the line. Adding a cosmetic cash shop in a game where collecting powerful and good looking loot is one of the main points (hence the looter rpg and looter shooters that spawned from it) is antithetical. I could stomach it better if the cash shop stuff was also earnable in game, I suppose.
Well, typically once a game stops making money, companies double down on the cash shop.
I truly hope you’re right, but given the company in question and general direction the industry is going in full speed, I can’t help but stay noided.
Horse Armor is only the beginning. Next watch them release a game four more times and make you pay full price for it. The Remaster. The Special Edition. The Legendary Edition. And of course the VR edition.