Diablo III

[Mozi]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/06/20/wo...d-by-blizzard/

[Kantham]

Yep, not Korean. There's a minority of people who actually consume this game on a irregular basis (let's say, 16 hours daily?), and Kripp is particularly one of them. "I can't yell right now because people are sleeping" sigh.

Anyway, Korea doesn't have much attention to this game AFAIK, they even banned the entire auction house.

[TWD]

Originally Posted by SlayerDragon

Level 56 Monk in Hell Difficulty, just wrapped up Act 1 after much effort. I have a pretty defensive build right now, but for the first time I am using a staff because of the unreal DPS boost it gave me, and only a slight drop in armor from the claw+shield I was using.

I've never found the staff to be worth it. Life per hit and speed is far more important. You can really tank it if you have high life per hit and keep your speed up. Unless we're talking about something like 30% more DPS, it's not worth it. The same goes for critical hit chance. If you have a high critical hit chance using Way of Hundred Fists + Blazing fists, and Sweeping Wind + Cyclone are practically unstoppable. You might still have problems with the special guys running around, but hordes won't be able to even phase you.

[Firefly]

The liquid rainbow just dropped for my HC monk

[d3tox]

Anyone still playing? (besides TWD lol)

After a month of farming Act 1 trying to beef up resists and armor to get my pets viable for act 2, I finally got rid of em to progress into the the game. I not only was able to walk thru Act 2, but was able to beat Belial and get into Act 3. I could even keep working thru Act 3 except the elites cause a bit too much of a problem, so I need just a bit more gear. GG Blizzard, it would have been nice to play with the skills I chose but oh well.

I hear they're looking at the pets for WD, but who knows when that'll happen...

[TWD]

The walls you run into are very frustrating. The idea was that you should be able to select skills that fit the way you want to play. It just doesn't work out that way. The only way I can get anywhere with my Monk is to stack up critical hit chance % and load up on buffs. I can buff my damage 50% if they're all active at once. Unfortunately that leaves no room for any anything else interesting.

Right now have to work on health as some of the elites are one hit killing me. I'm stuck at farming the second half of Act I in Hell difficulty. Part of my problem is probably that I'm doing it all on my own. Things seem to go a lot smoother if you have a party.

[Firefly]

What walls? Some skills are better suited to a style of play than others.
I'm still playing it and loving it. romping through act3, hell as a barb. Also got a hardcore monk but she's still in normal.
Some people take this game way too seriously but that's the blizz nerds for you.

[d3tox]

Once you hit inferno you'll see the walls. I didn't really notice them myself until I got that far. You have to turn over gear so many times just to advance, and then its a real possibility its your skill setup that's holding you back. I don't think a player should have to resort to the cookie cutter builds you see on blizz's forums just to make progress, but that's where this game is in inferno right now. Some of this can be attributed to skill setups needing tweaking, but I can attest to the fact that at least in the WD's case, a lot of the core skills for the class just aren't useful in inferno.

Even the gear system sucks IMO. I really think the loot system is gated by your character's stats, and as such, you don't get the opportunity to loot the really good stuff until its really not that much of an improvement. Of course, I can't prove this, it just seems to be my experience. At least I'm getting my $60 worth...

[TWD]

Well, it sounds like Blizzard knows the problems and wants to fix them. I can still progress right now, but I have to turn to the auction house.

[Kantham]

Remember guys, one of their lead designer said they didn't consider the auction house during the entire development/testing process. Because who the **** would want to buy constantly better/overpowered gear anyway? People want **** drops, it makes kiting more fun and exciting.

[shadow_dragon]

I remember them saying that it's existence effected how they set drop rates... What more consideration is required?

[Kantham]

I don't know how Blizzard will recover from this, especially if they somehow manage to screw up their first StarCraft II expansion.

[Sjosz]

Originally Posted by Kantham

I don't know how Blizzard will recover from this, especially if they somehow manage to screw up their first StarCraft II expansion.

What's to recover from? They built a game, millions of people bought it, they probably made some profit off it, and the RMAH probably trickles in some pocket change.
The game, by and large, functioned just fine. Everything leading up to endgame stuff in Inferno played fine, the classes play fine, they continually update. I mean, I'm done playing the game myself, but I don't really see many problems.

[Kantham]

I'm talking about reputation.

They've re-invented/innovated RTS/HnS in ~1998, and now they've "killed" HnS in 2012 over ~9 years of development?

My point is, they are known for being a work-hard innovative studio, but with 9-years-in-development ****s like Diablo 3, it makes many consumers and I look the other way around these days.

Will they fail? No
Will they still make profit? Yes

But it's not as profitable for them as it should really be with all the disappointment.

[Sjosz]

I suppose it doesn't really matter to a rabid internet community that smells betrayal or a lack of caring on the development team's part where there is none, but the thing with any development cycle, let alone a 9 year long one, is that it's a process of change.

They didn't decide 9 years ago how this game would end up. The gaming community changes across that period of time, and so do game design sensibilities. Take that into account, and then know that a process like game development is one that only the development team is privy to on a day-to-day basis, and you see how games evolve to be something placed in the current situation.
This sadly happens to a great many games, where everyone can sit back at the end of development and internet armchair criticize design decisions to hell and back and ask "how did they not see this?". Truth is though, that hindsight is 20/20, and when you're in development you simply try to make the best game you can, regardless of what it ends up being relative to whatever game came before it.

I still think Diablo 3 is a pretty great game. It's got some problems, and I know Blizzard are continually assessing and adjusting the game's balance to counter the problems they can tackle. The auction house playing the role it does is an unfortunate thing but I don't believe it's reasonable to start doubting the development team there for the way that has played out. As far as I'm concerned, they can still pull the auction house and the RMAH back on the rails, but they need to contain their economy a bit.

[SleepyHe4d]

Originally Posted by Kantham

Here Sleepy, have a smell at some freshly poop'ed-in boxers. Yes, the ones you're currently wearing.

Yes. You're mad.

Sigh... look who's mad now.

[Kantham]

Originally Posted by Sjosz

This sadly happens to a great many games, where everyone can sit back at the end of development and internet armchair criticize design decisions to hell and back and ask "how did they not see this?".

A major case of "how did they not see this?" indeed.

The Auction House, man. I appreciate their honesty (Admitting the bads), but that was bad. I'm sure someone said somewhere in development "Everyone will go to the Auction House to get new gear" but no one gave a flying frack about it.

Korea banned the market place all together. I know it's a governmental decision related to virtual item/gold farming, but it also solves the biggest flaw in this game. So good for them.

Originally Posted by Sjosz

I still think Diablo 3 is a pretty great game. It's got some problems, and I know Blizzard are continually assessing and adjusting the game's balance to counter the problems they can tackle.

Maybe they can resurrect D3, just maybe. I personally think they will not deliver a sufficient amount of content in the proper period of time to keep their players hooked. I paid $60 and I hope I'm wrong, somehow.

I don't hate on the gameplay of D3 (The hack and slash is fine), I just really despise what they've done with it over all the amount of budget/time they've had. I really can't figure out how they've ignored the most basic and obvious flaws.

I read a D3 designer quit some months before release. Hint or not, I can't keep my finger off of it.

Originally Posted by SleepyHe4d

Sigh... look who's mad now.

lol disappointed ish mad

[Sjosz]

Originally Posted by Kantham

A major case of "how did they not see this?" indeed.

The Auction House, man. I appreciate their honesty (Admitting the bads), but that was bad. I'm sure someone said somewhere in development "Everyone will go to the Auction House to get new gear" but no one gave a flying frack about it.

Korea banned the market place all together. I know it's a governmental decision related to virtual item/gold farming, but it also solves the biggest flaw in this game. So good for them.

I don't buy that for a second, that nobody cared about it. You should be in the thick of development of a game sometime, you'd be surprised at how much can really only be seen in hindsight.

Maybe they can resurrect D3, just maybe. I personally think they will not deliver a sufficient amount of content in the proper period of time to keep their players hooked. I paid $60 and I hope I'm wrong, somehow.

I don't hate on the gameplay of D3 (The hack and slash is fine), I just really despise what they've done with it over all the amount of budget/time they've had. I really can't figure out how they've ignored the most basic and obvious flaws.

I'd be very careful correlating total development time with what came out of it. Ultimately, they sit down and re-design something from scratch when something is not quite right to them (anecdotal evidence via speaking with a friend of a friend there). It's not like they've been at developing content for 8 years that just got kept in the game.

You're probably probably right about the influx of content, though. I'm already done with the game, I've spent a good 150 hours in it, which is a fine return on my investment, and as far as the game is concerned I'm okay with being done with it. Would've been nice to complete Inferno difficulty, but I really don't want to save up billions of gold to get gear good enough to get through Belial, Act 3 and 4.

I read a D3 designer quit some months before release. Hint or not, I can't keep my finger off of it.

And unless there is any news being mentioned there explicitly, you're engaging in pure speculation, which doesn't help anyone.

[Kantham]

Early 2012: http://www.lazygamer.net/xbox-360/di...me-coming-out/

http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1216986p1.html

Recently: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/top...0252286?page=1

[Sjosz]

My bad, when I said news, I meant actual information about what the reasons are behind those people leaving, not whether they left or not. People leave places all the time, for lots of different possible reasons. No point in speculating over something as harmless as a designer or a producer leaving a project/studio unless there is news indicating it happened over dubious reasons.