Dades wrote on Jul 10, 2012, 17:07:
eunichron wrote on Jul 10, 2012, 16:41:
It's like Diablo 3 tried to take the genre a few steps forward (whether they succeeded or failed is purely subjective),
Where did Diablo III try to take the genre forward? It has less features than its predecessor and please don't play the streamlining card. All that Diablo III accomplished was rubberstamping real money transactions for the industry as a whole. I can't think of anything else it brought the genre in terms of innovations. Most of the other gameplay concepts came from other games. The online functionality has been a nuisance as much as its been helpful.
How is streamlining not a valid card to play? It puts more focus on the action, and less on whether or not you have built your character correctly. As much as people like to claim that Diablo 2/LoD had more character customization, no one likes to talk about how their first few characters were totally useless because they put a skill point or stat point in the wrong ability or stat. The truth of the matter is there are just as many, if not more, skill combinations in Diablo 3 than there is in Diablo 2, and it is less punishing on players who make the wrong, or less optimal, decision. Whether you believe it or not there are a multitude of builds that are successful in Diablo 3, including melee wizards, ranged barbarians... hell I've even seen people mess around with melee demon hunters to some degree of success. Just because you choose to believe that Diablo 3 somehow has less customization in the name of streamlining does not make it true. It took the focus off of potion chugging (which PoE and TL2 are still grasping onto for whatever reason). Potion chugging sucks. I hated it in Diablo 1 & 2, I still hate it now.
As for the "end game" (I mean, really? Who the fuck talks about end game in an ARPG? It's an item hunt graphical Skinner box, nothing more, it doesn't
need end game), the item hunt worked well enough for Diablo 2 for 8 or 9 years. It wasn't until patch 1.13 that they added the Uber Tristram event... in 2010. That could be construed as a lapse of judgment on Blizzard's part, but the game is not even two months old yet, there's still time for them to add content either through DLC, an expansion, or patch as Blizzard is wont to do.
As I said, whether or not their design choices were successful is purely subjective. They could have played it safe and made another Diablo 2 clone as Runic and Grinding Gear have opted to do, but then I'm sure if that was the case these forums wouldn't be full of people bitching about how the game is just Diablo 2 in 3D (that was sarcasm in case you didn't catch it). Oh wait, since you guys seem completely content with TL2 and PoE, maybe all you do want is Diablo 2 in 3D?