Interesting - when I stopped playing Diablo 3 a few years back they were starting to recruit for a new Diablo team - rumour at the time was a revamp of Diablo 2 but if people have been waiting since then for a new PC game I can see why they are somewhat disappointed.
Blizzards strange Blizzcon reveal
- Thread starter Bunkerkind Anni
- Start date
If they have to dumb it down for mobile, no thank you. PoE has become a rich, intense experience over years. The combat needs fast reactions and a few more controls that would be allowed by a touch screen... A mobile version, like Diablo here, would mean a completely separate, dumbed down game that's made on the cheap and include p2w micro transactions, which is the complete opposite of what PoE stands for...
Mobile games are quick and cheap to make, and their players will, opposed to those on certain other platforms, not usually complain when you start releasing microtransaction progression packs for 50€ a pop.
And Diablo 3 sucked harder than Torchlight.
And Diablo 3 sucked harder than Torchlight.
Mac has it right:
[video=youtube;hP0fk3x-1uk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP0fk3x-1uk[/video]
The only "dumbing down" required would be to keep the graphics low and not the mechanics.
If nothing else this thing has exposed which "games press" shills are in ActiBlizz's pocket. They are pushing the "entitled gamer" angle as damage control for their overlords. I don't like the entitlement attitude either but this is a bit different. Bottom line is those folks paid to go to BlizzCon, I think that entitles them at least to express their disappointment.
These are just always ALWAYS funny right? [haha]
[video=youtube_share;VJ-8LG4jARs]https://youtu.be/VJ-8LG4jARs[/video]
[video=youtube_share;VJ-8LG4jARs]https://youtu.be/VJ-8LG4jARs[/video]
To be fair, not all he talked about WoW was Blizzard's fault. It is nostalgic to look back and say that world was smaller, you can meet everybody, flying mounts killed it, etc. but to be fair, people demand quick travels, etc. in games these days. Casual gamers have way much things to compete for their attention. Also leveling stuff was unpopular as hell. Everybody wanted to get into Battlegrounds when they got to x9 lvl and then leave it for another 10 lvl upgrade. One shooting someone who is lower level is fun? Yes, but not at receiving end.
Said that, as always, devs can go smart way, and they can swing in one of completely opposite directions. Blizzard wanted more casual money and they pushed WoW in more casual direction. I am not totally sure flying mounts was issue. Not everybody wanted to do open world pvp. Not everybody is in emergent gameplay. Yes, I played WoW during classic era, it was fun for a while, but it was just a period, that player interaction, while being interesting, did not hold my attention, especially if I played alone. It is essentially a 'friends' game, which is it's huge blessing and curse in same time - as any MMO essentially.
Since economics is cyclical, I am hoping that there will be so many ftp mtx ridden games to choose from, that huge profits will be less certain. I also hope that someday all games will be held to truth in advertising rules so that people can see at a glance how monetization factors affected game design.
I guess lack of explanation text, and the message has been lost.
The point was Blizzard has lost touch with gamers. That's exactly what has happened, and they are so clueless, they still don't get it *DING* *DING* *DING*
Imho, the crowd that self-identified as "gamers" have an over-inflated perception of how important they are in the video game market. For all the rants about mobile games, mtx, lootboxes and p2w, that stuff wouldn't be there if it didn't massively sell. So while Blizzard is also trying to keep that historical fanbase because income is income and it's easy enough to do (just keep remastering the old stuff, they don't like change), priorities have been slowly shifting towards other, more important paying customers.
That doesn't make the PR faux pas any less hilarious of course, as it'd have been ridiculously easy to avoid. Just look at Bethesda not that long ago for a masterclass there: nothing to announce apart from mobile and online stuff nobody asked for, but a one minute video of a mountain was enough to give them a free pass. But any idea that they'll crash and burn because they "lost touch" with a fanbase that keeps subbing to WoW, paying for Overwatch lootboxes, Hearthstone packs, and pops the Champagne for 2018 releases of Starcraft 1, Warcraft 3 and WoW 1.0 is hilarious. They probably understand their fans more than they understand themselves. It's just that not everybody likes what they see in the mirror.
That doesn't make the PR faux pas any less hilarious of course, as it'd have been ridiculously easy to avoid. Just look at Bethesda not that long ago for a masterclass there: nothing to announce apart from mobile and online stuff nobody asked for, but a one minute video of a mountain was enough to give them a free pass. But any idea that they'll crash and burn because they "lost touch" with a fanbase that keeps subbing to WoW, paying for Overwatch lootboxes, Hearthstone packs, and pops the Champagne for 2018 releases of Starcraft 1, Warcraft 3 and WoW 1.0 is hilarious. They probably understand their fans more than they understand themselves. It's just that not everybody likes what they see in the mirror.
I am not sure I lost anything. I listened to whole video and I point out that his criticism about Blizzard losing touch with players might be not what's happening here, as WoW really being this passing by thing which really did not have much to hold everybody's attention for long, for various reasons. Some of criticism is justified, some is just glamouring for days of open world pvp. I personally pass huge criticism towards Blizzard and Activision, creatively they have been quite mum for some time (as TF2 player I like some of elements of Overwatch, but only some..it certainly very polished game, but it feels like McDonalds, not a proper meal), but I am not sure some of criticism is down to Blizzard losing touch. Sometimes games have this special time and place which can't be really retained no matter how hard you try. Sometimes it is time to let go. As in example of Diablo, it is perfect one. There won't be Diablo 4. There are just nowhere to go creatively. Blizzard knows this perfectly well. For these players, it is just time to move on.
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Insightful post.
A cheap reskinned clone with the Blizzard brand stamped on it, squashed into a 5 inch screen on a phone is their idea of the future of their game? To get a revenue stream?
Imagine that this is what they chose to do when handed the legacy of Diablo?
They deserve to perish from the Earth. It's no longer a game company.
They won't perish. Their shareholders and CEOs will get insanely rich and will move on.
Games are just games. There are no legacy to tarnish. They are just pieces of entertainment we have sentimental values attached to them. If you have good memories about Diablo and Diablo II, stick with them. You can still play those games. What Blizzard does currently really doesn't matter and it is not worth to lose your sleep over with.
And before that, games were released on boards for millenia - only to suddenly go to PC! Boo! Boooooo!
Blizzard is a company, making games that sell so they get more money. That is the sole reason for companies to exist. If it is worth it, they'll release D4 at some point. Calling them 'no longer a game studio' because you dont like one game they announced is just daft, in my opinion.
AFAIK the target audience for mobile games is the Asian realm that was to my knowledge hardly even present at the blizzcon. If anything, the audience for that presentation would have been press and investors - NOT the majority of the fanbase that comes to that in-house convention.
the Announcement would have been totally fine if it had been on a big gaming convention like the Gamescom or E3 that has a dedicated booth area for mobile and console games.
Imagine FDEV would host another in-house convention, inviting all those Elite Dangerous Fans with latest tech gaming PCs and VR equip...
tell them that they will get to see the best thing in their life...
and then reveal to them that the next expansion will be the Smartphone version of Elite Dangerous
They aren't "making the game". It's a reskinned clone, with a brand stamp. The code already exists in other phone "games" with identical gameplay.
This isn't game creation and development, it's liscencing, with overt exploitation of a franchise. When I used to reskin Freedom Force with Justice League skins, or do Borg ships for Starfleet Command I didn't "make" a game. ( Nor did I seek to make money from it, but I'm altruistic like that)