Diablo 3

Greg

Diablo 3 drops May 15th. Anybody going to be playing?

Amalgam_Man

Possibly.

Zhurrie

I was, until the real money aspect came into play with the in-game system. Completely out now. If that changes, I'll play it.

I have zero reason to anyhow because I'm LOVING Reckoning Kingdoms of Amalur which is one of the best games I've played in a long time. Todd McFarlane, Daarken, R.A. Salvatore, and more... yes, please.

Justin_TheBuck

@Greg
I'll be playing it day one.

@Zhurrie
Real money has always been a part of the Diablo,well at least with D2. Blizzard realized that and said hey why not make some money off of it and just allow people to sell their stuff without worry of them getting banned. There will still be non real money auction house and the real money ones require the seller/buyer to have a smartphone so I don't think it's going to be a game breaker.

So based on your not liking the pay real money thing is it safe to say that you don't like F2P/Micro Transaction games?

Gargoyle

I will, although I must admit that the beta didn't knock my socks off. It was good but I didn't like the skills system and it lacked a wow factor for me.

Zhurrie

@Justin_TheBuck, I worked in the gaming field for a good while and it is one of the biggest detriments to gaming IMO. Games are being turned into nothing but these kinds of micropayments at every turn regardless of what they are called, DLC, Micropayments, F2P, etc. It is bad for games and gamers. It isn't something I support and I just don't want to be a part of it or putting my money behind even buying the game. Zynga is not what I want every game company to strive to be, which sadly is the current state of things. I know it might seem innocuous or like it is just "extra" that people don't need to buy into but it isn't it has changed the entire approach to game design and things that are "extra" would have just previously been in the game to begin with or added in a free patch or update or bundled and sold as a complete expansion, that is all gone mostly and games are worse off for it. It just goes against what I want and having seen it from the other side it is NOT done with anything but money in mind and making a better game or experience is not even in the equation when it comes to these things. We'll see how it pans out in DIII, but I predict it will be a complete mess.

Justin_TheBuck

I can see where you're coming from to a point. I myself do not like Pay 2 Win games which is what most but not all F2P games are. D3 is not going to be like that. In fact if I recall right when some of the devs where interviewed on X-Play they said that:we will not add or subtract any items from the game based on how they sell in the auction houses because we do not want to dilute the item base;we will also not be selling items ourselves because if we do that then the game becomes to much like a pay to win game and that's just something we do not want. I see no issue in buying items for real world cash in an instance like this since it's just trading. Will I buy items for real money? Nope. Since all the items can be found in the game and buying them,to me,will take away from the fun of finding them.

Now I think your prediction of the gaming being a mess is right but not for the reason you think it will be. The mess with be with the lack of customization to the characters. Not liking how they took out the stats. It makes the game seem like your run of the mill FF as far as tweaking your character goes.

Zhurrie

We shall definitely see soon enough. Current game dev is ruined by the high costs and the need to then wring every possible ounce of cash from every single title, I've personally watched the changes and pressure to move to these models to the point where it is almost a necessity now. It is bad for gaming, all of it. Pay to win is one thing, that effects the play itself. These kinds of moves effect the overall feel and game and are just as detrimental in a title like this. It is going to be a big mess, guaranteed. The other problems will just add to it and most likely it is going to result in a bunch of poorly thought out and planned "fixes" most likely in rapid succession and a lot of unhappiness. It has played out before and I just don't see anything being done with DIII that will change much at all. Actually I hope I am right, because if not this will become the new trend and further ruin major title/AAA games.

Webhead

I will, although I must admit that the beta didn't knock my socks off. It was good but I didn't like the skills system and it lacked a wow factor for me.

I had fun with the beta, the skill system was okay, I thought it was better then the previous version.

I've already pre-order my copy and will be playing the first day.

MikeGallagher

Diablo 2 is my favorite all time game. I am dying to play 3! The wife played the beta and it looked stunning

Webhead

It only took one good marathon session but I finally have gotten past the beta test.

So far so good

Justin_TheBuck

I just beat it about an hour ago. It's an OK game. I love some of the things they've done and really dislike others. If you want to play sometime let me know.

MikeGallagher

Man I can't play that fast. I'm playing a monk. So far I'm loving it!

Justin_TheBuck

Took me about 24 hours since I helped a friend out in acts 2 and 3. If he wasn't a slow player I would have beating it sooner. The Diablo series was never one to be a long game. I was expect 20-25s for story mode and X for replays. How far a long are you Mike?

MikeGallagher

Just killed the skeleton king. It is everything diablo 2 was but pumped up. It is so awesome

Greg

Playing a demon hunter, stumped on the skeleton king fight. Think I got to it too soon.

Webhead

Just killed the skeleton king. It is everything diablo 2 was but pumped up. It is so awesome

I've got two characters to this level and working on my third. I'm trying to keep one of each class of character around the same levels. When I played Diablo II I made the mistake of using one character most of the time and got bored and ended up not playing for long periods of time. After awhile my account was disabled and had to start all over again.

My Battle Net tag is cgallo#1691 so if anybody want to add me to your friends list feel free and hit me up if you see me play the game.

MikeGallagher

I'm playing my wife's version so I can't share. 8-|
I played diablo 2 sooooo much. You have to learn to savor going through every inch of an area over and over to get all the stuff and build your experience. Over and over and over works wonders!

Webhead

I'm playing my wife's version so I can't share. 8-|
I played diablo 2 sooooo much. You have to learn to savor going through every inch of an area over and over to get all the stuff and build your experience. Over and over and over works wonders!

That is what I'm doing...I'm leaving any gold or equipment behind. I am going over every square inch.

Justin_TheBuck

Just killed the skeleton king. It is everything diablo 2 was but pumped up. It is so awesome

I've got two characters to this level and working on my third. I'm trying to keep one of each class of character around the same levels. When I played Diablo II I made the mistake of using one character most of the time and got bored and ended up not playing for long periods of time. After awhile my account was disabled and had to start all over again.

My Battle Net tag is cgallo#1691 so if anybody want to add me to your friends list feel free and hit me up if you see me play the game.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I only have one char right now (WD) but I'm gonna start a monk soon. I'm trying to find some items to give my monk a bit of a boost.

You have to learn to savor going through every inch of an area over and over to get all the stuff and build your experience. Over and over and over works wonders!

More so in this one since there are achievements and I've been going over every inch in NM to build up my xp and hopefully get more achievements. You wife bought the game? That cool. Is she more of a gamer than you are?

MikeGallagher

It got to a point where I had no time to play anything. 5 years ago I was a big pc gamer. I like the occasional platform game but I prefer pc and arcade. Between Carmike and drawing I had no free time. When I had a curtailed theatre I had time to play. I love RTS games. I like the star wars fts games (dark forces, etc). Sims, flight simulators, sub simulators. Now I have some free time and real days off where I am not at work so I can play a couple hours every so often.

I played the heck out of diablo 2. I was one of those people helping newbs make runs to level up faster. I had several complete sets,and a solid hardcore character.

She plays WoW and got the game for free as she was beta testing it. I need to buy it and don't have the spare cash yet. We joke that's he is the gamer now. She used to hate games and make fun of me for playing. Now she plays more than me.

Mr_Cosmic

D'oh! Monk nerf :(

Zhurrie

Well, it seems like that panned out how I thought it would (not in a told ya so way, just that I knew it couldn't end any other possible way) The real money AH is shelved still and the in game currency one is a mess. There was zero real-world economic thought put into it all and no way it was going to work. They are now claiming June 12th but I wouldn't hold my breath and even if it does drop you can see it is going to be a race to the bottom pricewise with a lot of serious flaws ahead of it.

Justin_TheBuck

Have you actually played the game yourself or are you calling it a win (for you) based on what you've read on boards? I've played it and still am. It's actually quite boring (I just play to keep busy I guess plus I would like to beat the hardest difficulty) since nothing really chances and the the server issues are to be expected with in the first few weeks.

The AH is a freaking joke and in my view breaks the game. The RMAH should just be removed. I don't mind people paying to play if that's how they want to do it but it will break the game even more but my real concern is that it's not going to be safe. There are tons of people talking about getting hacked/exploited and Blizzard has pretty much said "yes it's happening."

Greg

You also have a lot of people playing this game that do little to nothing in order to protect themselves from getting hacked. You have a lot people playing this game that do not play WoW or StarCraft and may or may not know about the account authenticator, which costs you nothing if using an ipod, ipad or smartphone, either way it's not being used by everybody, and that could be Blizzard's fault for not pushing enough info out there.

I've only used the AH to sell, I don't like buying gear from the AH in WoW and SWToR and I doubt I'll do it here as well. I'm doing just fine with what I get from drops, vendors and crafting.

Zhurrie

@Justin_TheBuck, I have played the game, I played it through once in about 11 hours and I have seen the wreck that is the AH. The fact that you can only list 10 items and not end them early causes people to sell super cheap so things sell fast and they aren't stuck waiting days (real world days) to list more or relist. There are so many flaws and flubs with their approach to the AH that adding real currency to the mix is going to be the disaster I stated. It really isn't about being "right" I've worked in the field and helped design a number of traditional and video games, I understand game design/theory and have a minor in economics which always helped in game economies as well. Aside from the difficulty replays which basically turn into a pure grind to farm to move to the next one there isn't much here except for the people that see opportunity with the real money AH and if it actually releases in June I can't see it staying live for long or if it does being massively broken to the point of worthlessness.