Why yes, Blizzard. I *do* have a phone, thanks for asking.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

...
Joys of living in Australia, land of the early access mobile game tests....

Land of the "Let's test this for Eastern markets, but with English speakers."

Diablo Immortal is intended for Eastern markets, primarily China and South Korea, Taiwan, etc. It is Blizzard attempting to leverage their IP to make billions of monies selling e-drug-clicks to Eastern customers who are very prone to such addictions... That is all it is.

You are, however, allowed to have fun. :) You're even allowed to have fun with Diablo Imortal! But, it is not for you. Whatever it turns out to be will be crammed into the Eastern markets and then festooned with in-app purchases designed to be substitutes for the real-life self-actualization needs of its players. Blizzard will then seem to "forget it" in media marketing aimed at Western customers while pushing Diablo IV.

AFAIK, Blizzard's involvement in the actual hands-on development of this game is limited to their overall IP concerns (Story, characters, continuity, etc) and assisting in the transferal of existing assets to NetEase for use in-game.

"

Morkonan wrote:

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

...
Joys of living in Australia, land of the early access mobile game tests....

Land of the "Let's test this for Eastern markets, but with English speakers."

Diablo Immortal is intended for Eastern markets, primarily China and South Korea, Taiwan, etc. It is Blizzard attempting to leverage their IP to make billions of monies selling e-drug-clicks to Eastern customers who are very prone to such addictions... That is all it is.

You are, however, allowed to have fun. :) You're even allowed to have fun with Diablo Imortal! But, it is not for you. Whatever it turns out to be will be crammed into the Eastern markets and then festooned with in-app purchases designed to be substitutes for the real-life self-actualization needs of its players. Blizzard will then seem to "forget it" in media marketing aimed at Western customers while pushing Diablo IV.

AFAIK, Blizzard's involvement in the actual hands-on development of this game is limited to their overall IP concerns (Story, characters, continuity, etc) and assisting in the transferal of existing assets to NetEase for use in-game.

All true. Especially the bit I've bolded. Also, I've played my share of these, so I know the dance. Intimately. It was 'for me' once. Thank god those days are long gone -- ever heard of Allods Online? yeaaaah. These days I just bounce from one shiny f2p mobile game to the next. Hundred soul, Rise of Darkness, etc etc. They're all fun for a bit but when the paywall hits, play the next one. I'm incredibly good at this -- or was my tendency to low-level alt in PoE not indication enough that I'm adept at wringing a lot of fun from the first third or so of games?

Also, as a strange result of this thread, I've just seen that Guild Wars 2 complete (base+2 huge expansions) is currently half price for Xmas. $14 USD? YOINK. And YOINK for the GF. And one of my best mates. Fucking loved that game, but it ran out of content when we played it last (like 2015).

Xmas!

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

All true. Especially the bit I've bolded. Also, I've played my share of these, so I know the dance. Intimately. It was 'for me' once. Thank god those days are long gone --..

It sounds like you're giving a "testimonial." :)

"Hello, my name is Foreverhappychan and I am a mobile game addict."

"

...They're all fun for a bit but when the paywall hits, play the next one. I'm incredibly good at this -- or was my tendency to low-level alt in PoE not indication enough that I'm adept at wringing a lot of fun from the first third or so of games?

A friend of mine tried to get me to play one of those "pay2win" sorts of PC games, once. It was some kind of RTS-like tower-defense/tactical/PvP/base-building sort of mashup "game."

"Game."

At some point in play, if you wanted a tower to upgrade faster than 24 hours in real time you had to pay $5 in Freedomonies. One tower out of many. One time-shortening upgrade. FIVE DOLLARS. Everything in that game was so focused towards convincing the player to give blood that it would have embarrassed even Zynga.

That's as close to a "mobile game" genre as I have ever been and ever wish to be.

"

Also, as a strange result of this thread, I've just seen that Guild Wars 2 complete (base+2 huge expansions) is currently half price for Xmas. $14 USD? YOINK. And YOINK for the GF. And one of my best mates. Fucking loved that game, but it ran out of content when we played it last (like 2015).

Xmas!

GW fans are a sort of special breed of MMO'ers. I've never played it, but true "fans" are a kinda die-hard, dedicated, "true fans of Guild Wars." It most definitely made its mark on its audience.

PS: Decades ago, in an argument with someone on the internet who was wrong..., I attempted to explain that Psychology, a degree that guarantees professional unemployment, is "real." The wrong-poster in question was of the sort that believed it was all "mumbo-jumbo" and Psychology was largely a load of hooey. Fair enough, in some respects, but at its base it is simply a way to examine human behavior. Way back then, I attempted to explain to them how one can weaponize "psychology" to develop a game that was as addicting as e-crack. It was also a conversation where I stated, with very firm confidence, I could get a dead cat elected as President of the United States if I had enough money. Sadly, both of these things have come true, more or less... (I'd have preferred the dead cat, though.)

I put 5k hours into Guild Wars 1, solid (i.e. not too much idling/chatting -- although mine was a guild dedicated to spicing up the global chat in the main towns). Absolutely amazing game. Introduced the GF to it this year in fact, but without more players, you can't really get very far. It's designed for a 4 team party most of the way, later expanding to 6 then 8. Guild Wars 2, otoh, is soloable, great for couples, and absolutely encourages randoms working together by sharing rewards. I've never played a better game for casual MMO-style play without the baggage of most MMOs -- grinding, crafting, heavy meta, skill rotations, etc.

__

I am not a mobile gaming addict so much as I like to dabble. I can also point to some truly incredible mobile games that destroy all the usual assumptions of mobile gaming (most of them indie, of course), but we had a thread about that and it went the way of the dodo. Suffice to say, I got over my prejudices somewhat around the same time as I got over my f2p one, thanks to PoE.

What you described? Trash. Unadulterated trash. Wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. And the image that mobile games are all like that is not an unfair one. Most are. But some aren't, and for that I'm willing to do the legwork and hunt the gems. FWIW Immortal is not one such gem...but it's nowhere near as evil as mobile gaming can get.

__

I'd also have preferred the dead cat.

My sister did a psych degree long ago, as a mature age student to prove she wasn't the 'looks' of the family and me the 'brains'. She did admirably well, and could easily have gotten a career in childcare or counselling had she not opted to become that other most-valuable type of caregiver, three times and counting. Anyway I proofread her papers and found it all quite intriguing. Sure, it's a soft science, but it'd be a boring world if all we had were the hard sciences and the humanities. Those two parted ways far too long ago, and I feel fields such as psychology do a decent enough job trying to bridge the gap. I completely went from hard science devotee to humanities junkie in high school, when I discovered fantasy was so much more fun than physics, and that figuring other people out was more than just biology. In this, I know I am something of a weirdo in the PoE community -- most of you are hard-nosed galaxy-brains who probably don't even need a story in their PoE, and find those who delve into it more of a curio than a serious devotee...which is fair enough: PoE lore is a meeeesss.

But yes: figure out the psychology of the gambler, marry it with online f2p gaming...bam. That said, I remember when WoW was referred to as e-crack as well. It ended friendships. Ruined marriages. Hospitalised marathon players...the names change, but the basic method of gaming addiction really doesn't.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

...Sure, it's a soft science, but it'd be a boring world if all we had were the hard sciences and the humanities. Those two parted ways far too long ago, and I feel fields such as psychology do a decent enough job trying to bridge the gap. I completely went from hard science devotee to humanities junkie in high school, when I discovered fantasy was so much more fun than physics, and that figuring other people out was more than just biology.

"Psychology" is undergoing a reformation it doesn't even know it's going through... But, it is desperately trying to hold onto certain concepts that aren't serving it very well. Just as an example, "my" Psychology is described and interpreted by the American Psychiatric Association's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual."

When I was in school, we had the DSM-III. It's now up to DSM-V. It'll then keep on climbing... somewhere.

It's largely a way to categorize disorders for insurance companies... It is, IMO, largely "qualitative." In Psych, that is A Bad Thing ™ in anything other than a patient's quality of life issues. (Psych is huge on statistics and numbers, despite it's "soft science.") The DSM is also chock-full of "politics."

But, your Aussie "Psychology" is... different. Imagine that? We both study the same thing, but come up with different ideas about what it means.

The nuero-sciences will largely push "Psychology" out of the diagnostics and treatment business and firmly into Counseling and Therapy for certain treatable disorders, IMO. (It will become much more like specialized Nursing with a broader holistic approach. Somewhat like you did, I proofed papers for a friend going through advanced nursing degrees. Interesting field, really.) One day reasonably soon, the schism will come between what is observed "behavior" and what is directly quantifiable evidence through direct measurement. It'll happen and it'll make Psychologists angry...

But, then they'll all go work for game developers so it won't be all bad. :)

"

...PoE lore is a meeeesss.

I attempted to understand it up to the point where it became far too proud of itself. That doesn't mean I thought it was "bad." It was just... much ado about nothing. It's an ARPG game. The "story", aside from necessary background elements, is there to feed the ARPG "game." I don't need to know who Diablo's best friends were nor what his shoe-size is in order to enjoy that game.

BUT, there is always a certain sort of player that is well-served by "deep" settings and intricate stories in games. That's cool, too.

"

But yes: figure out the psychology of the gambler, marry it with online f2p gaming...bam. That said, I remember when WoW was referred to as e-crack as well. It ended friendships. Ruined marriages. Hospitalised marathon players...the names change, but the basic method of gaming addiction really doesn't.

While WoW made its mark, it was EverQuest that broke into the realm of "new culture" that destroyed real lives. I know people who got divorced because of that game and who ended up finding their spouses in that game. Sometimes... it was both. (EQ is free-to-play with some "lite" pay2win mechanics, like "Experience Point Potions" and the like. It's a good game.)

On your OP:

What do feel is the main gameplay "draw" within your current experience of Diablo Immortal? Is there any innovation there in terms of game mechanics aside from any "marketplace" schemes?

And, what are the "stories" like? As nutty as it sounds, there are substantive differences in the sorts of stories that "work" for audiences in different cultures. In some sorts of stories, one can see stark contrasts between simple things like "character" vs "plot" driven stories and the components of each.

Briefly responding to the tangents, then more thoroughly addressing the OP.

So I recently read Jon Ronson's 'Adventures with Extraordinary People' (heard extracts on NPR's This American Life, have been fascinated since), and among its many weird jewels, there's a strangely believable part in 'The Psychopath Test' about how the DSM was assembled with almost alarming sloppiness. I've already gone and forgotten most of it but the gist was that they'd just vet or veto various suggestions. For something that exploded into their bible, its roots are frighteningly unprofessional. This relates to psychopathy, of course, because to this day psychs refute it as a term and prefer to slice and dice the various symptoms into this disorder or that -- not to mention the lingering Hollywood baggage of the term. But yes, the DSM started controversial and ended up political. I have no personal use for it and am glad for that fact.

The big difference between American psych and Australian, from what I can tell, is our greater balance between chemical and behavioural therapy. As with our GPs, our mental health workers are very loath to prescribe pills as a first response. I suspect our lack of insurance culture comes with a lack of incentive to do so. That said, psychologists can't legally prescribe drugs and MOST Australians I know who've sought mental health help start with a therapist i.e. a psychologist. I suppose we have a little more faith in the talkiness of it all here. Hard to say. Either way, I also have friends on psych meds, so it's not as if we go full Tom Cruise on the whole situation either. The flipside to this is we are also more receptive to alternative medicine -- homeopathy is more state-recognised here than in the US, I believe, as is acupuncture. We can be a hippy-dippy lot...but our greatest baggage is we don't want to End Up Like The Yanks. This has been true since WW2. I suspect resisting a pill-popping culture is part of that. So we talk it out...

__

Agreed re PoE lore. I used to devour it avidly, but once it started to wobble...once the centre started to no longer hold, to pull on that old cliche, I lost interest. Coherence is important to me when it comes to lore. Things have to fit together as though, well, they could actually happen and indeed would actually happen. This is why I suspect my favourite 'style' of narrative (and certainly the one I embrace and use) is that of the nigh-omnipotent puppet master, making things happen to serve the story rather than just cobbling events together. It's an excuse to set up satisfying encounters, to be sure, but it beats the 'just so happens' approach so common to spec fic. Not saying PoE does that, but it does something possibly worse: it tries to fill gaps in the lore that are best left as gaps. But this puts us back at the sins of the game-as-service game design: in the hunt for more content, they plumb these depths that aren't very deep at all. Scraping the barrel and all that.

__

Evercrack. Yes, I played that too. ALSO ran a guild designed to spice up the chat, which lead to some interesting interactions with roleplaying GMs.
__

Now, to the point at hand.

"

Morkonan wrote:

What do feel is the main gameplay "draw" within your current experience of Diablo Immortal? Is there any innovation there in terms of game mechanics aside from any "marketplace" schemes?

And, what are the "stories" like? As nutty as it sounds, there are substantive differences in the sorts of stories that "work" for audiences in different cultures. In some sorts of stories, one can see stark contrasts between simple things like "character" vs "plot" driven stories and the components of each.

The main gameplay draw is a well designed UI for a mobile ARPG. They've done the usual Blizzard thing and taken others' sloppiness and refined the shit out of it. One of the big drawbacks to most other mobile ARPGs is the control scheme. The virtual joystick on the left would be too janky or in a fixed position. The skill selection on the right would be too small or fiddly. The minimap wouldn't be mini. And so on. Blizzard are masterful at distilling all this down to its most essential components and getting them as out of the way of the game experience as possible. You know you're not using a mouse and keyboard, or a controller, but after a while, it doesn't feel any different. Indeed, they explicitly went out of their way to take advantage of something the touchscreen does better than either m+k or controller: twin-stick style play. So I am often using my left thumb to strafe around, my right to aim whatever skill I'm lining up to unleash. For example, cone-type spells require fairly precise targeting. OTOH basic attacks auto-aim to a degree, which I'm more than used to with mobile action games.

The only real innovation I've seen from a Diablo perspective is interactive skill results. If I cast scorch (fireball) on a bunch of enemies, and follow it up with a cone of wind, it creates a firestorm effect, spreading and I suspect intensifying the fire DoT. This is hardly innovative for rpgs in general, but I don't think we've seen it in a Diablo game to date.

I've barely started the 'stories' but they're a mixed bag of small-scale heroics (saving people, stopping local baddies) and the larger narrative of whichever vignette you're experiencing. So the whole point of DI, narratively, is to fill gaps between D2 and D3. And while we've just harped on about that as a game design sin, it works here because there's a huge gap between D2 and D3, lore-wise. 20 years or so. Using a mobile game to explore the fate of the Sisters of the Sightless Eye, of whatever Cain got up to before his unwarranted end, the 'canonical' D2 characters like Xul the Necromancer and his apprentice Lethes, experiencing Westmarch in its heyday...this is clever. This is not 'Diablo in name only'; the world map is Sanctuary and it will be fully explorable (right now we just have zones down near Westmarch, and up near Zoltun's library, listed by level range). There is a heck of a lot for a Diablo 2 fan to hold onto, which I think transcends the cultural divide you want to see in the target audiences. There's no reason Chinese diablo fans can't be as into the world as Western ones are.

The alpha is specifically about testing this part of the game though. It isn't for endgame testing. This is standard Blizzard alpha/beta testing: i was in their closed beta test of D2 as well, which was just Act 1. And for D3, which was just the first third of act 1. I think they like to test early game because they know that's when most people will quit. So I can't speak to the core gameplay loop of rifts, although they are unlocked at level 27 (I'm 23 on my main). So we'll get there. And knowing Blizzard, it'll be designed to make being sucked into the loop as fluidly as possible. That's where the money is, after all.

I think it's a shame they're tucking away so much interesting Diablo 2-related writing, already far more interesting to me than anything in D3, in a mobile game that has already been written off as 'ridiculous' thanks to its terrible arrival in the gaming world's awareness. It's definitely not ridiculous, but it's not a proper Diablo game either. It's...yeah. For hardcore fans only, I suppose you could say. Even if said hardcore fans still think it's an out-of-season april fool's joke. And if by hardcore we just mean in terms of playing, then yeah, the game has nothing to offer them. But if by hardcore we mean players to whom the names Flavie and Akara actually mean something...then they'll dig what's been done here. They're not the sort to be haplessly sucked into an obvious pay-to-grind endgame loop. For folks like us, this era of very generous f2p world story/clearly monetised endgame is a fucking treasure trove of free entertainment.

And Path of Exile was definitely my first experience of that. Its sin was not in monetising the end-game; its sin was in balancing its core game with the p2p endgame in mind. Other massive f2p games with the same approach typically don't do that -- I don't feel like I need to invest for endgame gearing playing through Genshin Impact's huge world, for example. I know that endgame grind is tucked away in side dungeons, bosses and events -- the core game is balanced to be played for free. I do not feel the same can be said of PoE anymore.

So far, it can be said of Diablo Immortal (I haven't even thought about the cash shop), BUT there will always be suspicions they tweak things for alpha/beta tests to accelerate the testing. I don't harbour those suspicions myself: this reduces the efficacy of the test results. But gamers are nothing if not a suspicious lot.

As long as you don't like Warhammer: Chaosbane its fine.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

Briefly responding to the tangents, then more thoroughly addressing the OP.

Bulleting, 'cause I'm a 'Murican... (Trimming it down a bit)

On the DSM: It's tremendously useful, believe it or not. But, it is not free of evidence of bias and, IMO, once again invents categories the may not actually... exist "in real life." I'm not saying that certain behavior doesn't exist or isn't related to others in its classification, I'm saying that just because something is "written" doesn't mean it's true... (Biggest controversy surrounding it, really. "Spectrum Disorder" is a catch-all qualifier, for instance. "Autism Spectrum Disorder" and all that entails may not be the diagnostic panacea it is hoped to be.)

Yes, there's a lot of controversy over various incarnations and how they were developed. There's a book about the development and controversy surrounding the DSM-5, but I can't recall the name atm. It speaks to the heart of the matter.

Even so, though - It's useful. It's just that some issues have gotten a bit muddied and I think that's actually doing more harm than good for some patients.

NPR: I only listen to "public radio" in my car. I'm weird that way, but I stopped listening to radio "music" stations decades ago. I'd just rather have something interesting to listen to, especially on long drives.

Differences: "The big difference between American psych and Australian, from what I can tell, is our greater balance between chemical and behavioural therapy."

We're really not that different in those respects you mentioned. However, public perception and commercial pressures have a much bigger influence on "practice" than it would in more structured, publicly regulated, systems. "Health Care ™" is an industry in the US, not a "service." For example, a decade ago it was "Pain Management" that was a huge issue in patient care settings. "Don't be afraid to ask your physician for pain medication" read the posters in hospitals... Gee, I wonder why? (The overwhelmingly convincing meme is "drug company marketing.") Patients were administered pain pills via the use of large, crew-served, belt-fed, automatic weapons that pumped out a thousand doses a minute at vulnerable targets that bled money...

These days, your leg would have to literally fall off in front of a physician before you could pry a prescription for pain medication out of their confused and troubled hands. (Doctors don't like the roller-coaster, either.)

The "insurance culture" certainly has a heavy hand in all this. One can't get paid if one's bill isn't "coded" correctly according to the provider's list of covered services. The most popular periodical in a physician's office isn't a celebrity magazine, but rags with titles like "Healthcare Week" and such. (Can't remember the actual names.) They're filled with "how to ensure you are paid promptly" articles... And, who publishes these supposed "professional" magazines? :) (Big commercial healthcare industries/companies, because if the physician gets paid promptly, so do they...)

Structure on counseling/medical svcs: Typically, a psychologist/counselor is affiliated or working directly with a psychiatrist. Treatment supervision would typically be overseen by a phychiatrist, but in the US "independent" psychologists/counselors exist. And, so do crackpots and unlicensed therapists/counselors waving magic beads. 'Cause "FREEDOM." Due to current culture and perception, AFAIK most general healthcare physicians are loathe to subscribe psychiatric medication. Some do, however, with self-reported "depression" and the like. One issue that kept those needing therapy coupled with medication is that many private insurers would not pay for therapy/counseling services until very recently. (Obamacare/AHA) But, they would pay for "medication." :) That certainly had a big influence on treatment practices.

Today, AFAIK, the most widely practiced approaches involve CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) coupled with medication. "Studies show" that this is the most overall effective approach for the most commonly encountered issues.

__

"

Agreed re PoE lore.

I really don't understand all of it. I know "some" of it, just through its repetition in the story presented to the player, but "deep lore" is somewhat confusing... I'm not surprised, but GGG really does attempt to push content at the player with stories attached. And, with all that "content" comes a host of story additions.

Diablo, in contrast, is fairly simple - "Bad thing is coming. Save teh wurld, zomgz." "Bad thing is coming back. Save teh wurld, zomgz." "It's coming back, srsly... Save teh wurld, zomgx2."

Most long-form media of any sort, like a continuing series of games or a television show, have a "Bible." It's a reference work that is designed to help writers remember whether or not that one walk-on character everyone liked was killed off in an episode two years ago or not. GGG's "Path of Exile: Bible" must be some ponderous collection of hastily scribbled lore bound in the remnants of the skin of interns. Resting on a pedestal in the back office, once a year it's reverently dragged out and set in the middle of the conference-room table. If the content developers intone the correct spell, the League will become an intelligible portion of the Lore. If they don't... it assploads all over the place and we get a madwoman who is infatuated with lancing festering, spreading, boils from the face of the planet. Well, they used to inject mercury into the eurethra to "cure" gonorrhea back in day, so...
__

"

... For example, cone-type spells require fairly precise targeting. OTOH basic attacks auto-aim to a degree, which I'm more than used to with mobile action games.

I have no frame of reference for this. I can't conceive of a system that combines such a tiny screen with touch-screen commands that mimic analog controls... (My own mobile phone is little bigger than a playing card and actually fits in my pocket... No lie!) I will have to take your word for it and, knowing Blizzard's expertise in polishing UI elements, I can easily believe your assessment to be true.

"

The only real innovation I've seen from a Diablo perspective is interactive skill results. If I cast scorch (fireball) on a bunch of enemies, and follow it up with a cone of wind, it creates a firestorm effect, spreading and I suspect intensifying the fire DoT. This is hardly innovative for rpgs in general, but I don't think we've seen it in a Diablo game to date.

Very interesting. I do remember a game that did allow something like this, but I can't remember it well enough. (I think it was a JRPG of some sort.) It's worth noting that many games treat "targets" as being direct targets, even if they're caught in an "AOE." In short, while enemies are mobile objects, they're not really "in" an environment, but rather are targets as fare as a spell/effect is concerned. Having a spell that is, apparently, a "mob" itself and being able to be effected by certain actions is pretty neato. :)

"

...There is a heck of a lot for a Diablo 2 fan to hold onto, which I think transcends the cultural divide you want to see in the target audiences. There's no reason Chinese diablo fans can't be as into the world as Western ones are.

I don't know how closely Blizzard is overseeing the "story" development. They may have, for instance, done something like "do whatever you want, but Cain must survive unscathed and __ and ___ can not happen."

To keep the rest short and since you're a writer and are surely familiar with things like three-act structure and the "Hero's Journey," see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish%C5%8Dtenketsu Interpret the translations somewhat as an outline of popular "story structure" in the noted regions. Note the emphases in each point in development, general theme of adolescent growth, experience, and empowerment or action, etc.

Since I'm not familiar with Eastern mobile games, I don't know that they haven't developed their own tropes and structures. They certainly could have done so, considering they are wildly popular and have likely had their own evolutionary moments.

"

...And knowing Blizzard, it'll be designed to make being sucked into the loop as fluidly as possible. That's where the money is, after all.

Recurring income is the goal, of course. Anything that keeps the player playing and paying is what they'll... do. They will want to make that "paying" part as effortless, desirable, and pain-free as possible. BUT, considering the target audience, it will also be much more aligned with what we would consider to be "pay2win" purchasing.

How is the game focused for multi-player play? That is definitely important in their model and it's a necessity for that market.

"

I think it's a shame they're tucking away so much interesting Diablo 2-related writing, already far more interesting to me than anything in D3, in a mobile game that has already been written off as 'ridiculous' thanks to its terrible arrival in the gaming world's awareness. It's definitely not ridiculous, but it's not a proper Diablo game either. It's...yeah. For hardcore fans only, I suppose you could say. Even if said hardcore fans still think it's an out-of-season april fool's joke. And if by hardcore we just mean in terms of playing, then yeah, the game has nothing to offer them. But if by hardcore we mean players to whom the names Flavie and Akara actually mean something...then they'll dig what's been done here. They're not the sort to be haplessly sucked into an obvious pay-to-grind endgame loop. For folks like us, this era of very generous f2p world story/clearly monetised endgame is a fucking treasure trove of free entertainment.

I don't know how I'm going to deal with not being able to hear "Stay awhile and listen" in Diablo IV.

In D3, that one moment was the most impactful in the entire game. Nobody gave two wet farts about any other story element. That wasn't terribly difficult, since the only "story" there involved characters one doesn't closely interact with until the end of the game. But, nothing in Diablo 3 mattered more to players than



I'd like to see some old NPCs make a return, as well. More than that, though, I'd like to see gameplay other than "Ladders." And, some darn cheat-proofing, too. (The only worthwhile activity in D3, once the "campaign play" is done, is competing in the Ladder system. But, it's full of cheaters/exploits/hacks, even on console.)

"

...the core game is balanced to be played for free. I do not feel the same can be said of PoE anymore.

PoE can be played for free for hours and hours and days of "entertainment." But, it's not "balanced" for anything at all... If PoE commits a sin, it's a heavy reliance on RNG and players "fixing" problems with game balance through the Market/Trade system. If RNG is rng and players just... "don't," then... stuff sucks.

IMO, GGG hasn't ever really tried to "balance" PoE further than attempting to make progression more difficult so that players are "in-game" longer and have more opportunities or reasons to interact with the RMT shop.

"

So far, it can be said of Diablo Immortal (I haven't even thought about the cash shop), BUT there will always be suspicions they tweak things for alpha/beta tests to accelerate the testing. I don't harbour those suspicions myself: this reduces the efficacy of the test results. But gamers are nothing if not a suspicious lot.

OT Questions:

1)(revisited) What do you see in terms of multiplayer possibilities or development focus? Has it come into play, yet?

2) How linear or rigorously structured is Campaign Play?

3) Is "direct" on-screen trading possible between players? (IF multiplayer is enabled)

4) How many "dupe-bugs" have you found? (No Diablo game has ever been free of a dupe-bug. Not one. :))

Question: Is it really a phone game or a tablet game?
Phones just seem too damn small for decent playability.

I can’t stand playing an ARPG on a phone or a tablet. Just feels way clunky.