Diablo IV: progress – or Immortal MK II?
Foreword (during beta)
There’s an open beta weekend next week so that you can try yourself for free for a couple of days, but here are my thoughts for you to consider before handing over cash to pre-purchase:
I am a ‘fan’ of Blizzard games but NOT a fan of Activision Blizzard, the company.
Having played Diablo IV beta for a few days, I have to say I like it, though it did get boring towards the end. Worse, its similarity to Immortal set off all sorts of alarms for me.
However, I also enjoyed Immortal for the first few days until I hit the “you may pass with cash, lots of cash” walls. And we all know how that game turned out.
Blizzard is now out and about, talking to anyone that will listen, stressing that Diablo IV will not have ‘pay-for-power’ (carefully avoiding saying pay-to-win), which is great. But Blizzard also called slithered onto /Reddit to refute a whistleblower’s claim that Immortal would be pay-to-win, saying that was all lies and it was “fake news”. As we all know, it was Blizzard that was lying.
Fast forward a few months, and they announced Diablo IV and are upfront in saying this will heavily feature microtransactions, but it will only be for cosmetics. Honest, you can trust us now. We won’t lie to you like we did last year. By the way, did we tell you about our new premium currency in Diablo IV? No? Well, never mind, pre-purchase the game anyway, and it will be fine. Trust us!
No, I don’t trust Blizzard. Not one iota!
Interestingly, talking of trust, Kotaku just ran a post on dubious shenanigans from the Diablo quarter: Diablo IV Interview’s Questions From ‘Fans’ Are Very Questionable.
“Those sure were some oddly-specific questions for some random Twitter users”, they pointed out.
As Pixels by Phil pointed out, the problem wasn’t just the (corporate) wording of the questions – supposedly chosen from fans – but, well the accounts that asked the questions were all dormant or in some cases non-existent. So, one person has only done one question tweet, ever, and that was ten years ago. But – we are to believe – they dusted off the account to submit a question to the Blizzard team. Another account had only one tweet, the question they asked the developers. The problem is, the account was created AFTER the interview was aired.
So, fake as heck! Just more corporate bullshitting and spin.
Update as at July, and season one
If you have been following this game lately, it’s but hit by a near-daily trauma. This rages from barbarians and druids doing gazillion damage and one-shotting end-game Lillith to Blizzard’s knee-jerk reaction and buffing mobs, nerfing XP and all classes getting nerfed and re-nerfed and, in the case of poor sorcerers, kicked in the nuts and tossed into the sewer.
Blizzard’s answer – to everything is – “If you’re not happy, don’t play, it’s fine (we have your money, we don’t give a shit)”
Then the mega nerf patch for season one (gotta make it hard to sell more premium passes, eh) which everything was angry about and destroyed their metacritic rating as they vented.
As this point, given Blizzard’s history and reputation, can anyone really be surprised?
Well, perhaps Blizz were as they back-peddled – while actually saying “FU, we aint’ changing shit.” The patch, hated as it is, is “working as intended”
Blizzard:
“I was working in the lab, late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
For my monster Patch from his slab, began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise… players weren’t happy!”
Anyway, showing their true intent and “lessons will be learnt (from Immortal)”…
Devs and players accuse Diablo 4 of menu design that makes you accidentally pay for its Battle Pass
“It was deliberately and maliciously designed that way”
Is anyone, anyone at all, really surprised?
Cod or real? Blizzard’s true plan for Diablo 4?
OK, Call of Duty isn’t Diablo, but Diablo 4 will have PvP zones, so it pans.
Below is a video of Bellular discussing Blizzard’s ‘desperate’ (for cash) move to create three-level, cash-based, pay-to-win seasons.
Watched it?
Now look at Diablo 4, (based on reports and on standard, deluxe and ultimate versions):
Upfront cost for game (£60 to £90 (to £187))
Free season (poor man’s rewards)
£10 a season (premium rewards)
£20+(?) a season (premium rewards, with tier skips)
It starts to add up fast, eh?
Activision cash grabs: SSDD!
The clues are out there!
Have you seen all the Diablo 4 tie-ins lately? They are like an open book to how bad the microtransactions will be in Diablo IV, time!
Support Twitcher streamers (of Blizzard’s choice) by giving them (the streamer) £10 and we’ll unlock a mount for you.
(So they are getting players to pay Diablo promoters!)
Gamebyte: Twitch exclusive Diablo 4 primal instinct mount
Then there’s the “limited edition” Steel series Diablo IV collection, buy a new mouse or earphones to get a mount trophy.
Then there’s the SecretLab Diablo 4 gaming chair – starting at $624… (no in-game bonus here though)
Even companies like KFC are buying into the launch! Earn Diablo 4 cosmetics by BUYING KFC meals
(You notice this a lot lately, sites like icy-veins, Wowhead, various gaming sites, all announcing how you can “EARN” Diablo 4 cosmetics – by spending money. Call me old-fashioned when I go to work or do a job for someone, to earn money, I expect to be paid – not to pay them!
This new type of arse-backwards marketing manipulation is just so wrong!
Assuming you are a “Diablo nut” (the target audience), that’s £262 for the game, box, and first years seasons, £10 to promote the game, maybe another £300 on the Steel series stuff, another £600 or so (if you can even get it in Europe) for the gaming chair, then the KFC meals, then…
The game isn’t even out yet and for a hardcore fan, the spend has already accelerated way past £1,000, and we’ve yet to see what horrors the in-game shop and premium currency want to squeeze fans for!
Unbelievably, some fans are like, “Take my money, Bobby; I don’t believe you are trying to exploit me!”
Fake reviews on Amazon and review sizes in now an industry. You may assume companies like Blizzard employ these too. In my opinion, there are too many vocal people jumping about, defending outlandish microtransactions. Too many for them all to be to be real
Hold onto your wallets, folks! Forewarned is forearmed!
The Immoral legacy!
We all know how greedy Activision are, though they are hardly alone in this, as predatory practices are rife in the gaming industry and out of control in the mobile games sector.
What set Activision Blizzard apart was Diablo Immortal. It wasn’t just greed. It wasn’t even the mind-bending level of cash it needed to max a character – with some players spending over $100,000, others calculating a final price as high as $500,000 per character.
No, those are not the most shocking aspects. What set Blizzard apart was that this was done by design. It was uncapped corporate greed, a cynical, cold, calculated, utterly ruthless, and amoral cash grab by them. Compounding this, they outright lied about it being pay-to-win, even when repeatedly questioned. And once it was obvious beyond any doubt, they resorted to pedantry, legal speak and denial, saying how their words were “misinterpreted” and people had “misunderstood” what they said.
Lead developer Wyatt Cheng, decrying a whistleblower and calling it “fake news”, and said, and I quote:
There is no way to acquire or rank up gems using money
Now, a clever lawyer would argue that is true. You can’t DIRECTLY do that; you can only buy platinum with cash and use that to buy crests for dungeons to increase the number of orbs that drop, thus increasing your chance of a decent orb. Even so, the obfuscated loot box model is a way to acquire and rank up gems using money, so however you twist it, he lied.
When they announced the next Diablo would be a mobile game, it wasn’t because that was want fans wanted; it was because of the huge profits they make from games like Candy Crush. The infamous and tone-deaf “Don’t you guys have phones?” said it all, really.
This is not a company that cares at all about its customers, players, or fans. I would argue is not even a games company. Rather its focus is so absolutely centred on profit above all else that it’s just another faceless corporate money-making machine whose product happens to be games.
And they want us to trust them again. To pay upfront for another Diablo iteration that will be heavily monetized from even before day one, but “trust us, guys, it will be tastefully done. In blood.”
Diablo models compared
Diablo 1 and 2, the original versions, were standalone, installed on your PC from disk, and as yet untainted by Activision, though clearly they positively influenced Diablo IV.
Diablo III diverged from the original style but is still enjoyed by many. It, too, has influenced Diablo IV in a mostly positive way, so obols for the curiosity vendor are essentially blood shards for Kadala, extracting aspects etc., from legendaries is Kulle’s cube, and so forth.
From this point on though, the game reverts back to Diablo Immortal. The beta looks, plays and feels exactly like Immortal, albeit with new animations like climbing, sliding and swinging across rope bridges.
HOWEVER, whereas cosmetics and seasons in Diablo III are 100% free, in Diablo IIV, they are tiered and will be (aggressively?) monetized. That it will be monetized even before release is not even a question, it is an absolute fact. One of the reasons for the pricing on standard, deluxe and ultimate D4 is the tier of seasons you can access – in the first season.
I’m Kegan Clark, director of product for Diablo IV here to talk about our approach to live service monetization in Diablo IV. As we’ve discussed previously, Diablo IV will be a full-price game with a Cosmetics Shop and Battle Pass—none of which provide any pay-for-power options.
Blizzard Entertainment, Diablo IV quarterly update, August 2022
Unambiguous, right?
Well, firstly, Cheng lied, so there’s that. Also, words matter, whether you are a lawyer, a writer, or a chemist. There’s that old joke about the guy poisoned in a bar after saying, “I’d like some H2O too.”
Sure, I’m paranoid; I do not trust Blizzard, but given their track record, how can you trust them?
So, the cosmetics shop will not provide “pay-for-power”. OK, I’ll accept that.
The battle pass will not provide “pay-for-power”. Hmm, I’ll come back to that one, ‘cos…
“We won’t place pay-for-power in any other way either”. Gotcha! See, they don’t say that.
They know they need to say it because we just don’t trust the buggers, but if they say it, they can’t get away with putting it in by stealth or in other disingenuous ways.
You only have to work out the sneaky way the devious bastards slipped loot boxes into WoW to understand how they work. (Spoiler: Unclaimed Black Market Container)
Each season will then include “major new features, questlines, enemies, legendary items, and more.” If any of the ‘legendary items, and more’ are locked into the premium season, that is a paying-for-power.
“When a new season begins, all the characters from the prior season are moved to the Eternal Realm, where you can keep playing, levelling up, and collecting loot.”
Which is fine; that’s exactly how Diablo III works (albeit without the $40+ a year tagged on).
Season Journey:
Players are pushed to explore Sanctuary anew, earning limited-time rewards with each chapter of the Season Journey that is completed. Completing the Season Journey is quite a feat, with the final step demanding the character overcome an extremely difficult encounter with an especially deadly foe.
…
Like Diablo III, the Season Journey is free for all players. Completing Season Journey objectives also grants progress toward the Battle Pass, a new feature with a battle pass-style progression that advances alongside the Season Journey, enabling players to earn even more rewards just by playing. The Battle Pass has both free rewards (cosmetics, premium currency, and gameplay boosts) and paid rewards (cosmetics and premium currency only).
Paid rewards being cosmetics AND premium currency.
That, right there, strongly suggests they plan to sell currency, just like Immortal.
The question is whether, or more likely how they plan to disingenuously work pay-to-win (pay-for-power) into the game, while attempting to claim the high moral ground.
They can’t, can they? Right?
It’s Blizzard, the minute any form of PvP ladder* is announced; they will monetize it. You will be able to pay for power, one way or another!
(Note: In it’s current state, pre-seasons, it’s a leisurely farm for cosmetics).
Anything thing nudges you towards the right skills for your gear gives you an advantage in whatever passes for Greater Rifts and whatever form PvP takes. It will be all about Seasons. Bit like Vicious mounts in WoW PvP; the top players get the season’s mount, the rest look on in envy.
It’s not a question of if they will do it but of how they will do it while having their highly paid lawyers fanangle the legal difference between your “misunderstanding” of the precise wording and meaning of their stated and implied intents. You know, exactly like Diablo Immortal.
The PvP doesn’t bother me, I’m rubbish at it. It frustrated the heck out of me in WoW; I never made ladders in other games like Warcraft, either. I like to plod along at my own pace, bothering nobody. Then Immortal came along, and – by design – they bottled-necked and nerfed PvE into the ground to hard-sell PvP.
I like Diablo III in moderation, Diablo IV is OK far… I don’t think it’s worth £60, but it’s OK unless they break it to sell transmogs and cosmetics or pay-to-win in none pay-for-power ways.
PvP live, pre-seasons
Funnily enough, it’s mostly empty!
I died a few times at higher levels and thought sod that. I’ve had encounters where players helped enough others, others where players mug you. Others were more honourable; are cool about it, whether they defeated you – or not, which is how it should be.
Anyway, I went back and played as a level 20-ish twink (more to beat mobs than players).
Crashes aside, losing all your shards, it’s empty. You can farm the blood shards all day unmolested, levelling up alts while you do it. If your alt gets too powerful, make another. Just put the gear into storage, powerful to about 15 or so and head back to the area. At present, there’s a mount and a handful of accessories.
T’is the Season to be jolly?
Import to note that, because I had to dig to find it, and even there, I found lies coming out of Blizzard. Or, for their lawyers, outdated statements about seasons.
Furthermore, they are intentionally not clear about this on the order page and rely on you assuming you know what they plan*
(Remember, they are a multi-billion dollar corporation with an army of lawyers).
*Takes a deep breath*
ANYWAY, the premium access in the deluxe versions is a one-season deal only.
After that, you have to pay or grind your way through the first season (at premium level) and complete it to earn enough premium currency to pay for premium access in the next season.
This is without spending it anywhere else in the game, despite, one must assume, frequent pop-ups suggesting things for you to spend this premium currency on, just like Immortal.
Hmmm, I used “premium” an awful lot there. Well, just preparing you for Diablo IV.
*(So, the onus and any blame is redirected back to you, you “should have known”. Due diligence and all that.)
Basically, so it goes, there are only TWO tiers, free, or premium. You remember how that went in Immortal, right?
I tend to be cynical and blunt, your typical ‘old man yells of clouds’, “Get off my lawn!” type of bluster. If it looks like a spade, it’s a spade, so don’t bullshit me, OK. I know the difference between fork handles and four candles!
So, free seasons. Fine! You are apparently looking at 80 hours of farming to make it, and like Immortal, you won’t get all the goodies, but you’ll get something.
Premium seasons are said to initially cost $10 a season, so another $40 a year. And that’s it. Just the two tiers. No fasting-tracking we promise!
Except, see, that’s not quite true.
Standard Diablo IV (£60): no mention of seasons on the Diablo IV order page.
Deluxe Diablo IV (£80): “Premium Seasonal Battle Pass Unlock.”
Ultimate Diablo IV (£90): “Accelerated Seasonal Battle Pass Unlock (includes a Premium Seasonal Battle Pass Unlock plus 20 Tier Skips and cosmetic)”
So, arguably, there are three tiers, each more expensive than the last, each with greater rewards.
To quote Blizzard again:
Players can’t upgrade Season Boosts just by purchasing Tiers, because they’ll also have to earn level milestones to apply them. All other Tier rewards can be unlocked instantly by purchasing Tiers.
For a start, paying to advance, to progress faster, to get rewards faster, IS a form of ‘pay to win’, even if it’s only cosmetic. You are getting ahead.
Beyond that, it’s a case of “what’s in the box?” Of what are extras that aren’t “power” advantages but still give other advantages that speed progress?
For instance, a faster PvE mount is not a power advantage, but it’s would speed up farming. I’m sure many of you will be aware of a druid with max speed’s advantage in Wow regarding farming ore and herb nodes. But it’s not power, so that would be fine.
Bigger bags.
In many games, lack of bag slots is a problem, hence the high cost of bags in WoW. If you can buy bigger bags with premium currency, it may have great cosmetics and twice the storage, but it’s not ‘power’ so it’s allowed.
Semantics, eh. If it’s not ‘power’ (as we define it, though we won’t tell you our definition for ‘power’) then it’s not ‘pay-for-power’.
An analogy would be marathon. You all have the same brand of trainers (of power), but the more you pay, the further along the course they’ll set your starting point (reducing the distance you have to cover), but that’s not paying to win as it’s not a ‘power’ advantage.
Sounds silly, saying it, but just watch, wait and see.
Diablo IV: predicting the store
I’m making a probability list of things I am sure they will upsell based on beta play, past experience, and the live game:
Emotes: 100%
(e.g. Wings of the Creator is Ultimate only, and Emote is a sliding wheel with empty slots to fill.
Some quests, actions, and shrines need emotes, for instance. It’s not hard to imagine others like an ‘owned’ or a ‘pwned’ emote for PvP. You only have to look at WoW’s Flag of Ownership, which goes for about £300!)
Wings: 100%
(Already in the version packs, with some applied to Diablo III)
Pets: 100%
(Obviously, as they know, it’s easy money from collectors and completists. Again, one’s already applied to Diablo III, and there’s an emote to pet cats and dogs etc.)
Mounts: 100%
(e.g. Temptation mount in deluxe and ultimate. Again, easy money from collectors and completists)
Outfits looks etc.: 100%
They have already stated this is the primary function of the in-game micropayment store.
Selling in-game currencies: 100%
How far, how extreme they go remains to be seen, but they are going in.
Platinum (for Shop): 100%
Gold (as they do in WoW)? Unlikely, but possible, directly or via platinum conversion, similar to Immortal
Obols (basically Diablo 3 blood shards)? As gold.
Blood shards? Can;t see it, the way the game is live, but if they change how PvP goes, then I can see them looking to monetize PvP and way they can, while attempting to skirt around the pay-to-win taboo.
“Premium” season passes: 100%
(e.g. Deluxe is +£20, Ultimate is +£30)
If you have to pay for unlocks and not all the unlocks are ‘cosmetic’ well, it’s leaping over the fence into Immortal territory. As I said above, you can give definite advantages while legally skirting around the ‘power’ advantage.
Legendary gems: 100%
They are in Diablo III, they will go into Diablo IV.
Whether they are a cosmetic-only effect, like a red vampiric glow, or the footsteps of Illidan or something more akin to Diablo III remains to be seen.
Regardless, I can see them introducing legendary gems in seasons, with the drop rate nerfed unless you pay for premium access.
(So Immortal all over again, but hopefully not at the same insane level.)
Storage: 100%
I’ll state right now. They fully intend to build storage into seasons to upsell premium passes!
100% guarantee it!
They do it in diablo three. They WILL do it in Diablo 4. Now, I believe they will be fair in that (like D3) it will be an unlock in free season play. However, they don’t intend to make seasons easy, so there will be psychological pushes to nudge players into making the “right” choices – to paying for premium season passes. Not just for the FOMO but to skip tiers.
Diablo 3 has 13 tabs (70 slots to a tab, so 910)
Diablo 4 has just 4 tabs (50 slots to a tab, so 200)
Diablo 4 has 4 or 5 times less storage – there are going to try to sell it back to you!
In my opinion, they looked jealously at Path of Exile’s tab storage prices and decided they want they extra revenue too.
SSDD. A leopard never changes its spots!
I saw one gaming magazine proudly proclaim, “Blizzard seems to be back in their old form“, and snorted.
The old Blizzard is dead, killed off by Bobby Kotick and Activision years ago. Blizzard is a rotted corpse hiding under a frozen banner. If Blizzard is back, it’s an undead thing resurrected by some necromancer, and along with eating your brains, it needs your clothes, boots, motorcycle, wallet, credit card, and pin number!
They outright promised Immortal would not be pay-to-win – and then, when it was obvious to the entire world that it was a £100,000 pay-to-win game, they twisted their narrative and said people “misunderstood” what they said. All in an attempt to justify their toxic model.
They have outright, and upfront said they ARE going to monetise D4 with seasons and in-game purchases (supposedly ‘cosmetic’ only, which is what they said about Immortal, remember…)
The in-game shop is there, but not yet accessible in beta ([press P]).
Seasons are wholly free in D3, but will not be in Diablo IV, Which is Diablo Immortal all over again.
I can assure you, Blizzard are holding back on their monetisation model until after release to maximise pre-release sales. That is their modus operandi!
Sorry, but I’ll wait a few months after release to see how extensive and predatory their planned microtransactions are before parting with my money.
‘Cos: “Activision are still in their old form”
My honest take? I enjoyed the beta, BUT I believe they will take everything they learnt from Immortal and – more importantly – everything that’s still most profitable, everything they got away with – and apply it to Diablo IV on or after release.
Here’s the thing:
If people walked away from Immortal, they made money off many of them first, so they don’t care.
But when people walk away from Diablo, they have made £60 to £90 each, plus any microtransactions they squeezed out of them first.
Absolutely in many ways, Diablo IV looks stunning, but as long as Bobby Kotick is in charge, and given AB’s predatory nature, it would be foolish not to be more than a little cautious here!
You have to assume that Blizzard WILL take everything it learnt in Immortal, everything that worked, everything that still works despite being outed as ‘egregious’ – and apply all of that to Diablo IV.
There is a reason Blizzard was doling out free (trial) passes (e.g. KFC), O2, etc.) and are allowing a free open access (trial) next week: They want as many as possible to sign up (to buy a full copy) – before they see how far Blizzard is willing to take the microtransaction in D4.
*shrugs*
I loved the original Diablos.
I still play D3.
I thought Immortal was great for a few days – until I realised the walls, the hidden caps, the nested layers of RNG hiding its poison…
But now, for D4, I have doubts.
Before Immortal, and despite my loathing of Blizzard after BfA and Shadowlands (never mind their treatment of employees), I’d have bought the Ultimate D4 already. Now? Having seen the company for what it is, I cannot, will not ever trust them again, ever. Maybe if Microsoft takeover, but with Bobby and co. in charge, never.
So yes, AB are absolutely going to take all they can from players in D4. Whether they ruin the game to do so remains to be seen, hmm.
They, like many other game companies, have fully embraced the “unlimited upper spend” mentality. More than that, they openly sneered at the likes of EA and Ubisoft and, with Immortal, said, “Call yourselves greedy predators? You are amateurs! Hold my beer and watch this, bitches.”
Look at WoW:
You add up the price of the game, expansions, the subs, the store mounts and pets etc from the in-game store, the gold for cash, the many overpriced services, that’s easily £200 a year, per player, for years, decades even.
For lifelong players and raiders, that will be several thousand each, even without paying for boosts, BoE equipment and mats, TCG items, books, toys, merchandise, BlizzCon and all the rest. Fans are literally just begging them to “take my money” and Blizzard has the buckets and a conveyor system ready to collect it all.
WoW is staggering and has been limping along for some years, so Diablo 4 is their next planned cash cow.
And back to D4
I’m having a play with D4 beta, having gained a free code (e.g. via O2, KFC, etc.), and while it’s decent, I noticed a few things:
Firstly, the ‘free’ version appears slightly crippled (which is fine, saved me £60). The regular popups reminding me to get pre-purchase is annoying, though!
Secondly, as I’ve repeatedly said, the game gives out strong Immortal vibes. (Playing live, it still does).
I have plenty of credit on my account from converting WoW gold and nothing else to spend it on – yet I won’t buy D4 until at least well into release because I do not trust Blizzard not to ruin it with monetization. (Cosmetic ‘only’ my ****!) (In the end I actually got a free copy, compliments of Nvidia).
The big red flag for me was the £97 for the boxed Diablo IV “Collector’s Edition”, which does NOT include the actual game, making the CE version £187.
Apparently, the excuse is people might want to buy the boxed version for £97 but only buy the standard edition for £60 instead of the ultimate (everything in the Collector’s box but isn’t) version for an extra £30. That’s just bullshit. If you spend that money on the box, you want the full version.
Combined, that is more than treble the price of D3 CE, and with the cost of seasons and in-game purchases to follow, pushing it way past £240, it’s quadruple the price.
The shop is not live in the beta, but it’s there, waiting, just a ‘P’ away. Blizzard can’t help themselves! Bobby cracks the whip and they all fall in line. Pathetic!
Cynical, but given Blizzard’s track record, my genuine feeling is Immortal was a dry run for D4 and Bobby will squeeze loyal fans for all he can. And keep squeezing until he gets his mammoth payout from Microsoft, being the largest shareholder in the company by a mile.
A better way to consider this is perhaps a less cynical review. I will, however, lift this comment from the article for you to ponder:
According to the developers, a free Battle Pass will also be available alongside the Premium one, which means that non-paying players will at least be able to redeem a handful of cosmetic rewards during a Season.
Gamerant (Jan, 2023): Diablo 4 battle pass explained
So – according to the developers – if you want the full experience, pay up or just get left with “a handful of cosmetic rewards”.
My take? They are going to shove cosmetics in your face at every opportunity and ram FOMO down your throat every bit as aggressively as they did in Immortal.
SSDD! Blizzard hasn’t changed.
Update:
I already had misgivings, but I thought I’d try the necromancer in the second beta weekend. I looked at the 3-hour login queue and thought, “You know what, I just can’t be bothered.”
It is blindly obvious that they want as many people as possible to try it free, like it and pre-register, buying the full version before they see the microtransactions in action. It’s going to be a shitshow!
Diablo (3) is all about seasons. We have had 28 seasons so far, all free. Now, in D4, they want you to pay £10 a season (or get scraps), pay for transmogs, and pay for whatever else they have lined up. Well, no!
If you reward out-of-control greed by saying, “I love this, take my money”, they will keep offering less and less and asking for more to unlock it.
It’s a hard pass from me. I am not supporting Blizzard’s greed! I have uninstalled Diablo IV.
Smooth with the rough
Apart from a little boredom, I think the game is decent. Like many other Diablo fans, I worry that Blizzard’s unhealthy greed will wreck the game, just like it destroyed Immortal’s reputation.
Anyway, here are a few screenshots:
Update: April 2023
A few interesting articles have caught my attention, firstly one from PC Gamer – Diablo 4 boss has reassuring words for buildcrafters: Respeccing won’t be ‘prohibitively expensive’
For a start ‘prohibitively expensive’ is relative, whether in time or real world money. You have to remember this is a company that was perfectly comfortable with obscene levels of uncapped pay-to-win in Immortal, with at least one player spending over $100,000 on a single character.
In my opinion, making respeccing ‘not quite‘ prohibitively expensive opens the opportunity to pay for respec’s with premium currency (bought with real cash). Think of it like WoW tokens. You can grind for hours, days even – or you can drop another £20 into the store and get it done now.
Another recent article I read was on Wowhead. Diablo IV Group Interview Unveils New Information – Future of Diablo III, Leaderboards, Seasons
A cynics translation:
“Will there be a Secret Cow Level?
At launch, Diablo IV will have a gritty and grounded world. A cow level, wings, or pets take away from that groundedness. As they go down the line things will loosen up.”
Translation: “We plan to add these later, probabably to help sell the first expansion”
“Leaderboards make people look at the top of leaderboards and sway people into playing a certain class or build. Blizzard wants to make sure that they get leaderboards right.”
Translation: “We are wondering how to monetize this, while skirting around the no pay-for-power rule.
“Super rare Uniques, which are much rarer than the regular Uniques, were added since then which may not be available through gambling. Joe Shely added that they would double-check on that to make sure this information is correct.”
Translation: “Bloody Belgians, bloody EU, banning loot boxes. We need to find a way around this!”
“Are there going to be clan-specific activities in the future, like organizing a clan World Boss raid?
More features for clans are planned post-launch.”
Translation: “We are pretty sure we can monetize guilds. Maybe customizable guild halls, sort of like Guild Wars islands or the WoD garrison.”
“What cosmetics can we expect?
A wide variety, including more cosmetic types after launch.”
Translation: “We are going to make SO MUCH money on cosmetics!”
“Will Diablo III continue to have new Season themes or will they start repeating after Season 28?
Starting with Season 30 previous Seasons will be repeated.”
Translation: “Meh, we are pulling the skeleton crew off that to work on D4, it will just limp on before crawling under a rock to die.”
“Focus Until Launch of Diablo IV
After receiving feedback from the Diablo IV Beta, do you have a specific focus on what you want to change before launch?
The server infrastructure being ready for launch is the most important. They also want to focus on class balance and difficulty balance.”
Translation: “LOL. The servers totally won’t be able to handle launch.
Also, while we said respeccing won’t be ‘prohibitively expensive‘, we will keep buffing and nerfing classes until we get it right. On the upside, we may allow people to respec with premium currency instead of farming gold. So much money to be made in Diablo IV!”
Links and cautionary videos
Ackadia (2022): Diablo Immortal: Fun To Pay!
Ackadia (2022): Why I Quit Diablo Immortal, And Why You Perhaps Should Too.
Ackadia (2020): A Word On DLC And Loot Boxes. Acceptable, Or Not?
(Or you can buy actual, physical ‘cosmetic’ LARP armour from companies like Wyrmwick – instead of digital versions for your toons :D #NotJudgingYou )