Often times it’s not until after I finish one of these rants that I realize I’ve missed some major detail, something that could have summed the whole thing up nicely. And while an anthology of Blizzards past successes to contrast their modern failings against is good, I entirely missed out detailing why Diabalo 3 is gonna suck. So let me break it down.
When I played Lost Vikings, WarCraft 1/2, Diabalo, Starcraft and the rest I was inspired. I felt like they were these cool dudes trying something new then putting it out there and saying “I hope you enjoy this”, like they were on my level. And I wanted to be like them. But then World of Warcraft drew in the business men and Blizzard was gutted. Starcraft 2 was basically a cash grab, replacing imitation with it’s predecessors innovation, and as I illustrated at least starting the conversation that leads to innovation is incredibly easy to do. But the subtext of the Diabalo 3 announcement makes that pale in comparison. Let’s look at what they’re saying:
Always on internet required – “This game isn’t for everyone, just the affluent.” Granted it’s not that big a deal for most of the people complaining about it, but the point is they’re intentionally setting the bar higher than “everyone.” Contrast this with Starcraft which ran on 6 year old specs when it came out. But alright, so they only want people who enjoy a certian level of technology. What are they going to offer this techno elite?
Mods Prohibited – “We own this game, you don’t.” And you’re going to play their game like it or not. Well that’s real nice. I’m the sort of person that when I get a new toy takes it apart and puts it back together again. I don’t feel like I own something if I can’t.
In Game Auction House for Real World Money – “If you think you can make back some money on this game, don’t forget we get a cut.” Never mind that, as I said, you don’t really own the game you paid for, that’s not enough for them. Actually, Paul Saunders may have summed it up the best. (Jump to 1:21 in that video.)
What Blizzard is doing is turning every single player into a gold farmer. Apparently someone in Blizzard’s Business Development department decided ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ and then appended ‘then devour their business model and use the flowing profits to add to your already glorious horde of gold and jewels.’ That person may possibly have been a dragon….
…You pay Blizzard a fee when you buy the item and they pay Blizzard a fee when they post the item. They’re also paying Blizzard to extract the money from their system. So really in the end Blizzard is making more money from these transactions than you are…. Any profits you take home is just what Blizzard is paying you to gold farm on their behalf. See my previous comments regarding glorious hordes, gold, jewels and dragons.
Naturally this statement was a funny slant on things for the lulz, but it’s not far from correct.
Now compare with my previous statement about how I felt Blizzard “were these cool dudes” when I was a wide eyed and innocent youngster and I hope I’ve managed to justify my repeated expressions of disappointment. In fact I hope I’ve encouraged you to be equally disappointed with the way the money grubbers have ruined things.
RSS Comments.
August 29th, 2011 - 9:29 am
You some of your points in a… not very tactical way. For instance, saying that you have to be able to mod a game to enjoy it (personally or not) would mean you dislike /a lot/ of games. The statement just doesn’t make any sense like you put it.
But I do agree with the fact that previously it were games made by gamers, and now it’s all about money. It always happens when a company grows too much. Pretty much the ONLY exception is Valve if you ask me, and even there it is seeping through by now.
August 29th, 2011 - 10:26 am
Taking something apart isn’t about liking it. It’s about ownership. And in my opinion it’s a jerk move to charge people premium prices for something without offering them ownership. It’s like Apple. You can use their stuff but in the end they have control over the device in your pocket. Imagine if a vehicle were built that didn’t have a hood and the only way you could change your oil was to take it to a dealership where they can use their specialized tools to remove the body to get at the engine? People wouldn’t stand for it unless they were really cheap. Yet we pay full price for hands-off technology and software all the time. Something’s screwy here.
October 28th, 2011 - 11:35 am
I think Bobby would agree.
November 6th, 2011 - 5:43 pm
do you support piracy? and what are your views on them?
back in the days where games were just made for offline play with no online authentication… people could duplicate CDs and just install a crack to enable play…
you could buy just one CD and share it with 10,000 other people…
how much money does the game company earn?
will it be worth it for them to create new games if knew they would be earning nothing?
they are trying to earn a living just like you and me and everybody else…
they do not run a charity that makes free awesome games for everyone to play…
requiring online connection play with authentication solves this problem…
monthly subscriptions further stops piracy… (not that i like it though… that’s why i don’t play WOW)
why mods are prohibited? well… you ask yourself this question…
IF u created something would you like some other random people to change it without your consent?
and what’s the problem with them taking a portion of your auction money?
you are viewing it as – “i sold this bow for $10… and they stole 10% from me!!! now i get only $9 instead of $10!!!”
so why don’t you factor in your “loss” by selling your bow at $11.11?
so after the 10% tax… you still get $10?
basically… what you really are not happy about is that blizzard is making use of our transactions to earn more money…
which from your point of view is “farming” us…
well… do you buy food from restaurants? are you happy to do so? are u willing to do so? don’t you think it’s injustice to the farmers who farmed those vegetables to sell to the suppliers for cheap prices? which in turn sold to the restaurant you are eating from? aren’t everybody “farming” from everybody else? if we start thinking from your point of view?
blizzard spent years in making Diablo 3… how much payroll does that count for those staff they hired just to make the games you wanna play? what about the resources needed for the production costs? and how much more resources do they need to put in to maintain server costs after the games released?
so let me ask you a simple question…
IF blizzard released Diablo 3 for FREE
and IF they don’t charge anything for online auction house…
basically… everything about Diablo 3 is FREE…
would you enjoy the game then?
would it still suck?
if you don’t like it… don’t play…
if you are not intending to play it… don’t try to pull them down…
seriously… what’s your problem?
you have yet to give a valid reason as to how Diablo 3 sucks…
only for your unhappiness towards them earning more money from their hard work…
you sir… in my eyes… is just a big selfish bastard…
there!
November 10th, 2011 - 12:48 pm
.
| Always on internet required – “This game isn’t for everyone, just the affluent.”
Are you still living in the 90s? This is almost as absurd as complaining about needing to have a computer. Yes, this game is only for people who can meet the requirements for playing the game. That’s true about every game and has no bearing on whether the game is fun for people who can meet the requirements.
| Mods Prohibited
Um, would you say an amusement park sucks because you’re not allowed to “mod” the rides? Diablo 3 is not a toy you can take apart and put back together. If that makes you unhappy, fine, but it still has nothing to do with whether the game is fun to play as-is.
| In Game Auction House for Real World Money
I don’t consider the Auction House relevant at all. It has nothing to do with gameplay and you can certainly play without ever using it. Create a character and go. Use what you find. Ignore the AH. Like the internet, or the non-existence of mods, the auction house is basically a meta-game element. None of those things are The Game. Please review The Game
January 2nd, 2012 - 7:07 am
I can understand the need to protect against piracy, but why are some of you getting stuck on that point? It’s like the moment the word piracy pops up, it’s like most people suddenly become deaf and blind to anything else.
I come from South Africa and we still pay for the data we use. It’s not just a monthly fee with us and games like this that love to check that your not using a cracked version really does eat up your data cap real quick. It’s not an effective solution for a global product while it focuses on only the 1st world countries. Might I also point out that there are and always have been ways to bypass this method and I assume even when Diablo 3 appears with it, yet again somebody will figure out a way around it.
As for mods, why SHOULDN’T I be allowed to mod the game to what I want? I’m a Linux user and I’m used to modifying FREE code to suite my needs. Why shouldn’t I be allowed to shape small episodes I can share with my friends in a game I paid R500 for? Exactly. It’s lame ass excuse to blame piracy for this.
And finally. They make it so you never really owned the game. You go to the store, you buy it for FULL retail price (about R500-R600 here), you have to go home and download multi-gig stuff to play it. Then when you want to sell it again, you’re not allowed to without giving Blizzard a cut…. and you guys are going to blame piracy for this… right.
I hate to break it to some of you, but it’s not about piracy anymore. It’s about making money. They just use the illusion of fighting piracy to convince the slow amongst you… and by the looks of it they’re succeeding.
March 24th, 2012 - 6:37 pm
First off I would like to point out irony when I go to see Paul Saunders’s video and I see an advertisement for Star Wars: TOR and that companies new money sapping game, hilarious. On the actual topic here though, I like to see facts in argumentative articles. The purpose of an article is to push your ideas upon others by the use of facts, ethos and of course pathos the three main components of any argument.
In your argument your theses are not supported by facts only your opinions and the opinions of an opinionator. To use these as facts to help your argument is silly and I do not agree with the style you have chosen.
Today Blizzard produces games after years of testing and developing to create a new brand of ideas and innovations for games. One of your main points is that Blizzard lost this and therefore Diablo 3 will suck right? Your real argument is about Blizzard not the game. However, Blizzard did not loose this identity and I can prove this to you.
You say that “everybody who had worked on these great and innovative titles, pushing the boundaries, left.” This is not supported at all by facts but since you did not share the actual people who left or their contribution to the projects, I will have to take it as fact. Most older generation stick to tradition, and like you they seem to want the old not the new. When Blizzards people left they brought in new people, usually accomplished or younger people, based on the job market today. This is good news for the company, it shows they are able to change and bring in new minds, and with it new ideas. This is how the idea of the real money AH was made, by introducing new minds.
This AH is innovative and completely new to the game market so this small fact invalidates your argument that Blizzard is no longer innovative. This AH is looked as a way for Blizzard to take money away from the people and it is the pure evil that is “stealing” or “farming.” I see the AH as a new idea to solve the age old question of “How do I pay my employees?” I say this because if you expect Blizzard to work on a game for countless years and give the game to the consumers to enjoy for free you are not meant for this market economy that we live in. I also must say that if you expect the game to expand after it was bought without blizzard having income from that game, you are blinded. No company would dare look to spend more money on a game in which they already paid out of. The AH is a way to pay the employees their wages as well as allowing the people who just want to enjoy the game for $60 play the game without making them pay a monthly fee. I believe this real money AH, along with the game money AH(which you never seem to mention), will branch out to different games and create a new game meta.
Companies of the day follow the world’s zeitgeist, the idea to make money. If you talk to any college language professor they will tell you hands down that the argument behind advertisements is, “look at this item, buy it.” It has never been look at the item and here is what good it will do you but not me. Games were made to make a profit, Blizzard took this and reversed the thinking just like Apple. instead of This is what we make, buy it, they say “Here is what you need, this has your need, this is your product.” Blizzard is still making games to be fun in order to make money.
In order to make money you must protect what yo invested on. To do this Blizzard is not only using no modding but also no stealing and rewriting the hard copy to pirate. Lawsuit are pilling up in many district courts with cases that are about copy-write infringement on code. Simple things like making a helper method that did what the other method already had can turn ones original into your sell-able product. Blizzard does not want this to happen. They do say no modding but what people do not see is that they never said no add-ons, meaning hey you can still make the game to what you want, just not own the rights to it.
And to all who think Blizzard is making a profit off of the AH transactions look back to the world and see that whatever you do people are making money off of you. As I speak for Fairness said, restaurants are charging you to eat food, and most restaurants are charging you to eat at their restaurant. When you cash a check they take money out, this is just life.
March 30th, 2012 - 10:05 am
I really hope you read this.
There are a few things I am concerned about more than what you have pointed out.
Let me tell you right now, I agree Diablo 3 isn’t going to shine and come out great and FYI I don’t know about you, but I played the beta.
1) Unable to allocate stat points and skill points and given access to simply the perfect build and the ability to use all skills just shattered the concept of Diablo.
Jay Wilson literally said this is how it is going to be to make it straight forward and easier. So pretty much you can be retarded and be as good as others. That’s very cool. Very creative of Diablo 3. That just fucked up my interests.
2) Like you said RMAH but that isn’t much of my concern because I don’t play for competition (It is impossible to be the best anyways, at least that’s how i think of it)
3) Only a level cap of 60.
This game seems rather way too short. I was expecting this game to be adventerous and satisfying. But to seem to become shorter than Diablo 2, I don’t think this game is going to cut.
April 22nd, 2012 - 7:01 pm
to SomeKoreanKid – stop basing everything on the BETA
to hater -
since when was diablo 2 not ground breaking?
diablo 1 was just a classic, 2 is what left a real impression
also, ask almost any1, warcraft 3 got … a little dull after a while, as opposed to starcraft 2….well, the scene is still growing after overflowing random bars and las vegas! its leading esports
i don’t understand your thing about it being “all about the moneyz” blizzard obviously plays the game (making them gamers by definitino and….every other way) and how was it different before?
starcraft 2 is fun – the story is well written (if your a hater….well its hard to tell is 6 seasons story with just 1 season, plus it was fun and a great intro to new ppl)
what more do you need? i’m sure most people are enjoying this as much as they did in sc1
(sorry for misorganization, i’m bad at writing stories)
April 23rd, 2012 - 11:33 am
I am just commenting to invalidate everyone’s so called point about the always on thing. I am in the US Navy, while out to sea we work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are not allowed or able to have an internet connection on our personal computers while on deployment. We are not allowed to play games on Navy computers, as those must be used for on-shift personnel for work and email. This is all due to OPSEC, or operational security. We are not allowed any communication/programs/ect that cannot be strictly monitored and controlled. They only recently started allowing us on Facebook, and the minute some idiot screws that up by posting ships movement we won’t have that anymore.
Surprisingly enough, with these long hours, drills, watches and everything else we have to do, we like to relax in our off-shift time. Some play video games, some go to the gym, some sit on the fantail(back of the ship) and watch the jets take off(for those like me that work on a carrier). Some work even longer hours (I have pulled more than a few triple shifts to fix jets). Seeing how we don’t have internet available for video games and use on personal devices Always-on connections are impossible.
Tell me more about how I don’t deserve to unwind while serving my country. Tell me more about how nobody in this day and age lacks an always on internet connection. Tell me more about why I don’t deserve to play a game I spent my hard earned money on while out to sea for 5, 6, 8, 10 months at a time. Tell me more about how justified retarded DRM is. Please, tell me more you self righteous autistic douche bags.
April 23rd, 2012 - 12:24 pm
I tend to try to let the comments flow before responding to them I apparently have let this go a bit. I guess on this issue with the constant flow of comments on the YouTube video itself I’ve kinda become desensitized. And while I doubt those who asked the question will return to see the answers, here they are anyways:
@I speak for Fairness Do I support piracy? Lemme put this in succinct terms: Trying to stop piracy by making things harder for your paying customers is about the dumbest thing any publisher can do. I don’t care about their justifications they are giving power to the pirates as their competitors who can offer a better product that is easier to use runs in more places for less money simply by stripping the DRM. I don’t give piracy a penny of my money, but sometimes I’d rather use a pirated game than the commercial one.
“IF u created something would you like some other random people to change it without your consent?” Yes. Absolutely. ASCIIpOrtal came with the ability to make your own maps and THE FREAKING SOURCE CODE! And amazing things have come out of that openness, things I never considered a possibility when I made it.
Restaurants are charging me for the preparation of my food and for cleaning the dishes afterwards, a service I will gladly pay for. I’ve never paid to cash a check because I have had a bank account since before my first job. : Blizzard charging to sell their in game items you spent the time time to acquire, after paying the up front and monthly fees, on it on the justification that “well that was already happening before” is just plain greedy. They had an opportunity to be the good guy and make the transactions free, once and for all stomping out the competition by offering a better service for less money, but no. They wanted to eek out every penny they could.
“if you don’t like it… don’t play…” I won’t.
“if you are not intending to play it… don’t try to pull them down…
seriously… what’s your problem?” No problem. I like to start conversations. I saw something that needed to be addressed. Simple as that.
@John Andrew For your first point, see @Robert Smith’s comments. For the other two, when did I mention that the lack of modability or the auction house making the game less fun? Fun is not the issue here. I’m sure this game, like all video games, will be fun. So don’t tell me “It’s fun, so all bets are off.”
@Brenton Scott Thank you for your comments.
@James Armstrong I am really trying to understand your post there, but it’s written like an 8th grader trying to sound like he’s in college. Sorry, I’m not trying to be critical of you personally I just… don’t get your point. You put a lot of words there and in the end didn’t say anything clear enough that I can respond to.
@SomeKoreanKid Okay, not the direction I intended to go, but thank you for your comments.
@the pacifiist Did I not show Diablo 2 enough love? I barely said anything about it but nothing I said was uncomplimentary. Diablo 2 was good, okay?
“how was it different before?” It was different before, trust me. I won’t say “better” or “worse” but it was different and there are aspects of that different that I preferred and there are aspects of the way it is now that I prefer. For instance I would not sacrifice all the advances in technology we’ve had since then for the sake of a little nostalgia.
@Robert Smith Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for your comments. I love it. Blizzard’s D3 requirements are messing with the down time of the men of the armed service. Not good.
But even if Blizzard does an about face and fixes this one thing there’s still the fact that they made this choice in the first place and the fact that they’re still trying to squeeze every penny out of you that they can. They’re still being jerks and I don’t have to like it.