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[hemmingjay]

Servers are indeed a bit more stable, rarely a hiccup for me, but the latest patch has introduced much more stuttering for me.

[Darkmere]

How do you know the server is stable and the problems are fixed if you never had any problems in the first place?

Do you think they've fixed the problem by providing the server infrastucture the game needed, even though it isn't WoW? Or is it because less people are playing it concurrently now that it's been out for a month or so?

I've heard "launch week sucked!" quite a bit. I've heard "last night was awful" not at all. How are the servers working for you?

I don't know the usage statistics. Can you show me where they haven't provided infrastructure?

[Andir]

tl;dr making blanket statements loaded with false pretense in order to cause strife/get attention is trolling. All I was saying is, try it for yourself and make your own decision. There's a free trial for just that purpose.

Is it a blanket statement when others are complaining about the same things?

[nenjin]

I actually thought the starter content gave a decent feel for the gameplay through somewhere mid-hell difficulty. There were difficulty ramp-ups, which is about par for the course in a Diablo game, and they felt appropriate to me. I also didn't expect a demo to fully illustrate and model the entire course of endgame; that's not what a demo is for.

The starter content basically pulls a bait and switch, leaving the player going "wwaaaaahhhhh?" First, it gives you the impression the game so easy, so idiot proof, you're guaranteed to have to play a second playthrough just to feel like you've done more than a 7-year old could accomplish. It basically undercuts any meaningful difficulty so the fish hook gets deeply embedded in your mouth.

And then it pulls the switch, by starving you of gear which lead you to falling behind, which necessitates either Act farming or the AH to feel like you're getting an even shake. And that's before you even reach Hell difficulty.

Basically, the starter content barely holds any relation to the vast majority of the game you're going to be playing. And last I checked, a demo SHOULD be clueing you into the game you're going to be playing, not giving you gaming blue balls.

A better representation of the game content would be starting someone at Nightmare, that would at least make very clear to all players exactly what they're in for. Normal bears so little relation to the meat of D3, in terms of difficulty or loot distribution and effectiveness, it serves almost no purpose other than bait.

[Leatra]

The complaint was that you "had to buy gold on the RMAH." The commodities (gold, gems, crafting junk) section of the RMAH is not active. I should also mention that there are still trading forums that work on bartering, just like D2 does/did. And you can choose not to use any of them.

Complaint wasn't "had to buy gold on the RMAH" it was about buying items. Actually it wasn't even a complaint.

I even read a theory about how this is a plan to force (not encourage) people to buy items from RMAH because it's impossible to progress otherwise.

It was an observation. I looked at other people's complaints. Just look at what people are saying.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5912671427
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5911882217
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5912671245
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5889310460
And these:

tl;dr making blanket statements loaded with false pretense in order to cause strife/get attention is trolling. All I was saying is, try it for yourself and make your own decision. There's a free trial for just that purpose.

Is it a blanket statement when others are complaining about the same things?

Peope don't think you can just play the game without buying something from the RMAH. Now, before you start "you didn't even played yet just try it yourself" again, money is tight and I always buy games according to user reviews. In most games, the demo has nothing to do with the real game.

And you call me a troll. Oh sorry, you didn't call me a troll, you called the people troll who I'm agreeing with. They got a point and I don't think half the official forums are trolls. I'm sorry but this is the typical fanboy reaction, calling someone troll who doesn't agree with you. Come on, everybody is requesting for a sticky when a guy complains abot the drop rates or something. I'm sure nobody would support a troll.

For the lazy people I took a quote from one of the countless complainers.

But I digress, it's obvious what Blizzard is doing. They're nerfing drops and increasing repairs because they WANT, yes, WANT us to use the RMAH to progress (if we even still have the drive to play the damn game) so THEY can get a damn profit and line their pockets with gold. They're basically trying to force everyone who still wishes to play the game to have to purchase intangible PIXELS to prevent said player from dying all the time increasing their ability to play the game because they do survive longer and thus spend less gold on repairs before their coffers are all but emptied.

[fenrif]

How do you know the server is stable and the problems are fixed if you never had any problems in the first place?

Do you think they've fixed the problem by providing the server infrastucture the game needed, even though it isn't WoW? Or is it because less people are playing it concurrently now that it's been out for a month or so?

I've heard "launch week sucked!" quite a bit. I've heard "last night was awful" not at all. How are the servers working for you?

I don't know the usage statistics. Can you show me where they haven't provided infrastructure?

I don't know if they have or haven't done anything with infrastucture. I'm pretty much entirely talking about this:

Do you really think they're going to throw the same server infrastructure that WoW uses at a game that has no monthly fee?

Specifically the sentiment that this is an OK buisness practice, and not something people should be upset about.

I thought I allready explained this? Oh wait I did and you snipped that part of my post before you quoted it. :S

[Nadaka]

A demo is supposed to give people a taste of a game and entice them to buy.

A demo that shows how much a game sucks is a bad demo.

That is why a lot of studio's just stopped doing demo's.

[forsaken1111]

That is why a lot of studio's just stopped doing demo's.

Because they weren't able to just make better games?

[Darkmere]

*snipped for space*

D2 worked the same. Normal was very easy, hell took more planning. D3's starter shows you how skills progress, what champion packs are, etc. etc. Like, how the game itself plays. It demonstrates that. Like a demo.

Is it a blanket statement when others are complaining about the same things?

Two or three of those are vaguely similar. One is a suggestion thread from someone who likes the game, for mechanics tweaks. I'm not sure what you're getting at?

The complaint was that you "had to buy gold on the RMAH." The commodities (gold, gems, crafting junk) section of the RMAH is not active. I should also mention that there are still trading forums that work on bartering, just like D2 does/did. And you can choose not to use any of them.

Complaint wasn't "had to buy gold on the RMAH" it was about buying items. Actually it wasn't even a complaint.

And you call me a troll. Oh sorry, you didn't call me a troll, you called the people troll who I'm agreeing with. They got a point and I don't think half the official forums are trolls. I'm sorry but this is the typical fanboy reaction, calling someone troll who doesn't agree with you.

And you call me a fanboy, etc. etc. Internet flames rage. I tried to provide a counterpoint (That buying gold on the RMAH being necessary because the game is so hard, when buying gold from the RMAH isn't accessible yet and the game was recently nerfed) which you clearly are uninterested in. That's cool, if you've decided the game is not worth the money then by all means don't spend it. But it's my opinion (different than yours, since though I've admitted the game has flaws, I'm clearly a fanboy) that the game gets more bad press over optional features than it deserves.

Do you really think they're going to throw the same server infrastructure that WoW uses at a game that has no monthly fee?

Specifically the sentiment that this is an OK buisness practice, and not something people should be upset about.

I thought I allready explained this? Oh wait I did and you snipped that part of my post before you quoted it. :S

I thought I already said the servers were more stable and that fixing problems is acceptable for a company's practice. Then you argued that they hadn't fixed the problems, so I asked if you had problems. Then you deflected that to this again. So I'll clearly state it, again.

The observed lack of recent complaints about server stability implies to me that the servers are stable and playable for customers. I do consider functional service as implied to be acceptable. The terms of service directly state that 100% uptime of the service is not guaranteed. Further, I do not expect the same infrastructure as WoW's server clusters to be implemented for running Diablo 3, as there is no fee associated with maintenance of said servers. The RMAH is not a fee; I am not forced to use it and I do not see it as justification for demanding a certain level of hardware infrastructure comparable to a game that specifically uses monthly subscriptions.

Does that clear things up?

[Nadaka]

That is why a lot of studio's just stopped doing demo's.

Because they weren't able to just make better games?

Better games require story, gameplay and attention to detail, and the board of directors at EA doesn't care about that crap.

Call of warfare 36: Duty of Diablo: beach volley ball edition episode 2, just requires a higher pixel count and jigglier boob physics while dual wielding m60s, plus more lens flare. Always more lens flare.

Was that cynical enough?

[nenjin]

D2 worked the same. Normal was very easy, hell took more planning. D3's starter shows you how skills progress, what champion packs are, etc. etc. Like, how the game itself plays. It demonstrates that. Like a demo.

D2 normal was a complete game experience. I and many friends can attest to that. Higher difficulties always felt optional in D2. In D3, they're required unless you still drink from a sippy cup and wear a pastel bib when you eat.

D3's normal game is all the game, minus the parts that actually matter. You know, the challenge, the balance and the sense that any of it means anything at all.

Again, if someone wants to know what the actual game is like, the game they're going to actually be playing, the demo is a lie. A freaking Youtube video does as well of a job explaining the game as the demo. Possibly a better one.

[Darkmere]

I'd actually argue the opposite. D2's normal is a complete joke. You can go through it naked using rank 1 icebolt if you like (and hey, synergies meant that was beneficial!). D3's normal I actually did have to use multiple skills to progress through.

Related: I don't think either game is "complete" with only 1 difficulty in any case.

[nenjin]

We'll just have to disagree on that.

And I call BS on your example, I'm sorry, if only for one simple fact: Duriel. But any of the evils took more skill to beat in D2 than what D3 throws at you, and you actually had the chance to play the game a way other than what Blizzard dictated. Now? You're in the same skinner box just like everyone else. You can play it the way you want in D3 in normal as well (I suppose by deciding you're going to use nothing but the default melee swing?), but it's closer to deciding which weapon you want to slay a guy with, who happens to be unconscious, bound, gagged and poisoned. It really doesn't matter, you could beat him to death with a shoe, the end result is the same: he's going down with a minimum amount of fuss.

Or to put it another way, I don't remember beating Act Bosses and minibosses in less than 60 seconds in D2 normal. Yet that was how the majority of D3 played out for me. I remember nearly crapping myself in excitement when they first revealed the Siegebreaker Assault Beast....and it's laughable considering how he died like a total bitch in Normal in under a minute.

I also played the vast majority of D3 normal using two primary skills....my punch, and my finisher. Nothing else was required, and I probably didn't even need the finisher.

So yes, to me, Normal in D2 was a complete experience, in terms of gear, challenge and pacing. D3 it took almost 1.5 playthroughs to feel challenged, and by the time I'd hit Hell difficulty, I was so fucking sick of going through the same areas over and over again I could barely bring myself to play with friends. And the nickel and diming for health and damage upgrades, on top of the asshole Elite pack design and bosses whose damage skyrocketed, just kind of added insult to injury.

[IronyOwl]

Come on, everybody is requesting for a sticky when a guy complains abot the drop rates or something. I'm sure nobody would support a troll.

This displays a deep, DEEP ignorance of how forums, and especially Blizzard forums, work. Cherrypicking complaining posts does not give you any kind of reliable view of how people actually feel, and it certainly doesn't give you any kind of feel for how things actually are. I'm also not convinced you're actually reading this crap in depth and getting information off what they're actually saying, instead of just noting that they're pissed and don't like the AH and that somehow proves your point.


So, for starters, Blizzard forums are notorious for being whiny. Players in general are also whiny. Not that many people feel compelled to go make a post about how everything's kind of okay. Many people feel compelled to make a post about how everything's shit and stupid and they hate someone because it's all their fault. Finding more threads consisting of an angry rant followed by "+1" and "oh my god this is post of the year its so true this needs a sticky so Blizz can see it" than of threads consisting of gushing raves or "everything's kind of fine" followed by the same just means everything's normal.

Secondly, very angry-sounding people are generally not rational and thus not reliable. Look at that quote you displayed again. Does that sound like someone who's calmly noting something he's observed, or someone who's angrily complaining about something they don't like? That isn't to say everyone angry is wrong, but angry people tend to not make very reasonable decisions about what is or isn't a problem, what problems are whose fault, and what the motivation or process that resulted in the problem was. As an example of this, none of those links you provided actually displayed any actual logic for why they thought the goal was to encourage RMAH use. They just complained that things were harder, and then jumped straight into "therefore RMAH" with no explanation.

As an even better example, all of those posts were complaining about totally different things before blindly stumbling into "therefore RMAH." One was bitching about reduced drop rates from a specific boss and probably completely unreliably assumed drop quality. One was complaining about RMAH and difficulty level in the absolute vaguest terms possible. One was complaining that they couldn't wear items that were worth actual money but couldn't play the game without said items either. How does all this tie into the RMAH? It doesn't, some people are just angry, and they're not even coherent enough to properly explain why.


So, if you want to go by user reviews, that's fine, but trying to go by user reviews without getting a deeper feel for what they're saying than a thumbs up or thumbs down is both difficult and not very useful, and glancing at rage posts isn't either.

[Leatra]

People are angry for a reason. There is no depth. That's all what I'm going to say. I have never seen this many rage posts (or complaints) for one game feature.