450+ hours huh? Are you sure you're not just, I dunno... Bored of the game after spending most of the past couple months on it? With a release date of May 15th, that means there has been 66 days between the release of D3 and now.
66 * 24 = 1584 hours total
Minus 8 * 66 = 528 hours for sleep, gives us 1584 - 528 = 1056
1056 - 450 = 606
450 hours spent on the game, 606 not... I hate to break it to you, but you've spent almost half of your waking hours on D3 since release. I'm pretty sure anyone would call that a resounding success.
Surely if the game was so horrible, you'd have stopped playing about 400 hours ago maybe? Then your argument wouldn't seem so ridiculously flawed.
One thing that cannot be argued with is the fact that many people just don't feel as much satisfaction grinding for items as they did in Diablo 2.
Do you think that could be attributed to the fact that you were 5-10 years younger, so were more easily amused? As a child (or teenager) it's a lot easier to get excited over something. As you get older that excitement falls away and you are entertained by different things.
If you look at the games with as objective an eye as possible, you'll realise there's more similarities than you'd think. If you liked the item hunt in D2 but don't in D3, even when the item hunt is functionally the same (with minor differences for the sake of streamlining or changes to make it more fun), then chances are it isn't the game that is at fault: it's you.
You're not forced to use the RMAH, or even the regular gold AH.
If you don't feel excitement when getting a legendary or identifying a rare item, that's not something Blizzard can fix. The problem lies in you (and while I say problem, it isn't really: it's just that your tastes have changed, so you do not find the same things exciting anymore. Which is fine). I know I feel excited when I see an ilevel 63 rare drop, just waiting to see if I get something awesome (got a couple of really nice items so far).
You don't need to farm for 8 hours a day. You only need to do that if you care about being number 1: if you don't, then you can go at your own pace. There's no rush, so stop feeling like there is. Again, those are your feelings, not any fault of Blizzard's.
Step away from the game. Take your time. Focus on yourself. You don't need to touch the AH if you don't want to, you can farm everything yourself. Everything will take a lot longer, but that seems to be what you want, so.
So no, there are no fixes for the game to address your problem. Because your problem 100% lies within yourself. Don't blame Blizzard because of your own attitude towards the game.
On a final note, you seriously left your family for 2 weeks to play D3? As in, left the house entirely and left your wife to deal with the kids by herself? I can understand taking a week or two off of work, but leaving your family? Get your priorities sorted out.
and why is that a bad thing, you mean blizzard dont want it becauase they loose revenue from RMAH?
More that D2 is terrible compared to D3, that's why you won't see the majority of your ideas implemented.
Segregating the community by itself is also a bad idea: ideally you want everyone playing with everyone else. Splitting everyone up arbitrarily just means there's less people to play with, which creates the (possibly mistaken) notion that the game is doing badly so isn't worth playing. The only splits have been utterly necessary: region splits, and softcore/hardcore.
The thing is... All you're doing is placing some arbitrary line, saying 'this stuff is fine to do, but this stuff is TERRIBLE AND YOU'RE BAD FOR EVEN THINKING OF DOING IT'. While there are other people who really don't agree with you in the slightest.
Essentially, all the RMAH (and the AH in general) does is streamline what went on in D2 anyway. In the most basic of terms, the AH is an automatic trading service. Compare the two transaction examples below:
Regular trading
You advertise that you have an item, on forums or in-game or to your friends
You get an interested buyer and negotiate a price/worthy trade
You arrange a time and place to meet
You trade the items and/or gold (with the potential to be scammed by the other person)
End result: items and/or gold are traded between two people.
AH trading:
One person goes to the AH, places an item on there and dictates the price he thinks is worthwhile.
Another person goes to the AH, searches for the item she wants, decides whether the price is worth it and buys the item.
End result: items and gold are traded between two people.
The end results are exactly the same, but the AH was so much easier than 'face to face' trading.. The two separate parts to the transaction can also occur at different times, while a 'face to face' trade requires you to be online at the exact same time.
How on earth can you say one method is fine, while the other is terrible? They are, at the core, the same thing. Trading. Just two different methods of doing it.
I suppose the thing that everyone gets caught up on is Blizzard's cut. The thing that marks them out as greedy and evil people. You know, ignoring the whole, server maintenance costs, employee salaries, and the fact that A COMPANY IS MEANT TO MAKE A PROFIT. IT'S THE ENTIRE POINT OF THEIR EXISTENCE.
Microtransactions are the future of gaming. They aren't automatically an evil thing. If handled incorrectly, sure, they're bad: however, if handled in the right way, they can enrich a gaming experience and make it even better. They also wouldn't need to use microtransactions if, y'know, people stopped pirating games. But that's another topic entirely.
In conclusion: stop demonising real money transactions in gaming. They're the future of gaming and you may as well get used to it, they really aren't going anywhere.
Diablo 3 is a farming game, same as Diablo 2 before it. If you're struggling in Inferno, you go back a difficulty and farm to get better gear/gold to buy better gear, then go back and progress further.
That's the entire point of the game. If this is likely to burn you out, then I'm afraid D3 may not be the game for you.
The idea of D3 'dying' is frankly hilarious. Do we consider Skyrim 'dead' when people no longer play it? How about Mass Effect 3, is that 'dead' when people have completed it and moved on to the next game?
D3 isn't an MMO. The idea of games 'dying' is in reference to subscriber numbers: when there's nobody else to play the game with and the game is no longer turning a profit, so the servers are shut down.
D3, while always online and hosted on Blizzard servers, is not sustained by subscribers. It is also not a game where you need to constantly play it, nor is content going to be constantly generated like in MMOs. People will play it, complete it (or their definition of completion at least), then move on to the next game.
It is a minority that will continue playing D3 like D2 was played, and it was an overwhelming minority that even bothered playing D2 for a lengthy period of time. And even then, of those who still played D2 up to D3's launch, did they really play every day of those 10 years? Really? Highly doubtful. It's much more likely that they played for a few months, got bored, switched to some other game, then went back when they felt like it.
So really, all these people complaining about D3, saying it's boring and there's barely anything to do, and that the game is dying... You're ignorant. Leave the game, come back later. To have constantly played the game for a month is a far longer life than most other games (THAT AREN'T MMOs: key point), so where's the issue?
If you're bored of the game, stop playing. Shelve it. At some point in the future, you'll spot the game case out of the corner of your eye and wonder how the game has been since you stopped playing. You'll re-install, and maybe you'll have fun once again.
As a final note, if the worst happens and the servers are shut down (thus 'killing' the game), I'm pretty sure Blizzard would release their server-side information so we can play D3 offline, if they haven't done so already. At that point there'd be barely any players, so there'd be no harm in it.
So yeah... Just stop treating D3 like an MMO. It really isn't.
You do the same as you'd do in any situation where you're parting with your money:
You get informed and make intelligent decisions based on all the information. In this particular case all the information was available long before the nerfs were implemented, and also long before the RMAH was even active. If you still bought items and then got angry over the nerfs, it's your own fault.
Also, this is laughable:
Now true, there is a very real and legally binding Terms of Service or EULA that we all "read" and signed saying we agreed that this exact thing is okay to do to us, but[...]
In other words, 'I don't want to have to worry about 'legal' pish posh tosh, I just want to get everything my way all the time! me me me me me!'
The EULA/ToS is there for a reason. Read it and know it. Stay informed of all of Blizzard's decisions and upcoming changes to the game. Blizzard let us know way in advance of the nerfs AND the RMAH going active that they were going to make these changes. It isn't their fault in the slightest.
If your going to try and bash on what a person think's or say's, at least KNOW what they are TALKING about...... /FAIL
NV stacks to get bosses to drop anything worthwhile: bosses without NV has the same chance to drop stuff as D2 bosses did. So NV is just a bonus, nothing more. You can get rares without NV. Besides, not like it's difficult to get
Whimsyshire vs cow level: they're both secret levels that you farm for loot. The type of mob is irrelevant: if you're seriously upset that it's ponies instead of cows, then there's nothing that anyone can say to console you. As for the runes... It's a type of loot to farm, at its basic level. You farm loot in the cow level, farm loot in Whimsyshire. That's it.
Running specific places for specific loot: we don't know yet if there's specific places for specific loot in D3, if there is any at all. Even if there aren't, that just means you have choice. You don't have to farm that one boss you hate: you can do the bits you love instead. Or mix it up. You have choice, not rigid rules.
I didn't play D2: oh noes, my dark sekrit. I'm still allowed to have an opinion, and I am quite knowledgeable about D3 by this point (at least as much as anyone else who has played it a lot over the past month). I'm comparing the things the OP mentioned to actual things in D3, because if that's all the evidence he's going to provide, then it's all anyone can logically use.
PvP should've been in at launch: yeah, probably. But it wasn't, so what's the point in crying about it now? It's coming ASAP, end of story.
D2 Hell = D3 Inferno: if you're able to severely overgear D2's Hell, as you state, then no, it's nowhere close to D3's Inferno. With lesser difficulty means more viable builds: if content is more difficult, then fewer builds will be able to defeat it. D2 Hell = D3 Hell. Inferno is something else entirely.
Can only collect alt gear on alts: nothing stopping you changing difficulties and going back on your main to farm that stuff.
Collecting uniques/legendaries on the AH: so the same way you could buy items from dodgy third party sites or trade for them in D2? Blizzard have implemented a convenient method of getting loot. You don't have to use it: you can farm for everything yourself. Takes longer, but isn't that what you want? More content/time spent?
Blacksmithing/gambling comparisons: again, you're saying they're different just for the sake of saying they're different. Let's break it down.
In D2, you went to that NPC, bought an item from him, identified it, maybe got something cool.
In D3, you go to the blacksmith, craft an item, maybe get something cool.
Both cost gold, both have an element of randomness. Basically the same thing. You can look at two rocks and say they're entirely different things: doesn't change the fact that they're both rocks.
Stuff I said wasn't important: tell me why they're awesome. Did they honestly add meaningful depth to the gameplay, or were they just unnecessary complexities?
For the rest you haven't actually disagreed with me, so meh.
Things you could do in Diablo 2 (Post 1.10 patch) :
-Endless Andy Nm runs for SoJ's
- Endless Meph hell runs to get regular uniques.
-Endless Pindle Runs to get the best uniques.
-Baal runs for xp/ball kill for best uniques
These are all basically the same thing. Running a boss over and over for loot. You can do that with D3 too, funnily enough.
-Cow Runs for runes and moo's - Whimyshire is the same thing.
-Act 1 Pit
-Act 1 Countess for runes
-Act 2 Sewers
-Act 3 Lower Kurast chest runs
-Act 3 Kurast council for runes/loot
-Unique clearing in act V
Again, you're just listing stuff that you can do in D3. You've got 4 acts to clear for loot in D3 as well.
-Nihlathak runes
-Uber runs
-Search for Diablo clone
I've read about the ubers and admittedly, D3 does not have this. But neither did D2 at launch, so.
-Break every single chest in a tc 87+ area. - You can do this in D3...
-PvP in any part of the world in a 8 player game - PvP is coming in patch 1.1.
-Play with ridiculous and fun builds (Infinity sorc come to mind) - You can do this in D3, provided you don't go into Inferno (as D2 only went up to Hell as well: if D2 had Inferno, trust me, you wouldn't have all these 'wacky builds' floating around)
-Collect low level sets for alts (Sigon <3) - there are low level sets in D3 too, go ahead and collect those...
-Have fun having tons and tons of uniques (They where mostly useless if you where looking for the perfect one...but....hell..they dropped like hot candy). - there are tons of uniques in D3 too, and you don't even seem concerned with their quality, so you can go ahead and collect them in D3 as well
-Gamble for uniques/uber yellows - blacksmithing is the same system
-Gamble with horadric cube for charms
-CHARMS...CHARMS...OMG WHERE ARE THE CHARMS !
-Finding white socketed items for runewords (And finding the perfect ones)
-Socket and name your items
Not in D3, but this doesn't sound all that important to me, so whatever.
-Do meaningful, rewarding quest ( Ania's resistance quest come to mind...) - there's a bunch of sidequests in D3, and the story is better in D3, in that it actually exists.
-If you wanted too....clear the whole game within the same game - which you can do in D3...
-Low level uniques where used, you could farm for them in Nightmare... - again, can do this in D3. I used a unique/legendary on my low level Demon Hunter for about 10 levels.
If you're going to bash D3, at least don't appear so hopelessly one-sided and biased.
2
15
66 * 24 = 1584 hours total
Minus 8 * 66 = 528 hours for sleep, gives us 1584 - 528 = 1056
1056 - 450 = 606
450 hours spent on the game, 606 not... I hate to break it to you, but you've spent almost half of your waking hours on D3 since release. I'm pretty sure anyone would call that a resounding success.
Surely if the game was so horrible, you'd have stopped playing about 400 hours ago maybe? Then your argument wouldn't seem so ridiculously flawed.
1
Do you think that could be attributed to the fact that you were 5-10 years younger, so were more easily amused? As a child (or teenager) it's a lot easier to get excited over something. As you get older that excitement falls away and you are entertained by different things.
If you look at the games with as objective an eye as possible, you'll realise there's more similarities than you'd think. If you liked the item hunt in D2 but don't in D3, even when the item hunt is functionally the same (with minor differences for the sake of streamlining or changes to make it more fun), then chances are it isn't the game that is at fault: it's you.
1
If you don't feel excitement when getting a legendary or identifying a rare item, that's not something Blizzard can fix. The problem lies in you (and while I say problem, it isn't really: it's just that your tastes have changed, so you do not find the same things exciting anymore. Which is fine). I know I feel excited when I see an ilevel 63 rare drop, just waiting to see if I get something awesome (got a couple of really nice items so far).
You don't need to farm for 8 hours a day. You only need to do that if you care about being number 1: if you don't, then you can go at your own pace. There's no rush, so stop feeling like there is. Again, those are your feelings, not any fault of Blizzard's.
Step away from the game. Take your time. Focus on yourself. You don't need to touch the AH if you don't want to, you can farm everything yourself. Everything will take a lot longer, but that seems to be what you want, so.
So no, there are no fixes for the game to address your problem. Because your problem 100% lies within yourself. Don't blame Blizzard because of your own attitude towards the game.
On a final note, you seriously left your family for 2 weeks to play D3? As in, left the house entirely and left your wife to deal with the kids by herself? I can understand taking a week or two off of work, but leaving your family? Get your priorities sorted out.
1
More that D2 is terrible compared to D3, that's why you won't see the majority of your ideas implemented.
Segregating the community by itself is also a bad idea: ideally you want everyone playing with everyone else. Splitting everyone up arbitrarily just means there's less people to play with, which creates the (possibly mistaken) notion that the game is doing badly so isn't worth playing. The only splits have been utterly necessary: region splits, and softcore/hardcore.
The thing is... All you're doing is placing some arbitrary line, saying 'this stuff is fine to do, but this stuff is TERRIBLE AND YOU'RE BAD FOR EVEN THINKING OF DOING IT'. While there are other people who really don't agree with you in the slightest.
Essentially, all the RMAH (and the AH in general) does is streamline what went on in D2 anyway. In the most basic of terms, the AH is an automatic trading service. Compare the two transaction examples below:
Regular trading
You advertise that you have an item, on forums or in-game or to your friends
You get an interested buyer and negotiate a price/worthy trade
You arrange a time and place to meet
You trade the items and/or gold (with the potential to be scammed by the other person)
End result: items and/or gold are traded between two people.
AH trading:
One person goes to the AH, places an item on there and dictates the price he thinks is worthwhile.
Another person goes to the AH, searches for the item she wants, decides whether the price is worth it and buys the item.
End result: items and gold are traded between two people.
The end results are exactly the same, but the AH was so much easier than 'face to face' trading.. The two separate parts to the transaction can also occur at different times, while a 'face to face' trade requires you to be online at the exact same time.
How on earth can you say one method is fine, while the other is terrible? They are, at the core, the same thing. Trading. Just two different methods of doing it.
I suppose the thing that everyone gets caught up on is Blizzard's cut. The thing that marks them out as greedy and evil people. You know, ignoring the whole, server maintenance costs, employee salaries, and the fact that A COMPANY IS MEANT TO MAKE A PROFIT. IT'S THE ENTIRE POINT OF THEIR EXISTENCE.
Microtransactions are the future of gaming. They aren't automatically an evil thing. If handled incorrectly, sure, they're bad: however, if handled in the right way, they can enrich a gaming experience and make it even better. They also wouldn't need to use microtransactions if, y'know, people stopped pirating games. But that's another topic entirely.
In conclusion: stop demonising real money transactions in gaming. They're the future of gaming and you may as well get used to it, they really aren't going anywhere.
2
That's the entire point of the game. If this is likely to burn you out, then I'm afraid D3 may not be the game for you.
2
D3 isn't an MMO. The idea of games 'dying' is in reference to subscriber numbers: when there's nobody else to play the game with and the game is no longer turning a profit, so the servers are shut down.
D3, while always online and hosted on Blizzard servers, is not sustained by subscribers. It is also not a game where you need to constantly play it, nor is content going to be constantly generated like in MMOs. People will play it, complete it (or their definition of completion at least), then move on to the next game.
It is a minority that will continue playing D3 like D2 was played, and it was an overwhelming minority that even bothered playing D2 for a lengthy period of time. And even then, of those who still played D2 up to D3's launch, did they really play every day of those 10 years? Really? Highly doubtful. It's much more likely that they played for a few months, got bored, switched to some other game, then went back when they felt like it.
So really, all these people complaining about D3, saying it's boring and there's barely anything to do, and that the game is dying... You're ignorant. Leave the game, come back later. To have constantly played the game for a month is a far longer life than most other games (THAT AREN'T MMOs: key point), so where's the issue?
If you're bored of the game, stop playing. Shelve it. At some point in the future, you'll spot the game case out of the corner of your eye and wonder how the game has been since you stopped playing. You'll re-install, and maybe you'll have fun once again.
As a final note, if the worst happens and the servers are shut down (thus 'killing' the game), I'm pretty sure Blizzard would release their server-side information so we can play D3 offline, if they haven't done so already. At that point there'd be barely any players, so there'd be no harm in it.
So yeah... Just stop treating D3 like an MMO. It really isn't.
1
You get informed and make intelligent decisions based on all the information. In this particular case all the information was available long before the nerfs were implemented, and also long before the RMAH was even active. If you still bought items and then got angry over the nerfs, it's your own fault.
Also, this is laughable:
In other words, 'I don't want to have to worry about 'legal' pish posh tosh, I just want to get everything my way all the time! me me me me me!'
The EULA/ToS is there for a reason. Read it and know it. Stay informed of all of Blizzard's decisions and upcoming changes to the game. Blizzard let us know way in advance of the nerfs AND the RMAH going active that they were going to make these changes. It isn't their fault in the slightest.
1
NV stacks to get bosses to drop anything worthwhile: bosses without NV has the same chance to drop stuff as D2 bosses did. So NV is just a bonus, nothing more. You can get rares without NV. Besides, not like it's difficult to get
Whimsyshire vs cow level: they're both secret levels that you farm for loot. The type of mob is irrelevant: if you're seriously upset that it's ponies instead of cows, then there's nothing that anyone can say to console you. As for the runes... It's a type of loot to farm, at its basic level. You farm loot in the cow level, farm loot in Whimsyshire. That's it.
Running specific places for specific loot: we don't know yet if there's specific places for specific loot in D3, if there is any at all. Even if there aren't, that just means you have choice. You don't have to farm that one boss you hate: you can do the bits you love instead. Or mix it up. You have choice, not rigid rules.
I didn't play D2: oh noes, my dark sekrit. I'm still allowed to have an opinion, and I am quite knowledgeable about D3 by this point (at least as much as anyone else who has played it a lot over the past month). I'm comparing the things the OP mentioned to actual things in D3, because if that's all the evidence he's going to provide, then it's all anyone can logically use.
PvP should've been in at launch: yeah, probably. But it wasn't, so what's the point in crying about it now? It's coming ASAP, end of story.
D2 Hell = D3 Inferno: if you're able to severely overgear D2's Hell, as you state, then no, it's nowhere close to D3's Inferno. With lesser difficulty means more viable builds: if content is more difficult, then fewer builds will be able to defeat it. D2 Hell = D3 Hell. Inferno is something else entirely.
Can only collect alt gear on alts: nothing stopping you changing difficulties and going back on your main to farm that stuff.
Collecting uniques/legendaries on the AH: so the same way you could buy items from dodgy third party sites or trade for them in D2? Blizzard have implemented a convenient method of getting loot. You don't have to use it: you can farm for everything yourself. Takes longer, but isn't that what you want? More content/time spent?
Blacksmithing/gambling comparisons: again, you're saying they're different just for the sake of saying they're different. Let's break it down.
In D2, you went to that NPC, bought an item from him, identified it, maybe got something cool.
In D3, you go to the blacksmith, craft an item, maybe get something cool.
Both cost gold, both have an element of randomness. Basically the same thing. You can look at two rocks and say they're entirely different things: doesn't change the fact that they're both rocks.
Stuff I said wasn't important: tell me why they're awesome. Did they honestly add meaningful depth to the gameplay, or were they just unnecessary complexities?
For the rest you haven't actually disagreed with me, so meh.
2
If you're going to bash D3, at least don't appear so hopelessly one-sided and biased.