Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Diablo IV Has Two Expansions in Production, and a New Devblog on the Game's Dark Graphics | MMORPG.
System
Member UncommonPosts: 12,599
Diablo IV Has Two Expansions in Production, and a New Devblog on the Game's Dark Graphics | MMORPG.com
Diablo IV already has two expansions in the works, according to Rod Fergusson in a new interview. There's also a new devblog on the graphics of Diablo IV just in time for launch day.
Comments
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Inquisitor - combines the themes of Paladin and Monk, with a darker theme.
Dread Knight
Trickster - Utilizes illusions to deceive and debilitate foes
Wishful thinking?
"My Fantasy is having two men at once...
One Cooking and One Cleaning!"
---------------------------
"A good man can make you feel sexy,
strong and able to take on the whole world...
oh sorry...that's wine...wine does that..."
Yep this is pretty much why I didn't support the game. I took one look at their current monetization (knowing there would be paid expansions in the future) and hard passed. Don't care how good the gameplay or story are. If a $70+ game has an item shop, a 3-tiered battle pass, and future paid expansions, that company can go to hell as far as I'm concerned. If I'm paying full premium price for any kind of game, I better get the whole game - cosmetics through loot and all.
While I can see difference in loot is a concern do we know how much difference it really makes, is it P2W? As for the cosmetics, does anyone truly care?
Either way, anything that says NO to cartoon colours or graphics is good in my eyes. What I mean by the colours is easy to understand, but what exactly is cartoon drawn? That is a tricky so examples are best, WoW is, Final Fantasy XIV is not, I am sure we would not all agree on that.
27 Best Loot-Based ARPG Video Games, Ranked (thegamer.com)
If no one truly cared then these companies wouldn't be selling said cosmetics with an additional price tag. That alone should tell you that many people care about it, or it wouldn't be monetized.
The thing is that we live in an age of weak/poor consumers (not only those that are unable to make a stand against that, but also those defending these practises) in the gaming industry, so companies keep getting a pass on stuff like that.
Companies are supposed to make money, and consumers are supposed to defend their own interests (not those of the companies). When that balance breaks, it's not a surprise that things keep getting worse and worse. A $70+ game with a cash shop, a 3-tiered battle pass, and paid expansions would have made people raise hell some years ago, yet here we are with people being okay-ish about it, or even straight up defending it.
There are so many ways to put in small P2W elements that they can get in under the radar. I assume this is about in game resources/currency (?) from the BP but how big a deal is that? I am not OK with that sort of thing in fact, but we get naysayers on here as much as we get fanboys, it is not always easy to work out who is right.
As to the price tag it's called inflation. It wasn't that long ago you could get a dozen eggs for $1. Those days are over and not coming back. Yet when you buy the dozen eggs for 2x or more that price today do you expect to get more than a dozen eggs or higher quality eggs? No, you pay the $2 and take your dozen eggs. PSA: the developers who build the games you play have to buy the same eggs you do. Their expenses go up the same as everyone else's.
As to charging for cosmetics they literally do the same thing in the car industry. Flashy paint job and 18" wheels will cost you an extra $3000 for the same car. Car doesn't go any faster or get any better fuel economy. It's purely cosmetic. Do you refuse to buy cars because you don't get 100% of the car for the base price? No. You accept it as normal yet here you are imposing extra rules on game developers. I find that interesting.
What I am saying is that the competition needs to step up and make games that look different, rather than just "we have Diablo at home." A little more variety and visual quality from the competition would go a long way.
WoW is actually cartoony with exaggerated proportions (especially giant shoulders) and often short, stocky characters. I kind of see it as being the "Warhammer for kids" and I can't say I'm a fan of the style.
I would cringe so hard if you play wow or ffxiv and pay for a monthly sub plus expansions yet cry about a b2p game with microtransactions.
What remains to be seen is how bare their seasonal themes will be.
I can't talk about WoW since I stopped playing after WotLK, but I still play FFXIV and the value that you get for your money is way superior than anything that D4 has planned (per dev's words). The base game didn't cost $60+ (nor does now), you can buy $60 (current price) packs that include the game and all the prior expansions, with the current expac costing $40, and the basic $11 sub gives you access to all the content including the regular content patches (5 major and several minor ones per expac, which you can play all at once whenever you want, if you want to save money) that usually carry enough features for anyone to have something to enjoy.
Compare that to this $70+ game, with a 3-tiered season pass (also focusing on FOMO, which means that it's limited and makes you pay AND play or you miss it and/or lose your money), some season limited (FOMO, again) "content" that will likely be just some simple quests and some grind (just look at Overwatch), and then a who knows how expensive expansions.
And while both games feature a cosmetic cash shop, I'm pretty sure that D4 will have theirs (which is also more expensive) updated way more often than FFXIV does. Only time will tell about this one. But let's not forget that this is the same company with Diablo Immoral (not a typo) and the Overwatch mess under their belt. With such a recent track record, I don't think that it's unreasonable to expect the worst from them in terms of how they'll treat the game and the playerbase.
All in all, thank you, but I still prefer a traditional subscription MMO. Battlepasses are the lazy and annoying subscription model.
EDIT: Typo.
IKR what is he even doing on an mmorpg site.
Why shouldn't they charge for an expansion? Other games charge for expansions?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
As far as originality goes, there's a lot of flavors of "color," and while perhaps that could also be said of settings with grit to a lesser degree, it's pretty clear that most of the genre is copying Diablo's homework.
I'm more looking for fantasy settings in the vein of Tales of Arise on the anime end, or idk... Assassin's Creed Origins/Odyssey on the more detailed end. There's a whole lot of middle ground between Grim Dark and Whimsyshire, and ARPGs could really afford to explore more of the middle ground between Diablo and Torchlight because there is so much of it untapped.
My picture... isn't a cat. It's a Sylvari. That said, I don't actually dislike eastern games or settings. JRPGs are my thing. But Korean MMOs specifically DO overwhelmingly tend to have tropes that I want nothing to do with.
Having a measured opinion is a rare thing these days because for too many any opposition = extreme opposition.