Diablo 4: The Billion Dollar Tragedy | Asmongold Reacts

Diablo 4 is Gaming's Biggest Tragedy: The Rise and Fall of Diablo 4
by ‪@TheComebackKids‬ • Gaming's Biggest Trage...
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[@coumarin]

i love how they made it a open world and no one plays it

[@sni18per]

i believe they made an amazingly good and realistic open world. people rode their horses to different games. currently am in Wraeclast.

[@delgar89]

​@@sni18perthere is no coming back when you're exiled to Wraeclast.

[@yelonasable]

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 is more interesting then Spider Man 2 and list goes on

[@dotapark]

@@sni18per I think I played more POE since D4 out ever 😂

[@hua..]

at some point companies, and players, will realize that just shoehorning an "open world" into gaming brings more bad than good

[@donradkos6655]

The argument for an offline mode for me is game preservation. It's just nice to be secure in the knowledge that your game won't just *stop* working when the servers shut down.

[@noonbay00]

He doesn’t understand many people still live in rural places and have limited access to internet or have the slowest speeds. This game isn’t even playable for these types of people and you are alienating a market.

[@stanmarsh4566]

Having online mode for a game that LITERALLY plays in single player, is the most ridiuclous thing ever.

[@Arcexey]

@@Blisterdude123 I'm there with you. pretty easy to understand that 'online only' just means 24/7 microtransactions. right now I can play roller coaster tycoon 2 without having to log in to any fucking shit whatsoever.

[@RealKeetz]

If it's not offline, I'm not playing it. I played the beta, but I didn't and I'm not buying the game. Because it's not offline. Which means I can't play it whenever I want. i don't spend my hard-earned money on servers that can just shut down on me. Checkmate, @AsmongoldTV.

[@kaisokusekkendou1498]

If it wasn't online, you wouldn't be rubber-banding because you had to load a couple people's stashes that entered the same zone. You wouldn't lag from the server and get hit from an area affect you weren't anywhere near. It wouldn't have all it's artwork locked behind microtransactions, because hey, no one is actually online to buy them, and you wouldn't see other people with neat stuff enticing you to buy them. All these OTHER things that even Asmon admits were problems, would not have been problems had the game actually been designed around NOT BEING ONLINE. It definitely wasn't just "hardcores dying to lag". It influenced the design of the game, and in some cases had direct impact to playability.

[@joaogabrieldiniz3299]

The offline mode issue is simple: not everyone has access to stable connections, it is not a non-issue. Places far from metropolitan areas and their satellite cities commonly and world-wide can have issues with internet services for N number of reasons.

[@rowdysincoherentrambling1426]

I live in BFE.... I have internet

[@RumplestillSkin99]

​@@rowdysincoherentrambling1426I live in the middle of the city and don't have Internet

[@eduardoburgosacosta243]

I live in LATAM and internet is not stable..! Even more in Venezuela so LATAM ppl that want to play diablo and hardcore theyre Bad is the fist time i'm in disagree with asmo cuz he's only thinking as rich Big first country.. like the thebother part of the world doesnt existe and yes offline iis been a thing from diablo since ever and when i saw the only online thing i was dissaoinment stopped playing cuz the lag and the rubberbanding is unbearable.!!

[@Smidgefishh]

I know so many people who live in areas without access to awesome internet, they only get the type that shuts off sometimes or is just generally really slow. Its enough for youtube at low quality, job searching and such, but not gaming. The people who do game at home play offline games for the most part. Personally I have pretty good internet, but its still kind of imba sometimes.

[@MaxRavenclaw]

Exactly. Supporting online only play is a monumentally bad take. And it's a major step towards a complete loss of ownership and agency. Amazing games have essentially vanished and can only be played if you're lucky enough to own a physical copy (for rexample: Driver San Francisco). Now imagine if they were online play only. No, single player games should always support offline play.

[@mdfgdgafdgdfg6509]

Offline mode is extremely important to Diablo imo, both as a different way to play the game and also as something stable for hardcore players.

[@mdfgdgafdgdfg6509]

Look at D2. Online and offline are two completely different ways to approach the game, and totally different experiences. Both are awesome.

[@theunhappygamer1744]

I mean not even hardcore players. My internet screws up every couple of hours, it gets annoying playing online games.

[@Helldevers2Cheats]

if they made it playable offline it will be easy to cheat on it

[@CamCos]

@@Helldevers2Cheats You misunderstand, I believe you don't share characters between offline and online modes in Diablo's. Definitely not the season type characters for sure.

[@Helldevers2Cheats]

@@CamCos well if they dont cheat the offline game well also get cracked pirated and blizzard will have no profits from making a offline mode

[@VoiceAnon]

Just going to say, I'm one of those people who didn't even consider buying the game because of the online-only thing. It may be hard to believe, but we are out there.

[@hafirenggayuda]

Yeah. My experience with Diablo Immortal make me not willing to play D4. Sure, my internet connection slow, but other online game I played never get it worse like Battlenet.

[@lofivibe9595]

People don’t realize that there are other people in the world outside of main city’s in America.

[@jimladXLII]

There are three reasons it's a big detriment for me. 1. I want games available in case the internet goes out. It's rare, but it happens. ISP's suck, and it's worse when I can't even waste time in my single-player game waiting for it to come back. 2. It's unreliable. Not just on my end, but we saw with Diablo 4 already how people can take down EVERYONE'S game with an attack. Payday 3 has long queues for solo-play. There's an uncontrollable downside. 3. It means the game WILL die. Someday the devs will close those servers, and the game will be unplayable. I can not guarantee playing it in the future, so I'll hesitate to plan to buy it with that expectation. (and how long I expect servers to exist is rapidly shrinking with how the industry is going...) There's cases where it's fine and sensible, Gacha uses online databases, MOBA are entirely online, etc., but it needs to be there for a reason that outweighs these downsides for me.

[@Silent_300]

Worse than online only, the game is forced multi player for no reason. I'm ok with internet connection to play but I want to be in my own world (for example like in Genshin Impact). First it ruins my immersion, second I am not here to be an accessory in a forced multiplayer game and third I am not paying to have to endure lag just because Blizzard wants to push more cosmetics. I didn't buy the game and I refuse to buy any game where multiplayer is forced.

[@ChillButter]

My biggest problem is being having bad vertigo and prone to seizures. Having to play online with others at all times spamming spells, visuals, processing what's mine vs what's theirs vs what's an enemy spell just messed with my ability to play

[@d.wolfin152]

Here in Australia, I was unable to play D3 at all as I would just get rubber banded around before getting disconnected. It happened time and again and I was forced to refund the game. The fact that always online becomes a gate to playing the game means it is a bad thing. If there was an offline mode, I could at least still play the game.

[@justskip4595]

A thing that is not an issue for one person does not mean it can't be an issue for another.

[@tr1bes]

Online stability depend on area especially wifi is unstable. Sometime I get drop even if I was suppose to have the best 5G network.

[@duncanlutz3698]

I used to live out in the sticks when this always online bullshit first started popping up... as in "my neighbors are cows and coyotes" level of Buttfuck, Nowhere. Yeah... my internet was dogshit and I HATED this shit. Steam/Digital distribution was just taking off, too, but... "dogshit internet." So I explicitly went to town and bought a physical copy of a new big game, brought it home, and.... it was an empty box. An empty fucking box with a Steam code in it. I was so bloody mad.... bad enough that "always online" games meant I was disconnecting constantly trying to play by myself, but this was an offline game! That REQUIRED internet to download even when I physically went to the store and physically bought a box to physically bring home! Best part about that? The discs cost the developer $$$ to produce... and not an insignificant amount. But digital distribution has always been sold at box prices. So I was paying for disk even though I didn't get a fucking disc. Which to add another part to my rant, $70 games are a scam as well. Upwards of 25% of a game's sticker price went into manufacturing and distributing. So digital copies have ALWAYS been marked up/extra profit (they cost $15 less to make but are still sold the same as physical copies). And don't get me started on digital deluxe platinum extra-special editions. The day-1 DLC that 100% totally, just trust us, ok? wasn't content cut from the base game to be resold to you. And the freemium F2P economies of loot boxes and boosters and cosmetics and just straight up p2w economies seeping into full-price games. Or live services that are half-finished, at best, games you pay full price for, on top of MTX, and only if enough people are scammed does the company ever get around to finishing it... And don't get me started on the day-1 patches that are half as big as the entire fucking game! Just bugfix BEFORE launching, assholes! All of it, all these changes and "innovations" in the gaming industry over the last 15 years have ALWAYS been about fucking over the customer and gaslighting us into accepting it.

[@tr1bes]

@@duncanlutz3698 Understandable. I got some digital games on my 2ndary Switch while my daughter got the primary. I cannot play the digital games on the 2ndary console anywhere without an internet connection. So I have to hotspot my mobile phone to get access to the internet. I took my 2ndary switch on the flight to VN, my phone would not work because it's out of US connection and the Switch would be useless as well. Luckily i brought a few physical switch games. Hotspot require the phone device to have internet connection. While being hotspot, phone cannot have wifi connection automatically. I tried at work with my phone using wifi and hotspot at the same time. It cannot do so. Either one or another.

[@delaceylehane7758]

You didn’t miss much.

[@XBLZeruiah]

In regard to offline play, situations like the error 37 are the exact reason why people dont want a forced online only game

[@WirlWind494]

Not to mention the game dies when they shut down their servers. For D4 it might be a good thing, but generally it sucks to lose access to a game you purchased in the past... I'm still sad that I can't play Darkspore for nostalgic reasons.

[@cjbain8975]

Not to mention I was living in an area that had LITERALLY 0 access to a hardwired connection to my house, not EVEN dialup. I was forced into using a peer to peer connection with about 15mbps down on a good day, it usually sat around 8mbps down. Starlink was the only saving grace when my number finally came up.@@WirlWind494

[@MaxRavenclaw]

Exactly. Supporting online only play is a monumentally bad take. It's a major step towards a complete loss of ownership and agency. Amazing games have essentially vanished and can only be played if you're lucky enough to own a physical copy (for rexample: Driver San Francisco). Now imagine if they were online play only. No, single player games should always support offline play.

[@theunhappygamer1744]

Plus you can't mod online mode games.

[@DabbleDo]

Yeah asmon wrong on this one. Prolly hasn’t had to deal with shitty internet for a long time

[@Thornskade]

Game preservation is not a false problem, a red herring or irrelevant and if you think that that's genuinely sad. Games that you purchase should not have an arbitrary expiration date because the servers aren't profitable anymore. This is an actual problem

[@letitbe90210]

It's borderline theft in my opinion.

[@Gigabomber]

game preservation is a hobby. If a developer wants an online only game and you want to play it, that's the deal you signed up for. They will always resell it to you later if you really want to play it again.

[@Thornskade]

@@Gigabomber Laws need to step in to not allow 'selling' of an online-only game because that is false advertising.

[@DiabolicalHater]

@@Thornskade you don't know anything about the law if you think this unironically

[@lewisyeadon4046]

It absolutely a red herring, as evidenced by the fact everyone got three types of pissed about it when Diablo 3 launched, and then went ahead and enabled it as an industry norm; Hitman, Quantum Break, Need for Speed, Pro Skater, Starcraft 2, and again with Diablo 4 being probably the most successful Blizzard release. Yeah, people don't like it and it is a problem (and the exact reason you gave is why the DMCA laws were amended to allow people to pirate copies legally when server support has ended for six months or longer), but ultimately no one actually gives a damn. Some of the most successful games ever released are always online, have Denuvo or similar parasitic and potentially illegal spyware DRM, etc, yet they are successful. That wouldn't be the case if it weren't a red herring.

[@ZaknafeinYT]

There are multiple reasons to not enjoy always online model: - Unable to play it on any device capable of running the game, regardless of internet connection - Developers could decide on cutting any support, effectively making game inaccessible. - Queue times. - Connection errors. - Not everybody has fiber internet connection. In many countries it could be extremely expensive to get one. - Game developer can decide that your country is no longer supported by their company, making game inaccessible. - You can get IP range banned for something you never did. - It renders modding impossible decreasing game's longevity. - Always online connection applies additional pressure on system, decreasing performance. - You may pay over 70$ for a game you don't actually own. It's neither boomer nor hardcore position to take. Always online model is bad for gaming in general and only benefits companies.

[@Silent_300]

The funniest thing is that shills on Reddit then tell you Blizzard has to sell BP and cosmetics to "pay for the servers". You mean these servers I don't want and are only here for them to help the company sell more stuff?

[@elibnem4126]

I long for the old days when the game you bought was on a disc,you actually physically owned it. Now we only have the illusion of owning it,as soon as server support is dropped there goes your game and your money. I strongly support off-line mode for all games.

[@TravisH-nm9fy]

I bought Baldurs Gate 3 and have mostly been playing it offline. Im a trucker and when i stop for the night i can play on my laptop no matter where i am. Its great.

[@scorpogee6280]

@@elibnem4126 I have dozens of games on disks that I can no longer play because they can't meet today's graphics cards or the content can no longer run on servers that were shut down. I've floppies that require a different IOS so unless you have an old computer they are either junk or just in a collectible category.

[@Gaming1ncarnate]

Yeah that really was a bad take from Asmon

[@benamende5897]

For me always online was the BIGGEST problem. When your internet is not stable being forced to be online is torture.

[@sondikku2318]

Yeah I feel like his always online take is horrible, his pov limits himself from seeing that a) no, not everyone has round the clock access to internet and b) not everyone has stable internet. Adding an offline mode is harmless and if anything, a net positive.

[@timurrte5694]

"Guys, dont you have internet?" gives the same vibe as "Dont you guys have a phone?"

[@maizena7646]

There are several cases to be made for an offline mode but the most important one for me is being able to play the game when their servers go down. Take the D3 launch for example. So yeah, offline mode should definitely be in.

[@matthewprovencio6020]

A good example of always online being bad is the recent payday 3 launch. You can wait in a queue for 20+ min (or indefinite) even when trying to play solo. Ive closed the game many times out of frustration while waiting in this queue

[@dougwesker]

Yeah got to rank 74 and haven't been able to get into a match for about 4 days

[@Venomx-nb1jr]

I saw this same point of emphasis with skill up today talking about payday 3. I’m at point now, having had my internet cut off a couple times, ONLINE ONLY GAMES are a crime against humanity. THE ONLY GAMES THAT SHOULD BE LIKE THIS ARE MMOS AND MULTIPLAYER SHOOTERS. DIABLO 3 did not need to be online only. I think these games are going to continue to crash, outside destiny because it’s freakin destiny and just won’t die. Because once you’ve lost your account or internet access it’s an unnecessary folder on your desktop. Imagine if you had to be online to play cyberpunk. Wtf. Management teams are so concerned with logged in hours that they forget to focus on the main ingredient: IS THE GAME FUN?

[@LucifeRxGoSu]

its actually crazy that D2 is honestly a better game than D4 in nearly every way

[@tomwodi2]

D2 was made by better DEVs. Same reason retail WoW is getting worse, good DEVs are long gone, we only get the "brand" and hopes, but Blizz is gone.

[@miinyoo]

Oh shit. Did freedom to enjoy have any part to play? Hmm.. Let me consult my BlizzAct terms of tomes of who even reads all this shit? I dare a lunatic with too much lacking torture and money stacked in their library with BlizzAct's manifold EULAS and other TOS. It would fill several shelves of physical paper. How do you respect that caliber of nonsense?

[@nickh7040]

That's because D2 was developed by Blizzard North. People that were actually competent. The same person in the beginning that said Blizzard if a shell of its former self of what was. Now it's just activision and incompetence.

[@slvrization]

because it was made by Condor (aka Blizzard North) and not nowadays Blizzard.

[@TetsuRiken]

D2 was made by people who knew how to make a fucking game

[@el_mal_de_ojo]

100% agree, I was suckered in by the nostalgia for D3 and played it hundreds and hundreds of hours. 10 years on, I can barely remember playing it. The same shit happened with D4, in a much more accelerated fashion. I played it obsessively when it came out because I was convinced the end game was going to be amazing as the game seemed very good on the first play thru. Then I got to the end game and realised there is none. I don't remember the last time I played it and I don't miss it at all. Diablo 2, by comparison, I've played thousand and thousands of hours, dozens and dozens of different characters over the last 20+ years, and still have it installed because I know sometimes I get the itch and it's always there.

[@edrimuspage9667]

I don't get this argument (D3). If you put hundreds of hours into it, why do you say you hate it? If I put that much time into something, then I know I enjoyed it. I wouldn't have continued playing it if I didn't like it. Putting 50 hours in means I liked it, 100 hours means I loved it, 500 hours means it was like top 5 on my all time list. How much time do you have to spend if you waste 100s of hours on a game you hate?

[@joet4811]

D3 is not good either.

[@BanditGaming479]

Did Diablo 2 have an endgame? I don’t know but I assume since it was less online focused it probably didn’t. Diablo developers have no idea how to make an end game for Diablo because they never had to.

[@mvamorim]

@@edrimuspage9667 Its more like some kind of addiction to "how strong I can get" than actually liking the game this much. D3 is not a memorable game. Is repetitive, grindy fest in a way that is not fun. So I get what hes saying.

[@edrimuspage9667]

@@mvamorim I enjoyed D3 alot myself. I also remember the game quite well. I put in a couple hundred hours too. I understand the drive to get stronger and progress through the torment levels (my highest was 8 on hard-core). The reason I asked that question though is because if I have a game that is not fun, but is addicting, I still will not put in over 100 hours because that requires cooling down and coming back later to something I didn't have fun with. I don't play 10 hours a day, I have a job and a life, so I have to curate things to play games that are actually fun. I don't play AC series games for this exact reason. D3 was fun to me, but it is no longer the go to game for me because I played it enough. The game is still fun for an every now and then experience, but not an every evening thing anymore. In conclusion, if you put 500 hours into something and then call it boring and repetitive, there is something wrong with your priorities or you are NOW bored of the game and look back to call all of it boring. Everything after 500 hours becomes repetitive because there are almost no games with 500 hours worth of content. (D3 has about 50 to 100 hours worth of content total, some of which requires grinding).

[@travissteffel7431]

Asmingold never lived in a area with bad internet. Offline mode cost nothing to have.

[@Oruk-Orup]

The benifit to an offline mode for me is that whenever the game becomes no longer profitable, the servers could be at risk of just being shut down and then the game as a whole is just gone

[@whatthehirsch7385]

The consumer doesn't own anything and the consumer will accept.

[@Shizzmoney74]

I am glad I sold my Overwatch 1 PS4 physical for $10 when I could... if I held on it would now just be a fancy coaster

[@numa2k147]

A study in June 2023 showed 87% of classic games are not available to play rn unless you use emulation... Preservation is very important to combat these corporations.

[@j-swag7438]

34:57 i think having an offline mode can be very important to a game as not having one essentially adds an expiry date to the game. what's more, servers can always fuck out and then you get problems like now in payday 3 where many people can't play the game for 4 days (and counting) after launch. all this could be avoided with the simple addition of an offline mode. a game like payday 3 being literally unplayable because of always-online requirement is not "a made-up problem".

[@mohduk4]

Yeah I stopped the video after he said it’s irrelevant

[@tindertoesbuckhide]

This take from him is truly awful. It makes him sound so entitled and out of touch.

[@kalebgrubb2272]

I would love to have an offline mode as someone who travels a lot to places that have little to no internet so his take on offline mode is stubborn and close minded. A lot of casuals would love to have an offline mode. I have several offline characters on Last Epoch and love it.

[@bolletaf]

yeah the hardcore take was stupid, i think his brain kinda shut off for a min.

[@Dumaiu]

I guess it's been a while since he had to worry about disruptions in his broadband service. Not everyone is as lucky.

[@diabeticmonkey]

Always online is an issue. Massive L take

[@Churahm]

I don't understand, on one way he's saying that the real money auction house of D3 was amazing, but then he complains that you can buy gold with real money in wow?

[@ilyes124]

I think the argument for offline mode is simple, does being always online benefit the game? No then a offline mod should be in the game

[@marcoonroad7]

It's due cheaters and duplication glitchers using saves, like happens in Elden Ring, so Diablo IV is always online like looter shooters (The Division 2 for example) due that reason. By having offline mode, it would open doors such as SaveWizard, breaking the PVP mode of the game.

[@Brettlaken]

"Benefit the game" is badly worded since it technically does. "Benefit the player" would be better

[@ye8049]

There are times when I just want to play the game alone and I don't want my friends whom I just rejected the group invite to know that I'm still playing. But Battle net has appear offline mode so I don't think any offline mode should be there for any Bliz games.

[@DazjaRoux]

without an offline mode it could also make it difficult or impossible to play while travelling without a stable connection. Or players with poor internet not wanting to have to wait hundreds of milliseconds for every spell to connect, or to move their character. And what about modders who want to customize the experience and add features? Diablo 2 is still plenty alive almost 25 years later because of mods.

[@Atexih]

​@@marcoonroad7Nobody is asking to use offline characters online, they are asking to play offline.

[@Inamaruu]

After that first patch players lost all hope.

[@GoodCitizen.]

100%

[@mlg5had0w34]

What was the first patch again?

[@wishiwasaneet26816]

The let's nerf fun builds and the density for no good reason patch?

[@EladaDiel]

​@@mlg5had0w34 xp fixes, damage rebalance (bad one) etc

[@tonytowers0073]

​@@mlg5had0w34 The nerf to damage

[@PMad99]

I know of entire cities of over 100,000 people that have data caps on their internet connection. This is one major reason for having offline modes.

[@blrolz3544]

I know a bunch of guys (like myself) who work 45+ hrs a week who have families, and 75% of our gaming time is during lunch break or downtime at work, due to how great handheld systems are today. 100% my decision not to get D4 was because of a lack of offline mode.

[@user-iy1vo2jf2q]

BINGO! Read my posts. Games have CHANGED with cell phones people. Theyre DIRT CHEAP to code a 10MB APP. Now put that on PC, all of a sudden its measured in GIGS. Phone code is cheap and easy to create and edit. PC's are NOT. If you want an app, you just find a company and pay cash, theyll build it for you, very quickly and cheap. ANYTHING can be made an "App."

[@lyrand6408]

People still bought it, right? Blizzard had the last word. They don't _truly_ care if it's not being played much anymore. The initial burst of income from the hype, pre-orders and day one purchases has been done. That's the important part. The rest is just icing on the cake.

[@yushion5804]

And people will buy the next shits, again and again and again .

[@IsaacChoo88]

Exactly, when Diablo 4 expansion announced, all the fanboys will still buy that shit and keep complaining, like Stockholm syndrome 😂

[@rulu1828]

Kinda, but reputation isn't a infinite well even for fanboys. They could rejuvenate their trust with some good installments like D2 Remake, but even then it has to compete with other ARPGs. Its working right now, but I'm not too sure it will still work a decade or even 5 years down the line (granted they might change their corporate structure to a new market than video games at that point). The other key point is that they said 666 million in "revenue" not strictly "profit," so we don't really know if they actually broke even for their hard marketing tactics.

[@hatetheplayernotthegame1377]

I knew old blizzard was gone, I spoke with my wallet and can't be more happy that I didn't spend single cent on blizzard after diablo 3

[@bkovac-jr3hb]

Yes, but what did the wallet say? Don't skimp us on lore

[@Teabahgeue]

Actiblizz was the beginning of the end.

[@rlowethewitch8417]

I acquiesced when it came to D2 Resurrected, but that's the last time I've given money to Blizzard after the hypercasual shitfest that was D3 as well.

[@YouTookMyAccountName]

yep same

[@OggiOggiOggi]

After? Lmao L

[@crusher1980]

WASD doesnt work very well in isometric games IMO, I think "Ascent" had it and I didnt like it all. Best way to move around is with a "Move Only" key and then use your mouse for the direction you want to go. You have to aim with your mouse anyways so it fits perfectly that way, no need for "WASD". What you think to be necessary isnt for others and the other way around -> Offline Mode.

[@otokodate83]

Great take on side quests, I remember being upset that I felt the need to speed through side quests that I WANTED to enjoy but felt it was more important to speed run them

[@jimjogger306]

In the 90s to early 2000s game production was 80% gameplay 20% marketing, The focus has shifted over the last 20 years and now the production value is actually 20% gameplay 80% marketing, and thats the sad reality. From a business standpoint they know that the profit comes from opening sales and they wont actually lose any money from having a poor endgame, Yes it sounds criminal and under some guidlines it probably is, but it completely makes sense as a buisness.

[@b4rs629]

Should be illegal to promise content and not deliver or be held accountable financially. Older games are much more enjoyable without the bullshit in modern games.

[@DsgSleazy]

20% game play, 20% marketing, 60% sexual harassment and mtx ideas.

[@dvdjkaufmn]

It doesn't though. A company should have a plan that involves keeping repeat business for years on end. Old Blizzard knew how to do this. Activision has always played the quantity over quality game, and could give absolutely no f**ks if their games suck or not, because of how many major titles have their name written right on the front of the box.

[@jimjogger306]

@@dvdjkaufmn Repeat business for them is developing new games, Because the marketing team of the powerhouse companies do a good job at keeping them at the forefront and it has nothing to do with quality of game. The smaller companies making better games dont do well because they cant spent millions on marketing, thats literally all it is, EA, Activision and Blizzard all make terrible games but they fuel the 99% of casual gamers who see adverts and see posters and get drawn in to buying there games. Comes back to when i said thats the sad reality. You are best of staying well away from the big developers. They make 100mil off the sales alone, No business would then spend 10mil to keep there game running for 10 years to get about the same amount of money back in ingame sales, They may aswell use the time make a new game and get another 100mil...The only thing developers promise people is a playable game, Regardless of bugs everywhere, They are playable, And thats the grey area they can defeat the law with every single time.

[@dvdjkaufmn]

@@jimjogger306 Yup, all that is basically what I said in parentheses. Hehe About the only big developer I buy from anymore is Square Enix, and sometimes "Nintendo". All the best games I've played in the last 10 years are single player RPGs, that the main community doesn't seem to want to acknowledge exist, because they aren't making millions for some lame esports event. I haven't given Activision, EA, or 2K money in 12 years, and I'm proud of myself for being one of the few, as all they do is manufacturer trash for gold.

[@alwaysask]

You need to have long term objectives in ARPGs so they don't get stale. D2 proves you don't need a continued system to earn power like a Paragon System (which failed as an infinite system in D3). But you do need very rare drops that are always relevant to you and that you can sell/trade. LIKE RUNES!!! And don't even get started on the uber uniques of D4, because currently they're not "uber rare", they are ghost items.

[@selendile030]

Agreed 100%.

[@JohnnyRehab]

Diablo peaked at 2, I knew when i went back to D2R, after playing d4 it was over for me and d4

[@jbillion]

I don't really think it has anything to do with long term gameplay. Does everyone ignore the fact that PoE and D3 are entirely seasonal games now? Not many people are playing for non-leagues/seasons

[@Zigarius1123]

There's more people playing classic d2 for the last 20 years than still play d4 lol. I love how it was all about the rares in d2. LOD still has the value too just more options like you mentioned with runes and jewels.

[@akhsdenlew1861]

Keep in mind, that D2 systems worked cus it released more than 20 years ago. in 2023, people need CONTENT... otherwise they simply don't play. Turns out that spamming Baal, Rifts or nightmare dungeons is just not enough by 2023 standards... it was enough for 2002 standards , but not for 2023... Lost ark on the other hand, could've been the TRUE amazing ARPG experience if they didn't screw this game in the name of Greed, P2W and ridiculusly RNG that noone can win against. Lost ark is the diamond of ARPGS that was thrown into shit , just like Archage in the MMORPG genre.

[@ApparentlyChad]

I disagree, I think it’s a bigger deal than what asmon is saying when it comes to the game being always online. It made me stop playing the game because it broke my immersion for one and for two I kept getting disconnected and sent back to menu when the game launched. So I stopped playing after playing the tutorial. I’m sure it also impacts sales on a game series that traditionally was a single player offline experience. There are plenty of normal people that lack good internet connection for gaming. My mom was one of those people and one of my friends are currently living in an area where the internet service providers are still trying to set up lines so that he can have internet service where he lives.

[@jamesharris5156]

I wish there was more content available from the start. But that being said, I’ve played it every day since release and am really enjoying it still. Switched to HC and am loving it. So much more fun when there’s some stakes.

[@miinyoo]

Played the campaign. It was okay. Fun to level up a rogue into screen clearing chain reaction badass. Once I got there, there were other much more interesting games to play.

[@knuckles7344]

1000%

[@Marksm50]

Same man. Fking £60 quid and all I did was play the campaign. Once I realised all there was ahead was grinding the same dungeon again and again I never played again.

[@SuperCatacata]

Rogue was the only class fun to level for me. Everything else felt painfully slow.

[@rulu1828]

Every Diablo clone has a burnout limit... Ironically the main franchise now have a faster burnout than the clones.

[@user-vv3zc9il9k]

​@@rulu1828burnout limit? What are you talking about? What about poe? In poe limitless possibilities and min max

[@MrTbob418]

Offline mode is relevant because it would clear the issue with DC and hardcore mode, for people who care for that. It was easy to add it, they didnt for their reasons, but it's not irrelevant.

[@MrTbob418]

To add to it, why did they add hardcore mode then? There is a legit way to play that and it's not a waste of time if played under the right conditions which blizzard did not provide. It's a separate topic however and i doubt asmongold will change his view because he is not a hc player. I for one dont cry if i die when i choose hc, so no sympathy needed. I also don't play d4 because the conditions havent been met. Same as endgame sucking.

[@arnaudbouret5562]

HC in an always online game can be viable. You know the risks going in. And yes, it's frustrating when you lose your character to a DC, but on a stable game, that's not that much of a concern and mostly preventable. Doesn't really matter too much when it happens once every couple thousand hours or so - and yes, D3 is that stable. D4 is nowhere near that stable.

[@b4rs629]

@@arnaudbouret5562 I wouldn't even bother investing my time into hardcore let alone being online. D4 can't even have horses run without lagging no thanks.

[@mariosblago94]

it's also a big deal for South America and Asia where the internet is either lower quality, more relatively expensive, or requires VPN.

[@eltiket]

Bad take with offline mode

[@coffeebeangood1538]

Agree with most, except: "No offline mode" is not a red herring, some of us really want the safety of playing in our own bubble.

[@Marburg-chan]

I think offline mode would have been a good addition to the game, not only it would let you bypass huge queue lines during launch (and probably now if the game wasn't such a flop) it would also solve issues for anyone who wants to play a hardcore character or just hates getting disconnected at all (if you have spotty internet for whatever reason). Just disable achievements or multiplayer unless you create a character on online mode. They could go even further and add peer to peer with a code like bg3 did so people who use offline mode could play together without depending on their servers. You can claim that nowadays everybody has internet and it's ok to have you character chained to an online service but just because it can be like that it doesn't mean it should be.

[@liarwithagun]

Also, not everyone does have internet or can afford to consistently pay for good internet. I've lived in multiple places in the US that don't have internet good enough to even stream a YT video at 480p, let alone play a video game. I can't play any game with my best friend because he lives in a place like that. And this isn't even mentioning other countries with less good internet infastructure than the US. This is just him not knowing the conditions of places that aren't large cities and towns. However, I do think he is right that for the average consumer with good internet, online only isn't a deal breaker for them if the game is good.

[@SolidSnake240]

Yea that's an actual bad take from Asmon lol. Another big reason I hate games with online requirements is if the devs/publisher decide that the game isn't performing up to their standards they can just shut the servers down, ddos attacks that can prevent you from playing in the first place, etc. There's no reason why they couldn't have included an offline mode.

[@asumax8]

Yea I'm one of those with a shitty internet and it is the only internet available in my area. Sometimes I can manage to play certain games, but just as often I can't. And if it rains, no internet at all. So I skipped out on buying this game, and I'm glad I did

[@MundaneThingsBackwards]

How can you gather data on all your players in real time for optimized monetization if you allow them to go and stay offline? 🤔 Hint: This wasn't an arbitrary decision or oversight on their part.

[@carlosramon6102]

if asmon truly feels no one gives a shit about always online he should have Mad Mushroom announce all their games will be always online and see how that goes.

[@Jonathan1002887]

I only played D3. I enjoyed the heck out of it (started about 18 months after its release). Saw the "ya'll have phones don't you?" event and knew instantly what they had in mind for all things Diablo in the future releases, D4 simply proved me right.

[@GO-dj4nd]

D3 went from being the hardest diablo ever to the easeist diablo ever. No thanks

[@seph.]

@@GO-dj4nd Still fun to blast though.

[@drone6581]

Asmo high as a kite. D3 beats D4 any day. Reaper of souls saved D3 lol

[@n.f.ch.m.ph.67]

I don't know about D4, but D3 isn't a bad game: there's a lot of effort and good art there. A game doesn't have to be properly difficult to be good, neither does it have to be as good as the best games of the franchise. If it's ridiculously easy I agree that it is bad, but that's not the case of D3, even in it's first run (at least, in my experience). It was quite an enjoyable adventure overall.

[@nama_nc_ga9132]

Definitely feel the same barely played D2 and really got into D3 not bothering to touch D4

[@anubiset20]

35:19 I think this is one of the most smooth brain takes Asmongold has had. Not only can you make the argument that, for game preservation reasons you should have an offline mode, but i can say that it is a large reason my father and i didn't get the game. He and I have played the Diablo series since the first game. I still play 1 and Hellfire to this day (played it through a month ago on my laptop while recovering from a surgery). Diablo 2 was great for having both Open and Closed Bnet where you could have a cheated character on one and play legitimately on the other. I played both as well as played single player as a speedrunner. Guess what, I'm not going to speedrun a game that i can drop Internet during and lose the run. I live out in the sticks. The Internet can be trash sometimes. I know that it's not that large of an issue for many people, but it did cost Blizzard two sales. One from me for the reasons listed above and one from my father who only plays multiplayer games with my uncle and i and would rather play single player otherwise.

[@InkDevil999]

I was absolutely astonished that Blizzard actually coded the game to load the stash tabs of all players you meet. It is so stupid i was convinced it was some kind of joke because no way they made code that terrible...

[@sweetpotion]

I was tempted to pre-order Diablo 4 but $70 is a lot, so I decided to wait a couple months after release to see what the reviews had to say. Glad to see I made the right choice. I didn't expect the player count to plummet so far in just 3 months

[@Farscryer0]

I learned my lesson about pre-ordering with Duke Nukem Forever. Never again.

[@visitante-pc5zc]

Dont ask any questions. Just consume the product. Get excited for the next product

[@GrayFox_74]

I wish I did the same with MWII but Act Man’s video made it seem like it was good and it was the second time I felt bad for buying full price since Jump Force

[@IIIuminate123]

Why are people so upset over $70, I don't get it lol. That's not even half of a day worth of work

[@shdowz4039]

Haha my dumb ass spent $170 AUD

[@bloo9699]

The auction house in d3 wasn't in itself bad, it was the fact that the loot system was so bad you pretty much had no choice but to use AH, and the gem upgrading was so expensive. I enjoyed what d3 became though, still do from time to time

[@o0Donuts0o]

I also enjoy D3 from time to time. I like building speed farm characters and see how fat i can plough through a rift. That’s about my gameplay loop

[@rahulramkissoon]

​@@o0Donuts0oI have 2 brothers and running around on couch co op diablo 3 for hours and hours was absolutely amazing fun. This new one just put a bad taste in my mouth.

[@CorteX87]

I agree, D3 is what got me into Diablo. Don't get me wrong I think D2R is a great game but I had a lot of fun in D3 especially making the witch doctor chicken speed run build.

[@aopoczko]

I ditched D4 to play D3. Even though I loved S28 with the altar (oh ym god it was sooo goood), I'm testing the solo self found mode (I played on my own most of the time so), want to earn the cosmetics and have some fun. Then I'm going back to Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. D4 aint' on my list anymore until I don't know, maybe season 10 then they actually release a decent game.

[@bloo9699]

@@aopoczko Man that altar... the pet auto-salvage was like 0_0

[@Astrologon]

Regarding the offline mode, personally, I feel it's gotten better as the availability and speed of internet improved lately, but still, it's a thing that only has drawbacks for the player. Especially for a game like Diablo, when you don't want or need any social aspects to the game. Which, story genre and atmosphere-wise (gothic horror), makes the most sense being played solo. Nobody is arguing that sports games shouldn't be online. The reason why I, and probably others, like to play a Diablo-like game specifically, ideally on hardcore, is that it is more exciting and fun the more visceral the combat feels. Lags and lag-deaths ruin that for sure, but more than that, an online game simply can't have instant perfect response of a target to being hit. The way the synchronization is faked through guessing is good enough for FPSs with ranged combat at lower frequency, but it cannot be solved for a Diablo-like, not under current physics at least. Diablo 4 is much better optimized in this regard than Diablo 3 was, but it's still strictly worse than in any offline Diablo-like. To no benefit to the player. Also, I usually can't play online games while I travel on a train if they have to be online, which happens to me a lot, or play them without being frustrated any time when the internet or the servers are less than perfect, which happens often enough, and playing a Diablo-like game is functionally about venting frustration for me, if it is to make any sense at all. The best you can say is that some players aren't bothered by these things or don't notice the difference, but again, nothing is better about this. None of this would really be a problem in a, say, turn-based strategy, and yet, I can play all of those offline. The whole games being always online thing only benefits the CEOs. Ross for example has many videos online about how this kills games forever once the plug is pulled, only so that the companies that own games can make more money and have more control, more information, more leverage. Perhaps if Diablo had significant social interactions in a shared world that were essential to the gameplay or storytelling, making it only playable online could be justified. As it is, what is a single positive reason for it? I really can't think of one. Not to mention that's also one more step down the slippery slope to the whole "you will own nothing and you will be happy" bullshit. Being always connected means always being monitored, and if connection is required to exist and do stuff, then your ability to exist and do stuff can be cut off at any moment. An offline game you own can only be turned off by you, or an act of god probably, and you can always play it when you want to. Just a forced update without which a game cannot start can decide whether you can play a game on that day or not. Not all old ways of doing things are just nostalgia, and not all new ways of doing things are progress.

[@FalkFlak]

there is no point in arguing against always online. There is no reason for that in a single player game. End of discussion. Asmon has no valid argument in this debate whatsover.

[@youdontneedmyrealname]

The beginning of the end was the transition from making an experience to making as much money as possible.

[@Laggyness]

"They have no idea what they're doing. They don't know how to play their own game." This line has never rang more true in all forms of gaming. As a fighting game player this also hurts us as the players even more because the devs are so out of touch with the meta and any time they rebalance anything it shifts the tiers drastically. This makes it even worse because they never listen to the community and tend to lean on the "our vision" bs instead which leads to an even shittier product.

[@miinyoo]

This is very insightful which is open knowledge yet oft ignored by whatever biases. The players know. They might not be able to articulate it clearly as a cohesive group, but they know.

[@MeteoImpact3374]

Though in fairness to fighting game devs, balance has never been the thing that has made a game successful. People don't gush over Third Strike or Marvel (any of them) because of balance, that's for sure. And I certainly don't play HnK because of anything the devs designed intentionally.

[@verguco6051]

same thing aplies to overwatch, developers are so out of touch with their own game and community

[@TheGreatAustino]

I'm still salty about Luke being literally better at everything than every character in street fighter 5 just because the wanted him to be the face of SF6. Also the character Fahkumram in Tekken 7 was a solid character but not broken, just because of people whining constantly they decided to nerf him into joke F tier.

[@marcelbrosius841]

Well Said💯✊🏼

[@Chaos_-_]

The problem with not having an offline mode is that lets say diablo 4 its a game you absolute love that gave you amazing memories ( its not , i know) . After years you want to get back to play it because nostalgia but the game is dead and the servers are down so you cant....a game that you paid for too

[@wile123456]

yea and sadly modern games are way harder to reverse engineer and make fan servers for compared to odler games

[@redjakOfficial]

Not having offline mode sucks on consoles, not because "I'm a boomer and games weren't like that in the 90s", but because I'm forced to pay monthly for ps+/game pass to play a game I already spent $70 on. I don't care at all about coop missions, world bosses, and hardcore mode, I just want to play the campain solo without getting queued or disconnected everytime I boot the game. Meh, I guess I'll play through Diablo 2 remaster again. Way better game anyway. No battle pass/pay-to-win/microtransactons bullshit.

[@ShazbotDesign]

Hardcore creates more immersion. There aren't many games that can get my adrenaline pumping like almost dying in Diablo Hardcore. Every decision you make actually means something. You plan things out more which gives you even more immersion. I like adrenaline and few games give it to me like Diablo HC. My hot take after only playing HC since D2. Lag happens, shit happens, "It is what it is." Offline mode would fix lag issues though. A lot of D2 streamers play in offline mode these days because of lag or they want to use mods.

[@SamoIsKing]

My biggest problem with D4 was the levelling and progression. I dont mind it being open world, but dont scale enemy levels with mine because it kills any and all feelings of progression. Why am I leveling my character if I dont feel stronger? Scale dungeons, thats fine, that stops me being able to steamroll them, but the open world should be paced a lot better.

[@jeffrix27]

Yup

[@nugget7865]

That's a problem when things are still fresh. The true problem is the game is boring. No sense of RPG, since no replaying with NG+. No end game other than recurring lies. No exciting loot. etc. BORING.

[@Rare_Creature_]

Yeah I HATED that

[@samuellanghus1455]

Assassin’s Creed suffers from the same philosophy.

[@pflaumi123]

You know the counterpart would then be that you make the overworld that you outleveled obsolete to some degree. Its hard to solve that issue properly. Ive seen a video going over the scaling in BotW. There they only level up one enemy of the whole camp, which is an interesting approach I think.

[@pdomicioex]

Problems with Diablo 4: 1 - Cain is dead 2 - There is no Diablo in Diablo. 3 - No cow level, this time it really does not exists. 4 - Level scaling. 5 - No more set armor. ( come on, it was fun to collect them )

[@King-O-Hell]

I guess I can no longer stay awhile.. and listen

[@Alejandro-xk5ej]

You listed out the most irrelevan, least important problems the game has and probably will ever have... nice

[@jonbbbb]

Totally agree about the armor sets, I can't believe they did away with bonuses based on that. I never played Diablo 3 but it's something I remember fondly from Diablo 2.

[@miinyoo]

Yeah I totally agree on the lack of sets. Diablo 3 was hot garbage but the only thing that I wanted to accomplish which wasn't even good was Danettas set and the I can't remember the demon hunter set that essentially gave you infinite hatred or whatever it was called. That shit was fun to hunt down. Took a good while even with the auction house and RMT hovering like sky candy.

[@FluxFresh96]

Nothing in your list is relevant at all. And having sets in the game like d3 is the worst thing ever. All you do is farm the meta set and thats it, no room from creativity or build diversity. I hope we wont ever see sets in diablo 4.

[@lj6179]

My biggest problem and why I stopped playing was that it was too time consuming to farm every piece of gear to have the build you wanted and to lvl my character. My time is already limited outside of playing the game.

[@StoneScorpion197]

I personally did care about the offline mode. I enjoyed having it in Diablo 3. I have very fast internet and it's pretty stable but sometimes I just enjoyed grinding in offline mode. I thought it was a nice feature and sometimes I didn't want to interact with anyone and I enjoyed playing in offline mode. I was a little disappointed that this and other games don't offer it. I like to have the freedom to play the game when ever I want regardless of server issues or other player interactions

[@MojoJojoJunior]

35:30 I disagree with the "everyone has internet so deal with it" take. Some people, like truck drivers, do play video games without a stable internet connection. Internet outages do occur and I would hate to not be able to play a game I purchased as a solo/couch-coop player because Blizzard wants to monitor anything and everything. If Blizzard wants to counteract cheats, separate online and offline profiles so that offline characters can't be used on online servers. Furthermore, you can't load other player's stash tabs if you are playing offline.

[@Sleeptastic]

This is a big dev pity party, but remember that the dungeon designers didn't even play the game enough to know how different classes work

[@Morbys13]

I love how he says D4 boards are complicated but plays PoE with one of the most complicated boards to date. And unlike D4, if you don't get the right items in their equivalent extra "talent point" boards, you can't progress past a certain level.

[@peterschelfhout6318]

What I liked about Diablo 2? The goal was easy to find so you were concentrated on leveling, scouting the area and each area had just 1 side quest. In D4 there are so many side quests and similar items that it makes the game feel like a not so rewarding confusing hot mess. The thing I loved about D2 is that it was easy to understand, the map wasn't "huge" but I never really cared... the only thing that excited me was the difficulty, how much you could improve your skills & spells (damage output) to get that Godlike feel and the music. I couldn't care less about having a huge map with many quests and items... I just want 2x as much items as D2 had but all unique with just RNG on the % bonus on them. I don't understand how Battlenet managed to make D3 and D4 feel almost identical with little to no D2 similarities xD

[@TBVnBIX]

Why is everyone ignoring the fact that we cant farm Andariel, Duriel and Astaroth ?? We literally have world bosses that we cannot fight except in campaign

[@jase8839]

Oh believe me everyone is not ignoring that.. It’s one big thing left out on a laundry list of big things left out of the game.

[@bradmettler4566]

I also miss being able to have open games for 8 ppl. Or gear that all classes can use instead of a rain of class specific junk

[@anttitakalahti7651]

the thing I love in diablo 2 offline mode is that it allows for 3 minute play or 3 hour play and that is awesome for me as a parent of a small child. Or the target audience of the D4 as you put it. I love that I can pause the game when I need to take of something and then I can resume my play when I get back.

[@lobizonxp]

D3 is full online and you have that exactly. You can also pause the game. You can't keep it online forever, sooner or later the session will end, but you will not lose your progress.

[@b4rs629]

@@lobizonxp True, I think a better argument for offline play is being able to play offline if or when the servers are shut down or you can no longer afford internet. Simcity 2013 was completely online, but eventually they gave us offline play. There's no reason for a game like diablo to be online 24/7 unless u want to play with friends. There's been times where I've had to go without internet and not being able to play games I paid for sucks hard.

[@lobizonxp]

@@b4rs629 Yes, there is a reason. When you play OFF, you have to store your savegame on your PC. Those files are yours to edit at your will. There were enough D2 editors to make that turnover on D3 online play. It paid off pretty well. That online play statistics were gold and produced a lot of changes for good.

[@wile123456]

Yea asmongold is online 24/7 and it's his job to play videogames so he isn't able to understand why people get value of an offline mode.

[@ipodtouchiscoollol]

@@wile123456 dude probably makes more than most of the population so he can afford good internet anywhere. in some places ISPs are literal vampires

[@beavschannel5217]

That loading of other peoples stash bullshit is the number one reason I want an offline mode. Im not playing with any of them, I dont need them in my game, Im not gaining anything from other people being in my game, why the fuck are they there.

[@sevn9562]

I don’t think asmon realizes how many people couldn’t play this game because a lot of rural areas still don’t have internet

[@fluxfist4584]

People want an offline mode because when the game eventually dies, and the servers go offline, you lose the ability to play that game. So something you spent your money on, on a whim, can be taken from you with no recourse. Online issues are a totally separate issue.

[@Lonewanderer30]

The 'balance' patch which destroyed the only viable endgame Barb build left, was the last straw for me. I haven't even logged into Battlenet since.

[@sirius9564]

The 50-100 was such a big burnout, that every1 quit. Why is it so hard to make the lvl 50-100 grind fun? If I had to play it again, I would still play till 50 and quit.

[@petrri323]

I fail to see the problem with a game being front loaded with content. That’s the correct way to do it. Most people don’t finish the games they play. Most people weren’t going to get to end game. A lot of people never even finished the story. 80 hours worth of enjoyable content is absolutely worth praise. We used to praise games for having an interesting main story that lasts 30 hours. Is the game good? Not really. It’s certainly not the best iteration of Diablo. But if you put 80 hours into the game you can’t complain about running out of content. “Hey devs, how dare you give me any less than 500 hours worth of interesting content.”

[@abunknown234t7]

35:30 those aren't the only reasons people want an offline mode. people want an offline mode to preserve their progress in the game many years down the line even when the servers for the game go down. preservation is something we should be advocating for.

[@thorveim1174]

yeah, especially as big title games are on a consistant downhill trend bar a few exceptions, meaning to get good quality games people have to look more and more at older games that arent supported anymore.

[@RossenX]

I remember the exact moment I stopped caring about the Diablo franchise. When they killed Deckard Cain. His death is a great metaphor for the transition between old and new Blizzard.

[@Chielz0r]

It happened in a very underwhelming in-game cut-scene as well.

[@sensen7216]

Damn that $25 doordash card is better than what Home Depot is willing to give employees. They'll give you a $5 Dunkin gift card for harassing three or more customers to open a shitty credit card.

[@SuperSubmachinegun]

Blizzard purposely nerfed good rolls on legendaries when D3 came out so that you would be more likely to use the auction house to get desired stats than actually playing the game. So yes it did have a huge effect on the game.

[@Klaatew]

Diablo 4 has such good presentation that it fooled me into thinking it was a good game for longer than I care to admit. "Front-loaded" is a perfect way to describe it.

[@Necroscat]

I really wanted to get into it & I tried really hard, but in the end the thing I hated most was how skills are in this game. Diablo games are all about just shooting off crazy combos of abilities & spells that look super cool NON-STOP!!! There is just way too much of managing your energy for those skills & they lack A LOT of luster Well guess you can't get every game in a series to be great (still think that D3 eventually became great)

[@Klaatew]

@@Necroscat I agree!

[@MATCHLESS93]

I dropped it about 20 minutes into the beta.

[@jamesyin3220]

Hey Asmon. Love your videos. About your point that you don't think auction ruined Diablo 3, I remember seeing claims that Blizzard intentionally lowered drop rate in the game to artificially levitate the price point of items in the auction house. When they removed the auction house, they had to readjust the drop rates so that the game actually becomes playable.

[@PanicRolling]

I also remember this. It seemed like nothing dropped at all for a loooong time after launch. I was getting nothing but trash, and the auction house was the only place I could get actual upgrades. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it absolutely felt like the drop rates were undertuned.

[@velgadisblue9923]

Agree about this one, rates were terrible while the auction house was operational. Also, that line about PoE and having trading, PoE is a great game despite trading, I always play ssf but to each their own. I'd rather have a game balanced around gameplay than the game balanced around trading.

[@ThingsYouDontLike]

I remember they redesigned it so that you had loot dropping for your class more often than for other classes. Since you didnt need to find a perfect barb weapon to put on the auction house due to trading restrictions, they made loot that was relevant to your current character drop much more often. It was an amazing quality of life change that made me enjoy Diablo 3 again. If you play Diablo 3 now, you will rarely find anything that drops intelligence if you are playing on a crusader or barbarian. Makes a massive difference in loot quality.

[@vrubinets]

​@@PanicRollingWhat do you mean by "nothing but trash"? The whole D3 itemization system was trash. You were not able to get any good items at all. The only items that existed were "main stat + all resists"

[@albertko1]

And if you weren't playing the meta builds with the correct gear, there's no way you could get those items... So either you pay to play and progress or just keep grinding until you maybe get lucky

[@Mrtiny_yt]

remeber when the stores had to put a sticker untop the multiplayer logo on no man sky ? that shit was straight up criminal.

[@boblionia]

"I don't think the real world market had a negative effect on the game" Bro Blizzard absolutely annihilated the drop rates to try force people to use the market. The same patch they removed the market they immediately buffed drop rates accross the board and the game suddenly became fun. The real world market was one of the biggest blights on D3, so many of the game's terrible design decisions were as a DIRECT result of the real money market

[@beautyandthenerd2133]

I definitely look for ability to play offline. I play a lot on my steam deck down by a creek on my property and at work where they block steam servers. So it's a huge thing for me. Their are also many people in rural areas that internet is unavailable or too expensive to get. They will download and or install games at McDonald's or elsewhere with free wifi and play at home. As soon as your out of big cites internet for massive always online games is not a given.

[@sheilaarkurshicin]

This.

[@grimwaldsilverpipe4326]

This, Asmons opinion is a spoiled one.

[@conrad_yt]

About always online mode: for games with single player mode it sucks because it lengthens load time, and also for example in D2R I got banned from BNET for unknown reasons and they wouldn't reverse it. I tried playing single player and I was banned from that too. So maybe for some companies always online is okay but Blizzard customer service is terrible if there are any issues.

[@battlecruiserna]

always online is a greedy power grab and a blatant disrespect of your time.

[@ManmadeChaos]

Don’t agree that a paid for trade house is a good idea, it just breeds unethical game design. Especially in D3’s case of random loot stats on drops. Getting specific weapons for a character dropping with stats that have no place being on it (Barb weapons with Int stats) So it almost forced you to use that trade house and tempts you with less frustration if you just get your wallet out.

[@joaquinsandoval5370]

Woah there. No offline mode IS a huge problem.

[@elibnem4126]

Im in this camp

[@irrelevanthero7410]

The art team absolutely nailed it and the gameplay is fluid... when you're not chain CC'd every fight. But the itemization, skill trees and paragon boards feel so bad that outside the main campaign it's not worth investing any more time into. They have a lot to clean up before the next expansion if they think they'll be able to bring the game back- provided it doesn't go under before then.

[@hamelconsultancyllc]

Literally the open beta was one of the first games I played on my new amazing monitor with a newish graphics card - turned that shit all the way up. One of the prettiest games I’ve seen. Art team totally killed it. Wish they still had any game play devs tho

[@catra195]

The abilities and the enemies are boring af not to mention all the errand running and time wasting gimmicks in the campaign I couldn't care less to even finish it

[@dankduelzperuvian]

They nailed nothing about the game. Stop coping.

[@nateseese6904]

​@@dankduelzperuvianno, the art style is incredible. I'm not sure if you're aware, but just because the endgame is bad doesn't mean you can't like certain aspects of the game.

[@dankduelzperuvian]

@@nateseese6904 Everything about the game sucks. Most importantly it's not a Diablo game.

[@ReineViper]

Would like an offline option in South Africa as we have no dedicated servers due to a low player base when compared to the rest of the world. D3 was smooth af on the 360 with no need for a permanent connection. Maybe when MS takes over, we might get lucky in the future 😅

[@The-cyber-imbiber]

From a coporate point of view, the game was probably a success because it sold a ton of copies initially, and because it's a cash cow, it doesn't matter that it harmed their reputation. Seems like a win for Blizzard to me.

[@kyoai]

The biggest issue I see with RPGs like that is almost pure and endless vertical progression of items and reliance on item levels for "difficulty". Whenever you find a new item, you don't really feel happy or attached to it as a) most items are nothing special, nothing hand-crafted but instead for the most part just a random jumble of % modifiers without personality and b) subconsciously you already know this item will most likely be replaced as soon as one with a bigger item level number drops. Over time, you grow numb to the vertical progression and while you feel somewhat happy when a new higher item drops, deep down you already know this item will be thrown away soon and you dread the grind until the next-better item drops... and then the grind for the next-better item, etc, there is no goal to strive for, just an endless grind, with the outlook of more grind. And even if you manage to get the absolute best-of-the-best in the game, you already know that all your accomplishments are for naught, as soon as the next season starts these items you have played hundreds of hours for will soon become obsolete as soon as the next season starts because of higher item levels. If you take games like Skyrim or Classic WoW as examples, those have unique items that are useful throughout the entire game and not just an item to be thrown away as soon as the next higher item level shows up, you are actually happy to get these items as they represent actual achievements and goals that can be finished. Another big issue is that games like D4 are too afraid to put players in a situation against enemies the player character is powerless against. Your character is always viable against anything the game throws at you (provided you have the necessary item level), there is no situation of "I have no silver weapon, I can't kill this undead enemy" or "I have no elemental weapon, I can not hit ghost monsters with my normal weapon" or "oh, I am a mage with only fire spells, I can't damage fire enemies", which would require you to think outside the box or take different skills or perhaps resort to certain lower level equipment in order to be even able to hit something, there is no reason for vastly different characters builds to exist, it almost always boils down to one or two meta builds for each class.

[@djskagnetti]

It's funny because 15-20 years ago people loved random jumbles of % modifiers in mmos and other games. I guess Min Max is dying OR people are incredibly too lazy to do it now.

[@TheVilegore]

​@@djskagnettipeople are tired of min maxing just for it to be reset the next pass/dlc/season, whatever you may call it, the min maxing never has a true benefit aside from making content temporarily easier, but you still have to basically kill yourself over a grind.

[@AkenoSenpai1]

I would say the latter, in pretty much any game nowdays i see tons of people who tend to stick to the most braindead options available to them which is kinda sad but well it is what it is. @@djskagnetti

[@corpsecarouse1596]

The souls and bloodborne franchise do well with making great weapons you can use and master, but obviously, they are a different genre

[@skuamato7886]

I think the issue is that D4 is trying to do the best of both worlds and fails at doing anything. There are still people out there that absolutely love this sort of progression, however those people just play POE or Last Epoch. And the people that don't want this progression... well, they probably just ddon't play ARPGs at all because that's all ARPGs are about.

[@MrCobaltScar]

"I don't like it so it's stupid." "I have it so everyone has it." Shit takes today.

[@blz6895]

The reason i care about having an offline mode is for when i move out and spend a few days without internet before the ISP come to my home and install it (happened a few times), also, i wanted to play D4 during lunch break at work (2 hours lunch break), but the office's internet restricts connection to any game server, so in the end i cant play, these little things legit made me not buy Diablo 4

[@qaerkyr9197]

Exactly! RMAH in D3 wasn't the problem. The problem was lacking a currency like orbs from path of exile or runes from diablo 2 combined with the fact that D3 initially was missing ladders. Periods where everybody starts from 0. Those were the issues. RMAH is working in D2 via external sites where you can buy items for real money, and that isn't a problem for Diablo 2.

[@Tommy5005]

I really love Asmons videos, but hes take on not haveing offline mode really hurt. I work at a job where sometimes i dont have access to good connection for months and so i was even unable to play D2R after i bought it for months, even if it has “offline” mode. And it sucks buying a game and not being able to play it.

[@bill5742]

I think the people who created Diablo and WoW are now gone... they put all their love and passion in these games that's why they were so unique and succesful.

[@kitsunekaze93]

i tried getting back into WoW again because i quit around the burning crusade, and wanted to go through it all, especially Wrath of the lich king! but the game was not even remotely the same... level squish, most quests deleted, all races start in the same place, whole world levels with you? why even play

[@GarrattCampton]

@@kitsunekaze93 classic is still classic

[@kitsunekaze93]

@@GarrattCampton oh, OH, OH NO they have a WotLK classic now! i am VERY tempted by it

[@O-sa-car]

yep Phase 4 drops on 10/10 and ICC opens on 10/12 - Joyous Journeys is up (50% XP buff) so get to leveling, kid

[@sethmyers5666]

Blizzard used to pay salary AND a bonus, and not a small bonus either (I think the bonus was usually 1/3 of their total pay), so they made decent money. Well when Activision bought Blizzard (or they merged) Activision didn't like the bonus system so they took it away. Activision assured the employees that they would increase pay to compensate the lost bonus. Well they took the bonus and no increase in pay. Well when you fuck workers, they tend to lose what they had that made them make the best games. Also, not only that, I feel games have to appeal to the mass market (from a corporate view). Well a game like Diablo 4 tries to appeal to everybody at the bosses' request, and in the end appeals to no one. Just my opinion

[@gpyyy2444]

The first big nerf patch killed it for me.. As someone with limited time, suddenly my build hit by a big nerf? It shows how unprepared they are for a release by releasing a big adjustment that early. I won't waste time for a game that can just obliterate my build the next day.

[@prestonexzabe2997]

About the real money auction house from D3, I completely agree with you. The thrill of Diablo 2 was finding an epic gg item that would make you rich that you could sell for a bunch of high runes to then kit out your other characters. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE on D2 uses d2jsp to trade items, whether they spent irl money or not. The auction house just made it easier and safer to complete those transactions. Anyone who said that the real money auction house was bad for the game didnt realize that 99% of all trades would have been done on D2Jsp with third party currency or real money anyway.

[@Heltipyre]

The biggest mistaken Blizzard made with D4 is they thought they could sell a 30$ game for 70$ with ingame purcheses and seasons.

[@quindin]

not even a $20 dollar game,,, I bought funnier games for $5 dollars on steam

[@cayde7207]

With how expensive the cosmetics are the game should’ve been free to play…

[@tr1bes]

If it's pay to win DLC, then it's a problem. If it's cosmetic, that is one's choice. Also if the story is cut up to be DLC, it's a problem.

[@Disslikeinator]

And they did so 😂?? They made enough money, and the game may failed but not in terms of money earned.

[@Heltipyre]

@@Disslikeinator no, youre right. What they lost is the only currency that matters. Trust of their costumers. Also, they aimed to milk much more money out of this game. They planned it to make plenty of money every season.

[@ebenezerspludge8369]

He doesn't think it's a problem for a fully priced game to be broken and missing so many features but the Devs spend their time making stuff for the cash shop.

[@blazing-wolf2331]

I started to dislike the concept of always online when I had issue's with my WiFi, in monster hunter world iceborne the final tittle updated dropped with a new monster, I was able to beat it once that day and the next day my wifi was down meaning I couldn't fight the new monster because event quest are tied to online servers

[@-Knave]

35:49 Asmon's "You all have phones" moment

[@Ian-ig4ho]

I think bro is right about the loading everyone else's stash thing. It does feel like they were calling out another department for shitty coding that was holding the "good developers" back.

[@eergegerg23]

2023 AAA gaming.

[@jasminecluney1769]

The selling for real money wasn’t the problem it was the fact that the auction houses implementation meant blizzard fucked with everyone’s drop rates so that after hours you’d drop maybe one unique that wasn’t even for ur class.

[@Vickolai]

20:04 I don't think I've fought little once and actually finished the fight without dying. One of the few things I've ran on every class and could not complete. I've ran every dungeon to the point where I had every skill. I had multiples of every item. I'm not paying for extra pounds when there wasn't content there to begin with

[@JoeBee9]

I played through the campaign but felt very bored of it by the time I reached the end of the campaign; I cannot bring myself to play onward into the postgame at this point; I had my fill. Still got 120 hours out of it though as I did a lot of the side-dungeons and made a build of synergized uniques on my Barbarian.

[@GamingArcane]

Says "No one really cares about having an offline mode" minutes after the part in the video where they were talking about 75 minute queue times to log in. If you're playing solo, your ability to play should not be restricted by some server that you shouldn't need to connect to.

[@OneRandomBastard]

One thing that Asmon doesn't take into account for the auction house scandal, if that even if big ticket items were only being sold via third party - having it in the hands of the everyman is just as important and impactful. Triple A companies have spent countless hours analyzing and putting together plans and patents for systems that eliminate the amount of menus and clicks between the player and a purchase. Having to go with a third party site to sell an item was already enough of a deterrent for most people. Folks REALLY into Diablo were of course going to use it, but the everyman was just going to play an hour or few and then go to bed for work tomorrow. Removing that barrier and placing the button right there in front of the player in the game itself was a big impact to the game integrity and boon to Blizzard's wallet.

[@bananajoelikesbanan]

the acution house was one of the few good things about d3.

[@Dogmatix807]

The only people who liked the AH in D3 are people who made proffit. The AH was horrible.

[@AbeFroman19861]

@@Dogmatix807 I would argue that the AH was a huge incentive for Blizzard to keep the drop rates for everything as terrible as possible as a way to force people to use it. With Blizzard getting a cut of every sale, they had a vested interest in forcing people to use it as much as possible. It was basically just a disguised microtransaction.

[@user-iy1vo2jf2q]

You know where you stood on the scale of drops when you got a decent drop. And instead of needing massive inv space for differ builds, you could start new build from scratch using AH..AND..AND.. Its the embezzlement that got them caught up with the Feds people. Its a way to move money tax free overseas (cough.) But as a business, I wouldnt want to admit that to the public..@@bananajoelikesbanan

[@user-iy1vo2jf2q]

Only the weak players didnt like it, because they realize that they have to work at the gear or trade/ buy it from AH. The babies want their candy fast, and firs. These are also the types of people who make large awful changes in games due to a sheer vote, just like the real world nowdays. When in truth, the votes should only be accepted from hardcore players who have thousands of hours into a game. like RL, if you really dont understand politics, and you dont know what your signing, but "it sounds good from what I'm told." In my opinion they shouldn't even be able to vote.@@Dogmatix807

[@korbels]

I don't agree that offline mode is irrelevant because at any time Blizzard could pull the plug and you would not be able to play the game at all.

[@sgtxstayxgrind5854]

How to fix Diablo: I Diatribe by me. Fix what happened between Blizzard and David Brevik, rehire him. Retcon everything from D3-4 and watch the original creator work wonders.