Diablo 4 Somehow Got WORSE... And So Did Blizzard

Diablo 4 has somehow managed to get worse after the release of Season 1. But the game didn't just get worse, so did Blizzard and their business practices. This game has been mathematically designed to waste as much of your time as possible and it's the best explanation for why so much of the game feels needlessly tedious.
Blizzard has no respect for you as a customer or a player, and I think they deserve the same level of respect from us.
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Introduction - 0:00
The Biggest Tragedy - 1:18
Battle Pass Blues - 2:02
Blizzard's True Goals with Diablo 4 - 8:27
Why Is the Stash so small? - 11:35
Items and Affixes are Worse Than I Thought - 18:31
Conclusion - 24:05
Editing Help From ► / @paragonmitchell
Thumbnail By ► / litlthomas
Raxxanterax ► / @raxxanterax
ChoseN ► / @chosendiablo4
Rurikhan ► / @rurikhan
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[@TheActMan]

Is anybody honestly surprised this keeps happening? It's like clockwork lmao

[@HellxFire98]

Nope lmfao

[@MrDroolBuckets]

the cycle that keeps happening

[@thebrownbanana7863]

They've become the new EA or some shit

[@RuthlessMets]

In not really surprising at this time at age lol.

[@Sci-Fi_Freak_YT]

Expecting Blizzard to make a good game nowadays is like expecting a crack addict to stop without therapy. It’s borderline impossible.

[@buckshot5096]

You gotta admit Blizzard really nailed the immersion because it really makes you feel like your in hell.

[@Valen-mh9fh]

😂

[@HastyThots]

Comment of the year right here! where is everyone??

[@Cheios-Demiose]

try working at Blizzard, 10 times hotter.

[@olivierquetel8204]

Lmao

[@mon0theist_tv]

Pack it up boys this is the best comment

[@Spud1189]

Blizzard is literally the definition of “but wait there’s more” to how terrible they can be

[@FlamespeedyAMV]

Blizzard be like "but wait, there's always more consumers"

[@tromar5758]

Except for their content, there’s no waiting cause there is no more

[@eggplayuh420j9]

@@tromar5758when it comes to content they be like “but wait there’s less”

[@MarioLeCarre]

Bungie are a close second. Bungie's currency in Destiny 2 is the same (Silver - bought with real $$$), you will always have some left over. When I finally stopped playing Destiny 2 after 5 lifetimes worth of grind I had a few hundred Silver left in my account. Bungie are welcome to that money (Silver bought with real cash), because Bungie taught me to never play a 'live service game' ever again. Today I love playing coop games with my friends like Outward, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Project Zomboid, plus so many more. Games I didn't play because of my 'second job' at Bungie as a 24/7 grind slave level one.

[@mikeoxmall69420]

It's like an exponential, but instead of the curve going exponentially higher, blizzard gets exponentially worse

[@shortdork]

Telling the customer "You think you want it, but you don't" has never ended well for any company.

[@TheLarkaanimation]

I can't believe they had the gal to say that in front of a live audience. It's like the whole "Don't you guys have phones?" event all over again.

[@nikoszervo]

Rule number one in selling business: The client is always right.

[@bladedude40]

​@@nikoszervo the whole saying is "Customer is always right in taste' no way in hell I'm defending these fucks but still.

[@WalkerRileyMC]

@@nikoszervo ehhhhhh no. If you come into my store and try and tell me a cup of coffee is 0.50 when it's priced at .99 you are wrong. period. If you bring in a product and demand a refund from me, but I never sold that product nor ever plan to, you are wrong. If you want blue sprockets and I only sell red gizmos and you demand I sell you a red gizmo at the price of a blue sprocket, you're wrong. If you tell me you don't want an ADA ramp in front of your business even though it is required by law, I'm building the ramp and you're paying for the ramp. You are wrong. Will I lose business? From you, a single drop in the ocean, but if I suddenly give up every time a customer complains my losses will be far far far greater. A better quote is "The customer is not a moron". It solves both the issue of giving far too much power to overentitled people who think that they can get whatever they want if they scream loud enough as well as telling companies to stop treating customers like idiots.

[@Christina_Cage]

@@WalkerRileyMC You don't even have a job do you?

[@AxisDimension]

that Steve Jobs clip is pure gold, and applies to so many problems with so many companies. It takes a certain kind of hubris for the new corporate owner to take something that isn't broke, think they can fix it, AND make more money

[@thundershadow]

Steve Jobs is the consummate salesman. I wonder if he personalized the dynamic of Steve Wozniak when he was talking about sales decisions driving out innovative people?

[@buca9696]

That asshole took credit for someone else's work, like a true business man.

[@larrylindgren9484]

Yet he did the same thing. Did things to make sure you had to spend money on his products. Jobs invented greed. He stole everything on an Apple phone from every other company. Put it all on his phone and told you, "Look at all these new things on this phone." They weren't new. He was just smart enough to steal everything and lump on of an apple phone.

[@IntelliPocalypse]

Too bad Apple wants you to regard Steve Jobs as a inspiration for their products, like no calculator for the iPad, but they throw all of it out the window with their predatory decision making, like making it to where you can't fix the damn things. I think Android companies would love to do the same thing, but it would be harder for them since they don't have as much control over the hardware and software. They don't make their own chips, they use Qualcomm or Mediatek. They build their skins on top of the AOSP. If they had their own locked down chips and OS, there would be a lot of Apples out there to pick

[@Im_a_beare]

Blizzard’s ability to become worse and worse while never becoming the worst they can be reminds me of a mathematical curve that is consistently approaching zero but never reaches it.

[@Nolaris3]

They did the impossible...they made EA look good

[@Senzuballs]

They be looking at 343i like ‘here hold my beer’

[@hawkeyedsentinel4648]

@@Nolaris3 EA published one of the best games in the 20's with It Takes Two and is willing to support Hazelight Studios to make a better game, meanwhile blizzard hasn't made a good game since 2016.

[@FlyingGospel]

Asymptotically bad

[@wilsonjonah]

Would you say that they've surpassed EA and totally trounced them for being a terrible company, or they not quite there yet?

[@ViViDG]

If the battle pass unintentionally screwed you over, it would be quite a mistake and a simple "oh oops, sorry, let us fix that" would remedy the situation. But the fact that the pass is perfectly designed to screw you, is so disgusting, I have no words. Shame on Blizzard, but honestly, if you still buy Blizzard games, you have nobody to blame but yourself.

[@TheActMan]

and also that it's not a simple hotfix that gets fixed in 1-3 days is also pretty telling

[@CatManOfTaste]

​@@TheActManwait for the road map for fixing this 😂

[@alejandroaguilar9850]

I would not be surprised if this gets to happen on OW2. Oh wait! They screwed the so called story missions!

[@notcoolbro6526]

Try world of warships legend battle pass

[@OrionDawn15]

@@alejandroaguilar9850 *15$* for what amounts to three archives missions that in a better game would've been free(and better), thanks Blizzard.

[@A_guy_who_needs_a_haircut]

"It is Man, so in love with Greed, that he has lost himself, and found only appetites." - Dutch Van Der Linde, 1899

[@baconshreds1772]

I think that we should give our power to indie studios. In an ideal world, nobody ever buys bad games and the lack of profit puts blizzard in their place.

[@vaporwave2339]

Unfortunately our world has fans who will shill for any company, give them money and defend them like their lives depend on it 😂

[@asparagusstick7820]

But then the indie studios just turn into lifeless mega-corporations

[@blitheringrando1410]

To me, Blizzard started falling off when they focused on WOW so much, then Diablo 3 didn't have the same feel as 2 to me and I gave up on it quickly. These days seeing these videos about Blizzard is sad, but to me they've been dead for years.

[@FellowSunBro]

​@@blitheringrando1410Facts. Besides a couple months of HotS, D3 was the last blizzard game I played. Although it was fun, it never peaked like D2 did and it has just been a downward spiral into greed and creative bankruptcy since.

[@blitheringrando1410]

@FellowSunBro it's so sad. Not just Blizzard, but Bethesda has fallen off too. It feels like so much attention is given to getting micro transactions that nobody just wants to make a good game anymore. As soon as I see microtransactions in a 70 dollar game I ask myself "did I download a free mobile game? I did not. So why am I seeing this shit?" It's just an instant indicator that the makers don't care about my experience being the best it can be.

[@astrealove2247]

Blizzard: "We've hit rock bottom." Also Blizzard: "But we can dig deeper."

[@benstanfill363]

"We've hit rock bottom, luckily we have a jack hammer"

[@ChaosWolfNinja]

And dig all the way down to helll

[@Tiltigo]

"Time to grab the pickaxe!"

[@greenunbidden9867]

"But they dug too greedily to deeply"

[@dragonmaster7984]

Just set it to W for Wombo!

[@Mr.Hermick]

Funny thing is when you uninstall D4 (which everyone should do at this point) you get a safety mechanism: Battlenet asks you if you really want to do that and suggests deleting hi res assets to regain some disk space instead. Clown company.

[@chloemarlowe3817]

That is hilarious, actually. They'll "forget" to make a safeguard to prevent people from accidentally redeeming something (while also "conveniently" moving the highlighter for you) but when you want to delete the game, that's when it'll ask you if you're sure.

[@MattyMcCritic]

Delete your other stuff first 😂

[@BatJeff]

@@MattyMcCritic No. Have to make space for Baldur's Gate 3.

[@petrsvancara8785]

@@BatJeff Good one!

[@SchmergDergen]

Amazing

[@ianclancy5742]

feel free to just turn this into a monthly series on the status of Diablo 4 & I will watch each episode at least 10 times

[@DubbleTee]

Stuff like this makes me respect IO Interactive so much. The amount of content they've released after Hitman 3, and are STILL releasing... FOR FREE, is awesome. Their patches are mostly QOL and player feedback updates. When the community disagrees with a certain change and become vocal about it, IO reverts the change to please their fans. I will FOREVER be faithful to IO Interactive. They know their fanbase and they respect them.

[@tungnse]

Dont forget larian studio and their Baldur Gate 3, the true last beacon of quality still exist.

[@rajivpaul9122]

​@@tungnseIf nobody got me. I know Larian and BG3 got me 😔

[@redcottage]

I hate how AAA game developers are talking about how baldur’s gate 3 sets an “unrealistic expectation for video games” basically saying you should be happy if a game is incomplete at launch

[@crowsenpai5625]

The “Unrealistic Expectations” that is Balder’s Gate 3 was “Industry Standard” 10 years ago. If Skyrim released for the first time tomorrow, with all the content it has, it would be condemned by the modern gaming industry for being “Overachieving and Unrealistic”. All the AAA industries have all apparently come together with the idea of “let’s only make low effort, wallet draining garbage and we call all profit like hell!” And vilify anyone who shows people today that “Good engaging games without tons of payed DLC are possible.” And they hate it because it makes all the others look bad…because they are.

[@OmegaZyion]

@@crowsenpai5625 Ah, the good old days, when cheat codes were a fun secret to discover rather than being stamped onto everyone's credit card.

[@Finraen]

People are still discovering new builds in Diablo 2. In 2023. Good core game design is like lost technology from Atlantis at this point.

[@InvadeNormandy]

The irony also being... BG3 is just more of the same. It's like... 2023's standards (Asscreeds and shit) balk at BG3 which is post 2007 standard (Thanks for the PAID 3 YEAR BETA suckers and having optimization/plot oddity things) Which in turn would balk at pre-1999 standard. (The game CAN'T have breaking bugs, period, one launch only.) So it's fucking pitiful where the industry has gotten now.

[@TheNetRiper]

@@Finraen Yes. And try Diablo II LoD + Median XL mod...

[@AhamkaraMommy]

"Give devs the same respect they give you" is a fuckin' statement to live by.

[@chillbizz74]

It's the higher ups who screw over the game

[@AhamkaraMommy]

@@chillbizz74 It's both, story writers for Destiny 2 were leaked to be responsible for shit work-place culture and gatekeeping the newer devs. Meanwhile some of the higher ups keep stuffing more monetization into the game. It's never black or white.

[@chillbizz74]

@@AhamkaraMommy True it's always usually a grey

[@thersandersm1363]

The main issue is the higher ups that push games out for money. Larian is the perfect example of a studio that still cares about making good games and it's only because it's not owned by some giant corporation to turn it into a money factory instead.

[@ManiX207]

the devs are amazing - but the as said in the vid marketing and pr are at fault

[@HowToChangeName]

I love no matter how broken the game, how unstable the server, how slow the fix, the microtransaction and store are always working

[@solrinin]

22:16 TF2 might be a better example. That game is like 20 years old, hasn't had a major update in like 8 years and it's still gaining players.

[@MrDwarfpitcher]

Many of those players are bots But yeah that game is rock solid

[@alexjames3539]

Damage vs Cold and Damage vs Frost being seperate stats is absolutely abominable.

[@matkosmat8890]

If they have different names, they should at least be separate multipliers, but no. It's amazing.

[@Haggysack2k8]

They should add a third one and call that "Damage vs Snow" and if they feel really funny, they'll also add "Damage vs Blizzard" and call it the "Brace yourselves, Winter is coming" But i guess, since this is Blizzard we're talking about, they'll only change the icons of "Damage vs Cold" and "Frost" to fruitbaskets.

[@widchaponjearaphunt5452]

I lile when Act man said in hus previous video about Damage while tap dance on tuesday LOL

[@Armoredcompany]

"They're the same Sir" "Oh really? Or is one a Cold and the other a Slightly Colder Cold?"

[@KoiKoy56]

Cold is a damage type and frost is a skill type. Just like necromancer bone skills do physical damage. Physical damage is a damage type, bone is a skill type. It's really not too problematic. It's a way to add more attributes to items, and also gives, for example sorcerers, the possibility of getting % to frost skills and % to cold damage to increase your damage by more. I'd say this is welcome, especially with how fucking weak sorcerers have been thus far.

[@firstreality3867]

Whoopi Goldberg being a Diablo fan is the strangest discovery this year

[@beefnacos6258]

She isn't bro.

[@Bongodog08]

​@@beefnacos6258she was upset that she couldn't play on her laptop so yes she is

[@Tattootin]

She had no clue what it was bro.

[@Tattootin]

@@beefnacos6258thanks, was looking for this. She has no clue what it is. She tried to tie in familiar details…. But she called Diablo “her game”…. She probably has a difficult time playing candy crush because…. She’s a fuckin old celebrity that doesn’t give a shit

[@Bongodog08]

@@Tattootin yeah probably bc she's old and isn't chronically online

[@dawidkocewa1238]

Act Man says how it is. Without sugar-coating. We need this. We need in-your-face truth. More than ever we need videos like this.

[@jeremyf1901]

“You are a factory of sadness!!!” LOL that guy in the intro is amazing lol

[@HelloChief117]

The other day, I watched a review of Myth 2 by MandaloreGaming. In that review, he pointed out that while the game was being shipped to the stores, a third-party translator discovered a bug that could delete folders and files around the game files when uninstalling the game. The developers (which just happens to be Bungie) recalled the game because they thought that while they were going to lose money doing so, it was the right thing to do. This was during the Christmas sales in December. Mandy said that "It's a level of integrity you just cannot imagine from the AAA space nowadays." Then Activision proves him right.

[@sheshin]

Yeah he discovered because thats that happened to him, he uninstalled the game, and for some reason he installed it in the root folder of his drive, and basically wiped the whole drive

[@pablo4yu]

Mandawhore gaming is absolutely perfect to sleep to

[@nickllama5296]

Blizzard would leave that bug in and put out a tweet saying "We'll fix that around season 7." OMG SHAKO IS DROPPING NERF IT NOW EVERYBODY WORK THROUGH THE WEEKEND. Fuck these clowns.

[@MLemonT4]

What’s the alternative for Bungie in that situation? Ship it anyways and taint their reputation forever? I think it doesn’t have anything to do with integrity, and everything to do with money. Dangerous to appropriate morality with business

[@SquaulDuNeant]

Yeah correction : OLD BUNGIE . More accurately was like any old studio in the past now it's not the same heads leading the "name" so of course it sucks while at the same time they were the best.

[@spoogerenko]

The "No preorders" rule is slowly evolving into "No buying for at least half a year after release" rule. Like, how do you change a 70$ game to be WORSE than it was on release holy shit my dudes

[@shafta2010]

Full Refunds need to be enforced when a game gets worse

[@swaggadash9017]

I don't anymore. I can't rationalize paying £70 for a game, especially a single player game. Imagine spending £70 for something with a 15 hour playtime at the high end 😂

[@rastafari2k3]

Actually true. I think I'm waiting at least 1 year to play Star field

[@anonimus370]

@@swaggadash9017 Dunno, I'd gladly pay 70$ for 10 hours of good, solid single player game. At 7$ per hour it's better than movies. Thankfully I can easily get my fix from indies for cheaper.

[@LG1ikLx]

It's like game Devs noticed that pre orders were dropping cos their shitty practices so they wait a few months to do the malicious crap now

[@Maastickore]

What really pisses me off is that people comes to videos like this and act all smart and then keep buying blizzard's garbage

[@JoshuaA1307]

Tbh I never played Diablo, only Ratchet & Clank… that where from my step brother….. 😅 Im kind of glad that I don’t. Don’t get me wrong i love Diablo 4’s storyline and all….. but the game seems way to complex and horrible then GENSHIN IMPACT…. At least Genshin has proper item sorting and reasonably made stats

[@Kid_Mode]

I've never seen AM get so mad before. I genuinely feel bad for the Diablo community here and I have never felt that way about any other gaming fanbase ever.

[@simonfisher5380]

I was going to buy this game when it first came out, but my wife told me to wait because of Blizzard's track record. I'm so glad I listened to her.

[@FreedomHero4]

I hope you went and bought her a gift with the money you saved from that decision

[@mr.s9783]

Your wife is best wife

[@fraymakerfan3628]

You're a lucky man, you know that?

[@Esteb86]

I'm jealous you saved the money. I would have rather burned the $60. I played it for 3 weeks, and it was the same shit over, and over, and over. I found myself sitting in game, watching youtube videos about nothing, and had more fun.

[@sheshin]

Man you better treat her well with those 60 buckos she saved you

[@masonfletcher1241]

Damn it's really depressing when you have a former developer telling you that the company they worked at is now void of all dreams and magic it once held

[@mrjohnnyk]

Heck I could have told you that.

[@NeverLucky1765]

As much as I agree with him do bare in mind he’s also the guy who developed firefall and fucked that game into the ground, so he’s not quite as innocent.

[@desox123]

@@NeverLucky1765Bro the suits ruined that not him his hand was forced

[@TheActMan]

Funny how he was brought back to work on War craft 3 Reforged after working on the original like 20 years prior. What a kick in the dick

[@l3orn2Film]

Yea i remember the good days when a Blizzard game was something to look forward to, now that company is just a carcass with a "Blizzard" sticker on it.

[@maksimslhernault4042]

Same thing happened with me and OW. I used to jump on and play for hours on end even throught the massive 3 year drought but when OW2 came out it just felt like a chose to play the game and not entertainment. I dropped it after season one and tried to come back just now and holy crap it has not changes since i dropped it.

[@erichorton1440]

I didn't buy diablo 3 or 4. That's how you win.

[@specialagent1868]

The statements by Steve Jobs about Marketing and Sales departments killing their companies is 100% accurate. You will never find a group of people so convinced that they're good at business while simultaneously being so hilariously bad at it.

[@Katya_Lastochka]

And yet, theyre bringing in the $ cause people keep falling for the dream.

[@corbin_4738]

​@@Katya_Lastochka They're bringing in the money for themselves. I doubt many of the workers share that profit, especially while the company degrades into humiliation then into an utter failure. Good marketing is like have confidence. It helps sell the product. But people aren't that stupid. Neither good marketing or confidence are worth anything without good follow through.

[@DerXavia]

@@corbin_4738 exactly, D4 was really the last hope that remained for blizzard to turn around their recent track record of fuck ups and they didn't use it. This might very well be the last Blizzard game I have ever bought and I regret spending 70 bugs on this.

[@yuukimasamura5143]

Look at bud light for example

[@Dice-Z]

Oh they are bringing in money alright. A huge ammount of short term money, then boom. The product dies off as they run away with the profits far inferior to what it would have brought in over time.

[@latonbks11]

Diablo ended on Diablo 2

[@peterl8417]

If only GPU companies can be treated like this the same way.

[@Smitty19966]

The fact that we celebrate games not having battle passes or storefronts is sad in itself…

[@verguco6051]

what game dont have a battle pass nowadays?

[@bearwitty9690]

​@@verguco6051most games, but he's probably refering to the big ones that have a battlepass fetish.

[@Smitty19966]

@@verguco6051 BG3 just released, it has no battle pass or storefront. Devs have also announced single purchase dlc when it comes out to. Just like the good old days.

[@kasperbolding18]

@@verguco6051 tarkov, battlebit, bg3, dark & darker, terraria, just to name a few. Just stop paying to get fucked, easy fix.

[@Bobodododo]

I think battlepasses are usually good. The majority of games do them properly, and if you don’t like the items for a pass, you can skip it. Not like this though

[@LightTrack-]

I never thought a gaming company could become worse than EA without resorting to severe criminal abuse.

[@timmyreobed5043]

I mean... You remember the sexual assault lawsuit, don't you?

[@gamer65688]

​@@timmyreobed5043they clearly dont, luckly for blizz

[@hel9157]

the fact that the most problematic thing that happened with EA recently was releasing a game too early is shocking.

[@mrzest6356]

Funny enuff, Blizzard managed to become worse when EA's crimes are mostly in the games but hardly at the main company(well except the Bioware fiasco)

[@LightTrack-]

@@timmyreobed5043 Well yeah. However, if that didn't take place, my point would still stand on it's own.

[@jirden]

Overwatch 2 asks you if you're sure like 50 times before you buy the battle pass. How did the same company manage to do a one-click activation in a game that came out AFTER Overwatch 2?

[@Alpha23TV]

They didn’t want to create a FUN game… they wanted to sell an ADDICTIVE game… they spend millions on behavioural psychologists in order to understand how to implement the most repetitive, sticky, grindy, time absorbing practices… the massive list of damage modifiers is designed to create a min/max black hole 🕳️

[@Driftingsiax]

My dad worked for a major company for over 30 years, and he talked about people there that would put so much effort into avoiding work, that it became harder than the work they were avoiding. That’s blizzard. They are putting so much effort into forcing, tricking, and disguising their bad game, they probably could have just made a good game by now.

[@nilac1987]

While I agree with you on the effort they put into such actions, fixing the game takes: 1. Admiring you fucked up in the first place, can’t do that, will not do that. They will wait, till they stop making money then fix it and people will come back 🤦🏻 why fix it when it makes money

[@derpmann2615]

This. When will they realize. Lol.

[@sammicoporsammicopor]

​@@nilac1987 go back to grade school before daring to criticize anyone

[@Katya_Lastochka]

​@@sammicoporsammicoporLearn what autocorrect is before you get judgmental.

[@Proranis]

they just dont have good devs anymore and beeing a publicly traded company makes numbers more important than quality

[@flyinggoat2581]

As someone who regularly hires UI/UX professionals in tech, the lack of safeguards on the battle pass activation button is absolutely intentional. UX teams at a company as elite as Blizzard A/B tests the effect that their flows have on things like, let's say, BATTLE PASS CONVERSION RATES. I promise you that was the metric they were tasked with improving. Look at it. It's literally the most colorful button on screen--complete with a "shimmering" visual effect--against a black and charcoal background. It's designed to grab your attention, and then snag you if you ever touch it.

[@wtf17727]

Yeah, we A/B test everything at our company. It's also not a small company but not nearly as big as Activision Blizzard. If something on our Store-Front changes believe me that stuff was tested 2 weeks+. Although we're not nearly as scummy as Activision Blizzard, but we also operate under German law where as a big company you don't get away with that much scummery.

[@anidiot2818]

Not having experience with video games, but in the automotive industry there are a lot of tests and often studies with different UI/UX designs. I don't think any industry branch and company would release an UI that wasn't tested in the first place. Love or hate it, the developers achieved what they wanted when they released it.

[@mandragorius9637]

I'm still surprised about what things are legal in a digital space Buying without a safeguard and no refunds is the digital equivalent of having a sign in a shop that says 'if you touch the box you are obligated to buy it' How... is that even legal

[@nucphyschem1]

@@mandragorius9637 because most of the freaking lawmakers are our grand parents who to this day don't understand email and why they shouldn't send 1000$ to someone in africa.

[@ferinzz]

​@@mandragorius9637like said, it's not legal if its determined that it's a dark pattern. Though since this isn't directly a cash event, it's spending a token bought with money, they might weasel out of culpability. This kind of thing is why there's 3 currencies in gacha games.

[@swallowedinthesea11]

I bought Diablo 4 for myself and my gorgeous 17 year old granddaughter. We have played together and it was a great time, especially for me at 73 years old I don't get to see her much besides the holidays because she lives in Rhode Island and I'm in Oklahoma. Christmas is approaching and I think I'm going to get her a Lilith statue.

[@reagansido5823]

It's honestly really cool of bliz to go out of their way to reenforce Act's points about D4. Not many people would do that.

[@wow-effect]

True fan 💪

[@Matanumi]

Now they need to be really cooler and go out of business Fuck this company

[@lancegoldsborough5678]

Reinforce*

[@mecburnablasta6811]

“Have you ever thought about making a good video game? And the game is so much fun I want to keep playing it?” As someone who just finished Tears Of The Kingdom after playing it for two months straight, I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment

[@anafu-sankanashi8933]

Fallout New Vegas too. A game that keeps me coming back after countless playthroughs.

[@badasscrusader]

Monster hunter world and rise has taken unironically over 300 hours of my time this year and I'm still playing it

[@MikeLikesBikes095]

Ghost of Tsushima took all my free time. No breaks until we rid the land of all the mongols!

[@JLind854]

Tears did that for me too! And now baldurs gate is doing it again

[@gregnog8119]

Remnant 2 is the same game as remnant 1 but with more content to play and explore in, exactly the kind of sequel you want for a game like that and I'm still finding new procedurally generated builds to work with

[@TheLeandroNex]

True, but I wouldn't go as far as blaming developers. As a developer myself on a big project I can say that you don't decide stuff, you can raise concerns and provide suggestions and ideas but is up to your manager or PM to decide. Even if you are a principal engineer, you don't decide things alone. I bet this issue was raised by devs and disregarded or deprioritized by upper management.

[@CorelUser]

He knows to not criticize devs and he didn't. Everyone knows this is an upper management problem

[@skbproject5589]

Then quit

[@TheLeandroNex]

@@skbproject5589 why would I?

[@grigorirazumovski1012]

"You are a factory of sadness!" :'D

[@Bthakilla4rilla]

This is pretty much spot on, and I've been saying it for years now. The Blizzard that folks like you and me look back to in the memories of our childhood; the Blizzard of old who wanted to be your cool gamer bros, who wanted to be your friend, who just wanted to make awesome games that like minded people would enjoy- that Blizzard is gone. It's long been dead. All that remains is the money pit. Do not feed the money pit.

[@nocturneuh]

Amen to this 🙏

[@demoulius1529]

This. So much this.

[@robertschwalb4469]

I saw that battle pass UI thing and thought "if that happened to me, I'd uninstall immediately".

[@germandragon8136]

That Blizz died somewhere around D3, post WOL SC2 and so on

[@nightmareTomek]

@@germandragon8136 Nope, that Blizzard died in 2008 when Activision bought it. Both teams from Diablo 2 and Starcraft 1 left Blizzard to nearly the last man before D3 and SC2 released. The latter two games were produced by copycats that were trying to replicate the creativity of others. And Blizzards marketing is exceptionally good since then, too. Before Diablo 3 released, the beta was also more used as a teaser than an actual test, just like in D4.

[@_Tzer]

i still find it hillarious how these buisiness people think baldur's gate shouldn't be treated like it's a standard you can't meet. Just make a good game don't shove microtransactions down our throat and maybe you can actually get people enjoying stuff for once and buying the damn game.

[@jakenguyen1150]

Like seriously, and there are actual players who stand with them too. Like dude, it is not even a high f*cking standard. We aren't expecting something big. We just only expect a finished game, without....oh you know, tons of DLCs and microtransactions in it. Bro, is that too much to ask ? Is that too "high" standard that these million dollar triple A studios cannot follow ?

[@MrSqurk]

The bar is touching the floor and their solution is to lower the floor. It is unbelievable.

[@Wolf-fighter]

why tf do people worship that shit? baldurs gate sucks

[@bdcmatt9041]

Its disgusting that these out of touch mother fers are trying to tell us what the standards for games should be.

[@bookfish]

@@jakenguyen1150 Not to even mention, that how the hell BG3 is a high standard? Games used to be like this couple of years ago... Hell even nowadays you can see examples to a good-no strings attached-single player games. No... the truth is that it's not high standard. It's just the money people at blizzard know well that a single buy game, doesn't matter how good it is, will never bring as much money as an alright game with microtansactions. If they can make Diablo 4 into a solid 6.5/10 game, just good enough so the players who bought it will come back to it every now and then, it'll bring back more money, than a 15/10 pay-to-play game would.

[@GHOST-in-the-MACHINE]

I played until I think a week into the first season with my friend. We played a ton in the Eternal realm, we took breaks here and there. The massive nerf patch really cut into our enjoyment, but since we were playing together, it wasn't *too* bad. My friend struggled a lot with inventory management, and we kept having to portal in the middle of a dungeon just to unload. It got to a point where we stopped picking up gems (but Diablo 4 prios gem pick up over loot pick up, so that was often another fun dance). Eventually, even the fun we had playing together couldn't salvage this cunty dumpsterfire of a game. We decided to "pause" to play BG3 on release. We've yet to unpause. It's not even that I dislike the gameplay, or even the story. Both are good for what they are. Like I've played Diablo 3 over and over and over, it's a game I play when I wanna do no thoughts head empty shit. D4 is just D3 slightly updated with a new story. It might as well have been a DLC or whatever. Usually when I have casual intentions, a game stays installed on my PC (see: Warframe, The Sims 4). Like games I'll put a few hours into every now and again, but it's so random and the amount of hours vary that installing it every time is a bigger pain than having it readily available whenever I wanna play. Diablo 4 could've easily been one of those games. Diablo 3 is such a game for me. It's uninstalled, though. And since that was the only reason I redownloaded battle.net, that will be departing from my drive very soon as well.

[@Xhotic]

bro I had to check my OSRS client like 10 times thinking I had the music turned up lmao +1 respect from me for using that music in half your videos brother

[@FunkyBaconArts]

I want this to be released on Steam so I can watch the Overwhelmingly Negative score sink Blizzard even deeper into the abyss.

[@JustapErson]

I'm curious if they'll put more games onto steam. OW2 got 50k players on day 1 and probably genuinely did bring in a lot of new players. Even though it's the worst reviewed game in steam history.

[@strider029]

if they release both starcraft on steam i will give blizzard positive reviews in a heartbeat

[@isuckatusernames4297]

unlikely, ow2 was f2p. diable 4 costs money

[@PopcornMax179]

​@@strider029no you wouldn't

[@Shadowlet]

Doesn't matter, it'll still get a ton of players like OW2

[@ianAEF]

Whoopi Goldberg sueing Blizzard because she couldn’t play Diablo on a Mac is the greatest thing I never thought would be real

[@Cyromantik]

At the same time I'm mourning one of my favorite franchise, I'm learning one of my favorite actors is super into playing it. Worlds I could never have guessed colliding is a nice silver lining here.😊

[@chrism2502]

She should just play d2r for a good experience

[@weakneerose7614]

@@chrism2502you really think she plays Diablo? She’s just saying that because one of her staff probably tell her to say this to give her some attention

[@theoutsider8745]

I was convinced that it was an AI using Whoopi's face for a bit until I read a few articles online...still not completely convinced honestly it feels so surreal.

[@ThePandaSupreme]

I mean it’s only for attention… she doesn’t play Diablo lol

[@Korrath]

Actman dunking on Blizzard is the gift that keeps on giving. Please keep coming back to this dumpster fire, you've got a rich vein of comedy gold here. 😅

[@SSCharlegmane_]

Can you help me please, i play Diablo 4 on the Xbox, but I don’t have Controller Vibration with normal attacks just be leveling up. Is this normal ?

[@albarrex1600]

Once I completed the main story, I traded this game in. And I do not regret it.

[@braf7349]

If Blizzard tried to build a house, you'd get a shed with a note in it saying that it wasn't possible to add plumbing or electrical because shed's can't have those things due to code violations. My brother in Christ, you built it as a shed!

[@JoeyFrancis02]

My favorite part of D4’s UI is that redeeming your pass is a 1 click but if you try and play eternal instead of seasonal you get a pop up making you acknowledge that you can’t play seasonal activities on the eternal realm before it lets you play.

[@nox22119]

Because they did have it they just removed it which shows it was completely intentional basic UI design don't get forgotten.

[@raeraeella6426]

My favorite part is not buying the damn game/cash grab in the first place

[@Spearra]

​@@raeraeella6426This right here! Seriously! If a company keeps outputting nonsense, STOP BUYING FROM THEM!

[@mutantmaster1]

I don't know the source, but this reminds me of the quote: "the bar was so low, it's practically touching the ground, but here you are, limbo dancing in hell with the devil"

[@vespi57]

When I heard about Diablo IV, I told myself I'm not gonna buy it until I know exactly, how it is going to be received by playerbase. Why? Because I had lost my faith in Blizzard. And my fears came true: Diablo IV is not worthy of my time. Thank god I didn't buy it, and now I never will. One of the best decisions I have made in the year 2023.

[@UltimateEnd0]

Me too waited 6 years in anticipation as a hail mary for Blizzard. Been playing Diablo since I was still in diapers so I was pretty hyped for it. However, when beta dropped, so did my anticipation. Level scaling & lack of intricate itemization was a huge turn off for me. I just don't care for D4. AAA gaming has gone to shit.

[@cloyddowling1088]

Whoopi Goldberg being a diablo gamer is the twist I was not expecting

[@scarface8806]

She just want to play her Apple 4 😂

[@Larimuss]

Yeah but bitching about playing it on your mac when a $10,000 brand new pc gaming laptop is the equivalent of us buying less than a coffee, is like boohoo go buy a pc bitch.

[@RealKeetz]

Ayo...they pissed off WHOOPI. WHOOPI!!!!!! These guys are HEARTLESS. 😤

[@frontmanguitars8276]

Might be a cameo

[@base12_mathematics]

what's blizzard's response to Whoopi Goldberg?

[@Van_Ghalta]

"I feel like I spend more time looking at loot than I do playing the game" I literally looked over my shoulder when Act Man said this and my dad had been spending the last ten minutes looking at his D4 loot.

[@CorporalPT]

it's so cool that you play next to your dad

[@agentnukaz1715]

Sometimes my brain just can't process all the numbers anymore but u have to if u wanna clear your inventory and keep killing

[@Van_Ghalta]

@@CorporalPT Ngl it's pretty sweet

[@SkidogMedia]

when you first are learning what stats to take ya, but after a bit if you taking 10min to look at look you are doing somthing wrong

[@TheMusicolophile]

@@agentnukaz1715It’s called an ARPG. Managing the loot is part of what lover’s of the genre enjoy.

[@sydneycollins7927]

It’s embarrassing that today that modders have more passion than the developers. Project Diablo 2 is a modded D2 with an endgame and constant development. They got that shit to be up scaled to modern resolution. Blizzard doesn’t care about players any more, they just see us as walking taking wallets.

[@leeroyjenkins1529]

The sad truth is companies are making money off games like this. And they wouldn't be making money if people didn't buy the games. And people buy games because they enjoy playing them. For the life of my I'll never be able to understand how someone can enjoy what is essentially a full priced free to play mobile game. But apparently they do

[@Thegamer10113]

Because a lot of gamers are sheltered under a rock.

[@patrickbateman181]

Never underestimate Blizzard's ability to disappoint.

[@joshuacox5817]

I want to see a video that compares Blizzard to Riot/Tencent

[@matthewcaimbeul8722]

This video is so late though? He makes this after Blizzard actually made a good patch…? Like where was the weeks ago when the patches were bad?

[@tsukune5267]

​@matthewcaimbeul8722 you're brain is as smooth as cement

[@Odinarcade00]

Disappoint? This is far beyond a disappointment. It’s a disaster

[@akmal94ibrahim]

Disappoint? I was expecting this. They were gonna turn it into Diablo Immortal, but only after all the reviewers have praised the game.

[@caiomartires8214]

Blizzard's business strategy is to add new, bigger problems to their games so that the old ones don't seem so bad in comparison.

[@BardiXOfficial]

That’s how the lootboxes worked in Overwatch 1, just replace them with a battlepass and people will beg for the lootboxes back

[@prodigalsun1678]

What bothers me about all of this the most is that i think there are still passionate game designers at blizzard. Unfortunately bobby kotick came along and castrated them for having any sort of passion about their games and now the culture of blizzard is to hoard as much money from their games as humanly possible. Dont forget before bobby kotick the ceo of blizzard was making something like 5-10 million a year from blizzard revenue but bobby makes something like 200 million a year.

[@stuartmalles7643]

Dude... you freak-in nailed it. Both reviews are gold!

[@MrArbaras]

When I started playing in Beta and began looking at the odd assortment of affixes, it became quite apparent that whoever was developing the itemization system was not optimizing it for the sake of the player's enjoyment. Seemed more they were trying to meet a required word count on a book report.

[@MasterGhostf]

Agreed. Bought the game and the affixes seemed... boring. The only cool thing was the aspects as there were some cool ones.

[@TravisH-nm9fy]

Wait until you see the new affixes they are adding in the expansion pack. Preorder now for only 79.99. -Damage while standing in the shadows -Damage while wearing socks -Damage to enemies with one eye -Damage to enemies who have a tail

[@Astares9]

@@TravisH-nm9fy all in an attempt to make the loot pool larger so you take longer to get anything with relevant stats >:(

[@damien81981]

this is exactly what happened to this game.

[@praetorian3902]

Honestly, I don't understand you people. You heard how Blizzard screwed people with past titles, they have already shown you who they are, yet you still give them money. Honestly, you deserve to get screwed. It's because of people that don't have principles and self-respect (not giving money to people who screw other people) that they keep getting away with this and as a result the industry will never change. Expect more shit titles in the future and guess who's to blame. Was I too direct ?

[@massengsle8779]

Always sad to see. My cousins dream was to work for blizzard and when he finally achieved it he left in a year as he realized it was not the company he loved as a kid.

[@kirosaki8897]

Sad man

[@kingzalut9639]

Feminist woke crappy place for sure..

[@jean-francoisduval1907]

Same.

[@antihumorplayz9800]

:/

[@augustosampaio8579]

@@TheDreamArena sometimes, they are.

[@MG-hx3ym]

So glad I saw the game as being a corny mess and didn’t even entertain buying it.

[@Wolvahulk]

Man, nothing puts how hard Blizzard has fallen into perspective for me than playing their older titles... (Diablo 1 and 2 specifically).

[@traverse006]

Baldur's Gate 3 made me realize how good we had it from 2000-2013ish. Just a complete game with a focus on fun first and I can't put it down. These parasites at the top that see the gaming industry (every industry) as money printing machines are driving us collectively insane. Steve Jobs was right: the product suffers when management prioritizes profits over their product quality. *Edit: I DID NOT BUY DIABLO 4

[@reelement8032]

Back when a games replayability involved starting a new game maybe with a different class.

[@vancodling4223]

Lol his cancer would get cancer if he saw Apple today

[@TheBloodshotFilms]

Bet it won't stop you from buying diablo 5..... Exactly what they're counting on.

[@traverse006]

@@TheBloodshotFilms I didn't even buy the DLC for Diablo 3 let alone 4. Blizzard has not gotten a dime from me since 2012.

[@kosmosfan01]

It's nice to be able to still go back and play some of those games. It really is harder to see games do something that used to be a standard which is tragic. I get live service games gotta keep the train going but when you can't even play the single player part without being connected to the Internet, that's some BS that has you tether to the servers. If they go down or are shut down, you can't play squat.

[@monky999monkey]

I passed over this game after your first video. My condolences to anyone who had hope. “Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment”

[@Armoredcompany]

I bought it, but I 100% didn't pre-order it. I finally learned that lesson after 2042. Friends gave me the whole "no its actually really good" speech. I have yet to finish the original campaign, then they nerfed sorcerers into the dust and I haven't touched the game since the day after the season 1 patch.

[@EngieMak]

@@Armoredcompanyyou should give your friend "you're an idiot" speech

[@Armoredcompany]

@@EngieMak For sure. After like a week he was asking "hey when are you getting on? I haven't seen you on?" I said "yeah, I got better things to waste my time and money on, this just sucks, its not fun"

[@Kanoog]

​@@EngieMakWhy? Finishing the campaign and quitting is the only way fun way to play this game. Playing it to max level, season 1 whatever is where the problems are.

[@guyincognito959]

Arr!! Burn the Heretic!

[@mingchi1855]

Agree so much on the Steve Jobs clips. You put them perfectly where they should be. The business people in the company only cares about ACVs, MAUs, etc. They have 0 clue about the product.

[@linerteam1013]

Ma boy Act Man getting better with the delivery and sharper with the analysis deeper research… keep it up mate. I’ll keep watching.

[@FlashmanVC]

That clip of Steve Jobs is a really good insight into how Apple became Apple. Despite his reputation as an a-hole, the man recognized that the best way to build a brand was to make things that customers genuinely wanted to purchase and would be happy with. For him it wasn’t about fooling people into spending money on the bare minimum for short term gain. That is pretty much lost in every industry now, including at modern Apple.

[@bobbyfischer9927]

Ya that’s why Apple is a 2.9 trillion dollar company and Blizzard is a fart lol

[@ZeroOmega-vg8nq]

Works in modern dating too lmao

[@fiercelypolygons3696]

I can only imagine how dissapointed Jobs would be in Cook. Sure, Apple is now a trillion dollar Corp. They went from being pretty tiny to now towering over companies like Microsoft. But so much of their decisions feel like only further increasing their profits. No charger in the box? Yeah, sure it's environment issues, totally environment friendly when you package the same charger with double plastic wrapping in a seperate plastic box.

[@Hk7762Tube]

Ah yes, buy only our stuff or you are fukced, Apple number 1!

[@karebushmarebu233]

@@ZeroOmega-vg8nq no, no it doesn't lol. If thats what your dates are like its more likely you are the problem than anyone else.

[@timmyt1717]

Someone give Act Man a break from carrying all this weight of this epic video slamming Blizzard into the ground. That clip of Steve Jobs is INSANELY scary when looking at a company like Blizzard now. Gotdamn Act Man, you absolute chad. *biggest tip of the hat here*

[@MasonOfLife]

A full price game has a PAID battle pass??? That shits crazy bro

[@Ohshirho]

Why do you need to load an entire stash of someone you meet in D4? Do you also load their purchase history, account passwords and credit card details?

[@humanversion3163]

As a product designer, I can guarantee you there is a Figma file that has the confirmation dialog for activating premium. Also as a product designer, I’ve been in conversations where the powers that be instruct you to remove it. It’s also in these meetings where you’re referred to as “not being built for this” when you push back. Crazy to see it so blatant in gaming as well :/

[@chrisadams1438]

"figma balls lmao" -Blizzard

[@sayLeotardbutsayitChinese]

Bro I feel this in my soul. I've ragequit jobs over this exact instance lol

[@toasty8432]

Bad UX is one thing, but intentionally deceptive is a whole nother level of rotten

[@Toshiro_Mifune]

@@chrisadams1438 tee hee hee

[@jakehero95]

There's only been one time I experienced this, and oh did they make their greed known literally laughing when I explained the issue with it. Once that was said I simply responded with "You're d**n right I'm not, and won't be associated with anyone that is" and walked out. Took all my work with me (which I made sure I kept the rights to) and left them to basically start over since everything left was built around my code. Felt good but I know I only slowed them down in the end, and that's the worst part.

[@somedudewithakeyboard5388]

I find it absolutely perfect that two games released in the same year, both having 6 years of development time, one being developed by a previously small scale developer, one being produced by one of the largest game devs on the planet, and both being on complete and utter opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of quality, engagement, polish, etc

[@Fxrrxt2x]

The "Duality of gaming" right now.

[@Birdzlitlehelpr]

I honestly don't think Baldur's Gate 3 would have done nearly this well had it not been for Diablo 4 pissing on its player base the way they did. Would've been successful I'm sure, just don't think it would have blown up as fast as it did.

[@kaseyfiive]

@@Birdzlitlehelprdiablo is for 30 year olds who can’t let go of their past, BG3 would’ve blown up either way. The fact any of you actually thought Diablo was going to be good considering it’s developer is just pure Stockholm syndrome.

[@jokerledger5400]

@@Birdzlitlehelpr The devs coming out of the wood work trying to "temper" players expectation for them also help. BG3 is so blessed to have so many people come out to help, free PR

[@Birdzlitlehelpr]

@@kaseyfiive As a 31 year old, I agree lol But in my defense, I planned to skip D4 just like I skipped D3 and D2R, the only reason I didn't was because a lot of my friends got it and I decided to jump on and play with them. Had my fun, might come back even in a year or 2 when hopefully the problems are hammered out, and will enjoy BG3 in the meantime.

[@robperin5365]

Glad I came across this video, was going to purchase D4, but not now.

[@HiGlowie]

Good decision. So many better games out there that are cheaper

[@oughv]

I've been playing diablo 2 lately and just deleted diablo 4. How sad is that.

[@spermwhale8514]

I never thought I’d see the day where I would have to cut off companies such as Activision Blizzard, Rockstar, Apple, Netflix, Disney, Hulu,2K and EA over their predatory shady borderline illegal practices…Companies with so much potential and money, supported by hopeful fans who once loved their art. These days these businesses are not even worthy of being called a shell of their former selves.

[@lifeofrjh]

It's actually beyond me how anti community and consumer these comapnies have become. I used to love spending money on hard built games but now these Triple A companies milk their ips over and over until eventually everyone moves on, and you're left with nothing but nostalgia...

[@Reishadowen]

The break-down of the money-men moving up until they ran the company is one of the best explanations I've heard for why beloved companies keep ending up like these vampiric husks...

[@duncanbrown2907]

All owned by black rock or vanguard

[@EvelynNyte]

Oh my summer child, this is the natural conclusion of all businesses under neoliberal capitalism. There is no incentive in our current system for companies to perpetually maintain their fans; corporate boards are inbred musical chairs, workers have almost no power, and goodwill is something shareholders will gladly expend to pull money out of their companies over a few quarters/years.

[@DorchadasAgusSolas]

Why do you think that nearly everybody that plays WoW for instance , plays eighter classic or hardcore ?

[@user-hr5ob1jl1b]

Thank you for not putting ads at the beggining

[@leeartlee915]

The really sad thing is that people think Blizzard won’t disappoint them again. Have people not been paying attention the last decade? Blizzard hasn’t been making A+ products in years.

[@sauriel596]

They already did many years back, but at least starcraft, diablo 1 and 2 was pretty nice games, though world of warcraft was a sad affair even if it were successful. Unbalanced classes, and one side always staying one step ahead in advantage by either racial or something else. Even kalimdor areas had small subtle advantages, like easier to get ore deposits or more conveniently placed things. And assholes loved it, which theres alot of, which made it become successful. All that did was fueling peoples power complexes. Some classes, like the paladin were even outright hated by one of the devs called hazzikostaz, hes probably the one that made them into horde fodder too, i would've liked to do something to him in a alleyway, purely because he's probably an asshole born with a silver spoon in his mouth and not cause of the game, but of course that would be abuse of power by information, and waste of money to clear that bill. Its also more complicated than just simply reducing their building to a pile of rocks. One of them though called metzen who drew art in warcraft 2 did like the alliance side as paladin, but all the other just liked horde, so naturally they put more effort into it. Dont forget some employers harassed some female workers there too, so they're no longer decent in our books

[@leeartlee915]

@@sauriel596 I mean hell, I was playing Blizzard games back on the SNES. Lost Vikings and Rock ‘N Roll Racing were some of my favorite games on that console. So, obviously, they both had and have talent. But when they were acquired by Activision, everything changed. My hope is that once MS acquires them, maybe they can disentangle some of the bs cooperate systems they got from the big A.

[@cogahan3105]

A+? Hell, they haven't even made C- products in the past years

[@leeartlee915]

@@cogahan3105 Ehh, Overwatch was a pretty well made game. It wasn’t my kind of thing but I could see it was a well made game. And Hearthstone, well now getting a little long in the tooth, was pretty frickin’ awesome. They basically invented the CCG scene in the digital arena.

[@SpriteGod0]

@@leeartlee915overwatch is not a well made game. Everything they’ve done with overwatch is fucking awful. Overwatch league is no longer a thing now because of how awful the game is

[@metrosity5863]

I can't tell which game company is the worst anymore

[@vandalg282]

Still EA, While Blizzard are being nickel and dime douchebags, its all up to the mindless drones that pay up. EA overworks, fires and downright murders franchises.

[@welcometochristown]

That Steve Jobs interview clip sums up the AAA gaming companies nowadays perfectly. The worst thing that can happen to a gaming company is to grow too big.

[@Lucchese18]

Wow the creators of Diablo immortal implemented horrible, money hungry changes to Diablo IV?! Who wouldve thought?!?!

[@GeraltofRivia22]

I don't know what these gullible fools expected. How can you seriously NOT expect it after seeing Blizzard's track record over the last 5 years?

[@Neomadra]

The funny thing is when you go to the merchant to sell or dismantle rare or legendary items, the game will ask for confirmation. So protecting virtual items is more important to Diablo 4 devs than protecting players' real purse. Hmm...

[@Wulfen109]

Activision is such a slimy company. The only way to stop this shit is to stop playing/buying their products

[@drpapa26]

Why in fuck's name do people keep getting excited for the next Blizzard game? This is a complete farce at this point.

[@AstroAgent99]

Act Man, as a guy working in the industry right now, fucking god bless you man. You're doing God's work. Genuinely, videos like this make me keep going.

[@VAFranky]

I believe there is hope for the industry and more and more people are waking up to this crap. There are so many talented people making amazing art, characters, armor sets, music, textures, landscapes etc. for these games and I believe most people sincerely appreciate their hard work and know all of the terrible ideas ruining these games are coming from the top of these companies.

[@jaz4742]

Corporations need psych evals to filter out sociopaths and narcissists.

[@armandoalvarado5840]

you must have some spicy stories to share with Act Man anonymously...

[@IKilledYourDude]

20+ year vet here as well. Truth that sales and marketing run everything nowadays for everything larger than indie. Innovation in gameplay rests with the indies. Larger publishers are more interested in innovating around commerce.

[@snakebutts2000]

Just wait till Path of Exile 2 comes out I'm sure more Diablo fans will lean that way.

[@jamescrook9600]

I'll give you another reason they don't want offline play, it's cause the incredible modding community will fix this game so fast it'll blow the devs out of the water. Another great video actman it's what's wrong with modern gaming now.

[@komiks42]

At this point, any game that force me to be constant onlline, that isn't multiplayer only, i won't buy it. Thats scumy tactic.

[@psycropticqc]

Certified anti-piracy protection measure...Because Activision/Blizzard will never tolerate that you can test the quality of one of their products illegally and then potentially buy it legitimately if it keeps its promises. Who would buy something mediocre or at most passably bad that isn't worth its asking price!? You don't scam a scammer weighing 62.29B$ so easily...

[@TheActMan]

Yeah thats a really good point. Can't have the community fix this game for them

[@garrettk7166]

Holy shit. The UI design of it automatically highlighting the "Activate Premium" and accidentally pressing "A" activates it and there's no confirmation safeguard... Scummy as fuck. God damn!

[@nyyfandan]

The fact that their OWN GAMES from years ago have a better inventory system than this game is the funniest part of the whole thing. Maybe if they drink more breast milk it'll help their brains develop enough to think of a solution.

[@daanabbring5409]

Don't give them ideas

[@MangosharkMDk]

oof.

[@Xeonerable]

That Steve Job's clip is completely right on the dot with what he was saying. This is why small studios always make good stuff, they HAVE to in order for it to sell since they don't have the big reputation. Then the established AAA vampires that chase sales numbers and have zero creativity move to buyout said smaller developers to steal that new popular IP. Then they milk and run that shit into the ground until a new "chosen one" small dev appears. And the cruel soulless capitalistic cycle continues.

[@TheActMan]

It was so on point I had to include it. Dude really knew business and what can happen when companies get too big and lose sight of their origins

[@Lexion95]

We all witnessed that in real time with the release run up with Cyberpunk.

[@LordVader1094]

@@Lexion95 Yep. It was literally the shortest pipeline example of the process. From industry darling for Witcher 3 to completely loathed for Cyberpunk.

[@tugboat6940]

Most small studios just make shittier versions of already shitty AAA game. You guys just think it makes you look cool to stan indie games. You also act like they're not also trying to turn a proft.

[@Xeonerable]

@@LordVader1094 The first symptoms of "AAA disease" over-promising and under-delivering. But I guess in CDPR's defense they did offer refunds, whereas I imagine Blizzard in that situation would be like "lol. fuck you. actually we're going to make it worse and add in more microtransactions.... bitch."

[@Brunnen_Gee]

Activision is going to keep beating the Blizzard name into the ground until people *finally* catch on and stop buying their garbage. Then they'll kill it off and put it out of its misery.

[@alphons1456o]

Goddess of Victory Nikke (aka, the big booty gunplay game) gives you multiple chances to avoid making mistaken purchases. 1. You click the price for a battle pass 2. You are given a chance to put in your zip code to calculate sales tax 3. You are given the option to select your payment method 4. You get the thing you pay for. At any time during steps 2 and 3, you can opt out. When a game that markets itself to coomers has better UI than a multimillion dollar mmo action rpg, you done fucked up

[@DubbleTee]

Well put.

[@KiafryKyle]

I just had a cool new legendary sword drop for me last time I played! It does 51% more damage during a full moon Thursday against enemies who have an O- blood type and an immediate relative named Keith. Its really been changing up my playstyle!

[@keithclarke83]

I wouldn't mind so much, but that was the only day I could get on to play.

[@user-bi2bv1fl2h]

So I'm mid video is this a actual thing? If it is i don't know weather to be extremely worried or impressed at the detail

[@cryotherapy7557]

☠️

[@Diccolo91]

Oh shit the sword of Keith’s Cousin dropped for you?? Lucky, I need it for my build.

[@KiafryKyle]

@@user-bi2bv1fl2h Oh absolutely! In fact, I just rerolled one of the stats on the sword that now lets me do an extra 17% damage to enemies who are currently watching the 1993 film Dazed and Confused.

[@GloriousSnuggleKingLeBron23]

Glad to see Blizzard carry on Billy Mays quote “But I’m not done yet” when it comes to messing up games and upsetting the community

[@cavemantero]

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!!!!

[@dontgetmarried]

I was such a dumb kid/teen I would have fallen for this 100%. Im glad I grew up when I did tbh, gaming just isnt fun anymore

[@rickybobby5153]

There’s some F2P/P2W MTX he’ll games that do it good imo. Warframe and Genshin Impact are really good. They just need to be a tad bit less scummy and more people would spend. D4 has one of the worst battle passes I’ve ever seen… literally almost nothing for free. Even genshin impact is better I actually enjoy battle passes too but not when they’re crap like this.

[@CarwynAndrews]

Does anyone actually play games on Mac?

[@DubbleTee]

LOL good question. I didn't know gaming on Mac was a thing.

[@KarazolaX]

Not gonna lie Act Man, I've disagreed with some of your takes in the past, but I am actually really grateful that you're hammering home the stuff about the UI tricking people into activating their battle pass. A lot of people don't realize how insidious it is, and companies will get away with it because defenders will just blame the person who got tricked, giving an added smokescreen where to absolve them of responsibility. It's gaslighting. MW2 Does this too in their battlepass, where you can accidentally purchase tier rewards for battle coins with no authorization for the equivalent of $1.50. You can accidentally buy a reward of $1 in currency for $1.50. And a lot of people are so dumb, that they'll just believe that 2 decades of UI design was just randomly thrown out, in a way that lets them nickle and dime you. Crazy how that works, isn't it?

[@ambds1975]

Yeah, they've got players doing their dirty justification work for them. It's horrible.