… is because that’s how low a bar I’m setting for this development team to easily beat.
In 2 years, they’ve failed greatly in providing end game systems that managed to keep a large portion of their player base continuously engaged.
Seasons is going to be their real first major attempt (ubers, monster power, and brawling were stop gap bandaid fixes) at delivering such a system. And I’ve already gone on record that it will probably be underwhelming because their method of trying to recycle content, ends up making those systems feel repetitive after a short while (case in point is bounties and rifts). The fact that their 2.1 first look has plenty of empty holes in them, provides insight they haven’t made a decision on many key details. Heading into a PTR, there shouldn’t be any vagueness when it comes to those certain details (simple ones like will the seasonal character itself also roll over to non-seasonal, approximately how long will most seasons last, will there be breaks in between seasons, will crafting/enchanting gold costs be revised).
To put it even more simply, they probably don’t know because their modus operandi to date when it comes to their design implementations, has been akin to flinging feces at the ceiling and seeing what sticks (often times being a day late and a dollar short in the process). Even in the recent Theorycrafting stream, the same comment was made about wanting to give players many different options to keep them busy (this is stating the obvious). Likewise, Travis Day repeated they don’t have a shortage of ideas. Yet they always have this grand idea that everything needs to make sense as it relates to Diablo (which is funny because many of their ideas are just so un-Diablo like).
One such example is the removal of most trading (I again have to repeat that I remain ambivalent about this). As noted in this previous post, trading was considered a core game design of Diablo III (there was open trade with the trade window as well as the gold and real money auction houses). Everything from the layers of RNG with how items roll to the final drop rate quality of those items, were influenced by having an actual open economy via nearly unrestricted trading (trade window and/or auction houses).
With the current restrictive trading and soul binding, the game still seems to be balanced around the former design (but as Jay Wilson noted in the quote I have in the above linked post, the removal of trading ruins the core of the game) even though they recently changed the rarity level of most set items to have the same weighting as Blackthornes and also applied those changes to Kadala. This doesn’t fix the root issue though (which is now not only the flawed itemization design, but also a complete revamping and rebalancing of the drop system itself).
And what little of their ideas they did up implementing for the expansion, turned out to be utterly disappointing (the most latest example being legendary crafting materials and completely removing them – which as I mentioned before, was a huge waste of artistic and coding development that took time away from them on improving a larger amount of legendary items).
Now cursed chest and shrine events were two such events that were re-purposed from their earlier Nephalem Trials game mode (much of this is going to be how specific conquests will work in Seasons). This should give players an idea of what kind of game play the developers were looking at for such challenge modes. The other area to look at (as I’ve mentioned in past posts) for where content will be reused is many of the challenges in the current Achievements system. Some conquests (aka ladder style events) will be exactly the same while others will be a derivative of those themes.
In a nutshell, (and as I mentioned in my past ladders related posts), Seasons is going to borrow heavily from their Achievements system (just as bounties recycled many of the campaigns quests, rifts recycled map tile sets, the Infernal Machine event with keywardens and ubers re-used existing monster models/bosses). The problem isn’t this re-use of current content; the problem is the execution. This development team struggles with end game design. Part of that is because they completely missed the point about what character building in the Diablo franchise really is. They can’t even deliver game systems that feels rewarding via just general game play because they missed the boat with their iterations of the core game design when it came to skills, character stats, and itemization. Often times, their implementation of systems leads to major frustration (like mystic enchanting).
A simple example of that frustration is when someone tries to roll for critical hit damage. It may take upwards of 20+ tries if your luck is bad. And once you do get it, it might be at the low end. So you keep trying and then get a roll that happens to actually be lower than what you currently have. During this process, the player may have blown a lot of gold and Forgotten Souls in the process. Such a design ends up feeling more like one of negative reinforcement; essentially a bad design in terms of rewarding players for their efforts (and that is the other key area this development struggles with; making the rewards actually feel rewarding).
Another simple example are quest rewards (compared to D2); take the first quest in Act III of Diablo II for example (The Golden Bird). Your reward is a Potion of Life which permanently increases your vitality by 20 points. Charsi’s Imbue quest in Act I though is an even better example of something which personalizes your character even more; it’s a simple cosmetic reward that is cool because you get to actually get your character name on any item of your choosing. It’s a fun little reward especially when you’ve imbued a really good item; it’s not just about items but also your character. Quest rewards in D3 on the other hand are fairly un-creative/sanitized; experience, gold, or an item (which at lower levels is useful – but when rewarded at higher levels, is usually useless).
The D3 developers don’t seem to get how simple rewards like these D2 examples, add to that feeling of character development/personalization. It’s not like I don’t get the reason for the lack of permanence when it comes to character skill selection and even Paragon points in D3 (which is why we have this dumbed down iteration in the first place since it created frustration for some players prior to the ability to re-spec points). For D3, with all of our power and key main stats coming from gear, that is where most players attentions are at (we’re more attached to the items as opposed to the entire character).
This wouldn’t be so bad if the items themselves had more depth to them (weapons being mostly just stat sticks with its damage scaled by main stat inflation + CHD/CC/AS that is also attached to said items). And while loot 2.0 took itemization and forced it down a 4/2 (primary/secondary) affix path in the name of forcing players to make key choices (a design philosophy), the designers also consistently make design decisions that go contrary to this philosophy (I already mentioned legendary gems and essentially making socketed jewelries mandatory).
Here’s the other one though; the Hellfire Amulet. Since it will effectively unlock a 5th passive skill slot, guess what? It’s going to eventually be an amulet that you will see plenty of players equipping because having that 5th passive slot is far more advantageous in general game play. Does it fill the objective of making ubers feasible again? Yes because there is that whole “layers of RNG” associated with that entire sequence of events needed to even craft a decent ring/amulet to begin with. But this amulet will now join the Stone of Jordan and Royal Ring of Grandeur as for what many players will be equipping.
Basically, diversity in patch 2.0/Reaper of Souls is mainly because of item gating via soul binding/restrictive trading and wild RNG on rolls along with weighted rarity for certain items. Players are basically forced to play builds based on what the game gives them. Thus real character development/personalization is not even within the players control unless they are exceptionally luck. But once players do get those items, lot of players begin looking exactly the same again (sans transmog). I’m still leveling on D2 ladder for example and am playing the build I want to play even though I don’t have a lot of the items to really give me a power boost. That’s a big difference where in Reaper of Souls, I’d be handicapping my character and feeling mostly detached from it.
