I agree with @Rock8man, this all sounds pretty much okay by me. As someone who doesn’t care about buying cosmetics in Diablo (because this is a solo experience for me), I’m not showing off anything, and I honestly don’t remember much about Seasons in D3. I was focused more on advancing the Torment difficulties after the main story, playing through the Adventure mode on the PS4 after having played a while on the PC. This’ll be a PS5 game this round.
But alas, while I applaud what they aren’t doing, I’m also pretty ho-hum about what they are doing with the shop and seasons. We’ll see if they change my mind once I get to play, of course. It happens. I’ve spent a good deal in Guild Wars 2 which is probably my most played game in the last decade or so, and a lot of that was cosmetic or QoL purchasing. I admit it, I can be pulled in, but they have to do something pretty amazing.
Seasons are all that keeps D3 going for a lot of folks I think, as it gives you a reason to start from scratch and try new things, with usually some new gear or something tossed in.
Huge fan of Seasons in D3. They add tons of variety and keep the game fresh and give an excuse to pick it back up from time to time. They have added a ton of late game content over time with them. I’m haven’t played in awhile but I see a new season starts next week and I am planning on putting yet another 30-50 hours into it again soon.
I will accept paid cosmetics, but I’m not happy about them. The result will be a ton of cool-looking gear that I’ll never see on my character, in a $60 game. That sucks shit. Elder Scrolls Online exemplifies this problem.
That isn’t enough for me to not buy the game or advocate against it, if it’s good, but it means it’s less likely to be great. Best case scenario they only sell cosmetics, no power, no “conveniences”, and that revenue means they continue releasing actual content regularly. I’d be content with that.
But that is the best case scenario, and most games don’t live up to it.
Also of course those cosmetics cannot be tradeable. That would make D4 pay2win, where you can sell them for gold or trade for powerful gear. Same with the paid currency, it must not be tradeable.
Path of Exile isn’t a great comparison because it’s F2P. When you have to pay $60 for the game the calculus changes. On cosmetics, anyway, not power. Pay2win is abhorrent regardless.
Yup. I’m not completely opposed to the idea of whales paying for my content since I’m selfish, but to date I’ve yet to see a game give out the breadth and quality of their “premium” offerings to basic players. Sure, you’ll get some cosmetics in the free track, but you’ll never get the really cool stuff.
The best-looking cosmetics aren’t exclusive to the Shop. Diablo IV will ship with hundreds of transmogs unlockable from drops in-game, including dozens of armor sets of the highest visual quality. There are incredible pieces—Unique and Legendary quality items—for players to find without ever going to the Shop. The Shop offers more diversity of choices, not systematically better choices.
I laughed at this bit from Blizzard. First, “best-looking” and “better” are subjective when we’re talking about cosmetics. Second, cosmetics have to entice people to buy them otherwise they’re pointless, so inevitably some very cool stuff will be locked behind an additional fee. Finally, if they’re like all the other in-game cosmetic shops out there, they’ll likely apply pressure to gamers via artificial scarcity to induce FOMO and giving away bits of sets that will urge completionists to pony up for the bundle.
Basically, other than better production values I expect in a mainline Diablo game, all the stuff announced today makes me expect an experience similar to Diablo Immortal.
I’m assuming they’ll have some kind of communal town area where you’ll be able to see other people decked out in their gear to induce this Fear Of Missing Out.
Path of Exile did that in towns. I’d see people all the time in super glowy stuff. Mostly it just annoyed me because it made it harder to click on my stash.
I have no doubt the game as it ships will have a bunch of cool-looking gear available without paying anything. That will absolutely happen.
And then, over time, every month, new paid cosmetics will be added. Lots of them. Every month. Free stuff probably will too, but vastly less of it. That’s the ESO model right there. I hate it, and I really like ESO… but my character wears an innkeeper costume which I got from a free lootbox years ago.
This monetization model is worlds away from Diablo: Immortal, which is, not to overuse the word, abhorrent. DI is completely unacceptable. Not only do I not play it, but I successfully advised my friend not to let his kids play.
Oh, not just that. I expect the store will regularly have “time availability” sales for items, like daily/weekly specials that will rotate, as well as “limited run exclusives” that will have a window to be purchased.
I was talking about the seasonal/event model more than the store, but I’m sure Blizzard will be all about not leaving money on the table.
It’ll absolutely have limited availability during a given season and so on. So long as only cosmetics are sold I grudgingly accept that.
Blizzard is making a promise here, but they’ve been known to weasel out of promises before. Remember they said you couldn’t buy gear in Diablo Immortal, then of course they sold crests and legendary gems and said “Oh, but they aren’t gear!”. Scummy fuckers.
Diablo Immortal made a metric ton of money, but Blizzard lost any remnant of goodwill they had left after the shameful Chinese censorship and sexual abuse. They get zero benefit of the doubt, zero.
You laugh, but unless they’re incompetent FOMO is a science at this point. You’ll think it’s subjective, but it’s quite likely they’ve run tests to see how many people it “subjectively” appeals to.
I reckon they use those terms because their tests show that’s how they’re perceived.
Of course. Some games will give you one item for free, as part of a set, to nudge you to buy the rest. Assassins Creed Odyssey did that.
It creates the illusion that you might get the whole thing for free - and they can pretend that’s true in their PR - when actually you’ll probably never collect a full set even if you play obsessively for 5 years straight. It’s usually aimed at people who will cave and buy the rest. The illusion of generosity pays.
Really, the people who make these sorts of games have a few things in common with drug dealers and casinos.
Adding in all of the season pass and cosmetics pay shop stuff is fine.
In a free to play game.
For a 60$ AAA it feels tacky.
I would say it feels tacky in World of Warcraft too, but it is such a live service game you are paying monthly anyway, and earning mounts by paying 6 months at a time, and the real “prestige” cosmetics and mounts are stuff you have to earn (or pay a guild to run you through the content)
Like yeah, the paid mounts and pets look cool, but the rare and difficult to earn mounts still carry the most clout. Hopefully D4 will be like that.
WoW is even worse, because you pay for both the box and a monthly subscription. It does sell cosmetics directly but no season pass nonsense, and also falls under my “this sucks, but I grudgingly accept it” side of the line.
Obviously companies change and it’s not a guarantee that Diablo IV’s support will be the same as Diablo III’s, but I am generally willing to give them a benefit of the doubt here. They entirely ripped the Auction House out of 3 and then not only revamped the loot so much it felt like a whole new game, but then have added years of support and end game content for free. They absolutely could have bundled Adventure Mode and Rifts and a few things into a paid DLC for instance.
I think it’s unlikely that they are going to cripple the amount of cosmetic variety to push people into DLC and I personally don’t see how it could be particularly noticeable when you are playing. It’s not like you spend much time checking out your teammates’ model details while you are slaughtering screens of demons at a frantic pace.
At the end of the day, as long as Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision/Blizzard goes through then they can screw up D4 as much as they want with monetization. Either it sucks or it doesn’t, it’ll end up being free to play for those of us with game pass :D
