The game should be tough, but it shouldn't be so tough that you can only come close to completing it with a certain playstyle. Blizzard seems to have tunnel vision when it comes to difficulty.
They repeatedly stated that they were trying to keep the majority of skills viable, but currently that is not the case. Up to and including Hell (where the issues really start to come into play) is pretty damn fun.
So in the end, why give people any customization at all? Blizzard either just ramped the difficulty up with no fucks given to the consequences, or they expected people to play in one specific way from the beginning and still have it be near impossible to beat if not rushing passed everything overly hard and playing as intended, or maybe a bit of both.
Thus the design feels lazy and rushed.
Yea i totally agree with this. I'm still a big fan of the game, but Inferno is narrowing down the selection of skills and runes to just a few for every class. I've really expected most if not every skill to be viable on all difficulties, changing skills/runes should mean a change in playstyle, and not failure.
On the other hand, i consider Inferno just as an "extension" of the game, something for the really dedicated, able and willing to play/farm for months for the ideal items. For me, the game is fun from Normal to Hell, and i'm probably gonna play that on every class, forcing myself not to use AH, only the shared stash.
Lets all be very clear here. The issue is the final difficulty level. Normal/Nightmare/Hell are progressivly harder Inferno is "WTF" hard apparently. That and a very small portion of the pupulation has had the time to get there in 2 weeks or less...ill leave my opinions on that out of this post...
Yes normal is easy...very easy...but FFS why should the final difficulty level be "farmable"? I want the last difficulty level to be something i need to farm the crap out of hell mode for...not walk in right after finishing and just straightline through.
I do realize that the tiny percent of players who have beaten the game 3 times over are being subjected to a WTF hard inferno mode...and its going to end up being nerfed because of their cires for easy before i get a chance to experience it....and that ticks me off.
All the other side complaints i see as moot..no more skill tree, however i like the 2 attacks and 4 skills and the rune system and that i can mix and match on the fly rather than locked into a single tree.
The wow influence is there, especially at the start with starting out in Tristam, but i didnt play wow past a few weeks doesnt bother me...whats bothering me if the community begging for easy mode at endgame 2 weeks after it came out, without considering mabey some people might want it that hard...and that some people might not want to beat a game 4 times over in 2 weeks (granted they probably played non stop for the 2 weeks its been out)
And then what...beat the game and farm why? It needs to be so hard that theres a reason to keep farming.
So far my trip through normal was pleasant, though easy, and i am looking forward to harder difficulties. No complaints with the AH or the gear...or the skill or the mmo influence...its a fun game, like arcade fun.
Yes normal is easy...very easy...but FFS why should the final difficulty level be "farmable"? I want the last difficulty level to be something i need to farm the crap out of hell mode for...not walk in right after finishing and just straightline through.
A) It should be farmable because it is what some of us are playing for, as said multiple times, this was supposed be a successor to diablo, not a diablo wow crossover. Now ofcourse, if "we" are significant is a whole other question
You will not farm hell for anything, gear for inferno drops only in inferno and also sells for more, if you are after gold. Actually so far in act 1 inferno i have seen very few good drops, most of it is 50+, but i am not long here
Fence sitting myself here. Ex D1 and D2 addict and played the D3 beta, didn't like it and postponed buying into it so far. Some of you perfectly echo some of the concerns I have and it seems I am not done postponing yet
Makes me think about Titan Quest and how it added new world bosses at higher difficulty levels with on par or sometimes better drop rates compared to some Act bosses. That helped a bit in keeping the difficulties more distinct.
You might want to watch the following videos before you make a decision. I was a D2 junkie myself and the feeling you got in beta was not unwarranted.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
I got to Hell and it dawned on me .... this is a bastardized Diablo with way to many Mmo influences.
And there it is The mantra that will drown out all serious discussion for weeks to come. Every game here has one. Instead of adding anything useful to the conversation it will be the fallback reply to every thread.
Actually, this statement is what I had known about the moment I played the Beta & the Demo. You don't need to play for 40hrs to know how a game plays.
Saved a LOT of my friends $60 ! I even got a $50 gift card from one of them that they were going to spend on Diablo 3 !
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity: Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
Fence sitting myself here. Ex D1 and D2 addict and played the D3 beta, didn't like it and postponed buying into it so far. Some of you perfectly echo some of the concerns I have and it seems I am not done postponing yet
Makes me think about Titan Quest and how it added new world bosses at higher difficulty levels with on par or sometimes better drop rates compared to some Act bosses. That helped a bit in keeping the difficulties more distinct.
You might want to watch the following videos before you make a decision. I was a D2 junkie myself and the feeling you got in beta was not unwarranted.
Regarding the difficulty curve; to me (from a distance) the problem might be that Normal, Nightmare and Hell are not challenging and rewarding enough. Frankly I like the idea of an uber difficulty where you need to play clever and have the right stats, but only when farming the previous difficulties prepares you for it with enough challenge and useful items (i.e. "fun" for an long time).
He tops off the second vid with some concerns that he only briefly mentions but are maybe more concerning than anything else to me ...
Overall my main problem with D3 still seems the shallowness of its mechanics. The linearity of the world (from what I've seen of it), the linearity of character development without having a whole lot of choice along the way, the lack of interesting mechanics like charms, runewords / horadric cube recipes and now this itemization without special, unique abilities and a big importance to only a few stats ..
Seems I still need to wait a bit untill they add more interesting and deeper systems with an expansion. Like D2's WoD made D2 a deeper and more fun game up to the point where imagining ever playing it without WoD really didn't appeal to me.
Not to be a jerk, but the OP is just mad that the game got harder after Normal. Contrary to popular belief, dying in a video game doesn't mean the game is too hard. It simply means that the gamer is faced with a challenge that he needs to overcome.
Had there been sites like this up in 1980 I'm sure we would have seen hordes of posts saying, "WTF Namco, the Red ghost is too fast at higher levels."
We just saw that it was hard and tried to get better at playing.
That would be true if skill played much of a part in things, it's essentially a lottery. Pick one of a very few cookie cutter builds that are remotely viable and have at it knowing it is one shot roulette. Oh and if that build does not involve running like a wimp wiat for Bliz to nerf it into uselessnesss.
I really wonder how much time they spent playtesting harder levels?
As I have said before it is a fun game that is flawed both technically and in game play. Both of these areas can be fixed up. It will be intresting to see if/when/how they do that.
Comments
Yea i totally agree with this. I'm still a big fan of the game, but Inferno is narrowing down the selection of skills and runes to just a few for every class. I've really expected most if not every skill to be viable on all difficulties, changing skills/runes should mean a change in playstyle, and not failure.
On the other hand, i consider Inferno just as an "extension" of the game, something for the really dedicated, able and willing to play/farm for months for the ideal items. For me, the game is fun from Normal to Hell, and i'm probably gonna play that on every class, forcing myself not to use AH, only the shared stash.
Lets all be very clear here. The issue is the final difficulty level. Normal/Nightmare/Hell are progressivly harder Inferno is "WTF" hard apparently. That and a very small portion of the pupulation has had the time to get there in 2 weeks or less...ill leave my opinions on that out of this post...
Yes normal is easy...very easy...but FFS why should the final difficulty level be "farmable"? I want the last difficulty level to be something i need to farm the crap out of hell mode for...not walk in right after finishing and just straightline through.
I do realize that the tiny percent of players who have beaten the game 3 times over are being subjected to a WTF hard inferno mode...and its going to end up being nerfed because of their cires for easy before i get a chance to experience it....and that ticks me off.
All the other side complaints i see as moot..no more skill tree, however i like the 2 attacks and 4 skills and the rune system and that i can mix and match on the fly rather than locked into a single tree.
The wow influence is there, especially at the start with starting out in Tristam, but i didnt play wow past a few weeks doesnt bother me...whats bothering me if the community begging for easy mode at endgame 2 weeks after it came out, without considering mabey some people might want it that hard...and that some people might not want to beat a game 4 times over in 2 weeks (granted they probably played non stop for the 2 weeks its been out)
And then what...beat the game and farm why? It needs to be so hard that theres a reason to keep farming.
So far my trip through normal was pleasant, though easy, and i am looking forward to harder difficulties. No complaints with the AH or the gear...or the skill or the mmo influence...its a fun game, like arcade fun.
A) It should be farmable because it is what some of us are playing for, as said multiple times, this was supposed be a successor to diablo, not a diablo wow crossover. Now ofcourse, if "we" are significant is a whole other question
Flame on!
You might want to watch the following videos before you make a decision. I was a D2 junkie myself and the feeling you got in beta was not unwarranted.
Issues With Diablo 3: Poor Implementation Of Difficulty
Issues With Diablo 3: Itemization
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
It seems the main issue atm is that inferno gear drops in inferno and there's no limit on who can get it.
Actually, this statement is what I had known about the moment I played the Beta & the Demo. You don't need to play for 40hrs to know how a game plays.
Saved a LOT of my friends $60
! I even got a $50 gift card from one of them that they were going to spend on Diablo 3 
!
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
Good vids.
Regarding the difficulty curve; to me (from a distance) the problem might be that Normal, Nightmare and Hell are not challenging and rewarding enough. Frankly I like the idea of an uber difficulty where you need to play clever and have the right stats, but only when farming the previous difficulties prepares you for it with enough challenge and useful items (i.e. "fun" for an long time).
He tops off the second vid with some concerns that he only briefly mentions but are maybe more concerning than anything else to me ...
Overall my main problem with D3 still seems the shallowness of its mechanics. The linearity of the world (from what I've seen of it), the linearity of character development without having a whole lot of choice along the way, the lack of interesting mechanics like charms, runewords / horadric cube recipes and now this itemization without special, unique abilities and a big importance to only a few stats ..
Seems I still need to wait a bit untill they add more interesting and deeper systems with an expansion. Like D2's WoD made D2 a deeper and more fun game up to the point where imagining ever playing it without WoD really didn't appeal to me.
My brand new bloggity blog.
That would be true if skill played much of a part in things, it's essentially a lottery. Pick one of a very few cookie cutter builds that are remotely viable and have at it knowing it is one shot roulette. Oh and if that build does not involve running like a wimp wiat for Bliz to nerf it into uselessnesss.
I really wonder how much time they spent playtesting harder levels?
As I have said before it is a fun game that is flawed both technically and in game play. Both of these areas can be fixed up. It will be intresting to see if/when/how they do that.
I