The Division 2 Will Switch to a Diablo-Style Seasonal Model in Year 6 | MMORPG.com

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The Division 2 Will Switch to a Diablo-Style Seasonal Model in Year 6 | MMORPG.com

Some big changes are coming to The Division 2 in Year 6. The team revealed its plans for the looter shooter at this year's Ubisoft Forward, and it includes a massive shake up of the game's seasonal model.

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Greatsword

So they are taking the worst aspect of Diablo, the creating of new throw-away-characters every 3 months? Well, what do I care, it's not like I would have reinstalled this game either way, knowing it's a live service game with an expiration date and The Division 3 already in development.

sschrupp

I'm not a big fan of these seasons in games. It must be popular since a number of games are focusing on that now, but I still prefer having a character that I feel invested and attached to. For me it just makes playing feel kind of pointless since I know it's going to all be deleted after the effort I put in.

Yet I also enjoy making new characters in games. Maybe the difference is that when I make new characters I'm deciding that. It's not forced on me, and I know I can come back to my other characters for meaningful progress.

JeroKane

Greatsword said:

So they are taking the worst aspect of Diablo, the creating of new throw-away-characters every 3 months? Well, what do I care, it's not like I would have reinstalled this game either way, knowing it's a live service game with an expiration date and The Division 3 already in development.

Well yes and no. The only real negative is that it might feel that way in that you create throw away characters.

The big positive is that it actually draws in new players and will be awesome for them, as everyone starts at level 1 again with a new character.

Games like The Division ( 1 and 2 ) suffer from the same typical themepark MMO problem, in that at a given moment the vast majority of the playerbase will be at the level cap and so discouraging new players to join the game.

FFXIV is the only MMO that really solved it in a reasonable way with the Duty Roulette system and they had to, since leveling through the Main Scenario Quest line, involves mandatory dungeons and Trials. So they needed to come up with a solution to entice level capped players to queue for the old low(er) level dungeons, to keep those queue times in check.
It's actually one of the best ways so far I have seen in an MMO resolving that problem and why FFXIV is one of the top MMO's today, with new players continuously joining the game.
I myself have rerolled several times and enjoyed the entire leveling experience, because of the Duty Roulette system, as I never had trouble queuing for Dungeons and Trials.

Terazon

Love the game and still play it. I like seasons in games, good move for me and how I like to play it. 

Angrakhan

MMORPG Players: I hate seasons. I hate resetting my progress.
Also MMORPG Players: Oh a new expac for my MMO just dropped. I can't wait to reset my progress!

Elidien_ga

Angrakhan said:

MMORPG Players: I hate seasons. I hate resetting my progress.
Also MMORPG Players: Oh a new expac for my MMO just dropped. I can't wait to reset my progress!

Seasons are nice distractions until expansions launch. Thats how I have always viewed it. But you are correct as many MMO players do not like the idea of starting over even though alts are their own version of starting over.

Pher0cious

Seasons are horrible and lazy. Period.

ValdemarJ

"Diablo style seasons"....

And the editor of the site wonders why we read and cite the articles on almost any other site or fora.

Ensifer

Actually love this idea, as it brings in new players. There's no better catch up mechanic then everyone starting from scratch every season.

ValdemarJ

Ensifer said:

Actually love this idea, as it brings in new players. There's no better catch up mechanic then everyone starting from scratch every season.

I prefer a setup in between the two where a player can start a new character, or they use a "copy" of their existing character and then bring the seasonal rewards back to that character and save. Examples of this are Diablo 3 seasons and No Man's Sky expeditions.

In a persistent world, which is important to me in an RPG, I like to keep characters, at least some of them. I delete saves and characters I'm less interested in, but having long term characters keeps me feeling connected and invested into the world and stories I'm playing through. Sometimes I get an idea and want to start a new character. Sometimes I want to take an old favorite through that adventure.

JeroKane

ValdemarJ said:

Ensifer said:

Actually love this idea, as it brings in new players. There's no better catch up mechanic then everyone starting from scratch every season.

I prefer a setup in between the two where a player can start a new character, or they use a "copy" of their existing character and then bring the seasonal rewards back to that character and save. Examples of this are Diablo 3 seasons and No Man's Sky expeditions.

In a persistent world, which is important to me in an RPG, I like to keep characters, at least some of them. I delete saves and characters I'm less interested in, but having long term characters keeps me feeling connected and invested into the world and stories I'm playing through. Sometimes I get an idea and want to start a new character. Sometimes I want to take an old favorite through that adventure.

The problem is that if you give people the choice to copy their max-level character to Seasonal servers, then that's what almost everyone will do. As it's the path of least resistance.
It will defeat the whole purpose of such seasonal servers and more importantly, it will then no longer attract new players, as they will face the exact same problems as on the Standard server.
There will simply be no reason to open dedicated Seasonal servers at all then and just stick to Seasonal events on the standard server, if they would allow that.

Robokapp

Ensifer said:

Actually love this idea, as it brings in new players. There's no better catch up mechanic then everyone starting from scratch every season.

catching up means loss of progress.

ValdemarJ

JeroKane said:

ValdemarJ said:

Ensifer said:

Actually love this idea, as it brings in new players. There's no better catch up mechanic then everyone starting from scratch every season.

I prefer a setup in between the two where a player can start a new character, or they use a "copy" of their existing character and then bring the seasonal rewards back to that character and save. Examples of this are Diablo 3 seasons and No Man's Sky expeditions.

In a persistent world, which is important to me in an RPG, I like to keep characters, at least some of them. I delete saves and characters I'm less interested in, but having long term characters keeps me feeling connected and invested into the world and stories I'm playing through. Sometimes I get an idea and want to start a new character. Sometimes I want to take an old favorite through that adventure.

The problem is that if you give people the choice to copy their max-level character to Seasonal servers, then that's what almost everyone will do. As it's the path of least resistance.
It will defeat the whole purpose of such seasonal servers and more importantly, it will then no longer attract new players, as they will face the exact same problems as on the Standard server.
There will simply be no reason to open dedicated Seasonal servers at all then and just stick to Seasonal events on the standard server, if they would allow that.

That isn't how those systems work. Have you played Diablo 3 seasons or No Man's Sky expeditions with an existing save? There are other games that offer systems like this too.