Blizzard Admits to Diablo 3 End-Game Flaw

By Kevin Parrish
published

Diablo 3's end-game needs more, Blizzard acknowledges.

So you've beaten Diablo 3 to the point that all modes are completed on every difficulty setting. Diablo himself is no more of a threat than a wandering butterfly. All that's left, it seems, is to treasure hunt and gain experience points until all characters can grow no more. After that, what then? Stand around and talk about the weather?

"We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game," states Blizzard community manager Bashiok. "There are still tons of people playing every day and week, and playing a lot, but eventually they're going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already). Killing enemies and finding items is a lot of fun, and we think we have a lot of the systems surrounding that right, or at least on the right path with a few corrections and tweaks."

But he points out that Diablo 3 isn't World of Warcraft -- the team isn't capable of pumping out tons of new systems and content every couple of months. That said, the Diablo 3 team realizes that there needs to be something else to do that keeps customers engaged with the popular PC game -- something that's currently not there.

"We're working toward 1.0.4, which we're really trying to pack with as many fixes and changes we can to help you guys out (and we'll have a bunch of articles posted with all the details as we get closer), and we're of course working on 1.1 with PvP arenas. I think both those patches will do a lot to give people things to do, and get them excited about playing," Bashiok states.

But these changes aren't going to be a real end-game solution, he admits. "We have some ideas for progression systems, but honestly it's a huge feature if we want to try to do it right, and not something we could envision being possible until well after 1.1 which it itself still a ways out," he adds.

Later on he admitted that Blizzard believed at pre-release that "the item hunt would be far more sustainable, and would work to be a proper end-game for quite a while. That didn't turn out to be true, and we recognize that."

To that I say, 'Pffft.' I'm still working on Act II with my first character. By the time I complete everything, Diablo 4 will be almost ready to ship.

Kevin Parrish
67 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Netherscourge
    Well, considering that the main storyline for Diablo 3 is beaten on Normal Mode in about 7 or 8 hours and all there is left after that is to run through the SAME STORYLINE AGAIN, 3 MORE TIMES, ON HIGHER DIFFICULTY LEVELS IS KINDA BORING!!!

    The Item Affixes are BORING. There is NO PvP. There is no original, unique End-Game content like raids or battlegrounds. Every game is capped at 4-players. Repairing items is super-expensive since the last patch. People are posting stuff on the Auction Houses for insane prices (and watching their auctions expire).

    Sorry - but the game sucks. Blizzard failed to even reproduce the fun of Diablo 2.

    Inferno Item-farming is not fun AT ALL. And that's ALL THERE IS TO DO AT Level 60!!!!

    LOL
    Reply
  • cknobman
    To that I say, 'Pffft.' I'm still working on Act II with my first character. By the time I complete everything, Diablo 4 will be almost ready to ship.

    I am in the same boat as you so as it stands I dont see any "end game" problem now and doubtfully will in the next 6 months.
    Reply
  • Fact was leveling was too easy, the game was pretty short, and all in all after playing through the difficulties it is very much boring. Diablo2's online was helped by the fact that classes couldn't just get everything. Sure it had flaws, and was vastly imbalanced toward some classes, but you could earn levels (albeit through a very annoying grind) and/or have reasons to create more and different characters to do different stuff.

    But still my BEST times playing D2 was either offline or during LAN games, with awesome mods. Which diablo3 has none of.
    Reply
  • nbelote
    I am, albeit slower than my first character, going through and attempting to hit 60 on all classes. This will inevitably be completed and I will be left with nothing else to do aside from farming gear. I am hoping that PVP will be ready by then as well as an alternative to the existing end-game.

    This will sound very MMO but it's the diversity that a lot of players crave now: Something along the lines of EverQuest's Alternate Advancement system coupled with content that exploits it (super hard instances that require the monk to further push into healing AA or for the barbarian to push further into sword and board tanking) and rewards players for delving into this content (unique gear, achievements, unlocking more content, etc). A deeper crafting system would also be better. Allow for WoW-style Legendary gear quests... they had this with the Staff of Herding but create some that are USABLE and are very much end-game weapons/armor. Character diversity would certainly allow for more challenging and fun gaming experiences as there would be many different paths to choose.

    Gone are the days of simple hack-and-slash keeping most players happy. I am easy to please, Diablo 3 keeps me entertained in its current state, but that can't be said for the majority of other players. Had this game been released 8 or even 6 years ago it would've been a major hit and would've held onto that claim for a very long time. Today's players are a more....fickle breed, spoiled largely by MMOs.
    Reply
  • 12 years waiting, 2weeks playing and its on the shelf already. Bored of it. Only another 12 years to wait for the next one so not all bad news...
    Reply
  • ltpenguin
    nbeloteGone are the days of simple hack-and-slash Diablo 3 is not meant to be a mmo like WOW that is the exact thing that ruined diablo 3. Honestly they only needed a new story line for diablo 3 the mechanics added ruinded the game.
    Reply
  • dark_lord69
    cknobmanTo that I say, 'Pffft.' I'm still working on Act II with my first character. By the time I complete everything, Diablo 4 will be almost ready to ship.Yeah... I've got 3 characters in Nightmare (close to 4) and 1 at level 5
    I'm in no danger of getting to the end game anytime soon. Why? Cause I don't have tons of time to play and I am going into every cave, killing everything, doing everything and exploring everything and doing all that with all 5 classes. Doing it that way seems to take about 25hrs - 30hrs per character to get through normal. I'm not a big fan of rushing through the game expecially since I knew it would be a short game and that I would want it to last for years. I am yet to dig into the witch doctor class but unlike my friend I know that I like the Monk and DH the most. He on the other hand has one level 60 character and hasn't hardly played the other classes at all...

    Plus I have a hardcore character that I am VERY careful (and still on Act 1 - Normal) with...
    Reply
  • sacre
    Diablo 3 seems like a spit out game that gives them a LOT of money. Think about it, if something is sold on the gold auction house, they get a % of that. So now they're pulling in money from the Gold auction house and the subscribers from WoW.

    I played Diablo, fun game at first when I didn't realize the Auction house was there.. it was tough, I was full of blues and was dying a bit. But I realized that the game is so fucking randomized that you RELY on the auction house to progress further.. So it amounts to "Collect gold, sell/tear down ALL items picked up, buy auction house gear, farm gold, buy, farm"

    On top of that the Legendaries are fucking terrible, they're rares that are orange.

    The game was fun, but i've lost the urge to play.. having to play through the 1 day storyline 4 times.. its repetitive.. and killing bosses RARELy gives you good loot, its mostly blues.

    Stopped playing weeks ago.. Makes me sad really, was looking forward to this so much...
    Reply
  • wildkitten
    A game that was in development for 11 years, and less than 2 months after release is already being talked about how there's not enough to hold people's attention. Forget all the other problems, that's just sad.
    Reply
  • envolva
    When did a single player game ending become a flaw?
    Reply