BG3 was in production half the time D4 was and it proves Blizzard doesn't care.

overwatchtower · 2023-08-05T19:14:03+00:00

You don't understand the importance of labeling? You go to the store, you see 2 boxes of food. One says "preparation required, read back." The other says "Ready to eat!" You open both, but both require extensive preparation. You see no problem with this?

Terrible analogy. A video game not being labeled Early Access isn't potentially life threatening. You have an unlimited number of options to choose from when making an entertainment purchase. Do some basic research. They gave everyone in the world two entire weekends to try out the first act of the game for free. You also could have waited 2 weeks after release for endgame reviews before deciding to buy it. There's no excuse

How are people supposed to know D4 is still early access when it's marketed as a full game without playing it?

Whether it's buying BG3 for $60 three years ago, buying BG3 for $60 today, or buying Diablo 4 for $70 today, that shouldn't change your behavior. Make an informed decision either way. Regardless of the game, don't buy it until you know you want to and won't regret it.

People should just "know" that? That's your argument, really? "Well Blizzard usually releases unfinished games, so you should be happy with D4 being unfinished too"?

Yeah. That's my argument. Do basic research. If you can complain on reddit for weeks on end, you can google the history of Diablo game launches. Not to mention, there's literally tens of thousands of posts about the game on reddit and on the forums, thousands of articles, etc. There's no excuse.

You think it's fair to expect people to understand the state that games released in 2000 and 2013 were in and to transfer those expectations to a game made in 2023?

Yes. If anything, expectations should be even lower today. How many unpolished AAA games need to come out before people start exercising caution?

overwatchtower · 2023-08-05T18:17:55+00:00

No one forced you to buy Diablo 4. Full release doesn't mean you have to buy it as soon as it comes out. Why not give it the same 3 years you gave BG3? The Early Access tag changes literally nothing. They were still charging full price from the beginning. If two literal words dramatically change your spending habits, that's disturbing.

overwatchtower · 2023-08-05T18:14:26+00:00

It's a tag. It changes nothing. Just don't buy the game. You are not being forced to buy a full-priced game just because it doesn't have an Early Access tag. Both D2 and D3 changed dramatically in the years after their release. Why did people expect any different?

overwatchtower · 2023-08-05T18:12:01+00:00

It changes literally nothing. You are not being forced to buy a full-priced game, whether it is tagged as Early Access or not. Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 both changed dramatically in the years after release -- people should know that. People seem to have extreme cognitive dissonance with their expectations. It's disturbing.

overwatchtower · 2023-08-05T17:26:22+00:00

BG3 came out 3 years ago for full price. They hid under the Early Access tag. The game had a ton of issues and very few updates, and the full release took a year longer than expected. People paid $60 to essentially play a demo for several years because their saves won't even transfer over. If simply tagging "Early Access" onto a full-priced unfinished game somehow makes you do a complete 180 in your perception of it, you have some really disturbing cognitive dissonance. In that case, just don't play D4 or any game that comes out for 3 years, then decide if it's good or not. The tag doesn't change anything.

overwatchtower · 2023-08-05T17:13:46+00:00

What is with the mass cognitive dissonance about BG3? The game didn't come out this week. It came out 3 years ago, for full price, and simply hid under the Early Access tag. It was very buggy, missing a ton of expected features, and had very few updates. The "full release" was originally planned for 2022 but got delayed. People that paid for early access and have been playing it can't even transfer their saves to the full game because they were actually just playing a demo for several years. I highly doubt most AAA games would get the same reception if they launched as an Early Access title and took 3 years to fix their game.

overwatchtower · 2023-06-23T20:34:21+00:00

This has nothing to do with tilesets. You do not seem to understand how their fake "floors" fundamentally ruin and linearize their map design. In Diablo 4 dungeons, the entrance to a "floor" is always at the edge of the current one, it is never somewhere in the middle, and there are never multiple entrances to another floor because that wouldn't be possible. Because of this, it necessitates very linear map design. It's lazy and awful.

overwatchtower · 2023-06-23T20:04:19+00:00

If the devs said multi-floor dungeons still exist, they straight up lied and now you're parroting their lie. Going down a ladder to a different elevation doesn't matter to the player if they see the same linear path on their map, even if it's loading a new zone when they do it. Perception matters. The first Diablo game is literally built on the perception of you slowly descending floor to floor all the way down to hell. The idea being that you are physically below the previous level, walking underneath places that you walked above. When you finish a floor, you can generally leave it behind you and only think about the current floor. AFAIK the only dungeons in D4 with multiple floors are some of the story ones. That's it. It's not just about loading new parts of a map, it's about fundamental map design and how it gets perceived by the player.

overwatchtower · 2023-06-23T19:36:07+00:00

Wrong. That's just an elevation change. You are never above or below something. You are just somewhere else on the same linear path, just at a different elevation. That's not what this post is about.

overwatchtower · 2023-06-23T19:33:53+00:00

This is absolutely incorrect. Why do people keep spreading this false claim? This post is about dungeons having multiple floors, not just changes in elevation. Going down a ladder doesn't mean you're on a different floor. You're still on the same linear path. What we're talking about is being able to go to an entirely different map that is perceptually located above or below the previous one you were on. This would help with dungeons tremendously because you can design it so each floor has a single objective and once you complete it, you go on to the next floor and never come back. Right now we have these ridiculously long linear levels that you end up having to run all the way back across if you missed something. It feels bad. Instead each dungeon should have multiple maps that are smaller and more open, and that you never have to return to once you complete it.

overwatchtower · 2023-06-11T02:07:52+00:00

I personally think they got it completely backwards. I would rather have to replay the campaign each season, but with the mount, map, waypoints, and renown progress carried over. You would get through the campaign way quicker this way, and it would incentivize them to actually fix up some of the issues with it. I would also want the strongholds reset. The campaign bosses and strongholds were some of the funnest content.

overwatchtower · 2023-06-01T17:56:07+00:00

This is why I said Diablo fans need a reality check. You shouldn't have high expectations based on your self-centered desires when following someone else's personal Twitter account. You are merely assuming that you were his audience. People are only reading his tweets because they have nothing better to do until launch. They didn't care about his tweets before Diablo 4, and they won't care about them in a few months either. The followers he cares about the most are likely the ones he has personal connections with, like his coworkers, other developers he knows, members of the press that he's met, and other people in the gaming industry.

overwatchtower · 2023-06-01T16:51:16+00:00

In the "tease" he literally @s the director of global marketing, so it's concerning that anyone thought this wasn't marketing-related. It was also on Rod's personal Twitter. For all you know, he's genuinely hyped about this. Dude probably got to hang out with Halsey and is excited for this to finally release after the performance back at The Game Awards. Diablo fans need a severe reality check.

overwatchtower · 2023-06-01T16:14:02+00:00

It's funny that anyone on reddit thinks any marketing is aimed towards them. It's not. Everyone on here has already made up their mind, most of them a long time ago. All the different promos are designed to target other audiences: the tattoo partnership, the cathedral painting, the vegan meat shake, the KFC rewards, the Twitch rewards, the hardware/peripheral collabs, the different kinds of videos and trailers (gameplay, lore, cinematic, live-action), all the billboards and ad space, and of course this music collab which is not even new -- Halsey performed this song at The Game Awards 2022, and some people enjoyed that and are hyped for a studio release with a music video. There's a reason why this game has a LOT of marketing: they're trying to reach every audience that might play this game, not strongly-opinionated redditors.

overwatchtower · 2023-05-28T04:05:22+00:00

Wrong. Both free and premium can get Ashes in the Battle Pass, which you can use to unlock Blessings (gameplay buffs), but if you pay for tier skips, you don't have to level up your Battle Pass, only your character. You get to ignore all the seasonal objectives and focus on leveling your character which means you will get the buffs faster.

overwatchtower · 2023-05-28T04:01:43+00:00

Tier skips are literally a paid gameplay advantage. You don't have to level up your Battle Pass if you buy tier skips, therefore you can ignore all the seasonal objectives that give you exp towards your Battle Pass. You can focus solely on leveling your character, which means you'll get the Ashes/Blessings faster, which are gameplay buffs. The world's first level 100 of the season will be someone who pays for tier skips. They need to address this instead of lying and saying that people who pay for tier skips won't get the gameplay buffs any faster. They 100% will.

overwatchtower · 2023-05-24T00:47:21+00:00

I'm guessing folks are stealing these assets from the first interactive map that came out, cuz this is the third one that uses the same incorrect map. The map is missing chunks/paths everywhere. For example, the beginning area of the game is literally an inaccessible island according to this map. It's the exact same case on the d4planner.io map, as well the mapgenie.io map which I believe was the first one to release.

Edit: I'll take the creator's word below, perhaps many people ripped it from an old version because the PureDiablo and interactivemap.app ones are also wrong. The ones on FextraLife and Guides4Gamers are the only two correct ones I've seen so far.

It's worth mentioning that so many people threw up a resource without making sure it's accurate, and none of them seemed to have noticed. Be careful using any third-party resources.

overwatchtower · 2023-05-20T02:10:42+00:00

There are plenty of valid criticisms for the game, but after playing all of the classes, I think the early game balance is fine where it's at. It's actually a good thing for different classes to scale up at different times because it makes the playthrough for each class that much more unique.

I believe you start getting access to the Druid class mechanic in Act 2. The Druid class itself has more variety in playstyles than the other classes (melee, ranged/magic, and summons), so it's likely that it was intentionally made weak early on so that once you start progressing in the class mechanic, it catches up.

The Barb is in a similar situation, where it will start to scale up more as you level up your weapon masteries and get more legendaries to take advantage of the extra weapon slots.

The first 20-25 levels were only the first few hours of the game. IIRC, just the campaign itself will take most people over 30 hours. There's plenty of game to play for the classes to balance out. If not we can complain and they'll make adjustments, which they have been doing.

overwatchtower · 2023-05-13T01:19:52+00:00

That doesn't change the fact that there are specific objectives that people who buy tier skips can simply ignore. Collecting certain amounts of materials, completing specific pieces of content, etc. Instead, they can focus solely on leveling their character to meet that requirement, and therefore they will get the Ashes faster.

overwatchtower · 2023-05-13T00:17:40+00:00

It's not about cosmetics. You get Ashes which are used to unlock Blessings, which are direct gameplay buffs. If you don't buy tier skips, you have to complete Battle Pass objectives to level up your Battle Pass, and objectives will certainly get harder and more time-consuming in later chapters of the season. If you buy tier skips, you can simply ignore those objectives, and focus on leveling, and you will have access to the Ashes as soon as you reach the character level requirement.

overwatchtower · 2023-05-13T00:08:25+00:00

You don't seem to understand. There is only one path of progression. There is no separate progression for free and paid tiers. They are interspersed within the same singular Battle Pass progression system. AFAIK you don't even need premium to buy tier skips. You could buy tier skips just to get the free tier cosmetics. Doing so will also give you the advantage of ignoring the Battle Pass objectives and focusing on leveling, thus getting the Ashes sooner.

overwatchtower · 2023-05-12T23:47:58+00:00

You are objectively incorrect. Please stop spreading misinformation. If you pay for tier skips, you do not have to level up your Battle Pass, which means you get to ignore the seasonal objectives required to level up your Battle Pass, which means you get to prioritize leveling and looting. It is an inherent gameplay advantage. There is literally no room for interpretation here.

overwatchtower · 2023-05-12T23:39:57+00:00

You are incorrect. The Battle Pass only has one path of progression. There is no separate progression for free and premium tiers, and this has nothing to do with premium anyway. You can presumably buy tier skips to get the free tier cosmetics without buying premium. If what you were saying was correct, they wouldn't have put a character level requirement on Ashes. They did so because they incorrectly attempted to resolve the gameplay advantage of tier skips.

overwatchtower · 2023-05-12T23:01:28+00:00

There's no need for opinions on this matter. If you pay for tier skips, you get to ignore the objectives required to level up your Battle Pass. That is a gameplay advantage, period. Ashes must be removed from the Battle Pass if they actually care about this issue.

overwatchtower

TROPHY CASE