A schild rant about Diablo: Immortal

    • He is right.
      Schild's ways were always a bit unrefined, and I'm pretty sure he owned the fact and was ok with it.

      The Diablo mobile game was problematic for reasons.

      The damage control and handling it after the fact is making matters A THOUSAND TIMES WORSE.

      And video game journalism has been thriving in impunity and without any supervisions / quality check for the past few years as far as I can tell. It's why gaming news sites are now selling controversy instead of game reviews and are taking funds under the table from companies to actually act as PR. Meanwhile, gamers are turning to independent v/bloggers and YT'ers for more honest presentations of games and news.

      EDIT: A slight correction: Blizzard making a DIablo game for mobiles is not a bad move. It may morally questionable because mobile games take advantage of people's psyche weaknesses to make money, but they undeniably WORK. What I meant to say was that the leadup to Blizzcon and the announcement of the game was problematic. Aren't Blizzcon tickets worth like USD 100+?

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Vroengard ().

    • Yeah, about that...

      I don't really care about Diablo Immortal. It's not a bad thing by itself. It most likely will be a hit in China, and accrue modest popularity in other parts of the world. But presenting it at the Blizzcon of all places, and making it the sole focus of the panel - that was a giant misstep from Blizzard. They could've gotten away with it by announcing - or even hinting at - D4, but they couldn't be bothered. Hell, even a sole stylized logo with number "4" with no other info on it would've been a hit.

      "Don't you guy have phones?" is just a cherry on the top; the line is going to haunt Wyatt for a long time.
      Joke is a very serious thing.

    • It's just more evidence that these giant gaming companies don't give a fuck about their players, we are not the target market, the people they actually care about are their investors, we're the product that's being sold. They think we'll swallow whatever shit they shovel our way and like it. They've all gotten pretty far out of touch in the last couple of years, but those birds are finally coming home to roost.

      If we could just get the fucking dudebros to stop buying Call of Duty and Madden every year, we might actually be able to get the dipshits running these companies to take notice and start making actual video games again instead of annual skinnerbox shells.
      --ossuary

      "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."
      - Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

    • Sadly as companies grow they lose the edge that made them great in the first place. They also try to target to the masses and lose the niche appeal of dark mature content like Diablo 1+2. Suits and marketing folks start making decisions, decisions that are completely out of touch with the core playerbase. They go for safe sequels and proven business models instead of trying new things and innovating like they once did. All of this is happening at Blizzard.

      I had high hopes for a next gen MMO from them but not holding my breath anymore, not after Project Titan was salvaged into a multiplayer FPS and no one seems to be able to kill WoW. You can stick a pitchfork into Diablo after this weekend. HS can't even be bothered to create tournament modes despite the piles of money its raking in. The only 'new' thing from the company in past few years is a bunch of remasters...

      Having said that Blizzard still have insane levels of polish and accessibility in their games which I do appreciate, so even with all these problems they'll continue to be successful. It's kind of like how Apple continues to stay on top despite not really innovating at all in the past 10 years.

      It's up to smaller studios to come in and disrupt and kick these dinosaurs out but it's easier said than done..

    • as a few have said, the problem isn't THAT Diablo Immortal exists, it's that they treated it like something their fans would be excited about.
      Gamer. Streamer. Photographer. Writer. Anime Lover. Possessor of Stuffed Animals.

      Also... I'm terrible at this game.

    • Verdant wrote:

      Yeah, about that...

      I don't really care about Diablo Immortal. It's not a bad thing by itself. It most likely will be a hit in China, and accrue modest popularity in other parts of the world. But presenting it at the Blizzcon of all places, and making it the sole focus of the panel - that was a giant misstep from Blizzard. They could've gotten away with it by announcing - or even hinting at - D4, but they couldn't be bothered. Hell, even a sole stylized logo with number "4" with no other info on it would've been a hit.

      "Don't you guy have phones?" is just a cherry on the top; the line is going to haunt Wyatt for a long time.
      Chinese are slamming it hard too actually. I expect some players to still play it, but I don't expect it to be a hit.

    • I find it hilarious that people are so upset about this. Big corporation does what makes them the most money, what a shocker. It was just a matter of time. Just don't buy the game. Vote with your wallet and don't buy Blizzard games, if it is that important to you. I wish HEX had announced beforehand that it will kill all PVE development soon after launch, so I could have ignored it. This game will be shit, ignore it. You haven't spend a dime on it yet. The world is full of shitty games.

    • What's shocking is not that they did it (I'm surprised they hadn't already done it), but that they announced it at their FOR PAY event, to a heavily PC-oriented crowd, and acted like everyone should fall down worshiping at their feet in response. It wasn't the message, it was the delivery.
      --ossuary

      "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."
      - Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

    • Ertzi wrote:

      I find it hilarious that people are so upset about this. Big corporation does what makes them the most money, what a shocker. It was just a matter of time. Just don't buy the game. Vote with your wallet and don't buy Blizzard games, if it is that important to you. I wish HEX had announced beforehand that it will kill all PVE development soon after launch, so I could have ignored it. This game will be shit, ignore it. You haven't spend a dime on it yet. The world is full of shitty games.
      People are upset because PC gamers (the ones that undeniably invest the most in their system and would pay to go to Blizzcon) were told to buy USD 100+ tickets in order to listen the announcement of "something about Diablo" live. So they did, and the announcement was about a mobile-only iteration.
      And Blizzard's knee-jerk reaction to the disappointment was, in case you missed it

      - Don't you have phones?

    • Oh, I gotcha. Thanks for a bit more context. This was certainly idiotic from Blizzard, no doubt about it. The bait-and-switch telling fans there will be something about Diablo was pretty horrible, because they knew everyone would be hoping to see Diablo 4 or something. So that was certainly shitty. I actually had to watch the announcement and the Q&A because of the furore, and yeah, that phone answer was beyond stupid and insulting as fuck. Way to do a PR suicide. The red shirt asking about April Fools was funny too. He fucking meant it too, it was no joke to him. "Aaaaand we have time for one more question." Lawl.

    • Apparently Activision's stock dropped by about 3.7 BILLION as a result, so, you know, natural consequences. ;)

      I mean, I'm well aware it's going to come back and end up even higher eventually (EA's did after the BF2 fiasco), but it still amuses me and warms my bitter little heart to see even brief consequences for these greedy assclowns.
      --ossuary

      "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."
      - Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

    • Ertzi wrote:

      I find it hilarious that people are so upset about this. Big corporation does what makes them the most money, what a shocker. It was just a matter of time. Just don't buy the game. Vote with your wallet and don't buy Blizzard games, if it is that important to you. I wish HEX had announced beforehand that it will kill all PVE development soon after launch, so I could have ignored it. This game will be shit, ignore it. You haven't spend a dime on it yet. The world is full of shitty games.
      Ossuary has the right of it.

      Ossuary wrote:

      What's shocking is not that they did it (I'm surprised they hadn't already done it), but that they announced it at their FOR PAY event, to a heavily PC-oriented crowd, and acted like everyone should fall down worshiping at their feet in response. It wasn't the message, it was the delivery.
      The problem is that they treated it like something their core crowd SHOULD be excited about, and were surprised to find they were wrong.
      Gamer. Streamer. Photographer. Writer. Anime Lover. Possessor of Stuffed Animals.

      Also... I'm terrible at this game.