shikamaru317 said:
Blizzard definitely has a delicate line to walk with Diablo 4, and they have mentioned as much in interviews. Alot of Diablo 1 and 2 fans were turned off by Diablo 3, with it's more casualized gameplay and more cartoony graphics. Those classic Diablo fans fell in love with PoE as I understand it and preferred it over Diablo 3. With Diablo 4, Blizzard is trying to win back those classic Diablo fans from PoE, but they also don't want to lose the people who liked Diablo 3, which is alot of people, Diablo 3 sold over 30m copies just by 2015, and the lifetime player count is apparently over 60m, compared to just 11m players for Diablo 2 the last time that Blizz announced numbers for it in 2010, 10 years after it's 2000 release. That's tens of millions of gamers whose first Diablo game was the more casualized Diablo 3, and Blizzard obviously doesn't want to lose them by making the game too complicated or hard to play. It's a difficult balancing act, because if they don't get things just right, they could potentially miss out on many millions of players from one camp or the other. They are trying to implement the RPG depth and build variety of PoE, the art design of Diablo 2, and the ease of play of Diablo 3, all into a single game. |
I'm sure the art style plays a role in many people's preference, but for me, even tho I do prefer the dark art style (that Diablo 4 is returning to), that's really not why I consider PoE a much superior game. The simple fact of the matter, is that the only thing Diablo 3 really had on PoE (at least by the time I got around to playing PoE), was it's accessibility. Anyone can pick up Diablo 3 and pretty much immediately have a decent enough time. PoE is a much less approachable game, where the skill tree alone might scare people off at first glance. Once you get over that hurdle, however, PoE is just a FAR deeper game. Not only that, but every season I ever played added meaningful new gameplay loops, upgrade paths, gear, etc. to keep the game endlessly replayable. Diablo 3 season was pretty much just...here's some new cosmetics, and maybe we'll do some balance changes.
Frankly, I think that Blizzard is lucky that PoE2 development was hit so hard by the pandemic, considering NZ's super strict approach and everything, cus I was WAYYY more excited about that game than Diablo 4. They have a window of opportunity now to show that they've stepped up their game. I understand they'll want to maintain a certain level of approachability to their game, but the core systems NEED to be so much deeper than they were, and their seasons gotta keep tthings fresh in meaningful ways. If a fucking f2p game can do it, so can Blizzard in their premium AAA product.
