@OP

Yes they lost it.

Though, they will sell anything with Blizzard name on it for a long time even if it's very average.

D3 is a very below average game, comparing to any AAA titles nowdays. D2 and D1 were top notch at their time. D3 will be a success in sales.

SC2 was SC with better graphics. A bit disapointing for some. I never knew no one that was disapointed with SC. SC2 was a sucess in sales.

WoW... is sinking but it will still be the most played mmorpg for some time due to "social inercia". People stay because they find it hard to leave.

Best of Blizz is, Vanilla WoW, SC, WC1/2, D1/2... Anyone that can see this will have to admit that Blizz is losing it.

My Little Panda friendship is magic convinced me of that.

Originally posted by nyxium

My Little Panda friendship is magic convinced me of that.

People will get used to it, I'm not sure what the problem is though. WoW already has blue aliens and a lot of MMORPG's feature hairy, beastlike races. I like the oriental aesthetics too. Too bad I'm done with WoW for quite some time now.

i also feel that all talent has either left Blizzard, or is working on Titan. we'll know which soon enough

Originally posted by MikkelB

Originally posted by nyxium

My Little Panda friendship is magic convinced me of that.

People will get used to it, I'm not sure what the problem is though. WoW already has blue aliens and a lot of MMORPG's feature hairy, beastlike races. I like the oriental aesthetics too. Too bad I'm done with WoW for quite some time now.

Here's the problem: People get addicted to games like WoW. From how they are at the start, then changes are made, people are locked in they can't leave, they take it and abide. Then all of a sudden it's taking whatever is thrown and now we get the mom friendly cuteness that throws a little political correctness in the game, and might even attract crowds from Club Penguin, Wizard 101, and *shudders* Hello Kitty Online. Not to mention the Asian land-grab. The dev's know the hardcore are hopelessly addicted and will have to put up with whatever is thrown at them now, don't like China landscaped games? Tough! Take it! WoW fans can be played to the Blizzard staff's hearts content while giving players a game so far removed from the premise of the original but they can't help themselves, they are addicted, and the dev's know this, they know it, so carry on pumping out whatever they like in whatever agenda they have, in this case Kung Fu Panda that mom who pays the bills en masse will love love love, even if 30 year old full time player Draincorereaperslayingflayer and his hardcore minority raid guild of right wing Horde Orc & Tauren's only guild certainly won't like.. Not here, not anymore, Panda's were the straw that broke my camel's back, the final bird that made the worm turn. What will have to be taken next, little pony race? I'm hoping D3 will restore my faith.. it's dented with fingers crossed that the new game won't go that way, kept non-pc but how Blizz is going, the pessimism rises.

The problem is this game is so damn good. 

Originally posted by Charlizzard

Simple answer is yes.

I think D3 wont be a bad game it is just not a revolutionary game.....

i will buy it and play before i can say something like that

Originally posted by Lobotomist

This is something that really has to be asked.

Diablo is legendary game franchise. Probably one of most popular ones on PC.

Even if the game is not more that decent, diablo 3 would be bought by millions of people.

Blizzard is brimming with money and talent. And I dont doubt huge budgets were invested in this one...

What can go wrong after all ?

 

I think unbelivable has happened. Blizzard is about to release their first bad game ( i am not counting WOW expansions)

What happened ?

Did all the talents leave Blizzard ?

Its really hard to answer this one...

 

What are you talking about here? Just because YOU dont like the game, does not mean that the game is bad.

You are promoting your subjective opinion as an objective truth which is a nice example of fallacy.

Another "smart person" that likes to jump to conclusion after playing first 8 levels of the game. Go make judgements about Diablo 2 based on Den of Evil.

We are all entitled to have subjective opinions and you feel free to express it by saying "In my opinion, the game is bad and Blizzard is losing it", but here you are promoting it as something objective, like if 100% major reviewers agreed on this "Unbelievable has happened, Blizzard is about to release their first bad game".

Just keep your subjective opinions subjective and noone can tell you a word since you have right to have any opinion you want, but this...

And answer to your question? No, why would they lose their touch. The game is great, IN MY OPINION.

Did anyone whose saying its too easy ever play a diablo game. If they did then they would know that normal and nightmare were for noobs learning the game, those experienced with diablo would fly through these acts, helping new players along the way, so basing an opinion on a the beta which was normal act 1, is retarded.

As for customization, 3.4 trillion possible builds sounds like quite a lot of builds to me.

Originally posted by nyxium

Originally posted by MikkelB

Originally posted by nyxium

My Little Panda friendship is magic convinced me of that.

People will get used to it, I'm not sure what the problem is though. WoW already has blue aliens and a lot of MMORPG's feature hairy, beastlike races. I like the oriental aesthetics too. Too bad I'm done with WoW for quite some time now.

Here's the problem: People get addicted to games like WoW. From how they are at the start, then changes are made, people are locked in they can't leave, they take it and abide. Then all of a sudden it's taking whatever is thrown and now we get the mom friendly cuteness that throws a little political correctness in the game, and might even attract crowds from Club Penguin, Wizard 101, and *shudders* Hello Kitty Online. Not to mention the Asian land-grab. The dev's know the hardcore are hopelessly addicted and will have to put up with whatever is thrown at them now, don't like China landscaped games? Tough! Take it! WoW fans can be played to the Blizzard staff's hearts content while giving players a game so far removed from the premise of the original but they can't help themselves, they are addicted, and the dev's know this, they know it, so carry on pumping out whatever they like in whatever agenda they have, in this case Kung Fu Panda that mom who pays the bills en masse will love love love, even if 30 year old full time player Draincorereaperslayingflayer and his hardcore minority raid guild of right wing Horde Orc & Tauren's only guild certainly won't like.. Not here, not anymore, Panda's were the straw that broke my camel's back, the final bird that made the worm turn. What will have to be taken next, little pony race? I'm hoping D3 will restore my faith.. it's dented with fingers crossed that the new game won't go that way, kept non-pc but how Blizz is going, the pessimism rises.

You already lost me at the addiction part. People will play games while they find them interesting. There are multiple factors. Some like the PvE bit, some the PvP, some the social part, some the dailies, some the achievements, etc. When you shout about "being addicted", you need to clarify what you actually mean with "addicted". Because in your post you suggest that most people that play WoW are addicted to WoW. Which is bullshit. People play WoW because they like to play it. Knowing Blizzard, it's probably a minority that don't like the direction in which WoW is going. I'm willing to bet that the majority is looking forward to the new expansion. Because they believe that the new features will make their WoW experience more fun and excitable. Blizzard isn't the fucking devil like some posters here preach on about.

If you don't like the way Blizzard is going, fine. Point is that Blizzard knows damn well what their playerbase is likely to enjoy. I don't believe that MoP is some evil marketing scam to give all the WoW players their new "fix" so they can go on for another year. I believe that they are continuously try to make WoW better. Just look through all the changes from WoW Vanilla till now. I'm not an expert here, but I can't think another MMORPG that made that much big chances to their game.

When I booted up Diablo 3, the first thing I noticed was that it loaded pretty damn fast, even on my old PC. Almost no loading. Same went for the rest of the game. It's pretty optimized, with good graphics and (in my opinion) a great aesthetic. I felt right at home with Diablo 3. While their have been pretty big chances to some of the core gameplay of Diablo (levelup system, usage of skills), I never once felt that I needed to learn the game anew. This is partly because of the simple system that you find in Diablo (hack, slash, loot, repeat), but it also needs effort from the developer to get it right. It's also accessable for different kind of players, like my dad for example, who isn't the quickest to pick up titles like this, but who can still play the game without it being to hard for him.

So no, I don't believe that Blizzard is just pumping out title after title just to milk the fanbase dry. The milking is a secondary objective, of course they want money too. But I believe that they try to make good games firstly and seeing the time they take for each title, it isn't a huge wonder that a lot of people play them.

Originally posted by MikkelB

Originally posted by nyxium

Originally posted by MikkelB

Originally posted by nyxium

My Little Panda friendship is magic convinced me of that.

People will get used to it, I'm not sure what the problem is though. WoW already has blue aliens and a lot of MMORPG's feature hairy, beastlike races. I like the oriental aesthetics too. Too bad I'm done with WoW for quite some time now.

Here's the problem: People get addicted to games like WoW. From how they are at the start, then changes are made, people are locked in they can't leave, they take it and abide. Then all of a sudden it's taking whatever is thrown and now we get the mom friendly cuteness that throws a little political correctness in the game, and might even attract crowds from Club Penguin, Wizard 101, and *shudders* Hello Kitty Online. Not to mention the Asian land-grab. The dev's know the hardcore are hopelessly addicted and will have to put up with whatever is thrown at them now, don't like China landscaped games? Tough! Take it! WoW fans can be played to the Blizzard staff's hearts content while giving players a game so far removed from the premise of the original but they can't help themselves, they are addicted, and the dev's know this, they know it, so carry on pumping out whatever they like in whatever agenda they have, in this case Kung Fu Panda that mom who pays the bills en masse will love love love, even if 30 year old full time player Draincorereaperslayingflayer and his hardcore minority raid guild of right wing Horde Orc & Tauren's only guild certainly won't like.. Not here, not anymore, Panda's were the straw that broke my camel's back, the final bird that made the worm turn. What will have to be taken next, little pony race? I'm hoping D3 will restore my faith.. it's dented with fingers crossed that the new game won't go that way, kept non-pc but how Blizz is going, the pessimism rises.

You already lost me at the addiction part. People will play games while they find them interesting. There are multiple factors. Some like the PvE bit, some the PvP, some the social part, some the dailies, some the achievements, etc. When you shout about "being addicted", you need to clarify what you actually mean with "addicted". Because in your post you suggest that most people that play WoW are addicted to WoW. Which is bullshit. People play WoW because they like to play it. Knowing Blizzard, it's probably a minority that don't like the direction in which WoW is going. I'm willing to bet that the majority is looking forward to the new expansion. Because they believe that the new features will make their WoW experience more fun and excitable. Blizzard isn't the fucking devil like some posters here preach on about.

If you don't like the way Blizzard is going, fine. Point is that Blizzard knows damn well what their playerbase is likely to enjoy. I don't believe that MoP is some evil marketing scam to give all the WoW players their new "fix" so they can go on for another year. I believe that they are continuously try to make WoW better. Just look through all the changes from WoW Vanilla till now. I'm not an expert here, but I can't think another MMORPG that made that much big chances to their game.

When I booted up Diablo 3, the first thing I noticed was that it loaded pretty damn fast, even on my old PC. Almost no loading. Same went for the rest of the game. It's pretty optimized, with good graphics and (in my opinion) a great aesthetic. I felt right at home with Diablo 3. While their have been pretty big chances to some of the core gameplay of Diablo (levelup system, usage of skills), I never once felt that I needed to learn the game anew. This is partly because of the simple system that you find in Diablo (hack, slash, loot, repeat), but it also needs effort from the developer to get it right. It's also accessable for different kind of players, like my dad for example, who isn't the quickest to pick up titles like this, but who can still play the game without it being to hard for him.

So no, I don't believe that Blizzard is just pumping out title after title just to milk the fanbase dry. The milking is a secondary objective, of course they want money too. But I believe that they try to make good games firstly and seeing the time they take for each title, it isn't a huge wonder that a lot of people play them.

Experts have said that some massively multiplayer online games, in which players battle enemies for weapons and rewards, are as addictive as crack cocaine

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/5899659/Addiction-therapists-signing-up-to-World-of-Warcraft.html

Originally posted by nyxium

Originally posted by MikkelB

Originally posted by nyxium

Originally posted by MikkelB

Originally posted by nyxium

My Little Panda friendship is magic convinced me of that.

People will get used to it, I'm not sure what the problem is though. WoW already has blue aliens and a lot of MMORPG's feature hairy, beastlike races. I like the oriental aesthetics too. Too bad I'm done with WoW for quite some time now.

Here's the problem: People get addicted to games like WoW. From how they are at the start, then changes are made, people are locked in they can't leave, they take it and abide. Then all of a sudden it's taking whatever is thrown and now we get the mom friendly cuteness that throws a little political correctness in the game, and might even attract crowds from Club Penguin, Wizard 101, and *shudders* Hello Kitty Online. Not to mention the Asian land-grab. The dev's know the hardcore are hopelessly addicted and will have to put up with whatever is thrown at them now, don't like China landscaped games? Tough! Take it! WoW fans can be played to the Blizzard staff's hearts content while giving players a game so far removed from the premise of the original but they can't help themselves, they are addicted, and the dev's know this, they know it, so carry on pumping out whatever they like in whatever agenda they have, in this case Kung Fu Panda that mom who pays the bills en masse will love love love, even if 30 year old full time player Draincorereaperslayingflayer and his hardcore minority raid guild of right wing Horde Orc & Tauren's only guild certainly won't like.. Not here, not anymore, Panda's were the straw that broke my camel's back, the final bird that made the worm turn. What will have to be taken next, little pony race? I'm hoping D3 will restore my faith.. it's dented with fingers crossed that the new game won't go that way, kept non-pc but how Blizz is going, the pessimism rises.

You already lost me at the addiction part. People will play games while they find them interesting. There are multiple factors. Some like the PvE bit, some the PvP, some the social part, some the dailies, some the achievements, etc. When you shout about "being addicted", you need to clarify what you actually mean with "addicted". Because in your post you suggest that most people that play WoW are addicted to WoW. Which is bullshit. People play WoW because they like to play it. Knowing Blizzard, it's probably a minority that don't like the direction in which WoW is going. I'm willing to bet that the majority is looking forward to the new expansion. Because they believe that the new features will make their WoW experience more fun and excitable. Blizzard isn't the fucking devil like some posters here preach on about.

If you don't like the way Blizzard is going, fine. Point is that Blizzard knows damn well what their playerbase is likely to enjoy. I don't believe that MoP is some evil marketing scam to give all the WoW players their new "fix" so they can go on for another year. I believe that they are continuously try to make WoW better. Just look through all the changes from WoW Vanilla till now. I'm not an expert here, but I can't think another MMORPG that made that much big chances to their game.

When I booted up Diablo 3, the first thing I noticed was that it loaded pretty damn fast, even on my old PC. Almost no loading. Same went for the rest of the game. It's pretty optimized, with good graphics and (in my opinion) a great aesthetic. I felt right at home with Diablo 3. While their have been pretty big chances to some of the core gameplay of Diablo (levelup system, usage of skills), I never once felt that I needed to learn the game anew. This is partly because of the simple system that you find in Diablo (hack, slash, loot, repeat), but it also needs effort from the developer to get it right. It's also accessable for different kind of players, like my dad for example, who isn't the quickest to pick up titles like this, but who can still play the game without it being to hard for him.

So no, I don't believe that Blizzard is just pumping out title after title just to milk the fanbase dry. The milking is a secondary objective, of course they want money too. But I believe that they try to make good games firstly and seeing the time they take for each title, it isn't a huge wonder that a lot of people play them.

Experts have said that some massively multiplayer online games, in which players battle enemies for weapons and rewards, are as addictive as crack cocaine

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/5899659/Addiction-therapists-signing-up-to-World-of-Warcraft.html

Then my willpower is much better then I expected, cause I haven't been playing MMORPG much lately. Not for a year or something, unless you count the Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekened. More then 10 million people play WoW. There is only speculation of the amount of addicted players that play WoW. Besides, there is a big difference between "exessive gaming" and "addicted gaming", so don't make the mistake of confusing those. I won't deny that some people get addicted to gaming and perhaps MMORPG's in particular, but that's not the fault of Blizzard or any MMORPG developer. Like I said, more then 10 million players (active or not, still a huge amount) and only a fraction is addicted. Unlike people who use crack I might add.

About that article, how come only "some" MMO's are addictive as crack? If that would be true, why not put a restriction on the "addictive" parts then, because clearly some MMO's have them and some don't.

You shouldn't just quote those lines out the article, because it's about one psychiatrist who mentioned it and he is back up by one (and as far as I can track down) unpublished report. It does not have that much news value to me at least. I wish that some institute would do a real research on this subject for once.

In conclusion, I don't say that some people aren't addicted to WoW, but that they are just a tiny drop in the ocean, like people who are addicted to online shooters for example, or Facebook. WoW isn't addictive, these people get addicted to WoW

DIablo III is disappointing imo but Blizzard are using it to try to move into the consolemarket and to test the cash shop model, I believe that's the main reason it's so simplified. WoW has lost alot of subscribers in the west, where most of the money is earned, SC2 isn't making much money compared to WoW numbers.

I think Blizzard are searching for other reliable income sources besides WoW because they are extremely reliant on WoW now. Imagine if WoW keeps dropping subscribers and Titan ends up being a failure, that would be a disaster for them with the massive company they have built up around WoW.

I'm very disappointed by how DIII has turned out but it makes sense from a business perspective to try to go for the consolemarket, that's where most people are, unfortunately those people want dumbed down games.

Originally posted by Foncl

DIablo III is disappointing imo but Blizzard are using it to try to move into the consolemarket and to test the cash shop model, I believe that's the main reason it's so simplified. WoW has lost alot of subscribers in the west, where most of the money is earned, SC2 isn't making much money compared to WoW numbers.

I think Blizzard are searching for other reliable income sources besides WoW because they are extremely reliant on WoW now. Imagine if WoW keeps dropping subscribers and Titan ends up being a failure, that would be a disaster for them with the massive company they have built up around WoW.

I'm very disappointed by how DIII has turned out but it makes sense from a business perspective to try to go for the consolemarket, that's where most people are, unfortunately those people want dumbed down games.

Personally I think that the leveling system in Diablo 3 looks pretty fun. If they tune the difficulty right, it seems easy to pikc up, but hard to master. So in what way do you find it simplified and dumbed down?

Blizzard hasn't lost their touch. All of their recent games are easy to get into as a newcomer, but can also be fun and challenging for the hardcore gamer. That is pretty hard to pull off. I don't know how well Diablo 3 is going to sell, but I can't imagine that it will sell poorly. Same for WoW, yes people are leaving it, but a lot are still playing. It's by no meaning a sinking ship.

Little ask at many people.

Are you crazy or what?

Diblo 3 1/3 act1 and you think this a bad game?

When you have played Diablo 3 full game all acts what you will be say?

I know:

I hate, I hate, I hate.

Originally posted by Mataros

Little ask at many people.

Are you crazy or what?

Diblo 3 1/3 act1 and you think this a bad game?

When you have played Diablo 3 full game all acts what you will be say?

 

I know:

 

I hate, I hate, I hate.

I have no idea what you just said. However, I think I agree none the less.

It is amazing how people make such quick, broad judgements without playing much of the game. Although, I thought the beta was a lot of fun but I'll wait until I play the full version before making my final judgement. However, everything I've seen Blizzard release has been of the highest quality, so I do not believe that Blizzard has lost it's touch at all.

Originally posted by Gorilla

Certainly seems so. Though arguably Vivendi are to blame (for screwing over Blizz North) rather than Activision. I guess it could have been worse we could have ended up with EA Blizzard.

Diablo 3 is gonna have high sales just like swtor did: due to fanboys, not because the game was any good. Path of Exile and torchight 2 are both far superior games to diablo 3 imo, especally path of exile, with its ff10 sphere grid passive system, and its ff7 materia like active skill system, with cuztomisable skills via connected support gems (the gems for actives in PoE level up and can be traded). Bascally TL2/PoE is what diablo 3 should/could have been. But, I'll prob buy diablo 3 anyway.. why? TL2 I already bouyght was only 20 bucks and I got a free copy of torchlight 1 to play now on steam, and Path of Exile will be f2p. I got a few friends who are getting diablo 3 so its more to just have something to mess around with for a bit, and not so much about the game being any good. I dislike the lack fo skill builds, it gives the game 0 reason to ever play the same class again once you get one to cap. The lack of mods for diablo 3 is another nail in its coffin for me. There is no reason why there couldn't be an offline single player or lan multiplayer mode that allows mods.

Also.. the Gems that give stats, am I the only one who feels that blizzard only did this to just have an item that people WILL buy and sell thru their rmt ah? I can't see any other reason for it at all. Other than a money grab. I myself probally won't use the rmt ah at all, unless i get an item worth a fair bit then I might consider it depending on how I can get my cash up here in canada.

Originally posted by Siveria

Originally posted by Gorilla

Certainly seems so. Though arguably Vivendi are to blame (for screwing over Blizz North) rather than Activision. I guess it could have been worse we could have ended up with EA Blizzard.

Diablo 3 is gonna have high sales just like swtor did: due to fanboys, not because the game was any good. Path of Exile and torchight 2 are both far superior games to diablo 3 imo, especally path of exile, with its ff10 sphere grid passive system, and its ff7 materia like active skill system, with cuztomisable skills via connected support gems (the gems for actives in PoE level up and can be traded). Bascally TL2/PoE is what diablo 3 should/could have been. But, I'll prob buy diablo 3 anyway.. why? TL2 I already bouyght was only 20 bucks and I got a free copy of torchlight 1 to play now on steam, and Path of Exile will be f2p. I got a few friends who are getting diablo 3 so its more to just have something to mess around with for a bit, and not so much about the game being any good. I dislike the lack fo skill builds, it gives the game 0 reason to ever play the same class again once you get one to cap. The lack of mods for diablo 3 is another nail in its coffin for me. There is no reason why there couldn't be an offline single player or lan multiplayer mode that allows mods.

 

Also.. the Gems that give stats, am I the only one who feels that blizzard only did this to just have an item that people WILL buy and sell thru their rmt ah? I can't see any other reason for it at all. Other than a money grab. I myself probally won't use the rmt ah at all, unless i get an item worth a fair bit then I might consider it depending on how I can get my cash up here in canada.

uh yea, torchlight 2, the game with the d2 engine.... seriously, stop those comparisons.....

have you played torchlight 2? well, i'll play diablo in 7 days and i will never think of torchlight again unless i am in a mood where i need a laugh ^^

if you think you reached your cap in diablo and that's it for your class, you might concider checking your infos again dude.

this game STARTS at lvl 60. i bet that's about where torclight ends ^^

inferno is NOT playable unless you reached max lvl BEFORE. there are items, bosses (and skills of the same) which are ONLY available on inferno mode.

and seriously, you dont understand diablo, that's fine, nothing to blame here, no one HAS to understand it.

but the moment you start with your hype and claim it#s greater than jesus... well. you know what happened to the be sharps the moment they made that claim?

seriously, before you post next time you might go and get yourself some infos about diablo

Originally posted by MikkelB

Originally posted by Foncl

DIablo III is disappointing imo but Blizzard are using it to try to move into the consolemarket and to test the cash shop model, I believe that's the main reason it's so simplified. WoW has lost alot of subscribers in the west, where most of the money is earned, SC2 isn't making much money compared to WoW numbers.

I think Blizzard are searching for other reliable income sources besides WoW because they are extremely reliant on WoW now. Imagine if WoW keeps dropping subscribers and Titan ends up being a failure, that would be a disaster for them with the massive company they have built up around WoW.

I'm very disappointed by how DIII has turned out but it makes sense from a business perspective to try to go for the consolemarket, that's where most people are, unfortunately those people want dumbed down games.

Personally I think that the leveling system in Diablo 3 looks pretty fun. If they tune the difficulty right, it seems easy to pikc up, but hard to master. So in what way do you find it simplified and dumbed down?

Blizzard hasn't lost their touch. All of their recent games are easy to get into as a newcomer, but can also be fun and challenging for the hardcore gamer. That is pretty hard to pull off. I don't know how well Diablo 3 is going to sell, but I can't imagine that it will sell poorly. Same for WoW, yes people are leaving it, but a lot are still playing. It's by no meaning a sinking ship.

They have removed every form of important permanent choices from the game such as stat points, permanent skill choices etc, it may appeal to some players but not to me. You are limited to only 6 spells and many of those will be buffs/pets/crowdcontrol/long cooldown spells for efficient builds, so you're left with 1 or 2 spammable spells. I don't like the resource mechanics with "resource spenders" and "resource generators" since of the few spells you have you are forced to use a "resource generator" alot of the time.

Followers have some ridiculously powerful spells like "Rush to the aid of wounded ally, knocking back enemies within 15 yards and healing the wounded ally for 4651 Life" for example, when you get in trouble the follower jumps in and saves the day. There's no way of creating and naming your own games something like "Act2 take it slow" or "Act2 speedrun" etc, being able to name games means you can play with others who like to play the way you do. I met many DII friends due to being able to name games and meeting others who enjoy playing at a similar pace or in a similar way as myself.

Healthorbs instead of potions is an inferior game mechanic imo, I would have preferred an evolution of the potion mechanic, Path of Exiles potionmechanic is great for example. It's hard to make a final judgement on it since we have only seen/tried normal mode yet but I am skeptical of how well healthorbs will function to make the game challenging long-term, I find it less fun than managing potion drinking that's for sure.

I could go on and on but here's some things I don't like and I'm very much against the RMAH aswell, paying for power doesn't belong in games imo. I realize much of it is personal preference but to me Diablo III is a dumbed down and simplified game compared to Diablo II.