It cost Blizzard a lot of negative press and customer sentiment by fixing their design choices through the RoS expansion, mainly because RoS came with an additional price tag, which threw off a lot of players. Loot in RoS can now only be obtained through character trading in-game, or loot drops from monsters.ī) Changing the randomised loot drops to a “smart” loot system that more often than not rewards characters with class relevant, if not useful, item upgrades.Ĭ) Allowing players to play at harder difficulties straight off the bat and change dynamically mid-game, and introducing an “Aventure” mode once the game has been fully cleared in order to drive players back into D3’s world and hunt monsters without feeling that they are just aimlessly repeating content. Game too easy? Open menu, make it harder, back into the fray!įollowing customer feedback on D3, Blizzard rectified their – openly admitted – mistakes in RoS byĪ) Removing the Auction House and any real-life money transactions from the game. As was mentioned above, going through the content again and again is expected: but in this case, it was forced upon the players in a way that meant many veterans and hardcore players had to endure going through a game that was not challenging 3-4 times before they reached a level of difficulty that was challenging for them. Which leads to the next issue: in order to progress through the various difficulty levels of the original D3 game, players needed to complete the game and kill Diablo in Normal difficulty before moving on to Hard, Very Hard, Insane, etc. However, the system almost made it mandatory to purchase items from the AH (often for derisory prices due to competition), as the random drop rate made it really hard to get good gear in order to progress through the next levels of the game. Some were particularly successful in doing so. When D3 first came out, a lot of players were upset with the false economy that was created due to the Auction House system, in which players could spend in-game or real-life money to purchase items. This is an important point because it means that ultimately, going through the same content again and again is expected. Even after the end-boss is defeated, the quest for the best available gear does not end, as the game can be re-run endlessly in order to “farm” the best pieces of gear.
One brings the other in a tightly-knit circle of massacre, where monsters drop gear that allows the player to kill harder monsters who drop more gear that allows the player to kill harder monsters etc. In the Diablo franchise, the aim is two-fold: reach and defeat the end-boss of the game and amass the coolest-looking, most buffing pieces of armor, equipment and weapons as possible. Diablo 3 will be shortened to D3 and the expansion, Reaper of Souls, to RoS in the rest of the article. Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls, by Blizzard Entertainment, is the expansion to the isometric view hack & slash game Diablo 3.