Fan tells Blizzard how to improve Diablo 3
Diablo III for Mac OS X
Loading...In a rather eloquent and lengthy post on DiabloFans.com, user MrMonstrosity outlines his idea for a “Loot 2.0” system of changes to improve Diablo 3. Accompanied by mockup images, he proposes improvements to the crafting system, item drops, making legendary items more exciting, and my personal favourite, new skills provided by high-level items:
The beauty of a system like this is that it offers a huge depth in game play compared to the current system. Currently in the game once you hit level 60 you’re done discovering your skills. With a system like this even at level 60 you could keep discovering new builds depending on what items you’ve found. Remember the idea of super rare items I talked about above? Imagine playing the game for a year and finally getting your hands on one of those super rare items with a sweet new Rune Skill, your entire play style or build could change to something completely different. It would make the game feel so fresh, people wouldn’t be able to just run to the forums, look up the best build, and be done with swapping skills forever. Instead new builds would constantly be discovered that not everyone would have access to right away. This idea could even go further, what if a new build needed not only 1 but even 2 or 3 new Rune Skills only available on items. Combining gear to make new builds, who’d have thought? If Blizzard added even one new item to the game at a later point it could have the potential to create entirely new builds.
Probably most interesting about this, is that Blizzard appear to be taking notes. A post on the official blog links to MrMonstrosity’s article, and signs off with:
We’re interested in hearing your feedback on this subject, so please be sure to leave a comment in this blog or hop into one of the threads linked above!
It strikes me as a little odd that a company like Blizzard really seems to be stuck on how to improve their game. For my money though, although the changes proposed seem to be making the die-hard fanbase delighted, the key issue Blizzard really need to look at is how to encourage people who bought the game to play it in the first place, with the entire game at this point feeling like a pointless grind to get to the end where people seem to be having more fun.
Having spent some time playing Torchlight II recently (we’ve gone from “soon” to no comment as to the availability of a Mac version by the way, which I think makes it safe to assume it’s not going to happen any time soon), I actually found myself itching to return to Diablo 3. There’s something about Diablo which is just more enjoyable, but that seems to be buried underneath a layer of terrible monetisation and metagame.