Live service games are dominating gaming and have been for some time now. It started rather silently, with the introduction of the Battle Pass and has evolved into a model for which many modern games are built around. “How much money is it possible to extract from our games biggest supporters” seems to be the mantra of many of these games, with a cash shop and, in the case of Diablo 4, a box price for the game itself and its expansions.
The underlying premise behind seasonal content is that it is designed to keep players on a treadmill that they’re unaware they’re even on. Gameplay loops are addicting and tight. The promise of rewards puts pressure on gamers to log in every day and do their dailies, weeklies, or grind out a specific activity. None of these concepts are particularly new, especially for those of us familiar with MMO’s and the sheer dedication to maintaining a competitive character.
While players used to be able to purchase optional DLC like maps or expansions to offer fresh gameplay, these days, updates are free and frequent to keep players constantly coming back to experience new content. Combined with Battle Passes and paid cosmetics that generate FOMO, the gaming space is saturated with content that is meant to ultimately extract money from you. Under the guise of “free updates,” lies a “theme park” crisis — a cycle of jumping in and out of several games and their updates and never really immersing yourself in a game for more than a few weeks at a time. You’re here for a good time, not a long time.
Since the launch of Diablo III, the franchise has been a theme park at it’s finest — offering players a quick 2–3 week period where you could grind the game and then that was really it. There were no chase items or end game goals to achieve apart from a “Seasonal Journey” which was easily achievable without having to really go out of your way from the typical gameplay loop. Your best-in-slot gear was picked up off the ground and the biggest power gains from there lied in grinding the same content over and over, not for gear, but for levels. This meant that your character was effectively finished relatively quickly.
When Diablo IV launched and for several seasons afterwards, they played it safe with this exact formula and for me that meant that I was finding myself actively despising one of my favorite franchises. I felt like seasonal content was lazily developed and uninspired. I felt that I was paying way too much money for so little content post-campaign. I felt like the game was trending negatively and was destined to shutter if they didn’t turn things around. Iteratively, Blizzard has navigated these choppy waters and performed one of the biggest turn-arounds I’ve seen in live-service gaming.
Season 11 content. Image owned by Blizzard Entertainment.
"The Diablo 4 team introduced the Paladin, which, in my opinion, is the best class that Blizzard has ever created"
While, Season 11 does not change the Diablo formula all of that much, the one thing it brings to the table is a reason to keep grinding for items. “Sanctification” adds (or changes, if you’re unlucky) special affixes to your gear. When you find a good piece of gear, it applies a finishing touch to the item and it gives you a reason to keep hunting for gear since your odds of getting the perfect affix are, from my experience, low. Not only does this open up a whole new level of power, it also adds a significant amount of playtime to the season since you will almost never have perfect gear.
This constant need for gear then feeds into their tightened endgame loop of boss encounters. Content drops keys for bosses which you can then turn into keys for more difficult bosses, until you finally reach the toughest boss, who has the best loot in the game. Reminiscent of Ubers and T17 dungeons in Path of Exile, this system combined with Sanctification does a fantastic job of keeping you on the treadmill because powerful, build defining items drop from these bosses — items you’ll definitely want to Sanctify.
The downside is that, looking at the ladder, there is a huge disparity between people who have acquired the rarest, best Sanctified affixes and average affixes. I personally play solo-self-found, so seeing how my gear compared to others at similar play-time was really tough since I didn’t get lucky enough on the gear that I found, while others are trading for perfect items to endlessly Sanctify. This meant that the gap between my character’s power and others’ who aren’t working a full-time job with a kid, was insurmountable — a feeling I am not used to, these days. It’s not a perfect system, but it is a good system. That said, I am really looking forward to SSF being added in future versions of the game to level my playing field.
To top off Season 11, the Diablo team introduced the Paladin, which, in my opinion, is the best class that Blizzard have ever created in all of their games. Visuals are vibrant, holy, yet dark and foreboding — fitting the mood of Diablo IV. The combat is tight and all of their skills are highly synergistic with one another. Their Paragon Boards (talents) also synergize with the rest of the Paladin’s kit. All of the names and types of abilities, glyphs, legendary nodes, etc. are fitting of a Paladin in this universe and I am here for it (aside from being over-tuned, that is) and wishing the World of Warcraft Paladin felt like this.
Judicator Paladin. Image owned by Blizzard Entertainment.
So, has Diablo 4 changed or have I?
Well, the game certainly has changed. What felt like a bunch of content duct taped together with little cohesion at launch, has now turned into a familiar and meaningful endgame loop. Every piece of content feels like it serves a purpose that feeds into itself. I think that Pit and Tower gameplay could feel better, they don’t feel too dissimilar from other live-service dungeon crawling. Loot feels valuable again because of Sanctification (please keep this in the game Blizzard!). I slowly felt less like I was in a theme-park and more like I was immersed in the gameplay loop, searching for that perfect item.
But, have I have changed? Certainly. My lifestyle has seen a complete change after having a kid. I can’t grind these seasons like I used to, so in many ways I am happy to have a game that I can focus on for only a few weeks and then move on from. I can be competitive towards the top of the ladder (Top-500 Pit time after the first week!) while there are only a few people no-life-ing the game. I will still never forgive Blizzard for charging money for expansions for Diablo IV in addition to paid cosmetics, but at least for now I can look past it and see a fun, addicting, little theme-park that I feel fulfilled playing.
