Before I begin with my opinionated glaze over a already flavored box of donuts of “takes”. I sit here sometimes and I process the big picture of possibility why a company will do anything. Or the previous behaviors of other MMORPGs/gacha games. Even more notably knowing back in the day when people played the original Diablo 2: LOD. You ether grind for those Rune words, or purchased a set/ bought (from other players with real money. Possibility those same people tried to hack your account to get the stuff back) armor then did your endgame Über Tristram. Back then, people sometimes were lazy, paid some random bot using son-of-a-gun, then you got your goods. This of course was completely not legal for Blizzard, but they also did not seem to care. Fast forward now. Blizzard is seemingly flipping the script. Doing what those others back then were doing now. Offering you a “fast way” through. Not the fast-pass you are looking for. In this case.
People expect fast results for minimal effort. Hence why people use bots or even cheat in games. Amongst this chaos Developers who want to harness these whales. (A mobile gaming whale spends a lot of money on microtransactions. In free-to-play games, for example, “whales” are the primary target for microtransactions; they’re the ones who buy booster packs, cosmetics, and so on. There are many of them.). So who is to blame the developers who saw the potential for chunky capitalism? An honest thing we have seen a mile away. The “I told you so!” people acted like they were prophets when the spoilers to the ending of this movie were in the trailer as it was coming to mobile. Not all mobile titles suffer from microtransactions, aside from the heavily promoted ones you see on the front of the store. As premium games are tucked in the ocean of “freemium” games. Well from the grand scale of it the price for Diablo Immortal’s final cost to max out everything is insane. A little too much, as the kiddos would say on the road, or *ahem* the streets.
One of the more bizarre things here, is why $100,000+? My theory more than anything is basically a lack of content, as it is still being in beta. Past the main storyline, and a few things in the game, what else is there? Blizzard seemed to want to purposely ether sneak this outrageous fee into the mix if people were not patient enough, or prolong people who grind for free in these sorts of games. As there are many who want to play the role of speed-racer to try to get to the end game as fast as possible you see the connection here, right? How some people wish to be the fastest one to get through the game, other than to brag. To me honestly, I am one of the many who sat there grinding for Rune words in Diablo 2: LOD. This does not make me captain fancy pants here, but you see the long-routed issue. IF that cost to max out was a lot cheaper, those complaints, while still there to a point would fade, as many would max out their character without complaint. More so a “hush-hush” format where “hey 15 dollars, and I can be a demi-god? Hell yeah! PVP arena here I come bay bay!” We have seen this sort of thing with many MMOs which offer you an instant max cap due to a new expansion. Sometimes included with the games expansion fee so you could jump right into the chaos that is called 3-week fun time. Then after that, poof you do not play it or re-roll a fresh character out of boredom.
Usually, the term Beta now for many is dismissed, instead many assume this is the final product. Of course, many who label a game beta when developing it, use that as an escape clause to run around without paying anything as well. Which honestly is a cheesy thing to do. The topic here of micro transactions has always been a hot button where certain games that offer certain extra perks is one thing. Let us use an example with Warframe when you purchase their in-game currency Platinum, you can buy things out of the gate if you want to or grind the game for 3 days roughly and get the results you want. You can also do this by farming material blueprints people need for frames(extra playable characters to use with all different powers, etc). Who happens to be the whales in the community/the farmers who got loaded from farming. Then you see a balanced mechanic here. The majority of Warframe, is cosmetic, which does not give any extra perks, other than to look awesome. It all goes into the community/the game’s development further. Like free DLC out of the gate for you to enjoy. We look at Diablo Immortal and sadly, this all would line the pockets of Blizzard, and really that just would be it. I know people will tell me “it is for the development of the game!” Okay, but if you want that kinda money, $100,000, you should get investors who wear suits and work for businesses. Not brick-house Bob who flicks his fingers around a hot phone smacking skeletons around. Yes, I am one of those old-fashioned sorts of thinking that people should just grind out the game to 100%, to achieve an endgame goal. For that address it with a new game+ mode. So the grind over time does not seem very long. “what NG+ are you on Greg? Oh NG+40?” Some people, do not have that patience.
The rough time to complete Diablo Immortal is 16 hours if you grind your ass off. Not including status points you need to strengthen your character. See the problem? Poor pacing in general via character development. I see where this is not the finalized game overall, but I feel for a game like this, they should have thought ahead of those who love to be speedy mc-speedster pants in games. Or throttle them a different way. Rather than have a big money brick wall.
Does it boil down to the fault of the consumer, or really the over hindsight of Blizzard thinks people would pay to be at the top? My dial leaning towards a misconception on Blizzard’s part. I find the culture of gaming interesting when it comes to free to plays. You get some really good free titles out there. Past the insane micro-transactions practices is a really solid dungeon crawler game. IF Blizzard can solve/fix this silly crap they are doing with the in same-store, *chefs kiss*.
