Except it does make sense, and you tried shoehorning the rest of the announcements as a rebuttal to someone that was just talking about the mobile game?
It makes financial sense for Blizzard. And before you go pulling something as you push out your next reply, remember that first & foremost they are a business. I hate micro-transactions, I only do light gaming on my phone, so I will likely try this game and then uninstall it, and then move on with my life because there are always other games to play. But this will make them a ton of money. And that's all there is to it.
I can agree that the announcement at Blizzcon was tonedeaf at best, and the reality is closer to slapping their most ardent fans in the face. But what Anubis said is correct.
I am not against the very existence of mobile gaming. I don't like it. But I don't want to see it gone just because I don't like it. I'm saying this because perhaps I should have said this in my previous post to clarify. Heck, I don't even have anything against the principle / practice of profit to begin with.
I know they're a business. But mobile gaming is played in short bursts, it's for quick gaming, it's fast-food action. It's the land of Angry Birds, Bejeweled and Mario Run styled games. Now, the Diablo / action RPG genre is a
grinding type of game that requires weeks, or a month+ to fully gear up a single character. Which audience, really, is a Diablo Mobile game aimed at? Some guy with a smart phone looking at his phone screen for 3 straight hours on a plane? And THAT is going to work? Leveling up your Sorc while walking your dog for 20 minutes? Trying to finish bounties before lunch break ends? If that's the case then I am actually, genuinely surprised. I just do not picture a "Mobile" type game being that sort of game to start with. And, of course, that's where my take on all this stems from.
I would not have been 'against' something that actually
FITS the Mobile gaming industry ("fitting", here, again according to how I myself perceive mobile gaming). Something along the lines of... a Diablo-themed Cards game (maybe in the veins of Heartstone, but with a Diablo Universe setup), a... Pinball game themed around Diablo, a Tetris-styled game with Diablo spices thrown in (say in the style of that Street Fighter-themed Tetris-like game which I can't recall the name of right now; which on a side note I played a bit of and had actual fun with... wouldn't mind playing that on a mobile device for about 10 minutes). I just cannot imagine the point of playing a - what appears to be - full-fledged, full featured D3 clone on the Mobile platform if that means most people playing it won't play it for more than 1 hour (if even that). Now, of course, I can bet that there's going to be MTXs in the form of experience boosts to speed up leveling, etc.
If they had announced this exact "Diablo 3" Mobile game...
but... along side a follow up announcement of a 'proper PC Diablo' related content update (or D4) then of course, it would have been alright. Most people like me would have shut up since we'd have had what we wished for since at least the past 3 years or so. I didn't want something as big as a new Diablo game during the time when D3 itself worked well enough and was still rather recent. For about a period of 3 years it was alright and I don't recall seeing the 'community' asking for an actual full sequel since the past five years. We've mostly been ok with D3 "as is" for a good chunk of time post-release. But now, at this point in time, D3 is just absolutely boring and extremely repetitive. It's not because D2 is still being played today that we should be "ok" with D3 for another 10 years. Not all games are 'viable' for the mass for that long, but Blizzard seem to rely on that just because WoW has been going on since the times when the Dinosaurs walked the Earth. And they imagine that just because they're Blizzard, that all their games don't actually 'required' sequels because... man, they're Blizzard and their games are perfect.
We, the gamers, absolutely don't know what we'd like to play. They do. We have to agree with them.
We, D3 players (or rather I should say, Diablo 'Fans', since not everyone even liked D3 to start with) haven't received a single new
ITEM in the game since... heck I can't even recall (maybe more than a year since the last Unique was added to the loot pool). Not even an
item for crying out loud. Of course, much less a new Class. On the D3 forums many say that they would be very content with "just" a new Class, that's it. Asking for a new Act?!
Perish the thought! We'd all be entitled little nerds then wouldn't we. I mean I still enjoy doing the same bounties in my lovely Act 5 since the past 2 years and I want
MORE of it - unchanged please! Imagine if they were to release Act 6?! Man, Diablo 3 then would suck!
Anyway, this Diablo 3 game is too big for the platform(s) it's made for, and too ambitious for the audience who play games on that type of platform. Diablo, was,
NEVER designed with "
Let's grind for my Barb on my bus ride to work this morning for about 15 minutes". If I had been a gamer on mobile I would have probably bought something like
Super Diablo Kart on my new iPhone, sure. But c'mon, who the hell can possibly take this mobile "D3" seriously?!
Oh and someone mentioned the mobile scene is big in China. Ok, why do we have to satisfy China again? I could understand 'returning the favor' to Japan thanks to all the things they brought to gaming for us here in Amercia (you know, things like the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros., Zelda, and the likes). But... China? K so mobile gaming is big over there. Alright so... let them help thesmselves with it? Aren't they actually producing everything that's made on Earth? Well then, let them make their own Blizzard knockoff company, let them give themselves jobs for their gaming industry artists over there and let them make their own action RPG for their own mobile gaming scene.
Why is it that Blizzard has to the be the one serving something to Mr. China on a silver platter while leaving their long-time, long-lasting fans in America, Europe and many other countries around the world in the dust with the Diablo franchise?
Now, my final thoughts:
If, they ARE actually working on something big something "proper" for PC. If, in fact, they are working on none other than Diablo 4, or at least some sort of a very ambitious remake (or reboot) of Diablo (or Diablo 2 specifically) then the big problem is that they did NOT announce it at THIS BlizzCon. Because JUST announcing that they're bringing the "Diablo franchise" over to Mobile platforms and nothing else makes this BlizzCon one of the worst moment in video gaming history for Diablo fans (and for many PC gamers in general who happened to have very fond memories of at least D2, and maybe even D3 at this point). The attention is focused on THAT announcement, since there's nothing else for us Diablo fans to sink our teeth into. So, obviously, we bitch about it because we all have our valid, personal reasons and opinions to hate it as much as we can. Which is clearly the case with me. But I'm fine if some people out there happen to actually want something like that on their iPhone. I just absolutely despise their decision and I would find it even more baffling that for this BlizzCon they would have - for some reasons - decided to hold back on another would-be announcement for one of those supposed "other" Diablo projects, and thought that the one single announcement of this franchise going Mobile was a
GOOD IDEA.
I'm pissed off not because I like to hate for the sake of hatred in this case. But because of the actual genuine love I have for the Diablo universe. Many people never consider in the slightest that - at least sometimes - when a gamer 'bitches' about something, it's because they LOVE the franchise and hate the latest decision / direction it's taking.