Apparently millions of people still play Diablo 2, according to Blizzard's lead producer. A game that's over 25 years old with no major content updates in almost as many years. Why? And who the fuck is still playing it?
dunnoi always thought diablo was garbage even back in the day
me
>Doesn't require you to upgrade your computer>You know what to expect>Its a little different each time>You can save and quit whenever you want Goes a long way
>>737531225>NOOOO YOU CAN'T JUST PLAY THE SAME GAME FOR MORE THAN A YEAR
Stay awhile and listen
No one seems to have executed as well the sum of its parts with soul, thus people stick to it since its so replayable.I have some ideas for a take on the genre but who knows if I'll ever make it.
>>737531225the better question is why aren’t you playing it?
>25 years old with no major content updatesIncorrect several times over.
>>737531565newnigger
>>737531225Apparently millions of people still play chess, according to chess.com. A game that's over 1500 years old with no major content updates in almost as many years.Why? And who the fuck is still playing it?
Me. I got Jah and killed DClone for the first time in 30 years since I played back in highschool. Not sure if I'll do uber tristram though and farming for sunder charms seems aids so I might wait for it to get patched and then do all that on non-ladder next season.Also if anyone wants to trade their lightning sunder for an 80% cold sunder I'm offering.
>>737531225it's the best diablo game, 1 is 2nd best. The rest are shit.so basically anyone that like diablo at all is playing d2.
>>737531225Because certain items have absurdly low drop rates and it’s randomized each time so each run has a little different areas than the last. It’s also why many people still play Path of Exile too. Theres enough small bits of content hidden away that people will do dozens of runs just to see it all.
>>737531225Diablo had had mods and content updates as well as private servers that change it up just enough to have a steady player base
>>737531225It pioneered dopamine abusing gacha design. You could play for years and still not get the item you want.
>>737531225>no major content updates in almost as many yearbro
>>737531225MeI just started a challenge run the other day: barbarian + A2 Merc, both spears only, players 8 only. Just hit lv56 in A2 nightmare, got a lucky Kelpie Snare to use as my main weapon for now, Hawkmail for CBF. Probably can push to at least A4 with my current gear, looking for runes to make some helm runewords, probably gonna try warlocks Authority body armor because that 40-60% damage might be quite strong for barb, and Myth is the saddest class runeword ever.
>>737532242do you guys pay attention to the story at all or do you treat diabblo like an arcade game?
>>737532495we've known the story for 25 years anon
Because diablo 2 is a good game.Blizzard doesn't know how to make good games anymore.
>>737532537who's "we" nigga????
>>737532495I've cleared D2 hundreds of times, why would I keep listening to NPCs yapping?
>>737532596Humanity (you're not included)
>>737532590Worse. Blizzard could make a decent game if they actually tried, but they don’t because their overpayed employees who don’t even play or like videogames would have to actually work
>>737532632whatever dumbass lmao./ at least i got a life
>>737532495There's barely any story, Anon. Unironically play D4 if you want a decent story.
>>737531225Because it's still the best game of it's genre.
>>737531225they raped it with the saarlock update
>>737532495The story is a bunch of cutscenes, voiced text boxes of dialogue in safe areas and very rudimentary in-game scenes. It is serviceable at most and that's all it had to do.You're meant to play this game for more than hundreds of hours, you don't really waste time hearing all the fluff again.
>>737532726well its more like i dont really care for story so imma finna skip all that and play D2 lmao
>>737531225>Why?Because it's still fun and good. I know that's a foreign concept on /v/ but it's true.>And who the fuck is still playing it?Me.
>>737531225>Why?Because it's aged really well. Blizzard North (aka Condor, aka the guys who went on to make the original Guild Wars) were geniuses.>And who the fuck is still playing it?Millions of people, apparently.
>>737532729Also this. Bald Fucking Retard claimed to lurve Diablo 2 and made a game (Path of Exile) "based" on it and didn't nail it at all. Even PoE2 is fucking worse at it.
>>737532726huh uh, I too love the story of the brave woman who saved the world, totally play D4 (and D3 too)
>>737532729Titan Quest and Grim Dawn come close
>>737532779biggest mistake of Diablo 3 was how intrusive the story was. You constantly had to wait for shit and hit esc and then also say yes.
>>737532726The story is good, everything is explained via NPCs mostly and you can just click away to interrupt them, it's a game from before you had to be roadblocked by 5 minutes long cinematic cutscenes constantly.
Pd2 makes some questionable changes, but the modders did do a good job with the options availability.
>>737531725Another fine product from India
I grinded diablo 2 to the bone decades ago, never played 3 and tried the beta for 4 but it was shit.I sometimes play MedianXL mod when I get a hankering for some diablo, mostly just because of all the content.
Why is trading in this game so fucked and everything costs an Ist or more?
we use devices that use a thousand times as much electricity and generate a thousand times as much heat to play games that look 10% better than they need to
>>737533220They put zero thought into a market economy.If you want overdesigned market economy play PoE
>>737533056based i came here because of pd2 on the deck. i just wish it was 16:10i need to play it more are there any options i should change or controller tricks i should do?
>>737532868The expansion in D4 is basically one woman fucking up constantly and you having to bail her out (just like how you bail everyone out in D2).
>>737532779>It is serviceable at mostit is peak ARPG story telling. Diablo 3 and 4 are way too obnoxious about the story and interrupt your gameplay constantly.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utk2k8Z4bJE
>>737531225Nobody under the age of 35 is still playing this game.
>>737533020I never said the story was bad, just that there's barely any of it.>Diablo is heading East, we must stop him>Oh we are too late, but at least we killed Andariel>Diablo is heading further East, we must stop him>Oh we are too late, but at least we killed Duriel>Diablo is heading further East, we must stop him>Oh we are too late, but at least we killed Baal>Diablo is going to Hell to build his army (but he's sealed in a Cathedral for some reason), we must stop him>We finally did it! But Baal is heading even further East we must chase him>We finally killed Baal in the Worldstone Chamber, but everything's fucked. Shit.Act 5 at least tried a bit more with the Nithalak betrayal tho.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcJ_XT3oWtY
Even though a bulk of that is probably fucking bots and 3rd worlders that literally play it as a job, d2 manages to maintain one of the best item systems that ever existed. Even with all the rares, uniques, and sets, you still have people looking for regular ass socketed or even white items because they're actually useful components.
I want to play fire sorc through hell what are my backup options? thunder storm? frost orb?
>>737533304PoE is a fucking cancer for having random-socket-count build-enabling uniques as part of their overdesigned economy.
>>737531503I personally think Path of Exile is a great arpg, it has its problems but far surpasses d2 when it comes to end game content.
Its one of the handful of really good Blizzard games they are unable to replicate and likely refuse to do so.
>>737531503It's so easy to make a better Diablo-like but no one does it. They always fuck up the setting, the atmosphere, the RPG mechanics, and the itemization. Path of Exile 1 and 2 came the closest, but I don't like how retarded the endgame is, it's only fun to me on the first playthrough, and I don't get that same sort of satisfaction from the loot.
>>737531225is there a way to pirate it I don't need the online I just refuse to give microsoft money im playing through diablo 1 atm
>>737533498You can dumb down any story like that if you are disingenuous enough.
>>737533801Have you considered taking the 30 seconds to see if there's a scene release?
>>737533801fitgirl. make sure you get the actual site and not the fake one that gives you viruses.
>>737533726path of exile 2 is pretty good, the first one is shit. They are both too much like an arcade game with a story slapped on. Idk how they can improve it but the world feels totally fake. Generated corridors all the way, not sure why d2 didnt feel that way but it just didnt
>>737533709Won't find me arguing, the socket game is complete bullshit.
>>737533835Not really. I invite you to explain to the class what else happens in Act 4 for instance.
>>737533220hold on a second does d2 have a trading system?
>>737533969ty anon bless you
>>737533020>it's a game from before you had to be roadblocked by 5 minutes long cinematic cutscenes constantly.Do you have ADHD by any chance?
>>737533784The strong point of D2 is simplicity, you enter the game, use skill points, find and equip gear. In the endgame you only need to learn about things like breakpoints and when affixes like deadly strike/crushing blow/open wounds apply, the rest is still pretty straightforward even if you are expected to be more efficient with everything.Meanwhile PoE dumps a huge passive tree on a new player + skill gems system + tons of hidden systems and seasonal mechanics. That's why everyone feels like they need to have a build guide opened on the side from the very moment they create a character.
>>737531225Proof that atmosphere and aesthetics are essential in video games. Sure it has an addictive system, but the presentation sets it apart as a game people want to come back to.
>>737531225Did Jeff play D2?
>>737533835he's not wrong, kinda like the witcher with the "ciri was just here but if you want me to tell you where she went you have to get me 16 drowner skins", you end up just following your target while doing fun things on the side, the story is interesting but certainly not deep.
>>737534143You kill Izual (although all his lore happened before the game so he's just some spiteful asshole here) and destroy Mephisto's soulstone (which does nothing but unleashes him to come back in D4). Act 4 was very rushed. The game kind of goes downhill after Act 2 desu.
>>737534221full circle irony
>>737534351really illustrates how soulless his facsimile really is
>>737534351Lots of dead women beneath the ground floor right?
>>737534427>game gets rushed past the half-pointit's a very recurring theme among RPGs
>>737533645>you still have people looking for regular ass socketed or even white items because they're actually useful componentsI don't know why this is held as a good thing in and of itself. It's often worded like "It makes every item rarity relevant even lategame" which isn't even true since most socketed white items are garbage except the ones that you can make useful runewords out of, ie mostly Elite polearms/spears, flails for HotO, phase blade, etc. It's a very small amount of items that outclass all the others that you're looking for, certainly not uplifting white items into being useful as a general tier.Even worse is how a JMoD outclasses Rare shields, same issue with Rare chest slot armor being outclassed by Runewords, Uniques or even Magic ones. It's all good when socketed white items are useful but it's also good design to have a higher tier of rarity be outclassed by those below it in a BiS scenario?
>>737531225>Just tried to download D2+LoD on my new Linux install>"Sorry, your installer is too old!">Download a new installer from bnet>"Sorry sweaty, you now need to log in to your bnet account to install the game ;)"Fucking faggots, please tell me that they haven't pulled another reforged and now force your ass to be always online to play a game released in 2001
CHAD act 3 appreciator reporting in>comfiest atmosphere by farsandginas keep walking
>>737532726>There's barely any story, Anon. Unironically play D4 if you want a decent story.Lmao you fucking zoomers say the darnedest things
Bro actually getting a new disc for an old console is incredibleZoomies and gamepass queens really need a reality check
I like paying it with PlugY
>>737534932You can pirate an offline version.
>>737531225Does it surprise you underage retards to learn that people are always playing old games? The same way people are always watching old movies and reading old books. Dumbass.
First 3 acts are soul overload
>>737531225It is probably played from nostalgia. It reminds of a better time where things still made a little bit more sense.Games made today no longer have the same level of seriousness.They are hollow empty jokes.
I now understand why people are so mad about the Warlock nerfs. Because the drop rates of everything in D2 besides Isenheart's lvl 8 set is so abysmally fucked to hell that it actually takes months to farm a rune in offline mode. Months. And maybe only weeks if you are unemployed and play 10 hours a day.Fuck this game. It's intriguing to turn on some D2 and do a few runs and hope you get lucky. But no, nothing ever drops.
>>737533423>he bought the base game AND the expansionlmao what a fucking faggot
>>737535258Farm terror zone andariel by resetting your PC clock over and over
>>737534701The higher the quality, the more commonly it's gonna be BiS, but lower qualities still have the chance to shine. Always better than D3/D4 endgame where normal/magic/rare items are almost instantly completely irrelevant.
I certainly am, and it just got a new expansion as well. Just got some decent mid-tier sorc gear and am now ready to run nightmare. Can't wait for hell difficulty.
>>737531225Nobody has ever come close to Diablo 2's brilliant games and systems design apart from Path of Exile
Listen to me you ARPG dev shits. If I kill the same boss 300 times I DESERVE whatever gear I'm after. Make it like MMORPGs where the boss drops a unique crafting currency and you just go craft it yourself.
>>737534701Without a breadth of items to look for at each rarity, you're reduced to shit like D3 and 4, where you have to dredge through mountains of "uniques" that are all shit. True, not all items are usable at all rarities, but even just having to look at something that's not the top rarity provides variation and breaks up the monotony of picking up items in the first place.And Jeweler's stuff only "outclasses" other items because you can stack unique or rare gems in them. It's just another itemization option in the wide array of things you can actually wear in this game to decent effect. It doesn't apply to all classes, but one of the best things about D2 is that you can tie power to your character instead of the dozen of pieces of equipment you have on yourself.
>>737535296Nah I just bought the expansion when it was on deep discount. You guys said the story was "womyn stonk" so I wanted to see for myself and verify you are full of shit.
>the zoomer scrubs are trying to casualize D2lol
>>737535521You need to be banned from any ARPG ever, devs should NEVER implement this EVER
>>737535390There's nothing particularly brilliant about the game design of D2. The game is just kino. It relies almost entirely on sovl.Something modern games infested with faggot parasites can never have.
>>737535258>I'm a dad of 5, working 3 jobs, and I have only 1 hour to play every week, if I don't get Enigma day1 and can't OHKO players8 hell with my half-naked warlock then the game is unplayableGrow up. Even with nerfs Warlock is gonna be a S-tier class
>>737535549lmao what a disingenuous faggot
>>737531225
>>737535587FUCK YOU RNG BOY
>>737535258I got a ber in act 2 hell whil progressing and a jah after 3 hours of farming cows (the first thing I farmed)(yeah I know it's insanely lucky and not representative at all but I just wanted to mention it because holy fucking shit)
>>737535521I would be in favor of a progressive slot machine. But not currencies.
Have anyone got the PD2 to work on Bottles? I've figured out a way to get the launcher working but whenever I press "play" it just tries to update the game again and then nothing happens, is there some dependency that is missing or is there some file link that is broken in bottles?
>>737535521>I DESERVECancer.
>>737535830I figured it out, PD2 doesn't like W8/10/11 so I just changed which version my bottle used and now it works.
>>737531225I'm still playing it (the remaster at least). Online is pretty popular, I can jump on and get a rush or a chaos/baal/cows run anytime plus decent trading scene
>>737535641You don't know what words mean. Back to the fields with you, saar.
In ten minutes I'm already leveled up and clearing the Den of Evil. Any other game, you're still reading dialogue or watching a fucking cutscene or doing a tutorial. Modern games don't let you breathe anymore.
>>737531384>You can save and quit whenever you wantA lot of people underrate this in the modern day. So many games nowadays dont let you just save/pause/quit whenever you want, some even fucking ban you and give you passive-aggressive warnings for leaving a session/lobby you know you've already lost or finished with. Being able to just double click a shortcut and be almost immediately killing shit with no faffing around with the freedom to just alt-f4 and walk away from the PC at any time is a godsend.
>>737531225It's still the peak of the genre which is both impressive and a sad commentary on what tried to follow in its footsteps.
>>737532590Diablo 2 wasnt even made by Blizzard, Blizzard North made it, then were all immediately fired and studio shut down after LoD came out.
>>737536317Which is why Sunder Charms are so cancer to farm. Fuck nu-blizzard and mr.llama.
>>737536265>"I am Ak-">"There is a-"
>/v/irgins can't comprehend the idea that people can enjoy something for a long time instead of either throwing daily tantrums over it or playing it once then throwing it in the trash while whining about high game prices
>>737535258Use different farming spots in a single run aside of Lower Kurast or make different farming characters to make it less boring. I've got high tier runes just from casually letting my summons kill shit in hell A1 with a 200 something MF gear
>>737536052>the d4 blizztroon calling anyone saarlmao
>>737536554>newfag doesn't understand how to make a general on /v/ for a good game
>>737536723MF doesn't affect rune drops, but yeah
>>737531225Autists can't move on
>>737531384How is it little different every time?There is 1 skill build and like 5 items worth getting
>>737537385Ironic retardation is just retardation.
>>737533645d2 has crafting with white items? I must be completely out of touch
>>737535542>Without a breadth of items to look for at each rarityExcept it's still not true, you're only looking at very specific items you know can roll good shit or have a good base. The breadth of items is extremely narrow. Same with other systems like gambling.>but even just having to look at something that's not the top rarity provides variation and breaks up the monotony of picking up items in the first place.Does it? Are you picking up Magic weapons often? Normal difficulty armors? I'm certainly not glancing at any white that isn't an useful base, they have no use. Filters became an universal feature in the rest of the genre afterwards, with good reason.>where you have to dredge through mountains of "uniques" that are all shit.I don't really care about D3 or D4, but I will say it is infuriating the amount of dogshit loot the game drops at me in Hell difficulty at /players 3. I'm talking about stuff that would've been useless 20 min into the game like rare rings that have 2 useless affixes, Normal difficulty gear, etc. Items rolling crap like +1 to Light radius, 1-4 Fire Damage, +32 Defense, +16 Attack Rating, etc at the endgame makes me not wanna pick up loot, in a loot centric game. Having every drop be "Legendary" or "Uniques" would remove the dopamine hit of it being statistically rare, but realistically it's offering me a better chance that it's not a complete dud. Can't say I prefer it but there should be some scaling, I can go play the easier difficulties if I want shittier loot.>but one of the best things about D2 is that you can tie power to your character instead of the dozen of pieces of equipment you have on yourself.Unless you're not a caster character and thus rely on gear to just keep up.
>>737535607Both brown characters are top tier and the big masculine norse white guy is the worst character in the game, and was nerfed post release as well. LoD added a furry and some asian bitch which fits horribly into the setting.You've been eating cow shit with faggot parasites in it all along.
737536846>Reading comprehensionPoorfag jeets aren't sending their best. No more (You)s.>>737537814This. D2 itemization is actually really fucking bad and only got worse with LOD since runewords invalidated almost 99% of other items. Blues and golds really only hold value for LLD or as holy grail items (JMOD) otherwise the economy is centered around high runes (like 75% of runes are worthless) and certain item bases. There's lots of ways to fix this, but Blizzard would rather rush out an OP class and even more holy grail chaser items (sunders) than fix the game.
>>737536317this is why i like cdda so much. i can shitpost as long as i want and just move back whenever i want. literal turn based, not online? can just leave it on a turn waiting for 48 hours if i want
>>737536265god this is the worst part>want to race cars>start forza>WWWWEEELLLLLLLLLLLCOME RACER, ALRIGHT READY TO RACE, FIRST LETS GET A PICTURE FROM YOUR WEBCAM FOR YOUR DRIVERS LICENS-FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUgames like counterstrike, insurgency, stuff where theres no missions, daily tasks, things to grind, the ENTIRE games content is just right there, just waiting for you to hit go. we didnt know how good we had it
Rather waste my time playing this gem than the stupid Maple Classic.
>>737538367I kind of like the simplicity of pre-LoD with the BiS being Rares with excellent rolls. Probably even more horrible to grind solo however, and the less OP lower tier runewords were a good way to mitigate bad RNG.The economy aspect of these games is horrid, and D2 itself has been festering with bots since day 1.
I've played D2 classic but not the vanilla version. Maybe I should try it, based on what that llama guy said it seems much more challenging.
>>737537564Runewords.
>>737537994what a retarded stretch
>>737535258>I now understand why people are so mad about the Warlock nerfs.Its because in order for any RPG or MMO to properly test a new class they need people to play it. New classes in games like this are always overpowered on launch. Square Enix got burned when they released Puppetmaster for FFXI and it was so shit no-one played it, so they couldn't gather data on how to fix it or what changes to make cuz literally no-one lvled it past lv10 or 20.
>>737531225Osu! a fucking 12 years old rhythm game. (It has four modes thoughbeit, Osu, Mania, Taiko and Catcher) has around 4k players still daily. Imagine that.
>>737538871Most screeching about modern games being infested with faggot parasites is.
>>737537814You seem to be very all or nothing. The important part is that those lower qualities still have useful stuff to look for, you don't have to pick up every normal quality white armor for it to be considered viable. And even that at different stages you still pick up those normal body armors. Pre-endgame runewords are still something to keep in mind since leveling actually matters in D2, and often you want to use something with lower strength requirements. Light Plate/Mage Plate or Gothic Plate are still popular Enigma bases. Magic rings/amulets are useful for a long time, and you can use magic gloves/boots with MF and resists for quite a long time while gearing up (or rare variants with more balanced stats). Magic amulets with +3 skills or gloves with +3 ama/necro skills, especially 3/20 amas, can be endgame options.If you are looking at the very top 1% endgame gear those options will diminish, but they are still there, that's the important part.
>>737535586they already casualized D2 with the warlock update
these same people said 6 million died in the holocaust so
>>737539130>Light Plate/Mage Plate or Gothic Plate are still popular Enigma bases.This is mostly because the attribute system and defense are horribly balanced.I don't disagree with the rest of what you said, I just want to offer pushback to the general attitude towards how great the itemization is. Many other entries in the genre have multiple lategame options, early-mid items that don't become quickly outclassed, meaningful levelling experience, etc. while not having some of the downsides of post-LoD itemization, or even of Classic (They tend to have their own downsides, however).
>>737533293Few games look as good as D2 desu, including the demake, although it's quite good for a demake.
Why is soj so shit in lod. It’s not even bis for one build.
>>737539130Magic rings and amulet are useful because it takes forever to get anything good. Acting like good item design is it taking you until level 80 to get jewelry with non shit stats on it, maybe is ridiculous. Runewords invalidate most itemization because loot itself is so poor quality. Why hope that maybe someday you might perhaps get a good piece of gear, especially In a game that is actually pretty punishing, when you can easily farm half a dozen runewords that will fix all your problems reliably and in a tiny fraction of the time?
>>737539569BIS for what? It's still a very nice ring for many builds. I can see generic BIS builds preferring FCR rings to hit breakpoints though. But that can be very expensive depending on what other FCR items you need to incorporate.
>>737539023You're not going to gaslight any of us, troon.
>>737539693Most casters will still prefer SoJ/BK for +1 skills, and then get FCR in other slots. Might change with the new rings since they have FCR and magic/elemental %damage on them, with other small bonuses, so they might tip tip the scale and make SoJ/BK less of a BiS in some situations.
>>737531426Playing a game for an extended period of time is fine. Playing the same game 25 years later is severe mental illness.
>>737531503>since its so replayable.It isn't.
>>737540231It is.
>>737539602>SoJ and perfect rare rings not dropping day1 = bad Okay
