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Hey Diablo Fans, Why So Confused?

Hey Diablo Fans, Why So Confused?

BlizzCon 2016 took place last weekend, and as usual, it brought with it a bevy of announcements for all of Blizzard’s active IPs. Among these was the announcement of the Necromancer class for Diablo III: Reaper of Souls . Included in the Rise of the Necromancer Pack , set to release in 2017, the new class comes with a bundle of in-game goodies including two additional character slots, two additional stash tabs for PC players, an in-game pet, a portrait frame, pennant, banner, and banner sigil. It is not a full expansion pack, and is not likely to be priced as such, so I adjusted my expectations accordingly when I heard the news. My gut reaction was that fans would be pleased, because I’d heard people clamoring for the class ever since Diablo III was first announced. Within a few minutes of sifting through reactions to the official announcement on Blizzard’s homepage, however, I realized how little I understand the Diablo fanbase.

Try searching for “Necromancer” on some of the more active Diablo III forums and you’ll immediately find heaps of negative sentiment. Many users are already assuming that the Necromancer will cost $40 at release, while others begrudge Blizzard for not doing enough to keep the game fresh. One post on the official Diablo III forums by user mat82284 reads, “This is the worst Diablo 20th Anniversary ever.” The user would have preferred that Blizzard release 4K remasters of Diablo, Diablo II, and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, as well as grant loyal players access to a Diablo IV beta (if such a thing were to ever happen).

So Blizzard should remake their old games instead of adding new content to Diablo III ? Okay, if that’s what fans want. But the same user goes on to say, “…the announcement that we got was 99% more lackluster and instead of offering new content for Diablo 3 they decided copy the Diablo 2 Necromancer class from Diablo 2 and thrown this character into a game that was intentionally designed from the ground up after being scrapped in 2005 to be as far from the original core design as possible.” So… you DO want new content, but not this new content. No Necromancer in Diablo III. Got it.

And yet if you do a quick Google search for “Necromancer” and limit results to the handful of years preceding 2016, you’ll find extensive discussion on the class’s omission from Diablo III. Back around the release of Reaper of Souls, the Necromancer featured heavily in lists of classes people wanted to see added to Diablo III . A dedicated fan even created an extensive mock-up of how Necromancer might play with Diablo III ‘s mechanics. The top replies are largely supportive. Many lamented the unlikelihood that Blizzard would ever add the class to the game, even though they acknowledged their desire for it. User MeatHeadMikhail said, “Yea we all want necro, but it’s gonna be a druid. Maybe 2 expansions later we’ll get necro.”

On a related page with fan-made concept art and more in-depth skill analysis, user SpellDoX said, “very nice ideas and probably a shit ton of work – sadly blizz said multiple times already that there will be no necro because we already got the wd.” User peacebg, in reply to the mock-up, summed up the pervasive sentiment: “Sorry for disappointed anyone,that’s not gonna happened,we talk about the Blizzard/Activision-blizzard company,maybe you don’t understand that – THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT THEIR USERS! Blizzard logics – good ideas => not goes alive EVER!” Fast-forward a year later to the announcement of Necromancer, something all of these players were pining for, and now we have the same fanbase complaining that Blizzard doesn’t know what they want. The overall attitude towards Necromancer seems to have undergone a complete and baffling reversal.

Hey Diablo Fans, Why So Confused?

So what is it that players actually want? Do they want something new, or do they want to have their nostalgia indulged? Do they want innovation, or do they want to relive the same experiences? It goes to show that sometimes game developers face legitimate difficulty in discerning what their fans want when their demands are ever-shifting. Diablo III is NOT Diablo II , and it’s time to stop wishing it was. Maybe an eventual Diablo IV will return us to the grimdark, Gothic aesthetic – and I would welcome that – but Diablo III is its own beast. Now that it is several years rid of the universally-loathed auction house, I’d argue that it doesn’t need a dramatic overhaul to continue filling the niche it worked so hard to carve out.

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