Diablo 3: Why I quit.
It's been over a year since I last played Diablo 3, and until now I had absolutely no interest in ever playing that game again. The reason why is short and simple: it stopped being fun.
As an aside, I played the original Diablo on my brother's PC (it was actually the first PC game I ever played, if I'm not mistaken. Unless a demo of Hexen counts). I didn't have an opportunity to play Diablo 2.
I originally bought Diablo 3 after reading some positive reviews. It turned out my brother was also playing it at the time, so that was another reason for me to devote my time to it. I created a Demon Hunter, which surprised my brother. In these kinds of games I almost always play as a wizard, or some kind of magic-using class, so playing as an archer was an interesting new experience. I picked the Demon Hunter mostly because I liked his back story and his character model looked cool. It also helped that, for some reason, I really love his voice.
Anyway, I ended up sinking an absurd amount of time into that game, completing it three consecutive times to unlock Inferno mode. The thought of all those shiny legendary items I'd collect once I reached the endgame kept me motivated. I didn't mind how tedious going through the game so many times in a row was, because the endgame loot hunt was going to be awesome.
I was sorely mistaken. The endgame of Diablo 3 on PC was a frustrating, broken mess. All those legendary items I'd fantasized about? Let me put it this way: after clocking an ungodly amount of hours, completing the game 4 times (yes, I even played all of Inferno) and spending more time farming monster over and over again than I consider sane, I got TWO legendary items to drop naturally. One was a helmet that was only a marginal upgrade over the one I was using, and the other was a staff that was weak compared to lower-rarity items of that same level range. Also my Demon Hunter can't use staves, so that was also annoying.
That's when I discovered where the true item hunt lived: the auction house. My farming runs became less about finding an item I can use and more about finding things I can sell on the auction house, so I can use the gold to buy a piece of equipment I can actually use. Then came the Real Money Auction House. As desperate as I was, I refused to spend real cash-money on a new crossbow for my character. Diablo 3's endgame could be more aptly titled "Auction House: The Game."
As if to add insult to injury, whenever a way was found to make the item hunt more efficient (or even, dare I say, fun?) Blizzard would patch the game posthaste, weakening the skill, strategy, or farming location to near uselessness. Eventually I got fed up and stopped playing entirely. I moved on, feeling more than a little burned by the poor experience I had.
As an aside, I played the original Diablo on my brother's PC (it was actually the first PC game I ever played, if I'm not mistaken. Unless a demo of Hexen counts). I didn't have an opportunity to play Diablo 2.
I originally bought Diablo 3 after reading some positive reviews. It turned out my brother was also playing it at the time, so that was another reason for me to devote my time to it. I created a Demon Hunter, which surprised my brother. In these kinds of games I almost always play as a wizard, or some kind of magic-using class, so playing as an archer was an interesting new experience. I picked the Demon Hunter mostly because I liked his back story and his character model looked cool. It also helped that, for some reason, I really love his voice.
Anyway, I ended up sinking an absurd amount of time into that game, completing it three consecutive times to unlock Inferno mode. The thought of all those shiny legendary items I'd collect once I reached the endgame kept me motivated. I didn't mind how tedious going through the game so many times in a row was, because the endgame loot hunt was going to be awesome.
I was sorely mistaken. The endgame of Diablo 3 on PC was a frustrating, broken mess. All those legendary items I'd fantasized about? Let me put it this way: after clocking an ungodly amount of hours, completing the game 4 times (yes, I even played all of Inferno) and spending more time farming monster over and over again than I consider sane, I got TWO legendary items to drop naturally. One was a helmet that was only a marginal upgrade over the one I was using, and the other was a staff that was weak compared to lower-rarity items of that same level range. Also my Demon Hunter can't use staves, so that was also annoying.
That's when I discovered where the true item hunt lived: the auction house. My farming runs became less about finding an item I can use and more about finding things I can sell on the auction house, so I can use the gold to buy a piece of equipment I can actually use. Then came the Real Money Auction House. As desperate as I was, I refused to spend real cash-money on a new crossbow for my character. Diablo 3's endgame could be more aptly titled "Auction House: The Game."
As if to add insult to injury, whenever a way was found to make the item hunt more efficient (or even, dare I say, fun?) Blizzard would patch the game posthaste, weakening the skill, strategy, or farming location to near uselessness. Eventually I got fed up and stopped playing entirely. I moved on, feeling more than a little burned by the poor experience I had.