Diablo 3, or when loot and capitalism are not well...

In this eve long weekend, and rather than to dwell on problems related to Battle.net, we wanted consider the problem of the loot in Diablo 3, enough little rewarding, it must be said.

Among the main grievances that we had raised in our test of Diablo III, the little meaningful side of the loot was in good place. Thus, it is apparent that he was quite rare to receive equipment in line with our standard, and to receive our standard and of good quality, say you that could have been snapping all of our low wages in candle burning that it was still unlikely that this would happen. So that our barbarian has quickly found plunge into an infernal circle: take its objects, to resell them quickly, and snapping the money thus collected sales Hall.

But the loot, this is one of the pillars of the hack type ' n slash, and Blizzard is not what one might call a rabbit with six weeks development. That said, at this stage, and on our experience which is limited in large part to the normal mode, it was difficult to draw other conclusions than the simple assumption of error in balancing on the part of the American firm.

And then we fell on this very interesting interview, conducted by our colleagues of Millennium and in which, Owld, a members of the team Method book his impressions of almost professional on the set. To position things, Method is one of the first guilds (if not the first, the thing is still debate) to have sealed off Diablo III mode Inferno. And that said, our Owld, on top of all his experience: it confirms our first impressions, namely: "the game has very large defects design level and in particular the level of equipment." Farmer of the equipment there is almost no, this farm for gold and buy equipment at the hotel sales, because the random side makes it impossible to obtain optimized equipment that you want. »

Later, he drives the nail: "the majority of your equipment is bought in the sales Hall, because to be effective, you must have statistics perfect on each piece and it is that very rarely find such articles.". Of course, it does not say that the gratification in terms of loot was wisely thought to well highlight the hotel sales, hotel, which Blizzard hopes, as by chance, make substantial profits, but of course, the question arises.

Further evidence: there never really answers to these questions. Is not too good Mike Morhaime landing press conference, and swing: "Hey, the journaleux, are you that there was a guy on our forums which asked us why he loot as shit at stake?". Even one that has nothing in life! It is not that he loot, we, be it slams his wheat to the HDV! ». No, that'd be not serious. And in any event, this is not the first time that a studio directs its gameplay to maximize its revenues: the free to play titles do without judgment, and no longer see us as players for a long time, but as the marketing variables, spear and not especially to release whales (Note: the term whale is not used here at random.) It's a term of marketing is the most profitable players in a cash game). At the time, why the question of this capitalist orientation of gameplay of Diablo III let a bitter taste?

Probably because we are not talking here of a free to play (we would say, "to a vulgar free to play", but it would be unfair, there are very good, and will require that we talk about a day, in fact), or even an unknown studio. It is Diablo and it's Blizzard! Two figures emblematic of the world of the PC, making dream of generations of players. And assuming that this studio, with its means, his talents, his will, prefer maximize profits at the expense of a more positive gaming experience, it is sad on the one hand, and few engaging in consideration of the gaming industry for the people, ultimately making them live. And understand, for the rest, the enthusiasm of a part of the public (and ours) to the phenomenon of crowdsourcing, the independent movement and the titles like Grim Dawn or Torchlight 2.

PS: You are of course invited to share your views on the subject... Or not.