Diablo 4 tried to repackage Diablo 2's grind for the modern era, but series overseer Rod Fergusson says the "consumptive nature of a live service" made it unfeasible
Diablo 4 tried to repackage Diablo 2's grind for the modern era, but series overseer Rod Fergusson says the "consumptive nature of a live service" made it unfeasible
Rod Fergusson explains players have changed in the two decades since
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This reads like a case of game design by spreadsheet to me. Instead of the lead designers being creative persons making creative decisions, these are accountants that are designing a game by ticking boxes. They didn't try to make a game that they would like to play, they tried to make a game that they think others would like to play.
Huge difference between gaming and marketing. In gaming, you make things that you enjoy, hope others enjoy it too. In marketing, your opinion is worth jack shit. Only engagement counts. That makes for shitty games imo.
Ik it's only anecdotal, but I played Brawl Stars when it was in beta and witnessed almost all its updates until global launch (and have caught up with some more recent updates here and there). It went from a genuinely fun mobile game with character and potential to a plastic husk primed for whatever monetisation and "engagement" strategies analytics says needs to be shoved into it next.
At the time I couldn't fathom how all those updates that often made gameplay and progression less fun could ever be more "engaging" (the change from portrait to landscape in particular felt like straight up poor game design, trashing its unique mobile control schemes in favour of digital twin joysticks and "autoaim"), but in hindsight it's clear what that really meant.