Een mooi stukje waarin Bashiok uitlegt waarom D3 skills werken zoals ze werken.
Good read CloudAtlas. I don't know if I agree with all of it, and I think it's probably just too complicated to try to label these things, but some fun theories. You also of course left out the teeming masses of players who don't fall into the groups you described.
What I wanted to address was one of the responses though, because I see this point still being made a lot:
D3 has been stripped of all character development choices. Thus any pride you take in developing your character (either min/max or non-) is gone.
It has exactly the same character development choices it's always had, so that clearly can't be true.
What's changed? Well, let's throw away 'permanent choice'. I can argue against permanent choice and then you back down and say "No no, it doesn't need to be permanent, just meaningful, like some price to respec". So let's focus on that...
What about a cost to respec makes the character development choices more meaningful? I mean actually meaningful and not just restrictive? You can say that making it difficult to change them makes them more meaningful, but that's a logical fallacy. If I could, with the wave of a magic car wand, have any car in the world that I wanted, would that reduce the importance of the one I choose? I may enjoy some cars more than others, I may like their physical appearances, I may prefer one over another for performance reasons, but does that make my choice less impactful? Furthermore does it feel good to realize "Actually I don't like this car, can I choose a different one?" and being charged to do so (or told no in the case of permanence).
Why is my ability to choose what I want, when I want, a devaluation of the personal decisions that I make? They're my decisions. They're personal. I can choose a build because I love one specific skill and my build is based to support that one skill. How does it devalue that, my choice, if I can then decide I don't like it any more, and try something else? Why do I need to be punished to enjoy the game?
This is, as always, discounting itemization as a meaningful form of character customization.
While the immediate experience of saying 'fack, I screwed up there' is not pleasant, there is not necessarily anything wrong with something negative happening to the player in the game.
This is all assuming that out of the billions of combinations available to your character you'll pick your skills, die, say A ha! and know exactly how to fix it. With that many choices, which very much include itemization, is it believed you'll just think "Well I think I need more mana regen because I'm running out." replacing one of the only 6 skills you have available to you, and that actually working and now you have the perfect character? If so, you hit the jackpot and should go buy a lottery ticket. The tuning of character builds, experimentation, and sheer amount of options and super limited amount of choices you can make ... It feels like people think they can just throw anything together, with any items, and be successful. Or worse yet, throw something together, fail, and believe they'll know the absolute right answer to solve it.
I realize some people want a time investment attached to that experimentation, but that's just not something we agree with. There are ways we can still provide 'street cred' without impacting core game systems integral to the enjoyment to everyone that picks up the game.
"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty... I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well." -- Theodore Roosevelt
Good old Teddy! Unfortunately what we're talking about here is a video game, and not you actually improving yourself through your efforts in a form of entertainment.
I'm sure he'd love playing Diablo III ... after a hard day at work of effort, pain, and difficulty. I know I will.
Bashiok, I'm sorry, but if you don't understand that every game (video or otherwise) is defined by its rules, its restrictions and the punishments you receive when you break them, then you don't belong in the gaming industry.
Well I'm not a designer let's be clear, but I've many times stated that games are defined by their limitations, so we're on the same page there.
This discussion isn't about the need of rules or not, it's about placing them appropriately and using them wisely where they make sense. There are inherent rules that make the Diablo game what it is. It has a fixed camera, you have to click on enemies, they have randomized chances to drop items, through the various rules of skills and the limitations of how many you can have there are fun and interesting choices as to how you want to approach combat. The game is full of rules and limitations ... it's that punishment part we don't really agree with nearly as much as some people.
We have a gold cost for dying, which is actually fairly significant, but that's about as far as we go for being punishing. What should happen is you should be tested and rewarded for your ability to kill enemies, get items, and not die. That makes sense to us, and for this game.
If you can't take the heat, don't tickle the dragon.