This post is probably a bit premature and perhaps I will be writing a retraction in the near future but I thought I would express my impressions and concerns about Diablo III. I’m sure any of my gaming friends reading that first statement are probably surprised by the subtext it creates about my impression of Diablo III.
Generally I feel like Diablo III is the bored man’s game. Granted I have never played any of the previous iterations of Diablo, and I have spent the past 6+ years playing MMO’s exclusively. Perhaps the pace of WoW and The Old Republic have created an expectation that is counter to the pace of Diablo. I am so accustomed to using both hands to play a game that I find myself trying to find something else to do while I am frantically clicking the left and right mouse buttons.
I think the mouse is part of the problem. I’m actually not a big fan of the mouse. In WoW and TOR I only really use the mouse to adjust the camera angle, beyond that I try to do everything with the keyboard. Click to move is pretty annoying and one of the reasons why I couldn’t get into other MMOs that used that mechanism for movement; then again that probably just stems from my preference of the keyboard over the mouse.
I do think it’s visually stunning. The graphics are really slick and the carnage from killing a mob (or mobs) makes Diablo III a great way to relieve stress … in a sadistic, masochistic way. There have been a few times when the slaughter that resulted from a new ability had me laughing maniacally, and I’m sure the gore only gets better as the levels get higher.
Perhaps as I level more my impression will change, but at this point I feel like I can read a book and just blindly click my way to level 60. I am pretty far behind in the Game of Thrones series …
I remember back in high school (which has been just over 10 years ago) it was common for me to be labeled as a geek or nerd. It’s funny how the times have changed. I don’t know if kids today are still being labeled as geeks but what is funny is that really, we’re all geeks.
I found another app that I have been enjoying. This one is going to be for a pretty specific audience though. Obviously you will need to have an iPhone and/or iPad (I’m not sure if this is available for non-iOS devices) and you will need to be playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. If you are neither of these then you probably won’t find this app very useful. If, on the other hand, you are a total iPad geek (*raises hand*) and you love playing SWTOR, then I highly recommend spending the $0.99 on this app! The app includes updated information on all companions, classes, skill calculators and datacrons.
The latest news about SWTOR has been depressing lately. Despite all the great things that the latest patch provided, other MMO news sites are still reporting a decline in subscriptions, and some are projecting a 500,000 drop in subscriptions by 2013. I guess I’m a little confused as to why people are suddenly turning away from this game because I thought the story and the lore are extremely compelling. Apparently, based on some of the articles I have been reading, the major contributor to the declining subscription is end-game content.