🐱 Dedicated ‘Diablo’ Site Will Stop Supporting ‘Diablo Immortal’ Because It’s Against Its ‘Values’

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7ve4d/dedicated-diablo-site-will-stop-supporting-diablo-immortal-because-its-against-its-values

https://archive.ph/3Fo3t

Maxroll, a fansite and online resource for games like Diablo III and Lost Ark, is shutting down the branch of its site that focuses on Diablo Immortal, citing concerns with its monetization scheme.


Diablo Immortal has been an extremely controversial game, to put it lightly. Ever since the game came out, players have questioned the extreme measure the game goes to get you to spend money on it. The game also isn’t available in the Netherlands and Belgium because of their laws regarding loot boxes.
The writers and editors at Maxroll cited the economic structure of the game as the biggest reason why they are discontinuing the branch of their site that covers Diablo Immortal. They said that even if most players weren’t vulnerable to the tactics used in Diablo Immortal to get people to impulsively spend, continuing to support a game that they feel is predatory was against their core values as a site.
“Canceling a game we've cumulatively put 10,000+ hours of work (and a ton of developer money) into is not something we do lightly. In fact, we've never discontinued a game before,” they wrote in a blog post explaining their decision. “Even with a poor reception, our Immortal Branch would continue to generate revenue on our end. Life is about more than money though, it’s about doing the right thing.”
As Waypoint recently reported, Diablo Immortal’s monetization schemes can be particularly predatory for people with gambling addictions, which Maxroll gave as the first reason for why it will no longer support the game.
“The predatory Pay-To-Win system greatly exceeds what's considered the norm for mobile gaming. Gambling addictions are real and can completely destroy lives,” the site wrote. “Even if 99% of players have perfect impulse control, we still can't stomach what happens to the other 1%. This is completely against our values and we will not remain a part of this any longer.”
Waypoint reached out to Maxroll for comment but they did not respond in time for publication.
The post goes on to explain that on top of the monetization scheme of the game, the lackluster reaction from the community towards the game impacted their decision.
“The disappointment we felt at launch aligns with the community's. Not just from the [pay to win] perspective, but about the game itself” they wrote. “While we are not game designers, we can't believe this is the state of the game after nearly 2 years of testing and feedback.”

 

[Beautiful Border]

Honestly, fair play to them. The extent of the in-game monetisation in Diablo Immortal is truly shocking. I miss the days when you paid for the game when you bought it and that was it.

 

[TheDarknessGrows]

I still like Diablo/Diablo 2.

The real one, not the skinwalker one that just came out.

 

[Reverend]

Amazing that D:I was able to recoup all it's development costs in a single month of monetization from it's GATCHA piggy bank. If tht doesn't spell doom for D4 and it will be as ridden with garbage like D:I was you must be living under a box .

 

[JoshPlz]

It's fighting a losing battle. Several generations are currently growing up or have already grown up with shitty mobile games and the corresponding monetization schemes. It will become the new normal eventually. It's funny that people were actually expecting Diabo Immortal to be different. The monetization of it is kinda tame for a mobile game too.

I can only imagine that people compare it to Diablo 3, where the developers ended up removing the auction house because THEY thought that it was against their values or the spirit of the game or whatever, eventhough it made them a ton of money.

That was before anyone worth a damn started leaving the now dead&gay husk of a company.

 

[timewave0]

D:I is a bad game even if you disregard the monetization… it’s a reskin of an existing chingchong mobile game. I’m a recovering Blizz fanboy so I actually gave D:I a fair shot and played into the endgame. It’s complete trash. The main endgame mechanic (cycle of strife) is laughably awful. One component of it is essentially cookie clicker — spam click for 3-5 minutes for chance to participate in ~15 seconds of PvP. It’s even worse than people think.

I uninstalled and feel embarrassed for having played the game at all. Blizzard is dead.

 

[I'm Retarded?]

modern Blizzard game is bad, news at 11

 

[Iron Jaguar]

I cannot understand the appeal of Diablo. What is fun about it?

 

[defbloat]

Wait, people actually play Diablo Immortal?

 

[Exigent Circumcisions]

I cannot understand the appeal of Diablo. What is fun about it?

The first two were fun games with simple stories (the devil is bad and you are good. Go get him, tiger!), accessible mechanics and engaging gameplay. That's about it.

 

[Dona Morte]

I cannot understand the appeal of Diablo. What is fun about it?

You get to work out your frustrations by shooting/ hacking shit apart.
The character customizations were fun too.

 

[Cilleystring]

I cannot understand the appeal of Diablo. What is fun about it?

The first couple were awesome. Like EC said above simple stories (though there's a bunch more background lore throughout the game for those interested) combined with fun easy gameplay mechanics and multiple characters to play as and level up their tech tree.

Now tons of games are like that today, and Diablo 1 wasn't the original game in this action rpg genre, but it was pretty fun.

I'd even say Diablo 3 was pretty fun to play though I didn't care for the cartoony graphics.

From what I've seen of the 4th one it looks like it has potential. Blizzard has become a lolcow company over the past few years but each team for each game is different, so I'm hoping this particular team produces a good game and avoids some of the more stupid aspects Blizzard in general has become known for.

 

[Drifting Panzer]

Why run a site for a game where the only guide you need is "pay more".

 

[Tanner Glass]

"We still felt like we should have a Diablo Immortal part of our site until now, to get ride the initial hype train when D:I was getting huge views on Twitch and stuff"
"We're pretending like we're surprised the game is bad, even though it's been bad the whole time and there hasn't been a single thread/video/anything to indicate this wouldn't be the case"

They're having their cake and eating it too. They got all the traffic and adbucks already, now they get try the "We won't cover this game!" press.

 

[AnotherPleb]

I'll give them credit, pulling out of this is going to cost them a lot of cash.

 

[Blacklight]

Honestly, fair play to them. The extent of the in-game monetisation in Diablo Immortal is truly shocking. I miss the days when you paid for the game when you bought it and that was it.

That's the biggest issue I have. I'm not fully opposed to game makers putting microtransactions into games. If it's small stuff like skins, special trackers for kills, goofy dances, go for it. Some of my favorite games I've dumped several hundred hours into, and I think just paying the entry fee feels like i'm being cheap so I do like supporting game devs I like. The problem is when it becomes not just predatory, but flat out wallet raping like Immortal here.

 

[AnotherPleb]

That's the biggest issue I have. I'm not fully opposed to game makers putting microtransactions into games. If it's small stuff like skins, special trackers for kills, goofy dances, go for it. Some of my favorite games I've dumped several hundred hours into, and I think just paying the entry fee feels like i'm being cheap so I do like supporting game devs I like. The problem is when it becomes not just predatory, but flat out wallet raping like Immortal here.

It should not be legal to push a system that is this blatantly predatory and some kid will drive their parents into crippling debt for their gems.

 

[Sweet and Savoury]

Isn't this the gatcha game that you've gotta spend like $300k US to get to the end? Woof! What a way to finish destroying the Blazzars brand.

However the players are to blame as well. Cooosuuummming every shitty rip off Blizz has made in the last ten years.

You'd think with such negative scores and bad press Diablo Immortal would have been a major loss for Blizz but NOPE. Consumer gotta consume. Immortal made over 30 million in microtransactions in it's first week out.

Now squeal louder little pay pig. Old Bobby needs new another yatch.

 

[Honored guest]

Isn't this the gatcha game that you've gotta spend like $300k US to get to the end? Woof! What a way to finish destroying the Blazzars brand.

However the players are to blame as well. Cooosuuummming every shitty rip off Blizz has made in the last ten years.

You'd think with such negative scores and bad press Diablo Immortal would have been a major loss for Blizz but NOPE. Consumer gotta consume. Immortal made over 30 million in microtransactions in it's first week out.

Now squeal louder little pay pig. Old Bobby needs new another yatch.

Blizzard fans are some of the most buck broken little paypiggies you'll ever see. Right after this shit show a lot of them went from "fuck Blizz" to " OMG Diablo 4 HYPE" real quick. Diablo 4 is going to make D3 look fair and balanced with it's real money auction house, and these subhumans will eat it up and beg for more. The streamers also need to unironically kill themselves, whaling a shitty game to show how shitty it is, still gives Blizzard money, and I'm sure they're so upset you gave them $20k just to make a point.

 

[Kheapathic]

I cannot understand the appeal of Diablo. What is fun about it?

It's the American version of Musou / Dynasty Warriors; sometimes you just want to hack and slash your way through thousands of baddies.