How Diablo 3 gave Metacritic a giant middle finger

I’m patlike#1682. Add me, add me.

And how more than 2 million players turned their back towards their fellows and decided to start supporting DRM. Well done guys! You’ve made history.

I just want to high five the kid on that cover.

@3 –

Very good article. Yes Blizz didn’t need any reviews to generate additional hype and in my opinion even if there were pre-release reviews and the score was that they wouldn’t lose sales.

Actually every review in my mind that didn’t played the whole game once alone, co-op and at least with 2 or even three of the characters is not worth a penny as a opinion.

P.S.Adding you Patrick. It is nice to see game journalist that don’t think they can’t play with us mortals.

@5 – I’m all about the mortals. I’ll approve when I’m next on.

@1 Sent I’m Silk#2209.

“Does Metacritic really matter?”
It did for the Obsidian guys…. But it really shouldn’t. I don’t care about some random scores anyway, I care about the opinions of writers I know and appreciate.

@9 – Yep, that was horrible. It shouldn’t be used as a defining metric, in my opinion.

@7 – Cool! I’ll approve when I’m on later.

@2: For me, that’s what it’s all about. Nothing else matters.

An excellent show of this industries immaturity Patrick

Pat nailed it when he talked about suspicion, if a game comes out and there are no reviews, I and many others are suspicious that it’s actually not very good and they don’t want people canceling their pre-orders.

I think there needs to be more transparency and review online/offline seperate (offline = pre release, online = post release).

For me who’s not overly bothered with Online, would COD get 9s for offline – NO (yes I’m one of the 7 people who played the campaign mode)

Likewise if you’re the kind of player who doesn’t play through single player and skips straight to online then you are only interested in how that portion of the game stacks up, and this can only be done accurately and honestly in public servers when all highlights and frustrations will become clear, LAN parties laid on by publishers is a false environment.

It proves is that a blind sale of a hugely anticipated title will sell a lot of copies. Whether post release reviews give such titles a 2/10 is irrelevant because they have your money.

It is essentially going back to a time when people had to buy magazines or blindly risk their cash on a new game.

I personally feel this launch exploits fans good will towards Blizzard to facilitate a real money auction house. I have no doubt Blizzard have made a tidy sum but I’m not so sure the launch itself will be remembered as a success due the the server issues.

I look forward seeing some post release interviews with the guys at Blizzard.

The article writer fails on multiple levels. This article is all opinion, and has little factual basis. Meta-critic, and other factors HAVE played a negative role in sales in Diablo 3. If the reviews on metacritic had been more favorable I would have given Diablo 3 a second chance, and possibly bought it. Now , that’s not even going to happen.

Second, just because game sales on a title are good or seem to be a lot, does not quantify the number of lost sales the game incurred. I can tell you that myself and every one of my friends cancelled our pre-orders. I’m sure there were many other people that did this. and as someone else mentioned could have been a very very high number (2 mill elsewhere?) – until you actually do a survey and collect data on how many people were interested but skipped purchasing, or bought the game despite reviews you can’t say that Metacritic or blizzard’s choices haven’t affected them. Obviously they have, and saying they haven’t affected sales just because the product was profitable is not a good way to ‘report’ if that’s what you’re trying to do.

I look more at consumer reviews on products than magazine reviews, and while magazine/game site reviews don’t seem overly useful except to tell what features the game might have, the consumer reviews often provide a perspective you don’t get. While they may not be useful in the sense of the x/10 ratings, I find them useful none-the-less.

That TIME cover disturbed me the first time I seen it a few weeks back, it still disturbs me now.

@16: Far as i know the boy is three now. Just think about when he’s in highschool and his class mates find that cover.

@17 in high school? he might become his male classmates’ hero, but not so much for the female ones…

Great piece Pat, we should go back to demos (accessible to anyone and truly democratic) instead on relying on this pseudo-aristocracy, inefficient and self-referential. The first Diablo had a demo, and it drove the game’s success.. any of you is old enough to remember it?

@18: Because he sucked his moms tits when he was 3 years old? That’s his real mom, if you didn’t know.

@15
“Meta-critic, and other factors HAVE played a negative role in sales in Diablo 3 … until you actually do a survey and collect data on how many people were interested but skipped purchasing, or bought the game despite reviews you can’t say that Metacritic or blizzard’s choices haven’t affected them.”

So until you do a survey you can’t say they haven’t played a negative role, but you can say they HAVE. Right …

All I will say is, if studios spent as much time actually releasing a FINISHED product, instead of spending so much time barting with specialist media to guarantee a high ‘review’ score no matter how shit the product is, the gaming world will be a better place for it.

Actually nobody can (or will ever be able to) tell if Metacritic has any weight on the sales of Diablo 3. The fact is people who wanted to get it preodered and paid beforehand without looking at the obvious faults. I wouldn’t get a game that lags in single player, especially one including permanent character death (on Hardcore).

If anyone was given a middle finger by Blizzard here it’s the blind mob of fans, that proved once again that no matter what crap you throw on market there are always those who’d pay premium to have it anyway. I wish people could make reasonable choices. (Disclaimer: Since I couldn’t play D3 beta due to Error Pick-A-Number I’m solely referring to the game-breaking DRM.)

The problem is is that many people bought Diablo III based upon the marketing and the name. I find that marketing agencies frequently tap dance on the edge of collective will, and people are frequently convinced to buy things without any of the facts.

Give them a few CGI movies and make a lot of noises about how EPIC it is, and they’ll buy it. It works like a charm, just as it’s been working for Blizzard for a while now. Starcraft II was just Starcraft HD, but people bought it expecting a big, new thing because Blizzard told them it would be. Diablo III is a more restrictive, very watered-down, mediocre, and somewhat broken version of Diablo II. But hey, Blizzard said it was this big, new thing!

What we saw in the wake of Diablo III is that there were a lot of people who were pissed off, and that there was this cabal that was going around defending Diablo III because cognitive dissonance. You can’t really say anything good about Diablo III.

If you could, TotalBiscuit would have already said it. He’s usually an incredibly positive, optimistic person. And he ruthlessly panned DIII for being more than a bit shite. And he was right to do so. You can defend it, but you can’t defend it based upon anything that has any relation to reality. It is ultimately just an incredibly mediocre, broken game.

A mediocre, broken game that you paid $60 for. This is where cognitive dissonance comes into play. You’ll always have some people who don’t want to admit that they put down $60 on something like this, they’re going to try their best to have fun with it, and then, when the illusion created by cognitive dissonance ends, they’ll be more pissed off than anyone.

And lately, the voices of people being pissed have drowned out those suffering cognitive dissonance. People are realising now how much of a massive waste of money Diablo III was, after having forced themselves to try some fun in it.

Conversely, I’ve been playing the Torchlight II beta, which I paid zero pennies for, and it’s really loads of fun! I’m having a blast with it. And it won’t cost $60, it won’t be completely broken (DRM), and it’s being designed by people who understand what fun is. No cognitive dissonance for me as I hadn’t laid down money for TLII yet, I was waiting to try it first. So I got into the beta and it’s been a laugh.

The combat is meaty, the weapons all have proper feedback, it’s actually difficult and you do have to dodge out of the way of attacks (you can’t just sit there and spam attacks a la DIII), and unlike DIII the environments are all varied and different, and not washed out at all. There’s a ghost pirate ship in Torchlight II. Sorry, DIII, you lose because ghost pirate ship.

TLII just has this massive sense of fun, and that’s what makes it rise above the mediocrity of Diablo III. With DIII they played it safe, they kept it almost monotone, the gameplay is just dull clickery, and there’s nothing that makes you sit up in your seat and think “Hey, that’s really fun!”

So, yeah.

Diablo III might be selling, but has it been well received?

No, no it has not.

I think Runic Games’ strategy to pick up all the customers who’re pissed at DIII is a wise one. Because frankly? TLII is fantastic in all the areas where DIII is so tremendously mediocre and broken.

“All I will say is, if studios spent as much time actually releasing a FINISHED product, instead of spending so much time barting with specialist media to guarantee a high ‘review’ score no matter how shit the product is, the gaming world will be a better place for it.”

Exactly that, really.

But you know how it is… if you take a well known name and market the fuck out of it, then people will buy it in droves and then try to convince themselves that it’s actually not an entirely mediocre, dull, and broken game.

That’s the way it has been, and I don’t see it changing any time soon. It’s absolute proof that the majority of humanity is made up of people who never actually bother to use their mind to analyse. Had they bothered to analyse the media up to launch as I did, they’d not be suffering buyer’s remorse.

Spot on Wulf.

On everything. And your right TLII is alot of fun.

@24, What on earth are you basing this garbage you’re spewing all over the pages of this site on?

“Diablo III might be selling, but has it been well received?

No, no it has not.”

By who? Please point me in the direction of 2 million thumbs down.

Well said Wulf!

@Viral

“By who? Please point me in the direction of 2 million thumbs down.”

Well start counting with me: One.

I mean really, if your asking yourself why so many people seem to be thinking this or say this, might be something to it.

@27 “but has it been well received?”” Oh I don’t know, MAYBE he’s thinking of the Metacritic user reviews. Some people you can’t buy that easy. Like they did with you.

Here’s the Eurogamer review: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-21-diablo-3-review

@29, But you’re making out every single buyer of the game is unhappy with the product. You yourself said the following on this site earlier:

“Something to maybe keep in mind is that for every gamer that visits forums(here or a place like at Blizzard) there are untold masses that play the same game that don’t visit forums. Most gamers can’t be bothered with checking forums all of the time, or even bothered to post if they do. Most people are very content to just play the games. But if you based your pov on forums, and then started thinking that those people posting represented everyone that plays, you would be very misguided.”

So please tell me, what are you and TheWulf basing this mass unhappiness on? On the 1,500 negative votes on Metacritic? Please give me a break, one minute people throw it out the window as useless next it represents how well a game is received? BS.

@30, Yeah, they did buy me, they paid me off in what has been nearly 60 hours of fun.

@24: I mostly agree with you, but jeez, get off your high horse, man.

Torchlight II BETA is absolutely amazing. I will definitely go and buy it, it’s cheap and it’s fun. But it’s not without failure. The story is horribly boring and the art-direction is still, well a lot like Torchlight 1. Either you love it, or you hate it.

I’m one of the few people who actually cares about that. It has it’s own personality, i love the colors and the environments, but the cartoon characters are just … i dunno, lazy. It’s lazy. And while playing it, i just couldn’t help but feel that Diablo 3 looks better.

I know a lot of people who just look at the art-style and without even known what the word ‘art-direction’ means would dismiss it, just for the cartoon characters. I still think that something like Dragon Age 2 in the same cellshading-look would be fantastic.

They aren’t going to change that, and that’s definitely one of the reasons why people don’t pick it up. I think a more mature-looking art-style wouldn’t have hurt the game at all.

@32 Really? So you renounced your existence for “nearly 60 hours of fun.”? Was that all? Well, it seems that you’re pretty cheap.

@34, I never said I was finished.

Not trolling, but how is it broken? I know it had a rough few days, but it seems completely fine now. Am I missing something?

Hey Pat, you’re on the Jimquisition at 1:16:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/5743-You-Should-Be-Mad-at-Diablo-IIIs-Always-Online-DRM

Viral, it is almost always like that.

I am talking about the % of players that are driven to online sites or game websites represent a smaller section of the games over all player base.

I think it would be foolish to say that of the 2 million Diablo III copies sold that all or even most of the players don’t like the game. Just like it would be overly niave to assume that those same 2 million buyers are in love with the game just because they bought it.

When you do visit dedicated game sites(like this one) or even Blizzards own forums, you will find a LOT of people complaining about the game. And you run into the typical “Defender Force” as you often do online. But the complants are there, and in large number. Maybe even larger then expected. Larger then most games.

And regaurdless of the gamers opinion of the game, there are likly a majority of the games buyers that do NOT visit those forums. That is what I was saying. I was never implying that all 2 million diablo III owners hate the game. Only pointing out that the game has been flooded online with complaints and that likly their are a lot more people that don’t take to the internet to complain but yet are still very unhappy with the game.

As for Pats question, the only part of the game I could view as out right broken was the servers going down. Everything else is working as intended.

While I am not loving some of the games mechanics, spell selections, crafting balance, variety of mobs, stage settings, lack of stats, lack of skill trees, Auction House, lack of offline, lack of lan, etc… I do believe that those things are working as intended.

@37: Never watched his channel before. Looks like he got a new viewer, because i can agree about everything he said in that video.

I really loved it Pat, thanks. /High5

@37 – Ha! Awesome. I’ll look in a bit.

Same here, never heard of him before, but damn that was funny!

And for what is worth, I agree with him.

For the ppl whining, stop saying things you have said 1 million times. We heard you can you leave us the ppl who enjoy the game alone and not try to makes us guilty for some reasons. If a 1500 whiners on that pisshole Metacritic are serious opinions(MP3 end was spoiled by some idiot there?!) If you don’t want problems with your SP game, come next month, there will be no problems with the servers.

Also go fuckin’ look at the other options that are here. The DRM as a anti-cheat thing, it can be. D2 cheating was as easy as stealing a candy from a baby. For now I really can’t see someone cheating, of course PvP will be the ultimate test for that statement.

And tell me with a hand over your heart that you are genuinely upset that you have to really buy the game in order to play? Because I am absolutely sure that some of the whiners here and on the ton of other sites are also pirates.

Some will say I am a fanboy, but fuck you. Whining and bitching led us to what the industry is now. Even when you are given a product that can rarely be matched in quality you must find an excuse to moan and be angry at something. Be angry with Ubisoft, because they have shown the middle finger on the PC community long time ago and their always on DRM was just the last nail in the coffin, but Blizzard, which always have respected the PC as a platform and are one of the last staples of PC gaming, where we get so much value for our money, that they really can ask from us even $100 for the game.

The problem with negative user reviews on a site like Metacritic is that people are rating the game, most of the time, on a single flaw. Something ticked them off or they feel they’ve been wronged… and they immediately give it a 0, 1, or 2 (at best).

It’s a lot more common for angry gamers to post a negative review than happy reviewers to post a positive one, because they have the time (since they’ve stopped playing the game) and the motivation (grrrr, ME ANGRY) to do so. A happy gamer doesn’t feel compelled to post a positive review most of the time because they’re at least content with the game.

Honestly, it’s a lot like protesting. People only protest when they feel something is wrong in the world or whatever. Very rarely does a large crowd of people gather for the sole purpose of congratulating something. It is the same situation here.

That said, the “DRM” argument is shoddy at best. They made it damn clear MONTHS ahead of time that the game would require a constant internet connection. It’s not so they can control who plays the game (btw, it’s already been cracked and there are non-blizzard servers running), but it’s so they can control the experience that legitimate players have.

By requiring an online connection, a lot of the itemization and so forth is stored and generated server-side. This prevents item hacking and duping from being rampant like it was in Diablo 2. Diablo 2′s economy became so messed up that an item became the only valid form of currency (the SoJ, or Stone of Jordan). When you’re trading “25 SoJs for Tal Rune” or something, you know the economy is effed, and it was all thanks to exploits and dupes.

Yes, it sucks that there is no offline mode, but who doesn’t have an internet connection (and a fast one at that) nowadays? I know, you could play Diablo 3 where there is no internet… but hey, if there’s no internet, maybe you should step away from the computer and do something else for a change of pace. The game will be there when you get back.

By no means am I defending Blizzard blindly as a “fanboy”. I have played and judged the game on its own merits; it stands on its own. They’ve put an incredible amount of detail and thought into the game, and it is a really great experience if that style of game is up your alley. You either love it or hate it, and I think the hype of Diablo 3 got the better of some people and they are just mad they spend $60 on a game they don’t fundamentally like. It’s not a problem with the content of the game itself.

@35 Oh I’m sorry if I thought that you were bought for only 60 hours of.. “fun”. I apologize. )

@37 So what Jim is saying.. well, that’s pretty much common sense which EVERYONE should have! Oh, wait!

@43 Feeling guilty and rather dirty are we? That’s phase 1. It’s called “denial”.

@44 Angry customers have the time (and right) to post bad reviews because they are denied of playing the game. Oh wait! Scratch that. I thought I was talking to someone somewhat intelligent and then I reached the 4th paragraph and everything became clear. I’m sorry for thinking that your IQ is high enough to understand a proper point of view.

Eurogamer is already reporting of hacked accounts and all that. What’s wrong Blizzard, i thought you wanted to protect people here?

Considering that the auction house will be coming soon too and you have the recipe for a disaster.

@1
I’m Talkar#2516

@46

THats people aren’t using the services that Blizzard offers like mobile authenticator and the one that tracks where you log in from and if someone logs in from a drastically different place it locks the account and texts you.

Diablo III just went down again in NA.

PB people prolly don’t realize that their 60usd Diablo III purchase came with a free Athenticator. Why don’t you tell them where they can get one of those?

Oh they cost money?

Oh you mean the ones for a smart phone! Right, tell the folks at home where you can sign up and have blizzard send you a free smart phone too…

Oh wait..

lol, sorry man, I know I am being a smart ass there. But, and call me crazy, I think protecting your online game accounts should be included in the 60usd paid for the game.

PB is right tho, if your not playing with some form of authenticator, your playing with fire. If you have a smart phone download the free battlenet app. if you don’t have a smart phone the key chain ones are like 8usd and for sale on the blizzard store.

Get one, you will need it.