Diablo 3

[Aix]

Originally Posted by Arinoth

The fiancee and I alone got about 60 hours of gameplay on our first D3 characters and probably 20ish maybe hire on our second. Personally I find that 80+ hours spent on a 60$ rather well worth it. I just have no real drive to keep playing it now or recommending it to anyone.

As someone who played thousands of hours of D2 (and wanted more), getting bored after about 150~ish hours wasn't really what I expected when I dropped $60 on D3. I'm not sorry I bought it, I'm just sorry that this was the result of 8 years of waiting/4+ years of development. It was such a long wait that I didn't care about D3 anymore: I had put the thought of D3 out of my mind and was fine with the fact that Bliz would release it when it was ready. No rush (obviously), I could wait.

Judging from the last couple of pages of this thread, many of you have straight dropped the game (as I did), or are barely playing it fewer than 2 months after release. Personally, I found a lvl 59 "Legendary" that was so bad that I felt no desire to play the game afterward (and haven't since).

Now I'm playing the Path of Exile closed beta and it's already more satisfying than D3 - and it's not even finished yet. That nostalgic feeling that everyone shot down the D2 fans for during the D3 launch? PoE generates it in spades. Plus it has a deep active/passive skill system, great atmosphere (light radius in randomly-generated dungeons? But I thought it was impossible?!) and awesome itemization. The PoE open beta is scheduled to start in August should all go according to plan, so check it out if you get a chance!

[Shadowmeph]

I had a feeling after playing the D3beta that it was going to be like this, but I am really hoping that after a patch , or a couple of updates it should get better. as for path to exile, I have been trying to get into that beta for a while just haven't been accepted yet

[sswilson]

PoE is probably the most mentioned currently running alternative suggested over on the Blizz forums. TL2 is still seen as the saviour of the genre.... I really hope folks aren't putting unreasonable expectations on it.

[Aix]

Originally Posted by Shadowmeph

I had a feeling after playing the D3beta that it was going to be like this, but I am really hoping that after a patch , or a couple of updates it should get better. as for path to exile, I have been trying to get into that beta for a while just haven't been accepted yet

They give away a key every 5 minutes on the website (there's a "Beta Invite Timer" with the latest recipient and upcoming recipient on the main page). Hopefully you get lucky soon! They are also running a kickstarter program where you have the option of dropping $10 to guarantee a beta key (and receive 100 microtransaction points to be used in the store following release) https://www.pathofexile.com/purchase/ .

Originally Posted by sswilson

PoE is probably the most mentioned currently running alternative suggested over on the Blizz forums. TL2 is still seen as the saviour of the genre.... I really hope folks aren't putting unreasonable expectations on it.

I checked out PoE about 10 months ago and was put off by how zoomed-in the camera was, so I figured I'd wait and see. They have since pulled it back and now I'm completely happy with how it looks and plays. The upcoming patch will include the Act 2 boss, as well as the "end-game" Maps system (among other things).

It's different from TL2 because PoE is a closed system similar to the online Diablo 2 experience. TL2 will no doubt serve the people who just want offline single-player, or perhaps LAN play with buddies, but unless Runic develops a closed-server environment there will be fundamental differences between the games. Personally, I was never very interested in single-player or "open" Diablo 2, so PoE is very appealing to me. It's also F2P, which I'm sure a lot of people are happy about.

I haven't tried TL2 yet, but if someone is able to develop a server client then that could provide gaming communities with a unique opportunity, although it'd have to include some way to exclude mod'd items, etc. Not easy I'm guessing.

[Cheakamus]

What's Path of Exile's business model? Ads supported? Virtual gear sale?

[sswilson]

Originally Posted by Cheakamus

What's Path of Exile's business model? Ads supported? Virtual gear sale?

IIRC, it's based off of mostly cosmetic micro-transactions A-La farmville.

[Arinoth]

Originally Posted by sswilson

PoE is probably the most mentioned currently running alternative suggested over on the Blizz forums. TL2 is still seen as the saviour of the genre.... I really hope folks aren't putting unreasonable expectations on it.

I'd like to know when TL2 is suppose to come out. I've been playing Alice: Madness Returns since beating ME3 (and well abandoning D3), it's a good game though it's a port from PS3, meaning some of it's controls are a little off (poorly ported).

[Aix]

Originally Posted by Cheakamus

What's Path of Exile's business model? Ads supported? Virtual gear sale?

Originally Posted by sswilson

IIRC, it's based off of mostly cosmetic micro-transactions A-La farmville.

Yes, they will sell micro-transaction "points" to be used to buy stuff like extra stash tabs (you start with 5), extra character slots (you start with 24(!)), and that's all there is at the moment since it's still in closed beta. To give you an idea, $10 buys you 100 points, and both extra stash tabs and character slots cost 30 points.

Future stuff will likely be cosmetic, like spell effects or whatever, although there is the option for custom paid leagues (standard "leagues" are Default, Hardcore, Cutthroat, etc.) where you define the rule set as well as who is invited, so you can have your own "event" if you like, like an Ironman competition or a timed race, etc. They will not be selling in-game items or anything in the "pay-to-win" category in their shop.

[sswilson]

Can PoE be played strictly single player, or is the "world" open to other players? I'm not a group player at all outside of being able to interact for trading.

[Aix]

Everything outside of town is instanced. You can play by yourself, party up and join a game with friends, or make an "open" game where anyone can pop in (although I haven't actually done that). There's a bulletin board of sorts in every main town area that has the list of available games. Apparently in "Cutthroat" leagues every game is open and anyone can pop in and PVP (hence the name) but that is still in alpha to my knowledge.

I've mostly played by myself, just trying to learn how the game works and take my time, but when I return to town I see lots of players there doing their own thing.