There are a slew of games coming out in the upcoming months that literally make me salivate. One interesting thing that ties my target games together: Not a single one of them is a new franchise. They’re all continuations of existing franchises. That’s good in a sense. It means that there are solid core series to play that have long standing support and robust communities. I feel like that’s a good sign that gaming is thriving. There are things that people want and developers are making it. And once they make it, people want more. It’s a good time to be involved in gaming on both ends.



But with products come problems. It’s important for a company to take what they learned from a game they’ve made and apply the successes to their next game while trying to iron out the failures. Sometimes a character or game play mechanic simply doesn’t fit in thematically, isn’t well balanced, or isn’t fun. And the void those things leave when removed needs to be, at the very least, filled. Better yet, they should put in more stuff than they removed. It only makes sense, right? New game, new stuff.



This is a natural progression we’ve come to expect from game developers. And those of us observant (read: awake) have also noticed the other natural progression. The one from the players.

More than ever, we have the opportunity to be involved in a game’s development. Developers are more willing to put out beta tests for their products. It’s free bug testing and QA to them, and early access to the gamers. A win-win, really. Or is it? A quick browse of the Diablo 3 General Discussion forums should make you want to throw up all over yourself. The volume of complaints is almost mythic. Doubly so when you consider that the game is still hilariously in beta.



Based on the current beta for the game, which by the way is quite short and has but a small percentage of the total possible items that will be available at launch, people have already calculated themselves into hate spirals. Evidently, based on napkin math, incomplete item drop statistics, and crystal meth, it will take a player three years to make the highest possible rank of gem on their own! Blizzard this is simply unacceptable! How could you do this to me!



Are you fucking with me?



As disgust often does, this got me thinking. There are new mechanics in the game, lots of new items, and new takes on things we’ve come to take for granted in Diablo 2. D2 only has 5 ranks of gems for users to use in their equipment. This made completing the highest rank not terribly difficult, especially since the 4th rank could be found on the ground in the more difficult sections of the game. This made combining them into perfect gems easy, if a bit bland.

But Blizzard’s new take on the system, one that would appear to take quite a bit longer, has outraged some people. There are a dozen or so things in Diablo 3 that have elicited the same response; that the revisions and/or additions to the game have completely changed and/or destroyed everything that used to be good about the previous game.



I couldn’t help but fall victim to this exact mindset just two days ago. I’ll tell you the story so you get the picture.



I found myself with the opportunity and desire to pick up the new Mastodon CD the other day. It had just been released and, as they are one of my favorite bands, I thought it appropriate to support them in what little way I could. They had some teaser tracks on their website and a couple videos on Youtube as well. I was impressed. The songs they released as previews for the album were solid and the video for Black Tongue, the first track on the album, was great.



As I rushed hurriedly to my car, I thought of deliberately getting stuck in traffic so I could listen to the entire thing on my ride home. It just so happens that there was some rather serious accident that was causing a 45 minute delay on my route which caused me to take a slight detour and I was able to spin the disc the whole way through.



I knew the first two tracks because of their internet circulation. They got me pumped up. But as the album progressed beyond them, I found my smile being less genuine. I was confused. How could this be? Mastodon is in your top five, man! What was that song doing?



There I was, driving home in the ideal new album circumstances, not enjoying the new album. Talk about things not going as planned. I got home and checked the mail. It was a great distraction from the disappointment I experienced driving home. I mentioned the experience to one person and then ignored it until yesterday. But after revisiting the topic in my mind, I gave the album a second spin through. There were still some songs I felt were out of place not only on the cd itself, but for Mastodon in general. Despite that, I actually enjoyed the second play through more than the first. And the third more than the second. And I’m sure that the more I let the new album grow on me, the better I’ll think it is. I’ll find the grooves in each song that impress me, the tempo changes and guitar work. The nuances that make it unique and the themes that tie it to its creator.



This connects so well with forum warriors holding their ground steadfast against change. Better yet, against perceived change. Mastodon is still Mastodon and their library of work is still some of my favorite stuff. They’re never going to give me exactly what I expect from them because they’re creative people. Diablo 3 is still a Diablo game, and Blizzard is still the one making it. I know that while the game may be fundamentally different from Diablo 2 on many levels, it’s still going to provide what I’m looking for in a stellar fashion. And that’s a Diablo game.



What makes the people complaining so much more incomprehensible to me is that the game is still in beta. The very work-in-progress item tables Blizzard put up on their site and the very nowhere-near-complete item drop statistics and information make it really difficult to take some of these issues seriously. Really? You want to argue against the time it will take to combine the best gems? Not only is it impossible to get those gems in the beta right now, but the game is only one portion of the first act of the game on the easiest difficulty setting.



This can be applied to any other game coming out in the next year that’s a continuation of an existing franchise. There will be things different about the next game. Get used to it. The developers make these changes because sometimes they need to be made. Sometimes they don’t, but on the whole we’re better for it.



You can’t judge Diablo 3’s potential success based on your shitty estimations of how long it will take to get your equipment gemmed. You’re only making yourself look less intelligent.