I'm on Hell act 2 and I don't get the draw for people farming Inferno, or continuing to play on a harder difficulty. If there's no more new game content to be explored, then why become more powerful. Why not just complete nightmare, and go back to normal and dominate. Why farm for increase of stats, when the monsters get more powerful also. Why hit for 5 against a monster with 25 life and enjoy it, but LOVE it when your hitting for 5000 against a monster with 25000 life.

I can understand if people just straight up find the game fun, because your clicking and killing stuff, but once you hit hell and inferno the game isn't stress free anymore.

Because Diablo 3 is one big skinner box.

Click, kill, get stuff, rinse, repeat.

"Why play Diablo?"

@ajamafalous said:

"Why play Diablo?"

"Why?"

"Play Diablo."

@thehuntsmen5434: If you're asking this question at all then you probably aren't the type of person to play diablo

Yeah I don't understand it either. I mean at least with MMOs there's somewhat continuing progression. This is just farming the same stuff over and over so you can....... do nothing? I don't get it either.

"Why play?"

Well, first off I enjoy playing the game, and a greater challenge makes me feel more bad ass when I beat it.

Also, once PvP comes out I think I might play that a bit, and good gear will be necessary for that.

And then there is the RMAH, sure I will not be able to live off of it or anything, but if I can have fun with a game, and then make some beer money at the same time, is there any reason to play another game ever again?

Why play any video game? Because it's enjoyable to some people.

Hell isn't even that hard once you hit 60 with good gear. I'm a barb and I can usually dominate with "meh" gear thanks to knowing how to set my stats up. You keep playing for the treasures, dude. Same reason I beat Borderlands and just kept playing through it. There's something addicting about loot. That's why gameplay progresses and achievements work so well. People like seeing stats and flashy stuff. It's part of the fun!

I find Hell a lot of fun and you do continue to progress, as you earn better loot.

After that though, I'm pretty sure I'll be done. If Inferno is as bad as people say, I don't think I'll get much enjoyment from continuing with it.

Some people enjoy finding better loot. But really, that is just the nature of the beast, it is what Diablo is, that's why people play it. Why do people play Call of Duty? All you do is shoot people.

EXACTLY! This is kind of been my problem playing the game, loot is only fun to get if there is actually a reason or goal other than simply to get more loot. At least in WoW there's PvP and raids, but here there's really nothing to aim for. And after being mesmerized by the vastness of WoW (being my first MMO) I think even those kind of games need something else to propel the player now that I know what to expect.

Is this a serious question? Breaking it down like that will make any game look pointless. Why play games when I could be working etc.

The easy answer of continuing to play is the difficulty. Normal is fucking easy, so is nightmare. Farming Hell and Inferno gives a much more satisfying experience.

And really, is it any different to play the same randomly generated maps, with the same old tactics, compared to killing the same model of soldier on the same map with the same old Mp5 in CoD MP.

Why play Torchlight or Dungeon Defenders on higher difficulty? The common answer is that it is fun to build characters.

Don't ask, just click.

Seriously, it's the answer to your question. The whole point of the game is to trap you in it's infinite cycle and make you forget what you're doing is pointless.

Why is anything, anything?

@NegativeCero said:

Why is anything, anything?

Woah heav stuff, mahn.

The answer is 42.

I think it would be cool if on each new difficulty there was a unique short act at the end of each one. It would make it worth grinding through inferno if their was a special reward at the end. Maybe even something like a special dungeon that drops unique loot for each difficulty. That would have been really cool.

I suppose PvP will eventually add another reason for a lot of people.

Bigger numbers are way cooler than smaller numbers.

Because the challenge of Hell and Inferno is way more fun than just playing normal over and over.

Why not.

All life is pointless...

Because on higher difficulties the monsters gain a bunch of new abilities that are combined in random ways, forcing you to use different combinations of abilities in response.

Your argument about damage and health scaling linearly is overly reductive.

@Ravenlight said:

@ajamafalous said:

"Why play Diablo?"

"Why?"

"Play Diablo."

"Why play, Diablo?"

Why life?

Because it's fun.

@supamon: Thumbs up for that

@thehuntsmen5434: Some people like the challenge like myself. Inferno really isn't that hard once you get used to it. You can't simply use the same run into room and mash buttons strategy like you can in the first three difficulties.

Qui vive?

Didn't expect so many responses. The MW isn't a great example because Multiplayer games will always yield different results since your playing against live opponents. Forcing you to change your tactics. Whether your actively thinking that, or your instincts kick in and your playing differently to win. Sure, Diablo's gear and difficulty progression could be said about a lot of games, but they give you different content when you get more out of it. The Disgaea series has tons of hidden content if you want to continue after beating the game. Skyrim essentially never ends. Dark Souls is hard in his own right, but you don't have to play it on different difficulties to get the most out of it. Why didn't Diablo just have 2 difficulties, normal, and inferno. Where in Inferno you just start at 60 and try to beat it. Whats the point of nightmare and hell mode? You want a challenge, but not enough to frustrate you, or you want a frustrating challenge? I won't bring up other games of the genre like Torchlight, but doesn't anyone else feel as though there should have been way more content to this game? The excuse is, well its a Diablo game. So what, D2 came out a long time ago, our exceptions and standards should have changed by then. It started the Diablo genre, and every ARPG since added something special to it. So Blizzard releases the same game again, everyone loves it. And the best people can come up with is that its fun. Sure, like brad said as the difficulty increases you change your abilities and tactics, but if you frequent the Diablo 3 class boards there's maybe 1-2 winning combinations in Inferno. Why? Because even though the creators said you could make whatever you want, once you get to inferno all bets are off. Plus what strategies can you do, you get hit, run away, heal, and come back. You just kite non-stop. It becomes like World of Warcraft where there's only right and wrong on how to build your character. Making a melee wizard in Inferno is suicide. Your personal quest to conquer Inferno becomes "a follow this path to succeed", or have fun dieing over and over and over.

why are you breathing?

Achievements. And loot, sweet sweet loot.

You sound like someone who only enjoys instant gratification. Yes, things do boil down to certain strategies but there's fun to be had in experimenting and working them out. But there's also the fact that people just want to conquer Inferno just because they can and they enjoy the challenge. That plus the combat is good fun. It's not much different from weird challenges people give themselves in Dark Souls (which mind you isn't even that hard anyway) or speedfuns. They do it because they can and there's some fun in it. Its' really not that hard to understand.

Someone once described D3 like a slot machine and it sort of is. It taps into that part of our brain where the randomisation gives us the enjoyment of having better loot. We want to see those big numbers. Admittedly, randomisation is also a weakness such as the difficulty spikes that you have to overcome.

And please use paragraphing. People won't read your comments if it's difficult to parse.

@eroticfishcake:I'm not the sort of person who enjoys instant gratification, I didn't slog through Demons Souls because I loved getting one shotted by those weird bell monsters. Try to avoid making this personal please. Plus this game is the definition of instant gratification isn't it. As someone else posted, you click, kill, and get loot.

And if anyone read my the opening post, I did say I can understand if anyone can just straight up find the game fun. Its your opinion, and I'm entitled to mine, but didn't anyone expect this game to have so much more? Why are you having fun? Why does higher numbers excite you? Repeating the same story is enjoyable?

Ok its a slot machine. Except the slot machine is busted. Almost all the drops will never be better than the stuff on the AH, which takes away from the magic of the loot. Just grind money.

@Ravenlight said:

@ajamafalous said:

"Why play Diablo?"

"Why?"

"Play Diablo."

"Why play?"

"Diablo... send help."

I would guess that if that's how you feel, nothing anyone says here is going to change your mind. If you aren't enjoying playing anymore then don't. PVP will be out in a couple months and you can come back to it then. Or not... Whatever man..

@HadesTimes said:

I would guess that if that's how you feel, nothing anyone says here is going to change your mind. If you aren't enjoying playing anymore then don't. PVP will be out in a couple months and you can come back to it then. Or not... Whatever man..

Can't argue with that.

@thehuntsmen5434: It was really more of an observation then a statement so I am sorry if I've offended you. Anyway you do click things and they explode which yes is very gratifying. Of course on higher difficulties they mix the enemies up with special abilities which gives players more a challenge if they're looking for one. That's what I enjoy about games like these. It's not really about repeating the same story (because frankly I think D3 has some of the worst writing in recent memory) it is as I said before, experimenting with combat. When people find good tactics/gear it just feels good and they want to push that further. There's no simpler way of explaining. It's just fun to do.

Having said that the game is busted in a lot of ways. In retrospect it's a bit of disappointment especially the always online problems which have given people a lot of grief. But I still enjoy the core mechanics of it all. As for the AH, all that loot must've come from somewhere, which is to say another player. You're not forced to use it but it can be handy if you need a quick fix (provided that you have the gold.) The AH certainly brings it's own set of problems but how people play the game is up to them really. It's relies on luck to do well. Perhaps, too much of a reliance on it.

I'm not saying you're wrong of course. On paper the whole concept seems really tedious and in truth it can be but the potential of doing better will always attract a certain crowd of people. The possibility of doing better in extreme situations. It's almost the same reason why I eat stupidly hot foods. Because bloody well not I say?

You play repetitive games because you don't know any better, quit acting like you know better and eat your porridge.

@eroticfishcake said:

@thehuntsmen5434: It was really more of an observation then a statement so I am sorry if I've offended you. Anyway you do click things and they explode which yes is very gratifying. Of course on higher difficulties they mix the enemies up with special abilities which gives players more a challenge if they're looking for one. That's what I enjoy about games like these. It's not really about repeating the same story (because frankly I think D3 has some of the worst writing in recent memory) it is as I said before, experimenting with combat. When people find good tactics/gear it just feels good and they want to push that further. There's no simpler way of explaining. It's just fun to do.

Having said that the game is busted in a lot of ways. In retrospect it's a bit of disappointment especially the always online problems which have given people a lot of grief. But I still enjoy the core mechanics of it all. As for the AH, all that loot must've come from somewhere, which is to say another player. You're not forced to use it but it can be handy if you need a quick fix (provided that you have the gold.) The AH certainly brings it's own set of problems but how people play the game is up to them really. It's relies on luck to do well. Perhaps, too much of a reliance on it.

I'm not saying you're wrong of course. On paper the whole concept seems really tedious and in truth it can be but the potential of doing better will always attract a certain crowd of people. The possibility of doing better in extreme situations. It's almost the same reason why I eat stupidly hot foods. Because bloody well not I say?

Well said. I also eat really hot foods even though I don't enjoy them. Just to see how much I can take. Game has issues, but people still can find fun out of it in their own way. I can live with that. I just get steamed up sometimes when a high profile game like this comes out, and theirs obvious flaws, but no one wants to talk about them. Maybe its a reflection on my disagreement with Metacritics critic high average score, and how the reviews don't reflect these issues. Yet, the user reviews show it.

In the end I'm just 1 of the 3.5 million people who bought Diablo III day one, without doing research first and seeing if its a game for me.

@canucks23 said:

Because the challenge of Hell and Inferno is way more fun than just playing normal over and over.

You haven't played Inferno. All fun halts at act 2.

@thehuntsmen5434: Bah. Happens all the time to big games. People do criticise the games for sure but people (mainly fanboys) tend to wave it off as trolling for more views. Unfortunately Metacritic simply uses figures as way of grading games and doesn't take account of the actual review itself but publishers aren't interested in those and frankly they don't care. It's a horrible system but that's another story.

In the end though, you've made a mistake but you're wiser as result and you've also made an effort to understand a certain mindframe which in itself is pretty good considering how ignorant a lot of people are so it's not all bad, eh?

Nonetheless, I like getting loot. It's about that "fuck yeah" moment when all the time you've put into something finally pays off and you get that awesome item...or that moment when you finally break through the difficulty and it starts becoming easier. Last night, I finished a couple of extra grinds on Act 1 Inferno, then bought a few pieces of gear (and was lucky to get some incredibly good boots to drop in my grind). I went back into Act 2, and the normal mobs are now faaaaar less difficult. It was a satisfying feeling that I had finally started climbing over that wall. I'm still a little behind on my DPS and armor, but those are two easy areas to improve on. Finally, I'm going to be doing what I've been aiming to do, and it feels so fucking good.

I understand what the OP is saying, and the answer is "Diablo is probably not a game for you". Think about it like this: people played Diablo 2 for over TEN YEARS with the same content for almost that entirety (aside from the expansion). PvP plays into it a lot, but there's also just the fact that the hardcore Diablo community is about making multiple MULTIPLE characters and trying out all kinds of different shit on them. It's about making new builds, showing them off, letting people see the insane shit that you can come up with. The loot has a lot to do with it, but after over 100 hours with the game already (on one character), I can see that the auction house could possibly end up hurting the game more than helping it. Yes, it offers this centralized hub for people to work on getting geared up, but part of the reason that Diablo 2 worked so well for so long was because people were trying to get all that awesome gear to DROP...and then you have to jump into public games with people and work on trading and selling. Now, with general and trade chat as well as the auction house, I feel like it could become a bit of a loss in one way unless they get the PvP out soon.

Even then, I feel like Dark Souls handles PvP in such a good way that I cannot see a game using another type of system unless they make it all Arena based...and that would take the draw away from Diablo's PvP because that's not how WE want to PvP. We want to jump into a public game and be a Slayer - kill someone, take their ear, and move on.

They've got a really fine balancing act to work on from here on out to keep the game fresh and in the eyes of the players.

Well, yeah the game does get sort of pointless, since farming is a requirement on inferno. But the gameplay is still there. Still fun to use all the abilities and stuff against tougher enemies. When that stops being fun, I suggest stopping or at least slowing down.

@Brad said:

Because on higher difficulties the monsters gain a bunch of new abilities that are combined in random ways, forcing you to use different combinations of abilities in response.

Your argument about damage and health scaling linearly is overly reductive.

A WILD BRAD DISGUISED AS J. ALLARD APPEARS!

Farming itself i kinda get if you make a profit of it. But playing through harder difficulties is fun. You could say your character is done when you beat Diablo on inferno. If you don't, yes it's the same content, but a much larger challenge. And if keep pushing it, getting new gear to be able to progress through the mindbogglingly hard inferno, it's accomplishment. It's the reason people play through a second-third-fourth time of any game on increased difficulty. It's the challenge.

Diablo is not a thinking man's game. I found this out the hard way.

You can look in forums for those "viable inferno builds" or you can go and figure it out yourself. Same as in WoW - there are set numbers which provide you with a set way you can accomplish what you want... Or you can go for the challenge, experiment and work it out. And that is the fun of those games for me.

Nonetheless, I like getting loot. It's about that "fuck yeah" moment when all the time you've put into something finally pays off and you get that awesome item...or that moment when you finally break through the difficulty and it starts becoming easier. Last night, I finished a couple of extra grinds on Act 1 Inferno, then bought a few pieces of gear (and was lucky to get some incredibly good boots to drop in my grind). I went back into Act 2, and the normal mobs are now faaaaar less difficult. It was a satisfying feeling that I had finally started climbing over that wall. I'm still a little behind on my DPS and armor, but those are two easy areas to improve on. Finally, I'm going to be doing what I've been aiming to do, and it feels so fucking good.

I understand what the OP is saying, and the answer is "Diablo is probably not a game for you". Think about it like this: people played Diablo 2 for over TEN YEARS with the same content for almost that entirety (aside from the expansion). PvP plays into it a lot, but there's also just the fact that the hardcore Diablo community is about making multiple MULTIPLE characters and trying out all kinds of different shit on them. It's about making new builds, showing them off, letting people see the insane shit that you can come up with. The loot has a lot to do with it, but after over 100 hours with the game already (on one character), I can see that the auction house could possibly end up hurting the game more than helping it. Yes, it offers this centralized hub for people to work on getting geared up, but part of the reason that Diablo 2 worked so well for so long was because people were trying to get all that awesome gear to DROP...and then you have to jump into public games with people and work on trading and selling. Now, with general and trade chat as well as the auction house, I feel like it could become a bit of a loss in one way unless they get the PvP out soon.

Even then, I feel like Dark Souls handles PvP in such a good way that I cannot see a game using another type of system unless they make it all Arena based...and that would take the draw away from Diablo's PvP because that's not how WE want to PvP. We want to jump into a public game and be a Slayer - kill someone, take their ear, and move on.

They've got a really fine balancing act to work on from here on out to keep the game fresh and in the eyes of the players.