Gamers refuse to pay to win in Diablo 3 causing large drops in the game’s player count.
Diablo 3 has been sparking up controversy ever since it was announced. First there were complaints that the game was too colourful and didn’t capture the dark and somber tone of the previous games.
There were complaints of the game looking subpar compared to other titles in the genre. Then there was the Digital Rights Management (DRM) fiasco at launch which further put off a lot of loyal fans of the series.
In order to prolong the game’s life and to tackle p****y, Blizzard implemented always-online DRM in the game and integrated online multiplayer co-op in the single player mode. This means that people who don’t have access to the internet won’t be able to
play the single player campaign of Diablo 3.
Even after all these pre-launch criticisms and despite having game breaking bugs and online connectivity issues for many gamers worldwide, Diablo 3 managed to do quite well with the critics and managed to sell over six million copies a week after launch.
However the greatest criticism was the inclusion of the Real Money Auction House (RMAH), where players could buy and sell unique items that they found in the game for real money. This becomes a problem when not many gamers are willing to shell out their
hard earned coin just to get an item in the game for which they already paid the full price.
Since those items are essential for completing the game on the hardest difficulty many gamers have decided to quit playing rather than to pay. It’s either that or continuous grinding in the previous levels in hope for some better loot drops.
The X-fire statistics page for Diablo 3 shows that during the last month, player count has dropped from around 145,000 players to only 55,000 players. This sudden drop shows that players would rather just move on to a new game rather than to replay Diablo
3 in hopes of grinding away for a unique item which could be sold off to an auction house.
Many analysts believe that this shows that Blizzard’s money grabbing scheme has failed because they didn’t really provide any incentive for players to spend additional cash on the game they already bought.
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