Path of Exile - Proof of Blizzard's low ambitions with D3?

Is Path of Exile now solid proof that Blizzard didn't aim high enough when making Diablo 3?

If a small company like Grinding Gear can make what is a very (very) similar game, surely this puts question marks over why it took a company like Blizzard who are bigger, more experienced, more financially viable and backed by one of the most powerful publishers in the industry, so long to make Diablo 3 and why it was so safe.

That's not to say that Diablo 3 was an awful game - but nothing about it justified its extensive development time.

Diablo 3 played it way too safe.

It was also a platform for Blizzard to launch their RMAH and AO-DRM.

Or it's price tag, where you see title like Torchlight 2 is now for 5$ on Steam.

D3 did play it too safe, it is one of my criticisms of it. It's very much like they were scared to do things different than D2 or maybe tried and fell back to the same old. Even the act structure is the same at times. There are a lot of mechanics they could have used from other action RPG games to spice things up. Or introduce new mechanics.

As I played poe with friends..It was a better all fun game to me...Diablo 3 was kind of boring compared to the d2 I remembered from my youth..Eve torchlight 2 I can pick up now and than has better core game..Even though a friend of mind differes its a matter of opinion really..Im looking forward to the second act to see how it improves itself..How ever even grim dawn atm im having more fun with..Shame I hated the skill selection of d3..Poe has a way better slill selection an so does torchlight 2 an grim dawn..Ah d3 what you could've should've been..How ever the same can go for many games today..Look at SimCity an ea..Instead of giving people what they wanted they took a core game and made it so shallow..Sure I enjoy the game but it could've been so much more also..So a lot can be said with any game made today..

I agree with playing it to safe. The expansion sounds like its going to mix things up.

Yeah, and it looks like they will be fixing the loot system as well. But I'm not trusting my money with Blizzard just yet ...

Blizzard just isn't who they used to be. Their account servers are incredibly unsafe...or they decided to take up the con-artist business. Judging from the amount of people recommending Battle.Net Authorization USB sticks, you'd think Blizzard really is running some sort of incredible scam. I bought 2 copies of the game on 2 separate Battle.net accounts I owned. Both of my accounts had every single Blizzard game. One day I tried to log into either account, and my passwords were changed. I couldn't change the passwords to the accounts (no idea why) so I had to call up Blizzard. They want me scan me and my mom's birth certificates and mail them photocopies.

What a ridiculous request - especially considering there is not a single way in hell that either account was genuinely hacked. Allegedly, my accounts were hacked many months after I had used them - so keylogging is out of the question. My password were so convoluted I had them written down on a piece of paper for safe keeping - so brute force is out of the question too. The only thing I can deduce is that Blizzard purposely lets hackers steal accounts directly from their servers - I've read too many people with similar cases to mine for me to believe otherwise at this point.

It's strange because it's not as if Battle.net accounts are incredibly valuable...My Steam account on the other hand, which actually has dozens and dozens of games that are actually worth something, and is used by me every day, has never been hacked once. It's so strange. I used to be one of Blizzard's most loyal customers and always spoke highly of them, but now they do nothing other than practice shoddy business.

Blizzard hasn't been good since they merged with Activision.

Playing it safe? Playing it safe would have been releasing Diablo 2.5. Diablo 3, I'd argue they took too many risks. They basically changed the entire formula to make it more accessible to users who never played D2.

While PoE does add a lot of content, I'd say it was safer than Diablo 3.

Haven't played D3 in months due to boredom. I've tried getting into POE, but just didn't have the draw that D2 had. POE is still a quality game.

I agree about Diablo 3. I don't understand why people interpreted that as playing it way too safe. They tried to reinvent the wheel with that game. Did a shitty job, but they tried. I actually think a Diablo 2.5 game, with little effort, would have been a better game right off the bat, although I'm still holding out hope that Expansion + Loot 2.0 + closed AH will save it.

As for PoE, I think it's easier to get into at first if you have people to play with. I've just started getting back into PoE again, after taking a break for a bit. Add me on steam if you wanna try some co-op. I'm the_bi99man there, as well. Current name is Big Pink. The only gum with the breath-freshening power of ham.