Diablo 3 Expansion: Has Blizzard redeemed themselves?

Like many other Diablo fans, when the rumor mill started churning about a third game being created, excitement immediately coursed throughout my mind and body.  I also started to worry.  Times had changed in the PC gaming world since the last Diablo release in 2001.   Graphics cards and overall game play // game design had increased in quality at an exponential rate and social media caused a drastic change in the way developers had to look at their games.  If something was wrong, or just complete garbage, news of the atrocity would spread like wild fire through Twitter, Facebook or Reddit and fan reaction would be heard in full force.

Fast forward to 2012:

Despite it being one of the most anticipated and fastest selling games in a 24 hour period before release, Diablo 3 hit a major brick wall with fans on the first day... Error 37.  Players were unable to log in and since Blizzard removed the offline play mode of the game and required always online DRM(which fans were infuriated about), Diablo fans were forced to look at an unplayable game on their screen for a few days.

To add further insult to the fans, Blizzard created a vastly inferior story line to its predecessor and killed off a beloved main character which you had to see 4 times before hitting max level.  Players trudged through the level grind to hit 60 and start the real fun of endlessly grinding mobs for amazing loot for their characters... Or so they thought.  The end game of Diablo 3 was so horrid for quality itemized gear that the Auction House became your best friend. Later, Blizzard decided to add "real money" into it (the AH) causing even more of an outbreak of negative reactions.  Though some people were completely okay with this because they actually made some legitimate cash for playing a video game, it completely destroyed the game by being the straw that broke the camels back.

Diablo 3 was a dead game for awhile and Blizzard knew it because fans let them have it through twitter, forums and any other public venue that people could freely rage on.  They began to listen to the fans feedback and change the game for the better.   First, the developers attempted to figure out a way to make "end game" more viable by adding in the Paragon system and monster difficulty adjusters.  This gave a lot of players the opportunity to get passed the stone wall of Inferno and finish the game on its most difficult level without literally buying the gear off the AH to do so.  The paragon system gave hardcore players a reason to keep playing:  XP and Bonuses. Second, Blizzard knew they had to address the real money//regular AH and finally close it down for good.  They realized that players shouldn't be mindlessly farming gold and selling everything on the AH in order to obtain the gear that their character needed... That wasn't "Diablo".  Finally, the developers knew that they had to "right all the wrongs" with their expansion to D3.

Prior to the release of the expansion, Blizzard released a 2.0 Reaper of Souls patch.  This fundamentally changed the game and gave a preview of what was to come with the expansion.  In the patch, the way itemization was "rolled" on an item changed in a major positive way for the character you were playing.  Random stats that were not beneficial at all (IE strength on Wizard gear) would not be found on any item that dropped in the world.  This meant that when you were out there slaying demons and a rare or legendary dropped, you actually had a legitimate reason to be excited.  Whatever piece of gear that was laying on the ground could potentially be an upgrade where in the past it was more of a hope and prayer that it was.  

Honestly, the loot change single handily was the biggest and best change to make players want to come back and play.  (Though I will admit that torment levels and the increased drops of legendaries was nice as well)

So did Blizzard redeem themselves with this expansion? Check out my next blog to read my review of it!  (Spoilers: The answer was absolutely, Diablo is back and how it should be.)