MeinMMO author Maik Schneider had three fun weeks with Diablo Immortal after its release, without spending a cent. However, in hindsight, he must say that he has never experienced such a nasty Pay2Win spectacle and a new change regarding the Legendary Emblems makes this clear to him once again.
There has been extensive discussion about the Pay2Win elements of Diablo Immortal. After the release, it quickly became clear: those who want to keep up at the top need a fat wallet.
For me, that was never a big problem. Immortal is a good Diablo, a fun monster-bashing experience on the couch, a relaxing activity for the mind after work.
Progress barriers in the endgame are more of a problem for me as well as the insidious way Immortal uses every little psychological trick to lure players into the shop.
The core items of the entire Pay2Win theme are the “Legendary Emblems”.
Each Legendary Emblem guarantees you one of the Legendary Gems – powerful items with special abilities. To improve the gems, you also need many more of the sparkling value enhancers.
Visual revisions are now planned for the Legendary Emblems. Because there are actually two different types: Legendary Emblems and Eternal Legendary Emblems. Just by the symbol, you couldn’t distinguish between these two.
There is a crucial difference between the two: gems from the “normal” emblems cannot be sold on the player market. Gems from the “eternal” emblems can be sold.
On the player market, you can earn lots of platinum with Legendary Gems. However, at first glance, it was not clear after the release which emblems would give me tradeable gems and which would not. In fact, it wasn’t until much later that I realized there are different Legendary Emblems.
In my life, I have played countless games, seen, used, and crafted innumerable items – but what I have never seen: items that visually resemble each other so closely, yet are so different.
We also had a podcast on MeinMMO about the topic of Pay2Win in Diablo Immortal:
The new announcement to visually adjust the emblems has once again highlighted the insidious methods Diablo Immortal employs.
- On one hand, the system has been confusing from the start
- On the other hand, this leads to in-game purchases where you might get the wrong emblems
Lead Designer Wyatt Cheng says the following about the emblem changes:
We want to ensure that players know exactly what they are getting when they make a purchase, what they see in their inventory, and what they can use when entering an Elders Portal.
Wyatt Cheng via reddit.com
He also states that tests were conducted back in early August to see if the emblems were easier to distinguish as a result.
The whole story makes me sad. Sometimes I apparently look a bit naively at the plans of some game developers on how they want to squeeze money out of their players. That’s extortion.
It is certainly not an exclusive problem of Diablo Immortal. But the Mobile-Diablo has managed to convince many players for the first time to engage in a longer round of mobile gaming, including me. Being confronted with such things right away has hit me hard.
Upon release, these “tricks” were used to make a good profit, and then gradually tone them down. Now you can get Eternal Legendary Emblems without real money – that was not possible at launch.
Diablo Immortal was definitely a wake-up call for me. A broken window that can never be repaired. A strong dampener on my positivity regarding monetization.
I still believe that most developers share our passion for gaming and want to create fantastic worlds and adventures alongside us players.
But when I hear the words “real money shop”, I will certainly pay much more attention in the future. What do you think? Leave me your opinion on the topic.
If you want to read more about sneaky microtransactions, check this out: Some micro-transactions in new MMOs border on self-enslavement
