Diablo 4 is coming! Mein-MMO author Andreas Bertits has been waiting for this for so long, and it seems to be getting as dark as part 2 again. But there is one thing that slightly dampens his anticipation.
I am really looking forward to Diablo 4. However, there is one feature that gives me a bit of a stomachache, and I would like to explain why.
My Diablo Story
I remember well how I played Diablo 1 in the basement at my parents’ house with my buddies back in 1996. We had a sort of party room there, where I also had a lot of fun almost every weekend with my tabletop RPG sessions.
We set up tables and chairs, networked our PCs, and about two hours later, when the network finally worked, we dived into the dark adventures of Blizzard’s hack ‘n slash, defeated the Butcher, and continued to fight our way deeper into the dungeons beneath Tristram.
When Diablo 2 followed in 2000, I had already been married for a few weeks. My wife and I played the action RPG together and met many new friends through Battle.net. We had a lot of fun in co-op.
Surprisingly, both of us only enjoyed Diablo 3 when my wife and I got a PlayStation 4 in 2014 and played the hack ‘n slash together on the TV. But we enjoyed the hours of cooperative “hack ‘n slash” action even so.
Why a Shared World?
With this story, I want to show that, for me, Diablo has always fundamentally been one thing: a co-op RPG. Of course, I played all the parts alone for a while, but I always had real fun only cooperatively. And this is exactly where my concern lies with Diablo 4.
Diablo 4 is getting an MMO-style shared world. This means that, in essence, Diablo 4 will function like an MMORPG, just with a few less players per server. This feature is already being hotly debated in the community and seems to be received very controversially. And I understand why.
When Diablo 4 was announced, I sat in awe in front of the monitor. It’s supposed to be as dark as part 2 and what has been shown looks simply fantastic. Diablo 4 is still Diablo. That’s a good thing. The world is supposed to be huge and open. There are no acts anymore, and I can explore everything freely. Exactly what I have always wished for.
But then came the blow that slightly dampened my anticipation: the shared world. Don’t get me wrong. I really enjoy playing MMORPGs like The Elder Scrolls Online, but Diablo is just not an MMORPG for me. In my opinion, it’s a co-op RPG.
Does the Shared World Dampen the Atmosphere?
Diablo takes place in a threatening world. Danger lurks around every corner. I would even go so far as to say that horror plays an important role. In the dilapidated ruins and the dark dungeons, a creepy atmosphere already sets in. I remember jumping in my seat when I first encountered the Butcher in Diablo 1.
However, when I now see how strangely many players often act in MMORPGs… they jump around, attack my enemies unprovoked, drag a mob behind them, and make silly faces… That’s somewhat part of an MMORPG. But in Diablo, in my opinion, there is no place for that.
I don’t want to crowd around a vendor in a town with a hundred other players, read strange names, or encounter a fellow player in a creepy swamp who spoils the game for me by saying that a big monster is lurking further ahead.
When I then hear that Diablo 4 will have microtransactions and cosmetic items, I imagine Amazons in colorful bunny costumes or the Barbarian in a bright green tutu. I don’t need that in Diablo 4. Such things ruin the dark atmosphere. Of course, a shared world can also be fun, so I’m not saying Blizzard should abolish or leave it out. But an optional co-op mode without other players and perhaps an offline mode would be great.
Then I could play Diablo 4 the way I did with the other three parts. As a co-op RPG and not as an MMORPG because I have other games for that.
