Twitch streamer Michael “shroud” Grzesiek has discovered Diablo Immortal and can’t stop playing it. He himself calls his behavior “damn ridiculous” and is even looking into therapy options for “microtransactions in mobile games”.
Who is the streamer?
- With 10.1 million followers, 14,000 average viewers, and 4,100 subscribers, shroud is one of the most successful and largest streamers on Twitch.
- He was previously a successful professional player of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for the e-sports team Cloud9. However, the streamer has turned his back on e-sports and now plays various games such as Valorant, World of Warcraft, or Lost Ark.
- He especially developed an addiction for Lost Ark. At first, he didn’t want to play the MMORPG at all and ended up spending around 1,800 euros on the game.
- Lost Ark has apparently been replaced by Blizzard’s latest MMORPG: Diablo Immortal. He also can’t stop playing that and has already invested a lot of money, even though he completely agrees with the Pay2Win accusations.
More successful streamers on Twitch:
The Criticism and Accusations Against Diablo Immortal
Although Diablo Immortal started with good reviews and the beta was well received by fans, the game is currently facing severe criticism. It is facing accusations of Pay2Win, especially in the endgame. For example, the legendary gems, which are for upgrading gear, are far too expensive and a rare, with category 5 out of 5 stars, is significantly too rare if you don’t spend money.
Also, Twitch streamer Asmongold criticized Diablo Immortal and spent over 320 euros to demonstrate how great the advantage of paying players is over non-paying players. In a tweet, he also showed in-game how much the drop from a dungeon differs between Pay2Win and Free2Play:
- Pay2Win run: He spent about 18 euros and received a large chest full of golden loot.
- Free2Play run: He received no chest and almost no valuable loot.
shroud dives into the next addiction
What did shroud say? In past streams, the streamer emphasized how addicted he is to Diablo Immortal: “Listen, I’m on the side of everyone else. The only difference is that I have a problem and I can’t stop paying (via Twitch).”
Shroud also believes that the mobile MMORPG is Pay2Win, yet he just can’t stop playing it. “Damn, they got me. They got me. But I agree with you on the thoughts about the game. I agree with you, but I damn can’t stop.”
“There must be a therapy for something like microtransactions in mobile games, that must be a thing, right?” He asked his viewers before he fell silent for a long time and then chuckled. The stream was titled “I WILL NOT OPEN IMMORTAL.”
Furthermore, shroud compared Diablo Immortal with Lost Ark and could take something positive from it: “One thing I like is that there is no limit. I can continuously spend money.”
The Twitch clip of shroud about Lost Ark and Diablo Immortal:
Shroud continued: “It really pissed me off in Lost Ark where I was forced to stop and I just couldn’t spend more money. That annoyed me. It’s my money, let me spend as much of it as I want, please.”
What money limit does Lost Ark have? The MMORPG allowed players to spend only 400$ (approximately 374.43€) per day. That was probably too strict for shroud.
MeinMMO author Benedict Grothaus has also spent money on Diablo Immortal but in a different way: I only bought a gaming tablet for Diablo Immortal for 250€ – But you shouldn’t do that
