The Queue: I miss Splatfests

We’re only 85 days away from Splatoon 3, but I’m still itching for some Splatfests. Y’all remember those, right? Hopefully Nintendo will do that pre-launch thing they sometimes do and have a beta Splatfest. Wouldn’t that be rad? (Yes, yes it would.)

You know what’s also rad? The Queue.

I’m all for accessibility changes, but yeah, I’m a little unsure if this is the right approach. It’s good for a lot of reasons! But Blizzard doesn’t always explain things great in-game (which you yourself mentioned, Arthonos) and this could end up being another roleplay/flavor element that disappears.

Also — and this is admittedly a whole different can of worms — if the major issue here is raid call-outs (I don’t know if that’s the end-all here, but I’m assuming)… well, then maybe design encounters and in-game UX elements that don’t require addons or players to automatically say things? I may be projecting a bit here, but overall I think WoW does a not-so-great job of providing clear and obvious designations for what’s good and what’s bad in the game. FFXIV, by comparison, I feel is a lot better.

At the end of the day, you can only be in Voidform for so long, so it’s not like players were using this to constantly speak a different language to others. It feels very much like an encounter-based issue, with a class-based solution.

They are daily! But on Mythic+, as long as you have a viable key to keep pushing, the loot will keep flowing.

Also, please stay safe in the heat. It’s brutal out there.

Deep breath.

A lot of people are going to have a lot of different (and strong) opinions here. In my opinion, Diablo Immortal is Diablo 3 as a mobile title, complete with all that that includes. Diablo 4 is, to me, Diablo 3 crossed with WoW.

In other words,

• Diablo 3 + mobile = Diablo Immortal
• Diablo 3 + WoW = Diablo 4

If you like the general gameplay of Diablo 3, you’ll like the gameplay of Diablo Immortal and Diablo 4. If you hate mobile monetization, you’ll hate Diablo Immortal (especially in the endgame). If you hate WoW’s in-game Store, you’ll probably also hate Diablo 4’s. If you tolerate or are indifferent to WoW’s in-game store, then you’ll probably feel the same about Diablo 4’s.

I’m fully aware I’m opening a can of worms here, but everyone right now is talking about how Diablo 4 will be as bad as Diablo Immortal in terms of monetization based on… what, the existence of a shop in D4? Do you know just how many games out that have shops nowadays? Ones way less egregious than Immortal’s?

I’ve seen people say Blizzard needs to earn the trust by showing rather than saying — and I agree! But I don’t think Diablo 4 is the game to look at or the comparison to make; Arclight Rumble is. D4 and WoW are MMOs; DI and Arclight are mobile games.

No two games are similar, but I think just because a game has “Diablo” in the title doesn’t make the most viable comparison another game with “Diablo” in the title. Everyone right now seems concerned that D4 will be like Diablo Immortal — me? I’m worried that my newest mobile addiction (which has a much more reasonable monetization system right now) will change to be more like DI by launch, and I think Blizzard’s other mobile entries are where people’s attention should be.

Ahem.

…And those are the differences between DI, D3, and D4!

It’s the same location all the time, and I believe Blizz also gave a (small) window where it can’t be attacked after spawning, so folks won’t insta-kill it.

Is this a metaphor?…

Either way, moose. Hooves down.

That’s our Queue for today! We were, once again, light on questions, so I apologize if this one was  a little shorter than normal.

I’ll see you all next week, unless I don’t. Cheers!