View Full Version : some observations from a new player
As a disclaimer, these are just my opinions and experiences, which I share just, well, for interest's sake. You can excommunicate me if it bothers you. . .
So I first played Diablo II on a friend's old computer when I was at said friend's house. Boy, it was fun! Heck, after a few hours, I even had a character get to level 10! I went off and bought the game and the expansion pack. That was about a month ago.
Since then, I've beaten the game (single-player) on Normal around 3 times, and even have one character near the end of Nightmare difficulty. I haven't made it to Hell difficulty yet. Heck, I'm not that good. I figured, though, that I might as well give playing online a shot, since there was the lure of playing with other people. So, after a month, I actually clicked the "Battle.Net" button on the intro screen for the first time, created an account, and started a character. . .
A few things struck me in the first few days,
1) About 90% of the time, I hadn't the foggiest idea what people were saying,
2) I was apparently the only one who tried to speak in complete sentences,
3) My character seems to run around a lot more slowly than anyone else,
4) It seems common to want to "rush" past the most of the game, get the best items, and then just get better and better items (getting "rich"), and
5) There is a very high degree of "item lust," and
6) There seems to be a lot of discussion of cheating/duping/bad manners going on, which is sort of a shame.
This was interesting. As to (1) and (2) above, that's probably just what happens for experienced players. I imagine that if I play for several months, I'll end up sounding like that too. Not a bad thing, but it sure is hard on new players.
As to (3)/(4),/(5), one of the reasons why I found the game so darn fun is that, hey, there was 5 acts (I never played without the expansion pack), all of which were fun to play. And goodness, a storyline! I hadn't even contemplated not wanting to do every quest before. Isn't that part of the fun of the game? I suppose it's weighing the fun of playing versus the fun of winning. Since I tend not to win, I guess I like playing versus rushing to the endgame. Heck, I even allocate my skillpoints to a level where I think it's fun to play at the lower levels, rather than playing handicapped the whole game in hopes of the "ultimate" character. So I have 5 ravens following around my druid at level 6. Silly? Yes. Stupid? Probably. But hey, it's fun! So I want to trade my Zod rune straight up for an Angelic Ring, just to complete my set and feel special. (Purely hypothetical, of course, since I've never set eyes on a rune higher than Amn or something like that. Or more than one piece of the Angelic set, for that matter.) Silly? Yes. Stupid? Probably. But hey, I get what I want, and you get what you want, and my needs are not that great. Does it make the game more fun for me? Sure does!
Of course, I have a bad habit of starting a new character every time I first beat the game in Normal difficulty, and I've never gotten the best items. Perhaps if I were actually good enough not to die somewhat regularly and actually "won" or what not, I'd care more about power than the playing. But for now, getting there has more lure than the endpoint. I'm fine with that.
You are dead on with your observations. Battle.net is filled with impatient people, half of whom have never done the gidbinn quest in act 3. I actually played classic online for about 6 months before I finally switched to expansion, even though I had purchased the expansion pack after about 3 months into the game(this doesnt include the 5 months I played single player in classic). My philosophy is why waste the $20 that the classic version cost? I actually made some good friends playing classic, and when we had gotten bored of what classic had to offer we switched to expansion, and only Non-Ladder at that. It wasn't for another 5 months or so of non-ladder that I decided to start into ladder on expansion.
Even to this day though, I rarely join public games, unless I see one where someone needs help completing a quest, I see a good trade opportunity, or I feel like doing mf runs in a baal game. I mostly play in private games with friends and people from these forums.
If you want to find honest people who want to enjoy the game like you do, post a thread in the player match-up forum, and you'll find plenty of people who will be willing to quest with you. Actually, if you play east ladder, send me a msg; I'm usually only on during the week later at night(10-12pm central time) though.
Overall, don't let the stupidity and impatience of others ruin your fun with the game; it is one of the best games ever made and I'm glad people out there still appreciate it like I do.
Darnoc
*weewdarn2
P.S. the angelic set is my favorite :wink:
AnimeCraze
31-01-2006, 18:15
Get faster run/walk boots. :tongue: Speaking of people who doesn't type complete sentences, they probably don't know how to type. Finally, for rushes, do you know how annoying it is to play a WW barb when you can't even WW?
For myself, I consider norm to be a rush difficulty. There is little point of staying here. I mean, yay, I have to conc (concentrate, a single target barb skill) every flayer to death...... I consider NM to be a rush difficulty too, but in a different sense. Your skills (and items) should allow you to rip through NM like a hot knife through butter. So, I "rush" through it by just running and killing. Hell is where it is at, where your character will either live, or perish.
By the way, there is some reason of item lust (although the amount that goes on in bnet is just...... too much). Try bringing a zealot to hell difficulty and use your angelic sabre and tell me how long does it take to kill a zombie.
SirDooFuss
31-01-2006, 22:03
... one of the reasons why I found the game so darn fun is that, hey, there was 5 acts
BROTHER!!! Hail and welcome!
I've played the game for 5+ years and to this day I still work my way through every act and quest at every dificulty. Well, maybe not Nihlathek (sp?). I still enjoy working my way through act 3, one of the most hated acts in the game. Godly gear? I've got my share of decent stuff, but there's nothing like the feeling of working your way through with garbage gear and developing SKILL. Unless you're going for PvP, you don't need godly gear to play this game. No, an angelic sword wont do much for your Zealot in hell, but a Lightsabre will still do fine and can be had for pgems easy.
Most chatspeak is just plain laziness on the part of the poster. It's easier for them, but it certainly takes longer for ME to read.:soapbox:
Anyway, we're not all G-rushers lookin' for GG 1337 omg rotflol gear. :laughing:
Welcome!!!!
Aminecraze,
You're missing the point of what the thread poster is saying; didn't you go through every quest when you first bought the game, learning how things work and just trying to beat the game untwinked? Yes, I now too rush through norm and nightmare with my characters since these difficulties no longer hold any challenge or interest for me, but rumph does have a point that many character builds are not effective until they reach a certain high level. Playing a character and building their skills to beat every quest in every difficulty in the game is a great challenge.
As for the angelic set, the sabre does suck pretty bad, but the rest of this set rocks! The amount of AR that 2x rings and the amulet give at higher levels is unmatchable, and I'll often throw the armor on my zon with the jewelry when doing pit runs for the 100% mf bonus.
AnimeCraze
01-02-2006, 00:46
You're missing the point of what the thread poster is saying; didn't you go through every quest when you first bought the game, learning how things work and just trying to beat the game untwinked?Maybe, but I definitly would not stop at norm. I do play quite a few build on all difficulties, even now. Although some of these chars are somewhat twinked, since it is such a pain to play a melee char in norm.Playing a character and building their skills to beat every quest in every difficulty in the game is a great challenge.That tries my patience, untwinked that is. Especially if it is a single target character. I don't mind playing a fishymancer untwinked, but no way am I going to do this with a barb.As for the angelic set, the sabre does suck pretty bad, but the rest of this set rocks! The amount of AR that 2x rings and the amulet give at higher levels is unmatchable, and I'll often throw the armor on my zon with the jewelry when doing pit runs for the 100% mf bonus.I am just saying item lust is understandable. I still use the set for twinking, as well as if I need AR.
Evrae Altana
01-02-2006, 02:35
I once played through the entire game untwinked with several builds, doing all the quests and whatnot. Hell, I even listened to everything everyone of the NPCs were saying, even the mind-numbingly boring ramblings of Deckard Cain. Because of that, I know things about certain quests and items that not a lot of B.Netters know.
Right now, I just get rushed through the game because I have that "been there, done that" attitude at the moment. I guess the more you play, the more impatient you become because you already know what is going to happen and you just want to get items.
masakerr
01-02-2006, 02:55
The real point of all of this is you can play the game anyway you want! You want to be rushed, you get rushed. You want to dupe or have duped stuff, you do so at your own risk. I don't advocate cheating, just in case anyone was curious.
You want to work every quest in every difficulty, you can. If you want to play alone, you can. If you want the challenge of one life only, there's hard core.
public or private it's your choice. If you want an axe wielding amazon, your choice!
This is a very versatile game, the choices are yours! I don't knock anyone. I have my own group of frends that I play with and avoid public games as much as possible, but that's me.
Have fun doing what you want to do and don't worry if you don't understand everything "some" people type, I still have trouble figuring out some of that stuff!
Masa
Uncle_Mike
01-02-2006, 08:40
The real point of all of this is you can play the game anyway you want! You want to be rushed, you get rushed. You want to dupe or have duped stuff, you do so at your own risk. I don't advocate cheating, just in case anyone was curious.
Sure, you are not and I am not implying that. It is just unfair to put rushing and duping in the same sentence :laugh:
Now that I have played this game for so many years I find normal difficulty simply boring unless I decide to play untwikned or hc and I rarely do these. It does not require more skill to do all the quests in the game one after another and not get rushed. To some extent we all did that after the season reset as everyone had to start from scratch. We all did that when we first purchased the game and were learning its basics. Some people seem to enjoy normal and nightmare difficulties - I no longer do - It is a matter of personal preference.
Mike
I kinda like playing through the game also. I once made an frost maiden only because my friends made new chars too. In a couple of days, she was fully rushed, every vital quest made, fully equipped (full mavina), and lvl75. Now she just stands in my character selection screen doing nothing. Ive had more fun playing my hc char to lvl20 with 3 friends than i had playing her. Complete waste of a character, space, time, online currency etc etc...
Battlenet does bring out strange behaviour that not seen very often in real life. this is because there are no consequences to anyones actions in this game. Most people who play in groups for questing/baalruns only do it because it benefits them. They quest together because they cannot do it alone. They quest together because it means more experience points, but the moment some good treasure is avalable it is ever man for himself. this is why players will start to kill an act boss normally, but by the time it is nearly dead they will be all standing on top of it. not hitting but waiting for the death blow so they can grab the loot.
this game is not about altrustic team play it is about the individual working with others when it suits them and dumping them at a moments notice if better offers/treasure becomes avalable. I believe that the term is a chaotically neutral personallity. Individual is god morality is amigious.
The next time a newbie offers you an IST rune for the bonesnap maul you are carrying and you are poor. think about if you would take the trade.
My advice is do not trust anyone however nice they seem.
McCain123
01-02-2006, 14:56
Everyone can play the game his way, so if you are more into doing all quests yourself, just do it ( Nike :smiley: ). Actually it will teach you the basics and how to have your chars at low levels viable. Once in a while me and my mates are bored of rushing, baaling and all the dumb 100-times a day repeating things and start new chars from a scratch, doing all quests in the order they were supposed to do. Sometimes one of us just has made up or read about a char build he wants to try out. No problem either, we will bring him to lvl 80+ in a few hours and either he likes the new char, or he deletes it. After all, this game is about having fun.
About the abbreviations in games, everyone uses them, as you wonīt take the time to type the same complete sentense for the 1000st time. Some of the experienced players will pretty fast go nuts if someone doesnīt do, what they asked him to do in their short terms. Sometimes I then will try to explain to the newbee, what excatly is expected from him, but I canīt do that always as I get pretty tired of explaining. I am well aware that sentences like "Lvl 67 leave at 2nd" or "LH 4 BP" donīt make any sense for someone who just started playing the game, but if you have explained them a couple of hundert times already, you sometimes just search for players who know what that means instead of explaining it one more time. You will probably think the same, once you played the same amount of time.
Mursilis
01-02-2006, 15:44
I'm glad there are people out there who feel this way, you're in the minority but that's quite ok. Playing for the pure fun of it, whether you are in Normal level or Hell is quite good. Myself I do similar to you in that I don't get rushes, finish all the quests and even make sure I get every single waypoint. This includes the useless ones in Hell such as Great Marsh and Halls of the Dead.
Item lust is very common in B.net, everyone apparently wants the most powerful characters they can get. I've never really understood this as once you've solved the game, what more is there to do with a character if you don't PvP? Granted I'm not what you would call "rich", considering the most powerful items I have would be considered mid-level by everyone else since I own maybe 3 elite items total for 5 characters. But even then I've gotten through the game, with some difficulty of course but where's the fun if it takes only 1 minute to finish the last quest. However I've found that once I do solve the game with a character, if they aren't a magic finder I don't play them again. So having loads of fun in Normal and Nightmare sounds good to me. :thumbsup:
Thanks to everyone who took the time to read and reply. It's interesting to hear what other people have to say.
As I alluded to before, I don't want to judge anybody's playing style, since everyone has a right to play for fun and fun may be different for different people. I just thought it would be interesting to express my experience (and my perhaps minority opinion of fun) and hear what other folks had to say.
AnimeCraze
01-02-2006, 18:45
But even then I've gotten through the game, with some difficulty of course but where's the fun if it takes only 1 minute to finish the last quest. However I've found that once I do solve the game with a character, if they aren't a magic finder I don't play them again.How can you ever run Baal in 1 minute??? I want to know that. Even my Tal's sorc can't do anything like this at all. To survive black souls on WSK is not the easiest task, even if you DO have items. Anyways, so once you finished a zealot, you will never play him again, even if Uber D shall show up in your games? :wink3:
(I must kill him with this lvl 65 sorc that I have. I must not be tempted to bring my zealot in and smite his poor soul to death. Just kidding.)
madwelshman
12-02-2006, 19:31
I hope I dont upset anyone with this but I'm pretty new and naive. I thought the idea was to play he game and have fun. If its too difficult with some characters they are the ones you should be playing? I cant type either and almost always use full sentences, its probably the reason I get killed so much (have to look at keyboard to type)
So far I have only ever made it to act 3,lvl 26. How can someone get to hell with a lvl. 4 char and still say they are playing the game? I want to trust people but as some of the replies mentioned, several characters stand around leting others do the 'killing' and grab the good stuff (or everything and drop what isnt any use to them.) I think I should leave a post on the matchup and see if I can find someonre to quest with who wont mind playing with some one who may get them 'killed' (dying is such a pain when you have to recover your body)
AnimeCraze
12-02-2006, 21:35
How? You play solo, and only go into games with more than 1 player if you want to MF, Baal, or trade. Gear is not an issue with many characters.
Mursilis
13-02-2006, 15:43
Perhaps 1 minute was a bit of a exaggeration, but still, 2-3 minutes for a Baal run is ridiculous but I see it all the time on Bnet. Someone teleports in about 20 seconds and then the minions go very quickly. And the fun there is.....? Much more interesting to spend 20 minutes getting to Baal, you get more of a sense of accomplishment that way.
AnimeCraze
13-02-2006, 18:25
You risk dying while teleing? Well, if you don't even need to risk that......, you must be THAT rich.
joeshmoe
26-02-2006, 22:22
[QUOTE=rumph]A few things struck me in the first few days,
1) About 90% of the time, I hadn't the foggiest idea what people were saying,
2) I was apparently the only one who tried to speak in complete sentences,
3) My character seems to run around a lot more slowly than anyone else,
4) It seems common to want to "rush" past the most of the game, get the best items, and then just get better and better items (getting "rich"), and
5) There is a very high degree of "item lust," and
6) There seems to be a lot of discussion of cheating/duping/bad manners going on, which is sort of a shame.
[QUOTE]
After playing single player for about 6 months, i finally decided to go online and play just a few days ago, and these are the exact same observations i made!
i dont have an idea what people are saying in there. :lipsrsealed:
i agree fully , why play (or do anything) if you are just gonna "rush" through it? and the whole higherarchy of items is insane i like to mf and mf for my self and giveing freebies, but when you curse some one for have bad gear is stupid. one thing that has me on the verge of quiting is the over abundance of hackers a rippers and poppers. (which are the lowist form of life) .
tmilitti
01-03-2006, 08:33
I've been playing this game for quite a few months now, but each character is so different, that I HAVE to start a new one every few weeks - just to see what kinds of new skills and items I can use (can't figure out the pally though).
I never get bored with any of the map sections because they are always different - but I still consider myself a "noob" because I've never made it to hell.
I agree with rumph that this is THE game to play - and I never rush around because I don't want to miss anything!
If I go online to play, I tend to play by myself - maybe because I don't want to look stupid to others or maybe because I don't want to worry about my stuff if I should die - which I do frequently!
Anyway, rambling on is what I do best - and I should really get to playing the best game out there!
Just my 2 cents!
joeshmoe
01-03-2006, 09:12
If I go online to play, I tend to play by myself - maybe because I don't want to look stupid to others or maybe because I don't want to worry about my stuff if I should die - which I do frequently!
yes, i also usually play by myself, unless its for trading or just some casual playing:wink3:
I noticed that when playing online, how is it people can whisper to me(the green text) during my own game when i create a 1 person, password protected game, and i havent even joined the battle.net chat?
Are these just those annoying random-automated bots people type like, "come sign up and join our clan/website/ive got a great offer for you"
?
Evrae Altana
01-03-2006, 09:18
People can whisper you while you're in game. If they have you on their friends list, they can whisper you by using the /f m command. Or they can whisper you using the /w*account command or the /m charname command.
if you want fellow questers, type amazon basin in google, and go there. you'll fgin dmore people like yourself.
I've been doing this since 2000, an dI still do every quest if possible.
AnimeCraze
01-03-2006, 11:15
I've been playing this game for quite a few months now, but each character is so different, that I HAVE to start a new one every few weeks - just to see what kinds of new skills and items I can use (can't figure out the pally though).
I never get bored with any of the map sections because they are always different - but I still consider myself a "noob" because I've never made it to hell.
I agree with rumph that this is THE game to play - and I never rush around because I don't want to miss anything!
If I go online to play, I tend to play by myself - maybe because I don't want to look stupid to others or maybe because I don't want to worry about my stuff if I should die - which I do frequently!
Anyway, rambling on is what I do best - and I should really get to playing the best game out there!
Just my 2 cents!I am same as you, yet different. Mostly, I play by myself, and start lots of new builds. However, I would never consider a build complete unless I have pat/mat the character (ie. kill hell Baal). Anyways, for Pally, the typical builds are hammerdins (max hammer, synergies, and concentration), and zealots (max zeal, sacrifice, holy shield, and fanatism). The main reasons that I play online is that I can trade, make ladder only runewords, and kill Ubers.
tmilitti
01-03-2006, 23:24
Thanks for the info on the pally. Maybe I'll start one of those pretty soon!
I did it once, and every time I turned the middle wheel of my mouse a sound would go and I could never figure out what it was.
Come to find out, every time I would move the wheel, another skill would happen and cancel out the one before it.
:rolleyes: Very confusing, so until I get the "f" keys figured out for him, I will keep on working with my barbarian and my necro, low levels right now but I keep plugging away.
I will not get into the implications of "reviewing" a 6 year old game...
Nonetheless; There is a very high degree of "item lust,"
Um, you are only stating the obvious. People who want to play god play sim games and people who want alot of neat items play Diablo.
"I went to a restaurant yesterday and I was shocked at how many people were eating." Get it?
AnimeCraze
03-03-2006, 06:37
I did it once, and every time I turned the middle wheel of my mouse a sound would go and I could never figure out what it was.
Come to find out, every time I would move the wheel, another skill would happen and cancel out the one before it.Auras are what that is making the sound. The middle mouse allows you to scroll the skills hotkeyed on your keyboard. I supposed you have a few auras hotkeyed and you are scrolling your mouse.
Oh, I never consider zealots to be complete before they kill the big 3. :wink3: In fact, that's the real reason that I build them.
you take great pride in going through the game fully, taking your time in the many aspect of gameplay it offers.
i enjoy rushing through the game, spending months building my wealth and thus my characters quality, taking my time to make it as efficient as possible.
You enjoy the feeling of accomplishment by completing the storyline, I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment by completing my character.
You enjoy the fact the game has 5 expansive(not expensive yes :P)acts, I enjoy the fact that efficient baal runs net me good experience-gain-over-time.
You see? It's all the same :P We aren't telling you to "do it our way", but rather, understand and appreciate that there are different types of players out there.
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