Can D3 be more popular than D2?

[slickr]

Hi there ladies and gentlemen, boys and girl.

Diablo 3 looks to be a great and interesting game, but it is its own game and has a lot different personality than previous diablo games.

Diablo 3 is basically very different than D3, from no potions, no points placing, different skill trees, less gothic and less dark to different ways of creating variety.

Do you think Diablo 3 can top Diablo 2 or is Diablo 3 great and interesting and different, but still a notion than Diablo 2?

Discuss!

[sicilian]

It's definitely a matter of personal preference I think. Some people will like it more, some will like it less. But it absolutely CAN be more popular, as I think many features will appeal to a wider variety of audience than D2.

The big thing about D2 though is that it has lasted over ten years. That's difficult to do for any game, so D3 will have trouble living up to that, no matter how good it is.

[ael]

I presume the fan base will be vastly different than those of d2.

Will it be more popular? IMO hell yes. There hasn't been a game in the genre since d2 that would really kick *** gameplay and development execution wise generally. I think it will be a nice fresh change for a lot of non-diablo players.

Most of the people I know already talk about playing it, and they haven't played d2 seriously for several issues, such as connectivity/grouping/trading support. Which d2 REALLY lacked, but we will get all that in d3. The industry is filled with games which all share the same mechanics.

So yes, I think it will be pretty major. Just don't expect to see the same people that you see playing now.

[Doppel]

To the question "can D3 be more popular then D2" i'd say, initially, absolutely. After a couple of years though when the hype is gone, i very much doubt it.
But it'll still do better then 99% of all other games, if you care about that.
The only thing i hope is that the game offers enough depth to remain interesting, i don't want D3 to be a quick rollercoaster fix, if you know what i mean.

[marshmallow]

By raw numbers it will be more popular because there's a higher gamer population, just like any crappy movie will make huge profits because there's so many more people watching movies than there were 10, 20, 30 years ago, especially with international audiences. But will it capture the same % of the market as Diablo 2? Doubtful.

[palwe]

agree with marshmallow.

i think it will be more successful based on the higher number of people now playing games and being more technologically astute.

i doubt its success relative to the success of diablo 2 will be as great though. i.e. % of market captured at peak for d2 compared to % of market captured at peak for d3.

i believe it is highly likely blizzard will sustain a successfully large fan base and sustained popularity, but again i dont think this will be as successful long term relative to d2's success but which was on a smaller scale.

[Monster]

Should have added the option "I hope so!"

[Archaik]

The big thing about D2 though is that it has lasted over ten years. That's difficult to do for any game, so D3 will have trouble living up to that, no matter how good it is.

Any popular game will have players that return to it at later intervals, resulting in a smaller shifting population of players, not a perpetual mass. D2 isn't as popular as it was when it came out. People are over-exaggerating the state in which D2 is currently in. "Lasting" 10 years really doesn't mean as much as people think when you compare it with other games, say WoW.

Try to apply your statement to WoW, which has been going strong for 6+ years (not just people casually returning to it) and will no doubt make it a decade BEFORE it simmers off.

Blizzard has already given us a taste of the quality of Diablo 3. The only way I see D3 not completely blowing D2 out of the water is if people still prefer WoW over it, even after playing WoW all these years, or if Blizzard comes out with a new attraction so great, D3 won't ever live out its full potential like D2 did.

The game itself will also have many fixes of the things that turned me off D2 in the first place. You won't be able to powerlevel to 75%+ of max level in one day, thus devaluing the success of individuals who actually worked through the game. Characters won't be entirely dependent on having a specific build, making individuality much more prevalent. I also doubt Hell in the new game will demand characters to be so pimped; instead PvM among the various classes will better retain its balance... oh and no more Griefers.

In my years of calculus, I have come to the conclusion that 3>2.

[sarcasm]
Never mind, I figured out why D3 will never be as good as D2. There are just too many people who aren't really into lots of color and good graphics because it lights up and brings too much happiness into their basement.
[/sarcasm]

[Flux]

I wish you'd defined your terms more for the vote. What does "popular" mean? Sales? Intensity of player passion? Longevity?

I think D3 will sell more than D2, but as others have pointed out, Blizzard's marketing to a lot larger gamer population now than 11 years ago. And, as is often complained about, they're taking numerous steps to broaden D3's appeal beyond the core RPG market, avoiding divisive issues by toning down the religious imagery, simplifying the controls, working on a console port, etc.

That they're not supporting modding, and in fact are going to do all they can to limit/control it, probably won't hurt sales at all, though it might make a difference in long term support. However, since they're doing more than 1 expansion, and they certainly won't wait 11 years to complete D4, we won't be able to directly compare longevity and fan support to how things worked with D2.

[ael]

The big thing about D2 though is that it has lasted over ten years. That's difficult to do for any game, so D3 will have trouble living up to that, no matter how good it is.

All those games you talk about were made by blizzard, no matter how much we whine and shake fists at them. Replayability gotta be on the top of their list, otherwise they don't make money out of it.