Diablo 4 players call game's Battlepass button "Malicious Design"

Diablo 4 players aren't to happy with the lack of a 'confirmation' option when it comes to redeeming the game's 'Premium Battle Pass'.

[Fishy Fingers]

Honest question - how long before videogamer (with the same owners as N4G) start self submitting and self approving articles based on N4G comments?

[OMGitzThatGuy]

“Diablo 4 players” and “Starfield fans” just looks AI generated every time I see them.

[Jin_Sakai]

All videogamer.com does is submit nonsense. Nobody wants to see this crap plastered all over N4G.

Starfield fans….article
Starfield fans….article
Starfield fans….article
Diablo 4 players….article
Diablo 4 players….article

Something needs to be don’t about this nonsense.

[Abriael]

Thought they already were.

[-Foxtrot]

Well they were pinning them a while back to the front page but they've stopped now after people called them out.

Seems like they are more bothered about publishing their articles then actually updating/relaxing some of the rules on here and adding some features.

The ads for example are terrible, two videos on top of another can literally take up half your screen

Oh and I don't know if this happens to anyone else but when you click your Notifications button it takes ages to come on where you'll have to come off it and repress again before it hopefully works.

[FullmetalRoyale]

I just stopped commenting so I wouldn't have to look through the notifications.

[Christopher]

This has been noted and so have complaints. Please, keep sharing your thoughts and concerns. We want to make sure our community is heard even if we are unable to fix the problems they have immediately.

[-Foxtrot]

To be fair Chris it wasn't you back then that was pinning articles it was the new guys from the site who bought Newsboiler.

Like showing off an amazing Tears of the Kingdom build someone created every few days...

[monkey602]

The ads have actually caused me to stop visiting the site even a fraction of what I used to. Whatever disdain I have for them popping up over the screen, I absolutely detest how they are always unmuted and will pause anything I'm listening to in background apps to play over them.

[sci4me]

@monkey The same as me..

[alb1899]

Now all articles about Activision Blizzard are trying to make them look bad. I've read like 10 articles about Diablo 4 in the last week.
Get over it!

[anast]

This would be something you would need to get over not the other way around. Or don't and complain like everyone else.

[alb1899]

One time don't matter, everyday you got problems.

[anast]

@ alb1

Welcome to the party.

[jznrpg]

ABK makes themselves look bad all on their own with their design decisions.

[alb1899]

I don't know, I see a lot of people excited. This developers have grown so much. I don't think is just making bad decisions.

[Michiel1989]

the devs have grown? They literally just dropped a patch with such a negative reception that I don't think I've ever seen since I played games. They have actually shown that they don't realize what the fun part of their game is and their players have to explain it to them, that's not what I call growth, it's what I call being so disconnected with your audience that you don't know how to update the game.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

There are videos with millions of views criticising the current state of Diablo 4 and the developers have been apologizing for the recent patch saying “We don’t plan on doing a patch like this ever again.” lol

The idea that that people are "trying" to make them look bad is silly. They're doing that to themselves.

[-Foxtrot]

I don’t get how people can basically call this game perfect or flawless with all these amazing reviews but then gloss over any negative things.

This is why season/battle passes, MT’s, promises of future updates, lack of a decent end game and so on NEED to be called out in reviews…literally take points off the game if need be

It shows developers that people are starting to wake up and call out their malicious practices

I know you’re thinking “well if most of the games great…” but still, you need to judge the entire game. It’s the only way to try and stop this stuff from happening.

Reviews might not completely destroy sales but overtime they can lead to a small bump and will reflect badly on the publisher which they don’t want. It might make them think twice for future game design

[Abriael]

If you want people to review things how *you* want, then perhaps just try to get a job as a reviewer and do it yourself.

[-Foxtrot]

You say like getting a good full time job as a games reviewer is such an easy thing to do...it's not

Even when you try to look into it these days you can help out sites as freelancing but even them the process of getting to that point alone is tough, like you are jumping through hoops. You need a job especially these days which you can rely on, not something to do in your own free time that MIGHT work out.

What Culture, you know that site that literally posts mostly "Top 10" lists, is based in Newcastle where I live, literally a 15 minute metro ride yet I've lost out to people freelancing from places like New York City even though the quality of the work you can see around the site is shocking from them.

It's not that easy if you don't have a starting off point especially this late in the game.

Also my point above is about the overall system of reviewing, it feels like big places such as IGN and the like wouldn't want that kind of stuff to be written about incase it p***** off people like Blizzard when it reality it should be.

People rely on these reviews to be honest, so why aren't they and only bitch weeks or months after release when by then the publisher has got money from the consumer.

[Abriael]

No. It's not easy. It has never been easy even over 20 years ago.

So perhaps you should stop thinking you know better. 😌

People don't dock points for the existence of a battle pass because it's in no shape or form something that can be construed as an absolute negative before a game goes live. Tons of games have battle passes or similar and they cause zero issues.

Games as a service is a reality of the industry no more or no less than free to play, games that require a subscription, and many other business models. Reviewers judge a game's quality, not the way the developer/publisher decides to make money.

Should people dock points from Final Fantasy XIV because it requires people to pay $15 a month?
Obviously not. That'd be ridiculous

Should we dock points from all gacha games because they have gacha and some people don't like gacha?
Again. That'd be ridiculous.

Reviews are about a game's quality. Being hostile to this or that business model isn't part of the job description unless someone's trying to be pandering.

Just because you personally dislike something, it doesn't mean a reviewer needs to consider it a negative or be "dishonest." That's as self-centered a view as they come, on top of an extremely toxic view.

[Angyobangyo]

You don’t need to get a job as a reviewer to see flaws in a game and wonder why it got high scores. Mainstream gaming journalism has been in the drain for years.

You conveniently left out publishers who leave out cash shops/MT/battle passes when a game launches and after positive reviews patch it in. D4 is a worse game now than when it launched, it should be getting better.

Battle passes and MT on full priced games are objectively terrible.

MT made Assassins Creed a worse experience than the OG ones because they purposely made the game grindy, but “thanks” to the cash shop you could speed up progress.

Battle passes and MT for priced game provide no benefit to the overall experience to the end user. It is purely to make money even if it’s to the detriment to the game.

[Abriael]

Oh yeah, another who confuses "I don't like this" with "Objectively terrible."

"Objectively" doesn't mean what you think it means.

You'd be surprised at how many people genuinely enjoy battle passes, gacha, microtransactions. and all that stuff. There's a reason why they generate as much engagement as they do.

Contrary to popular belief, things that are "objectively terrible" don't sell.

Of course, you'll argue that people who enjoy it are somehow insane and compelled by some mysterious voodoo to purchase it.

Thinking that those who don't agree with your taste are somehow misguided is one of the laziest ways of thinking.

[anast]

If we are to apply this then only workers in a field can critique things in such field, thus leaving the people that pay for and/or consume their services as nothing more than ATM machines at the whim of any given producer. It's stupid. And it's extremely dumb to expect the consumer to pay for and make the product at the same time. I mean who actually thinks like this?

[-Foxtrot]

Abriael

No offence man but you can like such a stuck up, pretentious ass on here. You act like you are better than us and your opinion rules all.

“ So perhaps you should stop thinking you know better. 😌”

I mean come on, look at the way you’ve worded that with the emoji and all. You literally do the thing you call others for while having a condescending attitude to people.

I get your offended as you review games or are journalist or whatever but still my point still stands, not like I called you personally or whatever. You got your foot through the door with this type of job but other people don’t get that lucky regardless of whatever skills they have.

Besides you can criticise something without having to be a reviewer anyway. It’s like saying you can’t criticise films unless you are a film director. It’s an awful way of putting things, it’s like gate keeping criticism or something.

Like you are bringing up FFXIV when it’s an MMO, they always have paid subscriptions and the game has always had good content especially when they overhauled everything with its bad original launch. It’s such a bad example to use here. It’s never been an issue towards gamers.

“Just because you personally dislike something, it doesn't mean a reviewer needs to consider it a negative or be "dishonest."

Lmao. Whaaaa

Who likes MT’s, bad malicious practices, less content, greedy battle passes and the like? It’s not really a two sided thing here where people love them.

You are literally calling me self centred for supporting gamers, the consumer against people companies like EA or Blizzard who implement that crap.

It should be at least thought about in reviews because it’s malicious gaming practices.

Whose side are you on anyway? And you call me toxic…jeez.

[Abriael]

@-Foxtrot: personal attacks aside, which I'll ignore, if you think no one (or if you even think it's rare) likes the things you mentioned, you're absolutely out of touch with gamers.

Again, things that are objectively bad or universally disliked are unsuccessful. It's really that simple. People don't buy into microtransactions of various denominations because they're somehow compelled or insane. They do it because they enjoy them much more than what people who hate them understand. You claim you "support gamers" but you don't know them. You're simply assuming that gamers must agree with you.

Incidentally, your argument that "it's an MMORPG so it's different!" is also completely flawed. MMORPGs require either a monthly fee or microtransactions/premium passes simply because they're the earliest form of game as a service.

Other games as a service that do the same do it for the same reason. Because they provide new content for years and these business models require continued funding to develop. There's zero business difference between the two.

Continued development = Continued demand to pay salaries of developers = Ongoing payment business model.

I'm not on any side. My role is observing. And my observation tells me that you simply don't know gamers as much as you think you do, and you're replacing that lack of knowledge with your personal bias.

My observation also tells me that many "gamers" are extremely illogical in judging things, and the "microtransactions are malicious gaming practices" thing is one of these cases. People want new content to come in order to keep enjoying games for years but don't want to pay for it. I also want not to pay fuel for my car, but at least I know it's just an illogical pipe dream.

Just like someone is working to make the fuel I put in my car, someone is working to create the content that games as a service continue to release. Diablo IV's seasons don't make themselves. These people require salaries, and microtransactions pay these salaries.

[Tacoboto]

Since the game launched with no active season, there was no deceptive UX yet like this to knock in the reviews.

So it would be great for sites that post reviews to take ownership on follow ups for GaaS titles exactly for this reason. Or review in context of Seasonal updates that people are spending money on.

[victorMaje]

This. If you’re getting 1 experience at launch (& therefore the review at that time) & a different one through gaas, then maybe update the review to reflect the experience through gaasing.
Ongoing games should have ongoing reviews. That way players can see if the game is the same, getting better or worse.

[Abriael]

Yeah, sure, keeping track and updating reviews about 21021987 past games is totally doable (obvious sarcasm). Are you gonna pay the manpower required for that massive task? Maybe gaming sites should implement microtransactions as well 😂

Gaming sites give you an indication with their review which is a snapshot in time at release and they don't claim it to be anything else.

They're not there to hold your hand and make your purchasing decisions for you throughout your lifetime.

[victorMaje]

@Abriael

There aren’t that many gaas games & only a handful last for many years. Not that daunting of a task for serious gaming sites.

Continued gaas games reviews (replacing maybe clickbait articles) would also build loyalty to such sites where readers will always come back for the latest review updates (doesn’t have to be every month). Site clicks also generate funds from the ads on said site.

This has nothing to do with holding hands. We all know how reviews affect sales. If a gaas game switches to shitty practices & an ongoing review relates it, it can affect new sales which would also push devs to revert back from said practices.

[1nsomniac]

I’m surprised it’s took this long for blizzard to be called out on how malicious their tactics are. They’re genuinely deceitful with intention to fool or manipulate people. They’re not very clever with it but are just so open about it. Weird that they get away with it.

[Extermin8or3_]

What's deceptive about this? I thought it was pretty clear if you were clicking tinactivate the premium battlepass. I'm also really confused why you WOULDNT want to activate your battlepass ASAP given you won't get the progress on it if you don't activate it.

[Crows90]

Most buttons for purchasing a battle pass would direct you to another page with price information etc...why am I being charged for a product I wasn't given pricing information on?

And progress carries over...there's a free and premium aspect to the battle pass

[Extermin8or3_]

But that isnt peoples complaint here. Their complaint is they ate accidentally activating the battlepass that came with the edition of the game they bought. If you buy the battlepass you need to have enough silver and it does ask you to confirm the purchase.

[Crows90]

@exterminator

Did people pay more for that edition? If they did then money spent on that edition was used without confirming permission. That's a problem and all individuals should have their token refunded.

It was 💯 intentional by blizzard to use up those tokens.

[Abear21]

Sports gamers yawn

[Crows90]

Yeah this is 100% spot on. Ive never seen a button automatically charge you. It actually happened to me.

You expect the button to take you to another screen with the option and explanation of everything you get. It's fucked up how it automatically charges you.

Don't get me started on the bullshit activities of the season and how the content is locked behind busy work.

They fooled me twice with their game design. Now they stole my money. And the "new content" is locked behind fulfilling open world activities. WOW

Goodbye blizzard. Hope you keep digging that hole.

[savedsynner]

I'm convinced these whiners wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes in the era of NES difficulty

[BrainSyphoned]

The age demographic of Diablo is the NES era. If you think adding 5 minutes of extra HP to a boring sponge fight makes it harder that is a you issue.