Blizzard admits Diablo III is a game that ends (AND NOT ALL THAT WELL EITHER)

Just how long should players expect a game to remain fresh and exciting? Do publishers have to treat all AAA games as services that keep us constantly entertained for years or even decades? Have MMOs trained us to feel entitled to games that never actually end? These are the questions that have been circling my head after reading Blizzard's response to player complaints about the lack of compelling "endgame" content in Diablo III.

In a massive thread on the official Blizzard forums, user Slicktorine leads things off by saying that after putting 350 hours into Diablo III, he's starting to get bored. Seriously. After putting in enough time to easily beat the game on all four difficulty levels with all five character classes, traverse every corner of the map both with and without friends, and most likely master the one-death-and-you're-done Hardcore mode, Diablo III is finally starting to lose its luster for him. Apparently, Slicktorine and many others commenting on the thread were expecting better than a six-cent-per-hour return on their $60 investment in the game.

To be fair, the thread contains some legitimate complaints about how Diablo III's endgame compares to that of Diablo II. The relative scarcity of interesting, unique item drops in the game's last act, along with the level 60 progression cap, makes farming for items and experience after the game is done a little pointless. Then again, this kind of farming was always a somewhat pointless way to satisfy the "look at the numbers go up" itch and make an already completed game just a little easier to complete. I'm more sympathetic to the demands for some sort of super-challenging endgame dungeon full of elite enemies, even though I think Hardcore mode should already provide a significant enough challenge for most players.

It's not the specific complaints that get to me, though, so much as the sense players seem to feel that the game owes them more than it has already given. "I played this game nonstop for the first month, and in the last two weeks I've played once," writes one angry commenter, who apparently believes a month of nonstop play was not enough to expect from the game. Another complains that "right now at 500+ hours played, the Time+reward is crap unless you use the AH to buy ALL YOUR GEAR." I'm sorry, but expecting a game to remain just as rewarding after playing for over 500 hours is a bit much. Even timeless games like chess and poker start to get a little less interesting after investing that much time and attention. I understand that you never want the thrill of clicking on enemies and getting cool new items for your guy to end, but there are other experiences out there to enjoy...

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/07/blizzard-admits-diablo-iii-is-a-game-that-ends/

As I've said previously, if you haven't bought it, don't waste your money. Everything there is in the game ends after the end of Normal. After that, it's the same game, just harder.