Josh Strife Hayes and The Immoral Design of Diablo Immortal

Diablo Immortal has been out and about for more than two weeks now and has gotten a lot of flak for its monetization.

The push starts small, but it starts right away

I made my own post about the game after playing it for a little over two hours and pretty much walked away from it.  It is uninstalled and I have no plans to go back to it.  I certainly didn’t have any plans to post about it again.

And then I watched the Josh Strife Hayes video about the game and thought I ought to post that as well.

First, this video has a pretty good and detailed look into the monetization scheme for Diablo Immortal.  I didn’t have the patience to go this deep, so it is nice to have a video example that does go far and explains clearly what is going on.

Second, it is actually a reasonable look at the game play of the game, which has its good points.  JSH does see some good in the game and he is always willing to acknowledge when something is done right.  That is part of why I enjoy his videos.

Third, while he likes the basic game, he also manages to pick out almost every issue with the port to windows, beyond just the mobile terminology that is still in the game, that bugged me, and even clarifies one or two problems I saw but couldn’t quite nail down.  But it solidifies what I wrote myself, that Diablo Immortal on Windows is not the solid, polished Blizzard title we have come to expect over the years.

Overall, worth a view if you want a dive into the game and a reminder of what happens to your reputation if you place it in the hands of somebody who doesn’t share your values. (Cue jokes about Blizzard values.)

Blizzard has had to go out of its way to state that Diablo IV will NOT be monetized the way Diablo Immortal has been.  It doesn’t matter that the scheme was the model NetEase uses.  It was launched under the Blizzard banner.  The Blizzard logo is all over it, so Blizzard owns it.  They don’t get to say, “It wasn’t us.”