Happy New Years all!
I’ve read through a LOT of complaints people have with DI since launch, but there’s one problem which I believe is greater than all, and that’s the Shadow vs Immortal mechanic.
Our clan was once super competitive and we became Immortals on our server. At some stage, due to politics, our leader crumbled under the stress involved in running our clan. The same thing happened to our next leader. I now find myself as the leader and I’m trying my best to not let the politics ruin the fun, but it’s not been easy.
At this stage of the game (especially since the server merges) it’s quite clear that only the strongest clans will become Immortal, and the Immortals will only align with the 2 strongest Shadow Clans. This means that it’s now probably impossible for many players to experience what it’s like to be Immortals in the game.
Since launch, after each rite we lose our strongest players who leave us to join the new Immortals. Never mind how much we’ve gotten to know each other (we have a very active discord and in-game chat, some of us have even met up IRL), and all those hours helping each other get our characters stronger. For some, the desire to become Immortal is above all.
The devs have created a game that pits us against each other and it’s obvious that this is by design, but in reality we’re more like minded than people may realise. Most of us in our clan live in the same country and we love playing Diablo, yet the mechanics of the game creates tension, much of it negative.
When you’re an Immortal you sometimes feel like many players on the server despise you. When you’re competitive you’ve got to have spies to manipulate and collect information on potential alliances which need to be made in order to become the next Immortals.
You can get lost in all the politics of the game, or you could simply choose to have fun and ignore it (and potentially lose a lot of clan members who desire to become Immortals). Personally I’ve tried to focus on what my clan does have, and that’s a great community of great people, but I’m also facing the reality that we’re probably not going to be Immortals again any time soon (or ever) as most of our clan are low spenders (I’m now the only one left with 3K res in the clan).
Whilst I understand that this is the nature of the game. I’m not 100% sure if the devs truly meant for it to get to where it’s at right now. IE: That in order to be Immortal you’re going to need a clan full spenders, and if you’re a F2P player, you might never get the chance to experience what being an Immortal is all about.
/rant.