Why isn’t Blizzard pushing Diablo 3 in China? Because it sucks

Having grown up playing Blizzard games, I’ve naturally become a fanboy. Whatever game Blizzard pushes out, I will pay for it. That includes Diablo 3, a game that all of us have waited for more than a decade for.

But in return of our faith, money, and anticipation, what we got from Blizzard is an absolutely crappy game. And of course, Chinese fans haven’t gotten any game at all. Some might say the delay is because China isn’t allowing skeletons or zombies to be in a game. Sure, that could be true, but there’s more to it, I think. I believe Blizzard knows that the game sucks so bad that it’s not worth pushing in China. Having fucked the majority of Diablo 3 fans, it couldn’t afford to fail in China, a market that has been a cash cow for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft.

Here’s 5 reasons why Diablo 3 sucks so badly:

• Crappy epic drops. After so many patches, Blizzard just can’t seem to get it right. It has perhaps intentionally made the epic drops crappy so people get fed up and spend money to buy them instead. Cheap but smart tactic.
• The real-money auction house where gamers trade virtual items for real cash is a curse rather than a blessing. It turns Diablo 3 into a game for the wealthy. Thank god that Blizzard has finally realized this problem. The real-money auction house will be closed on March 18, 2014 (which is a very WTF deadline).

• Even if you have the money to buy whatever you want in Diablo 3, there are limited maps for you to farm and play. It is such a boring game and I’m sick of doing key warden runs.

• Dueling with other players is lame. You jump into a battleground and start slashing. No rewards or anything. So what’s the point?

• White items are just there to annoy you. In Diablo 2, white items could be used to craft better magical items. But in Diablo 3, white items have no use. If they have no use, then what the hell are they there for?

I could go on, but I think you get my point. Diablo 3 is a failure and Blizzard failed to react quickly to rectify these problems. Instead, resources were spent on putting Diablo 3 on consoles. Anyone who is still playing at this point is either betting that the upcoming Reaper of Souls expansion will be great or is a super hardcore Blizzard fan.

But the majority of gamers aren’t going to be that patient. Imagine if this crappy Diablo 3 game was launched in China; would the Chinese play it? For the farmers, maybe yes. But I bet that the answer for most players would be a big fat “nope.” It is apparent that World of Warcraft is slowly decaying in China and Blizzard is perhaps feeling pressure to quickly introduce another game to switch the Chinese gamers’ attention. Diablo 3 could have been that game, but in its current state, there’s no way it could fill that void. To end my rant, I think what Hybrinyce said on the Diablo 3 forums is extremely apt:

The average gamer isn’t interested in Blizzard’s quarterly statement, they just want to play a fun game. Grinding for five hours straight and getting a set of Frostburn Gauntlets is a slap in the face with a wet fish. Definitely not fun!

And Blizzard, I hope you listen to this before plunging into China. Chinese gamers like fun just as much as anyone else, so it’s probably a good thing the game hasn’t launched there yet.