On August 21st, The newest patch for Blizzard’s Smash-hit Diablo 3 went live: Version 1.04. This came about in the wake of the game’s director, Jay Wilson, admitting that the game actually didn’t have enough content to keep players playing, even after reaching level 60. The number of players in the game has dwindled in recent months, as players are finding the driving goal of discovering more loot less and less satisfying after the game is complete. The new patch has changed the drop rates of legendary items, as well as implementing what is called the “Paragon System,” which adds essentially another 100 levels to gain after level 60 as a means of bolstering post-game content. Wilson has stated on the blizzard website that he is incredibly proud of the game, but he agrees with a lot of player complaints about the lack of a reason to keep playing after level 60, and hopes to address it.
The problem of a lack of post end-game content isn’t just for Diablo 3 though. Earlier this year the much hyped Star Wars: The Old Republic came out to widespread critical praise and 1.7 million subscribers. Since it’s release though, subscribership to the game has tanked, and EA is now changing the game from charging a fee of 15 dollars a month, to a free-to-play business model, just to retain users and hopefully bring subscriber numbers back up.
This is a problem that has been in the game industry since it’s inception: What keeps players playing games? Last fall saw the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a game where the amount of content in the game kept players playing for hundreds of hours, even after the relatively short main quest was complete. The game had a nigh infinite number of side quests to partake in, people to meet, places to discover, and dragons to kill. Not only that, but Bethesda’s constant additions of Downloadable Content (AKA DLC) like Dawnguard and the just-announced Hearthfire make the already large amount of content in the game absolutely staggering.
When the games are compared, it’s the fact that Diablo 3 assumes that players will keep playing after level 60 simply to find better items, whereas Skyrim keeps players playing because the game has actual quests to complete. In short, Diablo tries to keep players with an idea and Skyrim keeps players with actual gameplay. Developers need to realize that for a game to keep players playing, games need to have actual content in the game, like more quests and places to explore, and not just the idea of the game.
That’s not to say that every game strives to hold onto its players after the game is complete. This summer’s release Lollipop Chainsaw was exactly what it promised, a hack-and-slash zombie killing game that oozed style, but was entirely linear. The game also made no illusions about the length, after the game was over, it was done. There were score leaderboards included, and unlockable skins for the main character, but aside from that there was nothing to keep people playing the game after it’s release, and that was completely okay. The game sold a respectable 700 thousand copies and gained critical praise for the most part. It will live on in used game bins at GameStop til the end of time, where gamers will pick it up years from now out of sheer curiosity or nostalgia. But the game made money and accomplished exactly what it set out to.
But for games like The Old Republic and Diablo, where the success of the game lives and dies on whether people are still playing, keeping players entertained after the main game is beaten is of the utmost importance. One of the positives (or possibly negatives) of gaming in the 21st century though is DLC and content patches. The fact is Blizzard Games realizes that Diablo is lacking in a distinctive post game, and taking steps like the new 1.04 content patch is certainly working toward rectifying the situation. Whether the patch is enough to bring players back to the game or keep players playing remains to be seen, but developers have to start realizing that to keep players playing, they have to actually make content in their games.
Lost In The Overworld 