Interesting Comment about D2 on Xplay

[ubersky]

Xplay (a G4tv TV Show about Gaming) is doing their Summer Game Special for 2007, and was reviewing Hellgate: London, a sorta FPS/RPG set in the future.

One of the comments from the Developers is that there is alot of D2 players still playing D2 waiting for a successor (oddly enough, starcraft has the same thing going on). He said something like 100k D2 players actively playing still.

Did THQ not market TQ enough to get a large portion of the D2 players? I know some of us here are ex-D2 players (me included), but 100k? is it because TQ doesn't have something like Battle.Net to rank players or things like that?

[Poinas]

I'm pretty sure having a limited online service compared to D2 hampered the sales somewhat.

[ubersky]

I agree. I think if they had something akin to Battle.Net it would be more popular.

[Infares]

Originally Posted by ubersky

I agree. I think if they had something akin to Battle.Net it would be more popular.

This has more or less been the ultimate linchpin of why many including myself think THQ dropped the ball with Titan Quest. The game, given closed servers would have yielded far better results and ended up a better game in the long run due to ongoing support. Without the closed servers, it's basically done well for what it was, but had the virtual plug pulled by the publisher well before its time.

[ubersky]

If there is still 100k people playing D2 basically because of the content locked Network and ladder system.. I think TQ would have done very well.

[Sumyunguy]

No new developer is going to create anything like battle.net. They can try, but battle.net only works because Blizzard is a big company with money to burn for maintenance, and fighting cheaters and hackers.

This game didn't sell because the word was out from day #1 that it was buggy, crashy, and stutteriffic, even on machines running with recommended or better hardware. I know quite a few ppl personally that didn't buy into this game because of that fact. Then Iron Lore patched it what...4 or 5 times? then expanded with another patch, and now here we are with Immortal Throne's problems being worse than the original release. Then to beat all, THQ pulls the plug on it (I don't blame them), so there won't be any more fixes, which means not even ONE patch for Immortal Throne. It's a shame really.

The only thing that will be the great "Diablo killer" is Diablo III. Why can't a big company with the resources make a good hack n slash? Even when they know how huge Diablo II was, and how bad fans of the genre are dying for a successor? It has been what? about 7 years since D2 hit the shelves? Maybe it's because every game like this is labeled as a "Diablo clone", so does that mean all FPS games are "Wolfenstein and Doom" clones? Ridiculous.

[Psimon]

Maybe not having a server such as battle.net hurt TQ, I can't say. Myself, I loved and played D2 and hated battle.net. I logged onto it once, and it was so rife with hacked and cheated characters I never logged onto it again.

I'd only remotely heard of Titan Quest. For sure, if they had said it was a game of the same stamp as D2 I'd have immediately gone after it. As for its bugs, it is minimally bugged compared to a lot of games out there. Of course, "your mileage may vary"; I already had a new system just prior to getting it and TQIT.

IMO, it was lack of advertising and promotion that limited its playerbase; and lack of controls on cheaters will doom its multiplayer. As for comparisons to Diablo2, its a superior (and funner) game. Of course, it has the benefit of the (somewhat) latest technology.

[Opperator]

Originally Posted by Psimon

As for comparisons to Diablo2, its a superior (and funner) game. Of course, it has the benefit of the (somewhat) latest technology.

Blizzard never intended for Diablo II to make use of the (then) current technology. Rather, it ditched all the fancy graphics and whatnot and replaced them with pure gameplay and replayability. Even 7 years after DII hitting the shelves, I don't believe Titan Quest is truly benefiting from the updated graphics and physics.

The Diablo series created the Hack & Slash RPG genre, and also single handedly killed it off for their competitors.

[Morythia]

Originally Posted by Opperator

The Diablo series created the Hack & Slash RPG genre, and also single handedly killed it off for their competitors.

I don't think that's entirely true TQ has potential. I have given up and started playing D2 more times than I've ever bought a new game. Replayability, Exclusivity, CHALLENGE, and we have to make a distinction between CLOSED and OPEN Bnet.

I was keeping an eye on another Hack and Slash game by Cyanide (a French company) called Loki. it looked good and just reading the forums there I kept seeing everyone else refer to TQ so I decided to try it.

I felt right at home, and if this game had two thing, one a closed network, meaning NO cheats, and random maps, it would be the sucessor to D2. All that's needed to keep us addicts addicted is new items and formulas every so often and a ranking system that's reset, again every so often. The biggest testament to D2 is that it was to my knowlege the first game to have virtual items for sale on eBay.

So if Blizzard was smart, they'd save themselves alot of work, buy the TQ engine and begin to build D3 from there, throwing in nice 128 bit AES encrypted char files to get rid of hacks and dupes.

JC

[Helios]

Originally Posted by Sumyunguy

This game didn't sell because the word was out from day #1 that it was buggy, crashy, and stutteriffic, even on machines running with recommended or better hardware. I know quite a few ppl personally that didn't buy into this game because of that fact. Then Iron Lore patched it what...4 or 5 times? then expanded with another patch, and now here we are with Immortal Throne's problems being worse than the original release. Then to beat all, THQ pulls the plug on it (I don't blame them), so there won't be any more fixes, which means not even ONE patch for Immortal Throne. It's a shame really.

Buggy? I never had any major problems. I get couple stutters. Hardly nothing to gripe about. I don't even have that great of a system. However not all systems are created equal. Hey didn't Diablo have a couple patches?

THQ pulled the plug. Well that just bites. TQ has so much more potential.