Almighty Video Game Designer

Chapter 216: Regaining Popularity

The players went wild as they saw that Weibo.

“What? Expansion pack for Diablo?”

“It’s available already? When did Chen Mo start working on it?”

“Why didn’t he say anything about it before?”

“I thought Chen Mo was too busy working on Don’t Starve and Diablo’s international release and had no time to work on the expansion pack!”

“I’m so happy I’m crying! He didn’t forget us! Let’s see what’s in it!”

“Two new jobs and a new act!”

“From the promotional video, the cinematics are as good as the other ones, the story looks incredible too!”

“The new classes, Crusader and Necromancer look quite interesting. The female Crusader looks so pretty, I have to create one!”

“Let’s see if there’s any new game modes. Adventure mode? Experience your own story? Sure, that’ll make grinding easier in the future.”

“Hold on, Challenge Rift? Leaderboards? Competitive season? There’s so many words... Alright, I’ll read through them. It’s like a list of things we need to do, first create a seasonal character, then grind like crazy in the Challenge Rift, then climb the leaderboards? Chen Mo’s so thoughtful!”

“It feels like the leaderboards for mobile card games... Anyways, I hated ranked ladders previously, but I don’t know how I’ll live without it!”

“Expert mode? One life? That sounds exciting, I like that!”

“The expansion pack costs 88 RMB? I’m not sure if I’m going to buy it... It’s not really worth it if I just continue to grind the same way after buying the DLC.”

“You should buy it just for the two classes1”

“That’s true, you go ahead and let me know how it goes.”

With the quality assurance of Diablo, Reaper of Souls sold many copies upon release. This was mainly due to how long the players have been waiting. Many thought Chen Mo didn’t plan to give it any updates, but nobody thought that he would release a whole expansion pack, one with a lot of content at that. This was news that shocked everyone.

Warcraft didn’t get this treatment!

Moreover, no matter if Diablo’s post game was boring or not, it was a high quality game, managing to attract many players in its early life.

Moreover, it seemed that this expansion pack had a lot of effort poured into it.

-Inside the experience store-

Many players playing Don’t Starve switched over to Diablo the moment Reaper of Souls was released. It was filled with Don’t Starve fans, but all of a sudden they were now in the minority.

“You’re playing Diablo’s expansion pack too?”

“Yeah, new story and new classes, I have to try it.”

“You’re giving up Don’t STarve? I was waiting for us to all play together!”

“It’s fine, this would only last a week or two. I’ll try out the new classes before getting sick of the story, then I’ll come back to picking up garbage from the ground.”

“Yeah, the life of a Nephalem is calling!”

Zou Zhuo created a seasonal character, a female Crusader, and started grinding right away.

There were many players like Zou Zhuo, a competitive season was something fresh in the minds of many seasoned players.

It was because players bought the game at different times, some earlier than others. The players who started earlier would have a significant advantage over the later players, so it would be close to impossible for players who bought the game to stand a chance on the leaderboards.

Moreover, many didn’t understand the game at the start, so they didn’t put much thought into skills and equipment, and have been through many wrong turns. The gaps between players would be huge if they used their own characters.

Now that there was a competitive season implemented, as everybody needed to create a fresh character, everyone was starting from the same point. The noobs wouldn’t be too far behind the higher skilled players, and the pros would still have some advantage. The ranked season got many riled up.

Zou Zhuo said to Jia Peng, “Let’s get grinding. We’ll play till night to get max levels!”

Jia Peng replied, “Uhh, the experience store closes at night.”

“So what? We’ll go to the internet cafe if the experience store closes, let’s go!”

The expansion pack got many riled up on the Diablo forums too. Some were discussing the story, some the new classes, while others talked about the competitive season and leaderboards. There were even discussions about expert mode and legendary gems.

“Which classes would have the most advantage in the new season? Who would reach the top?”

“I’ll be on the grind tomorrow, can anybody explain how the Barbarian should be played?”

“The new season has begun! Anybody wanna grind together?”

“I’m new, could anyone teach me how to play necromancer in preparation of climbing the ladder tomorrow?”

“This new kid wants to play the game after seeing the expansion pack, anyone wanna take me along?”

“Big damage thread, the different builds of Barbarian.”

“Drop list: drop rates of different difficulties.”

“Analysis Diablo damage calculation and different ways of increasing damage.”

“New player introduction to classes.

Some of the more popular threads were bumped to the top. The players who left Diablo came right back to it upon hearing about the expansion pack as they looked forward to trying out the competitive season.

Soon, many of the complaint threads and recommendation threads were all gone, and the rating of the expansion pack continued to increase.

“I think this game is playable again! The competitive mode is actually quite fun, my daily grind is now filled with motivation!”

“Yeah, you’d spend so much time grinding before just for good equipment. So what? Nobody sees it, nobody to share it with. Now that there’s a leaderboard to work towards, I feel so motivated to grind!”

“Although I’m completely sick of the story mode, I can still keep grinding in adventure mode. I could craft special equipment by completing special tasks, I can grind in Challenge Rifts, or even try and climb higher and higher in the Greater Rift!”

“Climbing the ranked ladder is so addicting!”

“The new job is great too! The skill set of Crusader and Necromancer are so well done!”

“And there’s a lot of new content too. You can transmute items using Kanai’s Cube, it’s so great to gain so much strength so quickly. All the special equipment that we set aside previously have a use now!”

“Anyone tried expert mode? It feels so great! The feeling of dying from one misstep is crazy!”

“The expansion pack is excellent, long live Chen Mo!”

“Hey, you guys were so mean to him before!”

“Ahem, it’s a misunderstanding, misunderstanding I tell you! From today onwards, I’m a braindead Chen Mo fan!”

“Chen Mo does remember us! I don’t know if he saw the recommendation threads, but not including those recommendations was a great idea. This expansion pack was much better than anything in those threads!”

“Indeed, ‘I’m smarter than the designer’ doesn’t apply to Chen Mo!”