Blizzard has made it a point to stress that the monetization of Immortal can be ignored up to the point of the game’s final that is the case, and claims that the majority gamers enjoy the game without spending any money Diablo 4 Gold, which is reasonable. However, it’s not true that the primary pleasure of Diablo is exploring the story instead of maxing out your character. It’s equally insincere to say that these games have always been engineered to engender a hunger for hitting the power limit in their players. For people with a tendency toward addiction to gambling, to the addictive aspects of Diablo’s item games — or even either — the legendary Crest system can be exploitative and potentially very damaging.

For those who don’t this makes Diablo less enjoyable.

We’ve been there before, or somewhere like it. When Diablo 3 launched in 2012 an auction house with real money in which players could buy or sell their item drops. In theory, the auction house was in place to stop cheating and scamming that beset the trading of items in Diablo 2. But to guide players towards an auction house Blizzard lowered loot drop rates in the game to the extent that equipping your characters with loot became a monotonous chore, and the game as overall was not enjoyable to play. The auction house that was a snobbery was eliminated and drop rates were increased in 2014, Diablo 3 instantly became more enjoyable, even before improvements of The Reaper of Souls expansion raised it to the status of a classic.

Lesson: It might make sense on paper in the attempt to make money out of Diablo’s treasures, but the moment you do this, you’re draining enjoyment from the game. The same is true for Diablo Immortal, and it’s obvious before you hit the endgame, because it’s built into the game’s structure. Drops of loot aren’t as effective and character progression is artificially slowed and scattered across multiple game systems that are rough and coarse. It’s been more skillfully disguised than it was at the start in Diablo 3, but it’s also a tedious grind. A battle pass purchase or investing big bucks in legendary crests won’t do much as paying for an amazing item drop won’t be as exciting as just getting one buy Diablo IV Gold.