Diablo 4 players disappointed by season 1 are toying with a novel idea: doing something else.
It's fair to say that Diablo 4 season 1 hasn't been well received by players, and I say that with confidence because Blizzard itself recently admitted the changes were "bad" and "not fun." And while we have no reason to believe the lackluster seasonal content is having any sort of significant impact on Diablo 4's massively successful launch, a growing number of demon slayers say they're hanging up their horned helmets for a life of, well, other games, hobbies, and maybe even some general life responsibilities.
In a Reddit post with almost 2,000 upvotes titled "Season 1 burnout - I don't want to do all of this stuff again," Graphics_Nerd explains in detail why they're considering calling it quits.
- Diablo 2 creator says players treated the action RPG like a "lifestyle game" because it was fun, and MMOs like World of Warcraft had more to do with starting the live service trend
- Diablo 4 boss would push for patches to have more fun stuff to balance out unpopular but necessary nerfs: "Lots of medicine, don't see much sugar"
"I got one character to lvl 88 before I started a seasonal character and was excited to check out the new content / items and I got to lvl 28 mainly doing world events between unlocking town portals - but I find myself looking at the map more and more with zero desire to do side quests, unlock aspects and strongholds, or have to run capstones again."
In the end, Graphics_Nerd predicts, "I'll probably still hate-play it for a few more weeks because ultimately I'm a Diablo fan that has been playing since the first one was released and I really want to like it."
The top comments on Graphics_Nerd's post, each with hundreds of upvotes, emphatically agree with the sentiment.
Another popular post from a disaffected Diablo 4 player reads: "I'm not bitter or angry, I'm just bored. S1 didn't add anything that interesting, essentially some new types of gems and... we put it down the day before yesterday and last night kinda went 'I think I'm done with it.'"
"Hot take: If you've played D4 for longer than 100hrs you've gotten your moneys worth," posits one Nervous-Midnight6721, kicking off a spirited debate about Diablo 4 in its current state.
"I myself have decided to wait until season 2 to even bother going back to it," reads yet another active Reddit thread on the subject. "If the current state of the game is so transient there's no point in putting in the effort when things are just going to change again a week down the road."
Blizzard always said that Diablo 4 isn't "intended to be played forever," but I think some people were still surprised how quickly the rocky season dried up. I, for one, am still enjoying Diablo 4 despite admittedly caring very little about what's in the seasonal realm. As a self-professed filthy casual with an ever-revolving backlog of other games I play on the regular, there's plenty of meat in the main campaign to keep me well-fed for now.
That said, I can sympathize with folks who ran through the campaign a lot more quickly and are disappointed with season 1. I just hope they feel encouraged to explore the big wide world of other stuff, particularly in the upcoming indie games space, worth checking out if you aren't feeling Diablo 4 in this given moment.
For more, here are the best games released in 2023 so far.
