A friend of mine (Plisskin in the comments here) and I recently decided we wanted to play through a co-op game together. After comparing what we both had and were willing to play, we settled on Diablo II.
For those of you who aren't up on your gaming history, Diablo II was released in 2000 and it's expansion was released in 2001. At this point, you are probably saying, "YOU WERE PLAYING A 9-YEAR-OLD GAME!?! ARE YOU CRAZY!?!" To which I would respond, "Yes, yes I am, but that has nothing to do with Diablo II."
Diablo II has held up better than just about any game I've ever played. I played it back in 2000 and I've played it a handful of times since then. Now, there have been plenty games that have tried to be Diablo but with better graphics (Titan Quest, Sacred, etc), but, in my opinion, they all pale in comparison to the original... 2D graphics and all.
Diablo II is delightfully fast paced with a basically never-ending horde of enemies always coming in the from the edge of the screen. The classes are diverse, the spells/abilities are relatively interesting, and the game is completely random in both loot and dungeon layouts. Diablo II is a classic example of wanting to play just a little bit longer to try and get that new bow or a unique helm, which brings me to the title of my post.
For those of you who haven't Diablo II (Wait. You haven't played Diablo II? Stop reading and go buy it. NOW), there is a fantastic feature in the game that allows you to spend money for a chance at getting
a new piece of gear. You get to choose what type of item to gamble for (belt, ring, sword, etc) and told how much it will cost you (it's generally a LOT), then you click and hope for the best. After you get done holding your breath and look at what you have received (you HAVE to hold your breath when you gamble in Diablo II... it's a rule), you say a little swear word and then sell that piece of garbage back to the vendor (NOTE: if the suffix of the item is "of worth" it's a guarantee that the item is not worth much). This you do over and over and over again until the stars align and you get a mystical rare bow... which of course isn't as good as what you are already wielding. What then is the appeal of gambling in Diablo II? I DON'T KNOW. I hardly ever get anything I can use and I tend to just waste a lot of money. I do know one thing though... I CAN'T STOP DOING IT.
Here's my general plea to game developers: put this feature into more games. It's awesome and it gives me something to do with extra cash in the late game, something that seems to plague nearly every RPG (even MMOs!) ever made.
Ohh.... imagine if I can gamble for Tier 9 gear in WoW... or for a purple lightsaber in SWTOR...
Drool...
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I think the reason gambling works so well in Diablo 2 is that money isn't hard to come by at all. So you don't feel bad spending 50,000 on a ring, since you can get that back in 2 pieces of armor. In WoW though, while gold isn't hard to get, it takes more effort. If I gambled 100g in that game, and got a grey sword that sold for 2g, not only would I have wasted 98g, but 30 minutes of daily time too.
ReplyDeleteStill, I agree, more games need gambling. Even when it's just simple card games (21, Video Poker) like in GTA: SA or Saints Row, I usually end up spending a lot more time gambling in those games than doing missions.