Can Diablo III Succeed Where Hellgate: London Failed?
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I canceled my pre-order to Hellgate: London after a couple of weeks in the open beta. Part of it was that the developers were essentially charging for battle.net and -- worst -- charging for extra character slots. I know they tried to dress it up like MMO fees, but Hellgate: London is not an MMO. They also tried to dress it up like paying for expansions by the month, but why limit character slots so much on the basic account if you aren't trying to squeeze the players? After all, the charm of the Diablo series was their replayability.
Now, I would like to say that my decision to cancel my pre-order was all about taking an ethical stand against 'the man', but one other thing played a part in it: the game just wasn't all that fun. It was okay, and had they not been trying to get me to pay for something they should have been giving me for free, I'd have probably stuck around to see if they could patch it into a good game, but at the end of the day, my lack of being blown away played a big role in not going down that road.
So, when Blizzard finally did announce Diablo III, I was pretty fired up. Hey, if the original developers aren't going to get it done, maybe the original company can do it. And, unlike some fans who are upset, I like what I've seen so far.
