Regardless of how good of a game it is, Diablo Immortal is currently embroiled in controversy over the many pay-to-win aspects of the game systems. Lead director Wyatt Cheng recently had a thing to say to the community about the backlash. Here’s how the Lead Director of Diablo Immortal responded to pay-to-win accusations.
Diablo Immortal Lead Director Responds to Pay to Win Accusations
Who is Wyatt Cheng?
Wyatt Cheng is the Game Director for Diablo Immortal. Cheng has worked at Blizzard Entertainment for nearly 20 years on many projects, including World of Warcraft and Diablo 3. He has been one of the biggest proponents of Diablo Immortal and has been active in dismissing criticism online for the game’s use of in-game microtransactions.
What Did Wyatt Cheng Say?
Wyatt Cheng responded to Twitch personality Zizaran, who has been more than vocal about his distaste for the microtransactions in the game. Zizaran has even gone as far as to say the game preys on players.
As a response to criticism, Wyatt Cheng stated:
It appears to us that Cheng may be misdirecting the conversation by getting into the nuanced differences between gear and gems. There’s no telling if this is intentional, but he has not responded to the criticism in a direct way as of writing. However, he has said that articles online do contain misinformation.
Is Diablo Immortal Pay-to-Win?
We’ve played into the late game and are grinding into our Paragon levels, so we have a pretty decent understanding of what it takes to get the best gear and get up on the leaderboards.
The answer is yes and no. If you’re the type to want to be the very best on the leaderboard, spend money on rifts for the best gems, and aren’t happy with just playing the game, it is pay to win. The odd differential between a player who is 100% free-to-play and a player who is spending money is just enormous within so many systems it would be disingenuous to say that it’s not pay-to-win.
However, that being said–Diablo Immortal is still one of the best–if not the best mobile games out in the market. Purely as a regular ARPG, it’s also very good, intuitive, and fun. We’ve had journalists here who paid for Legendary Crests and those who went 100% free-to-play, and both groups of people are enjoying their experiences.
So the question remains, do you have to pay to enjoy your experience in Diablo Immortal? The answer is no. If you want to pay in order to become the best is an entirely different question and relies on your personality. That’s not saying we are proponents of in-game systems that require real-life money–we think it should be limited to skins–but it is saying that for most, if you don’t have the money, you don’t have to spend the money.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the real links and studies done between gaming and gambling addiction, and it’s something that’s very serious that we would rather see go away completely in gaming. In fact, according to IGN, the Netherlands and Belgium banned the game for its “loot box systems.” For some, this game can be very addictive and dangerous.
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