Diablo 4 seasons & battle pass require starting a new character — why?

Diablo 4’s release seems to have gone very well for Blizzard, which boasted of its biggest launch ever after a huge (and weirdly scattershot) marketing blitz. As the first season of the game and the battle pass are introduced, there is a communication issue.

New Diablo players (and those who didn’t get involved in seasonal play in earlier iterations of the game) have been shocked to discover that, in order to participate in seasonal content and make the most of the accompanying battle pass, they will have to make new seasonal characters and start leveling them from scratch. Not only that, but they’ll need to do so every three months if they want to join in future seasons.

Diablo’s general manager Rod Fergusson was recently appointed. working hard in the repliesOn Twitter, this week I tried to clarify the confusion. Among other things, Fergusson has been called upon to explain that players’ current characters won’t disappear at the start of a new season — they’ll live on in what Blizzard calls the “eternal realm,” as will seasonal characters once a new season rolls around. The player only needs to finish the quest. Diablo 4You can choose to skip the campaign and level up your characters in a more flexible way.

However, many people are still disappointed and confused. “I’m a new Diablo player and a new dad. Only an hour per day is all I have to play. So my current character is only level 11,” said one. “You’re saying I should basically not even play this game then right?”

Diablo seasons do not match up with the newer generation of games. Diablo 4 is attempting to join — and by combining these two things, Blizzard has set itself on a collision course with new players’ expectations.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo is the ultimate competitive game. A season allows players to challenge themselves and each other against their opponents, as well as against Diablo itself. The ladders were first introduced in the online version of Diablo 2Players would race to the top of the leaderboards to see who could level up the characters fastest. The game is called For Diablo 3, Blizzard renamed them seasons, and added a reward structure offering some cool seasonal loot to make participation more enticing for those who weren’t interested in competitive grinding.

This all fit into a wider culture in action role-playing games — especially the breed of dungeon crawlers, of which Diablo is the most famous example. Many fans of such games prefer to explore and experiment with character builds, instead of becoming attached to a particular character.

This culture is contrary to the views of many newcomers. Diablo 4 players expect. The game is seeing a large influx of content creators and players from all over the world. Destiny 2 community. In Destiny 2As in other games with a live service, the emphasis is on advancing one character by adding new seasons. The new character requirement seems counterintuitive to these players.

Exacerbating this problem, Blizzard has said there will be content — including new quest lines and game mechanics — that will be exclusive to individual seasons, and therefore to seasonal characters. That means that with a single character, you won’t be able to see everything Diablo 4What it has to offer

And that’s not all — there’s a financial element to this, too. Blizzard is explicitly linked to Diablo 4’s battle pass (the first in the series’ history) to the game’s seasons, meaning that only players who commit to starting new characters will be able to advance the pass and claim rewards. It has two premium and one free tier. If you purchase a battle pass, you won’t be able to get any value from it without starting a new character. Blizzard limits the market of its battle pass only to seasonal players.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Some players have been calling for Blizzard to reverse this policy, while the rest of the Diablo community is reacting with a baffled “what did you expect?” Still, both have a point. The ritual of starting new character after new character is baked into Diablo’s game design and into the habits of its long-lived and very sizable community. I already have three Diablo 4 characters, and I haven’t even finished the campaign yet.) There’s no reason for that tradition to change just to accommodate an influx of new players who’ve been trained by other games to expect something different.

Blizzard has put a strong emphasis on the past by linking battle pass progression and monetization with seasons and by locking exclusive content in them. Diablo 3Previously, this was an optional style of play. It will seem that seasonal play is the core of the game and where all the exciting updates take place. Players who prefer to stick with their original character are likely to feel that they’re missing out (even though the game undeniably gives them plenty to do in pursuit of its distant level 100 cap).

Blizzard isn’t likely to back down on this. This decision is not likely to change. Diablo 4’s seasonal character resets to its new service-game structure strikes me as bold, and very intentional. The developers are aware of the strengths and weaknesses in their game, as well as what Diablo’s players enjoy most.

The studio’s plan for battle passes and seasons is tailor made to maximize engagement from Diablo 4’s core community rather than please everyone, and that’s probably a good choice for the game’s long-term future. Blizzard’s will need to overcome the cognitive dissonance of a confused audience to reach this goal. Diablo 4’s first season launches in July.