I remember a time when Penny Arcade had interesting hot takes. Or maybe good hot takes. Jerry Holkins will always be a better writer than me, but I think I might be able to make some points better than him, so let me scream a few things into the void.
Let’s not bury the lede: If you buy Diablo, you’re enabling a bloated corpse of a company helmed by an incredible asshole to keep making money doing all the shit that seems to be ruining this industry.
First, Holkins implies “Nothing can harm Bobby.” This is an interesting take, and is like saying “The Ancient Old One is ever living and undying.” Maybe that’s true! Maybe it’s just what his priests say to keep people from trying to oust him. I think it’s more likely that he’ll be invulnerable until he isn’t. Also, the idea that we’ll be rid of him when the merger goes through seems a bit unlikely. Or at a bare minimum, it’ll be a while.
Next Holkinds says that Diablo 4 is good. Which is like. Sure. Yes. I think we all knew that. I think their $666 MILLION in sales in the last two weeks might be an indicator of something.
But this isn’t fucking insulin. It’s not food. This is a luxury product. It is literally the easiest thing to opt out of engaging with. I’d get why people might have a hard time not buying it if it was Soylent Green, but that’s not what we’re dealing with here. This is a video game.
Finally, there’s this idea that not buying the game is somehow punishing people who worked on it, which is, frankly, fucking fascinating. There’s something called a salary, and it’s what you get paid when you do work. I think most of the people who actually made Diablo 4 got their money.
They’re not the ones who are going to be enriched by the cash shop, battlepass, or extra premium editions. When it’s time to pay out corporate bonuses, the lion’s share of that money will be going into the pockets of an enormous jerk.
Here’s the reality of it: a lot of people want to play Diablo 4 because it’s a fun game, and because they have nostalgia for the franchise. It’s also a game made by a company with a culture of harassment, abuse, and union busting. You’re allowed to decide you don’t care all that much.
But don’t fucking act like buying Diablo somehow helps out those poor souls who made it. Don’t act like there was no other option.
I have 5000 hours of PoE. I loved Diablo 3. I’m not touching D4. You want to play Diablo because it’ll be fun, and you don’t really give a shit about all the awful shit, and how miserable Blizzard is?
Fine. Don’t pretend it’s something else though.