Asmongold Reacts to Diablo Immоrtаl KEKW | by TheLazyPeon 

In Diablo Immortal, YOU are the treasure goblin and Blizzard try to hit you as much they can before you leave.

"This game was made for China" -meanwhile in China: -Let's ban Diablo Immortal

It feels like gaming executives saw Ready Player One and were like "YES! Do this and monetize all the things!". Everything is turning into slot machine gambling nonsense.

Some people might think that Asmongold is overly negative or judgemental - even incorrect about the people behind this game. As a game developer who has actually worked for one of the largest mobile game dev companies (King, Candy Crush - now part of Activision-Blizzard) I can tell you that he is correct about everything. I will not go into much details but I can say this: The people you normally think of as "game developers" - all the Artists, Programmers and Designers - have NO SAY about these horrible, predatory, money-making game features that are designed by Game Economy Designers, Lead Game Designers, Game Managers, Testers and other big potato of the company. I've seen individual "game features" being AB-tested out of context, even before there's an art style - much less A GAME LOOP - in place. One might ask why? Think about that for a second. There's so much shit going on in large-scale mobile game dev it's crazy. Huge companies are highly political, and are often lead by people with no background in gaming themselves (but rather being lead by career-managers and people with backgrounds in finance). Just imagine having leaders in the studio who never programmed professionally for a single day in their life - never made a piece of artwork or anything. It's like if the head of a hospital has no background in medicine! These people don't care about YOU - the player - they care about their careers and about making as many people as possible play there game, and spend as much money as possible, so that shareholders are happy about the growth of the company. The real creatives behind these games are just as pissed off as you are.

3:33 only problem with that meme… is when you use 0 crests you don’t even get the dumpster to look through 😂😂 there is no chest at the end

I am a victim of of Immortal. Happened to be on vacation when it came out and played it everyday hardcore. By the time I realized it, I had already spent $400. I don’t even play it anymore. Big sad.

The beginning of the end was July 9, 2008.

The "beginning of the end" for Blizzard was the launch of Diablo III. I'm surprised how many people have forgotten what a farce it was, but that was when I jumped ship from anything Blizzard related. It made it crystal clear that any semblance of the quality from their past was no longer a goal, and they now exist only to get *all* of your money, even if that means tricking you into giving it to them.

I am glad I didn’t put any money into this dumpster fire, no yacht for Bobby. 😂

The death animation he was so impressed by is also from Diablo 3 act III…it’s crazy how much they just re-used. Also those yellow orbs that they use in the battle pass progression bar looks like the old Diablo 3 rift keys aswell just recolored and added something across it.

My god, the money RichW spend on this game gets me out of debt 10 times over.

I bet that 90% of Diablo immortal's dev cycle was developing the monetisation system

if plankton, minnows are dolphin and whale food, the dolphins and whales are bobby-food. bobby is the captain of the ship, standing around with a bunch of harpoons going "arrg the sea be full of treasure".

"How did we get here?" By a decent proportion of today's game player's being all about the competitive endgame, and not about the journey to get there.

the guy that insulted the bear is a legend that will never be forgotten. If he did that on the diablo immortal account on purpose he should be hailed as a hero.

I played the game until level 35, got bored, and realized that I really just wanted to play Diablo 3 instead lol

15:37 the reason why it ceases to be fun, because it gets touched by monetary incentive, of which there are many psychological examples of real events with the same downturn.

21:44 funny thing about the disconnected popup, if you press the X to close it, you dont disconnect, pressing OK literally causes you to disconnect

19:32 Dont wish things like that. Every dollar spent in this game is supporting it and it shouldnt. Buy yourself anything else for 500k or donate it. You are double dipping with doing something good in the world.

My opinion about battle passes is: With every game having them, im having to choose which games i value more/enough to buy the battlepass, then, i feel forced into playing the games i value less than the higher valued games just to get the most out of the battle pass. i played lots of Dead by daylight, sea of thieves, destiny 2, Runescape 3, and those are just off the top of my head. i felt sucked dry in the worst way. feeling like im missing out on the "rewards" from the battle passes in my favorite games if i didnt spend the money. now, i only get one battle pass, for one game. just to not help the battlepass business model more than i can help it. it is really off putting.

I love the fact that they placed a Diablo Immortal ad on this particular video. That’s so f*cking hilarious right there. 😆

The reaction to Diablo Immortal has actually *given* me hope in the gaming public that maybe they aren't complete fucking whales

I'm so lucky im poor

When ever someone is like "all mobile games are like this so it's ok" I'm just like "have you ever played a non-mobile game without microtransitions?". It's like they only ever had crappy fast food so when they presented with fast food or five star gourmet food they still choose the disguised sh*t over the hand made deliciousness because they don't know better.

im much older and grew up in mechanical pinball era. i tell you there is no better feeling of that loud click when you win a free game. i had owners draining my games cuz i had won the 10 max free games, he accused me of 'running the machine'. i learned the tilt factor and would slip things under the front legs without him seeing to make the game more flat. Playing for 3 hours on 1 quarter was the thing. i can't do shooting or running but i love Burnout, crashing cars and road rage. i once called in sick 3 days in a row to play Burnout 3 for hours a day. there is honor about winning your own stuff, new high score was thrill of games i have played. i cant imagine buying your way up levels, what is the point, just sucking your money. age doesnt matter when it is about getting ripped off. has any one reached the max level in diablo without paying for anything? is there such thing as pure game? level 60 or whatever without paying a dime?

As someone that has been a PC gamer for most of my life, as I have become older the only time I get to spend gaming is on my phone. Diablo for me scratches that itch and helps me to relax. I get the controversy but its the only thing that helps me to escape my issues.

We may be delusional and doomed but I'm still glad to see you have so many subscribers and supporters and you share many of the opinions about good game design and how it's been consistently chipped away at from things like battle passes, mtx, etc. Not sure how millennials who value good arpg/loot/rpg game design got associated into a 'Boomer' mentality (how did we skip over GenX? lol) but I think there are many gamers of all ages that are lamenting what is rapidly happening to the integrity of games. I know you've now covered these types of topics on WoW and Diablo but the history of mtx and battlepass introduction into Destiny and subsequent degradation of design quality would be an interesting case study on this topic.

Sad truth is that there are a lot of broken people with serious addiction problems.

“He will not divide us” - Shia lacuck

0:27 Back in '09 I told my friends it was over with the Activision merger and I feel that's been largely borne out. Everything since then has been zombie/mind-controlled Blizzard.

I'm still not convinced that mobile games this heavily monetized aren't just giant money laundering schemes.

For regulations to happen, I think the next step is to demonstrate that these game cause harm to people. We need to gather testimony from people who have lost life savings/huge amounts that they couldn't afford to lose.

Good job editor filtering out that two steps from hell song! good catch and voice is still totally audible.

17:03 exactly, that's what I tell my friends too, I don't even want others to give me stuff because it'll effectively do the same exact thing.

I just restarted D3 to try and hope in hyping myself up for D4.

Actualy, there is a guy on my server with full gem lvl 5 on the gear, and almost full on all set items, his dmg is 10.5k and hp 111k .His name is Auslander and he's the servers godzilla.This is just insane!

11:15 I never played the game, and have no intention to do so. But from what I can see, the whole idea is for it to be fun... in 5 minute intervals. Which is why the extremely boring grinding later on is all conveniently done around things that take you 5-10 minutes. And I also think that this is why there are still people that think it's fun. Because all they do is start the game up and play 10 minutes while on lunch break or on the porcelain throne, and then close it and go back to work.

Imagine paying Activision 25$ per Cod campaign episode. Imagine Bungie charging 25$ for every raid attempt.

14:19 How badly that aged lol, if only he knew He was wrong in the worst way.

Before there were mobile games with markers like "800% value", there were street vendors selling junk that say stuff like "This is $100, but for you, $50."

It's quite clear that whoever made the post on the Blizzard official Weibo account knew what he was doing and knew what was going to happen. That person is a true communist hero. He clearly did it with the intention to preserve his country and countrymen from what he/she surely must have believed to be evil and wanted to at least draw enough attention to it to warn others who may be unsuspecting of a Blizzard game.

there's a disconnect in how mobile games are "casual" and yet also the place where people inexplicably drop crazy amounts of money

TBH I don't think D:I announcement was the beggining of the end. To get to the point of an announcement like that, for a game like that, the Blizzard we knew was already dead for quite some time. It was just the day Activision accidentally let us catch a glimpse of their basement, where Blizzards corpse have been rotting for a while already.

"I've gotten more content out of Diablo Immortal talking about it than playing it" Isn't that the standard M.O.

They should make a game where the spell points and action points are cash balances, so every spell you cast cost a charge to your credit card, imagine how much money blizzard would make lol

In one of George Lucas' early films, THX 1138, the protagonist buys an item just to immediately throw it away. The purchasing of the item is the goal, not the obtaining of it. "Pay to skip" is the closest I've seen to this dystopian vision of the future.

I wish there was a separate section where it is just story mode. Without distracting purchases, battle pass, other players.

It took 2 weeks they made 30 million and it's never coming out in China along with no Diablo 4, Overwatch 2, or Dragonflight. They made 300 million off 40 dollar copies of Diablo 2 Resurrected but it's all about that EZ MOBILE GAME MONEY. 5 year development cycles on mobile games are the best idea ever!

In Asia, mobile games and pay to win are doing so well because a lot of people travel long distances to work every day and don't have much free time, and they have a very competitive drive, so they relax and get to spend their money on easy advantages while on the road.

I grew up with Warcraft 1 & 2 and never understood why people gave monthly to World of Warcraft and EverQuest. It began with you guys and this escalation was always coming.

It's always funny hearing Asmond praise POE without playing these past couple leagues that have not been so great. Hopefully they are investing their time and ideas in POE 2 and it isn't an overwatch 1.5 situation.

5:50 So that ad is basically Epic Store's Roblox, but they now call it "metaverse".

Sunk cost fallacy="fun"

I know this is somewhat of a minor, minor point but, this isn't the first time I've heard someone commend the character customization for diablo immortal. It's so SHALLOW though... It's like, yeah, you have sliders. But, it doesn't change the face in any significant way and is completely unnoticeable once you are not zoomed in on the character.

The thing that comes to mind for me when I think of a metaverse would be like a more social virtual world such as VR Chat, but with more of a controllable character. but we arent really there yet in technology. I remember watching this 1 anime that had shown a similar concept but I do not remember its name.

These games are for people with zero skill, and a lot of money. The only way these people can win, is if they can pay for the advantage. It's simple. It's terrible gamers wanting to feel good, and I personally find that hilarious and pathetic. Let them. xD

It's weird how some people will pay real money so that they basically don't have to play, and still "reap the rewards" (although they essentially buy the rewards at this point).

What I don’t get is exactly what Asmon stated. “what you see in Diablo 3 is what you see in Diablo immortal.” Then why would you want to play it? Not only have I played it already but I also find Diablo 3 way worse than Diablo 2 in terms of the gameplay.

The Phone comment wasn't the beginning of the end, that was just the disease becoming symptomatic. The rot was already deep and pervasive.

It’s like racing cars. Who ever has more money can afford better stuff to be the best of their tier. Enjoy whatever tier your ok to settle into/afford.

Thank you for continuing the Diablo Immortal reactions I truly enjoy having a phone lmao

14:30 - There are two types of people that would spend in this game without thinking. One, the gambling addicts, and the other rich people where spending absurd amount of money isn't a problem for them. I remember an old app, that did absolutely nothing (I am Rich) and it cost 800~1000$ and people still bought just because they could and to show it off.

I marked the end of Blizzard the day they were merged with Activision

28:30 the ultimate conclusion!

I like the idea of battle passes as a substitute for a monthly sub. Implementation seems to always be the issue.

LazyPeon on Diablo immoral ""Diablo immortal is so cool by mobile standards" LazyPeon on FFXIV This game sucks, I bough a jump potion and the history/gameplay is shit"

Man! mad respect to your editors, of course the main content is spot on as always, but so are your editor(s).

Total side note I love your interviews I would love to hear more. Thank you for making great content! I would love to hear you interview Stew and jtisallbusiness

The re-enactment after 3:52 is so freaking funny to me, it's literally what Reddit does when a game dies

"I don't understand how people can games that make you pay like this" -> plays Lost Ark

13:37... That's *EXACTLY* What I Was Seeing, When You Say it! (DiablO:IMMORTAL Looks Like The "Ported" Version of DiablO, We Were All Lookin' For 15 Years Ago!)

The beginning of the end for blizzard was Diablo 3. They haven’t came out with a single good game after that.

that's the thing man, it doesnt need to make sense to you as long as it makes sense for people who are willing to spend money

It's like games forget the grind is about getting the power and gear to stand out from the rest and to actually beat the game. Whereas the money comes from making my character have a shiny aura making me look cool, no other effect thay matters, and you see ispent money and have a cool thing making me stand out even more

Dude it just hurts , me working 8-9 hrs a day for 30 days to get 800$ salary after getting my 5 years collage degree and see a game that spending 10k $ in it is standard , lol

LOL got a Diablo immortal ad on this video

"a spider cave in a video game, never seen those before"

Pretty sure one of the comments on the original video said "tomorrow there will be a 80 minute asmongold response on this 20 minute video." They were off by a day and it was only double the length not 4x, so not entirely accurate, but I still say he's Nostradamus.

The irony if getting a Diablo Immortal advert before this video

Dude, Azmon...you just described the number one trigger for me! "soo...you're saying you don't like it when you get items through content??" This generalization and intentional misunderstanding just kills me haha

"Beginning of the end" lmao, Blizz died like 15 years ago

I think a good recap of Diablo Immortal as a game is this. DI is a perfectly healthy young man with zero underlying health conditions. However, DI also is an avid smoker who’s an alcoholic and a meth addict who consumes only fast food. Sure it has good bones, but not for long

0:30 IMHO D3 was the beginning of the end, not that Blizzcon

I remember Fruit Ninja and that alien jumping game that were really popular games back in grade school. They weren't p2w and we all just competed for highscores.

One thing that i noticed is that, more often than not, those who praise Diablo Immortal for it's gameplay, saying it's good by mobile standards... don't actually play mobile games, so the standards they're using are likely from 3+ years ago.

I remember there being stories of suits going through the Bliz offices terrorizing people to cut costs to maximize profits. I'm pretty sure it was before Immortal and more around the time where Heroes of the Storm was cancelled overnight.

24:12... Baal Has Been Rez'd?!? WTF!

The entire attitude "ITS JUST HOW THINGS ARE DONT COMPLAIN" Is exactly what's wrong with the fucking world lol

"well im having fun" crowd did more damage to gaming industry then the actual whales.

Love your content. Sorry to see that we actually do have phones :/ We should just ignore games from these devs alltogether. Put your money where you'r mouth is - or DON'T put any money at all for these Chinese shell companies with contentless games with predetory monetization and surveilance features out-of-the-box... SAD TIMES !!

That no crest run meme is about to be me in 5 minutes.

4:03 this is how the anthem Reddit was when it was actively dying 😂

Asmon if you like PoE try Last Epoch, It's a fun ARPG with regular updates and multiplayer coming in September.

"1000$ isnt even considerd a lot for mobile..." This hurts so much.

With the shocking rolling power cuts in South Africa right now, I have resorted to playing DI. I can't even afford the fkn microtransactions and it is a good mindless way to waste my time on my phone till the power returns and I can play on my PC.

You know, if you think about it, battle passes are just a replacement for those shitty, terrible quests with no actual story that nobody likes doing in MMOs. Just do x, turn in, get reward. Except they're generated on a timed basis so as to limit the amount of grinding you can do. And instead of going to an NPC to turn it in, you turn it in in a menu that will probably also tell you to spend money a few times.

"Rather spend time than money". It's not about that, it's that spending money is the fun part for them. Ever feel better buying stuff on Amazon than when that stuff gets delivered? Same thing. If they weren't spending it on this game those people would be collecting Funko Pops or buying crypto and never selling.

Just became a fan of u lately, I'm German and dont use a PC if I dont have to, but ur combi with honesty and irony that made me tell all my friends about u bro😁👍 what u say feel real and makes sense on top 😂💪 I'm ashamed of myself as a mobile vet to have spent money on diablo immortal, but I did... watched some of your content and just deleted it ... and so did all my friends Thanks for that Continue ur perfectly ironic and funny vids for 😊👍 we love'm ! And your facial impressions are just hilarious 😂💪

A great point "why would anyone play agame like this on mobile with an access to a pc" yeah I literally only play WR on mobile when I'm too sick to sit at my computer, otherwise I don't see a point in mobile games.

Watching people watching people playing games. I really want to watch someone watching someone watching someone playing games.