Diablo Immоrtаl Is Over 

Diablo Immortal is pay to win, but free to watch. All the commentary has been incredibly entertaining.

I love that Diablo Immortal defender. "Mobile games are predatory so it's ok that this mobile game is predatory"

Ironic that in the decades old battle against Diablo, evil incarnate, it turns out that the last boss is Blizzard itself. Sounds like one of their usual "plot twists" actually.

Its hard for addicts to come to terms with reality Asmon; The issue is every time they are defending their drug of choice and when it comes time to rationalize it they can't do so properly. The game is what it is and it needs controls for children to not fall into the trap of predatory gambling.

“It’s not P2W if you never win!” That is unironically the funniest phrase I’ve heard come out of the diablo memes because of the layer to it

Stew literally skipped over the part of quin saying that "studies show most whales are at risk gamblers and not people who can actually afford it." and stew had 0 response to that. That's pretty damning evidence to me that this shit is predatory.

I work in the online gambling and I can say with absolute certainty that Diablo immortal is essentially indistinguishable (for the human brain) form a complex slot game for kids. I would testify that in court if someone called me as an expert witness.

I grew up on Blizzard games. I remember playing Warcraft 2 and StarCraft with my buddy on dial up all the time. LAN parties playing Diablo 2 late into the night. They inspired me and my friends. In high school me and my friend took programming classes and wanted to start a company like Blizzard. We were going to call it R&S Entertainment. It saddens me what they've turned into. I hope no young developers aspire to be anything like the company they've become.

How is this guy so chill about saying "Is he upset that he spent 21k and never got a 5 star gem?". The fact that people are so calm about having spent so much money, 10K 20K fucking....100k. Bruh, a fucking game should only cost about $60 at max, unless it's some bundle bullshit. There are people throwing away money that can buy a full steam library of games, or a god damn luxury car. In some cases, life changing money ... on a glorified slot machine that will lose it's value do to the next big slot machine coming up.

Just patronize the entire gaming community, tell them how they're supposed to enjoy things, and then tell them they're wrong when they get upset by all the predatory monitization. Surely that will win the favor of gamers!

It seems Stew is out of touch with modern marketing strategy towards children/teens and gambling with real money in games. Quin gives outrageous examples as he always does lol, but the meaning behind what he is saying is absolutely correct. The mobile gaming business model that companies are adopting (loot boxes etc) is a terrible plague that we need to stamp out before it becomes normalised. As gamers, we understand the industry and we need to educate parents & kids about microtransactions and gambling in games. Asmongold you are doing a great job at pushing back on this topic - keep up the good work dude

I played through diablo immortal, I had completed the story, I done multiple rifts side quest, got beyond lucky winning the 1 and only time I played pvp going 5Kills/0Deaths aquired the BP being the only pur hase i had done in the game etc. I had to delete because I got to the point I started to feel I needed to excel in power because I was getting frustrated not getting powerful gear as fast as I would in d3 or d2 . The game is Hella pay to win and even in the shadow clan the leader said who ever is top in rank by july 4th in the shadow clan will get 100$ gift card which I would have been thirst as fuck to get that card and honestly if I hadn't been following asmongold my compulsiveness I would be dropping 100$ just for the one gift card. The fact that immortal wants your money and clans are pushing people secretly to drive them to spend money fucking sucks and backing out was probably the smartest thing I had ever been able to do .

I think these guys are trying to justify their own gambling addiction. They're upset people are trying to take away their fix. Spending 100k on loot boxes for a game is not healthy no matter how you try to frame it.

The content surrounding Diablo Immortal's disgusting monetisation has been an excellent source for entertainment 👍

Diablo immortal: An analogy Imagine a restaurant where you can enter and eat for "free". you can pay by washing dishes (no money required) The only thing that they don't tell you is that the food that you can eat is only the gunk you wash off the plates You can also eat full course meals if you pay real money to play a slot machine and hit the 777 jackpot (chances on winning are 'balanced') You can also watch other people eat, or have them take big massive dumps on you. that is also free

Quin was on the right track with the casino analogy, it's free to go in but it's gonna cost you to have fun.

Diablo Immortal has become the gift that keeps on giving, endless entertainment without having to pay a dime. Who knew I never had to play it be entertained.

“It’s not pay to win if you never win!” Laugh my ass off gold

They need to make a reality tv show where they group up game developers in a house for a year or so to make an MMO and the challenges are to put viewers requests in there and to agree on different things to put in the game and if the game is successful they hold the job titles + pay...like they have a character design challenge and they vote on who gets cut for the worst one.

This dude is clearly going in the opposite direction for the same drama chase he blames you for. Also Quinn's annalgy is great. It's not about the gambling it's about the drug dealer tactics the game is pushing. Free samples in the guise of daily log in rewards. Then dangle killer deals to get you hooked and once hooked they offer more and more of the drug untill they don't need to market it to you anymore because you come looking for the fix. Simple addiction logic.

its a sickness in the mind to think that it's acceptable for mobile games to be designed to drain your bank account

HE PANICKED! 27:41 : Pauses exactly when a study was going to be mentioned. 29:17 : Skipped forwards after derailing the conversation, skipping the argument entirely.

"you would never even consider purchasing anything", except that we also made the entire UI push our cash-shop super-hard at every opportunity we can...

19:00 in fact, I had an Diablo Immortal ad before this video and the same ad before Asmosns first play session.

"I don't know where to start mocking this" 😂🥇

As a dad of an 8 year old I can tell you this: YES Diablo Immortal has adds running in every damn piece of kids media. It's actually insane! Where are the god damn lawmakers?!

Never heard of this Stew guy before today, and I have never known a guy to be so wrong about everything

21:40 I forget all my problems and drama , I almost died 😂😂😂

This guy should be getting a check from blizzard. He’s working so hard for them.

The real problem here is that people continue to call it "gaming" when it's "gambling". There only difference between a slot machine and diablo immoral is that the later lets you spin for free but without the possibility of winning.

I didn't even know there was a in game shop to buy any loot in the first place.

It's like Claw Machine without control stick.. Just put your money in and click start button and wait for result.

The " it's not pay to win if you never win" mentality matches up with blizzards "it's not broken if everything is broken" mentality towards wow pvp 😂

The funny word play about "Never intentionally ignored" is them basically saying "we didn't mean to ignore it we just chose not to notice it and looked away when it was happening so that we could pretend we weren't liable for it" it isn't a denial of it happening, it's just a refusal to accept responsibility for it. As for Diablo immoral getting over 5 million downloads just imagine how many times it's been deleted too. For a "fr33 tW0 pL4y" (I wrote it like that because it's simply not free to play because as of right now it's "Pay to compete" with almost no incentives for anyone to bother playing if they don't plan on spending money) anyways for a ""F2P"" Mobile game it's failing in the market but the thing about mobile games such as Diablo (and there's thousands of them) is that they will always be profitable because there's millions of idiots in the world... I want to add that when everyone talks about this game they should address it by it's true name "Diablo immoral" and not "Immortal".

"If you decided to pay, you would get there a little bit faster" Thats called pay to win

... im sure youtube ads get played based on the vid your watching that plays the ad or they switch it??

I absolutely despise that condescending attitude that people like Stew have. They aren't having a commentary. They aren't trying to listen to arguments and understand and refute, they are just having a laugh from their own bubble. Him talking about echo chambers from being a big streamer was so ironic as he sits there being validated by his own chat and getting donations. He's literally doing the exact thing he's talking about and doesn't even see it. Its painfully obvious that he's just fishing out buzzwords from Quinn's video and not even trying to understand the context.

As someone with first hand experience in gaming retail, F2P models like diablo immortal have driven me crazy. I have had multiple parents return to my store after losing thousands of dollars in games with lootbox mechanics or microtransactions. Their child convinces them to add their credit cards to their account without the parent knowing the available security measures to protect themselves from "unauthorised" purchases. This could be for a one-off purchase such as a special skin or to access things such as subscription services. The parents think hey its only $5, and it gets my child of my back for a few minutes and makes them happy. This is where its already to late. The child then sees another skin or "chance to win" an item they want or "i need to get this item because im stuck in the game and dont feel like im progressing, and the game just told me its a great deal" and they know that their parents card details are already saved in the game. Surely their parents wont notice another $5 missing? proceed with payment. How many and how often do new skins, dances, emotes appear in these games? The child is not concerned with the actual physical cost involved, it sounds crazy but they dont understand or cant make the connection that all those $5 payments add up, they only see a Item that they need/want. Whilst I wont give exact details, one lovely customer had their son spend in the area of $1500 over the course of a couple of months to a ForkKnife game, the child only saw skins that he wanted cause his friends didnt have and he wanted to be unique and special, his mother didnt realise till she received her bank statement.

Never in my life back when I still played Diablo II I would have imagined that Blizzard would turn into one of the shittiest game devs companies in the future, betraying everyone...

I like how he literally skipped passed the whaling study when he unpaused.

Blizzard went from assaulting the employees to assaulting the customers.

That "HERE WE GOO" bit had me crying haha 21:40

No no no that vending machine pop up is actually probably the most apt description of the crest wheel possible.

Lmao there was an ad for DI on this video

11:30 I love how he hears the analogy of how you DONT have to pay to enter a casino, just like you DONT have to pay to play Diablo Immortal, but you are essentially in the middle of a casino, and then he ignores that point completely and responds to the opposite of what he actually said.

10:31 "Honestly, I can't understand what he's saying all the time." I don't speak english (I listen a lot, but I don't have anyone to talk to, so I don't), and even I understand both of you perfectly. It's just hard for me to believe that.

The youtube diablo immortal ad keeps showing 4.2 ☆'s but the play store shows barely 3☆

The 800% bonus box he describes at 3:13 is actually the valuation of the bundle. The creators of the game are implying that the value is worth 800% more. You spend a dollar and receive 60 orbs (this is already the dollar value compared to the orb purchase system.) Also, there is a weapon skin that you’ll receive. Don’t get me wrong it’s enticing & definitely hooks you in to purchase more. P2W show cases in the early game, but end game it is seemingly reasonable. The issue here is that end game is so far away for the F2Ps that most will quit before getting that far.

This is VERY interesting and honestly something I wasn’t really aware of until Diablo Immortal. These guys, these “mobile gamers”, as they have self identified, have thoroughly and completely convinced themselves that the ONLY way to enjoy their mobile games is completely dictated by the spending power of their wallet. To them, a mobile game is a game where you MUST spend in order to enjoy it. They hold it like a badge of honor. These are the rules for mobile games and they cannot be different. I’m curious, would they still play the game if it was free? Like actually free? Or is it the act of spending money that they enjoy? And if it is in fact that, can’t they then see why that is a problem?

I’m seriously wondering how far these reaction to a reaction to reaction videos can be taken before it opens a portal to another realm.

I like this series about Asmongold and Diablo Immortal =) hope to have season 2.

Just had the advert for the game before the video played lol

"It's not P2W" -Insert clip of Rich Campbell going 44-0 in PvP Yeah.... not pay to win AT ALL!

At this point do we even need analogies. We have statistics about the dangers and harm of gambling addiction. Diablo Immortal is a pay to win game that has had professional behavioural and addiction expert's input for the design so it can manipulate and abuse its players. Individuals who are at risk to gambling addiction (including childen/young adults) fall victim to the clever techniques of Diablo Immortal and suffer from it. We don't need analogies when just looking at reality explains the situation entierly.

I love how every time I watch one of you Diablo Immortal videos, I get an ad for it first. Lol

Whats the song named at the end of your video on RU-vid?

Quin's analogy was shaky af but he was onto something; just change heeeroeeen (spelt wrong on purpose) to dopamine and it's basically the same thing.. you are still chasing the next hit, and Diablo Immortal is only happy to supply it, provided you got the cash

Blizzard 2018: "do you guys not have phones?" Blizzard 2022: "do you guys not have credit cards?"

FYI claw machines can be programmed to control grip strength, speed, and release, timing of each factors mentioned.

They are advertising the game on this video 😂 the ad before the video when I hit play was for this game

"We checked with your bosses and we have confirmed that the game isn't pay to win" - Diablo Social Media Person All these people defending Diablo Immortal come across like, "I don't have an addiction.. I can' quit any time.... Just as soon as I spend another 5 grand."

I get more dopamine watching people rage, and watching people defend it than I would ever get by playing

The reasons this guy so passionately defends this game is because :a) he had invested so much money into it he cannot stand that it is being ridiculed, or b) he is paid by Blizz

I think the problem for me is I don't feel a sense of discovery in gaming anymore. There isn't a dramatic change in mechanics or settings that create that same holy shit feeling that I got in the the first couple WoW expansions. And I'm worried I never will get that feeling again because I have set my expectations so high its hard to imagine what a gaming company could do to even create an ounce of that feeling again.

I was 13 when Diablo 1 came out, Diablo was never really my type of game though, but it was a lot of my friends type of game, and my friends at that time were in the range of 11-15, so yeah, that would have been the age range they got into Diablo

I understand what Stew is saying with "Its a mobile game, thats why it is like that" and thats the problem. It became accepted that mobile games are cancerous heavily monetized wallet draining "games" and "there is no problem with it"

The point about the targeted ads, I literally got a ad for Diablo Immortal on this video

honestly, listening to stew talk respond to quin reminds me of professor dave talking to flat earthers

I was 10 years old when I played Diablo 1 the year it released. The butcher scared the shit out of me. If there had been micro transactions in that game I probably would have been suckered into thinking it was normal to pay to progress in a game.

Let’s just start calling mobile games “Gambling Games” so that when one of these guys says “it’s a mobile game for mobile gamers” we can translate it to “it’s a gambling game for gambling gamblers” and then we can both be right

Being from Belgium, I was kinda bummed when I lost access to buying lootboxes in Overwatch. It felt a bit patronizing how I, a working adult, couldn't choose what I would spend my money on. Now that I see how Diablo Immortal has turned out, I completely understand why that law was created and I applaud my country greatly for it.

FYI - Incognito mode does not mean that you are not linked to google adsense - because they still do via the browser itself, "hardcoded". You are just disjoint from all other tracking cookies/networks - but not necessarily google!

There should be a legal requirement that games like this have to ask players when they create an account, "is paying money for an advantage in game P2W". Anyone who answers no has their account permanently restricted to free to play and all the P2W aspects hidden. Someone needs to help these poor people.

"Idk what language this is but Its obviously not American" Nice

After all these years I'm starting to belive that Blizzard has mastered and specialised on one genre: drama

LMAO Opening Ad was for Diablo Immortal

Love how Asmon was reacting to this stew guy reacting to Quin reacting to this stew guy

@21:40 "Here we go!" "God Damn it!"

In 1997 I was playing OG Diablo before I was in high school.

I've gotten so many Sonic Plushed from the Claw Machines. What Asmongold said is right, there's a certain skill to it as you need to know where and how to grab a certain way to get those things out of those machines. It's of course also rigged as it shouldn't need skill to simply "Put claw over thing and wait."

This needs to be attacked relentlessly, otherwise Diablo 4 is absolutely screwed. Keep it up you crazy berserkers. Give them nothing, but take from them everything.

I can't fathom this behavior when what they should be doing is doubling down on how Diablo 4 *wont* have any of that sort of thing. This is actual NPC behavior wtf lmao

5:55 - as a New Zealander, my ears perked up after hearing someone mention our forgotten nation - unsure of the context but whakayeah NZ

Quinn's analogy does not suck. The dopamine hit you get from getting a legendary item is comparable to heroin.

I don't get how D:I is supposed to be P2W, just don't rush it and you won't even consider buying anything. I'm currently sitting at 0 hours 0 minutes playtime and not once felt the need to spend money on this incredible game.

"I don't know what to say" He's a gambling junkie trying to justify his gambling to his gambling junkie audience, Asmon, there isn't much else to say..

Guess what game I got a ad for before the video started.

I just had a Diablo Immortal ad show before the video. Oh the irony

25:57 I have a friend who runs a claw machine and he told me that you can literally set the win rate to a 10th of a percent. They're fully rigged.

People like StewGaming are complicit in this hostile takeover of the mainstream gaming space by mobile predatory tactics. To laugh off the obvious fact that a predatory system has already been normalized in one space while it is transitioned into a new one is gaslighting at its finest. Optional systems are not optional when they are designed to exploit vulnerable people.

the moment i reached westmarch. i was mindblown by the sheer amount of "gems plat rune etc" info thrown at my face. They really want me to pay or play months for a decent built.

Many claw machines are programmed to lose the item, even if you grab it, a large percentage of the time. But they have to be programmed to have a tiny guaranteed percentage that the person playing it will win. It's actually how they get around gambling laws, especially in places with much stricter laws on gambling.

I seriously wish we could just spend $60 and get a game worth $60. If only that could happen.

Imagine I can't even download Diablo Immortal cus we have laws that regulate gambling to prevent gambling addictions lmao

Funny thing is I literally had a Diablo immortal ad before and after watching this video

I love how people say "it is not pay to win" and i ask what id the game centered around? Loot, gear, gems so on. So one would argue getting these things, getting the best equipment is "winning" the game. Then by design if the game let's you buy a higher percentage of chance on gear. You are paying to win if nothing else faster. It is like the level boosts in the new assassin games, like yeah you don't need to buy it but you will be able to get on with the story and game faster than completing boring sidequests/content for 30 hours.

I was looking forward to Diablo 4 but Blizzard is dead to me now

0:59 I wonder how long is the "little bit faster" that blizzard was talking about, 3 years? 4 years? just to catch up to a pay to win player?

Claw machine has pity system which is called Payout threshold.

It's been some time I'm looking at Blizz like one of the companies EA bought and died. Most of those games live in my heart (specially Dungeon Keeper - Bullfrog) and I go back to them from time to time, but I have zero hope for a new good game. Thanks a lot Auctionvision.