The Immoral Design of Diablo Immortal - Legendary Crest Addendum 

Remember when finding hidden game mechanics wasn't depressing?

Its actually impressive how much of a 'maze' they created with all the microtransactions. This isnt just lazy mobile game monetization, this is scarily well thought out and scientifically designed to prey upon consumers. Now if only they put this same effort towards everything else they do...

I have to say Blizzard really nailed the feeling of selling your soul to the devil.

Bro this is the best designed predatory monetization system i have ever seen. Its full on psychological warfare at every turn.

It's legitimately terrifying how much effort has gone into making the system as predatory as possible

The fact that you did all that research and still missed this unintentionally made your point. You were reporting on their awful practices, and they succeeded in managing to slip their sneakiest, arguably scummiest tactic past you. This whole situation is ludicrously awful. And to think Immortal's announcement got such a chilly reception, and they STILL decided, "Yeah, let's fill it with all this predatory crap, they won't mind!"

You apologized at the end of the video, however, there's nothing to apologize for. First of all, this is pretty difficult to notice, so good job on doing just that. Of course, I completely agree that this is totally designed this way and it is not just coincidence, and Activision are actually the ones who should apologize for this incredibly immoral way of trying to squeeze people out of their money. I truly hope, that Microsoft will do things better, because I personally don't think that it could get any worse than what Activision are doing at the moment.

Dear lord, how blizzard destroyed almost 30 years of reputation in around 5 or 4 is actually astonishing to me.

The sheer amount of effort that has gone into obfuscating the mechanics of the loot in this game is astounding.

Doesn't matter how good a game is. Such predatory design should be shunned altogether. Regardless of whether one can play this as a free player and even have fun doing so, the company should not be supported in such kind of behavior. People should realize that a single whale paying thousands or tens of thousands bucks makes up for thousands of free players, and the company will see themselves confirmed in their strategy. There should be proper laws against this kind of game design (and not only on 1 part of gacha features).

There are also hidden caps in this game: After six legendary drops a day, your drop rate severely decreases for future drops. After a group bonus for six normal gems a day, your drop rate severely decreases. Side quests stop giving rewards after five per day. Purple bosses stop giving rewards after five per day Random map events stop giving rewards after five per day. Zoltan Kule treasure rooms are limited to five per day. Hidden Lair dungeons stop giving gem rewards after just a few completed sections.

imagine a game so predatory in it's P2W antics that it takes a seasoned MMO/game veteran reviewer like JSH to make a second video because the near-scam level trickery is so bad he couldn't possibly spot all of it in one video...speechless...I'm honestly surprised it's legal.

Everyday we discover "surprise mechanics" hidden inside this "game".

It just goes to show how hidden this is when a well educated, intelligent individual who literally analyzes and reviews these systems for a living didn’t immediately notice it.

It's crazy that it is someone's job to make these systems. What must that feel like? How do they feeling going home at the end of the day? Do they hate what they produce as much as everyone else? Imagine a life full of possibility, to end up walking down a path that leads to creating psychologically manipulative convoluted economies in mobile games.

This game is diabolical in the truest sense. "Diablo" used to be about slaying monsters, not paying them money.

EA: We are easily the worst company in video game history. How could any company possibly compete? Blizzard: Hold my thinly-disguised gambling addiction simulator.

Blizzard has reached levels of unholy that even Diablo would be jealous of.

I´m actually impressed with the amount of effort they are putting on being the worst company ever. Maybe its their dream.

I owe my entire career to Diablo 2. Researching and writing a no-cd crack to no longer require my scratched up disks was my first step into IT. It kills me to see what Diablo has become. Diablo 3 started off fun and even the storefront was useful before they allowed money. Once the marketplace could be manipulated for cash, it was dead within days. Fuck Blizzard and fuck EA. I will NEVER play Diablo Immortal.

Activision is making an excellent case for the blanket ban of all in-game purchases in all games.

Josh you missed that legendary and Eternal crests have separated pity systems. Meaning that you cant get 30 legendary crest and 20 eternal legendary crests to guarantee that 2-5 star gem.

Wow, whoever designed the monetization of this is a master at making it as anti-player as possible. This might be one of the most blatant cash grab games I have ever seen from a major studio.

This also means FtP players can NEVER interact with the marketplace. They cannot sell their weaker legendary gems in hoping to grind enough platinum to eventually buy themselves one of the legendary gems that are actually worth something. Everything in Diablo Immortal feels like its designed to discriminate against FtP players. Guilds won't have you cuz you're too weak. You won't be able to find people to co-op rifts with because if you aren't providing legendary crests yourself you will make their odds worse. And theres a whole section of the community that you are gated from until you pull out your wallet. If this game sets a precedent the future will be games made by soulless companys specifically for rich people while poor people are gated out from the real game.

3:52 Just for clarification, technically you can craft unbound legendary gems at the Jeweler (if you choose the correct gacha recipe). So Eternal Legendary Crests aren't the /only/ way to get unbound gems. Granted all the gems you will make will be absolute garbage because the chances of getting a good gem are so abysmal.

"I'm sorry I didn't spot it in the original video" don't be sorry Josh, as you described it's literally designed to be missed and confusing, this shit is honestly evil, confusion as a money making tactic is so anti-consumer it's disgusting.

My jaw literally just hit the ground. I knew it was bad, but this is actually insane.. you've completely opened my eyes man. Thank you so much.

I really hope the rest of the EU implements gambling protection laws like in the Netherlands and Belgium.

"It's the background they are on, not the crest itself" sounds like a metaphor for this game being perfectly fine apart from the seedy framework it's bolted onto.

"The Immoral Design of Diablo Immortal" is a great series so far and I can't wait for episode 3!

"Oh, it gets worse" is the theme of the game by now.

I just noticed at 5:56 in the Video, that not only does screen where you add the crests before the rift only show the lesser two types of crests, it also add the same border around the crests, that you would use to distinguish between eternal and non-eternal legendary crests.

Major changes to the whole system often come from one disastrous event. At this point I am just waiting to see how far this disaster can push the whole video game industry to a better direction.

Thank you for bringing attention to this. I really think Diablo Immortal represents a turning point for the monetisation of PC games. While many have pointed out that this is "normal" in mobile games or that other games have done this for years, having a major, western game developer go into such an abusive monetisation scheme is new. Blizzard needs to understand that player will not stand for this or take this. Even those that play it "F2P" should probably just boycott the game, leave the world empty. I'm down, but I have not yet given up hope entirely.

I rarely comment on videos, but just wanted to highlight how much praise Josh is worth for his effort on every clip he puts out. Instead of just plugging in his previous video about Immortal, he did mention the exact timestamp we need in order to have everything in the know to keep up with the context of this video. This is admirable to say at least, as other content creators just go like "watch my X video to see what I'm talking about", and I personally barely saw someone else doing it. As such, a big kudos to you Josh and you 100% earned that sudden growth of your channel. Keep it up and thank you.

Can we talk about how Josh apologizes at 6:17 for missing the difference between the two legendary crests in his original video? This man cares more about Blizzard's customers than they do and it really hit me in the feels. Edited to add he also apologized in the description too. We don't deserve him.

“The implication that this was an attempt to deceive or trick ourplayers is laughable!!!! We simply wanted to keep the game’s integrity intact by making sure all forms of legendary crests shared the same color pallet” -tweet from blizzard soon…. Prob

What surprises me is how I often get attacked whenever I express an opinion along the lines of "If this game succeeds, it's bad for the industry and gamers lose." it's like this is slowly becoming the norm and people are fine with it. I want this game to go down so hard -- just to serve as a reminder of how NOT to make a game.

You might want to check out that new Forbes article if you haven't already. Apparently all of the free activities in the game have hidden caps to them. Amazing.

Ever since seeing this video i want to see more of this kind of content, showing how some popular games released lately or old use disgusting monetisation tricks and such to push people into paying cash. Some people even started to argue that timegating is essential to making content and it exist to decrease addiction while it has a big button saying "pay 1$ to skip the wait". The seven deadly sins videos were great but i wish i could see more of the modern games getting called out on their sins.

No need to apologize Josh, you did what a good journalist does, you saw that you missed something, & addressed it quickly. Keep up the great content, always look forward to your videos on my 2nd monitor.

I made it very simple for myself years ago... never buy EA, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Blizzard, Activision games. And it works perfectly well for me, Indie developers are crushing these corporate money grabbers. Much better gaming content all over the place.

"Game in design for 6 years" -2 years porting Diablo 3 to a different engine, adding a few new assets, story, implementing some changes -4 years brainstorming the biggest, cheekiest, most immoral p2w system ever seen (EVEN in the context of the mobile market) Like, Blizzard, are you even trying at this point? Or are you just cashing out before the company dies?

On a positive note, you remind me of TotalBiscuit SO MUCH its kind of nuts, maybe its just your natural voice and what you are covering but it freaking epic and I love it. RIP TB. Miss you man. ❤

This is like New World all over again, but instead of finding a new game-breaking bug every hour, you discover Blizzard sank a step lower into monetization hell

vampire survivors earned over 60 hours of my playtime so far, adds new content biweekly, has over 100 achievements which all unlock new things, has about a dozen secret unlocks not tied to achievements, and has a powerup system entirely funded by in game earned gold. the game is $3 on steam with no in game purchases, made by like one guy. has literally millions of downloads, this dude became a millionaire by making an incredibly fun game and only selling it for $3. it is nearing the end of his roadmap though, not sure if he'll come up with more new content or make a new game after support it, not this garbage

In a way, I am impressed. It is really a form of art to create a system like this.

Appreciate the addendum but I feel like your original video already made it pretty clear to completely avoid the game entirely.

My god this sh*t is somewhere between hilarious and absolutely sickening. Thankfully I've never actually been much of a Diablo fan, but as a fan of Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, and Castlevania, I completely understand how it feels to see your favorite series turn into a soulless cash grab by its owners. If there are any Diablo fans here who want something FAR better to move on to, I recommend Grim Dawn!

The Diablo's in the details it seems. It's very telling that someone as detail oriented as JSH didn't catch it in the first go 'round. Video games came from carnival games i.e. ring toss, dart throw, and so forth. Those games had design quirks that made winning the big prize nearly impossible and enticed players to keep putting in money so their date could have a big purple elephant to take home. Arcade games in the 80's were designed along those same lines; hard to achieve goals because of time limits or limits on chances, a high score screen so players could be immortalized, and flashing lights and digital sounds to heighten the experience - all to get players to keep chucking quarter after quarter to get a little further than last time - I know this because Star Wars and Tron consumed my lawn mowing money many times. Then came the liberation of video game players - Atari. For the first time, you could plop down a fixed cost and play to your hearts content. No more scrounging change from car seats and couch cushions, no more broken arcade cabinets stealing your money, you could sit in the comfort of your home and just play games. It's been this way for some time. But it seems over the past decade, entertainment companies have gone back in time to the crooked carnival game model to once again syphon people's hard earned money, giving them little in return.

It breaks my heart how extremely predatory this is. Not even cheap copy paste ad games are THIS predatory

Seems like they spent longer on creating a predatory cash shop than the game

When you think they've plumbed the depths of shittiness, here they go digging ditches in hell.

Wow. thats incredibly shady. Even for this company. The more revealed about this game, the more I regret ever downloading it.

I also think giving certain times to do competetive play is to encourage whales and make them see their advantage in the game. It is a very clever way to do so. Making PVP for limited times only focuses a huge mass of the playerbase to play at the same time. Giving the whales the advantage to win which they have bought. Otherwise the community would do competetive activities at much more scattered and individual times, likely that only f2p players playing against other f2p players and have fair matches. This is avoided by simply concentrating the available time for such activities.

You can without spending any money sell a legendary gem on the market when crafting a "unbound random legendary gem" with x22 FA runes at the jeweler. This is still incredibly scummy since each week you're capped at earning 320 fading embers and 22 FA runes cost 396 fading embers. Making the grind to sell one legendary gem take at least 8 days.

Josh, You have nothing to apologize for mate. Thanks for the update. They made the system as confusing as possible so people would spend money on the WRONG items, in an attempt to can squeeze out extra cash out of them. Its not your fault that they made the game as anti-player/anti-consumer as possible, a small detail like is easy to miss and probably has gone pass 1,000s of players already.

When you think that this game can't get worse, it just keeps going. Pretty sure Blizzard is trying to break record of the most predatory game ever created, and pretty sure they already succeded.

In summary: Just go play Path of Exile

I tip my hat at how ingeniously insidious the entire monetization design in Diablo Immoral is. I wonder how many other things people have missed and will only be uncovered in the coming weeks and months. This almost feels like an ARG. One where we discover, how fucked we are.

This is just pathetic how predatory this game design is. I'm so glad youtubers/content creators make these kind of video's. I would've wasted hundred of hour's of gameplay just to start realizing how ridiculious this companies pay to play game mechnic features are. Yeah I mightve had fun in those few hundred hour's but being aware how bullshit this is from the start is just insane. Thanks for covering this. I really hope companies can be a lot more transparent in the future. Blizzard truly deserves to get shut down. This is the last straw from me. I'm just sick of companies doing this kind of thing, and you'd think Blizzard, of all companies would realize what their gamers want. They think to just push out a game maximize profits as fast as possible is the way to do thing's. They'l find out soon enough.

6:20 No Josh, thank you to you for keeping us well informed and research inside every corner of each game to look for the things the developers try to hide.

You literally have no reason to apologize. It's not your fault they piled on so many predatory systems that it's near impossible to keep track of them all at the same time. Bravo for all your work

Josh, this is excellent work. Thank you for all you've done for this community. It's genuinely amazing.

I really hope Diablo immortal gets some laws passed so games can’t do this sort of thing again

It amazing how awful Blizzard's predatory game practices are, that we all forgot their predatory work practices (including rape allegations etc.). Blizzard makes EA looks like an ethic company in comparison - What a fall from grace.

Elden Ring: Has hidden game mechanics that make me cry tears of joy. Diablo Immoral: Has hidden game mechanics that make me cry.

Josh. Check out the "special" tab in thr bundle section. Looking forward for update vid number 2.

I fully expect more small addendum videos over the next week or so as people find new scummy shit in this game. This is utter insanity.

Blizzard should make games to play in Earth 2. They'll fit right in.

I spent a good deal of time wondering why I couldn't sell my legendary gem drops, I've had 2 since I started playing as an entirely F2P player. Thanks as always for discovering and pointing out the blatantly bad systems in games that I always seem to miss

What a scummy move. It's a shame that a company like Blizzard, which used to be of the highest of standards in the industry, has now sunken so low - and shamelessly, I might add. They don't care what players think of their products anymore, so long as the MAUs are high and the revenue keeps pouring in. To think when I was a kid, it was a dream to join the ranks of Blizzard. Now I laugh at that. What a joke of a company.

This is why i like josh, if they spot something that is incorrect. Even if it was correct at the time, or an honest mistake. Its retconed/corrected. keep it up.

The whole "free earned VS bought" separation is common in a lot of mobile games these days, but it's not usually this obfuscated. In Pokemon Masters for example, you can roll 10 gachas for a discount but only with bought gems, not ones you've earned by playing the game. The difference is that Masters visibly tells you on the banner that they need to be bought gems (or at least used to, haven't played in a while) instead of hiding it. You can also combine bought and earned gems for other purchases, so it's not like they are two completely separate currencies. This is not to excuse Pokemon Masters. There's a reason I don't play it anymore. But jesus christ Blizzard has gone above and beyond with the monetization on Immortal.

In the early 2000's, hidden game mechanics were there to enhance the experience for veteran players and give them more reasons to keep playing. Today, hidden game mechanics are there to make money off people who have fallen for the sunken cost fallacy.

I just went back to D3 and got to 70 in under 4 hours and it's already been 10,000x more enjoyable than DI which just tries to hold you hostage with dailies and weeklies.

Thanks to your previous video I already uninstalled the game. I have a switch I can easily play Diablo 3 or Diablo 2 or Torchlight 2 heck even Torchlight 3.

imagine how good a game blizzard could make if instead of spending all that time building a sneaky in game economy they spent it on developing a good Diablo game

I really hope Blizzard went so far with this game's deceptive monetization practices that it gets legislation started to force companies like this to limit the amount of gambling mechanics or at the very least have more transparency in their practices. Even though I hate mtx, I can accept that it exists as a business model, but the level of deception in this game should not be legal.

At first glance I was pissed of when Belgium law forbid release of Diablo Immortal and Lost Ark in Belgium... But now I am f***ing grateful they did and wish the laws abound gambling which applies to Belgium and Netherlands to spread over to as many country as possible to prevent this spread of immoral game designs

Amazing how you did all that research for the initial video and still missed this. It just demonstrates how sneaky and manipulative the system in this game is. Good video and thank you for your content.

You are a worthy successor to TottalBiscuit , thank you for doing the work.

It's so well thought out, the intricacies of how to monetize the game. Lots of very unfriendly and anti-player decisions. It's really a disappointing and unsatisfying way to make a game too. I've played many of these kinds of f2p games, and they aren't even fun. I'm thinking clash of clans, etc. They're not even fun. It's so pointless.

Also, have you seen news about hidden caps? That only 5-6 runs per day will give to free to play player good loot and after that there will be no chance to get good loot at all, until you pay and run with eternal legendary crest?

It's crazy to think about how far gaming has fallen. It seems like something from a distant past, but just a few years ago you'd buy a complete game and play it until you were done. Period. No DLC to milk you for more money. No cash shop to milk you for more money. Just make one purchase and play a full game. Crazy.

It's probably going to blow Josh's mind when he figures out that not all regular gems are sellable either....

It sounds like you would need to hire an accountant to play this game. No way I'm gonna subject myself to this.

I'm definitely convinced it's by design too. People are more likely to see the image vs actually reading what it is. If two things look similar and people are none the wiser when it comes to the background, and they don't read the description, they'll just assume it's the same thing. This is a blatant scam designed for the people who are prone to making this mistake whether it's out of laziness or they are the do now, ask questions later type. And the fact you didn't catch it until later goes to show how subtle it is if you ask me. Thank you for addressing it to make sure it's known!

All this microtransaction thing is so complicated my head hurts

Hey Josh, thanks for all you have done for the gamers. In times like these when companies are only predatory on their own customers we need more people like you exposing the lies of these corpo rats wanting to disguise a cash grab into a game. You have my full respect brother.

A new scale for measuring predatory games: On a scale of one to immortal, how predatory is it?

I'm loving this so much. Everything I've predicted about this game is coming true and then some while everyone I've predicted this to went "No they wouldn't do that. They're not that kind of a company." I used to be a real fan of Blizzard games. From their nintendo days up until Starctaft 2 there wasn't a bad one among them. Some better than others, sure, but none were bad. This is such a fall from grace. You'd think they'd dial it back somewhat with what's been happening with the company over the last 2 years and their reputation and overall image. But who cares about public opinion and outrage when there's money to be had?

A while back, on one of your _Worst MMO Ever?_ videos, I commented pointing out that the game you were covering had two currencies that had quite literally synonymous names (gems and crystals). This is like that, but somehow even _worse_ because the only major difference between legendary crests and eternal legendary crests is a difference in name and background.

I had seen that they were different type of crest but I didnt know what differentiated them. I was looking for the differences between them, but I couldn't find anything, since the description is quite hidden in the game and there was no information on the internet until now, thank Josh your videos are enlighting.

6:20 sorry for what? it's blizzard that should be sorry for making this travesty of a cash sinkhole.

I cant be the only one hoping for a class action lawsuit at this point. This is utterly despicable misdirection on thier part.

I keep trying to imagine a meeting in which something like this is planned/designed. Are there literal human assholes sitting around saying things like - Hey John, you gotta make this more cryptic and more confusing and push people to spend money they don't want to spend - Sure thing Bill, I mean that's what you pay me for. We are evil aren't we? - What do you mean? Players secretly want to have predatory mechanics in their games - they are just too shy to admit it - Oh right thanks, I may not vommit while looking in the mirror tonight

Diablo Immortals pay to win systems remind me of when the Fellowship peers over the edge in Moria and you literally cannot see the bottom of the bottomless cavern. It just keeps going and going.

I'm legitimately shocked, as a player I did not notice this either! I'm disgusted at the levels to which they have gone to con money out of people. It's so upsetting when they didn't need to do anything so underhand! Their reputation was in the toilet after the recent scandals, this just smacks the nail into the coffin

this is why you got my sub on both youtube and twitch back when the new world tire fire was just sparking up. keep the great content coming, you are a consumer advocate for anyone who enjoys video games.