[June 22, 2023] Metro UK: Diablo 4 players angry at being forced to create new characters for seasonal battle pass

MDCrabCakeFan86 · Jun 22, 2023

It's been reported that Blizzard has announced a seasonal battle pass system for Diablo 4 and that they are requiring Diablo 4 players to create new seasonal characters in order to have access to the Diablo 4 battle pass:

Diablo 4 players angry at being forced to create new character for battle pass

Diablo 4 players are furious at Blizzard for forcing them to create new characters each season in order to have access to the battle pass.

metro.co.uk

Diablo 4 players are furious at Blizzard for forcing them to create new characters each season in order to have access to the battle pass.

While an exact start date for Diablo 4 season 1 is yet to be announced, Blizzard has confirmed its anticipated arrival in late July, alongside the game's first battle pass.

During a recent developer update livestream, more details were unveiled about what season 1 will offer, though one thing stood out – seasons in Diablo 4 will follow the pattern set by its predecessor.

This means that players will need to create new characters at the beginning of each season to make progress in the battle pass, with the news angering Diablo 4 veterans and newcomers alike.

Following the livestream, Diablo boss Rod Fergusson took to Twitter to further elaborate on how seasonal updates will function in Diablo 4.

He confirmed that players would have to start fresh with a new seasonal character to access the battle pass, seasonal questlines, and other mechanics.

The replies to Fergusson's tweet make it abundantly clear that many Diablo players are far from pleased with this information.

Yuntu · Jun 22, 2023

That's how ARPGs have been operating for years. I fail to see the issue.

Musubi · Jun 22, 2023

Yeah this was honestly bound to happen. I feel like the amount of people who probably participated in D3 seasons was low. The hardcore fans probably won't bat an eye at this but I don't think this will go over well with the general populous.

signal · Jun 22, 2023

Haven't played D4 so maybe dumb question but is there something about the game that makes it less 'season friendly' than D3?

biglo25 · Jun 22, 2023

have they not played previous diablo like three

Indy in the Fridge · Jun 22, 2023

Gamers just need to grow up my god.

SpottieO · Jun 22, 2023

Then don't get the pass and just play characters on the eternal realm.

Duxxy3 · Jun 22, 2023

That's pretty typical, but the grind to max level looks far worse than it was in D3. So that will need to be adjusted.

Tommy Showbiz · Jun 22, 2023

I'm not terribly surprised people are upset, Diablo 4 is definitely courting a new audience and if you're not accustomed to this fairly common mechanic, it's pretty easy to understand why being forced to abandon a character you've become attached to in order to enjoy new content is a very strange ask.

Zebesian-X · Jun 22, 2023

Yuntu said:
That's how ARPGs have been operating for years. I fail to see the issue.

The issue is just that Diablo 4 attracted a large mainstream audience that probably isn't used to how ARPGs handle seasonal content. The amount of people that participated in past entries' seasons is probably relatively low in comparison

LossAversion · Jun 22, 2023

Not a fan of the idea myself. But I guess there's not going to be enough new content each season for them to just allow characters to be imported from season to season. I guess the hardcore Diablo players like this way of doing things?

IIFloodyII · Jun 22, 2023

signal said:
Haven't played D4 so maybe dumb question but is there something about the game that makes it less 'season friendly' than D3?

I know some people don't like that they reset all the world reputation thingy that's just a massive grind, but besides that nothing is immediately jumping out that D3 didn't do.

biglo25 · Jun 22, 2023

signal said:
Haven't played D4 so maybe dumb question but is there something about the game that makes it less 'season friendly' than D3?

it's just so boring in the beginning till you get more skill points for your build

Aselith · Jun 22, 2023

Yuntu said:
That's how ARPGs have been operating for years. I fail to see the issue.

I feel like it's a little different when you introduce a paid season pass. There's an expectation that you can use those to get additions to your character, but I'm not sure what battle pass items are like with Diablo

Branaghs · Jun 22, 2023

Wait, isn't this like diablo 3? I don't understand the outrage here.

Marven · Jun 22, 2023

I feel like it's just a timing thing. If the first season started 3+ months after launch, folks wouldn't be so upset. By the fact that as of right now most haven't finished the campaign yet, per that infographic, and we're less than a month from season 1, I can understand people not wanting to have to start over again so soon. Hell knowing they're going to have 12+ pages of fixes before the season is making my consider just stop leveling at 70 until they fix things.

Aselith · Jun 22, 2023

biglo25 said:
it's just so boring in the beginning till you get more skill points for your build

It also takes a really long time to get going like I've played maybe 10-15 hours and still don't have a mount

DanteMenethil · Jun 22, 2023

Branaghs said:
Wait, isn't this like diablo 3? I don't understand the outrage here.

D3 didnt have a battle pass so no. The concept of a battle pass being exclusive to a single game mode is pretty rare.

Dalek · Jun 22, 2023

Duxxy3 said:
That's pretty typical, but the grind to max level looks far worse than it was in D3. So that will need to be adjusted.

Yeah to me - this is the issue. It's a much tougher grind to max out the character.

Polynaut · Jun 22, 2023

I can understand the confusion. Like folks are saying, this game probably attracted a lot of folks that are just not familiar with the concept because they haven't played other games in the genre or past titles.

I was initially pretty excited about the idea of starting a new character with the new season, but now I'm realizing how little time I actually have to play this game and how long it's taking me to just get through the campaign with my first character, and I'm honestly wishing I could just play the season pass content with my main. Live and learn!

Zebesian-X · Jun 22, 2023

What would the harm be in allowing eternal character progress to also contribute to the BP?

Hero_of_the_Day · Jun 22, 2023

Tommy Showbiz said:
I'm not terribly surprised people are upset, Diablo 4 is definitely courting a new audience and if you're not accustomed to this fairly common mechanic, it's pretty easy to understand why being forced to abandon a character you've become attached to in order to enjoy new content is a very strange ask.

This is me. I played Diablo 3 when it came out, and again on consoles, but never touched the seasonal stuff. This seems weird as shit to me. But, I'm just gonna finish the game and walk away as a result, just like I did with Part Three.

jaymzi · Jun 22, 2023

I remember in D3 you could level so fast each season. A few hours to max level I think.

Is D4 the same?

Mr Satan · Jun 22, 2023

these people don't realise the game they're playing lmao

Legacy · Jun 22, 2023

This is news to me, that sucks. Gues I need to find all those Lilith statues for the stats boost

Disco Infernal · Jun 22, 2023

Take them to court, Gamers. Judge Corley would probably love to shut you down too.

IIFloodyII · Jun 22, 2023

jaymzi said:
I remember in D3 you could level so fast each season. A few hours to max level I think.

Is D4 the same?

Not currently, but I think it'll change personally. Getting to 50 isn't too slow, but the paragon leveling is super slow and really important for endgame.

Coyote Starrk · Jun 22, 2023

I'll say the same thing I said in the OT. This has been known for months. The devs talked about it before the game ever came out. If you are buying the fourth game in a franchise or entering a genre you are unfamiliar with it's on you do do the bare minimum research to see how they work as a consumer.

The entire point of the game requiring you to make a new character is to encourage the players to try new classes and new builds. New ways of approaching the game. Because each season will have new legendaries and unique items to raise or lower certain builds or classes. All of it centered around whatever the seasonal events is. That way it's fresh everytime. A new experience everytime.

Starting over is the whole point.

Freezasaurus · Jun 22, 2023

I'm just not gonna play season content. 🤷‍♂️ No fuss from me. I'll pop back in when they add a new class with the expansions.

Beefsquid · Jun 22, 2023

Diablo IV must have really brought in a bunch of new players.

But yeah, I get why there would be confusion. But that's how ARPGs go

AlexTrevelyan · Jun 22, 2023

Did they tell the people buying the higher cost editions that come with a battle pass that they wouldn't be able to engage with the content they bought without making a seasonal character? I didn't buy the more expensive edition, but I'd be pissed if I did. I don't remember reading anything about that specifically.

Coyote Starrk · Jun 22, 2023

jaymzi said:
I remember in D3 you could level so fast each season. A few hours to max level I think.

Is D4 the same?

No it takes MUCH longer. The game is meant to be much slower paced than D3. The devs have been very clear that they don't want the game to operate at the same breakneck speed that D3 did.

Kalor · Jun 22, 2023

Locking battle pass progression behind a seasonal character sucks. Obviously the game wants to encourage players to make new characters but restricting progress for something you pay for is weird, especially when there'll be people who just want to mill about on their regular character.

Coyote Starrk · Jun 22, 2023

Aselith said:
It also takes a really long time to get going like I've played maybe 10-15 hours and still don't have a mount

You get the mount by following the main campaign. It's meant to take a bit because they don't want you just blowing through the world that early on.

But once you get the mount you get it on all future characters. So that's nice.

DanteMenethil · Jun 22, 2023

Coyote Starrk said:
I'll say the same thing I said in the OT. This has been known for months. The devs talked about it before the game ever came out. If you are buying the fourth game in a franchise or entering a genre you are unfamiliar with it's on you do do the bare minimum research to see how they work as a consumer.

The entire point of the game requiring you to make a new character is to encourage the players to try new classes and new builds. New ways of approaching the game. Because each season will have new legendaries and unique items to raise or lower certain builds or classes. All of it centered around whatever the seasonal events is. That way it's fresh everytime. A new experience everytime.

Starting over is the whole point.

You can have all of that separate from the BP though, just like it was in d2 and d3.

Rosebud · Jun 22, 2023

Mr Satan said:
these people don't realise the game they're playing lmao

It's the first Diablo with a Battle Pass like that

SirKai · Jun 22, 2023

Wow, this sounds lame as fuck. I had no idea this was common or "expected," but it feels out of touch to court modern day battle pass audiences when the method of accessing the stuff itself is so limiting compared to other games that use this business model. Like, literally pay money to play the game in a way that's completely opposite from how I would want to engage with it? Hard pass.

Comparatively, SF6's current fighter pass, while pretty lame, is progressed by doing literally anything in the game, even training mode, combo trials, and local vs matches.

Slayven · Jun 22, 2023

They should have told people that in beginning. Most other games DLC just slots in, no one likes feeling like their time is wasted and not valued

Zem · Jun 22, 2023

If they let you take your eternal character into seasons you'd be bored and quit within a day. So they'd just be complaining about that instead.

I also don't think this'll be an issue at all for people complaining right now after a couple of days in season 1 with a new character. They just need to see it and play it.

FizzMino · Jun 22, 2023

jaymzi said:
I remember in D3 you could level so fast each season. A few hours to max level I think.

Is D4 the same?

Yeah with correct gems in your shared stash you could get to max level in D3 in mere hours with very little effort. It was insane.

Diablo 4 is nothing like that, hell I doubt you could get to level 50 in D4 within a couple hours unless people know some trick I don't.

Jerm · Jun 22, 2023

Slayven said:
They should have told people that in beginning. Most other games DLC just slots in, no one likes feeling like their time is wasted and not valued

While being upfront would have generally gone a long way with new players, they most likely didn't even consider the need to do so since it's worked like this for a decade.

Polynaut · Jun 22, 2023

AlexTrevelyan said:
Did they tell the people buying the higher cost editions that come with a battle pass that they wouldn't be able to engage with the content they bought without making a seasonal character? I didn't buy the more expensive edition, but I'd be pissed if I did. I don't remember reading anything about that specifically.

Yeah this is kind of me, though I knew what I was getting into. Just thought I'd more easily be able to breeze thru the campaign and then would want to start a new character by the time season 1 came out, but in reality I'm not even close.

Regretting buying the more expensive version for sure, but we'll see. I guess I just could treat it as paying for early access :p

Charpunk · Jun 22, 2023

I guess these people never played Diablo 3.

Darkstorne · Jun 22, 2023

Yuntu said:
That's how ARPGs have been operating for years. I fail to see the issue.

This is always a terrible argument, for literally anything. Tradition for tradition's sake is never a good defence.

I'm a fan of starting new characters for new seasons in Diablo. I'm looking forward to it in D4. But D4 is very much an MMO, will be attracting a lot of MMO players, and especially with character creation now it's not strange to imagine people getting attached to the idea of a main they'd like to progress through paid seasons with.

I can't imagine Blizz will struggle to think of a way to provide progression through a season pass with either new or existing characters, depending on player preference, and I think that would be a fantastic evolution for the genre as a whole.

Legacy · Jun 22, 2023

Slayven said:
They should have told people that in beginning. Most other games DLC just slots in, no one likes feeling like their time is wasted and not valued

Yeah I had no idea about this and I followed a fair amount of D4 coverage.

EDIT:
I played D3 but dipped shortly after completing the campaign twice.

Tommy Showbiz · Jun 22, 2023

Zem said:
If they let you take your eternal character into seasons you'd be bored and quit within a day. So they'd just be complaining about that instead.

Yeah it should be noted that seasons are structured like this for a reason.

I think a thing that might help is the option to essentially "recreate" your character, have them restart at level 1 for the new season but keep all the same customization options + transmog so it doesn't feel like you're just abandoning them. Obviously you can do that easily on your own, but it's one of those things that helps take down the mental roadblock.

Theorry · Jun 22, 2023

I mean alot of new players playing Diablo for the first time. Probably alot of players growing up with destiny also. So isn't that shocking people are surprised

FizzMino · Jun 22, 2023

Slayven said:
They should have told people that in beginning. Most other games DLC just slots in, no one likes feeling like their time is wasted and not valued

I mean they did. Also, Diablo 3 and Path of Exile (the gold standards of ARPG's) both have seasons that operate exactly like Diablo 4's.

The only new addition will be the Battle Pass only working inside the season. Otherwise both of those games handle it the same way.

This is like complaining that a MMORPG makes you replace all your gear with a new expansion. It's kind of the point.

Kazen · Jun 22, 2023

This is pretty funny

CorpseLight · Jun 22, 2023

"Furious" - lol okay, calm down.

To be fair - Maybe Blizzard should have started Season 1 on Day 1.

[June 22, 2023] Metro UK: Diablo 4 players angry at being forced to create new characters for seasonal battle pass

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