Blizzard has officially shut down all its servers.
In this regard, NetEase released a farewell letter to Blizzard national server players, after all, for 14 years, for each player, all characters, accounts, equipment and friend lists, not just a string of codes, but the youth and blood of each of our players, a beautiful life.
NetEase also issued an announcement, saying that it will not forget its commitment to players, and will still do its best to serve Blizzard national server players until the last moment and walk the last mile with players.
For all players, since the release of the Blizzard and NetEase contract rupture on November 21 last year, the whereabouts of all Blizzard players have actually become a problem that players have to face.
Your own account will definitely not be saved, it is to store your own cyber urn and wait silently; Or move overseas to start over, or simply abandon the pit and plunge into the arms of other games. I believe we have seen enough of this determination in the past. World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Hearthstone are all not immune.
In particular, Warcraft players, when the mountain rain is about to come, have begun to call themselves refugees. More than ten years of hard work have come to naught, and most Warcraft players no longer have the mental power of the past and start over. So he began to go into exile into other MMOs, such as Final Fantasy 14 and Sword Net 3, in search of a new home.
And some manufacturers are not idle, "Guild Wars 2" even launched events for new players and returning players, the prize looks like a ghost tiger, it is really a bit of Sima Zhao's heart that everyone knows.
Of course, the players of "Hearthstone" are no better, and the anchors in the Hearthstone area have begun to shift and transform.
Spirits and Master Wang have joined the food court anchors, while some anchors who still plan to stay in the live broadcast industry, such as Night Blower and Dog Thief, have also abandoned Hearthstone and began to try popular games such as "Duck and Goose Kill" while familiarizing themselves with other card games.
In addition to the complete rout of World of Warcraft and Hearthstone players, Overwatch is relatively better.
In the community, you can see many players saying that the experience of "Overwatch" has not been completely replaced by a game so far, indicating that there are many players who fight again.
Of course, this relatively good situation is only compared to "Warcraft" and "Hearthstone", although the "Overwatch" experience is unique, but the loss of accounts, accelerators, and aversion to Blizzard have also made many players turn into the arms of other FPS.
The closure of Blizzard's national uniform, like a whale fall, feeds a large number of games. And Blizzard players have to leave their original homeland and wander far away.
But in the fully disintegrated Blizzard games, there is one exception: Diablo: Immortal.
Who would have thought that this mobile game, which no one was optimistic about at the beginning, would become the only Blizzard game that we could access through formal channels. The reason is also very simple, its research and development and distribution are all responsible for NetEase, except for the name "Dark", in terms of attribution, in fact, it has little to do with Blizzard.
I don't know if it's because of Blizzard's recent events, in the past two months, this mobile game, which has been criticized by players, has been rising in ranking.
Since its BlizzCon in 2018, the game has actually lost the opportunity to be treated fairly by players. When it comes to this game, more players don't want to try it, but smile.
At the beginning of its launch, the game also exposed a lot of problems: forcing krypton, forcing liver, and inconvenient remarks about team formation are all over the Internet. This argument was so consistent that it dissuaded many interested players at the time.
Now that I see the news about this game, I think it is difficult for you to have the idea of taking the initiative to try.
But a recent update to Diablo: Immortal changed my general impression of the game. (I also found out after playing)
In fact, this new version, called "Shadow of the Moon", is a drastic overhaul and renovation of Diablo: Immortal.
In the new version of "Shadow of the Moon", the game brings players a new map Storm Fortress, and the adventure stage is set in the middle of the ocean full of reefs and countercurrents, an island shrouded in clouds, players can carry out new adventures.
In addition to opening up new maps, the game also adds new characters, new challenge quests, and a new system bone box development line. Under the original framework, NetEase has brought considerable new content and game goals to players.
And the game mechanics that have been criticized by players in the past, "Diablo: Immortal" has also been improved.
Now the game no longer forces players to form a team to play the book, lone wolves, two-person travel, guilds together, etc., no matter how many people's team can challenge the Demon God copy as they like.
At the same time, in the new version, equipment drops have also added a guarantee mechanism. Completing a total of 3 dungeons, you will get 1 random set, in the bounty gameplay, every 4 times of the extra treasure chest reward, there will be a probability of obtaining legendary equipment, every day the first submission of the Hradim Guide, will definitely get at least 1 legendary equipment, if you brush a useless green suit, you can also exchange it for the same level of green clothing by exchanging it to a merchant.
In addition, in the krypton gold piece, the addition of the guarantee mechanism can also be said to be a shot in the arm for many players.
The overall pace of the game has become smoother, and the requirements for liver and krypton have been greatly reduced.
And NetEase obviously takes into account the level of returning players and newcomers entering the pit, as long as the player's character is lower than the server level, there is a experience bonus of up to 8 times the speed. Returning players even have extremely generous login rewards, and when they return, they will get four orange suits, which will have the effect of BD suits.
And novice players are now in the pit, in fact, there are also New Year activities that can be achieved by daily check-in, and quick players help form.
In fact, not only this version, within half a year of the game's launch, NetEase is trying to make the game better, and their efforts have also paid off, as evidenced by the rising ranking curve.
I think that whether it is the current core mechanics of the game or the pain points of newcomers who have just entered the game, the current "Diablo: Immortal" has changed from before and is worth trying for all players.
And the reason why I ran to play "Diablo: Immortal" on a whim is very simple: the national uniform of "Diablo III" will not be played in the future, so I have not decided to stay, and decided to stop and go to Westmar to take a look.
In this Blizzard incident, Diablo III players don't seem to have too much thought to move around other games. Most people actually want to stay in "Diablo III" and start over. Those who hesitate like me are a minority.
On the Internet, you can also see that some UPS have made a summary of the ten-year national service of the game "Diablo III". While saying goodbye to this game, everyone also commented on the end of this game, and it is not difficult to find that "Diablo III" actually has a good reputation among the player community.
This is actually quite unexpected, in my impression "Dark III" was scolded by a group of fans at the beginning of its launch.
Because "Diablo II" left a deep impression on many people's hearts, everyone had high expectations for the RPG development in "Diablo III" and the subsequent deep BD. But the core depth and charm of the "Dark III" game is not actually reflected in the depth of the single character BD as in the previous game, but in the decision-making in the big secret realm, and the challenge to yourself.
Today, there are actually many games that can bring the same experience as "Dark Two" (such as "Terror Dawn" and "Road to Exile"), but the games that can replace "Dark III" have not yet appeared.
And this unique experience, after ten years of baptism, has slowly been recognized by the majority of players, so that players do not want to leave St. Shouri even if they start over.
To some extent, "Diablo: Immortal" is actually quite similar to the beginning of "Diablo 3".
Just as we view Diablo III with a stereotype of Diablo II, we've actually been looking at Diablo: Immortal with tinted glasses since the game's inception.
Just as our impressions of Diablo III shifted, after putting aside the stereotypes of the past, I also found that the game was indeed unexpectedly fun.
And, you have to admit that NetEase has good intentions in terms of operation.
Take the New Year event of "Dark: Immortal", the project team specially designed the "Divine Beast Bloodline" with Chinese characteristics in New Year fashion, and also opened the first challenge "Immortal Cup" in these two days, allowing the god anchors of Douyu and Huya to determine the champion through the competition in the limited-time mode "Chaos Secret Realm".
In the past, NetEase was dedicated to the agency and operation of Blizzard games. The "Hearthstone" familiar to the majority of players, the Hearthstone Gold Open in China, is completely funded by NetEase and held in China. (Blizzard didn't even pay a penny)
The breakdown of the cooperation between the two sides this time, all players stand on NetEase, not without reason.
It was precisely because of the reversal of the reputation of "Diablo: Immortal" and NetEase's serious attitude towards operation that I stopped the journey of "Diablo III", but thought of such a controversial game as "Diablo: Immortal" and decided to give it a try.
And the new version is indeed very different from the scenery I heard.
With the blessing of newbie benefits and return packs, the game is not so pressing, and you can fully enjoy the joy of brushing and brushing in the past "Dark". With the game's excellent sense of operation and blow, the overall experience brought to me is actually quite good. (For example, map guidance beyond the end tour, and more convenient matching function)
So, you might as well put aside your prejudices and take advantage of the new version to try this game that you may have avoided in the past, and maybe you can reap the rare pleasure and find new joy.
After all, that's how I got into Dark Three. (laughs)