Summary
Fans of the recently releasedDiablo 4have pointed out that the game still does not include any kind of weekend events, a popular feature in many live service games, two months after launch. In a departure from previous games in the beloved RPG franchise,Diablo 4is being continuously developed by Blizzard as a live service product, bringing all the expectations and potential pitfalls that come with this development strategy.
One of the main objectives of live service developers is to keep players coming back to their game as consistently as possible, and a common strategy for achieving this goal is to introduce time-sensitive events with special gameplay rewards. Blizzard has previously employed this tactic in the form ofdouble XP weekend events inOverwatch 2, but the company has yet to introduce comparable events intoDiablo 4.
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This lack of weekend events was questioned in a post by Reddit user eazy937 on theDiablo 4subreddit. The user proposed several possible types of incentives that these events could offer, such as double XP, higher Unique chances, or bosses dropping special loot during Helltide events, any of which, they argued, could “give this game some purposes.” The post’s comment section hosted a lively discussion among players, some supporting the idea of weekend events while others expressed skepticism. Many fans seemed hostile to the notion of time-locked events in general, claiming they were “anti-fun” and designed to exploit “FOMO,” or fear of missing out. Others were more receptive to the idea, but pointed out that Blizzard hadmore pressing issues withDiablo 4’s online featuresthat should be addressed first.
Other users in the comments thread pointed out thatDiablo 4is still missing several popular and highly requested quality-of-life features, which they thought should take precedence over weekend events. One of the issues mentioned multiple times in the discussion was the lack of a filter or search bar for the stash, but fortunately Blizzard has confirmedit is working on aDiablo 4loot filter.
As Blizzard continues to modify and expandDiablo 4, it is likely that new features will be introduced with each major update. As such, weekend events may be coming to the game sooner or later, but so far the developers have not stated any plans to implement such features. After a series of disappointing and frustrating updates, many passionate fans have already ditched the game, and those still playing broadly agree thatDiablo 4needs some big changes in its next seasonin order to get back on track. Whether Blizzard will manage to appease these fans with future updates remains to be seen.
Diablo 4is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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