We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game. There are still tons of people playing every day and week, and playing a lot, but eventually they're going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already). Killing enemies and finding items is a lot of fun, and we think we have a lot of the systems surrounding that right, or at least on the right path with a few corrections and tweaks. But honestly Diablo III is not World of Warcraft. We aren't going to be able to pump out tons of new systems and content every couple months. There needs to be something else that keeps people engaged, and we know it's not there right now.

We're working toward 1.0.4, which we're really trying to pack with as many fixes and changes we can to help you guys out (and we'll have a bunch of articles posted with all the details as we get closer), and we're of course working on 1.1 with PvP arenas. I think both those patches will do a lot to give people things to do, and get them excited about playing, but they're not going to be a real end-game solution, at least not what we would expect out of a proper end-game. We have some ideas for progression systems, but honestly it's a huge feature if we want to try to do it right, and not something we could envision being possible until well after 1.1 which it itself still a ways out.

Not surprised since its not developed by the original diablo team, but i doubt it will make a difference.

4xx dps lvl 60 legendary ftw

We have some ideas for progression systems, but honestly it's a huge feature if we want to try to do it right, and not something we could envision being possible until well after 1.1 which it itself still a ways out

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6019511928?page=3
I'm still waiting for my cheap items.

where is your statistics of less than 100k players online concurrently came from? do they have direct access to blizz servers to measure players online?

my question still stands:

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Added on July 5, 2012, 10:49 am

go sell loots, earn usd60 from RMAH, get d3 refunded fully, quit game. done settle, no one need to be unhappy.

"People think that was the first HC Inferno clear? Weird. Webcams r 2 legit 2 quit. hay HAY"

My apologies Kripp and Krippi, looks like you were 1st HC Inferno clear. (my spreadsheet deciphering isn't what it used to be) Congrats!

Trend wise, logical. More and more people can no longer online 18 hours a day for D3. But the base is still big. You graph is from xfire. In July D3 still has 40k user:

http://beta.xfire.com/games/d3

From the same source, WOW just have 45k users in July:

http://beta.xfire.com/games/wow

Note: these numbers are only for user that join xfire. So, as you can see, the number is quite close, my thinking is, the limit is on number of user that uses xfire.

so can you agree that if d3 sold 1mil players. dropping 60% is still 400k. and bashiok's statement of hundred(s) of thousands can still mean 100k and it will still be legit/valid?

so can you agree that if d3 sold 1mil players. dropping 60% is still 400k. and bashiok's statement of hundred(s) of thousands can still mean 100k and it will still be legit/valid?

so after all those scary figure, now only bliz decide to lower themself and listen to players opinion ?

Problem with this, you are stating all these as facts, but... all you got are

1. unreliable statistics from dubious sources
2. playing amateur psychologist in second-guessing CM statements

- thread title "Blizzard admits the lack of long term endgame"
and you post numbers yourself and considers it as solid facts, gets called upon it and now you outcry derailment. good job 

- i already made a point (hey, why not use the FACTS word eh?) that bashiok isn't simply pulling out "FACTS" out of his ass. and it is using very very generous numbers.

- does ANYONE actually remembered that inferno was meant to be for the elite of elite? meant for hardcore players?
now everyone and their mom are clearing inferno, WHY is that?

could it be because blizzard LISTENED TOO MUCH on players b****ing and crying and now EVERYONE (including blizz) are paying dearly for it? they f***ed their AH up because gold value is down to the gutter and loot drops so god damn easily (may not be your loot, but fact is someone's loots are dropping, and you can sell it to buy your own loot, or use simple trading like my chest piece for your chest piece)

hell, because the game is so easy and lol some bots can even bot in inferno, everything is losing its value and eventually, the value of end game and ultimately the game itself.

and now you claim blizzard do not listen? sheesh get it over yourself (and your "experience") man

exactly!!!

there are multiple range of players, so which players' comment they should listen to?

look at wow and see that blizz did listened to player after the not-so-leet king expansion: player need to discover 5 men dungeon entrances, adjusted their gears to do specific level of playing (pvp and pve) and place roles for dungeon loot so other class won't ninja and run away.

what happened then? the 2nd group of players (obviously those who still like to stand in the fire and blame blizz) started to make noise

'OMFG THE 5-MEN DUNGEON ENTRANCE IS HARD TO FIND!!!'
'OMG THE ADDS ARE HARDER THAN THE BAWS!!!'
'OMFG THE BAWSES ARE UNKILLABLE!!!'
'OMFG THE HEALER SUX!!!'
'OMFG I HAVE DONE THE INSTANCE FOR 41867864 TIMES BUT <place loot here> JUST DUN FKIN DROP!!!'

you should already known these kind of players don't RTFM and don't even bother L2P but they whine like no tomorrow, then blizz decided to listen to them, and? third group started to make noise...

'OMFG THE CONTENT IS DUMB DOWN TO IDIOT LEVEL!!!'
'I'D RATHER PLAY <WoW-Killa> THAN THIS!!!'
'WHY BLIZZ NERF THE CONTENT!!!'
'WHERE'S THE CHALLENGE?!?!'
'THE GAME IS REPETITIVE!!! It'S BORING!!'
'GRAPHIC SUX, GAME ENGINE SUX, ANIMATION SUX!!!'

- because players (like disgusting DH!) CRIED "hey, i stack 1k all resist and yet i still get 1 shotted, whats the point right?! might as well stack dps onry and smoke screen because athene does it and he WINS GAMES"

- they succeeded in making death meaningful. it makes players THINK TWICE about stacking pure dps (again, stinking DH) while melees (like me) dont have that much of an issue because we ALREADY stack defensive stats. again, 2 side of the wall on crying f***s, blizzard chose the lesser evil which is to make the game balanced for classes so people arent forced to roll a DH (or wiz/WD) all day erry day

- they did not remove gold/loot. go login the damn game and break a f***ing breakable and tell me if coins drop or not. i can assure you they still do. what was merely change is a severe nerf to it, and that gf/mf doesnt affect it so it greatly hampers bots, and at the same time provided players an OPTION that they are not REQUIRED to do so because it no longer provides a clear advantage over people who do not does such cases of farming. case in point, wizards were the most efficient class to do vase farming in royal crypts. does that mean everyone MUST roll a wiz to be efficient in diablo3? those who did not back then, are GREATLY put at a disadvantage for not doing so.

- again, IAS was a grossly overpowered stat. it meant that players are PIGEON HOLED into getting it. and it also meant that the gap between ranged classes and melee classes are ever so great because melee classes do not have the luxury to stack IAS as much as ranged classes do. IAS is STILL viable despite the nerfs this very day, and even melee classes still go for them, just not full retard IAS be all end all stat like before.

and no, these are certainly not minor issues in the long run of the game. it may probably be to you because you damn very well play a ranged classes and all the "issues" you mentioned mainly addresses your class.

ps: good job avoiding most, if not all of my questions, and further derailing the whole topic despite you cried on topic derailment

end game should unlock offline/lan play