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I'm kind of sad that this was downvoted. I thought on hacker news downvotes were used for factually incorrect or trolling posts, and I don't think this post is

I'm kind of sad that this was downvoted. I thought on hacker news downvotes were used for factually incorrect or trolling posts, and I don't think this post is either. Can I get an explanation for the downvotes at least?

cldrope 14y ago
I can't downvote so I cannot say. But my theory is that while you provide some good information both your format and tone are not really in line with people here. I took no offense coming from a hacking perspective, as it's normal to be fairly caustic. But this is merely called hacker news, it's mostly for startups related to the tech industry. I only come here for the occasional papers and such, but little programmatically is learned. I even asked for employment advice at one point and it was probably the slowest and least visited ASK HN that day, despite some person of "i need handout" quality having a very popular one the same day.
- d3throwaway 14y ago
  Haha, I can understand that the intersection of hardcore Diablo 2 players and startup enthusiasts is small ( I'm well aware games are fun, but are a completely unproductive use of time :) ). I guess this really isn't the proper place to discuss this topic, as the longevity of Diablo 2 can only really be understood by players who contribute to that longevity, ie put in many, many hours.
javajosh 14y ago
I read the post and am not sure why people downvoted. I have sneaking suspicion that because snarky, trolling posts are universally disallowed, people resort to snarky downvoting. Not the best solution, but I guess people need an outlet. I upvoted you to counter a little. Anyway, this is more of a personal question. I was wondering if you've actually looked deeper into the personal question of why loot drops, etc, even constitute a reward. This is not blackberry juice! It is manipulation of RAM that affects the display. I play D3, and the closest I've come to understand is that it's the challenge of maintaining forward progress against increasing resistance. In which case the OP is correct - one waits for resistance to grow too high, go the AH, buy new gear. The other option, of course, is to adopt/discover a new strategy (which can then drive your gear choices, of course). But really my question (which is still a bit perplexing) is why I want to maintain forward progress going through content that I've already seen.
- d3throwaway 14y ago
  I think the reason is a combination of different aspects, with varying proportions of each for different people. I would agree that one of those aspects is surmounting obstacles. For me, and I would argue for the majority of hardcore Diablo players, the main aspect is market manipulation. It feels GOOD to buy cheap and sell, or find some inefficiency in the market and exploit and profit. Diablo is essentially the free market at its best and worst, and I find it amazingly addicting to go from rags to riches, and the power that comes with that. If you are rich enough, you can essentially create a niche market by yourself. There was this insanely rich guy on d2jsp that offered large amounts of currency for the most ridiculously bad items. This "make people do stuff for me" power is even apparent at lower levels of the heirarchy. I remember finally reaching "middle-class" status and going into trade games and offering somewhat valuable items to new players in exchange for them doing inane things like bringing me tedious (unnecessary) quest items, or answering trivia. Other aspects are pride in skill builds (I want to try this ridiculous skill build and show it's viable), showing off items ( through faster PvE, more wins in PvP, etc )... many more probably.
  - javajosh 14y ago
    Aha! In a word: status. Status is such an interesting, and compelling, enticement for behavior. Even entirely synthetic status, like D3, has it's advocates. In that case, we can say that the dopamine spikes occur during status events. Perhaps that's D3's real problem - the dearth of status events. Perhaps PvP will sove that problem for ActiBlizzard. (Personally, I don't think I'm motivated by status events. I'm more motivated by puzzle solving, and although D3 has some puzzles, particularly in the meta-game, they aren't particularly compelling to me.)
    - intended 14y ago
      I doubt status is the correct answer here. Firstly, you can't use a term like status and then apply it across the entire D3 player base. The edge cases here are complete player types which make a sizeable portion of the player base.

cldrope 14y ago

I can't downvote so I cannot say. But my theory is that while you provide some good information both your format and tone are not really in line with people here. I took no offense coming from a hacking perspective, as it's normal to be fairly caustic. But this is merely called hacker news, it's mostly for startups related to the tech industry. I only come here for the occasional papers and such, but little programmatically is learned. I even asked for employment advice at one point and it was probably the slowest and least visited ASK HN that day, despite some person of "i need handout" quality having a very popular one the same day.

d3throwaway 14y ago
Haha, I can understand that the intersection of hardcore Diablo 2 players and startup enthusiasts is small ( I'm well aware games are fun, but are a completely unproductive use of time :) ). I guess this really isn't the proper place to discuss this topic, as the longevity of Diablo 2 can only really be understood by players who contribute to that longevity, ie put in many, many hours.

javajosh 14y ago

I read the post and am not sure why people downvoted. I have sneaking suspicion that because snarky, trolling posts are universally disallowed, people resort to snarky downvoting. Not the best solution, but I guess people need an outlet. I upvoted you to counter a little. Anyway, this is more of a personal question. I was wondering if you've actually looked deeper into the personal question of why loot drops, etc, even constitute a reward. This is not blackberry juice! It is manipulation of RAM that affects the display. I play D3, and the closest I've come to understand is that it's the challenge of maintaining forward progress against increasing resistance. In which case the OP is correct - one waits for resistance to grow too high, go the AH, buy new gear. The other option, of course, is to adopt/discover a new strategy (which can then drive your gear choices, of course). But really my question (which is still a bit perplexing) is why I want to maintain forward progress going through content that I've already seen.

d3throwaway 14y ago
I think the reason is a combination of different aspects, with varying proportions of each for different people. I would agree that one of those aspects is surmounting obstacles. For me, and I would argue for the majority of hardcore Diablo players, the main aspect is market manipulation. It feels GOOD to buy cheap and sell, or find some inefficiency in the market and exploit and profit. Diablo is essentially the free market at its best and worst, and I find it amazingly addicting to go from rags to riches, and the power that comes with that. If you are rich enough, you can essentially create a niche market by yourself. There was this insanely rich guy on d2jsp that offered large amounts of currency for the most ridiculously bad items. This "make people do stuff for me" power is even apparent at lower levels of the heirarchy. I remember finally reaching "middle-class" status and going into trade games and offering somewhat valuable items to new players in exchange for them doing inane things like bringing me tedious (unnecessary) quest items, or answering trivia. Other aspects are pride in skill builds (I want to try this ridiculous skill build and show it's viable), showing off items ( through faster PvE, more wins in PvP, etc )... many more probably.
- javajosh 14y ago
  Aha! In a word: status. Status is such an interesting, and compelling, enticement for behavior. Even entirely synthetic status, like D3, has it's advocates. In that case, we can say that the dopamine spikes occur during status events. Perhaps that's D3's real problem - the dearth of status events. Perhaps PvP will sove that problem for ActiBlizzard. (Personally, I don't think I'm motivated by status events. I'm more motivated by puzzle solving, and although D3 has some puzzles, particularly in the meta-game, they aren't particularly compelling to me.)
  - intended 14y ago
    I doubt status is the correct answer here. Firstly, you can't use a term like status and then apply it across the entire D3 player base. The edge cases here are complete player types which make a sizeable portion of the player base.