[nocipher]

All the serious D2 gamers knew all of the best items and finding them was a big part of the game for them (or perhaps it WAS the game?)

Diablo was always about the exploration and the loot hunt. That was the game. Diablo 3 is a deviation. The loot hunt kept you playing. It let you set defined goals: "I want to obtain a perfect Skin of the Vipermagi and then use the quest reward to socket it with a perfect topaz." D3 does not let you do that. You don't set item goals, you set achievement goals: "I want to beat inferno."

I'm sure a lot of people will prefer this, but the effect is much different. In particular, without the excitement of the item hunt, there is no reason to keep playing after you complete the game a few times; No surprises.

[crag]

Blizzard could've made it easier to replay if you didn't have to go through the same dialog (story) again and again.

I got half way through Nightmare and was like "I am not wadding through this crap dialog again". And put the game down.

The "story" was lackluster at best. Easy to predict. And absolutely no surprises. And to make me run though it again, at each difficulty level is just mean.

[RegEx]

Additionally, the boss mechanics were extremely disappointing for normal and nightmare, so there's no real triumph the first two times you play through the story. For most of the bosses, you have to _try_ to die.

[guard-of-terra]

Play on hardcore.

[RegEx]

I'd love to play hardcore, but the friends I play with aren't on board. I love the idea of it (and I've been watching some Hardcore-Inferno players on TwitchTV)

[guard-of-terra]

You don't have to play with your friends all the time. Might as well go 50%/50%.

[jamie_ca]

You can hit space bar or escape to flip through the quest dialog more quickly. There's only a few places where you also need to wait for an NPC to do something, but they're far enough between that it's not a huge issue.