Just to show that I'm not being a douche with my previous reply and that i actually read your post I'll give my opinion on each of your points.
1.) No one force you to use the AH, its there for YOUR convience, even if they remove the AH, go google "buy diablo 3 items" and you'll see that even without the AH, the chinese farmers/botters will not be troubled, it will actually suit them, because then blizzard doesn't take their 15% cut. As for the "trading platform" there's already a trading chat section, I've bought many bargains this way.
2.) The paragon skill system will improve droprates, because with each level gained your MF % goes up (did you even read the OP)
3.) Oh gawd this is the one complaint i can't understand from people, so you want the old skill system back where if you made ONE mistake you basically blew 100's of hours of effort down the drain?? Everyone ended up with cookie cutter builds anyway (the word "hammerdin" bring back any memories) A lot more diversity with the new skill system. Could you IMaGINE the outcry if we had the old skill system back in patch 1.01 when all Demon hunter realized that there fav skill Nether tenticals has been nerfed and they had to REROLL?????
4.) People actually spend 100's of hours on this game for the story???
5.) Why, lets say you created a barb, the majority of your stat points would've gone into strength and vitality, now the game does it for you, you still have all the freedom of deciding what stat points to look for on your gear.
6.) I guess this is the only point I agree on, Blizz should do a better job at banning bots. But unless its your goal to me the number 1 diablo 3 player in the world, this shoudn't bother you too much.
1. Drop rates were centred around the AH. Inferno wasn't a fun grind, it was just tedious without decently rolled gear. There's nothing more frustrating that rolling a DH only item with +200 int and +160 str. And seriously... What's with random stats on legendaries??!
The AH took the fun out of the game by making it a tedious work-like grindfest for the sellers, and took the fun out of the game for the "can't be bothered to play the game for what it's meant for" real money buyers. Sure there was an unofficial selling site for D2, but I don't condone that either.
I have an example for you. Let's play a game of monopoly, but I'll just use real money to buy all the hotels and houses etc and win immediately. Will be sooooo much fun y'know!
2. Yes it will... More badly-rolled garbage... See above.
3. Blew 100 hours of effort? No. I blew 100 hours of FUN. All D3 is, is effort. Blizzard took the fun out of the game by making it a chore to farm. And rerolling a character? Oh NO! Because playing the game from level 1 again isn't supposed to be fun right? I mean, it's not a game right? In D2 (and every other aRPG) there were many different ways of playing. Cookie cutter? D3 is more "cookie cutter" based than D2 ever was. I could have a godlike Hammerdin (noted), but then I could also have a godlike Zealadin. D3 forces you into 6 basic skills that you cannot change with cooldowns and Neph stacks - So instead of being an epic monster slayer, you end up running away like a hooker in a B-grade horror film while everything recharges. And then there was always the option of respeccing in 1.12+.
And the only reason there would have been such an outcry is because of the AH, where people spent ludicrous amounts of real money on pixels tied to that character which would be useless anywhere else, because they made another fundamental design flaw in having EVERYTHING attached to your weapon damage - See the David Brevik interview - He got it spot on.
4. No, but it really doesn't help having one of Blizzard's most likable NPCs murdered by the Tooth Fairy. D1 and D2 had a suspensive, horror like element to it. D3 is hot-stuff with boobs telling you how you'll NEVER close his(her?) hell rifts! It does make a difference.
5. Yeah and? Still a choice I got to make every time I leveled. D3 has taken the WoW approach - we'll do everything for you. Freedom of looking for stat points? Now you're just trolling. Unless of course you're referring to the AH, which makes your point 1 redundant.
6. You see... There wouldn't be so many Botters if people just played the game instead of bought it with the end game. Blizzad only have the AH to thank for this. Yeah, yeah, third party sites I know, but Blizzard discouraged you from using them in D2, in D3, they condone this pay-to-win farce.
7. Online only is a retarded idea. (Forgot this point in my previous post), especially with the ridiculous rubberbanding and crappy net-coding.
8. Item affixes are stupid (also forgot this one). 3% extra spirit! Oh wow! Where the hell is stuff like crushing blow (awesome), open wounds, chance to bleed, & chance to cast *insert awesome curse here*?
9. WHERE THE $%#^ IS CRUSHING BLOW!? IT WAS AWESOME!!
EDIT: Look, I guess I am staring at the game through D2-tinted glasses. But Blizz made D2 around a model of fun, and D3 around a model of pleasing their shareholders. There is absolutely nothing wrong with trying to maximise profits, but when it negatively affects your product and service (#$%^ that loser! Are you not thankful?!), then there's something wrong.
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Comedic gold I tell ya
