Diablo 2 - Bestseller Series for Windows

Diablo II is a game designed from the ground up to be played on the Realms, Blizzard's battle.net servers. This is strictly a multi-player game at higher character levels. It is not for minors because the game is based upon operant conditioning from Learning Theory, and pavlovian responses to losses. The game is designed to be too time-consuming for single-player and multi-player.

{Update Notation: This opinion has been updated approximately a month after initial publication. There were errors and confirmations, particularly in regard to the realms presented at this time. Update notes are enclosed in ?{}? bracketing. Also there is an Addendum at the end containing information not addressed in the initial review.}

"HELLO."
I remember going to the city swimming pool as a kid in Tulsa. Those of you who have been to a public pool will recall that big signs were posted at the pool, everywhere: Don't run around. Management is NOT responsible for theft. Keep your items in your locker. Take items with you when you leave. Management is NOT responsible for lost items. No fighting and rough play WILL be tolerated. Obey the lifeguard at all times. Theft will be prosecuted. Do NOT leave valuables in public areas. Also, the attendant read them to you your first time there and made sure you understood them before they'd give you that locker key that clipped onto your bathing suit. They told you the rules. Remember?

In this client-server world I have no doubt that item deletion and no save game would save space on the realm servers, as well as reduce theft. The servers actually are helping you to keep your stuff on the realms in this regard: 'I won't drink your cola, or take your earrings, for fifteen minutes; and if you leave your laptop here for an hour, don't expect it to be here when you get back. But, yes, I'll keep an eye on them for you (via your 'light radius'). {This is not true. The servers do not keep an ?eye? on anything for you, but on what items are in the game. You can NEVER put anything on the ground on the realms you want to keep in the future. There are a variety of reasons for this: 1. Other players can pick up anything you put down. See Addendum, ?MULES.? 2. The realms are very unstable. When the realm goes ?down,? everything you have put on the ground has been lost, in that split second. See Addendum, ?Realm Down.? 3. A ?known issue? where items disappear ?in front of your eyes? while lying on the ground.} But, not informing you of item deletion is something I want you to think about while you read the rest of this essay.

The first and only 'condition' you are informed of (other than that you can return the game within thirty days) in the less than scant documentation you receive with the program is the ?Save and Exit' game parameter: "? nor any items outside your character?s inventory or stash are saved." 'The designers want to force you to make decisions about which items to keep and which items to sell, and to save space?.' On the realms is where the space is to be saved. (But the lack of a save game and item deletion on single-players' home computers is a nightmare.) I assert that the purposes are 1. To condition you to the terms and conditions of playing on the realms, 2. To create a pavlovian (See Glossary) response to losses, which is the beginning of operant conditioning (See Glossary). 3. To create hunger for the realms? higher character level development capability. And, 4.To lock you into playing the game for long periods of time.

I decided to play all the way through the game single-player with all the classes before I would play the game online. I couldn't save the game. I was disgusted with the item deletions of the game. And, by the time I got to a certain level, there was nothing to buy. I resisted 'gambling;' it is for suckers and losers. I don't like being controlled. So I discontinued all the characters except one (which I have played to Act II hell difficulty, character level 56). I have no characters on the realms at that level. {As of this update, my highest soft-core character on the realms is level 37 in one realm and 22 in another, highest hardcore level 14.}

"I PUT A SPELL ON YOU! AND NOW, YOU?RE MINE."
Operant Conditioning (See Glossary): B. F. Skinner is the historically recognized psychologist who pioneered ?operant conditioning? in classical experiments in Learning Theory. He used a food pellet for positive reinforcement, and electrical shocks as a negative reinforcement to ?condition? a rat to ?learn? certain behaviors. For these purposes: The rat, is 'conditioned' to press a bar for a food pellet. The rat is conditioned not to press another bar that delivers a shock. The rat may be conditioned to associate the pellet with the shock by delivering a shock with the pellet. The rat may be conditioned to press the bar for the pellet, despite the shock; receiving either a pellet or a shock. Pellet delivery can be progressively decreased to random, and the hungry conditioned rat will keep pressing the bar more and more, hoping to get a pellet. Finally, you can stop giving the rat pellets, and it will keep pressing the bar until it reaches 'extinction.' Extinction is the point where the rat discontinues pressing the bar.

The game is the conditioner, teacher if you will. You, the player, are the one that operates, to be conditioned. The ?cool stuff,? skill and character development points to improve your character, gold to 'gamble,' items for trade, and title upgrades are your pellets. The creation of loses is designed as a hunger creation mechanism. You are conditioned to associate the shock of the length of time you are locked in the program, with the item and progression pellets you receive. Your loss reinforced desire to improve your game character by attribute and skill points and 'cool items,' are based upon I. P. Pavlov?s (See Glossary. Skinner?s predecessor and inspiration) experiments where you feed the dog, but (virtually) ?cut a hole in its stomach? so that it stays hungry. The dog salivating at the sight of food is a conditioned response (See Glossary).

Restriction of space, time and materiel, item provision policies and deletion strategy, and monster management, will create loses of items, and real time. When you 'save and exit,' with the items you have decided to keep, or go to the next Act, you are turning over a new shell. There's no way to know what's there. If you lose that once generated critical item, your character will be severely disabled, especially at higher character levels. Just like attribute and skill points, it's gone and you can't get it back.

Through the lack of a save game, and because of the stash being designed to be too small, the reality is that you are effectively being locked into the game. Class is in, for excruciating periods of time at higher levels. Single-player, waiting for the game to generate a pellet and because you will lose items potentially useful during that Act for game-play, but impractical to retain ?long-term? with the stash being so cramped. [An Act is a series of quests culminating in the killing of the Act boss or Super Unique monster. There are four Acts per level, Normal, Nightmare and Hell, which are fundamentally the same and based on a location of the game ?world.?] Or to trade an item you can?t take with you from the realm for multi-players. {This is only partially true on the realms. You have to learn to create and maintain ?mules.? See Addendum. Mules. } You learn that you must play the game long periods of time in order to make progress in terms of items to improve your character. The ?save and exit? bar is the first bar you are conditioned not to press. "To capture the enemy's army is better than to destroy it; ... " Sun Tzu.

The first bar you are conditioned to press is the item-retention bar. "Regular items and Gold disappear in about 15 minutes. Magic, Rare, Set, and Unique items disappear after lying on the ground for about 1 hour." Blizzard's Chaos Sanctuary web site is your first real 'quest' since you are not informed of this in the ?documentation.? You are to 'believe' (be conditioned to accept without true association between cause and effect) that this is ?to save space,? but the program will retain as many items as you can put down, as long as you return within your ground ?light radius? of those items by those times.

The psychological strategy of the game may be that: The lab rat is conditioned to run through the game (maze), pressing the bars through the shocks. And, it is kept hungry by the losses. And conditioned to believe that eventually a satisfying pellet will come. The human ?thing-to-do? is keep plugging away, through the game, in the faith that a functional character (or game) will result. ?Thus, those skilled at making the enemy move do so by creating a situation to which he must conform; they entice him with something he is certain to take, and with lures of ostensible profit they await him in strength.? Sun Tzu.

The pavlovian coup de grace, by stripping you of your ?cool stuff,? when you kill Diablo, your real character is to be locked into playing the game itself. But, your ego has been fed with a 'title' upgrade. When a game ends on the realms, you have the same ninety-second warning, {being eliminated in the ?expansion.?} but that is an entirely different scenario. Prior warning is not given, nor is there any information to this effect available at Chaos Sanctuary with regard to either occurrence. This is done for psychological effect. And, to impress upon you the consequences of not being prepared for the game to end.


"FOR YOU."
The game determines what useful items are to be generated to you once by scanning your files when you enter the game. (It will not generate the same useful or comparable item to you again, except certain types of special sets.) {If another player enters a game on the realms, any items that player has will not be generated in that game.} Your useful item could be generated to another player who picks up the item, or the gambling vendor. Not only do the non-player characters know what character you are; the game knows your inventory. The items useful to your character are not ?random,? but the character to which it is generated is pseudo-random. {On the realms, this, even among relatively cooperative players, results in a sort of ?musical chairs? effect as far as picking up items is concerned. You have to make sure you have enough space in your ?backpack,? to pick up an item in the first place. Second, you have to get to it before anybody else does, during the fight with the monsters.}

Consider that: Not-for-sale 'mana' potions, needed for active skills, are allocated (as are the items you will receive) variably by what character you are playing. The character that needs a lot of mana to function is mana-restricted. Simultaneously, another player is drowning in it. The game is forcing you to interact with the other player to get it. The game does the same with items. {Mana comes from items. Putting attribute points into ?energy? is usually a mistake as a result. However, if you are starting out, (See Addendum, Starting Strategies) you don?t have the items to make mana, and the game isn?t going to give them to you either. A predicate of the game, like not telling you about the item deletion scheme and 90 sec till game end when you kill Diablo, is that you learn ?the hard way? in reality, unless you have ?friends? who will tell you the ?secrets? of the game. The game is forcing you to interact with other players to get even the most basic information, See Addendum, Starting Strategies. The game is about players? interaction with each other. Also See Addendum, Starting Strategies.}

The game is designed to reward cooperation. {And non-cooperation.} Consider the sharing of mana, team spirit: Single-players at higher levels have to activate with a hot-key a town-portal scroll for ?emergencies? in and out of town countless times within an Act to get mana from the healing non-player character. ("And if in all respects unequal, be capable of eluding him, ... " Sun Tzu.) {The most important ?him? you need to be able to elude on the realms is a player killer trying to use tricks to try to kill you even if you are refusing to ?duel.? See Addendum Player Killers.} You save it (your game ?energy?) for the stronger Uniques (These are the monsters that have special hits, magical attacks or curses that are more difficult to kill, with their posse, called 'minions.') and crowds of monsters that are getting out of hand. Another feature of this is that lower level characters get more mana than they can use (Let's call it youthful enthusiasm.) {Theoretically, the player learns to use mana-stealing items, but the character will not get the item again if lost or stolen. And the player will not receive such items without adjustments to item allocation discussed below. See Addendum. ?Known Issues.?}

"LET'S DEAL."
You are conditioned to haul items useless to your character out of monster areas to sell for gold to buy things you need during early character development. Initially, to survive, then there will be items at vendors you can buy to improve your character. And finally, to trade with another player. "Gambling gives you a place to spend your money on the higher difficulty levels?." "The items generated for the Gamble stocks are +4 Levels/-5 levels of your character's level with a minimum level of 5." Even 'gambling' only on the items that are +4/-5, you really only have a 3% possibility of selecting a useful item per 100 potentially useful to your character items generated to the panel. {On the realms, you cannot afford to haul anything to ?sell? because of the ?musical chairs? item pick-up effect in a multi-player partially cooperative game. And, you need to try to keep up with the other players in a fully cooperative game. Even picking up gold slows you up too much to keep up much of the time.}

At higher character levels, you 'gamble,' every time you return to town, because you cannot predict when your useful item is generated to the panel. (It will usually be sometime after about two cumulative and (relatively) continuous game-time hours of monster killing at the game-determined 'challenge' level, which you don't know.) If you miss it in time or by being 'unlucky' your character will suffer in the future. The game will give you a replacement in the next Act or two, but that is long time. In this the game has a dual personality, for single-players and multi-players who resist cooperation, versus cooperative multi-players. Single-players and non-cooperative multi-players suffer through countless gambling episodes, because they?re in and out of town so much. Cooperative multi-players check the 'gambling' panel when in town but it's a different experience. The probability that the useful item is generated to the panel is greater per instance of ?gambling.?

{This is wrong. The gamble panel does need to be check as often as possible (if you have money). But, do not gamble in a multi-player game because if an item you are gambling for has entered a game, you have Zero chance of getting it. Also you can haul trash to raise money to gamble without disrupting a party. So on the realms; you only gamble in a single-player password game you make yourself. You have to know what you are gambling for, and it may take the same hundred episodes to ?hit? what you?re looking for.

That is another reason players entering games pretending to be cooperative players, just to show you their unsolicited wares for trade are disruptive. When they find that you don?t have anything they want and leave, the flow of the party has been disrupted.}

Prior to a certain level of your character's development, you can rely on the non-player character valuations of items. Then, there is a maximum valuation of certain armor at 25000 you start to experience in nightmare level. To paraphrase the healing non-player character in Act III, 'Seek my counsel, ? or your own.' The other item valuations of non-player characters become relative to your items and character. You learn to take the time to analyze your character panel numbers. This is a game of numbers.

Simultaneously, during nightmare level, your character will get some really super 'cool? stuff that your character just can't use. {Another reason to be careful about joining games created by another character, because the game will generate an item to you, as a ?reward? for a quest you have done for example, useful to the character that created the game, not yours.} Having sold items useful to other characters you know the non-player character valuation. By playing the other characters, you have an even better idea of what an item?s value is in terms of character development to a player.

At higher character levels, because only fools depend on luck, you must learn to trade, online. {This is probably wrong. Because of other factors I?ve cited, gambling may be the best way to get an item useful to your character from the game.} Though, Blizzard does not get involved in the trading, it is an integral and necessary part of the game to progress beyond a certain point of character development. Multi-player trading is done with a confidential and secure player-to-player panel. A game skill you must develop to develop your character beyond a certain level within a feasible period of time is not only your ability to work with the other players against monsters, but with respect to items as well. {A game-reinforced skill that seems to be effective for many players is scamming and involuntary player-killing. See Addendum, Player Killers.}

The only way to get real value for your time and energy is to trade a 'cool' item useless to your character. Just like you were forced to Chaos Sanctuary for information, you are forced to trade for an item that really helps your own to play the game at higher character levels. Because the rate that the game generates items useful to your character is rarely (decreasing to a theoretical random). {On the realms, because you are supposed to get these items from other players, this effect is experienced almost immediately, See Addendum Starting Strategies.} Realm players advertise on the chat channels, what they have and what they need. Which is time-consuming. Cooperative multi-players are helping each other with the items that are generated so the need to vend is much less. Single-players don't have the trading option. So, the single-player game is essentially over.


"HELP."
As previously stated, the game is designed to be played cooperatively on the realms. Non-cooperative multi-players and single-players have to keep a back-up set of equipment to loot their own corpse or be forced to exit the game. This exacerbates their space crunch. Also some players will have strengths to cover other players' weaknesses. Single-players at higher character levels have to keep a lot of items that are not of long-term use to cover weaknesses. This locks the single-player into the game for longer periods of time in this regard because if they 'save and exit,' they have to start over, not only killing monsters, but also accumulating this type of equipment for a certain quest.

Note that if you try to loot your own corpse with back-up equipment on the Realm, and are killed, other players can pick up the items you drop. Another of several reasons to have a cooperative ?party? that you can give permission to loot your corpse. {A popular scam of many on the realms is a player pretending to be cooperative, and designating that you can loot their corpse. See Addendum, Prison.} You learn this lesson single-player in nightmare Act II, when this happens to your character with the Super Unique you are locked in a room to fight with no way to get out. You can't loot your own corpse after you've been killed with your back-up equipment. (Usually these are lesser items than the set you went in with in the first place.) And, you can't kill the monster. You end up losing a lot of stuff. ?Those adept in waging war do not require a second levy of conscripts nor more than one provisioning.? Sun Tzu.

No matter how tough you are, you're not going to get very far (higher character levels) by yourself. Also, you learn that in terms of skill point distribution, it is better to develop your character as a specialist, rather than a jack-of-all-trades. (Your first ?cool? weapon could be your fate.) And, that you likewise focus on being very skilled as one type of character. And on obtaining items useful to that character. There is just so much time in a day. {On the realms, because the allocation scheme is predicated upon player cooperation in an environment that rewards crime, your first character is often disabled from the start.} Pop quiz for zealots: How many real minutes is a day in game-time?

There are five classes, or characters you can play, Barbarian, Paladin, Necromancer, Sorcerer, or Amazon. Students, there are no accidents. Some classes have been designed with significant weaknesses. "We are looking at improving the balance at higher difficulty levels to offer a greater challenge for high-level characters." Balance being the operative word. "Yes -- we have some great new ideas to make the Hirelings much more useful." 'Hirelings' are virtually useless (being patched) robotic game-generated playing characters (that distract, damage or kill monsters) that you ?hire? by paying gold to accompany you on a quest. They fight to the death, and are healed by a healing non-player character (A trip to town.). Or a paladin?s healing 'aura' (a beneficial effect of being in the party with), which is the reason you need at least one in your party.

For some characters, the mana expenditures for active skills are disproportionate to the attribute availability for energy attribute points and mana enhancing items. That is why Lord?s of Destruction is mainly a patch to these of many systemic design failures. With new classes to mitigate team model design failures. And, with a new Act with some quests thrown in to justify your money. {Take this with a pound of salt.}

There is much discussion online concerning what party configurations work the best. For example: The barbarians are the centers (Think San Antonio.). The necromancers send in reserves (the bench). The paladins are the point guards and power forwards. The sorcerer brings the crowd (you should win more home games); the amazon is the shooting guard. The bottom line here is that nobody is perfect. So the game is designed as a team sport. {On the realms there are also teams of criminals, See Addendum.}

This is compounded by the item allocation scheme that is designed to force player cooperation. You can choose to put attribute puts into energy (for on-board mana) but you can?t use those simultaneously generated items that need dexterity or strength attribute points to use. And you still need to put points into vitality, (life). Unbalanced characters can't use active skills without mana, (kill the monsters trying to kill you) or take, or do, a lot of ?damage? without effective equipment or vitality. Fixing the item generation (New items will be implemented in Lord's of Destruction.) may mitigate this problem. {See Addendum, Starting Strategies.} The planned doubling in the size of the stash for the upcoming Lord's of Destruction expansion patch supports that the stash is too small, but that is the tip of the iceberg, as I explain in the following:


SPACE
?Measurements of space are derived from the ground.? Sun Tzu.
Visualize your character game parameter space as in these three axes:
1. Item space is the finite number of slots of the stash, 'backpack,' and the equipment you are wearing with the magical and attribute qualities of the different items (i.e. resistance to poison, lightning, dexterity, strength, etc.). The item sizing policy is how many slots each type of generated item will consume of that space. You want the most function in the least amount of space.
2. The item generation scheme is the rate at which the game generates items useful to your character and the sets of the items to be generated. The rate the program generates more efficient items is a game function during the development of the character.
3. The point allocation scheme is that for each monster that is killed, your character is credited with a certain number of experience points, which are accumulated, to 'level-up.' Leveling up is when your character receives five points for attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, or Energy) and one skill point. The player needs enough allocable attribute points to use the items generated (The strength and dexterity attribute requirements of the items are increasing over time.) with enough left over for vitality (Glass chin) and energy (no mana, no ammunition).

The rate that the game delivers all three of these need to be in proportion. If you don't feed the rat enough nutrition, it can't grow strong enough to climb the uphill (monster) maze, and gets too weak to fight back. But, this is an item based game. So you are supposed to cover these weakness with items. For example, the mana demands of a skill per the damage the skill level creates, and the availability of on-board mana to the character determines the efficiency of the character. If the character becomes too inefficient, the character can't retain enough functionality.

Another design goal would be that, for the appropriate level of character development in relation to game-play level (Normal, Nightmare or Hell), item attribute requirements present a challenge to the player's judgment, but that the player progresses. This is a derivative function of the character development progression in relation to all three parameters, in time.

Perhaps a simple way to put this: The water is boiling, if you don?t keep adding more water, eventually it boils off. Instead, the game, by progressively decreasing the rate of useful item generation, puts a hole in the bottom of the pot. But, the player is supposed to be refreshed from the well of item trading. {And probably even more important for starting players on the realms, e-Bay. See Addendum, Starting Strategies.}

[In thermodynamic terms. Think of the character, through attributes, skills and items, as having an adiabatic (See Glossary) efficiency; the entropy (See Glossary) of the game by difficulty level is increasing, not constant (monsters are becoming more difficult). If the player and the game itself do not put the work into the system to maintain the character, the character dies by monster.]

That there are not two different allocation curve sets between single-player and multi-player results in mana-restricted single-players not getting to practice its use (except over a long period of time). And, old habits die hard, so the mana conservation that is conditioned into the mana-restricted single-player can work against the party when they are in a multi-player game. Also, some mana-restricted characters have inefficient skill damage to mana-demand design so three or four shots and they're out.

The same is true for items that are generated. Players spend more time trading than practicing with items they could have experienced single-player. {Single-player, you never even see what items your character needs to develop toward, or can anticipate wanting to use on the realms, or multi-player, because your single-player cannot get high enough in level for the game to generate that item. Many items generated to higher level players are of theoretical use to a lower level character they are going to support. Because space is so tight, even getting the item to them is a serious chore. See Addendum, Mules.} These items can?t be used on the realms anyway. This bogs the realms, because you and everybody else are stuck in the public pool, where you have to go for everything, including practice. {This needs correction to the creation and maintenance of ?mules.? Also ?spamming? where people advertise items for trade or sale for real money chews up a lot of resources.} The cramped stash exacerbates the camping to trade problem. Advertising to and negotiating with strangers is time consuming. Which results in more lagging and dropped connections. All as a result of there being no single-player game for home practice.


"TIME TO DIE!"
Game-play time parameters are:
1. For mana that is needed for active skills and dependent on the character attribute energy to regenerate.
2. For health, which is dependent on the character attribute vitality to recover from injury.
3. Stamina, dependent on vitality, but also the type of armor you are wearing, is how long your character can run.
4. The time for potions, such as mana or health to take effect.
5. Weapon rates of damage delivery.
6. Time for shrines to regenerate (become available for use again).
7. Time to item deletion.
8. Time to useful item generation.
9. Time for a monster to die.

Real-time parameters:
1. Time you are moving your character in the game.
2. To town: To the healing non-player character for mana to be healed, to buy potions, expendable weapons (i.e. arrows).
3. Reconfigure your character equipment.
4. Reset item timers.
5. Exchange dropped items for gold.
6. Gamble.
7. Trade.
8. Vend.
9. Time to trigger useful item generation.
10. Time to extinction.
11. Pause: An arcane tidbit, the only way to pause the game is to go into a configuration menu.
12. Time for you to realize that the only way to get out of the maze is to stop pressing the bar.
13. {On the realms, time to create and maintain ?mules,? get any information or help you need, evade criminals. Make ?real? friends.}

The first quest of the game is to kill all the monsters in a cave. Seemingly, every time you open a chest, kill a monster, or gamble for an item, which may or may not be of value to your character, the game may or may not have assigned this or that item to that monster or chest. It is well known that when you restart the game, the monsters are regenerated, but what may not be as apparent is that the item sets are generated at that time as well. Like the clearing of the cave, the only way to see what's there is kill all the monsters the game has determined need to be killed (or the length of time you are fighting monsters) for the 'lights to come on;' the useful to your character items to be released. You cannot restart a game, kill a couple of monsters, ?gamble? a few items and hit the lottery. {On the realms, items which increase your probability of getting a magic item, called ?magic find,? become essential. See Addendum, Items, Magic Find.}

You can wait a long time on the realm to create a game with the quest you need to progress. {Or find a game with that quest available since if the character that creates the game has done the quest, you cannot. Or if a party you are not in, while you are in the game does the guest it becomes unavailable.} Also, if a realm game ends {due to a party?s having killed Diablo} before you get a useful item, you have gained experience points, but your character has not progressed with respect to items. {Progress from the game itself can be more difficult on the realms than single-player or faster depending upon degree of player cooperation. A single-player or small party game is better than large multi-player open games. This is the type of multi-player game you will be in until you make ?friends.?}

What you end up doing is killing a lot of monsters, which takes a long time. Also, by the time there are almost no more monsters to kill, and you have gambled all the potentially useful items generated, your game generated one choice (way to go in the maze) in relation to item retention judgment should be apparent. This is really real time consuming. Then, you want to go ahead and get to the end of the Act and are driven for that reward. You are forced (and conditioned) to play the game for long periods of real time to make progress. Your time, like your freedom when you enter a game is gone. {This is overshadowed by other factors on the realms; I have or will cite.} ?Thus, those skilled in war subdue the enemy?s army without battle. They capture his cities and overthrow his state without protracted operations.? Sun Tzu. That playing this game is a protracted operation is an understatement.

What type of moron pays real money for a game-generated item, on E-bay? Maybe one bright enough to save time by spending money. It is really time and energy they are buying. Or stealing, in the case of online players trying to get your ?cool? stuff. Like the game, the 'true believer' taketh away your time and energy. {?Crime? is an integral part of the realms much more than I had imagined. See Addendum.}


DEITY
The game giveth and the game taketh away: To reward your pellets, and to engender losses for a pavlovian (See Glossary) response. When you are killed you lose experience points and gold, but gain experience in the game. When you lose a critical item the game makes you suffer for it. The game may even make you start all over: Many times. You do learn to make a comeback.

The game seemingly works in mysterious ways: The game does not adhere to any formulaic representations at Chaos Sanctuary. For example: "Statistics listed on the Monster pages are for comparative purposes only and may not be exactly what is found in the game."

The game not only gives items and points; the game also gives hints and is helpful: A hint in the form of negative reinforcement. If playing at a lower level trying to recoup some critical item loss that has disabled your character, the game will kill you by either not letting your character fight back, generating a monster much stronger than you would have encountered at the next level. Or failing all that, declare you dead. "You have lost experience." (I get a kick out of this. Great chucks. ) When the game does this it is giving you an experience. You are being driven in the maze, like a cattle prod ("Moo!" Nope! Nope! Nope!), to get the rat moving. And, the game is telling you, move on, this is all you're going to get here, buddy. {On the realms, if your character has been disabled, for whatever reason, you start over, salvaging what you can from your ?mules,? See Addendum.}

Another hint example is the inaccurate information about a monster under their 'life bar.' There is a bar (check that) that you click on to attack a monster. It gives the monster?s name or type and is supposed to tell you what the life of the monster is as you?re attacking it. In small letters under the name is what the characteristics of the monster are purported to be. (Nothing is as is seems.) An example is a monster described as stamina draining. Running from it is a mistake. The game is giving you a clue that it is your real stamina that this (and other) monsters are designed to drain. Some monsters actually drain your characters' mana, but many of the mana-burning monsters are designed to drain your real spirit and stamina, not game mana. "Keep him under strain and wear him down." Sun Tzu.

The game determines not only how a monster should be killed, but also how long it will take. {This needs amendment to rate of damage delivery over time.} Diablo and some of the nightmare and above level monsters that disappear and reappear in another location are time-to-kill monsters used to drain your real stamina and spirit. (And if you're drinking a lot of mana, that's gone too. You could be out of business: Return to start.) Also, killing a monster that won?t die. (Still fighting and can kill you.), and then waiting for the monster time-to-kill game timer to lapse, is certainly a ?counter-intuitive? action. Think!

Consider a higher-level monster that can?t be killed by your character, period. You can choose to walk away forgoing its points and item drop. Or allow your character to be killed and then the game will let you kill it. (Or, guess what? Ask for help. Which is not available single-player, but you're not supposed to be here alone anyway.) In initial encounters, you check your character configuration or question whether you should have pressed the attack. But, the belief that it could have been killed at that time is just an illusion. Sometimes, the best thing to do is just walk away. And, think before you act. "If weaker numerically, be capable of withdrawing..." Sun Tzu.


"GO EAST"
AMBIANCE (See Glossary): SIGHT, SOUND, AND ? ACTION
"It is often possible by adopting all kinds of measures of deception to drive the enemy into the plight of making erroneous judgments and taking erroneous actions..." Mao Tse Tung. "When ten to the enemy's one, surround him..." Sun Tzu. The tactics of the monsters and strategies the game employs are reliably found in Sun Tzu?s ?The Art of War.?

The game gives you visual cues to what's going on that are more accurate than the sound concerning certain monster qualities. Playing (or playing with) all the characters is in your interest since unless you have used auras, spells, and curses, you don't know what they are. There are visual obstructions built into most of the maps just like the floor. Part of the 'challenge' to your character is being aware of, and negotiating these obstructions to your view. "And therefore those skilled in war bring the enemy to the field of battle and are not brought there by him." Sun Tzu. These obstructions are to disadvantage you, fighting on the enemies ground, or his terms, in conditions he (the game) dictates. {On the realm, which is an online environment of people, negotiating people obstructions and paths is the skill to develop.}

The sound is a mixture of useful and intentionally noxious superfluous information to distract and irritate you. {Some of that may be toned down in expansion, See Addendum, Known Issues.} When in monster areas, just like the obstructions in the floors of some of the mazes, a lot of it is there to get in your way. Single-player, I found it necessary to turn it off, and watch the mana and health gauges.

You need to hear other players online, so a skill you have to develop is a tolerance to a lot of sound trash. And, the ability to filter the wheat from the chaff, like the items. When you sell something, or drop a metallic item on the ground, like armor, you are punished with a boom and/or ringing high frequency echoing reverberation as unpleasant as any electrical shock. (I.e. drum 'enhanced' with armor, and ringing bell 'enhanced' with gold.) Most of the sound effects of the game are designed to be irritating. Definitely hit the mute whenever you can. {You cannot do this multi-player so this is just something you get to ?get over.?} All this is supposed to be another 'challenge' to your character.

I played a lot of Diablo I with its mouse-based control mechanism. The result is very imprecise character movement. You're moving the cursor around to find the spot you want your character to move to. Which may be a series of spots, because the situation is dynamic. Clickety, click, click, ? click, click, ? clickclickclick. Meanwhile, the cursor is jumping to point to things like chests, items that have been dropped by monsters that you can pick up, or monsters to attack.

You still usually get to use your shift to stand still and control key to run. An 'innovation' is that you have to use both together to get a hireling to move out of your way or release your character from a hidden movement obstruction built into the floor of the map. Then, when the obstruction releases, your character can lurch in the wrong direction because the control key is telling it to run, or attack standing still when that's not what you're trying to do, because the cursor controls both character movement and firing. Also, under certain conditions and with certain uniques, the game will disable your character controls, partially, or entirely. But it's there primarily to put you at a disadvantage, confuse, and frustrate you. {This may be an ?unknown issue? since Blizzard denies that this is the case. On the realms, this is blamed on lag, a common cause of death, but on your home computer, there is no reason for having ?lag.?} "'A confused army leads to another's victory.'? Sun Tzu. The first few times the game decides to kill you by disabling your controls, you might even get angry. Duh?! ?Anger his general and confuse him.? Sun Tzu. And really make a mistake. (Like forgetting to drop your gold.) {There is no dropping your gold in an open multi-player game on the realms. Also See Addendum, Starting Strategies.}

You have four belt hot-keys and eight skill hot keys. {Hot key numbers will be increased in expansion.} Though programmable, when and if you have to move your hand to reach a hot key, you have to find the shift and control again. So while holding the shift, you reach over with another. Like capitalizing a letter typing with one hand while holding your baby. Maybe my problem is that my fingers are programmed to Epic or Quake-engine games. But, maybe you'll miss your Porsche even more when you have to drive a Chevy, with a loosened, and periodically disconnected, steering wheel for your driving excitement. I guess it does condition you to dealing with lag.

{Lag is something that you learn to deal with on the realms on a totally different level. Lag at peak traffic times is about two seconds. (Plenty of time to be surrounded and killed by a group of monsters you haven?t even seen. Sixty hardcore characters died on the realm in one day recently. (Some to player-assassins, some to lag, some by monster.) Hardcore players check the lag ?weather? like golfers check for lightning storms.) Give up and go home or ?chat.? You have to play during the day or in the wee hours of the night/morning. Something to think about. Also ?lag? and non-player characters disappearing from town is your warning that the realms are going down for maintenance (There is a hardly helpful five-minute warning posted to battlenet forum.). See Addendum, Realm Down.}

The routine procedures of killing the same monsters in the same maps, walking around like a Blair Witch victim, have to get old. Tedium, boredom and routine are designed to lull you into complacency. The game will have you search an almost empty map. If you are tired and start running, you will run into a pack of monsters. Monsters hit you more easily when running. Running negates the benefits of ?light radius? enhancing items with which you may be equipped. You learn that the only safe place to run is in town and map areas you have thoroughly cleared. "Clear!"

Notice that ?running? drains your stamina rapidly in monster areas, and negligibly in town. But, you want to run, because you are locked into the maze (game), to get out, and to get that pellet. When your real stamina is exhausted, you will make a mistake: Sell the wrong item. Make a bad trade. Forget to press or not press a bar. Not configure properly. Run into an ambush. Press a fight you can?t win. Etc. "If the general is unable to control his impatience ... " Sun Tzu. {But, because of the way the realm game is designed, you MUST run in a multi-player game. See Addendum, Starting Strategies.}

The game drains your real stamina and spirit (mana). Moving your character is tiring over a period of time. Through ambiance: Ringing high-frequency sound effects on full reverb fatiguing? Frustrated by nothing to buy or 'gamble?' Tired of bumping into your sidekick holdover from Diablo I, Deckard Cain, and townspeople constantly in your way (Think realms.)? Fatigued by picking your way through monster area mazes? Insipid non-player character reward greetings in depressing Act IV isolation getting on your nerves? Angry because the game has managed to delete an item your character needs? Is this conditioned bar pressing, pressing your buttons?

The game itself is designed as a maze, as are the randomly generated maps. The game is designed to waste you by draining your real energy and spirit, and time. This is the action challenge of the game, primarily. The monsters are coincidental; more bumps in the floor. Admittedly, some bigger than others. Some so big you have to turn around and go back to the last turn down that path. {The biggest ?demons? on the realms are players, See Addendum. Your only salvation are ?angels? (See Addendum) Love is ?What U Need.?} And start over from that point, like when you get to the blind end of a maze.

The designers have chosen to exacerbate the vagaries of an antiquated game-play control mechanism with imprecise character movement with movement obstructions to increase the 'challenge' of the game. The visual obstructions, and monsters forcing you to come to them, are attempts to jazz up an overhead perspective game-play action model. As a result, the primary action challenge of the game is your mind.

"Know the enemy and know yourself..." Sun Tzu. Understand your character. Study the monsters. Know how to configure for a certain area or map. For example: For a really difficult unique that won't come out, send a sucker (a non-living player generated by an amazon or necromancer). You know how many hit points (Amount of damage the character can take) that player-generated character has. Calculate the rate the player-generated character is blown away to the hit points of your strongest player you might send in. If the player-generated character is blown away too fast, withdraw. Likewise, don't send a player in the be blown away with one hit. ?Quantities derive from measurement, figures from quantities, comparisons from figures, and victory from comparisons.? Sun Tzu.

Don?t play when you're tired. Hard to do because you and your computer are locked into the maze. But, it's important. ?When the enemy is at ease, be able to weary him; when well fed, to starve him; when at rest to make him move.? Sun Tzu.

Story? Forget about it (Except that you create yourself multi-player.). By the time you've heard the same tired old story a couple of times, it has absolutely no meaning whatsoever: You?re starving. You?re tired. You've been robbed of your 'cool? stuff, cheated by monsters that won?t die, and reduced to doing party favors for an item fix. You're living in a box that's too small. You're in hell with more gold than your wildest dreams, but there's nothing to buy. And, not even a safe place to put something down for more than fifteen minutes in the town you're heroically trying to save. {Fifteen seconds on the realms.} (How absurd can you get?) And, you want that pellet. You have been conditioned to killing and gambling or trading online. And for what, "Dark Wanderer," Freedom? [See Skinner?s ?Beyond Freedom and Dignity?]

You are conditioned to use your real time and energy running through the maze which is the game. From the ?save and exit? to the series of bars you are conditioned to press or not press creates losses in real time and energy if nothing else. But doesn't the bar deliver both the pellet and the shock simultaneously. You are being conditioned. Or learning?

Is the target personality someone who is an anxiety-neurotic addictive personality, who has experienced loses and has a need to repair his or her self-esteem (functional character)? Or is that a personality that the game itself generates, through its space, time, item and monster management, trading, gambling, and ambiance? It?s both. {Perhaps this is self-descriptive, since the game is at least partially designed to have you learn about yourself.}

HARDCORE, DUDE! HARDCORE!
Hardcore players are players that have completed the game (defeated hell-level Diablo) {Wrong, defeated normal level Diablo} on the realm, and choose to play all-or-nothing: If you get killed, your character and all of your items are deleted. All your time and energy expended on this character is lost. But, you do get to start over. The entire program, with the realms, is your training for hardcore. {Or are there several different ?games? within the game.}

The first time you play through the game at Normal level single-player is your basic training for the rules of the realms. {With caveats as updated.} You've seen the basic versions of most of the monsters. Nightmare level is the beginning of your basic training as a vendor. {And by this time on the realms you need real help.} You are learning to determine item valuation more accurately than that given by the non-player character. You learn to study the monsters and know what monsters are in which maps, just like they always know where you are. By Hell level, single-players and non-cooperative multi-players are drowning in quicksand. {On the realms, it is immediately, See Addendum, Known Issues.}

The only way to 'finish' the game (without cheating) is multi-player on the realm (or in a multi-player TCP/IP private party). Single-players can't do it without both cheating and trading, i.e. E-Bay. {Update to e-Bay has nothing to do with single-player, but everything to do with being able to play the game on the realms. See Addendum. Starting Strategies.} And the only way you can be hardcore and go to higher levels is to maximize all these skills. "Thus a victorious army wins its victory before seeking battle; an army destined to defeat fights in the hope of winning." Sun Tzu.

These players are in password protected private games with other hardcore players that have developed cooperative skills beyond the issue of items: What characters are worth putting time and energy into? What party configurations work? "He selects his men and they exploit the situation." Sun Tzu. What play like a basketball play and configuration is going to handle this monster. "This is a matter of formations and signals." Sun Tzu. "Order or disorder depends on organization." Sun Tzu.

The cooperative demands of the program are not going to be changed to accommodate single-players. The ladder system is a rating system of the recognized top players on the realms. The realms bask in the aura of hardcore players, the superstars. {If only this were true. Hardcore players are more ?serious,? but the hardcore? game contains all the elements of the ?soft-core,? game, magnified.}

"It is important to understand that the Expansion is fundamentally an extension of the current storyline (Act V), meaning it will be more difficult than Act IV and will ramp up accordingly with each difficulty level." By this, don't expect this game to change significantly in its personality; there will be no save game and the operant conditioning will remain. Nor will the game be playable to higher character levels single-player. There will be a need for greater player coordination, and more players per game.

"Single Player games keep the same game seed?" "In multiplayer games, additional players increase the amount of gold, items, and experience that monsters give, as well as increasing the Life of the monsters." (Which it will in single-player games as well, as noted above.) There is a cumulative effect of the gold and items because the game generates them when it reads the inventory of the character entering the game, but the item allocation schemes are the same. Because the game is designed to be played cooperatively with respect to items on the realms, the game will remain unplayable single-player at higher character levels, even with the bigger stash. {See Addendum, Known Issues.}


AN EDITORIAL ON EDITORS
"While there are undoubtedly some hacks on the web that allow you to alter your character, these are neither supported nor condoned by Blizzard Entertainment." I don?t like to cheat. There?s a real possibility that a character editor is necessary to practice the game single player at higher character levels. And, something you should plan to do if you want to play the game single-player. The practice you get will not be reflective of your character?s characteristics when playing multi-player, all the same. {More than correct. Probably, there may be no point in trying to play single-player at home at all. See above and Addendum, Starting Strategies.}


?We realize that cheating was a serious problem in the original Diablo when playing public games on Battle.net. Eliminating cheating in Diablo II was one of our highest priorities during development. In particular, our new client-server model will ensure greater integrity of games and characters.? The game records your inventory in its temporary executable file every time you start a game. ?In game' character editors don?t work for item exchange as a result, and if it does, it is patched immediately. When you attempt to use a weapon the game checks to see if you had it when you started against whether the game gave it to you. You don?t want some hacker crashing your private multi-player party with a Trojan horse and robbing all your guests, do you? {Cheating is still a major problem on the realms, See Addendum.}

Single-players can only try a character editor to overcome the deficiencies of the allocation schemes, and that the later Act uniques are designed to require more than one player to overcome. By hell level single-player, you get one (maybe two if you hit the ?gamble?) items per ACT. Remember, progressively decreasing to pseudo-random? Yes, items will come but it takes forever, because you?re supposed to be trading for them. And you?re supposed to be in a party, not accumulating experience points by yourself. Or, fighting Hell level later act monsters by yourself. {Immediate on the realms.}

You still have to trade, one way or another. You can buy another license to use to use your second computer to trade with yourself in a multi-player game. But you're still trading. This is an item based game. A skilled player can get their character through several level-ups, only occasionally spending an attribute or skill point here and there with the right items. Without the items, ?Bye.? {See above and Addendum. Starting Strategies.}

Also, Blizzard is committed to forcing you to play the game the realm way, if not on the realms themselves. You're in their pool, even though it's in your back yard. It's not worth the hassle, and then you?re playing a cat and mouse (rat) game with Blizzard and rouge hackers. That you have to trade and that this is a multi-player game isn't going to change. Besides, what part of your heroic ego does ?cheating? gratify? This is not a single-player game, period. {I couldn?t have been more correct about this not being a single-player game.}


"WHAT DO YOU (REALLY) NEED?"
My intellectual responsibility prevents me from recommending a game predicated on deception by omission to implement operant conditioning even if it purports to teach people to be team. {And rewards crime without punishment.}

I am reminded of a series of adult experiential (See Glossary.) educational courses in which I participated. (Think EST) Initially it was a wonderful experience, as is this game. After the first course, participants are enthused, and enjoy the opportunity to invite their friends. As you move up the ladder, it becomes about how many people you have induced to pay their money to participate in the courses. Some participants neglect their real lives to play a game. Some abandoned promising careers to work for relatively paupers? salaries, to further develop their ?game character.? Some participants benefited, others were ruined.

The premise of transformative experiential education is that by inducing you to experience a breakdown (See Glossary), you will have a breakthrough (See Glossary) in your life, transforming you into the new and improved person you want to be. For me, there was an impossible to erase conflict of interest in my commitment to having somebody pay their money and the concept that I am doing them a favor. By the way, those courses are still a great way to get to know yourself if you can find them. At least support was given to the participant's real life, as they were being challenged.

Accordingly, I would not introduce a game without single-player save, deceptions designed to demoralize an enemy of war, loss creation strategy to create a pavlovian conditioned response and extreme implementation of operant conditioning to a friend. If Blizzard could design the realm game with the trading and party panels, why couldn?t they forgo item-deletion, no save, and item starvation for single-players at higher character levels for the released version? {More importantly, if ?trading? is by mutual consent, why is it that ?hostility? does not need to be mutual for a player to kill another player? See Addendum Player Killers.} What say you?

If you are a parent, you now have the opportunity to make an informed choice. While this program is an excellent experiential educational value, in money, in time it is untenable. It is through real time that the game can generate, and will, if you let it, a breakdown in your real life, or the life of your child. The game is designed to be too time-consuming. {Initially, I did not consider this to be a game for minors. I am probably wrong about this. I suspect that the game is designed at least as much for adolescents, minors and peri-pubertal adults as for ?mature? adults. See Addendum. Starting Strategies and Player Killers.}

Great design, ?sir or lady? lab rat? As a matter of fact, yes, I think it is. Blizzard has invented a better mouse (rat) trap. While the game has many fine qualities, are the space parameter design characteristics, time consuming strategies, and operant conditioning there for internal game purposes, or for future sales purposes?

The best use of the game is in private parties. And the only context in which I do recommend the game. {I somewhat doubt this now, because the game is designed purely to be played on the realms. Items on e-Bay are not transferable to your home multi-player game. (Nor are they transferable across realms or from soft-core to hard-core.) } You e-mail your party: That you have an item for a certain character. Arrange game times. And, more efficiently formulate strategy plans, etc. You need:
1. A dedicated stable and secure server, NT or Mac, on a {stable} DSL or faster line.
2. Eight (Four minimum) Diablo II and Lord?s of Destruction licenses.
2. Seven (Three minimum) real friends to play with like a card game group. {Since I would not introduce a friend to this game, as it exists, I have chosen to play on the realms, and ?take my lumps.?}

If, and only if, you can accommodate this scenario, is it a ?Let?s Deal.? This 'Little Shop of Horrors' has many exquisite intellectual, philosophical, religious, psychological, and social elements, dwarfed by its ambiance ?challenge? based upon Sun Tzu?s 'The Art of War.' And, lots of laughs, ?You have lost experience and gold.? when you get the joke. This is an exceptional experiential adult educational game, but very, very time-consuming. {See Addendum. Mules and Starting Strategies.}

You must:
1. Play for long periods of time to make progress.
2. Play multi-player for higher character levels.
3. Forget about single-player character development to higher levels. (Yeah, another redundancy I know, but for emphasis, you see.)
4. Develop cooperative relationships with online players.
5. Tolerate lag, campers, and other inconveniences on the realms if that's where you have to play. It is a public pool, you know. (Or prison; behind bars. {The realms are like being in prison.}) There will be things in the water.
6. Host private parties to reduce lag and for a more satisfying pellet. {This may be more accurately, to play on the realms and pay e-Bay See Starting Strategies.}
7. Back-up your save directory. {On the realms, you have to back-up your character with ?mules.?}
8. Gamble. And, even more important than that, you must (I know, I know.) trade. {Shop on e-Bay.}
11. Accept being locked in a maze and conditioned like a rat with no save (or exit) as a part of the ?challenge? of the game. {With a lot of armed and dangerous criminals floating around.}
12. Wait for a debugged Lord?s of Destruction release.
13. "Never give up! Never surrender!"
14. Not forget: "All warfare is based on deception." Sun Tzu.

I don't like to gamble. But, I did, on the possibility, the promise, of the concept, and have a wonderful Trojan Horse of value to my real character only I can determine. And so will be the case for you. You'll never know unless you open it (Pandora's Box?).

{I suspect that Pandora?s box released not only the bad, but also the good. In the deserts of the realms, there are some of the most beautiful wild flowers you will ever see. They are uncommonly found, but in that moment of compassion and love, there is a movement of the spirit that is an experience of G-d. Martin Buber?s presence in the glossary without context in the previous text was not accidental. All of the useful items my initial realm characters have, were gifts from other players (not trades), and not game generated to me. For every hundred acts of unkindness I have experienced, there have been a few acts of kindness that have overshadowed them all. You may choose to believe that most people are ?bad,? and learn to scam, spam and player-murder-for-profit (their items). Or hold to a personal commitment to the good that is in you. This may be