For awhile, Blizzard had built a relationship of antagonism with its Diablo fans. The latest arcane tweet by the official Diablo account-the cryptic “You know. If love isn’t available,” overlaid against an image of the healing well-has led to waves of reaction from the community, the creation of memes, and outright declarations. Some are after patches, others want Diablo 4 now, and still others are just there for the jokes. But one thing they’re definitely not holding back: the players.
The tweet was very Diablo in that it was vague, heavy with atmosphere, and dripping in their signature dark-fantasy aesthetic. But readers were not just going to accept this and move on. Replies ranged from sarcastic (“Probably tastes like Kool-Aid”) to outright rants (“Diablo has become an unplayable stuttering lag-filled piece of SHIT!”). Someone even joked that the healing well “can heal flesh, but never the craving”; honestly, quite apt mood.
But among all that chaos were the real pain points. Several players brought up seasonal character resets, the polarizing mechanic which basically forces a player to start over every season. One loud reply screamed, “Stop resetting our characters!!!!!” while another suggested that Blizzard should, “make a permanent stash and rewrite the entire story.” Ouch. That goes straight beyond just annoyed to an all-out manifesto.
Then, the other overwhelmingly obvious elephant in the room is the Diablo 4 beta. One hopeful player tweeted, and in doing so expressed the impatience felt by many, “You know what could heal me? Diablo 4 exiting beta.” Of course, then other ones took this occasion to demand remakes (“Diablo 1 remake when”) and new features like Dire Wolf mounts. Because heck, why not?
The subjects of performance came once more to the fore: some began to complain about bugs and lag, others put forth their cries of instability on every side. One comment labelled the game as being “destructive in all the wrong parts,” that would make an excellent name for a metal album, but it really was rather sad commentary on how things have unfolded. And, of course, another player admitted to being “addicted to this pool of red stuff” and just drinking from those healing wells at full health-unrelatable.
What is the big thing that one could extract from all such chaos? Well, Diablo‘s community is passionate, frustrated, angry, and loud! Whether beads for QoL changes or roasting the game onto its flaws-and sometimes just memes from the fest-players have never held back when it comes to making their opinions known. Now with Diablo 4 just around the corner, Blizzard has a lot of expectations to live up to.
For now, the healing well tweet exists as this strangely poetic moment between Diablo‘s own ongoing story and its fans. Love may not be available, but sarcasm, demands, and Kool-Aid jokes certainly are.
