Why does 'Seasonal' mode exist?

[500KG]

Is it some kind of money making device? (well, obvs)
I chose eternal because I didn't see the point of seasonal.

I'm guessing it's a temporary mode where you can get specific content for that season used to promote FOMO and then re-sell the cosmetics to eternal players later? Or is it just some kind of leaderboard?

Has selecting Eternal screwed me from some kind of content other than cosmetics?

[Nu3n0]

It's a live service game - https://www.gamesindustry.biz/crash-course-on-live-service-game

[Insomnia]

Originally posted by 500KG:

Is it some kind of money making device? (well, obvs)
I chose eternal because I didn't see the point of seasonal.

I'm guessing it's a temporary mode where you can get specific content for that season used to promote FOMO and then re-sell the cosmetics to eternal players later? Or is it just some kind of leaderboard?

Has selecting Eternal screwed me from some kind of content other than cosmetics?

Seasonal mode has been in Diablo for over 2 decades aka in previous games. The other games didn't have season passes etc but still existed. So I don't think Season mode was created for the reason you're saying but it does benefit them more now as the Season pass can only unlock tiers on season mode.

Season mode is mainly about adding a new theme that totally changes character builds and lets them change things up and make non meta builds powerful all of a sudden with a new mechanic that's unique to that season as an example. It's mainly to keep the game fresh.

[Coffee Addict]

Originally posted by 500KG:

Is it some kind of money making device?

yes, its to sell battlepasses and people are stupid enough to fall for it

[Insomnia]

Originally posted by Niki Lauda:

Originally posted by 500KG:

Is it some kind of money making device?

yes, its to sell battlepasses and people are stupid enough to fall for it

Yet season mode existed in the older games that didn't have battle passes?

[500KG]

Originally posted by Nu3n0:

It's a live service game - https://www.gamesindustry.biz/crash-course-on-live-service-game

Wow, we truly are living in the worst timeline.

[Sauriel]

yeah, i just chose seasonal as first time playing through it with some more bonus content to do later on before it vanishes but as first time playing it at the time it wouldnt affect me as much, but i can see how the game would be on eternal realm when the season is over. People who buy passes can most likely have fear of missing out, yeah. Industries prey on all kind of things today. If some content fails to generate money, they will throw it in the fire, no matter how good the players thought the added free content was. In D4 it doesnt get added to the standard game once the season is over like in d2 with new stuff and runewords, it just vanishes here. A bit more aggressive change than d2. It would be bad for them if we suddenly liked a certain season and kept playing it, cant have that, otherwise they couldve had a season switch feature in the game that keeps track of its own separate characters you got on them, but they wont add that.

[ImpactHound]

they were called "ladders" in Diablo 2, where there was a leaderboard of who levelled first & farthest every calendar season(spring, summer, etc.) and new runewords were created for each season once the Lord of Destruction expac introduced them. You could only get the newest runewords on the most current ladder, and they'd trickle down to "permanent" or what's called Eternal characters when the ladder season ended.

Diablo 3 was the first game to call them "seasons" but they didn't have themes and new mechanics until after the Reaper of Souls expac, and even then not until season 4 or 6, I forget exactly when. It started off as mild stuff like the double treasure goblins and eventually became more interesting mechanics, inspired by but never lived up to Path of Exile's seasonal content. You'd unlock cosmetic pets and wings/armor/portrait frames for doing the seasonal objectives.

D4 is handling them like 3 but hit the ground running sooner, and the season pass/battlepass has a lot more stuff on it than D3 did. D4's cosmetics aren't as good because it's harder to show them off; it's neat to pick alternate tombstones for when you're dead, but you shouldn't be dying around the people you want to show off to. The town portals are cool, but extremely minor in the field/open world, and only party members can see your portal in town. D3's pets were both cool if rare, and functional because they'd pick up money(and now blue/yellow items and salvage them for you), wings and backpieces were bold and obvious. D4's mounts are okay, but you often don't know which have cool particle effects or what, so those are undersold as a show-off factor. Armors are hit-and-miss, depending on the design or particle effects/glowy bits. D3 had smaller groups of players, but you'd see characters in menus when inspecting profiles, the clan roster, inspecting player profiles from gen chat & leaderboards. D4 should've copied what worked from 3 and didn't, really striking how badly they need to catch up. People won't buy the stuff to show off with if there's no way to show it off or social tools to make a gallery of your cool character setups.

To return to the original question, "Why do seasons exist," it's to shake the game up and keep it fresh with new mechanics and themes, because it's fun to level again with other players and take on new content & challenges. If you prefer to stay at level 100 with a year old character in the base game, you can but that's the minority of players. Most people play seasons because it's current and so they don't feel outclassed by old characters with full gear already. Path of Exile does a good job(usually) with new gameplay modes and mechanics in their seasonal additions, and also used it as a proving ground for adding more permanent content to the base game if the playerbase really liked it, which D4(and D3 at the end) is now copying. Selling FOMO cosmetics that coincide with the seasonal content is a happy accident for the devs to ask for more revenue. You don't have to do it.

[ImpactHound]

Originally posted by Sauriel:

In D4 it doesnt get added to the standard game once the season is over like in d2 with new stuff and runewords, it just vanishes here. A bit more aggressive change than d2.

S1's malignant boss & S2's blood boss were added to the base game(seasonal & eternal) with summoning materials to farm them for uniques, and the balanced rings/vampire powers were kept as new aspects to place on items. The world map would be a mess if there were helltides, blood harvests and construct waves all happening simultaneously with malignant elites coming back to life in all 3, so the open world content is being tweaked based on feedback. Looking forward to seeing how the helltides improve based on what people liked from the S2/S3 iterations.

[Inuyaki]

Originally posted by 500KG:

Originally posted by Nu3n0:

It's a live service game - https://www.gamesindustry.biz/crash-course-on-live-service-game

Wow, we truly are living in the worst timeline.

The timeline where we get free content updates every 3 months is "the worst timeline"?
Damn, I wanna see your good timelines.

[ImpactHound]

Originally posted by Inuyaki:

The timeline where we get free content updates every 3 months is "the worst timeline"?
Damn, I wanna see your good timelines.

Most of POE's worst seasons outshine D4's 3 seasons so far. Vashan's story and mechanics of socketing hearts instead of gems were so bare bones it was barely an update. Lord Zir and the little vampire hunter chick wasn't much better, but the powers and outdoor areas were a little fun. It did accidentally teach the devs how players wanted to group and do things in the open world. Construct season has been very hit-and-miss with what they've rolled back and changed on the spot. I do love the robot chip mechanic and hope it comes back in the future, but trap vaults will not be missed, except for the loot explosion at the end. Malphas fight is fun too, if you aren't one-shotting him.

[Kitty]

Becouse it was in Diablo 2 too and it make it much more better?

[ekurisona]

f2p when?

[FhqwhTODD]

Originally posted by ekurisona:

f2p when?

Never.