Chapter 194: The Donut Principle
The onlookers practically snatched the portable hard drive from Chen Mo’s hands and eagerly installed the game on their own computers.
“Wow! We can play in a group?”
“Awesome, I thought it was just a pure single-player game!”
“But the store owner said it supports up to four players online. Hey, let’s form a group of four. Everyone team up freely.”
“I’m playing the Barbarian! What about you?”
“Then I’ll play the Wizard.”
“Wow, so exciting. Too bad it can’t support more players online.”
“I’m done installing. I’ll wait for you guys in New Tristram.”
“I’m done too. Hey, it really feels like a Warcraft RPG map, but an official remastered HD version!”
“Yeah, yeah, I was about to say that. This feels so familiar.”
“But which RPG map can compare to this quality?”
“No doubt about it. It’s a new game personally developed by the store owner!”
“Not bad. I originally thought third-person perspective had no potential, but after playing it, it’s actually really fun!”
Soon, a wave of Diablo swept through the experience store. Players who had been playing other games stopped and installed Diablo to start experiencing it.
In fact, Diablo’s online mode was different from online games. It supported a maximum of four players in a party, and there weren’t that many class synergies.
This online mode was more like the LAN game mode in Diablo 2, suitable for a few friends to play together. The game dynamically adjusted monster difficulty based on the number of players, ensuring the challenge wasn’t lost when teaming up.
Relatively speaking, the online mode somewhat weakened the game’s difficulty because novice players who couldn’t beat a boss could simply rely on stronger teammates to get through. Additionally, mixing different classes made clearing content easier.
However, to cater to the majority of players’ preference for online play, to accommodate newcomers’ experience, and to prevent cheating tools and speed hacks from ruining the game, the online mode was still necessary.
Soon, these people were immersed in the dark world of Diablo, addicted to the grind and unable to stop.
Seeing this, Chen Mo was mostly relieved. The first step of Diablo’s “Donut Principle” had basically taken effect.
In fact, there was much debate about whether Diablo 3’s game model was successful. But based on sales and subsequent player feedback, even if Diablo 3 didn’t reach the classic status of Diablo 2, it was still a very successful game.
The so-called “Donut Principle” refers to the process of players eating a donut from the outside in while playing Diablo.
The outermost ring is new players. Further in are mid-core players. Even further in are hardcore players.
When players reach the center of the donut, they find a hole—that’s the exit.
For a game like Diablo:
What attracts new players is the highly distinctive art style, the ultra-high game quality, the intense and exciting combat, and the gripping story.
As new players grow into mid-core players, they start caring about skill combinations, equipment stats, class specialties, the ladder, and more thrilling challenges like the Hardcore mode.
As mid-core players evolve into hardcore players, they begin grinding day after day for a piece of equipment with better stats, repeatedly researching and testing better builds, climbing the ladder every season, and tirelessly pursuing the highest achievements in the game.
But regarding the third-person perspective, that alone limits the game’s ceiling. It can’t possibly become a huge hit.”
“But I feel the game quality is high. Chen Mo is fully capable of making it first-person.”
“Then... that’s Chen Mo digging his own grave. What’s there to say? I don’t believe a third-person perspective RPG can be a hit. If it does, I’ll eat my keyboard, okay?”
Genius remembers this site address in one second: