I wish to speak about plateaus.
Not the land forms, nor the pun that they are the highest form of flattery. I wish to speak of the emotional plateaus that can form when playing games of the video variety.
There comes a point when we discontinue our time investment in a particular video game and turn our attention to another. The motivations behind this transition are varied. Sometimes it may be a lethal ragequit. Sometimes it is a victorious completion. Sometimes we can bounce off a game before getting too far into it. Sometimes the game design just kind of shrugs, stops offering new challenges and variety, forcing the player to do the same things over and over again – plateauing.
I forsee myself plateauing with Diablo III. It is inevitable. I will plateau hardcore. Sure, difficulty levels can increase, enemies can hit harder and I can tank more; these numbers increase with every increased difficulty level (in all honesty, is there cap to greater rifts?) And, sure, there are a plethora of builds to experiment with. But in all the game boils down to click > kill > loot > repeat. Loot is needed to create stronger builds, even if loot drops are random. So, aside from escalating grifts levels, and the blind hope for sweet loot drops, there really is not all that much to strive for. This method will not hold my attention forever and I will turn my sights elsewhere.
But not this weekend! No no no. My wizard is finally at a point where she can hold her own in Torment 3. 
At first, I admittedly had no idea how to build a wizard, trying to make her play like a crusader. But as the orange items starting trickling in and my Kanai’s Cube library filling in nicely, I’ve been able to make her a bringer of fire and vengeance. Likewise, my crusader unleashes havoc no matter what he’s doing. Brother could be standing still and he is bringing the pain.
It has been awesome to create builds that have so many different components, so many different kinds of synthesis. Doing what you can with what you’ve got. Though D3 is maddeningly obscure with its numbers and mechanics in some places, sometimes you’ve just got to observe what is happening in the playing field for the best evidence of a build’s performance… Unless you’re in a set dungeon – at that point it’s like your playing in a quantum level Twilight Zone.
What are you playing this weekend?
– Tempting…
– Capcom keeps banging that Resident Evil Remake drum, don’t they?
– One of my junior buttonmashers will be very excited to hear about a new Mario & Luigi RPG for the 3DS.
– Poor little Lara Croft. No one is going to play you this year, Lara!
– I read somewhere that the Wii U was dead. Then I read that they sold a lot of consoles recently. Clearly everyone was stocking up for some Mario Tennis!
– There were a bunch of indie games coming out on November 10th, but there is no Indie Games, only Zuul. Fallout 4 is my first MUST BUY title in a very long time. I’m going to forget how to play Dota because Fallout 4 will take over my gaming life.
– This game may not be very good (most Transformers games haven’t) but holy cow if this game doesn’t look like it is straight out of 11 year-old me’s dreams!
– You know you’re behind on your backlog when Game of the Year edition of a game you’re currently playing is slated for release.
– I feel like this joke has been made, but what happened to Purple Link? Did his agent mess up his contract renewal? He sign a free agency deal with Microsoft or something?
– Purple Link would fit in well with this color group.
– Certain JRPGs feel wrong on high-end consoles. Dragon Quest and Disgaea are two games I think belong on handhelds exclusively.
– I picked up Brothers back when it was an Xbox Live Arcade game on the 360 after it was so well received by critics. I have yet to play it. I should probably rectify that.
Is this Minecraft for the over-40 set?
– 269 pieces?!
– Who needs next-gen-60-fps-smooth-as-butter-Halo 5 when there’s Perfect Dark to be played? 
– Speaking of things that were cool twenty years ago…
– Releasing the same day as Madden? Epic Games has nards! Having Gears in 1080p is probably pretty cool and of course there’s that Gears of War Beta! (He, I know I bought ODST for the Halo 3 demo)
Madden is the Energizer Bunny of video games. Do you think there’s a “deflate footballs” cheat code?
– So, if you’re a crook, and you’re pals with some other crooks, do you think you refer to each other as Crookz, with the zee? I gotta think you don’t.
