Diablo 4’s Ultimate Edition-exclusive early access period started last Thursday afternoon, and on Monday morning, a streamer named cArn became the first player to reach level 100 with a hardcore character. cArn streamed his journey from level 1-100, playing for about 100 hours, which is essentially non-stop from Thursday afternoon to Monday morning. Four other players have joined cArn at level 100 since then, and over the next few days, or possibly weeks, another 995 will reach 100 on hardcore characters and be rewarded by Blizzard with their names etched onto a statue that lives at the studio.You can call me a killjoy, but I don’t think it’s cool or responsible for Blizzard to have incentivized this kind of unhealthy behavior. I’m fully aware that players would have raced to 100 even without an incentive, and I know getting your name on a statue you can’t even see isn’t that big of a deal, but that still doesn’t mean Blizzard should have encouraged people to do it. There must be other ways for players to demonstrate their commitment to Blizzard’s products without the company asking them to put their bodies on the line, right?This shouldn’t surprise anyone, but you absolute𒉰ly should not play a video game for 100 hours straight. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women, and sitting for a long time is a huge contributing factor. you should be standing for at least ten minutes every half hour if you sit during work because the damage you do to your body while sitting for long periods of time is so profound. In additܫion to heart disease, sitting also puts you at risk for back problems, sciatica, deep vein thrombosis, varicose veins, diabetes, and even cancer.
Not to mention the eye strain from staring at a monitor for🐼 100 hours, the psychological effects of sleep deprivation, and the social ramifications of being glued to a video game for 100 hours straight. It’s a terrible thing to do to your brain, your body, and your loved ones, and I just don’t think Blizzard had any business encouraging its fans to do this.
It’s also an unbelievably boring challenge. This didn’t 💎take any special skill or expertise to do. In fact, the players that reached 100 first all used the exact same strategy, grinding the same zones over and over, to cheese the game and get to max level as safely and efficiently as possible. This contest turned Diablo 4 into the exact same kind of mindless grind that Diablo 3 was, which is precisely th꧅e opposite of what the Diablo 4 developers designed the game to be.
This is nothing more than an endurance test, and everyone tuning in to watch the streamers compete weren’t coming to see high-skill play, they were coming to see how much hell these people were putting their bodies through. Watching people hurt themselves for a symbolic reward is grotesque and barbaric, but I guess Blizzard should know a lot ♎about exploiting people’s 🔜physical and mental health over a video game.