I got Diablo II at launch, and yes it was extremely hard. Still I think I would enjoy it, by grinding with a good group of friends. Sadly I think the community had change, and expected to get to the hardest level way faster. Yes, the jump from nightmare to hell was huge, but I think the difficulty was not the biggest downfall of the game. Having the real money store made people think that they needed to invest money instead of just doing the same level x00 times (yes that was core of diablo) repetitiveness. Probably there was many other or even biggest downfalls in the conception of the game, but that's the one I remember.
I got the expansion for my b-day and install it, play a month but the community was moving too fast. Hard to play it casually, because I used to see online how fast and how much other people got. I may play it again on my own pace without knowing exactly which is the best configuration, best builds, items, etc. Getting to read my blue items, and being happy from my drops.
As a gamer I am changing a lot. I used to be really competitive and always went for the best x. Know, I do not care if I don't have the best stats, or I am not the best player. I only play 1 hour or 2 per day.
My evolution as a gamer was, Diablo I, Runescape, etc where I just played without help online and I was a noob for a long time. Then I found the help/guides/forums on the internet, and I started min-maxing everything. Now I just trying to play a good enough and if I dont know every single stats of my tank/ship/etc I do not care.
I have enjoy every phase.
Has anyone else notice a difference in their gaming style? A sort of evolution?