Gamers Break Down the Appeal of Addictive Games Like 'Diablo' and 'Path of Exile'

Blizzard Entertainment just released its fourth iteration of Diablo, the wildly popular (and expensive) online RPG where you destroy ceaseless mobs and collect legendary loot. Many have wondered what the appeal of such a maddeningly repetitive game could be, and one redditor just posed the question on r/gaming. People weighed in on why so many gamers are coughing up $70 to "sit for hours and hours just slashing through endless waves of the same mobs." Many tried to explain the appeal of games like Diablo and Path of Exile by comparing them to the serenity of creating and destroying mandala paintings, or building with Lego, or simply gambling on a slot machine. It's clear that fans of this genre of game are into their addictive nature. Sometimes our lizard brains simply want to smash enemies over and over again.

Posted by Mel Dawn

The comment section

“100%” agreed u/Taymac070, “A lot of PoE players I know say that they play to find a lot of currency and drops, but these are only means to an end. The end goal is creating and refining builds, all currency and drops are just ways to reach that goal. The point of these games, especially in the case of PoE, is to express creativity through use of the massive amount of available tools. The build doesn't always work, but that is part of the fun. Related: there's a large cross-section of Factorio players who play PoE, you can understand the similar draw between the two games.”

“Sizable minority of players enjoys tinkering with skill/item builds too. It's fun to discover something that works really well on your own and continuously improve it.” said u/Hacnar.

“It's also fun making existing builds. It's kind of like building a Lego Kit - you know what it's eventually going to be, but the process of putting it all together is rewarding. And with a POE build at least, once you get it up and running you then tinker with it and try to improve it. See what it can do. Test it out, Improve It, Break It, all sorts of things. So yeah, like Lego. Just cause you know what it's going to be doesn't mean the process of making that thing isn't appealing to people.” said u/axiomatic-.