Diablo 4 Will Get Interface Changes After Players Accused Blizzard of Foul Play [Update]
A wave of criticism has once again fallen on Blizzard over solutions used in Diablo 4. This time the menu interface, whose design is said to expose players to accidental costs, has been taking flak. The developers have announced fixes.
Update
Blizzard has addressed the menu interface problem described below. After installing update 1.1.0c activation of the Premium Pass requires an additional confirmation via a pop-up window.. Other changes include resolving aspect marking issues with some items and various stability fixes.
Original post (July 25, 2023)
Diablo 4 will soon see minor improvements in the user interface. All as a result of the uproar raised by some users, who found so-called dark design patterns in the game's menu, that is, anti-consumer design practices, whose purpose is to mislead the uninformed public in the context of making a decision to purchase a product.
The problematic menu of the season
Every Diablo 4 player knows all too well how often in the course of gameplay you have to visit the game's menu - including to use the map function on consoles or collect rewards. More proficient players navigate between tabs in no time - which sometimes involves missclicks.
Unfortunately, with the start of season 1, missclicks proved costly for some players - and literally so.
After all, a new tab called "Season" appeared in the game, where you can collect rewards from the pass, but also... purchase the paid premium pass.
And there would be nothing special about it, if it were not for the fact that the tab is located on the first menu item, and after opening it the cursor automatically lands on a tile with the words: "Buy premium pass"..
To make matters worse, for players who have a sufficient amount of premium currency, so-called platinum, clicking, if only accidentally - which is not so uncommon in Diablo's menu - on the option to purchase the paid version of the pass, they immediately start the transaction process, which cannot be stopped - even if they instantly exit the game.
Victims of design
The issue of problematic interface design in Diablo 4 was raised by streamer Rurikhan, who himself fell its victim.
Rurikhan didn't mince his words after the situation took place and stated that Blizzard had designed the season interface in a "deliberate and malicious" way.
Interestingly, the streamer responded to several other players on Twitter, who had also accidentally purchased a premium pass by pressing the menu button twice.
"I wanted to save (platinum) for a future season pass, but oops, I guess I can't anymore."
Joining the whole discussion was Rhykker, a well-known Diablo player, who was the first to suggest that in this case we are dealing with dark design patterns, and not random carelessness in menu design.
Happily, we did not have to wait long for Blizzard's response. Diablo 4's director of community development, Adam Fletcher, assured that Blizzard plans to introduce a small, temporary fix that will ensure that the cursor no longer defaults to the premium pass, and instead goes slightly higher - to the season progression.
Unfortunately, it is not known when the promised "fix" will appear in the game.
Finally, I'll point out that accusations of dark design patterns aren't Blizzard's only problem when it comes to the latest Diablo. The developers have also recently faced huge criticism on the occasion of update 1.1.0, which nerfed all character classes in the game. Also in this case the developers announced fixes.
