How Facebook and Posting Amazing Drops Lead To Depression of Others

Hi, I am VadC. Haven’t played for quite a while.

Recently I looked at the best drops and price check topics and thought to myself – when I played like 2 years ago, I didn’t find such things(but loot was good, nevertheless). That made me remember quite a thing from psychology.

Seeing good stuff that always happens to others leads to feeling bad. Ala what I call Facebook effect.

Here’s why:

You log into Facebook

You see all your friends having great time, cars, exceptional holidays (for women - glamorized wedding, babies, I am proud to be mommy) posts. Seeing stuff like that day in and day out makes one feel like a looser. Why do they get all the fun and excitement? They don't. They're just posting highlights of their life. Milestones. Waypoints of sort. They have plenty of shit in their lives too, they just don't show it. Therefore you're seeing only the good stuff and feel like you're the only one who get's the tonns of shit...

Enter Diablo.

Seeing how other members have this amazing loot just drop out in random place or to sell for countless of HR’s also makes one get a bit less excited about the whole d2 thing.

Here’s the simple answer – it’s all math and it isn’t all that that great. While the server offers wide variety of easy to get loot places and have great chance of finding good stuff, all the drops are still more or less a result of countless hours of *work*. And after that hard work, that one or two pictures one posts are a selection of one exceptionally good item versus 10k of worthless and crappy stuff.

Yes, there are success stories of magically finding that one super hard-to-get tiara with 2 socks, 2 class skills, 30 frw or 20 fcr, str, all res etc, but that kind success is quite calculatable. Plus, most items are to be shown by maphack, so it’s harder to simply miss them.

You start understanding using simple strategies like – what is my end goal?

For example, if you need a jewel of 9 str and 15 all res, you’re going to reroll it and you're most likely not going to find it at Hell Baal room. You’re going to check which item level is needed for both of these affixes to *spawn*(p.s. it's ilvl50) and you're going to go and clear those area levels(50) to get the jewel with those stats(actually it's not that uncommon to find one) or to find one to reroll. Same for 20hp/5 all res sc’s or max dmg/ar/hp(or str/dex) GC’s.

For finding good stuff clearing speed is of essence. For gambling, rerolling and crafting good stuff, either item level, either area level or your character level is of essence(sometimes, like when crafting two of those). You check with affix calculator to calculate best levels to get mods you want on an item you want. For example, crafting good gloves means checking all the affixes and seeing which item level offers greatest bang for your buck. There are very high item level affixes that are simply crap. Then you look at formula how the item level is calculated when crafting. A lot of times teducing the char level at which you craft the gloves means you can control the item level of the gloves, which in the end can cut down the unnecessary additions to the gloves. In the end you cut down shitty mods and have higher chance to get the lovely one's. For example, if I remember correctly from d2jsp forum, gloves usually were best gambled and then crafted with level 72-76 character(you should check d2jsp for crafting guides unless someone has brought them here or made worthwhile version themselves).

Anyway, use math, calculate better drops. Have success more easily.

While this turned into some kind of rant quite fast, I'll show you how to roll 20hp small charm with a chance of either mana or all res.

Let's check the diablo 2 affix calculator, shall we?
We want small charm, so we choose small charm and press that magical Show Affixes button below.
We get a table. So we check both prefix and suffix for mods we want(there can be only one of each, except when 3/20/20, from where the prefix has both max dmg + ar).

So we find the necessary Prefix and Suffix at their isles and find the item level necessary for those affixes.
Prefix:
+13 to +17 to Mana - ilvl 48
+3% to +5% to each Resistance - ilvl33
Suffix:
+16 to +20 to Life - ilvl 47

For you to get sc with 20hp/17mana you need to loot for sc's at areas with level 48 max. Open chests etc. Pick up all the sc's and then you reroll them. It cuts off all the mods like ''5 - 7 to 9 - 14 Cold-Damage over 1 Seconds''(ilvl66).

For you to get sc with 20hp/5@ you need ilvl47, but I'd always go for ilvl48 because of adding the the mana prefix.

I used this strategy to get Sur's+ for GC's that are perfect for low level duelists I found and rolled from small areas. Always check char level required for item to be used.

For some unknown reason a bit more nooby players laughed at me when they saw I am selling a gc with ilvl29, but the best GC you can find/roll with ilvl29 and that is usable on lvl21 lld char is:
Prefix(max dmg + ar is single prefix):
''+49 to +76 to Attack Rating +7 to +10 Maximum Damage''
Suffix:
''+12% Faster Hitrecovery'' or ''+16 to +20 to Life'' or ''+7% faster Run/Walk'' or ''+5 to +6 to Dexterity'' or ''+5 to +6 to Strength'' or ''50 Poison-Damage over 6 Seconds'' etc.

Or you can roll large charms which are even better for lld char. Here's there best ilvl29 large charm you can roll:
Prefix:
''+21 to +48 to Attack Rating +4 to +6 Maximum Damage''
Suffix:
''+8% Faster Hitrecovery'' or ''+16 to +20 to Life'' or ''+5% faster Run/Walk'' or ''+4 to +5 to Dexterity'' or ''+4 to +5 to Strength''

Add 2 of these large charms and you have the best bang for your buck at lld with char of lvl 21.

There are only 4 places where you can get ilvl29 items - one is normal Izzy and the rest are chests in normal act 5.

Chaotic and turned into something else, I know... but I hope I was of any value.

Here's one more. Rolling a skiller with some hp. I know we all love 45hp, but 24 is better than clean one and it's quite easy to roll.

Checking for some affix levels for skiller GC with hp:
Prefix: 1 to skill (ilvl 50)
Suffix: +26 to +30 to Life(ilvl45)

Take GC's from ilvl 50-54 places and roll those to have best chance to get 1 cold/light 30HP GC. Also, if you were able to find a clean skiller, there was already a chance to get at least 30hp on it.

Don't despair if no success comes to you yet, use math, calculate better drops for future before you mindlessly look for it.

WHy am I giving this away? Not going to play. Just thought some of the less fortunate members who are better with math should turn their luck around with a bit smarter decisions.

 

Or you can just enjoy the game and maybe, I say maybe you will get what you are looking for Do not get me wrong.. Your post .. ( This information you share with the community ) and overall the desire to help.. these things are great !! I admit it. And yet I want to share my point of view ( Hope you do not mind )

When the game came out I was so excited.. It was something like " DAAAYM !! This seems so epic " And to be honest it was.. it was really something unseen by then which makes me tremble every time when I start the game and hear the incredible soundtrack but unfortunately this time has passed and that feeling disappeared with the years spent in that epic game.

The only reason for this feeling to disappear was the aspiration of the people to defeat the mechanics of the game in any possible way. Calculators, Bots, Map Hacks and so on. I know the game is already old and most players are veterans from the glorious days of Battle.NET and that the new generation of gamers would not appreciate the charm of this game but.. ( Maybe the nostalgia in me speaks ) I do not think we need to keep fighting the mechanics of the game because Diablo II turned into numbers and that's what I think is sad..

I always relied on pure luck in this game and so after a while I had a well equipped ( even more than just " well " ) Paladin in BNet which was an achievement back then ( Not to mention how many cool people I met along the way ). My point is that with perseverance everything can be achieved, because this game was made to be played.. not calculated. I will say it again, do not get me wrong !! Great Job !! And I think this information will help to many people from our community but I just felt sad and nostalgic and I thought I should share my point. Unfortunately, there are still dinosaurs like me who just like to play the game as it is without any " improvements "

Again, good work and take care !!

 

Nice. I like opinions. I like yours too.

But I really don't agree with you on the math destroys fun/excitement part. I just find that it's quite better for people to know that the game was built on math, it was numbers long before you noticed it and there is no reason to ignore it. I think the fun and enjoyment is created separately from the way you choose to play the game. I had plenty of excitement even knowing this as there's a dopamine release(dopamine is ''look, something new'' hormone) and you feel rush every time you have a good drop/craft/roll. Actually, you get more dopamine having better and different drops(variety of chances from like 190-250% ed etc keeps it going).

And trust me when I say this - your feelings didn't disappear due to other people. It wasn't ever related to other people. That's just some sort of ''blame shifting''. Your body simply started releasing less and less dopamine for the items you got, as it simply got used to some sort of ''normal''. That's what we do - we get used to some certain standard and we don't get pleasure from it no more. Body releases less and less happiness hormones/neuro-transmitters. Initial excitement is lost everywhere. Look at relationships, new purchases, friends, games in real life. The ''just for fun'' is more of a Hollywood glamourized abstraction. The novelty effect wears off after a while. I know people don't like the explanation under the *magic*, but there's no magic.

FCR, FHR, FRW breakpoints, the area lvl85, chest hunting - everything is based on math and mechanics that people use to increase their chances to get items and be better(or best possible) characters on server. We would have to disregard them then. This makes it into ''who decides how much math should or shouldn't be used for this to be fun?''.

There is the aspect of calculation everywhere in life. You use the principle of knowing what you want first and then you get it. Knowing most factors on what, why, where, how and when increases your chances to get it. Of course, people who play longer are an important asset for server admins as they would be afraid people will get bored if they get everything. But all the users should be converted to PvP afterwards(which I don't see happening, actually). D2 is a PvP game and after successful grinding in PvM with all the variety of items, one should be able to enjoy it in an unpredictable and skills ever-growing PvP match. That's what's exciting. This is where the dopamine stays always as long as you have a worth-while opponent.

Anyway, TL;DR: I don't see anything exciting about player having to grind for twice as long for each item he wants to get. Any player who knows this, still knows it will still be a lot of work to get the items. Have fun getting much better items, dominate with your well built character on PvP.

 

I do not intend to turn your post into a dispute.

I realize that today, many people do not have time to play and the calculation would save them a lot of time. I definitely see and respect your point of view but I just decided to share my opinion on the matter As for the numbers, I am aware of the fact that everything about the game is a calculation but I talked about sentimental values. As for the dopamine.. heh.. still I feel huge pleasure when I play Heroes III, SC or WC3 I can give you many examples from games and from real life too but that's not the place or the time for that and as I said I do not want to turn this into dispute or something else.

There is one very appropriate quote from " The Great Dictator ( 1940 ) " with Charlie Chaplin

" We think too much and feel too little "

Does not matter.. the coin will always have two sides and black will never be white or vice versa ...
Once again I'll repeat myself, great post, ( rly good info ) great talk and take care my friend

 

I don't see this as dispute It has to get very heated for me to see something as dispute.

I get what you mean. I agree with you on it very much. This actually brings me to the point I was trying to make ... that there are appropriate times to feel and appropriate times to think. You don't have to think when you're playing. You think outside the game and then you go play. When you plan, you plan. Any math shouldn't take from your gaming experience.

There's something very hands-on I can introduce people to. It's technically called mindfulness, but not going into technical or spiritual aspects of it, try simply turning attention to whole region of heart, abs, stomach and keep 1 part of attention there when playing at all times. If you're better at it, you can hold attention to more parts of your body. Maybe the whole body. It's called being present. Being mindful. In that way you can feel more. It takes you out of your head and centers you in your body.

Every time you start to think about it, you simply get back to focusing to feelings in those places.

 

I did get some valuable information from the posts you guys made above atleast. See I'm not quite one of those glory-day players of d2, don't get me wrong I knew about d2 when I was younger, but I only played in clips and swings were I suddenly became temporarily interested, I was actually a Runescape player back in 2001-2008 more than anything. D2 actually started appealing to me a lot more as an adult actually, starting to understand concepts, and see the requirements people met in videos to farm amazing drops would catch my eye here or there on Youtube, and before you knew it I kept getting a pc rig that enabled me to play it whenever I went without a computer. Now I find myself installing Diablo 2 every time I get my hands on a PC basically. It grew onto me without even knowing the true awesomeness to it, I mean yeah I've looked into the true awesomeness and know what to look for now (for the most part), but the mystique to the game always compelled me. I got the d2 battlechest like 3 times as a kid but never really got decent at d2 (or had any char's above 40 or good gears). More recently (at age 24) I got d2 and played it hardcore enough to actually experience end-game content, played for a good year all the time. Then had to quit for various reasons for over a year. Now I'm back basically, trying to pick up off where I achieved to get in a past account, and even run past that era of satisfaction and go much further. D2 grabbed me over the years, it took a while because I find some certain old PC games a little more appealing in a nostalgia genre, but they ain't quite the game that D2 is. thanks guys. (p.s.) It's very useful to realize that there's certain area level's attached to everything's proficiency. Wasting time in certain areas will effect your drops accordingly.