[GameSpot] - Diablo Immortal Player Paid To Win Too Much, Can No Longer Find PvP Matches

[343iBot]

One Diablo Immortal player who spent thousands of dollars in order to "pay to win" at Blizzard's free-to-play mobile ARPG can no longer matchmake with other players for the game's PvP battlegrounds.

Diablo Immortal's pay-to-win mechanics have been well documented. Players can purchase legendary crests to not only get the best and most powerful gems, but also the gems needed to upgrade those gems to even higher levels. That, in turn, increases a powerful stat called Resonance, which boosts the base attributes of all equipped gear by a certain percentage.

In a recent video, YouTuber Jtisallbusiness said he spent "a ton of money right at the start," so that he was "way ahead" of other players. This led to him, in his own words, "literally slaughtering every single person" in PvP. As a result, he has hundreds of battleground wins and only a handful of losses.

However, buying his way to success has now come back to haunt Jtisallbusiness, as his Resonance and matchmaking win-record are now so high that Diablo Immortal's matchmaking system can't find other players for Jtisallbusiness to compete with. He says he has tried to find a match for anywhere between 48-72 hours with no success, and the problem has persisted for several weeks.

It's all made worse by the fact that in addition to not being able to do PvP battlegrounds, Jtisallbusiness also can't participate in one of Diablo Immortal's key end game features thanks to his matchmaking problem. One clan at a time can become the "Immortals" of a given server, who then defend their title against rival clans until they are eventually overthrown. Jtitsallbusiness's clan, of which he is the leader of, became the Immortals several weeks ago.

The issue is that due to Jtitsallbusiness's unique situation, he can't complete the required quests needed to participate in the Rite of Exile event in order defend his clan's Immortal status, as one of the quests requires Jtisallbusiness to complete a battleground. He can't give clan leadership to anyone else to potentially fix the problem, and he's unable to even leave the clan so that his other clan members can participate in the Rite of Exile. When it comes time to fight in the Rite of Exile, he's not sure what will happen, but he assumes his clan will simply give up its Immortals status without a fight.

According to Jtisallbusiness, Blizzard has said a fix is in the works for weeks now. But he's now wondering if he should try to get a refund for the $100,000 he spent, as he's no longer able to participate in the activities he paid money to be able to succeed at.

Jtisallbusiness hasn't found much sympathy among the game's playerbase, with comments on YouTube and Reddit saying that he "won" the game and got what he paid for, as he is now so strong the game can't find anyone else for him to play with.

Despite being heavily criticized for its microtransactions and pay-to-win systems, Diablo Immortal has reportedly earned more than $100 million since its early June launch. As for Diablo IV, Blizzard has clarified that though the game will sell microtransactions via an in-game shop, they will be cosmetic only and won't allow players to spend money to become more powerful.

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