As Gamesradar+ reported, Associate Game Director Joseph Piepiora's one-liner from last week's developer livestream, while discussing Diablo 4's seasonality, was a bit of a blip.

"Once you've accomplished all your goals and done what you think is important, take a break, that's fine ...... We do the same thing," he said, then added, "A new season is upon us, and it's a great time to come check out something new .......

It's a good mentality in theory, and consistent with a design statement Franchise General Manager Rod Fergusson made shortly before the stream: "We want to make sure that people who buy the game a year from now won't feel a year behind. [Reminds me of how Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida responded to a question about how he would stay motivated while playing. 'When a major patch comes, I come back and play as much as I want, and before I burn out, I stop and play another game, and come back when another major patch comes.'

This idea has garnered a lot of positive support for Square Enix's signature MMO. You simply do the content and that's it. The same cannot be said for Diablo 4, however.

In a thread titled "Longtime Diablo 2 Player Here - Diablo 4 Loot System is Just Not Fun," user Eastern-Track-8009 wrote, "When you get to about 40 levels in Diablo 4, the loot is super repetitive. I feel like it has become just micro-upgrades on micro-upgrades on micro-upgrades." He writes.

Meanwhile, Blizzard's latest clampdown on ultra-rare items still infuriates players, who blame the design team for stopping people from skipping the grind queue instead of targeting the problem that is actually ruining their fun The company is also accusing the design team of making the cue more difficult to play. Of course, these are intended to be ultra-rare items, but they are in the game, people will want them, and they are extremely unlikely to drop.

Even PC Gamer's Sarah James has had enough. I can't bring myself to train a druid to level 100, and even at level 58 or so, my progress seems tremendously slow. Scrambling through the overworld to find a Lilith action figure also quickly lost its appeal.

I have no doubt that Piepiora means what he says, and a season is a good way to achieve the goals the team has set. However, that goal clashes heavily with Diablo 4's general stinginess with upgrades, experience points, and gold. Legendary is even rendered completely useless by randomization.

It's all well and good to say that players should take a break once they've "reached all their goals" and done everything "that seems important," but thanks to the punitive leveling structure, most players burn out before they actually do either. Combining seasonal alts with a never-ending treadmill seems to me to be Blizzard's ill-advised attempt to have its cake and eat it too.

Blizzard may respond to the feedback and make the path to 100 less horrible over time, or we may all become loot addicts and succumb to the cult of the rat. Either way, the new season will be playable with Battle Pass on July 20.