Division 2
When Diablo 4 came out, I got a lot of flak from Diablo vets for wishing that characters from the Eternal Realms could participate in seasons in some capacity rather than being left behind. “It doesn’t work like that!” everyone said. And now that I’ve come to that, I’m introducing this concept into a game that No having it for years is a problem. Enter Division 2.
A month ago, Ubisoft announced that future seasons of The Division 2 will switch to a seasonal character model, meaning you’ll start over, level up, speed up, and participate in season-specific activities. There was never anything like this in the history of The Division 1 and 2 and it didn’t sound great. Now it’s coming back.
Division 2
Ubisoft absorbed the immediate rejection and attempted to write a lengthy FAQ regarding the issues, which included explanations such as:
“The main idea behind Seasons 2.0 is to break away from the current recurring seasonal model by transforming the entire experience. We have to consider different moves and power levels with your main characters, so it’s nearly impossible to create a well-balanced experience that’s enjoyable for everyone. Starting all players at level 1 will ensure we have a clear idea of where they are in their progression path as they face specific challenges. Simply put, in order to precisely address the challenges, we need a fresh start.”
They said progression will be sped up and your main character will also be able to join in the last two weeks of that season to farm. You also don’t have to complete the entire campaign again. My favorite question they ask in the FAQ is “What’s the point of keeping a main character if you can’t use them for 90% of the future content coming into the game?” The answer to that was that both character types will have “meaningful roles “, with the main characters still taking top priority. Good.
But after a month no one was biting and now the idea has been completely scrapped. They did an “apology/delay of game” style text image on Twitter to convey this:
“We hear you and want to assure you that we carefully considered your feedback after announcing Season 2.0. After thorough research and discussions with the team, we’ve decided to revisit Season 2.0 with a special focus on seasonal characters with the goal of progressing without them. This change will not affect previously announced plans for Year 6, but will require us to assess the changes necessary for the new seasonal experience that will be integrated into Season 6 Season 2 this fall. Once we have finer details, we’ll be back with more information, live and PTS.”
This will undoubtedly delay the plans since the original reason for doing this was that they said the game was getting impossible and it was hard to keep the progression alive, but… they’re going to try somehow.
It’s pretty clear what the problem is and you simply can’t change a system like this for a dime. Players of The Division 2 have likely been using their same characters since the game’s release in 2019, through strengths and weaknesses, substantial periods and sparse ones. This is far different from Diablo, which had eons of seasonal character system in place for Diablo 3, so no one was shocked when it was still in place for Diablo 4 with a few changes (my brief protest aside). Although the explanation from The Division was that the main characters will still be able to do some progress, it’s pretty easy to see why players rebelled against the idea. But I sure wonder how exactly that will change the plans.
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