Diablo creator says speedy player progression in current ARPGs has "cheapened the entire experience""I find it kind of silly."Image credit: Blizzard News by Ed Nightingale Deputy News Editor Published on Feb. 10, 2025 Diablo creator David Brevik has shared his distaste for some aspects in current ARPGs, and said that when the journey to levelling up is shortened "you've cheapened the entire experience".Brevik, now head of indie publisher Skystone Games, spoke to VideoGamer about his career and his thoughts on the ARPG genre. Brevik was co-founder and president of Blizzard North and served as lead programmer and senior designer on Diablo, and project and design lead on Diablo 2.In the interview, Brevik criticised the speed at which games today offer player progression, which he believes spoils the pacing.Diablo IV | Season of Witchcraft | The Coven, New Powers, Quality of Life, and MoreWatch on YouTube"I think that RPGs in general have started to lean into this: kill swathes of enemies all over the place extremely quickly," said Brevik. "Your build is killing all sorts of stuff so you could get more drops, you can level up, and the screen is littered with stuff you don't care about."Enemy counts in the original Diablo games were notably high for the time, but Brevik believes modern games have learned the wrong lesson."I don't find that as kind of personal and realistic as like Diablo 2. The pacing on Diablo 2, I think is great," he said. "That's one of the reasons it's endured. I just don't find killing screen-fulls of things instantly and mowing stuff down and walking around the level and killing everything, very enticing. I just don't feel like that is a cool experience. I find it kind of silly."When you're shortening that journey and making it kind of ridiculous. You've cheapened the entire experience, in my opinion."While Brevik's comments apply to the recent Diablo games, it also arguably applies to the likes of Path of Exile 2 and Lost Ark. And MMOs also suffer from similar faults."I think that MMOs have definitely pushed in that direction," said Brevik. "How fast can you level? How fast can you kill everything? It's all about speed and things like that, but, in reality, I just think that makes a kind of a worse experience. And I tend to shy away from that direction."Blizzard has followed the release of Diablo 4 with a number of seasons and major expansion Vessel of Hatred to extend its longevity, while also battling with endgame imbalances. The expansion's launch in October last year was rocky but still led to a boost in Steam players.Path of Exile 2, meanwhile, received a major patch last month after its early access release in December, which made big changes to its endgame.