Look, i’m not trying to take one side in this Argument, but i find it rather curious and interesting, that in one Hand the GD Community expect that everyone accept every Kind of Playstyle. People GD-Stash? No Problem it’s Grim Dawn after all, you can do what you want. People use tons of Mods? No Problem either because it’s Grim Dawn after all. It’s okay if everyone have his own playstyle and the way he want to play… except if it comes down to Multiplayer, than People get rude, make fun about it etc… and justify their behaviour with this “but this Game is focused on Singleplayer anyway”. Yet i’ve to point out one of the Reasons, why this Genre even exist in the first Place and why this genre have become so popular overall the past 23 Years. Not saying there isn’t also a huge portion of Folks who won’t and can’t enjoy it solo, but Multiplayer is a Part of it’s appeal and why it was so successfull in the first place. And if you look at as example Torchlight Series, which might still have sold on release 500k copies but a majority of peope said like “The Game was great, but it misses Multiplayer” and than look at Torchlight 2, which had Multiplayer and sold over 2 Millions at Release, it kinda bothers me that people still try to discredit Multiplayer (as much as it bothers me if it’s the other extrem too like PoE or D3 with it’s forced online and MP Focus… i’m more a fan of the D1+2 Classic vibes where everything was in the middle and everyone could enjoy for themself how he wants to play). I played a big Portion of the Game solo, that’s true, but it still doesn’t change that the most Fun i had with GD was via Multiplayer with friends, and after Torchlight i wouldn’t have bought another Hack’n’Slay if they would’ve cutted the MP entirely. (And that counts vica versa as well, some of my Friends still can’t get it work in their brains that i most likely won’t even start Lost Ark with them, simply because it’s online only and for that alone the game already failed for me).
Not saying that Grim Dawn wouldn’t have profit from “closed” dedicated Servers, but there needs a certain Point (and that’s why some of this people here are so frustrated) where People like you have the accept the fact that dedicated Servers won’t happen for GD, for one because of “priorities” for another one that they simply didn’t have the ressources for Dedicated Servers.
Still i’d argue Multiplayer can be great for Grim Dawn, if you simply play with friends and people you trust(if “legit” MP is your issue).
Which is the other extreme which bothers me. While we both have a different opinion about D3 in general it seems. The thing which you call out as the best aspect about Diablo 3 is infact for me the absolute worst about Diablo 3 next to the (RM)AH (which atleast he latter one they’ve gotten rid already…) and if it’s not for the Console-Version, Diablo 3 would never had a chance to land on my top 3 Favorites HNS of all Time. Diablo 2 should’ve been your example, because Diablo 2 could fullfill everyones desires. You could play it solo or multiplayer with your solo chars in LAN or open server… or more hackfree in closed servers of Battlenet. And its sad to see that an 1998 Game knew how it’s done right and than see how nowdays many of this Games needs to be forced down to your throat with online-only.