Diablo 3 To Be Released On May 15th

Blizzard announced today that Diablo 3 has finally gotten a release date: May 15th. "After many years of hard work by our development team and months of beta testing by hundreds of thousands of dedicated players around the world, we’re now in the homestretch," said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. This comes after significant changes to the skill and rune systems in the beta, and news that the PvP system would be delayed so that they could focus on finishing the campaign. The game will be available for Windows and Macs, either via a DVD or as a direct download through Battle.net. For those interested, a skill calculator is available to get a feel for what different abilities do, and many of the skills have videos showing how they work.

Comments

So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[ACK!!]

So am I the only one who read this as the PvP won't be ready at launch and the skill and rune system is so fucking annoying you have to watch a video and use a calculator to figure out how the damn thing works?

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[yahwotqa]

Nah, they just want you to drool for two months.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[alen]

they have to appease the spreadsheet warriors who will spend weeks learning this crap

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone who has played the beta:

a) PvP not ready at launch: correct

b) It's easier to think of the skill/rune system as a single skill system where you have 210 skill choices for 5 active skill slots. The UI for selecting the skills/runes is annoying, however.

On the plus side, most of the skills/runes have the required "cool" factor.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Tridus]

They had to redo the skill system because back when I played the beta it was fucking horrible. "Here's a ton of skills. Pick a couple. Spam them. You won't be allowed to use the rest unless you go back to town and we allow you to pick new ones."

The whole game was incredibly disappointing.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Pieroxy]

The biggest complain for me is: When will it be available for iOS and Android?

I mean, that's where many gamers are today. And frankly speaking, playing on a table is way more immersive than on a computer.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Falkentyne]

It's a lot better now, I got into the beta in the latest rollout and since then it's changed a couple times - mostly minor tweaks. Now you level up (wherever) and assign skills to slots as they become available. You can swap skills whenever you want with possibly a short cooldown period after swapping. I didn't notice the cooldown last time I played so that might have changed in the last couple weeks.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[DigiShaman]

Silly me. And here I thought D3 would be another mindless but extremely enjoyable click-through game. That's the whole point of the Diablo series. Why does everyone have to take a winning formula and fuck it all up with extra complexity?!

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you finished Diablo II in Hell mode by mindlessly clicking?

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Yosho]

So am I the only one who read this as the PvP won't be ready at launch and the skill and rune system is so fucking annoying you have to watch a video and use a calculator to figure out how the damn thing works?

PvP not ready at launch? Fine, whatever. Go play in the arena in WoW or Starcraft if you want to have fun throwing yourself at other players. PvP not being ready tells me that they're concentrating on making a decent single-player/cooperative game. I do not want PvE to be neglected for the sake of making PvPers happy.

And having a complex skill system is a good thing. Complaints like yours are the reason why we get systems like WoW's, where you can click on damn near any random combination of abilities and have a perfectly viable character, and all you have to do to win in combat is press 1-2-3-4. I will gladly take a system where I actually have to take time to learn how it works and then spend time evaluating how the different options interact, and then maybe I'll even have to crunch some numbers to figure out what the most efficient options are.

In short, attitudes like yours are responsible for the decline of western RPGs. Stop it.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Anonymous Coward]

Silly me. And here I thought D3 would be another mindless but extremely enjoyable click-through game. That's the whole point of the Diablo series. Why does everyone have to take a winning formula and fuck it all up with extra complexity?!

Your comment is stupid. I could just as easily say:

"Just because some players can't think doesn't mean they should release a piece of over-simplified easy crap for those of us with a brain."

To address your point though:

If it's done right the extra complexity won't fuck it up. Like any good computer rpg, it should be simple to beat on lower difficulty levels without worrying about all that stuff but have the added complexity for those min/maxers and hardcore/nightmare mode players who want it.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Dal Platinum]

The cooldown is still there, as of last weekend.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[ottothecow]

People spent hours and hours trying to optimize their skill and stat point builds for Diablo II...how is this any different?

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Quiet_Desperation]

Don't worry. At the end of the campaign, God appears and tells you everything you just did was for naught anyway, and then kills every lifeform above level 1.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[loustic]

I'm more annoyed by the fact that in Europe, the retail physical version is sold for 49.90 EUR while the digital version on Bnet is 69.99 EUR ... SC2 was more expensive via download as well... Seriously -_-

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Quiet_Desperation]

playing on a table is way more immersive than on a computer

I find a chair much more comfortable, though.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[AresTheImpaler]

you were probably kidding but:
This was announced at the same time as the new ipad. It played pretty much like a Diablo clone, except than instead of clicking on the enemies you would use gesture for swinging your sword... And here you can see the gameplay being explained.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Svippy]

Yes, I can't believe Blizzard is asking us to get off our lazy asses one day and purchase a retail copy. I'll gladly do it to save 20EUR. And I did it with StarCraft 2. Remember, kids, SC2 is short for Star Control 2.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Anonymous Coward]

>On the plus side, most of the skills/runes have the required "cool" factor.
It's reasoning like that that made Dragon Age 2 unbearable.

Okay okay, it's -among- the things that made DA2 unbearable.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[oneiron]

Diablo2 does not follow the "winning formula" you've described. Spreadsheet warriers have plenty to do in that game.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Pieroxy]

I was not kidding. I've played a number of games like that on my phone / tablet and I find the experience better. First, you always have it with you so you can play whenever you want. Second, the controls are on the screen, making the whole experience much more immersive. It *is* a little awkward the first time getting used to the controls.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Pieroxy]

My proof reading skills are off today. 2.5 hours of uptime in the middle of the night does that for me...

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Anonymous Coward]

The biggest complain for me is: When will it be available for iOS and Android?

I mean, that's where many NEW gamers EXCLUSIVELY are today. And frankly speaking, IMHO playing on a table is way more immersive TO ME than on a computer BECAUSE MY SUBDEMOGRAPHIC HAS NO INTERESTING IN ANYTHING ELSE.

FTFY

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[synapse7]

There is a point where gestures are not going to be sufficient to represent the number of needed "hot-keys". Also, tablets look like shit as far as texture detail goes, I don't care how many pixels they throw at it. Maybe some day it will be better for this genre, but it is not right now.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Anonymous Coward]

So am I the only one who read this as the PvP won't be ready at launch and the skill and rune system is so fucking annoying you have to watch a video and use a calculator to figure out how the damn thing works?

PvP not ready at launch? Fine, whatever. Go play in the arena in WoW or Starcraft if you want to have fun throwing yourself at other players. PvP not being ready tells me that they're concentrating on making a decent single-player/cooperative game. I do not want PvE to be neglected for the sake of making PvPers happy.

And having a complex skill system is a good thing. Complaints like yours are the reason why we get systems like WoW's, where you can click on damn near any random combination of abilities and have a perfectly viable character, and all you have to do to win in combat is press 1-2-3-4. I will gladly take a system where I actually have to take time to learn how it works and then spend time evaluating how the different options interact, and then maybe I'll even have to crunch some numbers to figure out what the most efficient options are.

In short, attitudes like yours are responsible for the decline of western RPGs. Stop it.

Forgetting that this is Blizzard here and it's usually okay to rely on their promises, is it really best to accept and pay full price for an incomplete game expecting them to patch stuff in later on? It's a very terrible habit for a consumer to pick up especially in this age where expansions don't exist and shitty DLC is rampant.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[metarox]

It's actually 6 active skill slots + 1 potion slot.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Yosho]

Forgetting that this is Blizzard here and it's usually okay to rely on their promises, is it really best to accept and pay full price for an incomplete game expecting them to patch stuff in later on? It's a very terrible habit for a consumer to pick up especially in this age where expansions don't exist and shitty DLC is rampant.

They weren't originally intending to include PvP at all, so as far as I'm concerned, the game will be complete without it.

I also don't think that it's fair to just forget that we're talking about Blizzard, who has made expansions for pretty much every game they've ever made, and they're working on one for SC2.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Anonymous Coward]

Most people don't crunch the numbers. Most people do what the guide tells them to do, then make a new character when they realize they screwed up(if they didn't use a guide). How fun!

That aspect of Diablo 2 was a horrible design, and I'm glad it's dead. If you want it, you can go play diablo 2. The rest of us would rather make fun choices, which blizzard is getting better at.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Guignol]

I disagree, though I do understand and share the interest you have in the way you play an RPG
But as much as optimizing the hell out of known combinations of well measured skills is fun,
You also lose the having fun in chosing how you want to play a character necause of how it feels
For instance, sometimes you will want to play a character that is plain evil, or good, and if you enjoy the story, you would like your character to be consistent, but that is alsmost always incompatible with total optimization of skills/rewards/etc.

So I prefer those full optimization possibilities in other kind of games, unless I'd want to 'meta-game' the game and just want to own everyone online for multiplayer games
For RPG (more particularily for single player RPG) I prefer the game to be balanced enough that not optimizing will make it harder for you while not impossible/ way harder

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Anonymous Coward]

Silly me. And here I thought D3 would be another mindless but extremely enjoyable click-through game. That's the whole point of the Diablo series. Why does everyone have to take a winning formula and fuck it all up with extra complexity?!

Something tells me that you didn't know about frames per attack vs attacks per second and their relation to IAS percentage breakpoints, yet you still managed to enjoy D2. I think it will work out the same way this time.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Pieroxy]

What do you know exactly about my subdemographic?

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[JeanCroix]

Awesome. Will it automatically spam all my Facebook friends every time I level up?

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[CSMoran]

What do you know exactly about my subdemographic?

That is has no INTERESTING, for one :).

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[osu-neko]

PvP not ready at launch? Fine, whatever.

As I recall, I played D2 for months before learning there was PvP... it eventually became a quite interesting and fun part of the game. It becomes the endgame, but it takes a while to get there...

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[BinarySolo]

Also, the whole situation stinks of some suit forcing the devs to cut PvP in order to rush it out the door in time to match up against the anticipated Guild Wars 2 release date.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Pieroxy]

What do you know exactly about my subdemographic?

That is has no INTERESTING, for one :).

You do realize this is not an English sentence, right?

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Pieroxy]

If that's what you want, then yes, you will be able to.

You know PC games also have this feature, right?

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[ifrag]

Awesome. Will it automatically spam all my Facebook friends every time I level up?

I'd almost be tempted to enable it. Would be a small slice of revenge for all the other pointless junk on there. Bonus points if Facebook also gets DDOS'd as a side effect of everyone doing it.

One of Blizzard's April Fools a while back was a Blackthorne sequel that would Facebook post (or maybe it was tweet) every single enemy you kill. That'd probably be enough to destroy either one of them.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[JeanCroix]

I absolutely do not want that feature.

And no, I was not aware. I haven't bought a new PC game for about eight years. But since I was big into D2, I'm being tempted by D3.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[JeanCroix]

+1 Devious

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[webheaded]

It's complete for me. I couldn't give less of a shit about PvP. I don't play Diablo for that and I don't think Diablo was ever really focused on it either. Single/cooperative play is where it's at for this game. Like the GP said, this signals that they are spending all their time on single and for me well...that is just fine.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Talderas]

Who do you think you are? The Reapers?

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Anonymous Coward]

The biggest complain for me is: When will it be available for iOS and Android?

I mean, that's where many gamers are today. And frankly speaking, playing on a table is way more immersive than on a computer.

Real 'gamers' don't use tablets and phones as their platform of choice. Those are for people who play games, which is vastly different than being a gamer.

And frankly speaking, playing on a tablet where your hands are touching the screen constantly and blocking part of your view, is fucking ANNOYING. Tablets are not a gaming platform for anything decent - yet.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, they specifically said PvP won't be ready at launch. And actually the skill system is pretty simple, Blizzard is just giving players what they want based on their previous experience (Diablo 2, WoW). The videos are really just to generate traffic/interest on the site. It's not "this is so complex it needs a video to explain it," it's more like "CHECK OUT HOW COOL OUR SPELLS LOOK! BUY OUR GAME!"

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Luckyo]

I read this as a the fact that the last PC developer that had a policy of "release product when it's ready" has thrown in the towel and now releases when publisher wants it to be released just like everyone else.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[ildon]

The skill system is actually a lot more simple and intuitive than D2's. Some people just like doing math and deconstructing game systems. They've been doing that since Diablo 1 (and way earlier, like in AD&D and chess).

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Luckyo]

So, you find fingers on top of the game world more... immersive?

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[ildon]

>Complaints like yours are the reason why we get systems like WoW's, where you can click on damn near any random combination of abilities and have a perfectly viable character, and all you have to do to win in combat is press 1-2-3-4.

Unless your definition of "winning" is "reaching the level cap solo and quitting," then this statement is not, and up until this point, has not ever been true about WoW. In the current iteration of the talent system you can still fail to select absolutely critical talents and create a completely unviable build if you truly select at random, assuming you want to complete any raid or dungeon content worth doing or defeat anyone in PvP.

Next expansion you'll be correct about the talents, though. But not about the "clicking 1,2,3,4". Even arcane mage, the epitome of the 2 button class, if you play in raids or PvP instead of just leveling or doing easy dungeons, there is a substantial difference between a player who just hits 1 until they run out of mana then hits 2 and then resumes hitting 1 again and one who actually knows when and how to use their mana return cooldowns optimally, especially adjusting for specific encounter mechanics. I'm talking about doing literally 10x more damage between the first player and the second.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[CSMoran]

What do you know exactly about my subdemographic?

That is has no INTERESTING, for one :).

You do realize this is not an English sentence, right?

I do. That was my point.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[ildon]

What idiot anticipates GW2 in mid May?

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[BinarySolo]

It's fairly safe to assume GW2 will be launching some time in the next few months. Maybe not by mid May, but then Blizzard is still first to market which doesn't really disprove my theory.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Dripdry]

Frankly, anything can be boiled down to a basic, boring, easy component. Basketball "is just bouncing a rubber all, no skill!" and programming "is just telling the computer what you want it to with text, so easy!"
As a WoW player myself I have to wonder if you've ever played the game. Leveling is pretty easy, yeah, and mostly about story, 1-2-3-4 keying, and exploration than difficulty, while the end game raiding is VERY much about skill, communication, and strategy between players and with key presses/optimization.

I feel like your sentiment could be an easy cover for an underlying idea you want to express. Perhaps that you find obsessive WoW playing onerous? That's a fair sentiment. Perhaps the whole notion of paying per month bothers you? Ok. Maybe you're just jealous that Blizzard got big or think big companies can't deliver a good product? Anti-Capitalism (of a sort) is rampant around here and I don't fault you for feeling that way.
Whatever the idea is then your opinion and feelings are fine, but using what amounts to ignorance as an argument against Blizzard games/WoW when ALL games are effectively JUST like what you're talking about seems less intellectually rigorous than it could be.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Dripdry]

And if my completely disjointed sentences don't throw you off up there, then I offer this apology for such a poorly constructed set of words. Eep.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[thejynxed]

With a Bone spec Necromancer, yes :)

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Dripdry]

To piggy-back on Yosho's comment, Blizzard is actually not holding BlizzCon this year because they've said they're just too busy.

The new WoW expansion is coming out soon (on the order of months we're thinking), Diablo 3 lands in May, and SC2 expansion in the fall(?). They're going frickin' crazy trying to make each of these really good and really on time, so not seeing PvP (not the majority of players one suspects) in there seems ok to me, but clearly others don't feel that way.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[thejynxed]

I don't know why you were flagged as a Troll....obvious joke about the Mass Effect 3 ending is obvious.

Why so serious?

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[thejynxed]

The Blizz devs said that Mists of Kung Fu Panda would be out approximately 1 year after patch 4.32. Patch 4.33 is/was released as a further test of 64-bit functionality for the client, etc. There will be the minor point releases for bug fixes but no content updates or skill re-balances until the expansion pack (unless there is a serious problem).

So, to say Mists of Kung Fu Panda coming out in a few months is...just no.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Kalriath]

What publisher? Activision/Blizzard self publishes their games. It's the Activision bit that explains it.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait... what? Is this sarcastic or something? Diablo 3 is *significantly* dumbed down from D2. Stat points and skill points all completely gone. Everything is unlocked automatically, at preset skill levels, no matter who is playing. It is so casualized it's almost insulting to long-time players. All the spreadsheet stuff from D2 is long gone.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Soukosa]

Funny how you know when the new expansion is coming out when Blizz doesn't even know that. Hell, they don't even know when the beta's gonna start.

Blizz never states release dates until practically the last minute.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Luckyo]

I wonder if you do realise that you answered your own question there and not in the way you meant to answer it?

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Pieroxy]

Those are for people who play games, which is vastly different than being a gamer.

Maybe you can share you definition of a gamer then. I'd most certainly be glad to hear it.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Tukz]

On screen buttons or wheels take care of the hot-keys problem.
There is a "dungeon hack'n'slash" similar to Diablo on the iPad, that apparently is quite well build for that sort of input.

Don't forget, though, that even though Blizzard are denying it, Diablo 3 is prepared for console/tablets.
It was obvious with the changes they made.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Pieroxy]

So, you find fingers on top of the game world more... immersive?

Yes! The input and the output are all in the same place, in front of your eyes. Just like in real life, you don't have to get out of the visual feedback to adjust your mouse or your fingers on the keyboard.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Pieroxy]

What do you know exactly about my subdemographic?

That is has no INTERESTING, for one :).

You do realize this is not an English sentence, right?

I do. That was my point.

Ok. Thanks.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Luckyo]

You have fingers inside your eyeballs in real life? Because one of the most important aspects of immersion is that you perceive insides of the screen as the actual world around you, rather then a screen in real world.

Fingers on the screen make such level of immersion almost impossible, unless you specifically train yourself to ignore them. Which will require significant levels of conditioning considering that they often take between 1/5 and 1/3 of the available space (less on tablets and more on phones).

Not impossible, but anyone claiming to feel this will be a very tiny minority. On the other hand, you often do not observe your body at all in real life (other then your end of the nose, which is used to calibrate optical depth and irrelevant in this argument). You control your body without ever looking at it, and many things in modern world operate remotely, without ever needing any visible hands on the objects, or having hands in a very specific position (i.e. wheel of the car). Having fingers on top of the image is in no way comparable to being "just like in real life" in vast majority of scenarios. This is why wheels in racing games typically have virtual hands, guns in FPS games are held by virtual hands and so on. That is how you would view your hands in real life.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[teh dave]

Cheers buddy. You just ruined the game for me. Some people have lives and aren't able to play it 24/7 until they're finished it. The post you replied to went straight over my head until you had to point out what it meant.

Re:So PvP delay and a new skill and rune systems

[Anonymous Coward]

I have to agree, I've been beta testing just recently and so far have been incredibly underwhelmed. Not necessarily with the skills, but with the VERY linear gameplay. It just seems that it's little more than new skill mechanics and slightly prettier graphics. I expected more from Blizzard, especially with the new internet leash attached to it. I just hope it is not a new model for micro transactions.

Cool, but ...

[bhaak1]

... but will it be as good as NetHack?

Re:Cool, but ...

[X0563511]

It would be interesting to have something like Nethack or zAngband but with graphics such as Diablo 3.

It's neat and all in text mode, I love them - but sometimes you want the eye candy.

(text over tiles any day, full graphics or none)

Re:Cool, but ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Try Dungeons of Dredmor

Re:Cool, but ...

[X0563511]

Didn't read my post, did you?

It's a funny game, but it's still tiles (large isometric tiles no less)

Re:Cool, but ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Modded up, wow. Comparing Diablo and Nethack seems totally inappropriate to me, despite the genealogy.

I've played Nethack and I have respect for the game. There's a lot of stuff you can do and it's a rich world.

But really, it's not "fun" the way most games are. You die a lot and can't save your game, so you better enjoy restarting the game a lot, even after lots of hours invested in a character. There are a lot of tricks and quirks that you need to learn before you can get far in the game at all, so you better enjoy high learning curves (with permadeath punishing you for every "learning experience" you have). The game is full of mechanics that are not fun by themselves. Hunger and cursed items come to mind as really egregious examples of things that prevent you from enjoying the other aspects of the game.

Diablo, on the other hand, is actually "fun". If you die, you get a mild punishment of needing to recover your corpse (or whatever the new mechanic might be), but you don't lose all your hard-earned loot. You're gently introduced to the mechanics of the game, and it's not a high learning curve, but there are still opportunities to develop skill as a player. (Like many RPG's, Diablo is more about grinding than getting better at the game.) The game focuses on the fun mechanics: hacking, slashing, and getting sweet loot. And Blizzard really polishes their games.

will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Joe_Dragon]

will solo force you to be online all the time?

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Signs point to Yes.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[alen]

yes

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

another comment from somebody outside their target market; it's like people complaining about COD single player... not the focus of the game

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[f3rret]

Of course.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[SJHillman]

Even if it's not the focus, it's still a bad design decision. If you're going to make a bad design decision for a feature that's not your main focus, then why bother spending the time and effort and implement it at all?

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[TheRaven64]

Really? I own Diablo II and the Lord of Destruction expansion. I played a lot in LAN games and in single player. Requiring online for single player is a deal breaker for me. I won't be buying Diablo 3.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[rcuhljr]

Old news is old.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes you are! don't be silly

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Tridus]

How is "single player" not the target market of Diablo?

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[sebtoast]

Yes you will have to be online all the time, even when going solo. This is my biggest complaint about this game so far.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[GmExtremacy]

I'm going to trick you into using Gamemaker one of these days...

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Desler]

Good for you? Since Starcraft was a smashing success despite the whiners goes to show how little Blizzard will care.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[mhajicek]

They selected their target market as different from the target markets of Diablo and Diablo II. Rather than trying to make the best gaming experience they can, they're looking to maximize profits through real money item trading. So their current target markets are the players who want to buy success, and the professional item farmers who supply them. I do not want to play with either type of person, and even having them around takes all the fun out of the game for me.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow this is some grade A derp. You actually believe that game designers are purposefully not trying to make a good game, while at the same time somehow maintaining a belief that there was never a real money for items market for previous diablo titles. For 3 bucks right now I can get an Enigma and a couple of SOJ's from hundreds of websites on the internet, for an 11 year old game.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, I won't. I'll pirate it. The pirate version won't have that requirement..

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[eldorel]

Newsflash: Activision bought blizzard. The company focus has changed. MONEY is now the reason to make new games, not FUN.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[C0R1D4N]

Sarcrafts real success will be measured by the zerg campaigns release. SC2 had a decade of anticipation and rode the coattails of SCt

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[morari]

I'm truly sad to say that Diablo III just doesn't have me very excited. I put countless hours into both of the previous games, though I never did get much out of Battle.net in Diablo II for whatever reason. For me, it was all about LAN play. The first Diablo made this especially appealing due to its Spawn Installs. Diablo III has no local multiplayer, which is ridiculous in itself. If you want to play by yourself in singleplayer, it requires the internet. So much for playing while you're on the road. The various changes to mechanics, art style, and addition of things like a trading area make it seem like little more than a shadow of World of Warcraft.

Honestly, I'm much more excited for Torchlight 2. I like the first game well enough while on the road, but the non-existent story couldn't hold my interest for much more than that. Thankfully the sequel will have multiplayer (local and online!) and seems to be expanding to overworld areas much like Diablo II did in comparison to the first Diablo. I imagine it's no coincidence that the Torchlight series is spearheaded by all of the major players from the first two Diablo games' development.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[tunapez]

ProTIP: When you type 'Derp' in a post, your post does not automatically achieve any sort of edgy or cool factor and undermines any credibility you may have otherwise brought to the discussion. Thanks for playing.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

They selected their target market as different from the target markets of Diablo and Diablo II. Rather than trying to make the best gaming experience they can, they're looking to maximize profits through real money item trading. So their current target markets are the players who want to buy success, and the professional item farmers who supply them. I do not want to play with either type of person, and even having them around takes all the fun out of the game for me.

You've got a serious case of head in sand. Massive hordes of Diablo II players purchased items from third party sites. You played with many of them. You can't fault Blizzard for wanting to make safe an activity that is guaranteed to occur anyway. Nor can you fault them for choosing to appropriate the profit for themselves rather than let some Croatian fly-by-night website have it.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[RivenAleem]

Much the same can be said of a post starting with ProTIP:

Adding "Thanks for playing" falls into the same category.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Think of single player Diablo the same way you think of solo'ing content in an MMO.

You can play with yourself, if that's your thing ... but other people will be around.

BTW, the target market of Diablo is their real-money Auction House. The thing is ground-breakingly revolutionary, and allowing people to store games offline just introduces too much vulnerability.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

my kingdom for mod points.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

True. The pirate version also probably won't have any enemies.

When people stole the beta version and cracked it, the second they stepped inside there were no enemies. Just their character and a landscape.

So, in addition to cracking the game, some industrious hacker is going to need to create a client-side program that spawns everything else.

I am going to buy this game. That said; if someone cracks it for genuine single player, I'm also downloading that.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[BlackSnake112]

No lan play probable also means no mods games either. I remember playing D2 with a mod and having all the act IV bosses right outside the starter town. When you hosted a game and people joined who didn't know were like: what the hell is Diablo doing here! And why is their 5 of him! There were fun mods to the game. It looks like those are not going to happen now.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Blizzard hasn't been independent for a long time. I don't know why people think they've suddenly changed completely because their owners changed, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Real money trading WILL happen in diablo 3, just like in diablo 2. They cannot stop it without insane measures like having a person individually approving every single item trade, and they'd still miss a ton.

Hollywood can't stop pirates, why would you think blizzard could stop item sellers? It's far better for the playing field to be level, and blizzard gets some money for it. This is exactly the kind of thing slashdot would normally promote.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

For me, it was all about LAN play. The first Diablo made this especially appealing due to its Spawn Installs. Diablo III has no local multiplayer, which is ridiculous in itself. If you want to play by yourself in singleplayer, it requires the internet

Exactly. Unfortunately, there seem to be endless legions of people eager to allow someone else to dictate to them when and how they should play a game they bought (or use a computer they own).

It's mind-boggling to me that people would consider it acceptable to have to ask permission to play a game they purchased.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing your parent poster said was "whining", and you know it.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[JeanCroix]

This is true. 'Herp' must also be included for full edgy coolness.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[X0563511]

What is Sarcraft? What does it have to do with Star Control 2? What is SCt?

Your post is invalid.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Newsflash: Activision bought blizzard. The company focus has changed. MONEY is now the reason to make new games, not FUN.

No, they didn't. Blizzard (Vivendi) bought Activision. I'm so very tired of people using Activision as a scapegoat for everything Blizzard does wrong.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Much the same can be said of a post starting with ProTIP:

Adding "Thanks for playing" falls into the same category.

Newsflash regarding ProTIPs: Thanks for Herp Derp'ing.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

It was a merger and Blizzard is the majority shareholder...

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[ildon]

Actually, the majority of people who buy CoD games do so primarily for the single player. Hard to believe, but true. Having said that, pretty much 99% of gamers are online 24/7 anyway. They gain a very strong anti-piracy tool, clean up their user experience by removing the online/offline split that existed in D2, and add a bunch of features players enjoy and are accustomed to with existing platforms like Steam, PSN, and Xbox Live like "secure" achievements, cloud saves, online presence awareness for friends, etc. It's a lot of wins for the company and the vast majority of users for one very small loss for a few unfortunate souls.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[ildon]

It took ~6 years for WoW server emulators to get to a decent place in emulating the world, and frankly they still suck. Diablo 3 is a bit less complex of a game though, I think, so maybe it won't be as bad.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Right, because Blizzard was a nonprofit.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Dripdry]

Are you a business owner? I suspect not, and here's why:

First, Blizz wants to keep people playing. If it's not fun (define fun....?) they won't. So, buying your way to the top is easy gratification and people would get bored pretty fast. I guarantee you Blizz/Activision are WAY smarter than that (they're paid to be, it's why they have a company that's profitable! I get a little worn of anti-success sentiment around here). They want to find ways to keep people interested/having fun, they have to or all those years and money sunk into it will be wasted. ATVI shareholders would NOT like that.

Second, any company has to continue to make profits by looking to what people want. It's why someone saw the local neighborhood kid mowing lawns and thought "Hey, I'll bet I could add that service to my home/garden business!" There is CLEARLY a market for buying items, so for Blizzard not to incorporate that is FOOLISH in a business sense. Absolutely idiotic, highest order. They're CATERING TO THEIR MARKET. What's the quote? That no one was ever poor for giving people what they want?

Now, it may be morally reprehensible to you, you may be jealous that others have money they can blow on online toys, or maybe you're longing for the "good old days". People don't handle change well, especially to things to which they're emotionally attached (that includes me). S'Cool, bro ;-)

Some might agree with you that the "fun" will be curtailed, and maybe those people won't play, but what IS fun anyway? Anticipation? Clicking for hours/days/weeks/months until you get some text on a screen that makes you guy kill stuff faster? Come on, who but those of college age or younger have or even WANT to spend that kind of time? If I have a couple extra bucks, of course I might consider buying some upgrades or a cool outfit... wouldn't you?
Instead of spending endless hours farming a boss, you can monetize that time and tell Blizzard/other players what it's worth to you.

I'm certain there will be stuff you can only get in the game and can't sell. That's the way WoW is because Activision wants people to keep playing.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Kalriath]

Most of us have never even heard of Star Control. Stop being so fucking obtuse.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Kalriath]

No, Vivendi is. Vivendi owned Blizzard, and merged Activision with Vivendi Games, Blizzard's parent company. The newly formed entity was called ActivisionBlizzard, with Bobby Kotick (the enemy of gamers everywhere) because they wanted the new entity to be able to ride off Blizzard's good reputation. Which they promptly trashed by the way.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[rtb61]

Now that is going to be the biggest problem with Diablo 3, the style of game play is old news. Titan Quest basically filled the hole when Diablo 2 got too old and perhaps Diablo 3 is already a bit long in tooth, a bit too yesteryear to be anything other than bargain bin. I was looking forward to more than a year ago and somewhere in the interim I got really bored with that style of game play.

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[eldorel]

Are you a business owner? I suspect not, and here's why:

Actually, I am a business owner. I would link the company, but since we mostly handle local customers it wouldn't be effective advertising anyway, but feel free to google my nick.

The primary focus of my business is CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, not profit.
If a customer isn't happy, they don't bring friends to your business. Meanwhile, 2 happy customers who know each other will attract other people in their social circle. ( It's called "Word of mouth advertising" for anyone watching from the sidelines. )

Blizzard's customer support has gone from moderately good to completely horrible over the few years since the merger.
This, combined with several other decisions, has left large portions of the original user base feeling ignored, and even worse, exploited.

They're CATERING TO THEIR MARKET.

They are catering to a new market, actually.

Activizzard at some point decided to stop catering to the long term players with 5 year subscriptions, and started catering to the "Instant gratification"/"reward addict" crowd instead.
To make the game more accessible, they tailored the content to be less demanding. Shorter dungeons, easier bosses, more use of different difficulty levels, higher drop rates, etc.
To cater to the "achievement addicts", they initiated actual achievements, guaranteed point rewards for playing content, and allowing higher level gear to be purchased from vendors.
Additionally, they added point caps to prevent player from gaining new items too quickly, and increased the power level of items dramatically.

This worked fairly well in the short term, blizzard brought in several MILLION new subscriptions from this new untapped player base, and initially only lost a few hundred thousand long term subscribers.
Overall, from a modern business standpoint, this time period was a smashing success.

However, this smashing success had it's drawbacks.

For example, Many of the long term "hardcore" players who left were the ones who made up the most vocal part of the social community.
These were the people who were willing to teach new players how the game worked, spent hours on end joking in the chat channels, ran leveling guilds like mine, and organized huge world events (like the 400 player raids on opposing capitol cities).

For a lot of less hardcore players (like myself), this community was an extremely large part of why they continued to play the game.
The completely random interactions with other players added uncertainty and excitement, and did an amazing job of keeping the same repetitive content from getting boring. Without those vocal and extroverted people, there is nothing to distract players from the "endless grind" portions of the game during the quiet times between content releases.


Secondly, the "instant gratification" crowd have short attention spans.
After these players have seen the content, they want something new to do. NOW. If the game doesn't cough up new content on a very rapid schedule, they start losing players to other "more interesting" games. ( Just look at the drop in numbers after the announcement that 4.3 was the last big content patch in Cataclysm)

Third, the reward addicts also need new content, better gear, more power, etc.
There is a huge post on the battle.net forums from a developer asking for input regarding the "item level squish" that they may have to do to handle the exponential increase in item power from the last expansion.
There's even a nice graph and everything. SOURCE

Lastly, Providing new content on a near constant basis is expensive. It costs more developer time, and it causes an inevitable loss in quality.
Blizzards motto for new game a

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Wingfat]

not correct.. there is always a way around that. -in fact i am playing the Beta localy on my PC now no internet needed. Proxy Server anyone?

Re:will solo force you to be online all the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Activision didn't buy Blizzard. It merged with Vivendi Games (holding company for Blizzard and Sierra) to form another holding company Activision-Blizzard with Venedi holding the majority of stock.

Worthy successor?

[SJHillman]

I spent countless hours playing the first two games in the series, but I'm not so sure D3 is shaping up to be a worthy successor. D2 got annoying when they began tweaking things every patch so an awesome character with an amazing set in one patch is suddenly next to useless a patch or two later. Rather than just balancing, they mixed it up far too much. Hopefully the demo (I'm assuming there's a demo) will help me decide whether or not to buy it now or wait for the price to drop in a few years.

Re:Worthy successor?

[webheaded]

With the way the skill systems are, they at least won't be able to destroy your character build as far as skills go. With Diablo 3, you would simply start using different skills. The upshot of this, for me, is that I only need to have 1 of each character class in this game. I think I'll like that. :)

Re:Worthy successor?

[RogueyWon]

The endless tweaking was present in World of Warcraft as well and was one of the biggest factors that drove me out of the game. I was a PvE-only player, but my class was being constantly tweaked and overhauled to meet the ever-changing demands of PvP balance.

With PvP being absent from Diablo 3 at launch, I would hope (probably in vain) that Blizzard might want to stop and think whether they could stick a few more degrees of separation between PvE and PvP play.

Re:Worthy successor?

[fluffythedestroyer]

I read the forums here and there and the beta testers, most of them anyway, told that from level 1 to 30 will be quests, discovery and mostly lots of fun. After level 30 up to 50, it will be grinding for the best items, so it's going to be item hunters. This is suppose to be diablo 3 in 1 line approximately.

Re:Worthy successor?

[UnknownSoldier]

I've been playing D2/D2X off and on for 10+ years. Have to agree about their attitude towards patching breaking [cookie] cutter builds / templates...

* First they nerfed the cow level because they didn't want people leveling up to 99 so fast. So basically the bots win, and the legit players get screwed. Real nice.
* Then they added "synergies" in their lame attempt to re-balance skills that no one ever used. Idea: How about "fixing" the useless skills so they are actually _usefull_. When was the last time you actually say a barb use 'Grim Ward'? Yeah me neither.
* The "high-end" sets are a joke, except for Tal Rasha's.
* Meanwhile, they completely ignored all the hammerdins they made godly with Engima. I am still miffed that an pure Martial Artist assassin can't do shit in Hell even with Godly Gear compared to a hammerdin spamming hammers.
* Thanks for fixing the charge-stun-lock after all these years. NOT.

Other non gameplay issues:

* Blizzard has done fuck all with all the spammers in the channels. Why the hell can't I report a spammer? If 500 people reported a spammer he should be either muted, or banned.

* If I make a game why the fuck can't the host decide if PK'ing is allowed or not?? What, encourage people to play _together_ in hard-core mode? What a concept!!

Runewords are gone in D3. The fact that we had 3 separate currencies in D2/X: pgems, runes, and rares, was a GOOD thing.

Blizzard just doesn't give a fuck about its customers -- especially after the bnetd and WOW glider incidents. it remains to be seen if the game design of D3 is any good, or if Blizzard jumped the shark by trying to making everything into a dumbed down WoW.

Re:Worthy successor?

[Apocryphos]

I agree with a lot of what you said, but the fact is that synergies did make more skills useful that weren't before. Your idea to redo "useless" skills is a shitload more work, and I'd definitely take synergies over no change at all. BTW - Grim Ward is useful, for example, I use it to kill enemy groups faster because it lets my barbarian focus fire better.
The real issue is that a lot of the difficulty of the game was destroyed online by bots. It was too easy to get good equipment and fast experience, which I say because you think the high end sets are jokes.
The immortal king set is really good. You can pretty much not be stopped when wearing it, and it's possible to do /players8 hell solo with it, as long as you are careful.
I mainly played d2 on LAN with people I know, enforcing a no-cheating atmosphere via peer-pressure, and I wish they would just make more expansions for d2 instead of an entirely new game.

Re:Worthy successor?

[Piata]

I'm in the beta and I was highly skeptical when I first started playing but after a while the game really grew on me. It's still Diablo and the new skill system seems to be based more around people making well thought out decisions as to what skill to use rather than "what skills do I spend my points on and if I pick the wrong skill am I totally screwed?".

There's less room for customization (you don't allocate your attribute points on level up) and you can't assign skills to any key you want unless you enable elective mode but otherwise I think it's a solid game. Not only that, but it's a solid game that's unlike most games made today and I think that alone is worth the purchase.

Having said that... I still would prefer Torchlight II.

Re:Worthy successor?

[UnknownSoldier]

Yeah, I should of said I like synergies. A kicksin soloing uber trist is a beautiful thing. =)

Just wish they didn't half ass synergies. A good example is Paladin's Meditation getting fucked over by the runeword Insight. :-/

> The immortal king set is really good.
Yeah, I was debating whether to mention the IK set or not. I still have fondness for it after doing a pure Str/Vit barb and trading for it ~ 1.10 patch. Hell, I _still_ collect all the sets every time they reset the ladder. =) One of these days I will complete that dam Griswold's Legacy -- even if it sucks -- maybe a zealot can use it.

> I wish they would just make more expansions for d2 instead of an entirely new game.
Unfortunately, the mass consumer doesn't want 2D :-(

Re:Worthy successor?

[Anonymous Coward]

They did eventually "fix" hammerdins a little, Magic Immune monsters are now immune even if they are undead. I think the fix we really needed though was somehow adding a 1 second cooldown timer to the teleport skill granted by Enigma.

Grimward is very situational but I have used it on ocassion and it does make some fights as a barbarian significantly easier Mephisto in Uber Tristram comes to mind.

I've been doing the Beta on and off and I agree that D3 doesn't look to be as much fun in the long run as its predecesors.

Re:Worthy successor?

[X0563511]

Unfortunately, the mass consumer doesn't want 2D :-(

They just might, if they weren't locked into 800x600, which looks like total ass on a high-resolution LCD (even worse if it doesn't do aspect-locked scaling).

Re:Worthy successor?

[X0563511]

unless you enable elective mode

Does your NDA allow you to elaborate a bit more on that?

Re:Worthy successor?

[Emetophobe]

Runewords are gone in D3. The fact that we had 3 separate currencies in D2/X: pgems, runes, and rares, was a GOOD thing.

Runes and jewels weren't added until LOD if I remember correctly. I'm sure they'll add them again.. in the next expansion.

Re:Worthy successor?

[rcuhljr]

There's no NDA in the beta. Non elective mode has 'slots' and you pick one of a selection of skills for each slot based on it's type. For example, pick a rage generator for this slot (bash, cleave, frenzy, etc), this slot you have to pick a rage spender, and this slot is for a utility skill. Elective mode just lets you pick any skills for your bar and gets rid of the slots.

Re:Worthy successor?

[ildon]

On the one hand you say bots ruin the game, and on the other you complain about Blizzard shutting down WoW Glider. Well, which is it? Should they support botting or not?

Re:Worthy successor?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Beta is the demo. They ran through so many testers (so little content to actually see or do anything with) they kept handing out more and more beta applications.

The game was "fun" in the sense of killing things, but aside grinding (as in not-fun) for loot from bosses, there is no replay value. I'd rather go kill Blood Raven a couple more times. I did like the instant group function, but the people just ran to the end as fast as possible. You'd be lucky to get a sentence out of them.

Effectively the game breaks down into the experience of instance rushing in WoW. That is all. I'm not going to get it, TERA is my addiction now.

Re:Worthy successor?

[mossy the mole]

On the one hand you say bots ruin the game, and on the other you complain about Blizzard shutting down WoW Glider. Well, which is it? Should they support botting or not?

IMO My problem with the WOW Glider was blizzard interfering with another company's program simply because it interfaced with WOW sets a bad precedent and (to me) is an intrusion on the freedom of the user. Not that I like bots but they should catch then by there in game actions.

Re:Worthy successor?

[geminidomino]

The endless tweaking was present in World of Warcraft as well and was one of the biggest factors that drove me out of the game. I was a PvE-only player, but my class was being constantly tweaked and overhauled to meet the ever-changing demands of PvP balance.

Were you (and this may be a silly question, considering your username) playing rogue, by any chance? Because that's what drove me out, way back in the beginning. I played for the 3 months leading up to 1.7, and my poor Secondfloor took almost constant beatings with the nerfbat while they diddled with things.

Re:Worthy successor?

[RogueyWon]

No, I was Holy Paladin, through the TBC and WotLK eras. To be honest, we had it less bad than many of the other classes, but even so, the extent to which holy shock, beacons and other mechanics got messed around with on a near-weekly basis to appease the PvP kiddies was exasperating.

I saw how Warlocks and Rogues suffered from it and just shuddered.

Re:Worthy successor?

[TriezGamer]

I'm not sure if they're compatible with Battle.net, but there are hacks for Diablo 2 allowing you to run the game at higher resolutions.

Re:Worthy successor?

[UnknownSoldier]

You are aware of the difference between a shared world (wow) and independent world instanced (D2) right?

A person botting in D2 effects no one else because they are in their own private game.

A person botting in WoW effects everyone in that zone.

It was absolute perversion of justice where a company can dictate what programs you may or may run on your own computer while you play their game.

Understand the issue now?

Re:Worthy successor?

[UnknownSoldier]

They are not compatible with Battle.Net -- the warden will flag you if you run them because they inject code into storm.dll. :-/

Re:Worthy successor?

[Tukz]

I never for the life of me understood, why they didn't just keep PvP and PvE separate in WoW.

When you enter Arena/BG, your skill trees are tweaked for PvP.
Outside of Arena/BG, your skills are tweaed for PvE.

Why is that so hard?
They pretty much killed world PvP anyway, when they introduced BGs.

Re:Worthy successor?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bots/Duping in D2 caused massive proliferation of the best items in the game. The game was then repeatedly adjusted to make it difficult for people fully kitted out in this ridiculous gear and almost impossible for those without. That in turn made the endgame a pile of ass unless you were willing to take part in the botting (by trades/buying items). To say it had no effect is a bit short-sighted.

Botting in WoW affects an entire server economy wise, and makes basic world interaction (gathering herbs/mining) a shitcock, because some bellend can mine out a zone in a couple of minutes.

Blizzards only other option for WoWGlider was to stop machines that are running it from accessing the WoW server. Fortunately/unfortunately, the risk of false positives means that this would not be a sensible option.

The guy above said a similar thing, in that it is wrong for company A to interfere with a program from company B. But taking it to an extreme, is it wrong for Sophos to interfere with the operation of a virus?

Re:Worthy successor?

[RogueyWon]

That was always the obvious question, wasn't it? They even had a whole stat - resilience - which was useless in PvE but essential in PvP, to ensure that gear for the two play-types remained separate. Why they couldn't just go that one step further was always a mystery to me.

A little late.

[Anonymous Coward]

My excitement wore off years ago.

Re:A little late.

[stretch0611]

I agree... I was very excited when it was first announced a few years ago. Of course, I knew it was downhill once Activision bought Blizzard.

I was hoping that Diablo 3 would be released before too much of Activision's influence made it into the game. However that did not happen and every few months an article of new "features" appeared such as no Lan games, Internet connections being required for solo play, and the "console-fication" of game play detracted from any excitement I used to have for Diablo 3.

So, when I get bored of playing Diablo 2, I now play Torchlight and eagerly await Torchlight 2. I don't even think about DIablo 3, because I know that when it is released it will be a shadow of what it could have been...

Plus, I feel better supporting small independent game devs instead of gigantic corporate overlords. I also look at Torchlight as the true sequel to Diablo... The developers writing it are the same ones that used to write Diablo back when Blizzard was independent.

Diablo 3 == D&D 5 ?

[jeddak]

Skill system that requires a calculator? Hmmm....seems like.short step to tabletop RPG.

So instead of using a computer to help you play a pen and paper RPG, you can use a calculator to help you play a video game.

Re:Diablo 3 == D&D 5 ?

[fluffythedestroyer]

Not exactly, the skill calculator is there to help you decide to make choices on your skills and runes. So in my view, it's not like tabletop RPG, it is a tool but nothing more. Most RPG's or "skill" level system game on the internet have that kind of tool anyway.

Re:Diablo 3 == D&D 5 ?

[ildon]

You could have just clicked the link and saw how simple the skill system really is. It's even more simple when you gain 1 skill every couple levels and can try them out for a few minutes to decide if you like them (and switch off of them on the fly if you don't) rather than being presented with all 240 or whatever at once (which is actually more like 40 with 6 variants, most of which are as simple as "more damage" or "slightly different trajectory" or "wider area") on a web page with no in-game context.

Re:Diablo 3 == D&D 5 ?

[Rebelgecko]

D3's skill system is a lot simpler than D2's.

May 15th

[Anonymous Coward]

Please note: nowhere in the press release does it say may 15th 2012.
Just saying :)

Re:May 15th

[Xeroxis]

it only says so on press releas, also they sad multiple times that there will be around 2 months heads up so they are spot on

Noway no how

[Anonymous Coward]

I have tried the beta 5 times over the last months. Everytime I just couldnt stay with it. Being a D2LOD fanboy, I find D3 to be pale in comparison. Graphics are good, but thats about it to me. I wont buy it since I get it free with the WOW yearly sub, but will most likely not play it.

Re:Noway no how

[Iniamyen]

I had a similar experience the first couple of times I tried playing the beta. The third time I played it I was finally able to enjoy it, and then was pissed when it ended. They key (for me at least) was to not expect too much out of it. It's definitely not a game I will get too invested in. But it definitely has the "atmosphere" of the previous games, and that's what I appreciate most. Maybe it's nostalgia. I'm not expecting it to be anything more than a game I can jump on for an hour or less to explode some demons with some friends and get some phat +1million to facemelting lewtz.

Re:Noway no how

[Tridus]

Same problem here. It didn't hook me at all. I had to force myself to play it a second time.

Only difference is that I found the graphics bland and ugly. You can only use 500 shades of "dank" before everything starts to blend together.

Re:Noway no how

[ildon]

It's the first 12th of the game. I certainly didn't expect to get "hooked". But it's definitely enough to say "Yup, that's Diablo alright." Which it is.

I think its funny

[Anonymous Coward]

I think its funny that Blizzard always said we will release it when it's done.

So why are they releasing this if one of the most anticipated features for some isn't done?

Comments from a beta-tester

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm in the beta, there's been a lot of tweaking of the skill system. In the current iteration its pretty straightforward, with the skills broken down into a handful for each spell slot. Runes aren't complicated, each spell has a few runes that unlock as you level and you can choose your spell power-up effect. What I'm seeing in the beta looks promising for the final game.

You WILL have to be online to play single-player, which is annoying, but I'm getting the game for free because of my WoW subscription so I can't really complain except for when our connection goes down. I guess with the quick switch from single into multiplayer as well as the access to the Auction House and chat channels this makes some sense.

My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[netsavior]

Let me preface by saying, I played D1 and D2 to the exclusion of most other games on the market for YEARS. Everything blizzard (not in the warcraft universe) has me from day 1 till long after the fervor dies down. D3 is horrible.

They limited multiplayer to 4 players per game, 8 player just wasn't working. If that continues to production, wow, what a blunder.

The (very simple) skill system doesn't require/allow you to make any hard choices
The stat system doesn't allow you to make ANY choices
The rune system provides the illusion of skill choices in the form of yet another item hunt
Gear is the only way to differentiate from one player of the same class to another (since you don't really controll stat or skill.

So basically you are left with the late game of DIablo 2 from day 1: Constant item hunt/grind.

Not to mention, if you ever start to forget you are playing a game, there is something blatant to pull you back out. In-line tutorial messages like"don't forget you have a right-click attack too!" to "You have found new lore!" the random floating health orbs from kills make it feel like either all players are soul eating demons, or you are playing an 80s platformer.

It honestly feels like a browser game trying to mimic Diablo2 late game (aka once a character was no longer fun to play), except with really really good graphics.

It's like they are trying their very hardest to be different from the core engagement of diablo 2 (aka building and experimenting, not late game item grinding), like they can't even remember that had something like 1.5 Billion in sales with that game.
Granted this is beta, but I just don't see them changing the fundamentals by may.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[QuantumPion]

The (very simple) skill system doesn't require/allow you to make any hard choices
The stat system doesn't allow you to make ANY choices
The rune system provides the illusion of skill choices in the form of yet another item hunt
Gear is the only way to differentiate from one player of the same class to another (since you don't really controll stat or skill.

-Neither did previous games. If you made the "wrong" choice, your character was gimped and you had to delete him and start the game all over.
-This was the case with every previous game as well. If you made your stats "wrong", your character was gimped and you had to delete him and start the game all over. The only real differentiation between characters was who had the better items. Nothing has changed.
-Runes are not items any more. It is now just a method of selecting different skill abilities.

If you think Diablo 2 (the multiplayer community anyway) was anything more than a perpetual item grind then you are kidding yourself. There was no building or experimenting in D2 because there was no respeccing period.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[Anonymous Coward]

"The (very simple) skill system doesn't require/allow you to make any hard choices
The stat system doesn't allow you to make ANY choices"

The only result of the "choices" in D2 was being penalized for making an error. Players knew in advance, through extra-game research, what builds they wanted to create. The only option you had was to screw it up and be forced to re-roll, or not. This is not meaningful, and not fun.

"The rune system provides the illusion of skill choices in the form of yet another item hunt"

Your info is outdated. Runes are no longer dropped items, but unlock as you level.

"So basically you are left with the late game of DIablo 2 from day 1: Constant item hunt/grind."

Diablo games are by design a giant slot machine. Many people find this entertaining. Perhaps this genre is not for you.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[ssargent]

Blizzard, Valve and all of the bigger game developers used to have an self imposed mantra of releasing games "when it's done". It seems to me that fewer and fewer of the Triple A developers are actually adhering to it. Id software graced us last year with Rage, what must have been one of the most pathetic first person tech demos I've ever seen, and now Blizzard is suggesting that a game is finished when they've removed a substantial number of features out to make it "ready" for release. Triple A studios, perhaps with the exception of Valve, seem to have simply become the extension of their overly greedy publishers.

I bought Diablo, Hellfire, Diablo II, Lord of Destruction, and played all of them, to the point of physical exhaustion. I would wake up, play Diablo 2 before class, and then start playing Diablo 2 as soon as I got home again. I slept (if you can call it that) hearing the noises of fallen ones and goatmen dying, needless to say I was beyond hooked on those games, as were all of my friends. I can still remember drop % from some of the best runs for some items that I was looking for. . .

I've actually reinstalled Diablo I(Why not Diablo II? It makes me physically ill!) on a few computers I own, and have been playing over LAN with a few of my friends (using The Hell Mod, very recommended difficulty goes way up), simply because I haven't been invited to the Diablo III Beta (yet?). If I close my eyes I can almost pretend it's Diablo III.

And actually, I've got an action figure of Diablo staring at me from on top of my bookshelf. He's hanging out with a Marine and a Hydralisk.

I fucking LOVE Diablo. But I'm really struggling with if I want to buy the game when it's still admittedly incomplete at release. The precedent for removing features until a game is gold- rather than polishing and fixing - is a disturbing one.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[Nrrqshrr]

I think it's a fondamental flow in all Multiplayer games with PVP... The powergaming factor.
br> Technically there is a billion possible combinations of skills and stats to suit the need of every roleplayer. But as soon as you face someone, you realise that your two options are:
1-Be a weakling and die trying. 2-Be a powergamer with the best combination and have a chance of winning (Ignoring items and such). This is what killed UO PVP for me, everyone was Dex-Warrior or Tank-Mage. This is what killed NWN for me, everyone was Fighter-Mage. This is what will kill D3 for me, everyone will be
You can't propose a free skilling/runing system and tell people that they have all the freedom they wan if, one week later, 50% of your players gravitate towards a single winning combination.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[Nrrqshrr]

Damn it, messed up my tags and killed the formatting. But whatever. My point still stands.

Yes, am mad at D3.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[flirno]

Oh there was experimenting through 'rebuilding'. I made something like 7 different amazons total (and 3 barbarians, 3 paladins, 2 necros and 3 sorcerers) exploring specs and most of them made level 80 before it was time to try a different approach (and getting to 80 was no feat, it was pretty easy later in the game).

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[way2slo]

FYI, a patch came out for D2 a few years ago that allowed for a free character respec. I believe there was also a way to get another one, via some items.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[synapse7]

I have limited exposure to the diablo series, but what you describe basically sums up the experience in WoW since the talent tree reduction.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[clodney]

Blizzard, Valve and all of the bigger game developers used to have an self imposed mantra of releasing games "when it's done". It seems to me that fewer and fewer of the Triple A developers are actually adhering to it. Id software graced us last year with Rage, what must have been one of the most pathetic first person tech demos I've ever seen, and now Blizzard is suggesting that a game is finished when they've removed a substantial number of features out to make it "ready" for release.

I am 99% sure that things got pulled from D1/D2 to make it done. Everybody does it. You start with a bunch of must have and nice to have features, then marketing adds a bunch more must haves halfway through the product, then you fall behind, and you push the release date out, but now the thought process is that if sales has to wait for 4 more months, suddenly 3 of the nice to haves are now must haves.

Then 4 months later reality strikes, and you realize that the only way you are going to ship in any reasonable period is by reclassifying half of your must haves as nice to haves, and immediately deferring all the nice to haves. Then you start triaging the bug lists, deciding which ones you can live with in release.

Blizzard and Valve seem remarkably insensitive to release pressures, so hopefully it is not nearly as bad in those companies, but at some point your team simply can't take it any more and you have to release or burn out all your employees.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[Anonymous Coward]

The rune system is not an item hunt, update your news.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[Rockoon]

If you think Diablo 2 (the multiplayer community anyway) was anything more than a perpetual item grind then you are kidding yourself. There was no building or experimenting in D2 because there was no respeccing period.

The only thing true here is the no respeccing. Prior to the expansion that ruined the game there were a dozen builds for each class that could solo Hell Act 4 without anything close to the best gear (which were Rare items, not Uniques, Runewords, or Sets). Only post-expansion is what you are saying true, when everything became immune to several damage types and when not immune was still highly resistant.

You complain about end-game item grinding but that is exactly what respeccing promotes, yet you complain about a lack of respeccing in D2. As far as I am concerned it is easy respeccing has single-handedly ruined multi-player RPG's... turned them into multi-player end-game grinders.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[Rockoon]

The only option you had was to screw it up and be forced to re-roll, or not.

That may be the only option, but thats not what made it fun. What made it fun was the challenge of getting from your level 1 character to that final stat setup you have in mind. If your final setup requires heavy investment in level 30 skills, for instance, then until level 30 you have a steep hill to climb. Builds like the enchantress in D2 were an achievement in-and-of-themselves, unless you were getting rushed by higher level characters which moots your point (you can hardly complain about a lack of respeccing if you get yourself rushed through the game.)

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[demonbug]

The (very simple) skill system doesn't require/allow you to make any hard choices
The stat system doesn't allow you to make ANY choices
The rune system provides the illusion of skill choices in the form of yet another item hunt
Gear is the only way to differentiate from one player of the same class to another (since you don't really controll stat or skill.

-Neither did previous games. If you made the "wrong" choice, your character was gimped and you had to delete him and start the game all over.
-This was the case with every previous game as well. If you made your stats "wrong", your character was gimped and you had to delete him and start the game all over. The only real differentiation between characters was who had the better items. Nothing has changed.
-Runes are not items any more. It is now just a method of selecting different skill abilities.

If you think Diablo 2 (the multiplayer community anyway) was anything more than a perpetual item grind then you are kidding yourself. There was no building or experimenting in D2 because there was no respeccing period.

Not my experience at all, but then I had no interest in playing on battle.net, let alone worrying about maxing a character for PvP. For MP I played LAN games with my brother and a couple of friends (or direct IP; I don't think we were actually all in the same place) and PvP was never really a part of it. The most fun was usually the first trip through the game, when you still had a reasonable chance of finding improved equipment without resorting to doing the same thing over and over and over and over. By the time you beat it on Normal and go to Nightmare, 99% of the stuff that drops is crap you wouldn't have picked up at level 5 and it just became stupid. Way more fun just to start another character and try out a completely different build, not worrying about whether that build is the best possible or most effective. Sounds like they've done their best to remove/limit the parts I enjoyed, and concentrated instead on the parts that I never had any interest in - grinding and PvP (except apparently they've dropped PvP for now, so it is just grinding).

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[johanwanderer]

Let's just add fancy graphics to this game and call it a day.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[tlhIngan]

Let me preface by saying, I played D1 and D2 to the exclusion of most other games on the market for YEARS. Everything blizzard (not in the warcraft universe) has me from day 1 till long after the fervor dies down. D3 is horrible.
 

Well, I was the same. Then I had the misfortune of getting Starcraft 2. Ignoring all the crap about 3 campaigns I'd have to buy and such... let's just say the game was good, but the crap around it, like B.net 2.0, sucked balls.

You can clearly see where the execs at Activision start putting their hands in your pockets. Naming your character - it's permanent, unless you want to pay $10 to change it. Oh, we told you it's permanent, didn't you read the fine print? We'd warn you during signup it was permanent, but that would mean $10 less for us, so we'll tuck it away in fine print you're not going to read because you want to play the game. And no, the $10 came a couple of months after the game came out - until then you were stuck with it unless you deleted your b.net account and started anew (losing all your games in the process).

It was a bad enough experience that while I considered preordering D3 when I picked up SC2, I lost immediate interest in doing so after going through the hassles of doing so.

Hell, the free PvP "addon" just smacks of "freemium" to me - yes, PvP is free. No, you'd better open you wallet wide if you want to actually do anything. Especially after reports of how PvP were to be removed.

Acrivision's screwed up Blizzard, and they'll screw up everyone else they touch with their money-grubbing ways.

Hell, I didn't know until SC2 that there could be anyone worse than EA.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[Anonymous Coward]

As far as I am concerned it is easy respeccing has single-handedly ruined multi-player RPG's... turned them into multi-player end-game grinders.

Nah, lazy people ruined multi-player RPGs. They like to call themselves "casual" and demand for things like easy respeccing (which they got). They expect the role playing to come to them/done for them when a big part of role playing has to come from the players putting forth the effort

But the bright side is that the lazy people only ruin it for themselves. The rest of us find our own fun and still enjoy multi-player RPGs in our own way.

Take the respeccing issue for instance: if easy respeccing is so undesirable for you, you can just impose a limitation on yourself to not use the feature (i.e. don't use respec, but restart a new character each time you want to try a new build). If more people do that, then you could form a sub-community, and your vision of a good multiplayer RPG sub-culture would flourish

This happened/happens in WoW (which has easy respecs, and even dual specs): there are small but dedicated communities of people who would reroll (start new characters) on servers together, there are those who stick to "twinking" (low level PvP). There might even be people who are dedicated to doing old content (and limiting their levels to be appropriate for the content).

Now of course, these people don't get to see the "latest and greatest" content by staying where they are, but then again, since you label that content as an "end-game grindfest", I don't think they (or you) are missing much.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[Anonymous Coward]

I met a girl years ago that broke up with her boyfriend because all he did was play command and conquer. She said: "I just couldn't handle hearing 'your base is under attack' one more time"

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[shutdown -p now]

This is what killed UO PVP for me, everyone was Dex-Warrior or Tank-Mage. This is what killed NWN for me, everyone was Fighter-Mage. This is what will kill D3 for me, everyone will be

I can't comment on Diablo or UO, but with NWN this problem is solved simply by playing on servers where powergaming is strongly discouraged by DMs and community. Generally it's those that advertise themselves as "RP" rather than "action".

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? I'm actually comforted by it, since instead of being beholden to interests that don't appeal to me, I'm getting the parts of the game I want, without waiting for those I couldn't care less about.

Your perspective is different from mine.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[Kalriath]

Hell, I didn't know until SC2 that there could be anyone worse than EA.

I'm going to be honest, it's looking more and more by the day like EA are the good guys. I mean by comparison you have ActivisionBlizzard (all about the money), Ubisoft (all about the DRM), id/Bethesda (all about the bugs), THQ (almost bankrupt)... I guess there's always Valve. And 2K haven't screwed up their reputation yet.

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[UnknownSoldier]

> If you made your stats "wrong", your character was gimped and you had to delete him and start the game all over.
How do you think people figured out you don't need ANY dex for a barb, or you don't need ANY engergy for a Sorc??

> There was no building or experimenting in D2 because there was no respeccing period.
It is obvious you have never played patch 1.13.

You can now respec once per difficulty from Akira.

OR

You can collect essences from the Andariel, Mephistom, Diablo, and Baal in hell cube the 4 colors of them to make a Token of Absolution

  http://www.diablowiki.com/Token_of_Absolution_(Diablo_II)

Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy...

[xhrit]

>at some point your team simply can't take it any more and you have to release or burn out all your employees.

Employee burnout is not the worst thing that could happen... wait too long to ship your game and you will find your company doesn't exist anymore.

Re:In the immortal words of everyone

[19thNervousBreakdown]

*click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click*

God, I'm so glad I've got my own place now. Two of my previous roommates played Diablo II, and it's easily the most fucking annoying thing on the planet to listen to. Then you go look at it to see if maybe there's some depth there to explain why they're playing. Nope! Click click click. Then, you try it out to see if maybe there's something not apparent just watching over their shoulder. After all, they've been playing it all day every day for the past month, must be something Nope! Click click click click click.

*click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click*

So... DRM laden constant-connection bullshit?

[Rogerborg]

What reading are we getting from the Rape-Your-Customers-O-Meter?

Re:So... DRM laden constant-connection bullshit?

[MadKeithV]

What reading are we getting from the Rape-Your-Customers-O-Meter?

The needle seems to be pegged on "incessant whining but still a roaring success".

Re:So... DRM laden constant-connection bullshit?

[Xocet_00]

If the production is anything like the beta, it's even worse than you think. Yes, you have to be constantly connected and you sign in with your Battlenet account. This has obvious disadvantages, but it has the advantage of carrying your characters and settings around with you when you switch systems. I don't mind this so much. What really eats me is the fact that not only do you have to be connected to play, your actions in the game are communicated to and from the server. In other words, every time you press a button, there's a transaction with the server, just like in World of Warcraft. So unlike Starcraft where you could connect on any old shitty connection and then play single player just fine, in Diablo III you will lag even in single player if your connection is poor. It's been a huge problem for me during the beta. It's possible there's something that I don't understand about how to set up my game. Maybe I can avoid this somehow. But if you log in and hit "Start Game" on whatever character while your connection is poor, you'll find the game pretty much unplayable.

Re:So... DRM laden constant-connection bullshit?

[Iniamyen]

I would hope what you are experiencing is not a product of that communication. It would be trivial to fix via some type of buffer (computer science 101.) I doubt Blizzard is that inept.

Re:So... DRM laden constant-connection bullshit?

[forkfail]

Buffering does not make lag go away. It can smooth video by effectively increasing lag (storing up enough video/audio in advance that when it slows down, there's enough on the client side to play), but it cannot make transmission faster.

(So, back to CS 101 with you).

In any case, I can kind of see the the DRM needs by Blizard for logins to play. But the whole client server model for single player pretty much sucks and is unnecessary. Although, with their real money auction house, I guess they have to be extra careful about possible hacks and stuff. In fact, now that I think about it, this constant connection requirement may well be an artifact of monetizing all the loot.

Re:So... DRM laden constant-connection bullshit?

[forkfail]

Not just DRM.

They need the constant connection to ensure that no one applies hax that would allow them to flood the real money AH.

Remember, ActaVision is using the Blizzard name to normalize people's thinking about real money for gear in games like this. They may not be taking a cut this time - but this opens the door for all future games to have real money for gear all the time.

Re:So... DRM laden constant-connection bullshit?

[demonbug]

What reading are we getting from the Rape-Your-Customers-O-Meter?

It's considered a hack, and will get your account banned even if you only use it in single player.

You can get a Meter-Of-Blizzard's-Godliness for only $19.99 at the auction house, though.

Re:So... DRM laden constant-connection bullshit?

[Anonymous Coward]

'artifact of monetizing all the loot'

A really pessimistic way of saying 'ensuring that the duping problems of the previous games do not occur'

Re:So... DRM laden constant-connection bullshit?

[forkfail]

And duping in single player mode should matter because.....?

Unless, of course, it's not really single player mode, and there's money to be made (even indirectly) off of folks selling uber swords for real world money.

Re:So... DRM laden constant-connection bullshit?

[Kalriath]

They may not be taking a cut this time - but this opens the door for all future games to have real money for gear all the time.

Yes they are.

Re:So... DRM laden constant-connection bullshit?

[Anonymous Coward]

I own SEVERAL copies of D2 for LAN play. With this model I would purchase at most one. The internet lag is probably a deal killer for me.

Played the beta... going to pass..

[HerculesMO]

It's a good game, runs well, it's fun in spurts, but honestly I just didn't see myself enjoying it for a long time. I guess my tastes have changed in the 11 years I've been waiting for it...

Re:Played the beta... going to pass..

[DJRumpy]

More likely that you simply are one of the original fans that helped make Blizzard great, and that company no longer exists. This game was NOT designed for you unfortunately. I count myself in that boat as well. They now build for the lowest common denominator (say each of those words slowly with extra emphasis on the first two and it makes perfect sense).

They've stripped out any thought, removed any skill structure, made all of the decisions for you, either through laziness and their inability to balance with those pieces intact, or they simply thought this is what people wanted. They removed LAN plan for their newest DRM Scheme..er.. I mean 'customer experience' value, and hope to see you spending much hard earned cash to remove the need to actually play the game.

I know I can't wait... (insert maniacal Pee-Wee laugh here...)

Re:Played the beta... going to pass..

[Anonymous Coward]

More likely that you simply are one of the original fans that helped make Blizzard great, and that company no longer exists.

Nah, the company still exists. You just had the wrong idea/expectation of them (or what most companies do)

See, companies only have loyalty to their "customers". They don't actually have a loyalty to *you* specifically.

In 11 years, their "customers" have gone from you, to the people who are 11 years younger than you (and I).

These people (who are 11 years younger than you and I) do not value LAN support as much as you do
These people would have no skill and are lazy in your eyes
These people actually think having a friends list and frills like medals and achievements tied to a single online profile is great for "customer experience", and the concept of DRM is probably beyond them.

You may think they're total idiots for liking any of these stuff, but that's Bliz's "customer" now.

Do you remember a time when you bought/liked something, but your parents or grandparents think there's something wrong with you to spend money on it?

Welcome to their side.

Re:Played the beta... going to pass..

[ildon]

Bingo. You nailed it for the Slashdot crowd.

Re:In the immortal words of everyone

[UnknowingFool]

I feel a great disturbance in the force. It's as if a million mice cried out in agony and were silenced.

Re:Console version

[Quiet_Desperation]

You never know. I actually enjoyed Torchlight more on the XBox than on the PC.

Torchlight 2

[amaupin]

Torchlight 1 scratched my Diablo itch in such a perfectly and satisfactory way that I now find myself looking forward to its sequel more than Diablo 3. And I'm not the only one. I doubt the makers of Torchlight will require me to have a constant internet connection just to play a single player, offline game.

Re:Torchlight 2

[DaveyJJ]

This. Truth. It was hard to find a bigger DII/LoD fan than myself ... kept the games (and played them) on my hard drive longer than any other title I've ever owned. Now? Couldn't care less for D3 at this point and anxiously await Torchlight II and it's non-DRMed goodness. Buying two copies of T2 to play locally, and still will have $ left over from the price of D3, I'm sure.

Re:Torchlight 2

[DamnRogue]

I know it's cool to like small development houses, but I really don't understand the massive love for Torchlight. It was a cute game with a decent concept. The skill system, however, which is absolutely fundamental to ARPGs, was generally lackluster and without any depth or "wow" factor. Itemization was SO random that it became a massive headache just to sort through the hordes of affixes to find out what was good and what wasn't.

Torchlight was a not-bad-enough game that I'll give them a second chance on the sequel, but it certainly wasn't a great game and not a patch on any installment in the Diablo series.

Re:Torchlight 2

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt the makers of Torchlight will require me to have a constant internet connection just to play a single player, offline game.

I could have said the same thing about Blizzard 10 years ago.

Re:Torchlight 2

[redbeardcanada]

For me it is two factors:
1) I can pick this up and play it (Xbox version) for 20-30 min at a time and have fun,
2) Was $10 to download.

Yeah, it may not be Diablo, but just like finding other things to read whil waiting for the next GRRM Game of Thrones novel, it fills a void.

Re:Torchlight 2

[ildon]

It was a pretty amazing game for a 12 month dev cycle, and I think if they had gone for a full production cycle instead of the accelerated one, they could have ironed out those balance issues through iteration. In fact, those very kinds of polish/balance issues are precisely why Diablo 3 was in a semi-finished beta state for nearly 2 years.

Personally, I could not even finish Torchlight because of the lack of fun in the skills and the poorly developed item system. Hopefully all that extra time spent polishing Diablo 3 will pay off.

Re:Torchlight 2

[geminidomino]

Buying two copies of T2 to play locally, and still will have $ left over from the price of D3, I'm sure.

Just about enough to buy a third copy, IIRC. :)

I just really hope Runic doesn't think the same way as those numbskull "OMG, If you don't release TL2 before D3, then you need to wait a few months!"

Every time I read that, I want to hit the poster on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper. Why should we have to wait because the Blizzroids got their shinies to distract them, dammit?!

Re:Torchlight 2

[Emetophobe]

Torchlight definitely wasn't as good as Diablo 1 or 2, but for their budget I think Runic Games did a good job. One big thing that I really enjoyed with Torchlight was the modding (something that Blizzard will never allow with Diablo 3). With Torchlight you could download new heroes, pets, items, quests and countless other enhancements. Torchlight 2 will also have mod support and you can use those mods in online co-op games (as long as everyone is using the same mods).

Also, the guys at Runic Games are pretty awesome. They're against DRM and don't care about piracy. I'll gladly support them in the future.

Not worth the wait

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone who waited over 10 years for this game, as D2 was my favorite game of all time, this is an extremely disappointing release. Even just visually, it looks like a cartoon, not the gritty diablo world. Too much compromising to make it like WoW. It seems they have forgotten what made D2 great, which is no surprise since there is probably no one left at blizzard that actually worked on D2.

Re:Console version

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't actually think about this until you mentioned it. I will definitely not be buying the PC version, but if there was a console version with local multiplayer I think I might purchase it. My wife and I burned through Dungeon Siege 3 within weeks of her getting it, and I'm always on the lookout for a good co-op game.

Re:In the immortal words of everyone

[mhajicek]

True until you figure out that you can click and hold until the enemy is dead. Helps with teleporters too since you don't lose target as long as you keep the button down.

At Long Last... The Buildup Is Over

[tunapez]

I will be happy to see the 'd3 release prediction' articles end. What a cluster-chuck...you would think they have been 'raising Cain' for the last 3...4....12.... years. I hope the impending, requisite articles by the many apologists and shills telling the suckers how good online solo play is for their ultimate gameplay experience will be entertaining, not just ubiquitous. Haven't playedSC2, will be reloading D2 for entertainment fix b/c I'm no their data whore 'John' and don't need another moocher BFF.
 
TLDR; 3 years is too much buildup for a release; enjoy your DRM while the servers are lit.

Re:At Long Last... The Buildup Is Over

[ildon]

Diablo 1 battle.net servers are still up 16 years later.

Re:At Long Last... The Buildup Is Over

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you a shill for Depression?

Re:In the immortal words of everyone

[Anonymous Coward]

My dad actually made me buy him a new mouse when D2 came out. Said I was going to kill the old one.

Also, captcha: offends

Too big to fail

[Anonymous Coward]

Ever since Blizzard merged with Activision they have become yet another previously successful company that have become infested with "professional businessmen" who are completely out of touch with their customers and only know how to balance a quarterly spreadsheet. So many studios out there who in the heyday were actually ran by the developers and gamers and made games that were fun. Then here come the MBAs and marketers and lawyers, they move in and shove the passionate developers in the closet and take over so they suck as much cash as they can out of the IP like leeches with no regards to the long term consequences.

I'm finding I have more fun playing new IPs from indie developers now.

Re:Too big to fail

[X0563511]

who are completely out of touch with their customers and only know how to balance a quarterly spreadsheet.

Rather, they only care about their short term gains, and thus only care about balancing their quarterly spreadsheets...

They are not stupid people per se. They just have different values from functional members of society.

Re:Too big to fail

[ildon]

If they were only interested in short term gains they would have released Diablo 3 two years ago. And they'd be on the second expansion pack and working on Diablo 4.

Gateway game.

[forkfail]

The biggest thing about this game I think is the pay real money for items AH.

If this is as big a success as I think it'll be, this'll open it up for a lot of real cash for items - and for mandatory pay to get the end game gear.

Re:In the immortal words of everyone

[FadedTimes]

You can hotkey abilities now and just mouse over your target. You also auto pick up gold now. I only click to move or interact with objects.

My Diablo II runs at 600 baud

[jabberw0k]

but the ribbons sure are cheap.

It isn't that hard to understand, dude.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you know *anything* about human behavior?

The brain has a reward feedback loop that keeps us alive. Games like Diablo 3 are very specifically and deliberately designed to create addiction by exploiting that feedback mechanism.

It doesn't work on everyone because of the method of delivery. Some people require a different conceptual framework for their feedback loop to kick in. They are still just as susceptible, but simply need a different medium (people get addicted to work, sports, gambling. etc.). Each person's behavior is just as confusing to any audience of people who have a different orientation for their feedback loop...but in essence it is the same for everyone (well, except those with malformed brains, of course).

Finally the Wife might play another game...

[lozo78]

She loved D2 and hasnt played a game since... So now maybe I can get some quiet game time without her yapping constantly about some random drama or cooking show...

This isn't the Blizzard you're looking for

[kungfugleek]

If I read that right, it sounds like they're actually rushing the game out the door!? Multi-player isn't ready, so instead of delaying another 3-6 months to get it just right, they're releasing it anyway. That would be unthinkable with the old (pre-WoW) Blizzard. But I think this is a different company, where a lot of the originally great designers and decision-makers have been replaced by people who are... less great.

Re:This isn't the Blizzard you're looking for

[forkfail]

Pandera, Pokemon, and a plethora of other bad decisions have pretty much killed WoW.

Gotta have those servers busy, or they're a liability, not an asset.

Blizzard stopped being Blizzard when ActaVision bought them. They are no longer at all the same company. ActaVision will milk the name for all it's worth, then toss aside the empty husk.

Re:This isn't the Blizzard you're looking for

[Yosho]

Multi-player isn't ready, so instead of delaying another 3-6 months to get it just right, they're releasing it anyway. That would be unthinkable with the old (pre-WoW) Blizzard.

They didn't say multi-player isn't ready, they said PvP isn't ready. Cooperative MP is ready, and that's really the big draw of the game anyway. PvP in D2 was a joke, anyway. Considering that they weren't originally planning on PvP in D3 at all, I don't think it's a big loss.

Re:This isn't the Blizzard you're looking for

[forkfail]

Actually, I liked single player mode for Diablo back in the day... that would have been the draw for me. /SadPanda

Re:This isn't the Blizzard you're looking for

[xhrit]

>Blizzard stopped being Blizzard when ActaVision bought them. They are no longer at all the same company.

That pretty much happens to every company once they are bought out and the leadership is replaced. That is why I laugh at the people who insist that D3 or GW2 are going to be great games... the reality is they are going to be nothing like the games they are named after.

Re:In the immortal words of everyone

[Buggz]

Yeah! Get some roomates who play StarCraft instead, that ought to get you som peace and quiet.

in fact

[Anonymous Coward]

diablo 2 was the last time i bought a game , and id buy 3 if they didn't do the online crap.

NO SALE here either.BACK to mucking with d2 and other games..
LET the rich dummies pay.

Re:in fact

[Anonymous Coward]

Yawn. Nobody cares.

Re:in fact

[Dal Platinum]

I think someone is fucking around with your caps lock. Be wary of intruders.

When it's done...

[space_jake]

See subject and mourn the loss of a once great company.

hmm 1/2 the stuff

[Torvac]

lets say half of diablo3 gets released May 15th. and the phrase "when its done ..." does not count if you start to strip unfinished stuff to reach a release.

Maybe break game sales record

[jweller13]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I suspect D3 is going to break sales records for any game.

Re:In the immortal words of everyone

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, you would hate League of Legends. :)

There goes my entire summer.

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate it when Blizzard ruins my life like this

So much time wasted...

[Anonymous Coward]

I "wasted" so much time on D2 LOD / hardcore only / ladder only... I wasn't "balla", only 90+ (I had several level 90 chars and one 91... Hardly "99 balla") but man, how much fun these days were !

Mooo!

I had a three computers setup where one "fire-only" fully stuffed with "+1 to fire skills" grand charms would give a 20 minutes or so fire enchant to my other chars and where the 3rd characters (a barbarian), would give a gigantic BO... Then it was either amazon for the lulz or a lightning-sorc to collect keys (to collect the organs and then open uber-tristram).

Or a funny one was to give that +fire enchant to a lvl 9 character in open games (lvl 9 IIRC was just enough to do PvP) and then watch him rape in PvP players much higher than him, not knowing that before he entered to play nasty a level 83 sorc gave the little dude an enchant.

And trading... How man. Was spending nearly as much time trading as I was playing.

And these MF runs... (no maphack and no bots for me but YMMV)

Oh the memories.

Is my life ruined again on May 15th?

Not worth supporting

[k8to]

Always-on DRM says that the customer is there to be controlled.
RMT auctions say the customer is there to be fleeced.

If you want to tell the games industry you like being treated like garbage, by all means buy Diablo 3.

Re:Not worth supporting

[Anonymous Coward]

You come across as not caring, yet you still join the discussion. See you in game :)

Re:In the immortal words of everyone

[Tukz]

This.
And more this.

People, you don't need to keep clicking, hold down the mouse button.

Always online for single player? Nope. Not buying.

[Anonymous Coward]

They demand I have to prove each and every time I play I'm not a pirate, they can KEEP their precious game and I'll find something to do where I'm not a proven felon except for a short while after bending over and letting them examine me thoroughly. But they'll whine about piracy.

Re:Console version

[Anonymous Coward]

If there is a console version (it is currently unconfirmed), it will most likely not have LAN play. One of the main reason they are putting it all online is so people don't get access to the core game code. If they did it at all, it would not be the same game. I can't imagine the market for console LAN play is very high. Have there even been any current-gen LAN-play console games?

Pre-Ordered On Amazon

[Wingfat]

got mine ordered now.. was waiting for the date, now that they gave one I placed the order (plus it is right next to my b-day, if they are close to the May 15th day)