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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.
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?
ACK
... but will it be as good as NetHack?
UnNetHack: NetHack Improved!
yes
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.
Of course.
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
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?
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.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Old news is old.
How is "single player" not the target market of Diablo?
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
Yes you will have to be online all the time, even when going solo. This is my biggest complaint about this game so far.
I'm going to trick you into using Gamemaker one of these days...
Good for you? Since Starcraft was a smashing success despite the whiners goes to show how little Blizzard will care.
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.
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.
Please note: nowhere in the press release does it say may 15th 2012. :)
Just saying
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.
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.
*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*
<xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
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...
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
I feel a great disturbance in the force. It's as if a million mice cried out in agony and were silenced.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
You never know. I actually enjoyed Torchlight more on the XBox than on the PC.
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".
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.
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.
Newsflash: Activision bought blizzard. The company focus has changed. MONEY is now the reason to make new games, not FUN.
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.
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.
Sarcrafts real success will be measured by the zerg campaigns release. SC2 had a decade of anticipation and rode the coattails of SCt
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.
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.
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.
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
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.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
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.
Check your premises.
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.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
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.
Check your premises.
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.
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
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.
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.
Looking for a job?
Want your resume written professionally?
DON'T USE TUNAREZ!!!
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.
Much the same can be said of a post starting with ProTIP:
Adding "Thanks for playing" falls into the same category.
but the ribbons sure are cheap.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yeah! Get some roomates who play StarCraft instead, that ought to get you som peace and quiet.
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.
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.
See subject and mourn the loss of a once great company.
This is true. 'Herp' must also be included for full edgy coolness.
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.
What is Sarcraft? What does it have to do with Star Control 2? What is SCt?
Your post is invalid.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
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.
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.
Check your premises.
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.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
-
Most of us have never even heard of Star Control. Stop being so fucking obtuse.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
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.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
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.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
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.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
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.
-josh
This.
And more this.
People, you don't need to keep clicking, hold down the mouse button.
- Don't do what I do, it's probably not healthy nor safe. -
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