Nothing new was announced at DreamHack.

We had a roundtable discussion at the event with a nice group of players who all signed up for it. It was mostly an informal face to face talk about the state of the game and its future.

People there shared their opinions on what they think is fun or less fun to do in the game, including what their goals typically are when they log in. We also talked about all the content that had been added since release, and whether or not that content has improved the game. We of course also talked about potential future changes or improvements that are wanted or needed the most.

The coolest thing about the discussion was that we had a lot of different types of players there, all with different opinions and interests, which helped balance the discussion quite well I think. There were a couple of guys in there who were very hardcore theorycrafters and min-maxers, some guys there were primarily interested is PvP, some people were very into lore and story, others who prefer a more relaxed game-play while hacking and slashing through hordes of mobs, we saw solo players as well as group players, and of course there were those with heavy interest in economy and crafting.

You seemed to have missed a couple of, rather large, demographics. The botters and exploiters.

Are you seriously saying that you would like us to listen to those?

Im impressed with blizzards willingness to learn from the players. This is nice to see.

Nothing beats talking to people in person when discussing things, I guess because it is easier to explain things and avoid misunderstandings when talking face to face. The primary purpose of our roundtable discussion is indeed to listen to what players have to say, and we are grateful for all the feedback we get in these discussions :-)

We of course also talked about potential future changes or
improvements that are wanted or needed the most.

Can you elaborate on that one a little bit, please?

Basically we asked everyone present at the discussion to name the one thing they would like to see changed or added to the game the most. This of course lead to quite a bit of discussion back and forth as everyone had different opinions on this, but here are some of the things that people wanted:

• Some wanted PvP as soon as possible, any kind of PvP.
• Some wanted us to do more things and mini-games like the Infernal Machine.
• Some wanted more randomness in dungeons and the world.
• Some wanted improved search mechanisms in the AH interface to make it easier to search and compare gear.
• Some wanted crafting to be improved to make it more worthwhile, and example was to include unique personal gear akin to the Hellfire Ring.
• Some wanted more hardcore challenges that would somehow reward them with bragging rights.

you really should have streamed or filmed this discussion. id really like to hear it.

Perhaps that is something we could do in the future, but it is important to emphasise that these discussions are not Q&A panels. Nothing is announced or promised in these roundtable discussions, and it is the players who do the most of the talking. Basically the idea of these discussions is similar to that of our forums, a place where players can come together and discuss our games and where we can ask questions when needed and gather player feedback :-)

I know the topic of bots is one of great import and frustration, but unfortunately there is very little I can say on this particular topic. What I can say is that we do not consider them legitimate players, and therefore we have no intention to treat them as such.

28/11/2012 12:34Posted by Rhye

Yes. To find out how they do the things they do, how they still are able to do what they do and maybe figure out how to end it.

To end it is easier said than done, unfortunately these things tend to be more of an ongoing cat and mouse game. That being said, we are constantly researching them and what they do.

28/11/2012 12:35Posted by Diablo

If you're not doing anything against them, maybe you should start listen to them, else they will end up becomming your only custommers.

That is a rather bleak viewpoint on the situation, but I can understand why you feel this way. We are not ignoring the issue, in fact we are constantly fighting them and countering them whenever we are able, but as mentioned before I am not at liberty to share more specifics on this. Again, it is an ongoing cat and mouse game and it is not a simple issue to resolve.

Many of the best hackers go on to become security experts and enforcers. They are, in many cases, respected people with legitimate points to prove - not just "gold farmers" or people out to ruin everyone else's day.

Very true, many hackers do go legitimate, in fact this has been the case for many years now. But despite their experience and expertise, these hackers who did become security experts and enforcers still haven't been able to stop hacking and other types of security breaches despite the fact that so many of them have been hired and are being listened to by big companies all over the world.

New hackers arrive on the scene as soon as another one leaves it, and new hacks appear all the time as soon as another has been dealt with... and they are becoming ever more sophisticated on top of that. Security vs. hackers is an ever-going cat and mouse game, which is unfortunately also the case when it comes to online games and bots.

What you need to appreciate is that your community want to see something being done. That requires communication. At the moment, I, as a member of the community, am not convinced you are doing enough because you are simply not being vocal about it. Remember, no comment is a comment in itself, and is sometimes the most damaging.

I can totally appreciate what you are saying here, but sometimes it is just not that simple. Sometimes it is a matter of choosing the lesser evil... Basically the more information we share about what we are doing, the easier we are making it for delinquents and other wrongdoers to counter our efforts.

The lesser evil has been chosen, and as such all I can say is that this is an issue that we take very seriously, and that we have some extremely talented "security experts and enforcers" working constantly to combat this.

I really do hear what you are saying, and please know that I am not trying to dismiss your frustrations.

28/11/2012 14:04Posted by Time2Kill

You all should work out the kinks in the game before you even talk about other things.

Restricting all talk to a single issue until said issue has been resolved is not realistic nor practical... the discussion of other topics should not be forbidden because some are experiencing technical issues.

Did you talk to anyone who has stopped playing due to issues with the game? I think if you did not, the feedback you got may be slightly self-selecting.

All the people who signed up for the roundtable discussions were active players. Some of them had stopped playing a short while after release, but came back for Patch 1.0.4 and Patch 1.0.5 because they liked the Paragon system, the Monster Power system, and the Infernal Machine.

DreamHack is a large event however, so I had discussions with a lot of people outside of the roundtable discussions as well. Throughout the event, I talked to a lot of players as well as ex-players.

The players gave us a lot of great feedback on what they think we did right and what we did wrong with Diablo III, and they also shared a lot of thoughts and opinion on things they feel could improve the game.

The ex-players of course gave us a lot of solid feedback as well, mostly they were telling us why they no longer play Diablo III. There were many different reasons why depending on each person I talked to, but almost of all of them provided suggestions on what they feel must be changed, improved, or added to the game for them to start playing again.

29/11/2012 09:59Posted by psyXakiasIII

And as a classic gamer... feel obliged to ask with all that feedback what are the Devs plans and when to expect new updates?

I'm afraid I have no new information I can share with you on this right now, but keep an eye out on our blogs for future updates. I believe there should be something interesting posted there soon :-)