For anyone who doesn't want to read the post and just know the question. It is...
Where did Diablo II's interface stylings originate from? What ancestral game (if any) preceded Diablo II to cause this form of interface/gameplay style to be used? (if you're not going to read the post, then I'll add, we're talking "precisely" almost down to window positioning and screen percentage measurement, not, "you shoot fireballs in one game, and you shoot fireballs in the other")
Reasoning for this Thread:
I was having a conversation with a friend about how similar Aion was to WoW, in terms of interface/execution. The interface is extremely similar, game play, down to holding down left and right clickers was the same. Character management and inventory system also shared extreme similarities. Even their Flight Path type of interface used grossly the same interface. (same modal box size, same layout, same positioning of elements, list style, etcetera) This all excludes the combat "chain" system which is present in the game, along with the flying, and character customization are really some of the only unique aspects. (then again, if you didn't put something unique in the game it'd be almost a clone, and not worthy of developing)
He argued that, it wasn't similar, just that every single similarity the interface, controls, and UI elements shared to WoW were simply, "standard." I later researched in to previous MMO's such as Matrix Online, Earth and Beyond, Everquest, Ragnarok Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Eve Online, Neverwinter Nights, etcetera, and I found the definition of "standard" seemed to be relative, being that all these games had interfaces fairly different from WoW's by the same standards.
The only games that really shared similarities that were so strong were Everquest, WoW, and Aion.
Everquest I can't account for why, is so similar to WoW. WoW's interface is simply channeled mostly from Diablo II's, and Aion, well, Aion just seemed to copy the biggest most successful MMO in history, (WoW) which is a smart move right? The best business model for them would be to take que's from the most successful competitor.
That question leads me to this, if WoW's ancestral interface came primarily from Diablo II, and Aion's from WoW. What came before Diablo II that championed the same style of interface?
Loose definition of this interface style:
A singular Move/Action bar lined up horizontally at the bottom of the screen.
Square action icons within a frame. (seems mundane, but this didn't HAVE to be designed like this)
Character management system with imagery of the character in the center, and slots for equipment on or around the characters' persons.
Square/Grided inventory management system. (again, doesn't seem very special, but think about it, they could've chosen a plain 'list' like Final Fantasy or some other form of management)
Possibly any other similarities you can see.
It's also staunchly amazing how the games that seemed to share the greatest similarities to Diablo II's interface also ended up being the most successful amongst their competition.
Anyone see a pattern, in the fact that character customization and equipments appear on the "right" side of the screen in Aion, WoW, and Diablo II, and moves/build customization appears on the "left" side? Who started that trend? Because it seems to be almost a brainwash by developers to mysteriously all do the exact same thing. I've yet to see a developer, that didn't follow that pattern. (again, a sign of influence or unconscious inspiration by a predecessor)
Also can anyone clarify why Everquest and WoW's interface seem to be very similar to each other and Diablo II's when every other MMO on the market didn't seem to go the same route as them when they were released?
Where did Diablo II's interface stylings originate from? What ancestral game (if any) preceded Diablo II to cause this form of interface/gameplay style to be used?
Diablo 1, obviously. Although it seems to me that Diablo 2 also took some ques from Revenant, which is a bit of a Diablo 1 clone of itself.
@ Maximusje:
You mean to say "turn-based", not "turned-base". A turned base would a baseball base that was turned around or something. And similarly, you meant to say ARPG, not RPG. Obviously Diablo wasn't the first RPG, that is simply rediculous. Other than that, you are right.
Thats the first thing I thought of too, went right to revenasnt being a close match with diablo.
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A better question os what did diablo 1 rip off of lol....and I think the actual game formula seems to be derived and inspired from zelda and gauntlet....I could be wrong tho....
EDIT: shit you meant the interface lol....I have no idea where the basic design idea for the UI came from....good question tho
I wouldn't necessarily know, as I haven't really played any early rpgs, but I believe that they evolved as follows:
D&D->CRPGs that used text based graphics -> isometric rpgs -> Diablo (which was originally turn-based) -> Diablo 2. Diablo 3 is based off of Diablo 2 and WoW.
Everquest I can't account for why, is so similar to WoW. WoW's interface is simply channeled mostly from Diablo II's, and Aion, well, Aion just seemed to copy the biggest most successful MMO in history, (WoW) which is a smart move right? The best business model for them would be to take que's from the most successful competitor.
However, wasn't WoW based off of Everquest? Because at least in terms of game play, they appear to be similar, and the GUI also looks more or less similar. I'm not really sure. However, WoW's interface was not based off of Diablo 2. I really cannot see any similarities, other than the Inventory (which is common for most RPGs), and maybe the talent/skill tree, which isn't very original either. And the action bar used in WoW is not at all similar to anything used in Diablo 2. Diablo 3 maybe, but that's just because they copied it from WoW... So I don't really see what you meant about WoW evolving from Diablo 2.
I am not really 100% sure of that but I started my RPG gaming from text games like the Ultima series and D&D as mentioned above which later became PC adaptations with titles like The Dark Queen of Krynn or Pool of Radiance. They were the first isometric RPG games. Of course I agree that Diablo is not an RPG.
Look at this screenshot of Pool of Radiance - EGA graphics (16 colours pallet)
haha omg I remember my older friends playing all those types of games....there were dragonlance ones like it to right? I think it was DL they played that was similar to that
The only games that really shared similarities that were so strong were Everquest, WoW, and Aion.
Everquest I can't account for why, is so similar to WoW. WoW's interface is simply channeled mostly from Diablo II's, and Aion, well, Aion just seemed to copy the biggest most successful MMO in history, (WoW) which is a smart move right? The best business model for them would be to take que's from the most successful competitor.
WoW is based off EverQuest, since that was one of the first big proper MMORPG's out there, and I still think EQ (and EQII) is much better than WoW. I played EQII recently and WoW is just so ridiculously dumbed down and simplified in comparison... >_<
I don't think Diablo II ripped off anyone in the sense that it is a game based on killing hordes of monsters. Furthermore it is an extremely item based, which in my opinion made it extremely special. I have played a few other RPG's like soulstone but it has never given me the same satisfaction as d2 lod. If anything, other RPG's like d&d and all that have ripped off diablo, but the dark atmosphere, gameplay as well as storyline cannot be made better in other RPGs...IMO.
Is D1 so disregarded nowadays that ppl can't even connect it to D2?!
D2's interface was obviously based off of D1s.
haha yeah thats sad but true.....but I guess a better question is where then did the idea or inspiration for D1's interface come from....someone here has to have some idea...
Well D1 came out in 96, meaning development for it was at least two years or so before that. So than what game in the rpg genre (we will call it) was popular around the mid to early 90's? PC games were'nt as popular then as they are now so of the few that were out then, I doubt any had a large enough audience to interest Blizzard into copying any ideas from them.
What about consoles....SNES, and then PS1 a little bit later on, were the standards then. Though, I can't think of any rpg type games on those systems that used the same isometric bird's eye view that D2 uses. The 'Strike' games (Airstrike, Urbanstrike, etc.) as I recall used a similar viewpoint, but were 'action' genred games, with interfaces that were nothing like what would be used in these types of games.
Afaik, the D1 interface was pioneered during D1s development, and than later on passed down to D2 with a few tweaks here and there.
Darkstone for PSX. 26 July 1999. Diablo 2 was released a year later. June 29, 2000. Similar interface, inventory, classes, weapon improvement/enchantment, similar skill tree, and randomly generated maps. I'm willing to bet someone from Blizzard turned on their original team. Either that or it just happened that multiple people were developing similar games. It definitely wasn't copied from WoW. That was released November 23rd 2004.
Where did Diablo II's interface stylings originate from? What ancestral game (if any) preceded Diablo II to cause this form of interface/gameplay style to be used? (if you're not going to read the post, then I'll add, we're talking "precisely" almost down to window positioning and screen percentage measurement, not, "you shoot fireballs in one game, and you shoot fireballs in the other")
Reasoning for this Thread:
I was having a conversation with a friend about how similar Aion was to WoW, in terms of interface/execution. The interface is extremely similar, game play, down to holding down left and right clickers was the same. Character management and inventory system also shared extreme similarities. Even their Flight Path type of interface used grossly the same interface. (same modal box size, same layout, same positioning of elements, list style, etcetera) This all excludes the combat "chain" system which is present in the game, along with the flying, and character customization are really some of the only unique aspects. (then again, if you didn't put something unique in the game it'd be almost a clone, and not worthy of developing)
He argued that, it wasn't similar, just that every single similarity the interface, controls, and UI elements shared to WoW were simply, "standard." I later researched in to previous MMO's such as Matrix Online, Earth and Beyond, Everquest, Ragnarok Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Eve Online, Neverwinter Nights, etcetera, and I found the definition of "standard" seemed to be relative, being that all these games had interfaces fairly different from WoW's by the same standards.
The only games that really shared similarities that were so strong were Everquest, WoW, and Aion.
Everquest I can't account for why, is so similar to WoW. WoW's interface is simply channeled mostly from Diablo II's, and Aion, well, Aion just seemed to copy the biggest most successful MMO in history, (WoW) which is a smart move right? The best business model for them would be to take que's from the most successful competitor.
That question leads me to this, if WoW's ancestral interface came primarily from Diablo II, and Aion's from WoW. What came before Diablo II that championed the same style of interface?
Loose definition of this interface style:
A singular Move/Action bar lined up horizontally at the bottom of the screen.
Square action icons within a frame. (seems mundane, but this didn't HAVE to be designed like this)
Character management system with imagery of the character in the center, and slots for equipment on or around the characters' persons.
Square/Grided inventory management system. (again, doesn't seem very special, but think about it, they could've chosen a plain 'list' like Final Fantasy or some other form of management)
Possibly any other similarities you can see.
It's also staunchly amazing how the games that seemed to share the greatest similarities to Diablo II's interface also ended up being the most successful amongst their competition.
Anyone see a pattern, in the fact that character customization and equipments appear on the "right" side of the screen in Aion, WoW, and Diablo II, and moves/build customization appears on the "left" side? Who started that trend? Because it seems to be almost a brainwash by developers to mysteriously all do the exact same thing. I've yet to see a developer, that didn't follow that pattern. (again, a sign of influence or unconscious inspiration by a predecessor)
Also can anyone clarify why Everquest and WoW's interface seem to be very similar to each other and Diablo II's when every other MMO on the market didn't seem to go the same route as them when they were released?
hummm...Diablo 1...? ... ...
Thats the first thing I thought of too, went right to revenasnt being a close match with diablo.
EDIT: shit you meant the interface lol....I have no idea where the basic design idea for the UI came from....good question tho
DII was based off D1. LOL
D&D->CRPGs that used text based graphics -> isometric rpgs -> Diablo (which was originally turn-based) -> Diablo 2. Diablo 3 is based off of Diablo 2 and WoW.
However, wasn't WoW based off of Everquest? Because at least in terms of game play, they appear to be similar, and the GUI also looks more or less similar. I'm not really sure. However, WoW's interface was not based off of Diablo 2. I really cannot see any similarities, other than the Inventory (which is common for most RPGs), and maybe the talent/skill tree, which isn't very original either. And the action bar used in WoW is not at all similar to anything used in Diablo 2. Diablo 3 maybe, but that's just because they copied it from WoW... So I don't really see what you meant about WoW evolving from Diablo 2.
haha omg I remember my older friends playing all those types of games....there were dragonlance ones like it to right? I think it was DL they played that was similar to that
Those games are way before my time
D2's interface was obviously based off of D1s.
Battle not with monsters lest you become one.
haha yeah thats sad but true.....but I guess a better question is where then did the idea or inspiration for D1's interface come from....someone here has to have some idea...
What about consoles....SNES, and then PS1 a little bit later on, were the standards then. Though, I can't think of any rpg type games on those systems that used the same isometric bird's eye view that D2 uses. The 'Strike' games (Airstrike, Urbanstrike, etc.) as I recall used a similar viewpoint, but were 'action' genred games, with interfaces that were nothing like what would be used in these types of games.
Afaik, the D1 interface was pioneered during D1s development, and than later on passed down to D2 with a few tweaks here and there.
Darkstone for PSX. 26 July 1999. Diablo 2 was released a year later. June 29, 2000. Similar interface, inventory, classes, weapon improvement/enchantment, similar skill tree, and randomly generated maps. I'm willing to bet someone from Blizzard turned on their original team. Either that or it just happened that multiple people were developing similar games. It definitely wasn't copied from WoW. That was released November 23rd 2004.