A Message From Jay
Jay has posted on the official forums apologizing for a comment posted on facebook a few days ago. However some interesting thoughts behind where Diablo III is and where it is going can be found in this post. Three interesting parts are highlighted below, but you should read the full thing for yourself to get the most information out of it!
"The Auction House can short circuit the natural pace of item drops, making the game feel less rewarding for some players. This is a problem we recognize. At this point we're not sure of the exact way to fix it, but we’re discussing it constantly, and we believe it's a problem we can overcome."
" Later in the development of Diablo II, the 'players 8' command -- which let people set monster difficulty -- was added to address this issue, and we're considering something similar for the next major Diablo III patch to allow players to make up their own minds about how hard or how easy is right for them."
[Regarding end-game and the item hunt] "I don't think there’s a silver-bullet solution to this problem, but I do think we can make this aspect of the game better, and as such we're planning more than just PvP for the next major patch."
As many of you probably know, I recently made a comment on Facebook about Dave Brevik. I want to make it clear that I am very sorry for what I said. I have higher expectations for myself than to express my feelings in such a rash way and disrespect a fellow developer like Dave, someone who deserves to be treated with greater respect.
What I said was expressed out of anger, and in defense of my team and the game. People can say what they want about me, but I don't take lightly when they disparage the commitment and passion of the Diablo III team. Dave is awesome. In Diablo and Diablo II, he made two of the games that have most affected me as a developer. I respect his vision for Diablo, but just like he said in his interview, the Diablo III team must drive a vision for the game that is true to us. We believe in Diablo and have stuck by it through years of hard development to make it a reality.
The foundation of the Diablo team was built from the remnants of Blizzard North: Our lead programmer, who built the basis of the Diablo III engine while at Blizzard North; our lead tech artist, who drove much of the combat visuals, FX, and skill direction of our classes and is one of the most avid Diablo II players you can find; our lead concept artist, who helped establish the core look of the game; Wyatt Cheng, our senior technical game designer, who writes many of our blogs and works tirelessly on the live game. All these people and many others made the commitment to Diablo even after Blizzard North shut down. It was hard for me to see their contributions be diminished by someone they worked alongside, and even harder for me not to try to jump to their defense. I only wish I'd done so in a more professional manner.
Joining the Diablo team was a dream come true for me. In my house, the name Diablo was always spoken in hushed tones. It meant late nights that turned into early mornings, moments of pure adrenaline and pure joy. It meant countless conversations, debates, scouring websites for good builds, and more than one or two sick days. When Diablo II was released, I took a week off work and sent my wife out of state... and she was pregnant at the time! I played Diablo II with my dad during one of the most difficult times of his life, and the experience brought me closer to him, and I hope helped him through it. I joined the Diablo team because the idea of a world without more Diablo seemed like a pretty crappy world to me. I wasn't sure if I'd be good enough. I'm still not sure. But I felt I had to try.
Regardless of how I've done, my team has been more than good enough, and I'm proud of the game we made together. We believe it's a great game. But Diablo III has flaws. It is not perfect. Sales mean nothing if the game doesn’t live on in all of our hearts, and standing by our games is what Blizzard does. Patch 1.0.4 is a step in the right direction, but we have no illusions that our work is done.
Playing Diablo III needs to be a rewarding experience. The new legendaries are a big step in the right direction, as are tweaks to item drop rates. But I'm not convinced that we've gone far enough. If you don't have that great feeling of a good drop being right around the corner -- and the burst of excitement when it finally arrives -- then we haven't done our jobs right. Out of our concern to make sure that Diablo III would have longevity, we were overly cautious about how we handled item drops and affixes. If 1.0.4 hasn’t fixed that, you can be sure we'll continue to address it.
Part of the problem, however, is not just item drops, but the variety of things to do within the game. Many of you have stated that there needs to be more to the game than just the item hunt, and we agree completely. The Paragon system is a step in the right direction, giving meta-progress for your time in the game, but it does little to address the variety of activities you can do while playing. I don't think there’s a silver-bullet solution to this problem, but I do think we can make this aspect of the game better, and as such we're planning more than just PvP for the next major patch. Not trying to be coy, but we're still firming things up and will talk about this as soon as we can.
Difficulty has been a constant source of division when discussing the game. Some players believe Diablo has never been about crushing challenges, but more about efficiency and farming. Some players want a game that tests them to their limits. Neither player is wrong. As it stands, Diablo III simply does not provide the tools to allow players to scale the game challenge to something appropriate for them. We set Inferno as the high watermark and took a one-size-fits-all approach to game challenge. Later in the development of Diablo II, the 'players 8' command -- which let people set monster difficulty -- was added to address this issue, and we're considering something similar for the next major Diablo III patch to allow players to make up their own minds about how hard or how easy is right for them.
The Auction House has also proven to be a big challenge. It adds a lot of power for players to trade and acquire items. Getting a great Monk drop that you can trade for better gear for your Wizard is obviously a great benefit, but it does come with a downside. The Auction House can short circuit the natural pace of item drops, making the game feel less rewarding for some players. This is a problem we recognize. At this point we're not sure of the exact way to fix it, but we’re discussing it constantly, and we believe it's a problem we can overcome.
While these are some of the major issues with Diablo III, they aren't the only things we're looking at. On a daily basis we ask ourselves if the classes are satisfying to play, if rares and champions are fun to fight, if they’re tuned well relative to normal monsters. Can we make further improvements to social elements of the game? How can items be even better?
We made Diablo III because we believe in the Diablo games. We think the gameplay is awesome, the world is compelling, and it's the game we all wanted to play. Because we believe in it, we'll continue to stand by it and make it better. We are committed to making Diablo III the best Diablo game to date, and we hope you'll continue to help us do just that.
Saying that, I'd like to apologize to all of you, the players in our community. You deserve better than my reaction to Dave's comments. You deserve more honest communication about the game and what we're doing to make it a more awesome experience for us all. We care about Diablo very much, and appreciate your passion for it. Without you, we wouldn't be able to do this, and for that I can't thank you enough.
Paragon Levels and AWSOME LEGENARYS( just found my first one of the new patch and it was EPIC) are a GOOD step in the right direction, im so glad i have a reason to play D3 again!!!!!!!!
Did noone else notice that the announced more than PvP coming in 1.1.1.0.... it sounds like they are planning on adding more actual end game content -- and or actual gameplay!
After saying those words to Dave, the man who brought us our passion, you will never be widely accepted, Jay. Your PR excuses cannot hide your aggressive hateful nature.
he is merely a human, therefor even he has the right to every now and then blow of steam like he did. Nothing wrong with that and does not make you a ''hateful aggressive person''
Most of all it was on his PERSONAL facebook page FOR FUCKS SAKE!
I still remember post 2008 election posting a big ol "FUCK OBAMA"... on my facebook status....
Many of you have stated that there needs to be more to the game than just the item hunt, and we agree completely.
Sales mean nothing if the game doesn’t live on in all of our hearts, and standing by our games is what Blizzard does. Patch 1.0.4 is a step in the right direction, but we have no illusions that our work is done.
'players 8' command -- ... to allow players to make up their own minds about how hard or how easy is right for them.
^^
Everything we want to hear is being said. I really, really hope this follows through to actual implementation. It's been said before.
On a side note, the structure of this statement makes it incredibly clear how the PR liason helped craft this mission statement. It's pretty textbook. (Acknowledge mistake, supply defense, supply personal emotional background shifting the aggressor into a defender, address a desire to solve issues without locking into real answers, and finally, come full circle and repeat the apology and thematic statement) There's nothing wrong with this, everyone in a corporate or political setting does it. It's just funny that we've socially come far enough to see through the process :).
All in all, a needed communication. It wouldn't have sat right to let 1.0.4 sweep the incident under the rug. Thanks for talking to us and keep it going!
Did noone else notice that the announced more than PvP coming in 1.1.1.0.... it sounds like they are planning on adding more actual end game content -- and or actual gameplay!
After saying those words to Dave, the man who brought us our passion, you will never be widely accepted, Jay. Your PR excuses cannot hide your aggressive hateful nature.
he is merely a human, therefor even he has the right to every now and then blow of steam like he did. Nothing wrong with that and does not make you a ''hateful aggressive person''
Most of all it was on his PERSONAL facebook page FOR FUCKS SAKE!
I still remember post 2008 election posting a big ol "FUCK OBAMA"... on my facebook status....
Jay has bad aura. He works hard, but he's not a nice person. Same goes for Mike Morhaime.
I don't care if a person is nice or not when it comes to delivering a product. He isn't customer service... his job isn't to to be nice. Would you want the president of the united states to "be a nice person" ? Nothing would get none and we'd have an infinite defecit....
I do think Blizzard wants to keep Diablo alive, they don't want the game to feel like its bad and they want the franchise to continue so they'll continue to patch and work on it. Don't expect WoW typed patches, they'll probably be months and months apart but they'll be there.
I think Jay is a real sensible person. After working hard on Diablo 3, he and his team has been swarmed by harsh criticism (valid or not it's not my point). They started working hard to deliver 1.0.3, and it didn't stop. Just a few days before the release of 1.0.4, Brevik did that interview and i think Jay couldn't take it anymore and vented some frustration.
Was it a good decision? Ofc not. Is it justifiable? I don't think so. He made a huge mistake as a human, and he will probably pay the price for a while. I feel sorry for him...
Well, if he's not a nice person he's proved that even angry people can accomplish something in life. After all he's been part of Blizzard since day 1 (or Silicon & Synapse as it were xD ).
Dave called it like it is and has customer feedback to back it up. Jay couldn't be a man about it and instead acted like a 13 year old. You don't ever think anyone is awesome and a loser at the same time. If he just said "fuck that" then I'd understand but he made a personal remark about Dave with his "loser" addition and for that he's not getting a pass.
After saying those words to Dave, the man who brought us our passion, you will never be widely accepted, Jay. Your PR excuses cannot hide your aggressive hateful nature.
That's RICH coming from this horribly rude, painfully childish, and pathetically immature community.
Dave called it like it is and has customer feedback to back it up. Jay couldn't be a man about it and instead acted like a 13 year old. You don't ever think anyone is awesome and a loser at the same time. If he just said "fuck that" then I'd understand but he made a personal remark about Dave with his "loser" addition and for that he's not getting a pass.
Should we dredge up people from this community's online comments and judge them the same way?
Because THAT would be far, FAR worse, don't ya think?
Dave called it like it is and has customer feedback to back it up. Jay couldn't be a man about it and instead acted like a 13 year old. You don't ever think anyone is awesome and a loser at the same time. If he just said "fuck that" then I'd understand but he made a personal remark about Dave with his "loser" addition and for that he's not getting a pass.
Should we dredge up people from this community's online comments and judge them the same way?
Because THAT would be far, FAR worse, don't ya think?
The community IS actually full of children (but not all, and you can certainly find plenty of adult comments that are respectful despite the generalization). Children are the largest demographic of gamers so, duh, most of them are going to be childish. Jay Wilson is obviously not a child but certainly acted like one. His facebook is going to be one of the very few ways to get a candid view of him and this is how he reveals himself when not behind PR like this letter. You don't get to be in a position of power like this where your position is owed to your customers when you can't handle yourself appropriately. There are plenty of Game Directors who don't have evidence of acting like this.
Sure he's allowed to say "fuck you" to someone. But if he's going to be dumb enough to say it to the creator of the franchise that gave him his fucking job, you better actually back your shit up (like Dave did). He didn't. Just a flippant statement like any kid would. Your job as a leader (and a Director is a leader of multiple leaders) is to set an example. When I get paid to do what he does and control huge franchises like that, you be sure to put me in my place if you catch me doing shit like that.
Well that's that. Good, out of the way. Love the talk about improving the game. They know, now they are actually being forthcoming in a way that isn't cryptic or distracting from the questions the community raises. I don't need to know every nuanced detail of their ongoing plans or dev meetings. Just stuff like this once in a while goes miles to keeping me interested in the game. 1.0.4 was a great step. I have found two legendaries already and with all the other tweaks and changes I am suddenly hooked in farming. Plus I can actually run through act 2 and some of 3 now. It feels like a natural difficulty hike while not being a brick wall. Paragon system is awesome. Love it. I cannot wait to see where this game is once the first expansion drops. It should be the game we waited all those years for.
Jay has bad aura. He works hard, but he's not a nice person. Same goes for Mike Morhaime.
Oh. Well. Now that I'm aware of his aura, I totally hate the guy too. Wait, that's not the aura that's indistinguishable from a fig-leaf for confirmation bias is it? Because those ones don't actually exist.
Jay has posted on the official forums apologizing for a comment posted on facebook a few days ago. However some interesting thoughts behind where Diablo III is and where it is going can be found in this post. Three interesting parts are highlighted below, but you should read the full thing for yourself to get the most information out of it!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
What I said was expressed out of anger, and in defense of my team and the game. People can say what they want about me, but I don't take lightly when they disparage the commitment and passion of the Diablo III team. Dave is awesome. In Diablo and Diablo II, he made two of the games that have most affected me as a developer. I respect his vision for Diablo, but just like he said in his interview, the Diablo III team must drive a vision for the game that is true to us. We believe in Diablo and have stuck by it through years of hard development to make it a reality.
The foundation of the Diablo team was built from the remnants of Blizzard North: Our lead programmer, who built the basis of the Diablo III engine while at Blizzard North; our lead tech artist, who drove much of the combat visuals, FX, and skill direction of our classes and is one of the most avid Diablo II players you can find; our lead concept artist, who helped establish the core look of the game; Wyatt Cheng, our senior technical game designer, who writes many of our blogs and works tirelessly on the live game. All these people and many others made the commitment to Diablo even after Blizzard North shut down. It was hard for me to see their contributions be diminished by someone they worked alongside, and even harder for me not to try to jump to their defense. I only wish I'd done so in a more professional manner.
Joining the Diablo team was a dream come true for me. In my house, the name Diablo was always spoken in hushed tones. It meant late nights that turned into early mornings, moments of pure adrenaline and pure joy. It meant countless conversations, debates, scouring websites for good builds, and more than one or two sick days. When Diablo II was released, I took a week off work and sent my wife out of state... and she was pregnant at the time! I played Diablo II with my dad during one of the most difficult times of his life, and the experience brought me closer to him, and I hope helped him through it. I joined the Diablo team because the idea of a world without more Diablo seemed like a pretty crappy world to me. I wasn't sure if I'd be good enough. I'm still not sure. But I felt I had to try.
Regardless of how I've done, my team has been more than good enough, and I'm proud of the game we made together. We believe it's a great game. But Diablo III has flaws. It is not perfect. Sales mean nothing if the game doesn’t live on in all of our hearts, and standing by our games is what Blizzard does. Patch 1.0.4 is a step in the right direction, but we have no illusions that our work is done.
Playing Diablo III needs to be a rewarding experience. The new legendaries are a big step in the right direction, as are tweaks to item drop rates. But I'm not convinced that we've gone far enough. If you don't have that great feeling of a good drop being right around the corner -- and the burst of excitement when it finally arrives -- then we haven't done our jobs right. Out of our concern to make sure that Diablo III would have longevity, we were overly cautious about how we handled item drops and affixes. If 1.0.4 hasn’t fixed that, you can be sure we'll continue to address it.
Part of the problem, however, is not just item drops, but the variety of things to do within the game. Many of you have stated that there needs to be more to the game than just the item hunt, and we agree completely. The Paragon system is a step in the right direction, giving meta-progress for your time in the game, but it does little to address the variety of activities you can do while playing. I don't think there’s a silver-bullet solution to this problem, but I do think we can make this aspect of the game better, and as such we're planning more than just PvP for the next major patch. Not trying to be coy, but we're still firming things up and will talk about this as soon as we can.
Difficulty has been a constant source of division when discussing the game. Some players believe Diablo has never been about crushing challenges, but more about efficiency and farming. Some players want a game that tests them to their limits. Neither player is wrong. As it stands, Diablo III simply does not provide the tools to allow players to scale the game challenge to something appropriate for them. We set Inferno as the high watermark and took a one-size-fits-all approach to game challenge. Later in the development of Diablo II, the 'players 8' command -- which let people set monster difficulty -- was added to address this issue, and we're considering something similar for the next major Diablo III patch to allow players to make up their own minds about how hard or how easy is right for them.
The Auction House has also proven to be a big challenge. It adds a lot of power for players to trade and acquire items. Getting a great Monk drop that you can trade for better gear for your Wizard is obviously a great benefit, but it does come with a downside. The Auction House can short circuit the natural pace of item drops, making the game feel less rewarding for some players. This is a problem we recognize. At this point we're not sure of the exact way to fix it, but we’re discussing it constantly, and we believe it's a problem we can overcome.
While these are some of the major issues with Diablo III, they aren't the only things we're looking at. On a daily basis we ask ourselves if the classes are satisfying to play, if rares and champions are fun to fight, if they’re tuned well relative to normal monsters. Can we make further improvements to social elements of the game? How can items be even better?
We made Diablo III because we believe in the Diablo games. We think the gameplay is awesome, the world is compelling, and it's the game we all wanted to play. Because we believe in it, we'll continue to stand by it and make it better. We are committed to making Diablo III the best Diablo game to date, and we hope you'll continue to help us do just that.
Saying that, I'd like to apologize to all of you, the players in our community. You deserve better than my reaction to Dave's comments. You deserve more honest communication about the game and what we're doing to make it a more awesome experience for us all. We care about Diablo very much, and appreciate your passion for it. Without you, we wouldn't be able to do this, and for that I can't thank you enough.
also, good decision to apologize instead of burrowing that comment +1
hehehe tanx
Most of all it was on his PERSONAL facebook page FOR FUCKS SAKE!
I still remember post 2008 election posting a big ol "FUCK OBAMA"... on my facebook status....
Sales mean nothing if the game doesn’t live on in all of our hearts, and standing by our games is what Blizzard does. Patch 1.0.4 is a step in the right direction, but we have no illusions that our work is done.
'players 8' command -- ... to allow players to make up their own minds about how hard or how easy is right for them.
^^
Everything we want to hear is being said. I really, really hope this follows through to actual implementation. It's been said before.
On a side note, the structure of this statement makes it incredibly clear how the PR liason helped craft this mission statement. It's pretty textbook. (Acknowledge mistake, supply defense, supply personal emotional background shifting the aggressor into a defender, address a desire to solve issues without locking into real answers, and finally, come full circle and repeat the apology and thematic statement) There's nothing wrong with this, everyone in a corporate or political setting does it. It's just funny that we've socially come far enough to see through the process :).
All in all, a needed communication. It wouldn't have sat right to let 1.0.4 sweep the incident under the rug. Thanks for talking to us and keep it going!
Did notice this. Very excited!
I don't care if a person is nice or not when it comes to delivering a product. He isn't customer service... his job isn't to to be nice. Would you want the president of the united states to "be a nice person" ? Nothing would get none and we'd have an infinite defecit....
It probably was private until some friend of a friend screen capped the thread....
Was it a good decision? Ofc not. Is it justifiable? I don't think so. He made a huge mistake as a human, and he will probably pay the price for a while. I feel sorry for him...
Well, if he's not a nice person he's proved that even angry people can accomplish something in life. After all he's been part of Blizzard since day 1 (or Silicon & Synapse as it were xD ).
That's RICH coming from this horribly rude, painfully childish, and pathetically immature community.
Really,
Gold star right there.
Should we dredge up people from this community's online comments and judge them the same way?
Because THAT would be far, FAR worse, don't ya think?
The community IS actually full of children (but not all, and you can certainly find plenty of adult comments that are respectful despite the generalization). Children are the largest demographic of gamers so, duh, most of them are going to be childish. Jay Wilson is obviously not a child but certainly acted like one. His facebook is going to be one of the very few ways to get a candid view of him and this is how he reveals himself when not behind PR like this letter. You don't get to be in a position of power like this where your position is owed to your customers when you can't handle yourself appropriately. There are plenty of Game Directors who don't have evidence of acting like this.
Sure he's allowed to say "fuck you" to someone. But if he's going to be dumb enough to say it to the creator of the franchise that gave him his fucking job, you better actually back your shit up (like Dave did). He didn't. Just a flippant statement like any kid would. Your job as a leader (and a Director is a leader of multiple leaders) is to set an example. When I get paid to do what he does and control huge franchises like that, you be sure to put me in my place if you catch me doing shit like that.
Oh. Well. Now that I'm aware of his aura, I totally hate the guy too. Wait, that's not the aura that's indistinguishable from a fig-leaf for confirmation bias is it? Because those ones don't actually exist.
I've seen customer feedback that backs up the following:
Diablo3 is awesome.
Diablo3 is terrible.
Diablo3 is average.
... and that's why appeals to authority are bad.