DiabloFans

I think I said this in another thread -- heck am I active lately? lol

Mike Morhaime will talk at the Activision Blizzard Q2 2011 Financial Results Conference Call on ... tada! ... August 3, 2011. Coincidence it is 2 days after the NDA lift? =)

From what little I remember of Blizzcon 2008-2009, the open world is not randomized. Only dungeons are randomized. I think that's what you are confused on with the term consistent world.

With the entire world being not randomized, you know where each land is to look something like Azeroth. No matter where you are or where you go, you know the land and where each zone is, or where to take the zeppelin or the boat.

In Diablo II, the open world was randomized too -- so it was kinda hard to remember where to go to find X or Y place or dungeon entrance.

Edit: I should mention the quests on the open world are randomized, not the environment itself.

Quote from Hirgie

Quote from Medievaldragon

The countdown is there because the press event and the August 1 NDA lift ain't a secret. It was posted by Blizzard on Twitter a few days ago.:
http://twitter.com/#!/Diablo/status/93035316167966721


12:01 AM PDT – Los Angeles (UTC-7)
1:01 AM MDT – Mountain USA (UTC-6)
2:01 AM CDT – Central USA (UTC-5)
3:01 AM EDT – New York City (UTC-4)
2:31 AM VET – Caracas (UTC-4:30)
4:01 AM ART – Buenos Aires (UTC-3 hours)
8:05 AM BST – London (UTC+1)
8:01 AM WEST – Lisbon (UTC+1 hour)
9:01 AM CEST – Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Rome, Belgrade (UTC+2)
10:01 AM IDT – Telaviv(UTC+3)
11:01 AM MSD – Moscow (UTC+4)
11:31 AM AFT – Kabul (UTC+4:30)
12:31 PM IST – Mumbai (UTC+5:30)
3:01 PM CST – Shangai, Beijing, Manila (UTC+8)
5:01 PM EST – Sydney (UTC+10)
7:01 PM NZST – Auckland, Wellington (UTC+12)

Ummm is it me or are there a lot of mistakes in this list?

I don't know. I simply checked them out at a timezone conversion site one by one.
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?year=2011&month=8&day=1&hour=0&min=5&sec=0&p1=137&p2=240

Looked them up on this map (for some of the locations that fall into those timezones)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Timezones2008_UTC-4.png

Another source for a mistake could be the summer time in some timezones changes, and the map might not show that. Or the conversion website doesn't count that.

Quote from lowl

Dont get too hyped up about this like in the incident with the 1m facebook likes.

I have to strongly disagree here. Not in a mean way. This is something to be VERY excited about. It's going to be controversial too. I see a schism coming, and the community taking sides. In time, things will get back to normal.

Oh right, this is reason to be hyped. Let the rumble begin in August 1.

This forum is gonna get very hot with the debates.

The countdown is there because the press event and the August 1 NDA lift ain't a secret. It was posted by Blizzard on Twitter a few days ago.:
http://twitter.com/#!/Diablo/status/93035316167966721

• 12:01 AM PDT – Los Angeles (UTC-7)
• 1:01 AM MDT – Mountain USA (UTC-6)
• 2:01 AM CDT – Central USA (UTC-5)
• 3:01 AM EDT – New York City (UTC-4)
• 2:31 AM VET – Caracas (UTC-4:30)
• 4:01 AM ART – Buenos Aires (UTC-3)
• 5:01 AM – Brazil (eastern) (UTC-2)
• 8:01 AM – Dublin (Ireland) (UTC+1)
• 9:01 AM CEST – London, Paris (UTC+2)
• 10:01 AM – Athens, Telaviv (UTC+3)
• 11:01 AM MSD – Moscow (UTC+4)
• 11:31 AM AFT – Kabul (UTC+4:30)
• 12:31 PM IST – Mumbai (UTC+5:30)
• 3:01 PM CST – Beijing (UTC+8)
• 5:01 PM EST – Sydney (UTC+10)
• 7:01 PM NZST – New Zealand (UTC+12)

Quote from Sharma

Quote from Medievaldragon

Quote from Shades_X

worst news that they could announce is a release date of 2012 or longer.

Don't worry. There will be plenty of topics to formulate an opinion for. Good and bad. Moderators will really need a raise.

Did you go to the press event?

I was invited, but due to IRL issues I couldn't attend. I sent a buddie on my behalf.

Quote from Shades_X

worst news that they could announce is a release date of 2012 or longer.

Don't worry. There will be plenty of topics to formulate an opinion for. Good and bad. Moderators will really need a raise.

Quote from CherubDown

So there ARE two books and 1 graphic novel. There's:

1. The unnamed history book connecting D2:LoD to D3 (20 years).

2. Book of Cain, which is a history book bringing you up-to-date.

3. Graphic novel about Tyreal's Sword.

Correct. Three Diablo products.

Quote from CherubDown

The book that article is referring to is the Book of Cain, which has for quite some time been a very confusing book in terms of what is actually in it.

I only mean to inform. I spent hours transcribing to my best considering english isn't my first language. During that task, I realized Chris Metzen was not talking about the Diablo III: Book of Cain when he was describing the Gallery Books line-up.

He mentioned Book of Cain at the end of Gallery books after he said he was wrapping up Gallery Books. Book of Cain is to be published by Insight Editions -- the company that published The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King.

Chris Metzen did in fact reveal an upcoming Diablo novel based on the first group who defeated Diablo the first time he invaded Sanctuary: The Horadrim and Deckard Cain.

It is fairly easy to miss it, and/or get confused with Diablo III: Book of Cain when you watch the SDCC 2011 panel video. I missed it the first time I watched confusing it with Book of Cain. However, on top of that he did mention a new novel from Gallery Books. It's untitled still, and no release date was provided.

SDCC 2011 was the first time this novel is mentioned. I have known about new Diablo novels by other authors, but nothing had been said officially until now.

Quote by Chris Metzen: "A couple of other things, the title is sketchy but we are doing a Diablo book that’s coming up umm that essentially — ugh how do I say this without getting in trouble, uh — very significant amount of time has passed between the last Diablo expansion (Diablo II: Lord of Destruction) and the game that we are currently working on (Diablo III), so the book that is coming out which features Deckard Cain is going to bridge the gap between Diablo games past and what we are currently developing and it’s coming really-really cool, pretty dark. It gets into the lore of the Horadrim, kinda the group that originally put Diablo down."

The Book of Cain is not a novel. It's not a strategy book nor a manual. It's an official Diablo lore source book or compendium written from the point of view of Deckard Cain as he catalogs his research on several aspects of the Sanctuary, the High Heavens and the Burning Hells.

Quote by Chris Metzen: "Chris Metzen: 13:04 – “Another really cool project we are working on with a brother named Flint Deeley[sp?] is a source book for the Diablo universe. It’s been many years since we published a Diablo game. There’s a lot of weird stuff floating out there in the internet and wikis and things like that, so we wanted the opportunity to really create a product — it’s essentially Deckard Cain’s journal … I think we are calling it the Book of Cain … where over the course of his adventures, his archaeology, and studying of the manuscripts over the years he’s put together a compendium of what makes the Diablo universe the Diablo universe.”

13:34 – “We are highlighting Heaven and Hell, the people that lives there, the realms of Heaven and Hell, the history of Sanctuary, the lands of Sanctuary, highlighting maybe the classes that have been playable in the games up to this point, notable people in history and pretty much trying to create a fairly tight compendium of all Diablo lore and you know one nice edition. So with any luck, that book will pop around whenever the game comes out and will be a very useful tool in getting back up on what’s up with the Diablo universe. So that’s something we are very very excited about and working on rapidly and intensely right now."

Quote from arsonal3

I need more lore now, why must they make us wait for more lore. On another note looking at release times it seems the Book if Cain is going to come out at launch. This comic is going to start after the game is out, most likely,I'm wondering if they are considering patched content to be related to this comic.

Transcript

Chris Metzen: "So with any luck, that book will pop around whenever the game comes out and will be a very useful tool in getting back up on what’s up with the Diablo universe. So that’s something we are very very excited about and working on rapidly and intensely right now."

Welcome. Added the transcript of the Gallery Books panel (new Diablo novel based on the Horadrim), and the transcript of Diablo III: Book of Cain (Insight Editions).

DIABLO: SWORD OF JUSTICE

DC Comics Hank Kanalz revealed a 5-issues comic book mini-series titled Diablo: Sword of Justice will be introduced in 2012.

Diablo: Sword of Justice is written by Erin Williams and artwork by Joseph Lacroix.

It features a kid named Jacob who has visions of a prophecy.

Everyone knows that Tyrael threw his sword toward the corrupted Worldstone to destroy it at the end of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Tyrael disappeared and he was never seen after this point. Tyrael’s sword will be calling to a human kid to serve as the avatar of Justice on Sanctuary. It has the ingredients of a great Diablo story. The story has Barbarians and elements of demonic corruption.

I will attempt to gather more details from Hank over the next weeks or months. Clearance might take a while: NDA.

DIABLO (UNTITLED NOVEL)

I started writing down a transcript of the panel, and now that I got to listen more carefully I just realized during the Gallery Books line-up talk the Diablo book Chris Metzen was talking about IS NOT Diablo III: Book of Cain. He was actually talking about a brand-new novel:

A couple of other things, the title is sketchy but we are doing a Diablo book that's coming up umm that essentially -- ugh how do I say this without getting in trouble, uh -- very significant amount of time has passed between the last Diablo expansion (Diablo II: Lord of Destruction) and the game that we are currently working on (Diablo III), so the book that is coming out which features Deckard Cain is going to bridge the gap between Diablo games past and what we are currently developing and it's coming really-really cool, pretty dark.

It gets into the lore of the Horadrim, kinda the group that originally put Diablo down.

Richard A. Knaak told me at New York Comic Con 2009 that there would be new Diablo novels by other authors other than himself. Seems we are finally going to see some of those novels (plural-- hmm).

DIABLO III: BOOK OF CAIN (Source Book)

Chris Metzen: 13:04 - "Another really cool project we are working on with a brother named Flint Deeley[sp?] is a source book for the Diablo universe. It's been many years since we published a Diablo game. There's a lot of weird stuff floating out there in the internet and wikis and things like that, so we wanted the opportunity to really create a product -- it's essentially Deckard Cain's journal ... I think we are calling it the Book of Cain ... where over the course of his adventures, his archaeology, and studying of the manuscripts over the years he's put together a compendium of what makes the Diablo universe the Diablo universe."

13:34 - "We are highlighting Heaven and Hell, the people that lives there, the realms of Heaven and Hell, the history of Sanctuary, the lands of Sanctuary, highlighting maybe the classes that have been playable in the games up to this point, notable people in history and pretty much trying to create a fairly tight compendium of all Diablo lore and you know one nice edition. So with any luck, that book will pop around whenever the game comes out and will be a very useful tool in getting back up on what's up with the Diablo universe. So that's something we are very very excited about and working on rapidly and intensely right now.

Hopefully. From time to time. If I see any Diablo licensed product, I will let people know.

I'm currently waiting for some juicy info on Book of Cain.

I got word Chris Metzen (Senior VP of Creative Design, Blizzard Entertainment) is leading a panel at San Diego Comic Con to unveil WoW, StarCraft and DIABLO-inspired licensed products.

Speculation-mode on ...

THURSDAY, JULY 21
1:00pm -2:00pm (Room 6BCF)

World of Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft Swag Show: Blizzard Entertainment creative and licensed partners unveil and discuss World of Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft-inspired products. In attendance:

• Chris Metzen (Blizzard Entertainment SVP of creative development)
• Nick Carpenter (Blizzard Entertainment executive art director)
• Christie Golden (New York Times bestselling author)
• Hank Kanalz (SVP Digital, DC Comics and World of Warcraft comics editor)
• Sean Gailey (creative overlord, J!nx Clothing)
• Cory Jones (Cryptozoic Entertainment president and chief creative officer)
• Kat Hunter (BlizzCon coverage moderator on DIRECTV)

Quote from DesmondTiny

OMG MEDIEVAL!!!!!!!!! *Honored by your presense*

I'm so glad its cannon ima get it

Honored myself that you remember my days around here. Good days when everyone was hoping Diablo III was announced and hype was high with a bit of suspense. Now all there is, is the hype, but good days anyway. Confusing, I know hehe. Thanks, DesmondTiny!

Quote from CherubDown

Gheed2010 pointed out that this was posted on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_III:_Book_of_Cain

I wonder who wrote up the article there...

::scratches forehead::

::reads screen name of the person who posted that wiki entry::

Yup, that's me.

Quote from RustStorm

I hope it's going to be Richard A. Knaak to be honest... Love his writing style the best so far...

Diablo III: Book of Cain is not a novel at all. I am not able to describe it yet, but I do know some thrilling bits about the project. The same day it appeared on Amazon, I got two responses within minutes. Thus why I confirmed it is canon. I am tied until a certain date. Details will be revealed soon™. 'Nuff said.

Actually, a bit more. Once you hear about it, you better pre-order it to secure your copy while they last.

Off-topic: This photo is from BlizzCon 2009 at the Anaheim Convention Center.



(From left to right: Jaime Costas (ex-Pocket Books PR), Christie Golden, Medievaldragon, Richard A. Knaak, and Rob Tokar (Tokyopop Editor-in-Chief).