Quote fromSo you believe that one decision, like for example fucking the dungeon up with sourceless green light, or using a bulky out of place item design, or the overall use of light, does not have a single effect on the complete game?
I like this question as it makes no point and is unanswerable. It is a fall back method in which you are acting as if your personal tastes are better than what Blizzard has designed. This kind of question gets us nowhere.
Anyways, i can't believe how you are able to argue that green is less monotone then grey, the funny thing is, its not, not even a complete grey square is as monotone as a complete green square.
Firstly, he's saying that green lighting is less monotone than a gray level minus the lighting. And that is true. Secondly he's using the word "monotonous" to imply it's meaning of being boring, dull, and repetitive. You went off on what monotone in colors mean to you and missed the point completely. A gray level, as designed by Blizzard was boring to play though multiple times. They tried it and they didn't like how repetitive it became to play through.
Secondly, monotone means that something is of a single color. So a level with green lighting and bluish grays and orange candles will seem less monotone than a dark level filled with gray. We aren't talking about solid squares here - we're talking about a vibrant level with all kinds of lighting and colors. Gray gets boring quickly, while eerie green lighting implies sickness and evil to the viewer.
Also, why is neon green "ok", but neon pink not? Let me get this completely doctored out, if it was neon pink (i can change the neon green in a similar intensity neon pink if you want?) then it wouldn't have been ok, green is a-ok though?
This question is interesting in that it seems to want to guide the person being asked into a single conclusion. It's like asking "If eating fish is ok then why not eat hump back whales? I mean - why not? You eat fish! You should be ok with eating the whales!!!" It makes no sense and there is no way the level Blizzard showed us was the same thing as looking at a neon pink level. Why is green lighting ok and pink isn't? Because they both do very different things to the look and feel and mood of the game. Duh.
I get excited about something standing out, if everything stands out, then nothing stands out, no wonder the game looks boring as hell.
If everything stands out the viewer can read the screen easier and play the game better. It's a basic game design concept.
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As in my "patients" is gone.
But if I just stop following it and chill for a bit the game will come out and I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
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How strange it is to me that a game in beta, with a website showing everything from the rune/skill system to itemization is getting such a huge overhaul. Not only is more money involved, but it seems disingenuous as an informative website and beta testing imply that a game will be with us soon. It's almost as if at the last minute that he questioned himself and the game instead of just releasing what I've been told by many is a smoothly working, amazing game even in beta.
I don't want to bitch and moan like I know many will, but I do have some qualms with what Jay told us. I understand that Blizzard reiterates and reiterates and polishes until the chrome nearly comes off its games. That's why they're so good - no good, isn't the right word. Classic, works. Classic pop-culture monstrosities works too. But such an overhaul this late in the game can only mean that there is doubt in Blizzard in living up to the now super inflated expectations of outdoing Diablo 2.
Now on to my problems:
I liked the cauldron and cube and I loved the stone of recall. Each one of these items was special and found on your journey. They were satisfying steps towards making your character more bad ass. They can be seen in your inventory and more importantly, they helped you salvage anything. Which extends a great feeling of constant progression in the game. They were the equivalent to John Mclaine finding his first walkie talkie or machine gun in Die Hard. They were steps of our hero's progression.
In D2 I grabbed everything I could. I hated even leaving white items behind. Now that there was a way to collect them, salvage them on the fly to keep my inventory open, and later make a new weapon for my character, I was stoked. Let's face it: Sometimes the rapid clicking leads to grabbing some junk here and there. And being able to salvage it right away would be fun and build anticipation of the better items ahead.
Instant gold or useful materials from junk? That was everything I ever wanted from D2 instead of having to go back to town and stand there spending time doing errands. In D3 I could keep adventuring and go back of my own accord - not at the command of an overloaded backpack. Now that option is gone.
Then scroll of town portal. Gone. Instead just hit the portal button! Um, now wait a sec. A signature in Diablo and immersion is giving us actual items to work with - not just hitting the yummy super button and moving on. I'm not saying that having town scrolls in our inventory is needed, but the stone of recall seemed to do the job already and it was an item we had to find early on in the game which was exciting. Again, immersion is leaving the playing field.
Secondly, no more scroll of identify...because you're character is a bad ass? What about our character being the bad ass warrior who needs help from wise supporting characters along the way? What about using mystical items to help us discover what is hidden in our christmas package? Now we just have a time bar...which seems useless if you ask me. Just let us see what the item is already if you're going to remove scrolls. You could have easily invented an "Eye of X" item that we find on a quest in order to identify items in order to bypass the scrolls. With this change we lose another important "Diablo Signature": The important game element where the character has a connection with the elders and townsfolk around them. I'd have Cain or Leah or an "Eye of X" identify my items any day and not feel any less of a bad ass for it. In fact, I contend that identifying my own items isn't even a little bad ass.
The Mystic. Well, removing her means a little less customization and to think of how the maps and programming had to change is mind boggling. The art people made, the voice acting - perhaps the mystic's back story as well - all gone. I can live with it, but it definitely shows that the game won't come out soon when things this large are being removed. I liked the idea of a mystic enchanting my items with attributes which enhanced my gameplay style. I wonder why tweaking current enchants to have different abilities than the socket system couldn't happen. According to Jay a whole new system would take too much time. But redesigning the entire character attributes system and rebalancing and itemizing the game is okay? I supposed they don't have time for both, but I can't help but wonder if simply changing the enchants of the mystic to more simple things like "Chance to X" or simply an aesthetic quality "Makes your weapon glow X color" or "Enhances X ability by X%" couldn't happen. I feel like there is a clever way to make her contribution relevant and they just didn't want to explore it right now.
By the end of the article, I felt like some traits that had me excited for the game were gone, but more importantly signature traits of a Diablo game that worked in today's gaming experience were gone. I felt that D3 was improving over D2 in significant ways only to discover that we are reverting to D2 - basically going back to town and standing around in our awesome armor instead of getting out there into the muck. The action. The real badassery.
I could be completely wrong. These changes may improve and not hinder the experience at all and they certainly don't change my mind about purchasing the game. I'm just putting in my 2 cents on this one. I should stop following this game for another 6 months though as these huge changes will take some time to implement and balance.
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My Best Buy preorder is silent on my end.
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But I don't have a problem. I wrote a funny made up story to illustrate how uncool that skull is. And I'm sticking to it. If you think it's cool then I contend that you have a problem.
Wow. There's that word. "Insecure". Tossed around a lot these days by clueless kids. Guess what? If not putting a tacky, hilarious looking, giant display of a fake demon skull USB holder on my desk makes me insecure, then awesome. I'm as insecure as it gets. And I don't have to explain a hilarious 4G USB holder that looks like it came from Danzig's belt buckle rejection pile. If you'd notice the story I wrote was a joke, but there is some truth in there about how lame some of the CE's bonuses are.
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Ah, I see. They are whoring one of their franchises for extra dollars. Because dollars are the bottom line. Sounds reasonably souless to me. Go Blizz.
No way is that huge demon skull to hold a single USB a "cool" thing. Think about it. Imagine a female, a HUMAN female, in your room. And you're about to leave and you say, "Oh hold on, let me get my USB."
You walk over to a giant demon/Danzig's wettest dream skull sitting next to your computer and reach to a stone within it. She watches as your draw the stone from the demon's skull. It should be an act of epic madness, but instead she sees that you've pulled only: A 4GB USB.
"Why would a grown man store a puny 4GB USB in a giant demon skull?", She'll ask herself as her nether regions dry out like a chicken bone tossed into a bucket of sand, "The USB on my keychain is 16GB."
You will then proceed to have the worst date imaginable as she'll wonder if you buy your storage products at The Satanic Container Store. You'll explain, "No, it's cool. It's from a video game...", which won't even help a little bit. In fact, the chicken bone flaking in the sandy bucket will somehow grow more dry, dry enough to embarrass an egyptian mummy.
It's just...hilariously anticlimactic to own such a thing. Hence, I will be giving mine to my brother upon receiving my collector's edition. He's already married and she understands the "gaming thing".
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I'd like Diablo content, please. Not content that I'm going to have to sell/give away to friends or strangers online. It's kinda a presumptuous thing to do on Blizzard's part.
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FLYING CONFIRMED in DIABLO 3!!!
(Just kidding. As in take this 'interview' with a grain of salt.)
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Sincerely,
Cheeser in distress
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I thought with the Beta we were dealing with a finished game that was going through a tweaking process here as most betas these days are a quick enterprise. Now we're seeing instruction booklets being laid out for print but they still haven't even polished their game yet?
I want to hold on to a March release but I won't bet on it now. I'm a little bothered that they said this as their website, PvP kiosks at Blizzcon, and length of beta testing all indicate a game ready to be shipped to me.
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