Mike Huang: When I left Blizzard in '03, Blizzard North had done quite a bit of pre-production work on Diablo III, as well as some protoyping on the 3d-game engine. Today at the Blizzard Invitational in Paris, they announced the release of Diablo III. Since much of the work we had done on Diablo III was concept and prototype work, seeing the development they've done over the last 5 years was very interesting; while some of the concepts we were developing definitely looks like it made it through to the version of the game they displayed, some of the design choices they appear to have made seem counter to the decisions the original Diablo team members would have made had they remained on development of the title -- the most apparent change that I can point to is the appearance of "floating numbers" as seen in the gameplay video -- this was a feature that Blizzard Irvine continually "suggested" during development on Diablo II, which Blizzard North refused to implement -- with development now located within Irvine, the decision to add floating numbers to the game isn't one which surprises me.
One of the design choices which again shows Blizzard Irvine's hand in the changes made is the re-appearance of the Barbarian character class -- the original design documents for Diablo III included a set of all new character classes, with no reappearance of old character classes (our reasons for this was simple -- since we were enhancing and improving the skill system, we didn't want to try and adapt old skills into a new system -- we'd rather create all new skills for the new character classes. The return of the Barbarian class feels like a change that was made after development of the title was moved to Irvine 3 years ago. -- this is an excerpt only. Read the full article at
Mike Huang's blog
Oh man, clever. I'd do some fancy spin-off of your name also but it's "waddlez"...
I'll leave it at that.
And why take out all this fanboy rage on me there Waddlez? You said it yourself, 47,000 sigs. That's 47,000 other people who share the same thoughts as me, and 47,000 who feel strong enough about it to sign a peition for their voices to be HEARD. The petition isn't out to make Blizzard change the art direction, it's there so the voice of the fans can be heard.
And for you to say (kinda) "go make an action RPG that's true to D1 and 2" is... well... fucking retarded. Remind me again why you're looking forward to Diablo III, dumbass. Maybe because you played one of the preceeding Diablo games..? Just a hunch. So then why the Hell wouldn't you want a game that stays true to the damn franchise and series it belongs to? I mean seriously, preview your post before you submit it and ask yourself, "Does this make any fuckin' sense?".
And one more while we're at it--
To listen to music, do you have to be in a band? Play an instrument? No, you don't.
To enjoy movies, do you have to be an actor? No, you don't.
To play and enjoy video games, do you have to be a video game designer? Hell no you don't. A large majority of us here don't know jack about making games, but that doesn't stop us from knowing every damn bit of the Diablo lore and every quest of each game.
Oh, and way to be original and make ANOTHER damn "300" joke. You're a little late considering they made an entire parody movie on the same (very) shitty joke you TRIED to make.
Yeah, because when we all pay hundreds to get into to Disney World we go there to play FLASH GAMES.
It does if you just wait for it, taking a long time but here it is
When I left Blizzard in '03, Blizzard North had done quite a bit of pre-production work on Diablo III, as well as some protoyping on the 3d-game engine. Today at the Blizzard Invitational in Paris, they announced the release of Diablo III. Since much of the work we had done on Diablo III was concept and prototype work, seeing the development they've done over the last 5 years was very interesting; while some of the concepts we were developing definitely looks like it made it through to the version of the game they displayed, some of the design choices they appear to have made seem counter to the decisions the original Diablo team members would have made had they remained on development of the title -- the most apparent change that I can point to is the appearance of "floating numbers" as seen in the gameplay video -- this was a feature that Blizzard Irvine continually "suggested" during development on Diablo II, which Blizzard North refused to implement -- with development now located within Irvine, the decision to add floating numbers to the game isn't one which surprises me.
One of the design choices which again shows Blizzard Irvine's hand in the changes made is the re-appearance of the Barbarian character class -- the original design documents for Diablo III included a set of all new character classes, with no reappearance of old character classes (our reasons for this was simple -- since we were enhancing and improving the skill system, we didn't want to try and adapt old skills into a new system -- we'd rather create all new skills for the new character classes. The return of the Barbarian class feels like a change that was made after development of the title was moved to Irvine 3 years ago.
One of the reasons why the Barbarian return shocks me so much is that I always felt that the Barbarian character class was the most broken of the classes in Diablo II. The Barbarian's ability to Leap, for instance gave him advantage over other classes which had to walk around the barrier -- it is the showcasing of this skill in the video (during which a bridge crumbles away, leaving no way to cross the gap) which makes me wonder if they have an alternate way for other characters to cross the gap or if all the characters have Leap now.
Of course, going 3D means that a lot of the things that were hard to do with sprites (such as actual armor looks being reflected on the character) is much easier using polygons and textures, as well as real 3d lighting. The use of a physics engine (Havoc, according to the game specs) is also a nice touch.
While I have more or less given up on the PC as a gaming platform, I'm glad to see that Blizzard is still committed to releasing titles that aren't first-person shooters; such a shame that we won't be seeing this title on the shelves for another year or two at the earliest.
well said mate, i too want them to stick to the games originality but as D3 stands right now as much as i LOVE diablo i would not buy it, i dont like the way its going atm, its kinda cartoonish like wow, the gore has been dumbed down to child like ratings which i hate we are all adults we want and need or gore to stay, if parents dont like it FUCK OFF dont buy your son or daughter the game and stop making things look crap for us.
OK..
The high and mighty spiel from petitioners has gone on long enough.
You are ranting and raving with fellow Diablo III players.
Arguing with admirers of the current Diablo III looks will not get you your change.
How has everyone on both sides failed to realize this?
As well, opinions? Please. This entire argument in itself is based off logic and needs to be treated as such. Logic - millions will get Diablo III, and there isn't even hundreds of thousands to be seen in any long run let alone short for this petition.
I'm no expert, but if Blizzard wants happy customers, I'd go with the idea of the millions instead of the 47,000. This is no opinion, this is fact.
This needs to stop being argued here. It does nothing.
I'll put it this way - players don't want to read your childish shit, all of you.
What makes you think people who are at their job, the last place any human wants to be, will be interested in even skimming this?
If the idea is to go off of numbers of happy customers, you have an extremely long way to go, so in the meantime, let's offer ideas to be heard instead of arguments to be ignored. There will be no "loss of future customers." So little statements have been made of refusing to play if there's no change that even if 100% are not bluffing that so many millions of others will be playing, and they're going to be isolated, bombarded by "Dude, what game? Come play Diablo III with me." and eventually will break anyway.
That is how it works, factually. People want what other people want.
Off topic.
Discuss something else. The reputation of this playerbase for Diablo III already has me rounding up a guild, making me feel my Diablo III will turn into Neverwinter Nights, because I'll be surrounded by a bunch of argumentative, bitter, negative hotheads who can't get over their self to be a team, adventure and provide everyone with a good time. Sign your petition. This bullshit won't do anything.
The guy who likes the "artistic direction?" Guess what?
He ain't doing shit for you or your overly exaggerated smart ass "points."
That's all I've seen from these petitioners - ass clown remarks.
Maybe two have been professional, one being Corwynn, except he's being dragged down.
And maybe 10 or so who are for the "artistic direction."
You are surrounded by people you will be playing the game with.
Have respect for your fellow players, and appreciate that on late nights or otherwise awkward/odd times of the day or week, these people will be there to accompany you unlike many other games with a low playerbase where loads of fun is only possible at certain times and days of the week.
Let's make Diablo III good because we can.
Because we decide whether Blizzard's employees' families' eat a hot dinner and sleep in a bed under a roof.
Because we are the reason three I's exist.
Because for better or worse, that won't be the Barbarian tanking damage for you or the Mage supporting you with a substantial asswhooping to demons, played by a Blizzard staff, but by each and every person here.
Let's remember why we even have the privilege and freedom to argue this in the first place... because we've stuck together through what we love.
Most of all, let's make future PK's roleplay and competition.
Not "That's the motherfucker who signed the petition, rahna rahna rahna."
Let's get back to influencing Diablo III and leave the petition to speak for itself.
Hate to say it, but this an internet forum. You come to expect childish shit.
Seriously idiot.
I would also like to point out that, considering they didn't have a fraction of the funding they had available to them when they where working with blizzard, does not make them less creative or bad game developers. I believe that if with the right funding Hell Gate London would have been a big success, sadly though they where limited to what they could do, and they probably made a miracle happen with whatever funds they had.
If they still had the funding and backing of Blizzard I'm more than sure that we would all be playing their masterpiece(Diablo III) by now and loving every second of it.
At they very least I'm sure they would never have even thought "I wonder what would happen if we make a Fast Paced Action RPG version of WoW" - which sadly seems to be what was going on in the heads of the current developers when they where working on it.
Well I guess when the orginal D2 was maybe more designed to single play at beginning after they saw the popularity of the multiplay they made a lot of changes to the game to allow better multiplaying(no screen freeze from sorc spells etc) too bad they didn't manage too well with it. It was only 1 year of orginal D2, if they had spend 1 more year to create the expansion I'm sure it would have been a lot better.
So yeah after that screw up I'm happy it's not Blizzard North that is doing the game. And it really looks great so far.
the witch doctor is very close to a necro so i doubt necros will return and the fact that the witch doctor uses fire bombs which was a assassin ability kinda says assassin wont return either
and the barbarian i noticed uses a charge like ability similar to the one pallys had.. im afraid there is a chance pallys wont be in either
but almost all games of this time have a melee, archer, and mage
so im gunna go ahead and assume they will make a amazon similar class but call it a archer or somthin
and the same for sorceress they will just change the name so it can be used for both genders
well thats what i think anyway
bah could as well lock this thread :)'
the rest should be unique