This is a Diablo III fansite, so I am gonna try to stick to that. Below you have a couple of quotes from the interview. You can read other comments made by Bill Roper concerning the Diablo III art direction through page four and five. His opinion on Diablo III is very valuable. Personally, myself and all the crew (and fans) wish Bill Roper the best in the immediate present and future. I know these are very hard times. I held one of the first, if not the first, Hellgate: London fan site interviews with Bill Roper on August 27, 2005. And, prior to that, was surprised to get emailed by him for other personal matters. I have always been a fan of him and his work. As such, it pains me as much and as close as it would a brother.
GFW: Have you thought about how you would feel if they get some team together and actually somehow cobble it into a game? Are you going to have mixed feelings -- like you're glad that somebody was finally able to put this baby out -- or do you wish that it just got killed with you guys?
BR: I think what I would really want to see is that there was some way where Travis [Baldree] and his guys were able to finish their game. It's pretty different from, for example, how I feel about the Diablo III stuff. I'm excited to see Diablo III, because it's a whole new thing. They've got a whole new direction on it. They have a few of the guys that worked at Blizzard North still around, but there's a whole new team on it, and it's like, OK, it's their license, and they're trying to really move the bar and do something different with the Diablo license. Yeah, I'm excited when I see what they're coming up with.
GFW: What was your own gut reaction to the art direction?
BR: I just thought it was different. I think the thing I always liked about the Blizzard North and Blizzard HQ constructs is the fact that they were two very distinct groups. At Irvine, we had a way that we approached things -- game development, art style, from color to character shapes, everything -- that was very distinct from the guys at Blizzard North. I think that it made it pretty compelling when you bought the Diablo titles. You got something that was markedly different from what you got out of a WarCraft or StarCraft. I think now, because everything's down there, you're seeing the Irvine take on the Diablo universe. So it's just the direction they're going with the people they have and the mindset there. I always liked the fact that Diablo was very dark and Gothic and gritty and edgy, but I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with the direction they've gone. They just chose to go a different way.
I think the core Diablo fans are saying, "We really like the dark, edgy, gritty look of that game!" We had people impaled on spikes, for god's sake. And now it's kind of bright and airy and doesn't quite feel the same. But I dunno. I look at it, and it's got high production quality, and it looks like it's going to be really fun to play. I think that wall of zombies is the coolest concept for a spell maybe ever. It's not any different in terms of gameplay mechanics, but it's so cleverly thought-out. I'm gonna raise a wall of undead! Oh my god, why didn't we ever think of that! It's genius! So I look forward to that. Again, it's a take on something, even if it's different. With Mythos, it's a thing where...it's mostly done, and you want the guys who were working on it, pouring their vision into it, their heart and soul into it, to be the ones who complete it. Short of somebody else being involved with the project, I don't really see that happening.
Really? Allen Adham, James Phinney, Roper and Mark Kern are all coming back to Blizzard? I didn't know this! Now we know why you're the "guru"!:D:D
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/starcraft/credits
/facepalm
The more people they appeal to, the more customers, the more money, it's how a business stays afloat.
With that money they make they make more expansions, sequels, patches, etc etc.
Interesting theory! And, since WoW started being a geyser of cash almost 4 years ago, they have shut down two internal studios, indefinitely suspended at least one project, and... released exactly one expansion. How does this theory work again? And when are those movies coming out?
I didn't say anything about a movie.
They have released MANY content patches for WoW. If you don't know about something you shouldn't comment on it. Just because there isn't a constant flow of expansions doesn't mean they aren't doing anything. PvP Battlegrounds, Dire Maul, Character Transfers, Honor System, Ahn'Qiraj, Karazhan, Blackwing Lair, Darkmoon Fair, Public Test Realms, Naxxramas, Zul'Aman, The Sunwell, etc etc. I could go on and on and read through all the news since 2004 but I hope you get the point.
These content patches aren't made of rainbows and pixie dust, they cost money to make.
Interesting. So, from Jan 2005 until now - about three and a half years - they've made well over a billion dollars in profit and released a bunch of patches and one expansion. For one game. Which was based on previous IP.
This makes for an interesting contrast with the period from Jan 1997 to July 2000, when they released Diablo, Diablo II, Starcraft, Starcraft:BW, and numerous patches for both of those worlds as well as some patches for Warcraft II. They maybe made a couple hundred million dollars in profit in that time, certainly just a small fraction of the subscription bonanza from WoW.
What was your point again?
:D:D:D
I think you accidentally gave a good description of what seems to be the present M.O.!
Running a MMO takes a LOT more work than running a RTS game.
The majority of the patches they released for all those games weren't too content heavy.
In WoW they had to keep hackers at bay, gold selling, botting, as well as working on WHOLE new dungeons, storylines, PvP Systems, etc.
Take for example, it's a lot easier to create the ubers for Diablo II which are just different colored monsters already seen than to flesh out a whole 3D dungeon with multiple bosses, balance the bosses, and make them strategy based along with new items that they drop.
Interesting. I wasn't aware of the seeming fact that Diablo and Diablo II were RTS games, or that most of the content therein consisted of reskinned monsters. These games didn't have online aspects, did they? I would imagine not, why would a company support online play for free? That's crazy.
Nor was I aware that some people considered a dozen patches and an expansion on one game to be more work than the entirety of the released content of the Starcraft and Diablo worlds. (Or even five times as much work, if we go on the theory that the money these games make is directly funneled into development.)
I learn so many things from these forums.
Blah blah blah, by now it's obvious you're a troll and not open to ANY form of changing your opinion.
Diablo wasn't a RTS but it WAS a hacknslash, not a MMO.
Yes more time was put into WoW, they have a MUCH larger team than Diablo and Starcaft had in the past.
Does that necessarily make WoW a better game? No. There was a lot more work put into it though.
3D environments are a lot harder to work with than 2D and in a MMO you have to keep people pleased for them to keep playing and paying. In a RTS and HacknSlash you don't have that obligation because once they buy the game, that's it. That's all the money you're getting.
It almost seems as if you're saying that the goal here is to suck money out of players instead of using development money to create new IP and new content.
I'm sorry, I must be missing something. Like all of the non-WoW content which has been released since 2002...
It's a very fine line between sucking money out of players, and using the money for development.
They have been working on Non-WoW content since 2002... D3 anyone? SC2? SC: Ghost? (yes I know it failed, but it still cost money)
Just because you can't immediately see what they're working on doesn't mean they're not working on it.
Sure, maybe with another 8 years or so, we'll finally get a release of content which isn't from the warcraft universe. And maybe with another 10 years, we'll even see some new IP!
For your information, D2+LoD have maybe 1% amount the content of that introduced in WoW patches only to this day and the expansion doubled the content of the original, and still took more effort than it took to create the entire game that is Diablo 2. They develop and release major content patches approximately once every two months and minor patches every two or three weeks. Hundreds of people provide customer support and maintenance 24/7, and Blizzard is cashing out good money for gameservers all around the world. Yeah, they've had more on their hands any other company would dare to attempt, yet, they found time to please their fans by releasing Diablo 3, which on the long run won't make them any substantial profit (if you consider how much money they poured into it to this day (and some of that money ended up for financing Hellgate production obviously) and that D3 will not be appealing to any fan of hard-core RPG mechanics and serious MMO content), and Starcraft 2. The work they are doing is MONSTROUS!
Reality to fanboy: announced =/ released. And seeing as how they just lost their Art Director and have had wanted ads for background artists up nonstop for the past few years, I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. Maybe in another 8 years, chief.
By the way, why would someone leave a job like that, and why is it that those ads for background artists never seem to come down? Shouldn't millions of people be waiting in line to bathe in such awesomeness? And why isn't there a single person from Blizzard North with a credit on the original Diablo working there now? Why is it that of the first four producer credits on "Starcraft", only one of those guys is still there? Could it possibly be that working on the same IP for dozens of years isn't as satisfying to make as it must be for you to play?
But, yes, we all appreciate their endless hard work in getting many patches and even a whole expansion done in the past 3.5 years. A measly billion dollars in profits is such little compensation for the blood, soul and sweat which has obviously gone into masterworks like the Blade's Edge Mountains. We should be grateful until the end of time.
/resume frothing
It's fascinating how a person of so little knowledge can have so much bullshit and ignorance to contribute to a forum. Oh the wonderful internet.
Carry on.
uhhh games not coming out in 8 years buddy good try its coming out in late 09 to late 2010 uhhh and blizzard has highstandards so thats why they probably havent given them a job because they arent qualified sooo just calm down and stop trolling Get The Fuck off this site cause your just another whiner about diablo 3 when this is a FANSITE which is here to support D3 and your trolling is negative and obnoxious and pretty boring if you ask me the only problem i have with d3 is oversized shoulder pads everything else about the game is fine i could care less if a boss was FUZZY WUZZY MONSTER BUNNY and was a cute little furry jack rabbit
Lol, noobs and their certainty...
Actually, Dime, 100% of the Blizzard North folks who worked on the original "Diablo":
max schaefer
eric sexton
kenneth williams
david brevik
erich schaefer
peter brevik
doron gartner
jon morin
robin van der wel
richard seis
ben haas
kelly johnson
matt uelmen
michio okamura
hugh tom byrne
patrick tougas
christopher root
mark sutherland
karin colenzo
The other guys credited on that title that do remain - Chris Metzen, Samwise Didier, Mike Morhaime, etc, were never Blizzard North people.
Care to try again?
With pleasure. Your question:
And the answer is: Because Blizzard North is something that does not exist. Out of the 0 Blizzard North employees, 100% work on Diablo 3.