It looks like we will not be seeing the PvP Arena system at release. However this will be patched in after release. Oddly enough this seems to be tagged with Sign of Release
Originally Posted by Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
(As we’re counting down the days until we’re ready to announce a release date for Diablo III, we’ve come to realize that the PvP game and systems aren’t yet living up to our standards. Today, we wanted to let you know that we’ve made the difficult decision to hold back the PvP Arena system and release it in a patch following the game’s launch. After a lot of consideration and discussion, we ultimately felt that delaying the whole game purely for PvP would just be punishing to everyone who’s waiting to enjoy the campaign and core solo/co-op content, all of which is just about complete.
While we work on making sure PvP lives up to its full potential, we hope you’ll find some consolation in the fact that soon, you’ll be having a blast leveling characters, finding items, learning the classes, and perfecting builds…and that when the Arenas do arrive, you’ll be all the better prepared for battle.
When the PvP patch is ultimately ready, it will add multiple Arena maps with themed locations and layouts, PvP-centric achievements, and a matchmaking system that will help you and your team get into fairly matched games quickly and easily. We’ll also be adding a personal progression system that will reward you for successfully bashing in the other team’s skulls.
We know a lot of you are looking forward to PvP, and we’ll be focusing our post-launch efforts on making sure the Arenas are as brutal, bloody, fast-paced, and awesome as we know they can be. In the meantime, we’re in the process of putting the finishing touches on what we think is a truly epic campaign and co-op experience for launch.
We’ll have a lot more info to share on the PvP system in the future, and we look forward to the moment we can get the game into your hands.
While we work on making sure PvP lives up to its full potential, we hope you’ll find some consolation in the fact that soon, you’ll be having a blast leveling characters, finding items, learning the classes, and perfecting builds…and that when the Arenas do arrive, you’ll be all the better prepared for battle.
When the PvP patch is ultimately ready, it will add multiple Arena maps with themed locations and layouts, PvP-centric achievements, and a matchmaking system that will help you and your team get into fairly matched games quickly and easily. We’ll also be adding a personal progression system that will reward you for successfully bashing in the other team’s skulls.
We know a lot of you are looking forward to PvP, and we’ll be focusing our post-launch efforts on making sure the Arenas are as brutal, bloody, fast-paced, and awesome as we know they can be. In the meantime, we’re in the process of putting the finishing touches on what we think is a truly epic campaign and co-op experience for launch.
We’ll have a lot more info to share on the PvP system in the future, and we look forward to the moment we can get the game into your hands.
The PvP system hasn't likely been a development focus at all as of yet. They weren't able to get something together that they feel comfortable with during the crunch, so they decided to ship without it. Seems perfectly valid considering they don't intend on focusing on PvP anyways.
People all disappointed over this news really doesn't make sense to me. PvP in Diablo 3 isn't likely going to be heavily competitive at all. Its going to be something to burn off steam when you don't feel like bashing in the heads of more monsters.
Personally, I'm glad to hear that they've decided to ship without instead of dumping more time into a PvP system that isn't the focus of the game anyways.
You're missing the point, Blizzard is widely know for delivering top notch FINISHED products, but, since WoW, the quality of Blizzard games hugely dropped.
You really think it's normal for a game that has been under development for 6+ years to not have one of its core features by release? No, it's not normal, Blizzard know it's not normal but they are pushing a release anyway because D3 is taking way too fucking long, even for Blizzard standards.
The very same thing happened to Starcraft 2, chat channels were implemented 7 months after release, and clan support is estimated to be implemented in HotS, 2 years after release, all of them were promissed by Blizzard in a ''soon after release patch'', which didn't happened, to be honest, i wouldn't be surprised if we see pvp only in a D3 expansion.
About PvP not being competitive, Noob Wilson opinion on this is irrelevant, it's not his decision to make. If PVP gets popular, and dailys start to pop here and there, and tournaments like MLG, ESL, IEM start to support it, then it's blizzard loss. Most of the games we call ''esports'' weren't intended to be an esport in the first place, it's the community who makes the call if a game can be competitive or not.
How is diablo 'unfinished' without PvP? They've said specifically that PvP isn't the focus of the game at all. So.. seems like PvP is an addition and not part of the core experience. I'll also disagree that Blizzard's game quality has dropped. Sure, Battle.Net features for SC2 might be lacking a bit, but the game itself is very well done and continues to be polished. Diablo 3 seems like its also being polished with the recent changes to streamline the gameplay.
As for PvP not being competitive, sure...users might create a competitive scene anyways. However, Blizzard has specifically stated they do not intend on balancing for PvP. This means that there will be classes that end up overpowered for PvP, and as such make having a fair competition rather difficult (or boring).
Honestly, I am really glad Blizzard has taken this stance on PvP as it means that their PvE content doesn't need to bow to PvP balance. They can focus instead on adding awesome new content, instead of devoting their development time on making sure one class doesn't do 5 more damage then another.
1- Blizzard game designers had a hard time getting on the same track while making the game. It doesn't mean its a bad thing, but they indeed were unsure about a lot of systems for years. I still trust they've made the good decisions, but we will see by the end of next month (..at least I hope so...).
2- Would you like to play the game later but with PvP included day one or play sooner without PvP? I guess even PvP enthousiats would like to play sooner without it. I mean anyway you won't be able to play PvP before release plus xx months, so why not play PvE during this time?
http://www.arenajunkies.com/topic/207561-diablo-iii-blizzards-mentality-on-pvp/
There's a good collection of statements they have made on the issue.
How'd they fail? Everything I've seen of Diablo 3 is pretty awesome.
blizzard and failing in the same sentence is an oxymoron.
You're still failing to point out any actual reason behind your statement..
he is just throwing random jabs at diablo to watch people squirm and rage. hes doing very basic basic trolling. old school troll
Not really. If you're just going to post jabs at Diablo 3 without actually any logical backing. You're really not offering anything constructive. I'd say that Blizzard making announcements every step of the way is actually a good thing. It lets people get an insight into how things are progressing.
I also feel the all of the changes are good changes from what I've seen. Granted I haven't been able to play with it myself, but I've kept an eye on most of what's been going on and watched a ton of streams. So I can say with full confidence that Diablo 3 is going to be a ton of fun.
But they're not always progressing are they? Sometimes they are backtracking. And why even tell us that? Why not instead of just fixing the problem, they also wish to tell you how they're gonna fix it? Why not just be developers and develop. I seriously can't compare the way Blizzard talks about all their little steps of progression to any other way different companies go about making their games. I'm happy for you that you see the logic in it. I only see polluted thinking in the way they proceed.
I mean, proceed however they want. I couldn't care less. But just do the proceeding. You don't have to do the talking about it constantly too. It just makes them look like they lack confidence and they seek constant reaffirmation from the community.
Or... it makes it seem like they actually want community input on the changes they have made. You know.. involving your customers in your design process in order to make a better game... definitely a bad thing, right?
As for backtracking, I really don't see this as backtracking. I see it as stating that PvP (a non-core feature) was not able to get enough development time to polish it for launch. PvP wasn't the focus of Diablo 3 to begin with, and this statement just shows that PvP was the last thing they were working on. Its not like they took stuff away. No, they've just kept their community in the loop each step of the design phase. Changes happen during design and we are fortunate to see the evolution of D3. If seeing things evolve and change as playtesting happens is something that bothers you, why not just stop looking up D3 info and wait for the game to release. You can then just play the end result instead of seeing the changes as they happen.
Sorry, but PvP is not a 'major part' of Diablo 3. In fact, if you've actually kept an eye on what Blizzard has stated towards PvP its not even remotely a focus of the game. In a sense, PvP is being added to give people something to do on the side. It was a feature that was designed quite recently and development hasn't been able to polish it enough.
What other 'major' features are you saying they cut? The Mystic? Oh wait, it was essentially just another socketing system on top of sockets, so it got removed to streamline gameplay. Runes?.. didn't get cut, got re-implemented as a feature of skills. Hrmm.. scrapping/selling from the dungeons? Altered to encourage going to town....
Essentially, the beta has given Blizzard the opportunity to see how the game plays out with a much wider audience. They've used that information to streamline aspects of the game that initially they thought were great, but turned out a lot more clunky once more people got their hands on it. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING.
As I said in a previous post, if people don't like hearing the constant flux that is game design. Just go do something else and stop watching D3 like a hawk. Me, I like seeing how its evolving as I can appreciate the work they put in to make the game more fun.
awesome. completely agree. +1