This is not a crazy work day dream, the PVP Blog is really here!
Big News:
- Dueling is scheduled for patch 1.0.7
- Team Deathmatch is going back to the drawing board for a replacement, we wont be seeing this for a long time.
Originally Posted by Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
(We've been working really hard on the features, content, and systems for PvP in Diablo III and I wanted to take some time to provide an update on where we're at. Of course, our goal has been to release our Team Deathmatch mode as soon as possible, but we don't want to put anything out there before it's ready. Right now, Team Deathmatch isn't yet where we want it to be, and I want to provide some insight into where we are at in the development process.
The State of PvP
Our original intent with PvP for Diablo III was to provide more formal support for the dueling community that existed in Diablo II. We wanted to give players some kind of structure that would not only make it easier for you to duel with one another, but also allow you to have duels that were team-based. This is how our Team Deathmatch mode emerged, and it's been instrumental in making a lot of improvements to Diablo III. But in continuing to develop this mode, playtest it, and put it in front of other developers within the company, we've found that it falls short of our expectations for a high-quality Blizzard experience.
Putting people into an arena and letting them hurl fireballs and swing crazy-ass swords at one another always has an element of fun to it. I imagine it's no surprise to anyone reading this blog that people like battling each other in video games, so if you had the chance to play our Team Deathmatch at one of the BlizzCons where we featured it you might not understand why we'd say that we don’t feel the current mode is good enough.
Well, Here's Why…
For us it comes to a few issues, one of which is depth. Simply fighting each other with no other objectives or choices to make gets old relatively quickly. We've brought a lot of people in to try out Team Deathmatch and, while some found it entertaining, most of our testers didn't feel like it was something they'd want to do beyond a few hours. Without more varied objectives, or very lucrative rewards, few saw our current iteration as something they'd want spend a lot of time in.
Another is class balance. Like Diablo II, Diablo III was designed to be a PvE-first kind of game, where we never compromised on player abilities in the name of future PvP balance. We want to be able to carry over as many of the crazy runes, items, and skills as possible, with their crazy effects, and alter them as little as possible. In a casual PvP mode, something equivalent to a WoW Battleground, this would be fine, but Team Deathmatch felt very hardcore, and it put a laser focus on class balance in a way that we didn’t think would be good for the game as a whole.
Certainly, we've gotten a lot of benefits from the development of Team Deathmatch, especially in the areas of controls and combat model tuning, but at this point we don't believe it's the experience we feel it needs to be in order to ship, so we will be shelving it for now and exploring other options.
What's Next
So, our core problem is that our Team Deathmatch mode doesn't feel like a great addition to Diablo III. It's not up to the quality that Blizzard gamers expect or that we feel you deserve, and it doesn't really fit with our goals for the rest of the game. The question now is what are we going to do about it?
First and foremost, if our original goal was to support dueling, then we're not achieving that goal very well if we don’t actually give players a way to duel in-game. You’ve been asking us for dueling for a while, so we're going to add it to the game soon. Dueling is currently scheduled to release with patch 1.0.7, which is set to hit sometime after the new year. (We'll be providing details about that feature very soon, so stay tuned.)
But as I mentioned before, we are going back to the drawing board on a new replacement for Team Deathmatch, something that feels more appropriate for Diablo III. And as we stated previously, regardless of when we release it, it'll be a free addition to the game. Team Deathmatch provided us with the foundation that we needed and served us well. Hell, it may even still be added in some form in the future. For now, though, we're going to first be looking at new modes that play up to the strengths of the character classes, focus on objectives beyond just defeating other players, and possibly even integrate PvE elements and rewards.
Keepin' It Real
We wanted to be upfront and honest with the community about where this particular project is at. It's certainly not ideal, and I know some of you got to play Team Deathmatch at BlizzCon and are probably thinking, "It seemed good enough! Just give us that." I also know how I feel whenever a game or game feature I'm looking forward to is delayed, but, as with all things Blizzard, we want to be sure that the features we add to Diablo III are actually worth it and will make the game better, and PvP is no exception.
While we don't have any further information to share right now about our plans for additional PvP modes, we look forward to posting more about dueling in the next few days.
The State of PvP
Our original intent with PvP for Diablo III was to provide more formal support for the dueling community that existed in Diablo II. We wanted to give players some kind of structure that would not only make it easier for you to duel with one another, but also allow you to have duels that were team-based. This is how our Team Deathmatch mode emerged, and it's been instrumental in making a lot of improvements to Diablo III. But in continuing to develop this mode, playtest it, and put it in front of other developers within the company, we've found that it falls short of our expectations for a high-quality Blizzard experience.
Putting people into an arena and letting them hurl fireballs and swing crazy-ass swords at one another always has an element of fun to it. I imagine it's no surprise to anyone reading this blog that people like battling each other in video games, so if you had the chance to play our Team Deathmatch at one of the BlizzCons where we featured it you might not understand why we'd say that we don’t feel the current mode is good enough.
Well, Here's Why…
For us it comes to a few issues, one of which is depth. Simply fighting each other with no other objectives or choices to make gets old relatively quickly. We've brought a lot of people in to try out Team Deathmatch and, while some found it entertaining, most of our testers didn't feel like it was something they'd want to do beyond a few hours. Without more varied objectives, or very lucrative rewards, few saw our current iteration as something they'd want spend a lot of time in.
Another is class balance. Like Diablo II, Diablo III was designed to be a PvE-first kind of game, where we never compromised on player abilities in the name of future PvP balance. We want to be able to carry over as many of the crazy runes, items, and skills as possible, with their crazy effects, and alter them as little as possible. In a casual PvP mode, something equivalent to a WoW Battleground, this would be fine, but Team Deathmatch felt very hardcore, and it put a laser focus on class balance in a way that we didn’t think would be good for the game as a whole.
Certainly, we've gotten a lot of benefits from the development of Team Deathmatch, especially in the areas of controls and combat model tuning, but at this point we don't believe it's the experience we feel it needs to be in order to ship, so we will be shelving it for now and exploring other options.
What's Next
So, our core problem is that our Team Deathmatch mode doesn't feel like a great addition to Diablo III. It's not up to the quality that Blizzard gamers expect or that we feel you deserve, and it doesn't really fit with our goals for the rest of the game. The question now is what are we going to do about it?
First and foremost, if our original goal was to support dueling, then we're not achieving that goal very well if we don’t actually give players a way to duel in-game. You’ve been asking us for dueling for a while, so we're going to add it to the game soon. Dueling is currently scheduled to release with patch 1.0.7, which is set to hit sometime after the new year. (We'll be providing details about that feature very soon, so stay tuned.)
But as I mentioned before, we are going back to the drawing board on a new replacement for Team Deathmatch, something that feels more appropriate for Diablo III. And as we stated previously, regardless of when we release it, it'll be a free addition to the game. Team Deathmatch provided us with the foundation that we needed and served us well. Hell, it may even still be added in some form in the future. For now, though, we're going to first be looking at new modes that play up to the strengths of the character classes, focus on objectives beyond just defeating other players, and possibly even integrate PvE elements and rewards.
Keepin' It Real
We wanted to be upfront and honest with the community about where this particular project is at. It's certainly not ideal, and I know some of you got to play Team Deathmatch at BlizzCon and are probably thinking, "It seemed good enough! Just give us that." I also know how I feel whenever a game or game feature I'm looking forward to is delayed, but, as with all things Blizzard, we want to be sure that the features we add to Diablo III are actually worth it and will make the game better, and PvP is no exception.
While we don't have any further information to share right now about our plans for additional PvP modes, we look forward to posting more about dueling in the next few days.
I feel like they must've taken this out of context (or had the wrong testers). Should read "most of our testers didn't feel like it was something they'd want to do beyond a few hours in one session." Or they just had casual testers, if you only play the game for 50hrs, "a few hours" is a sizable portion of the overall playtime.
Jay Wilson, what the fuck happened to your logic?! I use to love you! I gave you a hug at Blizzcon!!!
Uh, excuse me, you're wrong.
I never intended to PVP in Diablo 3.
For all I care, they can scrap the entire idea and it wouldn't phase me in the least.
This is just one giant bungled game that people are still playing. I feel sorry for fans who may have been waiting for this blog to see it was really a blog about...nothing.
Not only that, but dueling? Sure it was fun in D2, but D2 didn't have the comically overgeared players this game has in less than a year in existence.
Low marks blizzard!
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
I was one of the lucky people that did play the pvp arena at Blizzcon 2011... It was fucking amazingly fun. WTF? Here's me having a shitton of fun:
I spent soo many hours (years!) looking forward to D3.. theory crafting before we even had anything to theory craft.
I've played TONS of D3 and for the most part enjoyed the time - so I can't really say that I think the game is a terrfic failure.
But does it / has it fallen WAY short of my hopes and dreams? Absolutely.
The last two months or so have been a "wait for PvP" time for me - hoping that my D3 love would be rekindled.
Now with this news.. I'm ready to really and actualy move on. Path of Exile is SO amazing (been in the beta for almost half a ayear and it just keeps getting better and better with every patch). I'll be playing the heck out of it.
I'm not calling D3 a failure, or a bad game. Its not. But its nothing even remotely close to what I hoped it would be (for me at least) while spending over a year of my life devouring every piece of development news.
I'll of coruse keep tabs on the game - I'll give dueling a try - I'd also be lying if I said I wont still be hoping / praying for a better game to come of it all with future patches / expansions. But for the time being.. I'm moving on to PoE.
Been fun hanging out here (not been around alot of late), espacialy during development.
Basically they said they have trash developers and no innovation what so ever, and that this little blog post is supposed to make it all better. So saying you are incapable of living up to the expectations made by your betters is enough to allow you to keep your job... that's just great.
This game is truly dead now, with the post it might have well been the nail in the coffin. No prospects, no ideas, nothing fun or engaging. People were hoping that PvP would save the game, and kept playing with that hope at the center of their resolve... well that's gone now. I'd say "GG" Blizzard, but I'd be lying.
i was there too and tried it. from the sound of it, they WILL release it. I'm guessing for expansion! i still wish it would stay in PTR, for couple month then get released rather than teasing us =p
I really liked that even if they say it wouldnt survive more than couple death matches and thats it..
This game simply took far too long to arrive at the conclusions it came to and as we have seen they continue to try and steer it away from where the previous game was while invariably returning to its principles after seeing that it was probably a good route to take in the first place.
They are intentionally obtuse and resistant to the idea that Diablo 2 (while clearly a title worth improving and building up from) was at its core a very engaging game for a wide range of gamers. They were far too determined to creating a game that stood out from its predecessors rather than something that felt as if it was a natural next step in the franchise.
Why not pair the stellar, smooth gameplay they have created in D3 with some depth and character?
They never planned on a 1.0.7. Before the game even released, they laid out their patch intents for the year, stating there'd be an AH patch, bug patches, a class rebalance patch, etc. They listed the rough intent behind the patches all the way up to 1.0.6 and then went on about 1.1 by the end of the year. They're slipping 1.0.7 in there to stall for time.