Just a few counter points to some of the discussions this has raised:
Simple tooltips benefit almost everyone. Just because they may not benefit you, they'll indirectly benefit you by helping non-gamers get into the game. Right now most of us are only thinking about when we play the game, but when the game is released, or quite possibly years down the road, you may want to be able to teach your dad, your daughter, your significant other to play. Simplified tooltips will certainly help when you walk away and they're trying to learn to play for themselves. And we can always hope they put stuff up on the auction house for way less than its worth! Mwahahahaa.
The in-game reference guide/book idea for skill and game information has a number of UI issues, but as a player of the game it's not a great solution because:
You're not always in-game. More often than not when you're dissecting a skill at a massive level of detail you're on a website/forum discussing things, or you've got an excel spreadsheet open. Or you're getting in some extra Diablo time while at a friend's place. Or you're at work on your lunch break.
A web page lets us present far more organized detail than an in-game book would allow (without ceasing to look like a web browser embedded in a book which would just look silly). You want tick rates, scaling formulas, proc interactoins, etc.
A web site allows us to provide the most timely information. If questions come up on the forums, we make a hotfix, we find errors, or come across more information we'd like to pass along, we can get that information out to players immediately. If it was in-game it would require a patch. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Spike VGAs: Gamer gods Blizzard Entertainment
Prior to the Spike TV VGA Awards and the Opening Cinematic Announcement, Game Hunters manged to steal Morhaime and Frank Pearce for a brief interview.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Game Hunters:Diablo will be big part of the awards show. It's up for most anticipated game and there will be a new trailer, right?
Morhaime: Our cinematics team has been hard at work doing some really beautiful pre-rendered cinematics for Diablo III so I think this is the first one we are showing in its entirety. It's some pretty amazing work. We are really proud of that team. (Here's a link to the Blizzard site where the trailer resides.)
Game Hunters:Do we have a release date for the game yet?
Morhaime: As soon as possible. We have pushed it into 2012. Really at this stage, it's about completing the polish on the game and preparing it for launch. As with any Blizzard game, we really try not to rush these things out. We try to give them time to bake. We are in beta right now, so we have a lot of people out there helping us test the game. We have been getting great feedback. People are really excited about it. (Source)
Blue Posts
Official Blizzard Quote:
Diablo looks like a 2008 game
Blizzard games are intended to be accessible, and that's seen through game design as well as system spec requirements. It's not going to be pushing too many people's systems to the limits, which is the intent.We also tend to spend time on a visual style that we believe will be timeless. While the cutting edge FPS' of a few years ago quickly fall to the glitz of newer technologies, our intent is to create a beautiful game that doesn't age because it's not attempting to be a representation of reality. Good thing too, because we expect people to be playing it for a long time to come. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Guaranteed movement button
We just wanted to let you all know that this feedback that you have given on a dedicated click to move button is excellent, and we may implement this, the option for this would be unbound by default. Sadly, this option would not be ready for when the game is shipped. While it would not be ready for ship if we do end up implementing it, I hope that you are all glad to hear this news ^^ (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Durability Loss
You won't start taking durability loss for a few levels, not until level 8 or so. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Log in and authenticator
Authenticators aren't enabled in the Beta and won't be enabled until we launch D3 at retail. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Logged in waypoints and quests reset
Waypoints are tied to quests, so when you reset your quest, you reset your waypoints as well. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Daily Quests
The answer that we have for this right now is, no. There will not be daily quests in DIII in our current plans for the game
Diablo is not a game where it is meant to feel like a grind, where you have to log in every day and do your chores. It is a game where you can play when it is that you want to, without falling behind the curve (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Inferno difficulty will be soloable Anyone know for sure ..if inferno will require a team to be able to kill all bosses and farm gear?
Yes. Inferno mode will definitely be more difficult when soloing, but it can be done. We do not intend co-op to be a requirement :-) (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Blizzard And Europe Beta Keys Availability
Beta keys are given out in the EU, they are distributed and given on as fair a basis as we can, as well as for the needs that we have for testing purposes. Please do note that not everyone in the US receives Beta keys for DIII, they are limited in the number they give out as well.
No Blue Posts on EU Forums
We post whenever we are able to, or if we have information pertinent for a thread that we spot. If we have no useful information for a given topic, then we will not comment; It's better to give no answer than a wrong one.
We do understand that this is a topic near and dear to everyone's heart, but do note that we forward on as much feedback as possible to the US and reply to as many threads as possible. As you may know, one of our companies core values is "Every Voice Matters", and this is something we always ensure is the case.
Paypal
We are always looking into new payment methods to use, if a certain payment method is not available in a particular region, there is a reason for it. If we are able to make a certain payment method available, then we will try our best to make it so. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Letting EU post on US forums and vice versa?
Sadly at this current point we have no plans to allow EU players to post on the US forums, unless they have a US account on their Battle.Net. This is because the forums are region-specific and just as you cannot play on the US servers for this reason, you cannot post on their forums either.
We understand you would like to contribute to discussions on the US forums, but if there is something being discussed there that you would like to participate in, feel free to make a thread on the EU forums about the same topic (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Thanks to our new News Reporter doomscream for writing this up.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
Game Hunters: Do we have a release date for the game yet?
Morhaime: As soon as possible. We have pushed it into 2012. Really at this stage, it's about completing the polish on the game and preparing it for launch. As with any Blizzard game, we really try not to rush these things out. We try to give them time to bake. We are in beta right now, so we have a lot of people out there helping us test the game. We have been getting great feedback. People are really excited about it. (Source)
HAH!!! More like Bake and Burn
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Blizzard used to care about releasing Diablo III, then they all took an arrow in the knee...
Good thing that Morhaime clarified that they're really not trying to "rush out" Diablo 3. Yeah, we were definitely all confused about that at this point. I, for one, was really sitting here the night of the VGAs thinking: "Ghee whiz Blizzard really seems like they're in a rush to get Diablo 3 on the shelves!" What? Was it just me thinking that??
Really? That's what he's got on the night that the Diablo Universe was hoping beyond hope that Blizzard might bless us with something (anything) that might at least hint at a release date or at least a more narrow time frame for release?
These and all other Diablo forums (even those picky official ones that mostly only Warcraft and Starcraft players can post on because, you know, that makes sense) will be flooded with release date angst until they remove this 5000 lb gorilla from the room. I just wish they'd get on with it so everybody can focus more on talking about what we really should be taking about - the game itself.
No worries though - I'll just start reading my Book of Cain that chronicles the lore of the game with the mystery release date. Ooooh, it's all so mysterious!!!! Can't wait.... <sigh>
Still pretty concerned about the tooltips, but I trust blizzard will do a well enough job with them. They seem pretty simple from what I've seen now, cost and damage is really all you need. If you want to know how it works exactly you can just play with it and learn - the words are filler. Not sure how they plan on simplifying it more then that! Hopefully its not Bash - Hits things really hard! Cleave - Hits things in front of you pretty hard!, Leap Attack - Jump to a spot and hit stuff hard!, etc. We shall see...
Me too, but im too lazy to use analytic software or do much reading online, just using basic logic reading the skill descriptions was enough to get me top 3 for WoW raiding DPS back in the day. Forcing us to potentially go online for basic casual information would be lame... But again, we shall see.
Yeh I really don't understand why they don't want to integrate both basic and advanced tooltips, they keep saying they don't want to interrupt the flow of the game but are gonna make me leave the game if I want to find out a bit more about a skill, its like the chewbacca defence - It does not make sense!
Good thing that Morhaime clarified that they're really not trying to "rush out" Diablo 3.
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.. whoa.. whoa... They're not trying to rush the game?!?!
Wow - this post was exactly what was running through my head. I dont want to hover my mouse over a skill and see 1/2 page of formulaes and crap, i wanna see something that easily translates to - use a fast weapon, or get more attack power.
Then when i get to inferno and start min/maxing, ill be happy to look up a web page and start running complicated maths (games that require maths, just enjoy it people sheesh)
Besides, add a rune to the skill and the skill is changed completely......
Guess like the game, it will just be out when it's ready. Wish I could tell my customers they get stuff whenever I'm ready to give it to them. Some way to do business...
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Official Blizzard Quote:
Just a few counter points to some of the discussions this has raised:
Simple tooltips benefit almost everyone. Just because they may not benefit you, they'll indirectly benefit you by helping non-gamers get into the game. Right now most of us are only thinking about when we play the game, but when the game is released, or quite possibly years down the road, you may want to be able to teach your dad, your daughter, your significant other to play. Simplified tooltips will certainly help when you walk away and they're trying to learn to play for themselves. And we can always hope they put stuff up on the auction house for way less than its worth! Mwahahahaa.
The in-game reference guide/book idea for skill and game information has a number of UI issues, but as a player of the game it's not a great solution because:
Spike VGAs: Gamer gods Blizzard Entertainment
Prior to the Spike TV VGA Awards and the Opening Cinematic Announcement, Game Hunters manged to steal Morhaime and Frank Pearce for a brief interview.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Game Hunters: Diablo will be big part of the awards show. It's up for most anticipated game and there will be a new trailer, right?
Morhaime: Our cinematics team has been hard at work doing some really beautiful pre-rendered cinematics for Diablo III so I think this is the first one we are showing in its entirety. It's some pretty amazing work. We are really proud of that team. (Here's a link to the Blizzard site where the trailer resides.)
Game Hunters: Do we have a release date for the game yet?
Morhaime: As soon as possible. We have pushed it into 2012. Really at this stage, it's about completing the polish on the game and preparing it for launch. As with any Blizzard game, we really try not to rush these things out. We try to give them time to bake. We are in beta right now, so we have a lot of people out there helping us test the game. We have been getting great feedback. People are really excited about it. (Source)
Blue Posts
Official Blizzard Quote:
Diablo looks like a 2008 game
Blizzard games are intended to be accessible, and that's seen through game design as well as system spec requirements. It's not going to be pushing too many people's systems to the limits, which is the intent.We also tend to spend time on a visual style that we believe will be timeless. While the cutting edge FPS' of a few years ago quickly fall to the glitz of newer technologies, our intent is to create a beautiful game that doesn't age because it's not attempting to be a representation of reality. Good thing too, because we expect people to be playing it for a long time to come. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Guaranteed movement button
We just wanted to let you all know that this feedback that you have given on a dedicated click to move button is excellent, and we may implement this, the option for this would be unbound by default. Sadly, this option would not be ready for when the game is shipped. While it would not be ready for ship if we do end up implementing it, I hope that you are all glad to hear this news ^^ (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Durability Loss
You won't start taking durability loss for a few levels, not until level 8 or so. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Log in and authenticator
Authenticators aren't enabled in the Beta and won't be enabled until we launch D3 at retail. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Logged in waypoints and quests reset
Waypoints are tied to quests, so when you reset your quest, you reset your waypoints as well. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Daily Quests
The answer that we have for this right now is, no. There will not be daily quests in DIII in our current plans for the game
Diablo is not a game where it is meant to feel like a grind, where you have to log in every day and do your chores. It is a game where you can play when it is that you want to, without falling behind the curve (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Inferno difficulty will be soloable
Anyone know for sure ..if inferno will require a team to be able to kill all bosses and farm gear?
Yes. Inferno mode will definitely be more difficult when soloing, but it can be done. We do not intend co-op to be a requirement :-) (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Blizzard And Europe
Beta Keys Availability
Beta keys are given out in the EU, they are distributed and given on as fair a basis as we can, as well as for the needs that we have for testing purposes. Please do note that not everyone in the US receives Beta keys for DIII, they are limited in the number they give out as well.
No Blue Posts on EU Forums
We post whenever we are able to, or if we have information pertinent for a thread that we spot. If we have no useful information for a given topic, then we will not comment; It's better to give no answer than a wrong one.
We do understand that this is a topic near and dear to everyone's heart, but do note that we forward on as much feedback as possible to the US and reply to as many threads as possible. As you may know, one of our companies core values is "Every Voice Matters", and this is something we always ensure is the case.
Paypal
We are always looking into new payment methods to use, if a certain payment method is not available in a particular region, there is a reason for it. If we are able to make a certain payment method available, then we will try our best to make it so. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Letting EU post on US forums and vice versa?
Sadly at this current point we have no plans to allow EU players to post on the US forums, unless they have a US account on their Battle.Net. This is because the forums are region-specific and just as you cannot play on the US servers for this reason, you cannot post on their forums either.
We understand you would like to contribute to discussions on the US forums, but if there is something being discussed there that you would like to participate in, feel free to make a thread on the EU forums about the same topic (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Thanks to our new News Reporter doomscream for writing this up.
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
Ambiguous Mouse-Mime demands attention!
HAH!!! More like Bake and Burn
sign of the delay
Really? That's what he's got on the night that the Diablo Universe was hoping beyond hope that Blizzard might bless us with something (anything) that might at least hint at a release date or at least a more narrow time frame for release?
These and all other Diablo forums (even those picky official ones that mostly only Warcraft and Starcraft players can post on because, you know, that makes sense) will be flooded with release date angst until they remove this 5000 lb gorilla from the room. I just wish they'd get on with it so everybody can focus more on talking about what we really should be taking about - the game itself.
No worries though - I'll just start reading my Book of Cain that chronicles the lore of the game with the mystery release date. Ooooh, it's all so mysterious!!!! Can't wait.... <sigh>
i love to crunch those nummbers and compare and find the ultimate somthing.
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.. whoa.. whoa... They're not trying to rush the game?!?!
Then when i get to inferno and start min/maxing, ill be happy to look up a web page and start running complicated maths (games that require maths, just enjoy it people sheesh)
Besides, add a rune to the skill and the skill is changed completely......
Ya know that was the first thing I noticed as well lol SIGH
http://twitter.com/#!/insightedit
Now that's delayed, too!!!!!!!!!!!!
Guess like the game, it will just be out when it's ready. Wish I could tell my customers they get stuff whenever I'm ready to give it to them. Some way to do business...