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1UP: We watched World of WarCraft blow up for Blizzard, also, really catch everybody. When you guys were working on Diablo, multiplayer was clearly a big part of what you were doing. Was there ever a thought of "Hey, we could take this out to this big, persistent world?"
DB: Yeah, absolutely. In fact, one of the things that we had originally planned for Diablo II is we were going to make this what we called Battle.net Town, which was . . . basically, instead of having the people in the chat room it was 25 people in a little city that you could walk around, and things like that. It eventually became too much work and too much retrofitting; the Battle.net servers weren't really able to handle that many people and interact in that kind of way. It was never really designed to do that kind of thing. So it would've taken too much time and too much effort to rewrite that, but that was definitely a plan all along, to think about making this seamless world where it was basically a town with instanced dungeons, which is almost cutting-edge versions of morgues today, but that was something we had talked about and worked on for a while before we ended up cutting it."
Even if they're going with random map generation you still need designers to actually 'design' the layout and geometry. They just chop it up afterwards and randomize it to a certain extent.
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Well, some book in Diablo I said: "Take heed and bear witness to the truths that lie herein, for they are the last legacy of the Horadrim. There is a war that rages on even now, beyond the fields that we know - between the utopian kingdoms of the High Heavens and the chaotic pits of the Burning Hells. This war is known as the Great Conflict, and it has raged and burned longer than any of the stars in the sky. Neither side ever gains sway for long as the forces of Light and Darkness constantly vie for control over all creation."
Which would imply that The Sin War has been going on forever. However, these books are written by the Horadrim, which would mean that 'forever' means 'from when Sanctuary was created'.
I seem to remember, however, that in one of Knaak's books, that it was mentioned that they created Sanctuary as a refuge from all the Sin War-stuff going on, which would make it more realistic to say that it would be going on forever. It's also refered to as 'The eternal conflict', which is kind of a dead giveaway.
You're right in that the perception from the inhabitants of Sanctuary is that the war has been going on forever. The question that remains, though, is chronologically how long the realm of Sanctuary has existed. The passage you quoted from the Horadrim makes reference to the war between Heaven and Hell, which we know is 'eternal'. Your last point about the reason for the creation of Sanctuary is sort of on the right track;
'Inarius wished a Sanctuary away from the constant battles between demons and angels as well as create his own High Heavens which would be greater than the original.'
This alludes to the constant battle between Heaven and Hell rather than The Sin War. What this implies is that Sanctuary had to exist before the Sin War; especially since several key events take place within Sanctuary.
That I don't know - and I'm not sure if it's something that's been explained. That was the basis for my question about the political structures of heaven and hell - to get a better understanding of who's in charge, etc. Trang'oul is anyone's guess.
Aside from a couple slow patches during the leveling process, you can do tons and tons of levels with Baal runs. I can get a character to 80 in one night if I try hard enough; it just makes me want to stab my eyes out.
And where did Trang'Oul come from for that matter?
And for THAT matter, where did Sanctuary come from?
And Heaven and Hell?
Did they always exsist or were they created or was there a "Big Bang" type thing or what?
Sanctuary was created by Inarius and some other rogue angels and demons (including Lilith). Don't know about the other ones, though.
The interesting thing about Metzen coming out and saying The Sin War happened ~1000 years before the plots of Diablo 1&2 is that also gives you a rough platform for guessing how old Sanctuary is. The question now is just: How long before The Sin War did Inarius and Co. create Sanctuary?
Speaking of which... there's another question to ask, haha.
1.) If Inarius and other angels are powerful enough to have been able to create Sanctuary is it possible that other realms similar to it can exist?
2.) Given Diablo's propensity for possessing mortal beings, was it necessarily the end for him once his soulstone was destroyed?
3.) Will we begin to see more of the political structures of both the High Heavens and the Burning Hells delved into more, lore-wise?
4.) While Lilith's motivations in helping to create Sanctuary were more clear (the assembly of an army), what are Inarius's intentions moving forward? Which side is he on?
I'll probably think of more at some point but these are the ones that jumped out at me.
Blizzard Entertainment is currently seeking a highly experienced senior tools programmer to work on an exciting project for our next-generation MMO. The ideal candidate will have experience working on professional non-linear editing package such as Avid, Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro. Interested applicants should possess superlative math skills, a discerning eye for detail, good GUI sensibilities, and ability to work closely with the end user during development. Blizzard Entertainment offers a fun, creative, and technically challenging environment with excellent compensation and a full range of benefits.
--- Only thing I found interesting in this is the change in language they used when describing the team. The other Next-Gen MMO postings referred to the team as 'a team focused on Next-Gen Massive Multiplayer Online games', whereas this one distinguishes it as an exciting project (singular). I'm probably reading way too into it, but that's basically all I have left in the days waiting for an announcement! Heh
That's not 100% correct, while they may be hiring some next Gen MMO staff the unannounced games may be regular games (Diablo 3) that have been under development longer.
I don't see what could be wrong about that.. Blizzard poster said it.
Q u o t e: Could just be additional manpower for Wrath. No, it is an unannounced Next-Gen MMO. And that doesn't mean an expansion for World of Warcraft either. ---------- That was posted by Drysc on the WoW boards as well. So you can take Warcraft out of the running as possibilities. 50/50 shot of Diablo being the next big one.
While I agree it was nice that mockery didn't put up a fight to maintain control of the domain, I'm fairly certain that Blizzard wouldn't have paid him anyway. They own the rights to all things Diablo and just like they've done with other domains, they just take them. Again, I agree he did the right thing by making the process nice and easy and out of court or whatever, but the whole "I'm the shit cause I didn't take money from them" is debatable. Anyway, like MD had said - this is a step in the right direction; I'm looking forward to the WWI this year.
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http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=2&cId=3143557
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1UP: We watched World of WarCraft blow up for Blizzard, also, really catch everybody. When you guys were working on Diablo, multiplayer was clearly a big part of what you were doing. Was there ever a thought of "Hey, we could take this out to this big, persistent world?"
DB: Yeah, absolutely. In fact, one of the things that we had originally planned for Diablo II is we were going to make this what we called Battle.net Town, which was . . . basically, instead of having the people in the chat room it was 25 people in a little city that you could walk around, and things like that. It eventually became too much work and too much retrofitting; the Battle.net servers weren't really able to handle that many people and interact in that kind of way. It was never really designed to do that kind of thing. So it would've taken too much time and too much effort to rewrite that, but that was definitely a plan all along, to think about making this seamless world where it was basically a town with instanced dungeons, which is almost cutting-edge versions of morgues today, but that was something we had talked about and worked on for a while before we ended up cutting it."
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These look like new positions at a cursory glance.
Link for proof and all that: http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/Serg1282/d3jobs.jpg
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You're right in that the perception from the inhabitants of Sanctuary is that the war has been going on forever. The question that remains, though, is chronologically how long the realm of Sanctuary has existed. The passage you quoted from the Horadrim makes reference to the war between Heaven and Hell, which we know is 'eternal'. Your last point about the reason for the creation of Sanctuary is sort of on the right track;
'Inarius wished a Sanctuary away from the constant battles between demons and angels as well as create his own High Heavens which would be greater than the original.'
This alludes to the constant battle between Heaven and Hell rather than The Sin War. What this implies is that Sanctuary had to exist before the Sin War; especially since several key events take place within Sanctuary.
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Sanctuary was created by Inarius and some other rogue angels and demons (including Lilith). Don't know about the other ones, though.
The interesting thing about Metzen coming out and saying The Sin War happened ~1000 years before the plots of Diablo 1&2 is that also gives you a rough platform for guessing how old Sanctuary is. The question now is just: How long before The Sin War did Inarius and Co. create Sanctuary?
Speaking of which... there's another question to ask, haha.
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Makes you wonder how crazy the world really is.
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1.) If Inarius and other angels are powerful enough to have been able to create Sanctuary is it possible that other realms similar to it can exist?
2.) Given Diablo's propensity for possessing mortal beings, was it necessarily the end for him once his soulstone was destroyed?
3.) Will we begin to see more of the political structures of both the High Heavens and the Burning Hells delved into more, lore-wise?
4.) While Lilith's motivations in helping to create Sanctuary were more clear (the assembly of an army), what are Inarius's intentions moving forward? Which side is he on?
I'll probably think of more at some point but these are the ones that jumped out at me.
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http://www.blizzard.com/jobopp/
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Senior Tools Programmer – Next-Gen MMO
Blizzard Entertainment is currently seeking a highly experienced senior tools programmer to work on an exciting project for our next-generation MMO. The ideal candidate will have experience working on professional non-linear editing package such as Avid, Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro. Interested applicants should possess superlative math skills, a discerning eye for detail, good GUI sensibilities, and ability to work closely with the end user during development. Blizzard Entertainment offers a fun, creative, and technically challenging environment with excellent compensation and a full range of benefits.
--- Only thing I found interesting in this is the change in language they used when describing the team. The other Next-Gen MMO postings referred to the team as 'a team focused on Next-Gen Massive Multiplayer Online games', whereas this one distinguishes it as an exciting project (singular). I'm probably reading way too into it, but that's basically all I have left in the days waiting for an announcement! Heh
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I don't see what could be wrong about that.. Blizzard poster said it.
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