DiabloFans

Well, I suppose I better throw in my 2 cents here - why not.....

PvP - Needs to stay out of Diablo 3. It has no place. Diablo has long been more about the single player and co-op mode then anything else, and as far as I'm concerned ppl who go around PKing are just griefers and need to log off. Seriously, if Im gonna play online, its to advance the story, not kill other players with the exact same goals. Bottom line, keep pvp to a minimum, this isnt WoW and we dont need an arena - leave it a duel to decide differences, or idk mabey fight for loot - other than that, pvp belongs elsewhere. Remember, its primarily a SINGLE player game.

Trading - seeing how this is NOT a persistant world, an auction house would be usless as it could not be significantly populated by what, 8 players max? mabey 10? and then only after creating a new game to play. Trading should be kept similar to Diablo 2, where the characters must be right next to each other and both players must agree to the trade. I see no reason to change this as it worked well for D2. I do think though it would be useful to able to link items into chat. If the world is going to be to big to make face to face transactions convientent (although I dont know how) then perhaps a 'courrier service' would be in order where players pay a convience fee to have some messanger boy deliver it to wherever the other person is - and the fee should be high too, to encourage face to face transactions.


One thing that could added and maintaind despite the world not being persistant, is a reputation system with the different towns - complete quests, rep goes up - beat the game, rep goes up - do something like PK near town for no reason, rep goes down - and then have goods and service costs based on reputation, mabey even rep specific items (I know, like in WoW right? but seriously, how many suggestions in here wernt pulled from WoW in some way)

Meh - the outside screenshots (old and new) are teh suckage. It looks like a painting rather then a game render - and if I wanted to see that id goto a gallery. Im all for believing that games are art, but thats going to far. I have to say I am competely dissapointed so far in this title, so please, someone who lives in CA do everyone a favor and break into Blizzard and put magnets on all there hard drives. This game needs to be made, but not like this - like I said before, I'd rather not have it all then almost have what it should be.

And all of you who are gonna flame and say "Well dont buy it then" - trust me I wont. Unless the new art director turns this around, im washing my hands of D3.

oh, and another thing - for all those who say the petition signers are obsessed "Fan boys" - look at the title of this post. Reading diablo inspired books by no name authors? Hell, any game inspired book. NOW who's obsessed - go read something inteligent like Tolkien or King and stop getting angry because your intelectually stunted mind cant recognise a crap sellout game when it sees it. Either that or you just dont have the testicular fortitude to speak your mind on the subject and are afraid of people not "liking" you, and that my friends is the saddest existance of all.

Quote from "VegasRage" »

k3719er, I agree with what you saying, I think what is needed now is a rich D3 core fan with enough righteous indignation to form a company for the purpose of creating a game that delivers the goods, it’s pretty clear there is a market for it. It will take 5 years but it would sell.

Nah, it wouldnt take 5 yrs - all we would have to do is wait for the game to come out and then mod the textures - because really that all thats being called into question. No one is bitching about gameplay mechanics, or model desigh (sept for armor size) - but rly all it needs is new textures.

You have to wonder though VegasRage, at what point does one draw the line between pursuing a higher profit margin and pursuing a great game everyone loves. Your right, that is how a company works - but I would like to believe that Blizzard (along with all great companies) was founded on principles based on pleasing the audiance, not money. Before WoW, Blizzard still had the "when its done" mentality", even though the most certainly had an internal timeline. My point was I guess that now that blizzard has that wonderful cash-cow known as WoW, they dont NEED to produce anything else. If Blizzard was to shut down the WoW servers, cancell support and pull it from the shelves, every single person at Blizz could retire, right now, and live very lucrative lives until they ended up dying from partying to much. With that kind of affluance within a company, anything else is motivated by one of two factors: 1) greed and lust for MORE money or 2)Love of the game. Untill this whole fiasco with the D3 artwork, I would of staked my repuation as a gamer (what little I have, I mean lets face it, im no Fatal!ty) that Blizzard was all about the love of the game - but now? I am becoming more and more convinced that Blizzard looks at D3 and SC2 and sees not the potentialy great games we see, the mind blowing sequals weve all wanted - but rather they come to work and see $$$3 and $$$2 on the production desk. I mean why couldnt they redo the art if they wanted? And I do believe they want to, instead of defending it whole heartedly, they say "theres no going back." Bullshit. If Blizz could afford to scrap Starcraft Ghost, and the little known late 90s project Warcraft Stories (probobly the precurser to WoW) - both pre - WoW titles - then SURLY they can afford to change the art style in D3. I just think it comes down to them not wanting to because they cant see past the curtain of greed WoW has drawn over the eyes of those in charge.

Quote from "VegasRage" »

I think it’s important to point out no matter what Blizzard says publically about releasing the game at a time of their choosing, that is just PR. No matter how deep Blizzard’s pockets are this project has a projected profitability, budget, and timeline associated with it. Until it is released that arm of Blizzard has a set money burn rate associated with a projected timeline until completion. In other words it’s liability on the books until the game hits the stores. As disturbing as it may be to us fans, investors and business principles don’t care about this game or how cool it’s going to be, they care about getting their money back plus return on investment.

Well thought out point as a whole, but if I may be allowed to rhetort (and if anyone know for certain I am wrong, please feel free to correct me in a civilised manner) - Does Blizz even need investors outside of its own company? I would think not - WoW is advertised as having 10 million players - but lets be realistic, theres probobly not 10 million accounts, so lets do some rough estimating: Lets assume everyone has 2 accounts, thats 5 mil - no lets assume that out of those only 1 mill is active, and lets even go so far as to give them the benefit of the doubt and pretend everyone pays a year in advance at the discounted rate of about 12 bucks a month. So, taking this highly conservative estimate into consideration, we can safely assume that Blizzard has about 12 million dollars a month income JUST from WoW. with that kind of scratch, I think Blizz has the monetary power to do whatever the hell it feels like and can afford to actually mean "when its done" as there realease date.

My main point first: It is highly unlikely he would quit in the middle of production, so im voting he got asked to leave. As for Blizz already stating they wont change the art direction and claiming its going to be "progressive," I say Put up or shut up. What I mean is either show us some screen shots to qualm our fears and prove us wrong, or STFU and admitt that you all have WoW on your brains, slap yourself, and then start gettting it right. Thats right, I just told Blizz to STFU. Im calling you out blizzard - you have left nothing but the feeling of betrayal in my gut, and while some who claim to be fans bow at your feet over what looks like WoW and TQ had a bastard child, us true fans who have had the testicular fortitude to look you in the eye and say your wrong now await nothing less than your appology for this cruel farse you call Diablo 3. How dare you Blizz. How DARE you! Blizzard needs to remember that a ruler is only as good as his followers are loyal - I have the very distinct feeling that if Blizz screws this up, they may not tumble, but they will slide a notch or two on the Respect-O-Meter in the industry. I would rather not have Diablo 3 at all than almost have it.

Second point:

Quote from "๖ۣۜShif†er" »

Everybody pay close attention to what im about to say, and take it to heart please.

Its better for someone to think your a fool, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Try and post with a mature and reasonable fasion.
If you take offence to this post, then its you who is causing the problems.

Thank you. Cheers.

Unholy god and Hell. Orly? Im the one causeing the problems for taking offense to your post? Nay, it is you I say who is the problem causer, and what I take offese to is you being the online equvilent of an oxygen theif and taking up thread space with your hippy like attitude of peace and friendship. You want mature? heres Mature. Go Fu....never mind, kids read this (and i can tell from some of the responses.) Here is something though even the youngest diablo fan knows: There no room for Hippies in Diablo - no go pick some flowers or smoke a joint or do whatever it is hippies do nowadays - im gonna go kill some demons and then go kills terrorists (cause thats my job, im in Iraq - in the Infantry - so dont even think about calling me out on what I do and questioning whether I know the real world or my maturity level or anything else you think you can flame me on because you cant intimidate me.)

Quote from "waddlez" »

hey AManWhoLikesHisCockInHisMouth'

not happy? go make an action rpg that is "true" to d1 and 2

the "47,000" sigs are from people w/o any inkling of a clue on what it takes to produce and program a game

also 47,000 vs 10,000,000 ?

this isn't Sparta, you will all most assuredly lose

As a matter of fact, I DO know what it takes to make a video game - as someone who is 2/3 way complete with a 3D Game Art and Design degree, I can tell you its not easy, it takes lots of work, patience and talent - but thats common sense - but you know what? I DID sign the petition, and I back up my signature. It would of taken no extra work for Blizz to make D3 more gothic if they would of gone that direction from the start, which is how I am assuming Blizz North had originally taken the project. Whoever it was that said Huang sounded tactuflly dissapointed is correct, I think all of the former D3 crew is looking at the current stuff and performing a mental /Wrists.

You say 47,000 vs 10,000,000 - vs 10 million what? Players that are afraid to voice their opinon? Casual gamers? New commers to the genera? Or mabey just those sad and pathetic souls who are satisfied with whatever developers throw their way.

I said earlier, no doubt whatever is released will be an excellent game, I mean come on, its Blizzard, but whether or not that game will be deserving of the Diablo namesake has yet to be determined.

Quote from "Kilvoctu" »

I swear, like half of these posters are just complaining about floating numbers, a feature in which we have barely any information on yet (why so much whining as if it was a sure thing that the numbers cannot be toggled). I really don't want to read through the same crap over and over from different users. Does anyone even read the thread to know what they've said has been stated dozens of times already? Add something new to the conversation, please. And stop acting like you all are masters at game design. From what I gather, it seems like you all just want to play Diablo 2 again with a graphics upgrade. What would be the point of years of development to release the same game with a makeover. Do you guys want Blizzard to be more like EA (by the way, I know they typically take less than a year to release sequels)?

Its not that we want D2 with a graphic update (although come on, how cool of a side project would THAT be) But we deffinatly do NOT want to play DiabloCraft. But your right, spending years and a shit load of scratch for an updated re release would be pointless, but I think you (along with alot of others) are missing the point. NOONE here is disputeing that what is going to be released is going to be a great game, what we are saying in so many words is we dont think it deserves the diablo name - Simply calling somehting diablo does not MAKE it diablo - I mean, if they called Civilization 3 StarCraft2, we would be at war with korea right now.

So, if Blizzard wants to continue the game as is, they need to call it what it is - a single player version of WoW

If they want to release Diablo3, they need to kick their art department in the nuts.

heya all.

I am K3719er. In the virtual world, I am many things - an assasination rogue, a Necromancer, The ruiner of 12yr olds in UT2k4 - overall, I am a gamer (and although I know I am good, I will make no claim to being the best)

In real life however, Im a soldier. I serve in the Army, active duty. Im a SPC in the 4th ID out of FT Carson Colorado, and right now as I write this I am in Mosul Iraq on my second tour (that just means im over here for the second time incase anyone doesnt know.) My MOS is 11B - Infantry.

Anyway, Ive been playing the diablo games since the begining, my moms 50 yr old friend Sheila actually showed me how to play D1 - and at the ripe age of 60 something she is as excited for D3 as any of us (even jokes about not thinking she would live to see the day!)

Im pretty laid back, dotn mind people messageing me about random shit, you can get me either at K3719er on yahoo or Premeditatedkill on AIM - so drop me a line a say hi.

Im out for now though, gonna go on patrol -

Deuces!

Ok, I cant bite my tounge any longer

I think closing Blizzard North was mistake. a big mistake. Lots of good points have been made about how D3 is already looking too much like WoW and not enough like Diablo, and I agree so Im not gonna beat a dead horse. Now as a loyal Blizz fan, and player of all there games, I have to make an observation - up until WoW, all the game worlds were uniqe and independant - afterwards though, it seems to me that blizzard has been blinded by the success of WoW - they now appear to view the world through a azeroth colored lens and think that just because it worked in WoW it will work everywhere. Floating number is D3? Bright colored lands and clean dungeons? Health globs? RAINBOWS?! all of this makes me want to /wrists. Obviosly the inventory and action bars are pulled straight from WoW - I want my belt back - I want to walk around with 30 potions I found in rotting 3000 yr old mummies - I want my inventory to look like it was packed by a tetris master - i dont care how unrealistic it was, it was Diablo. Hell, even in SC2 you see WoW influence (although thank god not nearly as much) and that april fools joke they pulled withthe "Tauren Marine" unit? Yeah I knew it was a joke, but it was about as funny as telling someone their mom died and then going April fools! She only has a malignent brain tumor!

WoW is sucessfull. No doubt. But is D3 and (to a lesser extent) SC2 going to be as succesful with WoW influences? I think not.

No my friends, Diablo should have stayed the project of Blizz North, then we would already be playing the dark and gothic D3 (and probobly an expansion by now) we have all had wet dreams about for the last 7 years.