DiabloFans

Happy 10th Episode, DiabloFans! In this episode, we cleared up all loose ends we left in the last episode about our speculation on the Followers System, as Blizzard just recently officially released it. In addition, we talk a bit about the upcoming event, BlizzCon! If you missed the ninth episode, you can check it out here. Otherwise, the tenth episode covered the following topics:

• Diablo 3 Followers Update
• The Follower Blues
• Followers System
• Sixteenth Batch of Screenshots and Art
• BlizzCon Ticket Prices (Poll)

While we haven't had any news to work with since the Followers System announcement, Force has gone ahead and posted a new video of his Purgatory series, covering the news from the last couple of weeks. There has been a decent amount of material to go over thus far in the month of May, so if you need to quickly catch up (video is 5:22), this is the way to do it. This recent video covers the following topics:

• Follower System Unveiled
• Diablo 3 Followers Update
• The Follower Blues
• Trait Update
• May 9th Conference Call
• When Will Beta Begin?

As you've noticed, above are links to our articles as well. If you just want a quick rundown on things, check out the video below. For more information on each topic, click on the links above.

Blizzard has just released their sixteenth batch of screenshots (see here if you missed the fifteenth) for hitting the 925k 'Like' mark. Once again, we've got the high resolution versions at our disposal here on DiabloFans.

The first (and only) image is a concept drawing of the Skeleton King, King Leoric.



Click the images to bask in the glory of the high resolution versions that you likely won't see anywhere else! 25,000 more likes to go until the 950k mark where we can get some more images, and 3 more milestones until we hit the 1 million 'Like' goal. Go visit facebook.com/Diablo and 'Like' the page to speed the war effort!

As we all know, the Followers System was released just yesterday. However, there has already been a lot of chatter amongst the community concerning the system being single player only and the fact that the Followers will really only be viable in the Normal difficulty. As you can see, those restrictions pose some problems. It almost discourages the social experience by forcing players to play alone in order to take advantage of the Followers System, and then leaves us out to dry once we complete Normal.


Not wanting the game to be chaotic is completely understandable and is likely one of the contributing factors behind why they initially decreased the maximum party size from eight players [in D2] to four this time around. Going back and doubling the party size would be the last thing they want to do if things truly do become chaotic. However, this begs the question, how will the game feel with a full party of Witch Doctors'? If adding four more potential "summons" turns the game into chaos, how apocalyptic will the game feel with a full set of summons from each of the four WD's? Regardless, if we do want to take advantage of these Followers, we won't be able to with a full party anyway.


It seems to me like we have to drop the Mercenary line of thinking from D2 in order to understand this decision. Essentially, Bashiok makes it sound like Followers aren't really supposed to be Mercenaries, but they are supposed to act as party members that replace other real players for those users who refuse to play multiplayer. When you look at the system in that perspective, it makes this functionality great, as it adds some form of cooperation for those who would rather play by themselves, and could even persuade said user to jump online and play with other users, for some real co-op play. This is simply because once you complete Normal by yourself, or rather with the [fake player] Follower, the Follower will become useless.


Now you'll be yearning for that co-op play and your only choice will be to jump on Battle.net and find some peers to game with. Blizzard is doing some real funky reverse psychology to promote the social experience, but in the end, they are still promoting the social experience.

'lo all you awesome DiabloFans who enjoy these podcasts, here's the ninth episode of our DiabloCast. This week was all about the upcoming Beta and the Followers System. Keep in mind, all of our speculation on the Followers System was done solely through the leaked video and before the actual announcement. We'll be covering the Followers System again in next weeks episode. If you missed the eighth episode, you can check it out here. Otherwise, the eighth episode covered the following topics:

• May 9th Conference Call
• When Will Beta Begin? (Poll) - Previous Poll
• Trait Update
• Follower System Unveiled
• All Your History: Blizzard and Condor (episodes 3, 4, & 5)
• Fifteenth Batch of Screenshots and Art

As Bashiok told us in the last DiabloCast, he doesn't recommend listening to the Conference Call because it tends to be business related stuff that the general public need not waste their time on. However, he did say that it would be worth checking out fansites shortly thereafter. While we will be providing live updates, down to the minute, here on DFans, we also thought it'd be fun to extend the podcast as well. Instead of listening to boring business talk, you get to listen to us, :D.

Essentially, we'll have general D3 discussion, we'll be answering any community questions, and we'll also obviously, be providing live updates on the ActivisionBlizzard Conference Call. Force made a video detailing it, if you're curious:


It'll begin at 1PM PST, which is 30 minutes before the call. All you have to do is tune into Force's Live channel on YouTube, which also sports a chatbox.

Those of you curious as to how PvP looks and works in-game can check out Force's commentary over the footage from last years' BlizzCon. You can all consider this a preview of things to come, once the Beta hits, Force and the rest of the DiabloFans team will be working together on a lot of cool things such as this.



Also worth mentioning is the Special Edition T-Shirt Force is doing over the next couple of weeks, so go ahead and try to win one for yourself!

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While we're at it, the fourth episode of Machinima's Blizzard Entertainment series is up for those of you who want to see it. There's about 2 minutes in the beginning about the Lord of Destruction expansion, otherwise the rest of it is War3, SC:Ghost, and WoW. Episode 5 of the series should be out on Monday and follows Blizzard through the second half of the last decade.

Blizzard has just released their fifteenth batch of screenshots (see here if you missed the fourteenth) for hitting the 900k 'Like' mark. Once again, we've got the high resolution versions at our disposal here on DiabloFans.

The first image is a digital painting of Diablo, from last years BlizzCon. Take note of that ridiculous extra mouth on his left shoulder, ScyberDragon thinks that Baal, Mephisto, and Diablo will merge into one being... Might have some merit?




The second picture is a screenshot from that same unknown dungeon that we've seen previously, which we believe is called King Leoric's Torture Chamber, of the Male Wizard, just cruisin' around.




The third picture is a screenshot from last BlizzCon's area of the Demon Hunter, using his Fan of Knives skill against a slew of enemies.



Click the images to bask in the glory of the high resolution versions that you likely won't see anywhere else! 25,000 more likes to go until the 925k mark where we can get some more images, and 4 more milestones until we hit the 1 million 'Like' goal. Go visit facebook.com/Diablo and 'Like' the page to speed the war effort!

Hey everyone, here's the eighth episode of our DiabloCast. This week was we talked mostly about the recent Jay Wilson interview and what it meant for the series, in addition to the May 9th Conference Call. If you missed the seventh episode, you can check it out here. Otherwise, the eighth episode covered the following topics:

• HashCraft Tweet
• BlizzCast 16 & Machinima Episode 3
• BoE a No-Show, Necromancer Return Confirmed
• Clarification on BoE Removal and Set Items
• Bashiok on WhirlWind
• Fourteenth Batch of Screenshots and Art
• Diablo III Locations (Poll)

If you've missed any previous episodes, check the archive!

Force has gone ahead and posted a new video of his Purgatory series. This recent video covers the following topics:

• Diablo III in the New York Times
• BoE a No-Show, Necromancer Return Confirmed
• Clarification on BoE Removal and Set Items
• Where's Beta? May 9th Conference Call.

As you've noticed, above are links to our articles as well. If you just want a quick rundown on things, check out the video below. For more information on each topic, click on the links above.

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Also worth mentioning, Blizzard's FaceBook page just hit 1million+ 'Likes'! Check out the wallpaper they released.
The only Blizzard FB page without 1million 'Likes' is the Diablo page, so get crackin'!

Hai everyone, here's the seventh episode of our DiabloCast. This week was we talked a little bit about mercenaries and followers, but our overall theme was the Encounters System. If you missed the sixth episode, you can check it out here. Otherwise, the seventh episode covered the following topics:

• All Your History: Blizzard and Condor
• Diablo III in the New York Times
• Mercenaries, Hirelings, Followers...
• Encounters System
• Thirteenth Batch of Screenshots and Art
• This Week's Poll: Followers

If you've missed any previous episodes, check the archive!

Blizzard released BlizzCast Episode 16, about an hour or so ago. Most of you may notice that it's specifically on the WoW site, which makes sense as this episode is completely about WoW (Patch 4.2 to be exact). You may now begin wonder why I am posting this WoW news on a Diablo fansite, as we are DiabloFans, not WoWFans... amirite? Well, Episode 16 is ridiculously shorter than the previous 15 episodes (it's only 13 minutes long) and is now in video! Previous episodes have covered all of their games, for the most part, but now that the casts will be in video form, they will likely be a lot shorter. What does this mean for us DiabloFans? I think it is safe to say that Blizzard will be releasing them more frequently, as they are shorter, and as a result will be focusing on one game at a time in these casts. So with this last cast being all about WoW, I would not be surprised if there was a following Episode 17 dedicated to SC2, and future casts dedicated to completely Diablo III.


And I would regret not pointing this out, the BlizzCast "intro" shows off Diablo 3 and the Necromancer, which is a cool throwback to us Diablo 2 fans, ;).

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While we're at it, the third episode of Machinima's Blizzard Entertainment series is up for those of you who want to see it. It begins talking about Starcraft and gives a small mention of Hellfire. It then goes on to talk about Warcraft: Lord of the Clans, Starcraft, Warcraft 3 later on, with the last 2 or so minutes about Diablo II. Episode 4 of the series should be out next week and follows Blizzard through the later 2000's.

As i'm sure most of you have noticed, the forums were a little wonky today. We updated to the most recent IPBoard software version. All outstanding issues should be fixed. If you're having any problems, try clearing your cache. If the problem still exists, please post in this thread.

Last night while I was getting my daily dose of Rebecca Black and Rick Astley, an interesting video caught my eye... It looks as if MachinimaRealm, the company Force works for, has a running series called "All Your History," where they go over the background and lore of different companies and games, including both Blizzard Entertainment, World of Warcraft, Valve, and a few more big names. As the first video started up, I felt like I was going to just see a recap of the 20-year Anniversary video Blizzard had released, however I was in for quite a surprise. The first video went over some information and showed some footage that Blizzard had not shown in the Anniversary video, which made for a great watch.

They also just released Part 2 of the Blizzard "episode," and I feel like this is the 20-year anniversary video that never was. No, really, I almost think this belongs on Blizzard's website as it includes an interview with Mike Morhaime and Frank Pearce about their early days with Condor/Blizzard:North in the same style as their own videos do. With Blizzard only giving us DiabloFans a small little blurb in their own video, this second episode from Machinima focuses almost completely on Diablo and Condor/BN (they kick it off with Warcraft 1). Anyone who is a DiabloFan should enjoy really enjoy this particular video.

For any Starcraft fans out there, Part 3 of the episode, dubbed "Zerg Rush," will be something you'll want to check out next week when it goes live. And I would regret not mentioning that they have also done a World of Warcraft series, that you can also check out. Even if you aren't a hardcore WoW player, you'll enjoy the video anyway.

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UPDATE: 4/28/11: Episode 3 is live! It begins talking about Starcraft and gives a small mention of Hellfire. It then goes on to talk about Warcraft: Lord of the Clans, Starcraft, Warcraft 3 later on, with the last 2 or so minutes about Diablo II. Episode 4 of the series should be out next week and follows Blizzard through the later 2000's.

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UPDATE: 5/4/11: Episode 4 is live. There's about 2 minutes about the Lord of Destruction expansion, otherwise the rest of it is War3, SC:Ghost, and WoW.

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UPDATE: 5/9/2011: Episode 5 is live. The beginning starts off with D3 and Blizzard: North, then moves into BlizzCon, more general Blizzard stuff from 2005-present, and then the future.

Hai everyone, here's the sixth episode of our DiabloCast, though this time we were Dragonless. This week we talked a lot about the PvP System, which was great as Force and I are both big PvP fans. If you missed the fifth episode, you can check it out here. Otherwise, the sixth episode covered the following topics:

• AtomicGamer Interviews Kevin Martens
• Where's Beta?
• Gaming the System
• PvP Globes Expounded
• PvP System
• Twelfth Batch of Screenshots and Art
• Will You PvP? (Poll)

If you've missed any previous episodes, check the archive!