I certainly hope it is too late to make a poll; I think you would find that most people think you're hitting the big red panic button without any good reason to do so.
Gameplay is the most important thing to Blizzard, and it is important to consider two things:
1) Diablo 3 is, for all intents and purposes, incredibly different from Diablo 2; and
2) If the previous aspects of gameplay do not gel with the new game (e.g., Skill Trees) then they must be changed.
I think you're reading into it too much. Especially since we really don't know what they have in mind.
Man. What I would give for the days of game development before developer/player interaction and social media came to be...
I'm more curious about if D3 will use breakpoints to determine casting speed (and blocking, hit recovering, attacking rates) like for D2.
Hm... I am curious about those now too. To what extent will these mechanics influence the game?
Call me basic, but I never really payed attention to these stats or factored them into important things to consider in D2. Casters always obliterated mobs regardless of FCR, Melee still got the job done with slower attack speed, etc.
But cooldowns in Diablo... funky. Imagine if Fireball had a 5 second cooldown. Poor Sorceress.
A large majority of the - forgive the expression - hardcore gamers I know have had experience and very fond memories of Diablo 2. Interestingly enough, Diablo 3 is one of those anticipated titles across the board (which is nice, as there will be a sizeable amount of friends to play with at release).
It really seems to appeal to people who invest large amounts of their time in all kinds of various genres - from MMO to FPS to Japanese Import, etc.
Record breaking? For PC/Mac sales records, yes. For universal sales records, no.
From what I've read, during gameplay at BlizzCons the cooldown was reported at 9 seconds. It isn't an instant spell a la Sorceress teleport either more of a Jump-Shift-Land kind of thing.
I enjoy the large disparity between city and ... wilderness? ... making sure to prepare sufficiently with friends before venturing out of a city adds to the uncertainty of the world beyond the walls.
That said, I'm on the fence about NPCs or small encampments or settlements out in the wilderness. The image of Flavie standing between the Blood Moor and the Cold Plains comes to mind. =P
There will be some skills that fall by the wayside once D3 hits the streets. You can't force a player to use all the skills they just do not want to use... or can you?
With the Wizard teleport, we have seen the most dreaded of gameplay mechanics introduced to D3: cooldowns. To what extent will cooldowns be a factor? If we have no choice but to cycle through most of our abilities (something noticeable in the gameplay videos thus far, but could be chalked up to skill exhibition) then no skill will be considered useless.
...on the other hand, the Monk gameplay couldn't possibly have cooldowns - and his gameplay looks delicious enough to eat.
I wouldn't say that Diablo 3 should involve more than 99 character levels or 3 difficulty modes, as 99 levels and 3 difficulties is one of those things that has been canon to the Diablo series.
I've played games in the past which involve a sort of "restart" of a playable character, where you reach the maximum level and then revert back to the 1st level with additional bonuses to that character in the form of additional stats or abilities (eg; obscure Nexon game "Shattered Galaxy" and some text-based MUDs).
But, personally, nothing is more banal than playing through the same game with the same character several different times with marginal increases each iteration... it really disconnects the gameplay. Not to mention issues of balance if low level characters have innate skill/stat increases.
Given the degree of player-developer interaction that we see with games now-especially Blizzard's ability to patch in additional game content at will-perhaps a better alternative to additional character levels and/or difficulty modes would be additional areas accessible only in Hell difficulty that are rather tough, even for the most seasoned Diablo veterans.
Especially with Abd al-Hazir wandering Sanctuary, who knows what tombs or temples he is liable to find...
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Gameplay is the most important thing to Blizzard, and it is important to consider two things:
1) Diablo 3 is, for all intents and purposes, incredibly different from Diablo 2; and
2) If the previous aspects of gameplay do not gel with the new game (e.g., Skill Trees) then they must be changed.
I think you're reading into it too much. Especially since we really don't know what they have in mind.
Man. What I would give for the days of game development before developer/player interaction and social media came to be...
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Hm... I am curious about those now too. To what extent will these mechanics influence the game?
Call me basic, but I never really payed attention to these stats or factored them into important things to consider in D2. Casters always obliterated mobs regardless of FCR, Melee still got the job done with slower attack speed, etc.
But cooldowns in Diablo... funky. Imagine if Fireball had a 5 second cooldown. Poor Sorceress.
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It really seems to appeal to people who invest large amounts of their time in all kinds of various genres - from MMO to FPS to Japanese Import, etc.
Record breaking? For PC/Mac sales records, yes. For universal sales records, no.
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Are cooldowns bad in Diablo?
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Remember: Size matters... but it's what you do with it that counts.
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That said, I'm on the fence about NPCs or small encampments or settlements out in the wilderness. The image of Flavie standing between the Blood Moor and the Cold Plains comes to mind. =P
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With the Wizard teleport, we have seen the most dreaded of gameplay mechanics introduced to D3: cooldowns. To what extent will cooldowns be a factor? If we have no choice but to cycle through most of our abilities (something noticeable in the gameplay videos thus far, but could be chalked up to skill exhibition) then no skill will be considered useless.
...on the other hand, the Monk gameplay couldn't possibly have cooldowns - and his gameplay looks delicious enough to eat.
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I've played games in the past which involve a sort of "restart" of a playable character, where you reach the maximum level and then revert back to the 1st level with additional bonuses to that character in the form of additional stats or abilities (eg; obscure Nexon game "Shattered Galaxy" and some text-based MUDs).
But, personally, nothing is more banal than playing through the same game with the same character several different times with marginal increases each iteration... it really disconnects the gameplay. Not to mention issues of balance if low level characters have innate skill/stat increases.
Given the degree of player-developer interaction that we see with games now-especially Blizzard's ability to patch in additional game content at will-perhaps a better alternative to additional character levels and/or difficulty modes would be additional areas accessible only in Hell difficulty that are rather tough, even for the most seasoned Diablo veterans.
Especially with Abd al-Hazir wandering Sanctuary, who knows what tombs or temples he is liable to find...