DiabloFans

Dear Diablo Players,

Now that Diablo III has been out for two months, I would like to take a step back and discuss the launch, the feedback from the community, and talk about what the future holds for the game.

We’ve had an enormous amount of feedback since the launch. I speak for everyone at Blizzard when I say that we appreciate the passion and affection many of you have for the Diablo series. We truly believe “Every Voice Matters,” so I want to thank you for sharing your experiences in an effort to help us improve the game. Your support makes it possible for us to continue doing what we do, and we never take that for granted.

The launch week of Diablo III was memorable for many reasons — some positive, and some not so positive. We were thrilled that Diablo III had the biggest PC-game launch ever, surpassing the lifetime sales of Cataclysm (the previous record holder for biggest PC-game launch) in a matter of weeks. We’ve been floored by the response.

However, the launch had many challenges as well. It has always been difficult to forecast how many players we will have. With World of Warcraft, it was a challenge to handle the immediate demand when we launched back in 2004, and that was just in North America. We eventually expanded to other regions and reached nearly 5 million players by the end of the first year, and there were a lot of growing pains with that. However, we’ve never gone from 0 to more than 6 million players across multiple continents within a few days with a brand-new game. For Diablo III, we looked at historical sales for Blizzard games and other top-selling PC games and watched preorder numbers. We even upped our estimates to ensure we had additional capacity, or so we thought. In the end, it just wasn’t enough, and that is something we will work hard to conquer for future releases.

In response to the immediate and overwhelming demand for the game, the team worked around the clock to support all regions, increase capacity, ship additional hardware to our datacenters, and troubleshoot and fix bugs as they sprang up. While things have by and large been running smoothly for several weeks now, various game-related issues have come up that we have either already responded to or are continuing to investigate (such as the latency issue some of you are experiencing) and make adjustments for. Rather than address every subject individually, I’ll just say that even as we work to address or resolve current issues, it’s always possible that further issues will crop up. We hope that our actions in the past have demonstrated that above all else, we’re committed to delivering an awesome game experience, and we hope you’ll have faith that we will continue to keep that commitment and respond to any new or outstanding issues quickly.

We are not satisfied with breaking launch records; we want people to continue playing and enjoying Blizzard games for a very long time. The Diablo III team has made an epic, entertaining, and beautiful gaming experience. That being said, we know that it isn’t perfect. Our teams are working hard to improve the game balance, build on our design, and listen to what players are saying to make it the best game it can be.

You’ve seen some of that work already in patch 1.0.3, and you’ll see additional improvements with patch 1.0.4. On the game balance front, this update will contain changes designed to further deliver on the team’s goal of promoting “build diversity,” with buffs to many rarely used, underpowered class abilities. Another topic we’ve seen actively discussed is the fact that better, more distinct Legendary items are needed. We agree. Patch 1.0.4 will also include new and improved Legendary items that are more interesting, more powerful, and more epic in ways you probably won’t be expecting.

We’re also working on a number of interface updates, including social improvements that will allow players to more easily view their friends’ achievements, more quickly join games, and more efficiently communicate with each other. In addition, we’ll be making updates to the auction house in the future to provide players with better information through tooltips and notices, offer improved search functionality, and more.

Regarding the real-money auction house, our primary goal for including this in the game was to provide convenience and peace of mind for those players who might otherwise turn to third-party services to buy items. Black market trading sites can put accounts at risk and create many customer service challenges. We felt that the players themselves also deserved the opportunity to benefit from the extra loot they found, as opposed to having all of the benefit go to the black market/illegal trading organizations. We know the auction house isn’t perfect, but with your help and feedback, we’ll be able to continue making it a better experience for those who choose to use it. On the flipside, we are also committed to ensuring you have a great experience with Diablo III without feeling like the auction house is mandatory, which was never our intention. Thank you for all the feedback about that.

One other common topic we’ve seen in the forums is the always-connected experience, and the perception that the online requirement is nothing but an ineffective form of copy protection that has already been cracked. While we’ve never said that this requirement guarantees that there will be no cheating or game cracks, it does help us battle those problems (we have not found any fully functional cracks). More important to us is that the online requirement is critical for the long-term integrity of the game experience. I fully understand the desire to play Diablo III offline; however, Diablo III was designed from the beginning to be an online game that can be enjoyed with friends, and the always-online requirement is the best way for us to support that design. The effectiveness of the online elements — including the friends list and cross-game communication; co-op matchmaking; persistent characters that you can use by yourself, with others, and in PvP; and some of our customer support, service, and security components — is tied directly to the online nature of the game. These and other online-enabled features are essential to our design for Diablo III. That said, there are still improvements we believe we can make to expand the online experience and make co-op play even more rewarding, and this will remain one of our priorities moving forward. Overall, while there are some downsides to the online-only approach, I still believe this was the best long-term decision for the game.

I know many of you are also looking forward to patch 1.1, our PvP update, which will provide new experiences and give you a whole new way to apply the skills you’ve picked up while battling demons. This patch will also build on the social and auction house changes I mentioned above, and the team will continue to fix bugs and further tune game balance as well.

We’re also working on a gameplay system that will provide players who have max-level, high-powered characters new goals to strive for as an alternative to the “item hunt.” We’re not ready to get into specifics just yet, but I can say that we’re actively taking your feedback into account as we plan out the future of the game.

As always, we appreciate your candor and passion. Your constructive feedback and thoughts are valuable — they will continue to help us be a better company. I just want to reiterate that while we can’t claim to have ever shipped a perfect game, we are committed to supporting our games relentlessly and making improvements where we can. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Mike Morhaime

Would it help to explain that it's not a subscription based game?
I'd be curious to know why xfire users have stopped playing specifically, because our internal numbers are steady. Anyway, it doesn't matter, and it's not something we can successfully argue. If we post numbers we're clearly liars, etc. etc. There are a million ways to try to read into everything we do. (Source)

It is one piece of what determines an item's "budget". You can think of an item as a blank slate, and by placing specific labels on it that have pre-determined "costs" the item essentially has a number of points it can then "spend on itself". The game will say "This is an ilvl 63 rare set of gloves". Those labels determine what affixes it can have, its maximum and minimum ranges, as well as damage, speed, armor, etc. Essentially every part of the item is determined by its type (common, magic, rare, legendary), what kind of item it is (head, chest, sword, etc.) and item level. Crafted, Legendary and Set items follow the same rules, but can have set affixes on them that don't change but still have a range to roll.

Item's also have broad ranges, and will overlap. The below concept of that overlap is in no way accurate or indicative of anything at all, except to illustrate the overlap.

Completely made up power scale that has no basis in anything:

<--------ilvl61-------->

<--------ilvl62-------->

<--------ilvl63-------->

I'm probably missing something in there, but that's the basic gist. We're working on adding a ton of the more nitty gritty game design specifics to the Game Guide up-top. We're shooting for something not too unlike the old Arreat Summit to detail systems and the inner workings of the game, which should help with this specific question as well.

A crystal shield used to absorb a double swing from the fat colossus and now it destroys the shield and half my life.
We're aware the Colossal Golgor is bugged, and attacking twice. The other situations you mention aren't on our radar, but we'll look into them.

As for overall damage increases, no changes went in, but we'll do some spot checks just to make sure no bugs cropped up from some of the other fixes.

Are you going to fix the repair costs, or am I just going to stop playing since I lose 50k-100k gold a night due to the fact that you nerfed my class to the point where it's unplayable? Playing a DH with no passive defenses or active defenses (lol 1 second SS with a 2 second CD) is a joke.
We like the repair costs where they are now. I'd recommend hitting up the DH forums and see if there's some help others can offer. There are a few guides and threads that might provide some helpful tips on staying alive.

Purchasing through your Battle.net account should allow you to use your Battle.net balance. It's not an option on the Blizzard Store, though, which is separate from digital purchases directly on your account.
What can I purchase with my Battle.net Balance?

I'm just curious as to why I cannot pay for my WoW subscription with it. Seems really silly.
We're working on it!

Possible legendary Updates in 1.0.4?
My wording is usually picked pretty carefully. We're not changing it. New set in 1.0.4 might be different though.

Did you mean 1.1, or are Legendaries getting updated sooner now?
We'll have more information as we get closer to future updates. (Source)

RMAH and Item Drops
JOURNALISM! I think the claims in the original article have been sufficiently addressed as being devoid of context and fact by others here as multiple replies have been made, very publicly, on the topic.

If you'd like to discuss the basic premise of the AH and item drops, feel free, but I don't think that spreading misinformation is particularly helpful to any onlookers who don't happen to read each page. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The largest games convention on Earth is happening in Cologne, Germany from August 15 to 19 this year. Blizzard Entertainment is excited to announce our presence at gamescom 2012, where visitors will have the chance to witness the world premiere of the World of Warcraft®: Mists of Pandaria™ opening cinematic. The latest creation from Blizzard’s cinematics team will be shown on giant screens at our booth on Thursday, August 16, the first fully public day of the event.

We’re also pleased to announce that this year we’ll be showcasing World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Diablo® III, and StarCraft® II: Heart of the Swarm™! Don’t miss your chance to experience the games first-hand and to meet members of the development teams. In addition, be sure to get creative and join in our famous dance and costume competitions.

Visit the Blizzard Entertainment booth in Halle 6.1 (B21) at the Koelnmesse in Cologne and prepare to be epically entertained. For more information on gamescom, check out the official site.

Picking out the appropriate desktop wallpaper to fit your tastes and complement your décor can be an arduous task. To that end, we'll be offering you help every Friday (...roughly) by featuring a new downloadable Diablo III, StarCraft II or World of Warcraft wallpaper image on our community sites.

Here's what we have for you this week. Enjoy!