Inventory Bags Explained

In a recent response recorded via the Developer Tracker here on DiabloFans, Bashiok has responded at the Battle.net board regarding bag usage and findability in Diablo III.

First off, he starts with rationalization of the importance of inventory in the game as a viable concern for gameplay and game depth:

Quote from Bashiok »
Upgrading storage size is a great reward, and can be much better than any incremental weapon/armor upgrade. (Kills/min could easily calculate out to be much greater without having to stop to clear inventory as much with a bag upgrade as compared to a damage increase from a weapon upgrade.)

Building off the last point, it helps add the sense of your character becoming more powerful and gaining more from the time spent playing.

Increasing the storage size over time/play experience is a great way to scale the player's sense of the game's complexity.

Beginning with a small and limited amount of space teaches the player early on that inventory management is an important part of playing the game - and sometimes generating income.

Making and keeping the player aware of their limitations can also help keep a better sense of structure and focus. Being overwhelmed is sometimes as detrimental to a play experience as being bored.

Although many of us might not fully agree with everything he has said here, they are legitimate considerations, partly issues that we did not think about in Diablo II: LoD, where we were given a fixed inventory without any hope of upgrading it besides the Horadric Cube which was, in my opinion, somewhat inadequate for storage.

He followed up with something that might make more than a few Diablo fans happy about the prospect of increased inventory sizes for individual players:

Quote from "Bashiok" »
Also keep in mind that while we're obviously dropping bag upgrades off of monsters now, we could choose any number of alternative ways to get them to the player. Or maybe a combination of different ways. Whatever, I just wouldn't focus on the 'how' of them being delivered right now.

It seems from this we can safely assume that at least some, if not all, of the inventory expansions (bags) will be attainable as standard in-game drops, as opposed to a royalty service that many had been speculating. Also worthy of note, however, is that he explicitly said "maybe a combination of different ways", cluing us off that perhaps it might include a mixture of both in-game drops and royalty fees, which Blizzard has stated would be a minimal part of the up-coming game, or perhaps from various quests throughout the game.

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So, what do you think? Do you agree with his stance on the new bag system being implemented in the world of Sanctuary? Does it seem better for the Diablo community now that it's been officially stated that bags will be dropped from in-game monsters?

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