Wilson on Diablo III and Press Conference
Of particular interest was the PvP arena, a revolution in PvP functionality, at least as far as the Diablo franchise is concerned. With the relatively short length of duels in Diablo II and I, with battles often over in a matter of adrenaline-pumping seconds, the validity of arenas was brought to question with none too little skepticism.
Though in previous games duels would last for only moments, the new arena system in Diablo III will allow for rounds of PvP within a single game, increasing overall battle length. Similarly, the introduction of team-based PvP will bring cooperative play to a new height, with players more easily covering each other's backs, allowing strategy to clime to a prime spot of concern, as opposed to the frequently-power-oriented mindset of Diablo II.
Jay mentioned that it is a concern they have, but that the development team will be able to more accurately asses PvP when more players are able to get a hands-on experience with the new system. This would presumably take place during a form of beta, though patching after release is also a possibility.
PvP and PvE have been a grey area in previous renditions of the Diablo franchise, but, as mentioned yesterday, the team is more concerned with preserving the PvE element of Diablo, and so PvE and PvP will be regarded separately. Unbalance of a skill in PvP arena battles will not cause the team to nerf the skill for PvE players, and Jay wants players to realize that skills that seem useless in PvE games may be entirely valid in a PvP context.
This same concern for preserving the PvM focus of the game has led to a number of other decisions, such as the removal of toggle-able hostility in PvE games (as was done in Diablo II), as well as arenas being entirely separate games from story and monster-slaying PvE games. Ultimately, when it comes to PvP and PvE, he wants us to know that the two are entirely separate.
When it comes to the arenas, themselves, Jay mentioned that although randomization for the actual arena area is entirely possible, and quite easy to do since arenas are made with the same system that composes dungeons, the team has several concerns that are causing them to be careful with how they offer arenas to players. Randomization, while obviously offering many different arena experiences, also can create many useless and irritating PvP environments. Offering more options for such customized games is something that they want to play low so that players will spend less time with the bureaucracy of setting up a game and more time slaughtering each other. It's ultimately a question of how useful such functionality would be, how much it is desired, and how much good it would do for PvP players.
Diablo III Q&A Panel
Turns out, hardcore is going to stay hardcore. One of the coolest bits of information we got the from Q&A panel was that if you take a hardcore character into the Arena, if it dies, it's dead. No second chances, no life after the arena, just dead. Rounds were not elaborated on however, so we may end up seeing 1 round matches with hardcore characters. Either way, now you'll finally have a way to kill your max level hardcore player in style.
We also learned a bit about how the stash will be working. As it turns out, we now have a shared stash between characters. It also turns out, that the shared stash is massive. Add in the fact that Blizzard will never delete your characters, and everyone out there who enjoys hoarding their items just got an early birthday present.
I hope not!
It won't they said the only thing to be gained from Arenas were titles and achievements.
ohh. thats good
I thought it seemed small at first too, but the reality is you don't want to spend minutes trying to find your opponent. D3 isn't going to be a game of complex preparation tactics - you have to just jump into the fray, and I think that's the message they are trying to keep with small arenas. Even in that small space, it felt like there was plenty of maneuverability for those who were skilled at it. I got kited around many times trying to chase down Wizards
Knowing about a game doesn't worsen it. And im sure that Blizzard won't tell us everything there is to know about D3, anyway.
Winning PvP arena rounds gives your character points which you can then spend on cosmetic changes, titles, achievements, etc. You don't just "get" them, you get a strange currency that gives you the choice to pick what you want. I didn't catch any name for the points, whether they're trade-able, or anything like that, though.
No LAN, too. They want to control and monitor your competitive online gaming, and they want to put every game into the 'e-sports' mold, with a casual angle too. Ready for 'bejewelediablo'? Don't worry, you'll get plenty of facebook spam about it when it arrives.
I believed that too, but Jay said quite specifically that they have absolutely no intention or care to make D3 a e-sport game, that "SC2 got that covered" and D3 is a PvE game, etc...
So no, I don't think thats D3's fate. It better not be.
At least the fact that they're doing an e-sports type arena means that upper management is imposing its ideas on the team, which is actually a good thing in terms of meaning it might actually be released in the next few years.
It plays really well. I played it for hours, and I'm not a PvP guy. It's fast-paced, instant action, requires strategic planning. The rounds are cool - keeps track of things for you, if you care. Nothing's forced down your throat, it's really nice x.x I may have had a wet dream about it last night.
Uhhh they specifically said they aren't doing e-sports arenas because they don't want to make those sacrifices. So yea. Wrong. They basically explicitly said this is a PvE (aka PvM) game and PvP is on the side. I love that decision personally. I like PvP and I like PvE, but trying to balance the two together can be a nightmare/impossible.