Diablo 3 - Reaper of Idiots

[General Maxson]

What are you doing there, Boyasky.

$$$

Man's gotta live and provide somehow...

 

[DraQ]

http://www.pcgamesn.com/diablo/diab...ing-storylines-multiplayer-made-it-impossible

Diablo III was going to have branching storylines - but multiplayer made it "impossible"
Suddenly, it makes sense. Why, in the early days of Diablo III, did Blizzard hireLeonard Boyarsky - one of the originators of the Fallout series, and later lead developer on Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - to head up story on a linear action RPG?

Here’s why: an early version of Diablo III had a branching narrative, and a sliding moral scale that opened up new player choices. But it was not to be.

“That was one of the roads we went down early on when I first started,” Boyarsky told PCGamesN at a recent Reaper of Souls event. “And that was one of the reasons I think that they were interested in me joining the team, was because I had experience with that kind of RPG, and we were really interested in exploring that.”

Boyarsky has remained Diablo III’s lead world designer for the past eight years - but in that time he’s come to believe that “you really can’t have an action RPG that has player choice”.

“It’s because it moves quickly, but I think the bigger issue has to do with multiplayer,” he explained. “Because if we offer you two different paths and I want to take a different path to my friend, how do we then reconcile that?”

Boyarsky noted that other multiplayer RPGs released since Diablo III have attempted solutions to the same problem - but in the process rendered choice-making “very superficial”. And that’s not something the man who designed Fallout 1’s endings is interested in.

“If I’m making an RPG where you have choice, I want it to matter,” he said. “And it was really not possible to make it matter and to make this game.”

During Diablo III’s development, the story team would have multiplayer meetings every two weeks - and every time they’d leave with “headaches and no answers”.

“Because every time we came up with a solution it was like, ‘Well, what happens when your friend does this’,” said Boyarsky. “We just never really came up with a good solution.

“If you’re making an action RPG, especially a multiplayer one, it really makes it impossible to go down that road.”

Players would have had branching conversation choices - and a ‘corruption’ system would have seen players gain access to different conversation options as their characters fell from grace.

In the end, though, Boyarsky and his colleagues told a linear story that was easily skippable for the portion of Diablo’s playerbase who were solely interested in loot.

“I think eventually we came down too hard on the side of the players who didn’t really want a lot to do with the story,” said Boyarsky. “And that was very problematic because our story started out as something a lot more complex than we could probably tell in the context of what we were doing.

“And instead of us realising that soon enough and really stripping that down, we continued to try to tell that story.”

Do you think it’s possible for a multiplayer RPG to offer a branching narrative without compromise? The Old Republic picked from conflicting player responses with a roll of the dice - while Divinity: Original Sin has more recently made cooperative conversations one of its calling cards.

What are you doing there, Boyasky.

TL;DR:
Blizztard cannot check for an extra condition in an if().

 

[Jedi Exile]

They had promised something like that back in 2008 when D3 was announced, that it will have more story and quests than D2. In fact it turned out that D2 still has a better story and quests, and maybe even better characters (I still remember a few of them).

 

[Xor]

What are you doing there, Boyasky.

Have you seen Blizzard's offices? They probably have free blowjobs from supermodels in the employee lounge.

They had promised something like that back in 2008 when D3 was announced, that it will have more story and quests than D2. In fact it turned out that D2 still has a better story and quests, and maybe even better characters (I still remember a few of them).

Diablo 3 is very much a modern Blizzard production - very high production values, very shallow characters and a plot built around hollywood cliches.

 

[eremita]

I always felt that Blizzard games are exclusively about gameplay... In this regard, I would say that D3 is pretty good. I'm also digging the art style and level design. Who gives a shit about their plots and characters? Their games are designed around good and balanced core mechanics (which is not that surprising with that amount of man-hour).

So in my books, Boyarsky is still the man.

Also, name of this thread is not funny.

 

[Nael]

Diablo 3 is very much a modern Blizzard production - very high production values, very shallow characters and a plot built around hollywood cliches.

It has begun.

<Insert pretty colors>

The End...

?

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

Blizzard released a propaganda regarding a fanart contest on Deviant Art. At the moment, over 500 people are sending their share of work to them.
Heres the sauce: http://moonbeam13.deviantart.com/journal/Diablo-III-Fan-Art-Contest-433277359
The prizes for the winner is: 5k dolars and a trip to their HQ.
Inside the terms on contract they say that every single art send to them will become their property.
I know that Blizzard fucked up with Diablo3, but why is noone seeing what they are doing right now?

What's the fuss about. You ain't gonna produce anything worth the copyrights anyway. And even if it's worth, the proposed reward is better than any possible profit sharing. Just think about it. 5k dollars AND a chance to vandalize a restroom at Blizzard. Dollars are just money, but the restroom part is priceless.

Plus if its fan art, then that means you are drawing characters, monsters etc. in which Blizzard already owns a copyright. So your fan art is a derivative work which would be copyright infringement without Blizzards permission to use it. That's right, fanart & fanfic are copyright infringements. Most companies let non-commercial infringement slide because it would be stupid to punish your fans for giving you free advertising, but they can still sue you if you start doing something they don't like. For example, by making money off of your Diablo fanart outside of a Blizzard contest.

 

[Applypoison]

Just tried out the pre-expansion patch, and frankly it's not all that bad. Those looking for dat roguelike feel/complexity will still be disapointed, while those who just want to enjoy a good ol' aRPG with a nice layer of depth, relevant customization (and actual carrots to chase) will probably enjoy this more than vanilla.

It helps that upgrading your gear will probably help you find better items in the near future now, instead of *possibly* making a difference every 50 hours of farm

 

[Angelo85]

Why is a MMO being discussed in the RPG Forum?

Here's the official Diablo Megathread over at the MMO Forum, where it belongs:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...the-game-diablo-3-is-a-massive-decline.71430/

 

[Shannow]

Guys, is this game a MMO? Please tell me.

I'd put every game that requires to be online for registration and/or play in this forum. But that's just me

 

[Wilian]

So modern MMO = unified chat-hub.

 

[Xor]

Guys, is this game a MMO? Please tell me.

I'd put every game that requires to be online for registration and/or play in this forum. But that's just me

So everything that requires Steam, Origin, etc are MMOs now? 'K.

 

[Angthoron]

Guys, is this game a MMO? Please tell me.

I'd put every game that requires to be online for registration and/or play in this forum. But that's just me

So everything that requires Steam, Origin, etc are MMOs now? 'K.

Looks like it wasn't only RPG that needed a proper definition.

"For me, MMORPG is a guy in armor on a horse killing monsters with magic and sword registering online and/or playing"

 

[Average Manatee]

And at the same time Crate is making an ARPG with online and branching via factions and reputation (Grim Dawn).

Guild Wars did it nearly 10 years ago, and it was basically a glorified Diablo 3. Made by plenty of people who worked on Diablo 2 as well.

 

[Hobo Elf]

And at the same time Crate is making an ARPG with online and branching via factions and reputation (Grim Dawn).

Guild Wars did it nearly 10 years ago, and it was basically a glorified Diablo 3. Made by plenty of people who worked on Diablo 2 as well.

Must've been one of the expansions then because I only played the original Guild Wars.

 

[sea]

Everyone seems to think Reapear of Souls solves a lot of problems with the base game... at this rate I'm not sure if I care enough to bother redownloading and reinstalling.

Inside the terms on contract they say that every single art send to them will become their property.

It's standard in the terms of use for literally almost every games company that content submitted to the developers for contests becomes their property. Find me an example of a company that has then gone and used said work in advertising/promotion or claimed it as their own. I'll bet you can't find one. It's just a legal liability thing so a user can't say, submit a contest entry and then sue the company for displaying the image without the user's explicit permission, or so the company display the user's content on their web site on a contests page, or something.

 

[NeonGenesis]

I am actually having quite a bit of fun with the new loot patch, last login before that was probably a year and half ago . What i always liked about Diablo 3 compared to similiar arpgs is the feel of battle, and by it i mean how every hit feels like its connecting, you feel you are really bashing that sword,spells, arrow into the enemy. It might be cause how enemies react to being hit or because production values for blizzard games were always high especially in sound department, or just lovely gib/dying animations.

Despite that, Diablo 3 was shit. I could play for 10h straight and not find a single upgrade for my existent weapons, way to much randomisation destroyed this game, and after all Diablo 3 was always about loot and mindless clicking. Even legendary items were shit, cause you were depending on random attributes to screw you over cause you get +300int on a fucking two handed barbarian axe, and even what made Diablo 2 legendary items interesting (special attributes) was not even implemented. Only way to get decently equiped was using AH. There was just no reason to play this game, you'll never find anything useful, even if you find a legendary or two, odds are some random yellow item is going to be better, and core game was not that good to start with.

Anyway back to the changes they made. There is no longer inferno,hell,nightmare difficulty progression. There are 4(5) preset difficulty LVL's to chose from when you start a new game that can be changed anytime. I am having a blast playing Demon Hunter LVL1 on torment difficulty (1st slider). The game is challenging, every little item/skill upgrade is meaningful, i am actually having quite fun jumping, placing traps, slowing, kitting enemies, it feels rewarding. Also the loot is finally after 2 years fixed, or so it seems after 3h of playing. I am mostly getting class loot (like 90% of the time) and affixes are always class based on specific class items, and now i am actually even exited for rare items (yellow) cause of some sweet special attributes they added.

I swore a year ago after i bought Diablo 3 and HOTS (what a shitty ass story telling that was ) for SC2 that ill never buy a Blizzard game ever again, but i just might get this Diablo 3 expansion if rest of the game is this fun with the new patch.

 

[thexspr]

^ sup gaudaost

 

[Shannow]

Guys, is this game a MMO? Please tell me.

I'd put every game that requires to be online for registration and/or play in this forum. But that's just me

So everything that requires Steam, Origin, etc are MMOs now? 'K.

Not what I wrote, but I'll go with "yes" just because of the butthurt comments it might generate

 

[Metro]

Why would that cause butthurt? It's glorious!

 

[Lyric Suite]

You need to have a persistent world where every individual in a server can potentially interact with everybody else on that server. That's the definition of a MMORPG.

 

[Ninjerk]

Also, name of this thread is not funny.

Twas meant to be accurate, not funny.

 

[Scruffy]

So, for those who doesn't know Blizzard has come up with a new expansion pack for Diablo 3.
It might be old news, but heres whats up:
Blizzard released a propaganda regarding a fanart contest on Deviant Art. At the moment, over 500 people are sending their share of work to them.
Heres the sauce: http://moonbeam13.deviantart.com/journal/Diablo-III-Fan-Art-Contest-433277359
The prizes for the winner is: 5k dolars and a trip to their HQ.
Inside the terms on contract they say that every single art send to them will become their property.
I know that Blizzard fucked up with Diablo3, but why is noone seeing what they are doing right now?



inb4 Minecraft fanboy

i know i say this EVERY damn time, but:
do you guys remember when blizzard was good? warcraft 2? the first starcraft/diablo? when they actually cared about their customers?
even the lost vikings was better than anything they've come up in the last decade.

 

[General Maxson]

So, for those who doesn't know Blizzard has come up with a new expansion pack for Diablo 3.
It might be old news, but heres whats up:
Blizzard released a propaganda regarding a fanart contest on Deviant Art. At the moment, over 500 people are sending their share of work to them.
Heres the sauce: http://moonbeam13.deviantart.com/journal/Diablo-III-Fan-Art-Contest-433277359
The prizes for the winner is: 5k dolars and a trip to their HQ.
Inside the terms on contract they say that every single art send to them will become their property.
I know that Blizzard fucked up with Diablo3, but why is noone seeing what they are doing right now?



inb4 Minecraft fanboy

i know i say this EVERY damn time, but:
do you guys remember when blizzard was good? warcraft 2? the first starcraft/diablo? when they actually cared about their customers?
even the lost vikings was better than anything they've come up in the last decade.

Hey, Lost Vikings were awesome!

Blackthorne too.

 

[Scruffy]

Blackthorne too.

nevar forget!