Interview The Tragedy of Leonard Boyarsky: "Diablo III was going to have branching storylines"

[Rake]

God damn what a sad read. Hope Obsidian hires him eventually.

It'll happen only if Obsidian stabilizes. I wouldn't leave Blizzard to go to a studio that lives Project by Project and i could be layed off at any time, and he won't do it either.

 

[Sensuki]

fuck you, Boyarski. Fuck that loser...

Fixed for you.

Agree.

it was HIM who fucked Diablo 3!!!

Woulda been good if it was the same as Diablo 2 but better, but that's what you get for trying to bring a different RPG principle to an already good game. Years and millions wasted.

Still there is no guarantee that it wouldn't have been a failgame otherwise.

 

[Duraframe300]

God damn what a sad read. Hope Obsidian hires him eventually.

It'll happen only if Obsidian stabilizes. I wouldn't leave Blizzard to go to a studio that lives Project by Project and i could be layed off at any time, and he won't do it either.

Atm Obsidian is as stable as it's ever been. Considering Stick of Truth seems to be doing well with reviewers (Broseph isn't the only one I've seen who told people they shouldn't cancel their pre-orders) attractivness will only rise.

Granted for the smaller rpg way waiting for PE sales would be safer.

 

[Delterius]

If multiplayer was an issue then I tend to think it has nothing to do with 'what if your friend does something else'. Friends can talk with each other and decide on a course of action, indeed, exploring multiple storylines should have been a major incentive for replaying the game. I'm afraid this game was doomed from the moment it was decided to focus and monetize the online multiplayer with randoms. That's when things get unwieldy.

Though I still can't believe they wouldn't trust their fanbase that much. FFS.

 

[hiver]

Agree.

it was HIM who fucked Diablo 3!!!

Woulda been good if it was the same as Diablo 2 but better, but that's what you get for trying to bring a different RPG principle to an already good game. Years and millions wasted.
Still there is no guarantee that it wouldn't have been a failgame otherwise.

You cant be that stupid can you?

 

[Sensuki]

the first part of that post was on the sarcastic side.

Diablo 2 is a great game. They should have just kept the formula, then D3 wouldn't have been so fucking retarded.

There's way more good normal RPGs than there are ARPGs.

 

[hiver]

well, the thread is full of stupid, and... a fire fighting plane just flew over my house... hmm... - anyway, im not telepathic.
had to ask.

 

[Seerix]

Majority of Diablo's fanbase are loot obsessed manchildren(and actual children) so Blizzard is actually pretty smart to have scrapped the idea of branching storylines. They would get no end of forum and technical help dramas because of some random shit differences. And making a fully functional totally handholding "branching story" system would slow down the gameplay and probably mess with that wondrous money making system they have.

 

[Daemongar]

Diablo 2 is a great game. They should have just kept the formula, then D3 wouldn't have been so fucking retarded.

Diablo 2 actually made significant improvements over Diablo 1. They were still the same core game, but they expanded out the player stats, skills, classes, and items. Diablo 3 was stale because it was too much like Diablo 2, only with souped up graphics.

Blizzards aversion to risk/sticking to the D2 formula/focus on shareholder needs made D3 a boring repetitive game, not any programmer with ideas that they could bend D3 towards more RPG elements. Making a game like D2 ten years after D2 came was a dumb idea, as most elements have been done to death. TO DEATH. There only innovation in D3 was the cash auction house. And because of this boring lack of innovation, the game sold a gagillion copies and pleased shareholders, but contributed nothing. I played through the game once and never looked at it again. I saw it all, and it was dull.

Boyarsky may have believed he could make something innovative, but just like any publicly traded company, risk aversion makes everything shit (see: Starcraft 2)

 

[tuluse]

Obsidian or Inxile please hire Boyarsky and Jason Anderson. Thx.

 

[Roderick]

Obsidian or Inxile please hire Boyarsky and Jason Anderson. Thx.

and make Bloodlines 2

 

[SuicideBunny]

Obsidian or Inxile please hire Boyarsky and Jason Anderson. Thx.

and make Bloodlines 2

with less bugs and less shitty combat this time.

 

[General Maxson]

Obsidian or Inxile please hire Boyarsky and Jason Anderson. Thx.

and make Bloodlines 2

with less bugs and less shitty combat this time.

And no boring shitty unfinished parts (ending).

 

[crawlkill]

God damn what a sad read. Hope Obsidian hires him eventually.

It'll happen only if Obsidian stabilizes. I wouldn't leave Blizzard to go to a studio that lives Project by Project and i could be layed off at any time, and he won't do it either.

Are they that unstable? I don't remember seeing mass layoffs or anything announced here at the Codex. Living project to project is pretty standard for a business that isn't owned by megabucks corporations. The luxury to flop on a big project doesn't really exist outside of the gigantic publisher demonoloy sphere, I don't think. Independent developers are never really more than one or two big-budget low-revenue titles away from closure.

 

[hiver]

Obsidian or Inxile please hire Boyarsky and Jason Anderson. Thx.

and make Bloodlines 2

with less bugs and less shitty combat this time.

In isometric PoV.

... with point and click interface.

 

[SuicideBunny]

In isometric PoV.

but... but... jiggly breasts... are a very important story element in bloodlines...

 

[hiver]

Anyway, fuck bloodlines - they wont get the Ip anyway.

Do that post apocalyptic beauty!

 

[Sensuki]

Diablo 2 is a great game. They should have just kept the formula, then D3 wouldn't have been so fucking retarded.

Diablo 2 actually made significant improvements over Diablo 1. They were still the same core game, but they expanded out the player stats, skills, classes, and items. Diablo 3 was stale because it was too much like Diablo 2, only with souped up graphics.

Blizzards aversion to risk/sticking to the D2 formula/focus on shareholder needs made D3 a boring repetitive game, not any programmer with ideas that they could bend D3 towards more RPG elements. Making a game like D2 ten years after D2 came was a dumb idea, as most elements have been done to death. TO DEATH. There only innovation in D3 was the cash auction house. And because of this boring lack of innovation, the game sold a gagillion copies and pleased shareholders, but contributed nothing. I played through the game once and never looked at it again. I saw it all, and it was dull.

Boyarsky may have believed he could make something innovative, but just like any publicly traded company, risk aversion makes everything shit (see: Starcraft 2)

But it wasn't like D2. They focused on the wrong elements of 'same'.

 

[hiver]

Which had nothing to do with Leonard. He is an employe. And you know who the actual boss of Blizzard is.

 

[Sensuki]

The only thing that I said that had anything to do with Leonard was that he tried to turn D2 into a non-Diablo game, which ultimately was a bad decision and ended up costing the company heaps of money. Obviously it was their decision to scrap the idea, but I don't care how good his intentions were, I'm not going to give him my blessing for trying to do that.

Inevitably though nothing may have saved the game from the money-sapping, lazily designed piece of shit that we got, due to Activision-Blizzard's corporate faggotry. I am never purchasing or playing a Blizzard (or BioWare) game again.

 

[MrEvilGuy]

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

Sad sorry, but at least it's nice to see one of the designers trash-talking the game they spent 8 years making, despite its commercial success.

 

[Shannow]

1. I only watched the cutscenes on youtube and read summaries on the codex. But from that the story sounded awful. So it's not like they created anything compelling here in the first place. (Diablo also doesn't need much story, only a setting for the mood and a reason to murder hordes of enemies.)
2. They decided to turn this into an always online action house. If they'd stayed true to the formular of single-player game with multiplayer attachment they wouldn't have had any problems. Either have the branching story only in the singleplayer part and have a pre-set (canon) story for multi-player. Or have multi-player be completely separate (like in Dungeon Siege). Multi-player could have been the linear continuation of the story after finishing single-player. You could even have had factions depending on the choices in single-player... (Not to mention the options that are even compatible with multiplayer that have already been stated in the thread.)
   
3. I have no idea if the real Diablo-players are disillusioned and as critical as the codex, but overall D3 seems like a huge success. So fuck story, fuck character development, fuck single player, fuck gothic atmosphere, fuck offline, fuck LAN, fuck the codex (who?): All your money are belong to us! /Blizzard

 

[Sensuki]

None of the hardcore D2 players I know liked D3 that much, although some have come back to it after the fixes/changes. Others have moved to Path of Exile.

 

[hiver]

The only thing that I said that had anything to do with Leonard was that he tried to turn D2 into a non-Diablo game,

sigh... he did not try to turn diablo into anything. He is not making such decisions, ffs...

which ultimately was a bad decision and ended up costing the company heaps of money.

It did?

Obviously it was their decision to scrap the idea, but I don't care how good his intentions were, I'm not going to give him my blessing for trying to do that.

You couldnt even if you wanted to.

Inevitably though nothing may have saved the game from the money-sapping, lazily designed piece of shit that we got, due to Activision-Blizzard's corporate faggotry. I am never purchasing or playing a Blizzard (or BioWare) game again.

wait... you bought d3? wwuaahahahaha....

lmao

 

[Sensuki]

Who's decision was it to try and make Diablo 3 into a branching storyline game then? I highly doubt it was anyone else but him. The game would have cost less to develop if they did not try to do that in the first place.

Sure I bought Diablo 3. I bought my key from a dodgy cd key site. Played it through to Inferno with some mates over the course of a couple weeks, then uninstalled and never played again.