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

[hiver]

Where is my astounded and shocked smiley when i need it...

Was he the lead designer? Was he the producer? Was he, is he the boss of Activision or Blizzard?
wtf are you talking about?

besides, last time i checked D3 sold ... how many millions of copies? And how much money they skimmed off the item store?
Not that i think its a good game, or a good Diablo game, or that i would touch it even with a stick.

 

[Sensuki]

He was the lead story guy as per the OP of this thread no?

So he would get to decide on those elements.

D3 sold quite well, but my point was that they could have spent less development money (and brought it out sooner) if they didn't try to do a branching storyline game and then change their mind.

 

[hiver]

He didnt fing decide anything! He was told what to do and within which scope they want to have those Elements. Are you completely out of your fing mind?

 

[crawlkill]

what makes you think that the guy who was in charge of the story wouldn't...be in charge of the story? you seem to be inventing a narrative, here.

oh directly addressing hiver again, derp

I got them to refund my copy of Diablo 3 after I finished it by copying a friend's form letter complaining about the status of the servers. joke was on me, though; another friend had made over $3000 from the real money auction house by botting before he got banned.

 

[tuluse]

In a huge company like this, no person is solely responsible for anything. He had bosses who approved him exploring branching narrative.

Obviously, he does have some responsibility though.

I doubt him looking into branching narrative really cost Blizzard much money.

 

[Bitcher1]

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..

“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.”

This quote suggests Blizzard approached him in the first place because they wanted to make D3 nonlinear, not that the idea came from him.

 

[theSavant]

>The Tragedy of Diablo III..."

How tragic.

 

[Ninjerk]

The RoS ad has been showing up on Twitch (replete with dubstep). Looks seriously shitty.

 

[hiver]

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..

“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.”

This quote suggests Blizzard approached him in the first place because they wanted to make D3 nonlinear, not that the idea came from him.

Of course.

Anyone thinking that a newly employed game designer is going to come into Blizzard main office and order the execs to change the scope of the game and its main features - and therefore also impact or decide how much money and resources are spent or not - is beyond idiotic.

And it was actually a good idea and exactly what Diablo games missed, not fucking loot and auction houses multiplayer. But the other option was - more money option. Not only because of auction house but because it was a good excuse to employ radical DRM.

 

[Azarkon]

They DON'T respect their player base. That's why this issue even pops up. They're afraid Little Johnny is going to join a public game and have his mind blown by it being a different branch, and then complain about plot incoherence on the forums eg But I just killed Diablo! Why am I working for him all of a sudden? WTF BLIZZARD FIX THIS SHIT!1!!

Blizzard treats their fans no differently than children, which to be fair, isn't too off the mark. It's the target audience.

 

[Shadenuat]

I don't understand why did he go for the company which isn't particularly known for it's focus on storytelling (the only Blizzard story I like is StarCraft 1). I mean, there are other companies out there who do RPGs more like what he was working on and focus on branching story lines and meaningful choices like Biow--.. I mean, like a-.. well for example-....

kay nevermind.