Diablo III Catch-All

I have a meeting with the Bob's.

Blizzard employees must be former military, they have hurry up and wait down to a science.

My boss IMs me to tell me he's emailing me and emails me to tell me he's calling me.

LiquidMantis wrote:

My boss IMs me to tell me he's emailing me and emails me to tell me he's calling me. :(

I had a 20 minute conversation with an attorney on Wednesday where she told me what she wanted from a project and finished the conversation with "Its all in the email I just sent you."

past 2 weeks we have had meetings to discuss the following meeting...

Grenn wrote:

Huh.

That is pretty cool.

Aries wrote:
Grenn wrote:

Huh.

That is pretty cool.

Agreed, and that kid has a badass name.

I am Deckard Cain Elder, and I have come for your daughter(s).

What father can say no to that.

*snrk* What father can resist saying "Stay awhile and listen!" to that?

Hypatian wrote:

*snrk* What father can resist saying "Stay awhile and listen!" to that?

Followed by "if you don't have her home on time, I will get all Diablo on your ass!"

MeatMan wrote:
Hypatian wrote:

*snrk* What father can resist saying "Stay awhile and listen!" to that?

Followed by "if you don't have her home on time, I will get all Diablo on your ass!"

or "If you don't have her home on time, you'll lose an ear and a leg"

or "FRESH MEAT!"

Looks like there is a new patch dropping today. I wonder what's changing?

EDIT: Here's a link to the patch notes. Yay hardcore mode!

MyBrainHz wrote:

Looks like there is a new patch dropping today. I wonder what's changing?

Shared gold/magic find is going to have some interesting implications.

shoptroll wrote:
MyBrainHz wrote:

Looks like there is a new patch dropping today. I wonder what's changing?

Shared gold/magic find is going to have some interesting implications.

I will NOT be the magic/find Female Doggo. We will share the burden.

shoptroll wrote:

Shared gold/magic find is going to have some interesting implications.

But does stop a lot of chatter about how its unfair for People who are all decked out in MF gear not contributing as much to a group dps wise.

Now the complaints will be, so all the other people in a group are leaching my magic find. LOL.

emyln wrote:

But does stop a lot of chatter about how its unfair for People who are all decked out in MF gear not contributing as much to a group dps wise.

I'm curious to see if the first expansion will provide a character like a Bard or the Diablo II paladin that specializes in party buffs/auras while staying away from the majority of combat. Unless that already exists in D3... (I'm not following this closely so I can have some element of surprise when it finally shows up in the mail)

Hehe a Bard like character would be VERY interesting. Cos typically they excel in group situations only, while all the classes in any Diablo could kick ass solo.

emyln wrote:

Hehe a Bard like character would be VERY interesting. Cos typically they excel in group situations only, while all the classes in any Diablo could kick ass solo.

They could put Bards in like the two Harpists in Kung Fu Hustle. That would be fricken sweet.

Aries wrote:
emyln wrote:

Hehe a Bard like character would be VERY interesting. Cos typically they excel in group situations only, while all the classes in any Diablo could kick ass solo.

They could put Bards in like the two Harpists in Kung Fu Hustle. That would be fricken sweet.

Or in Bard's Tale. Cary Elwes could even reprise his snarky role.

For the record, I am still not in the beta.

http://www.sadtrombone.com/

I'd think if they're chopping bits out to get a release, they're due to release "really soon", and expanding the beta looks less and less likely.

Scratched wrote:

expanding the beta

That's called "going gold" in industry parlance

Other than getting rid of one of the classes or loot, there isn't really anything left to cut anymore, is there? Loosely following this thread, it seems that D3 will be much closer to D1 in the number of features and quality of polish than D2.

Luggage wrote:

Other than getting rid of one of the classes or loot, there isn't really anything left to cut anymore, is there? Loosely following this thread, it seems that D3 will be much closer to D1 in the number of features and quality of polish than D2.

It does make me wonder about Blizzard, like Valve they're quite an anomaly in the game development business. For all the D3 copies they're going to sell, in the time and budget that it must have taken to make D3, I'm sure another company would have been able to make and publish NotDiablo 1 ~ 4 with varying evolutions and feature sets to eventually end up at the same place, yet Blizzard work to different logic that it has to be one release (plus expansions).

I guess I'm just wondering what that alternate universe Blizzard would be like where they release early and often to build up their games over time. With (temporarily) cutting PvP it does seem like their "when it's done" attitude is biting them enough that they can't do it all.

I think the main thing to keep in mind with this realease is that the development team has changed dramatically since D1/D2, and I really think they're unsure of how to carry the Diablo legacy forward while still retaining the "feel" of past games. Warcraft III and Starcraft II I think both had similar episodes of making drastic changes to the formula before ultimately settling on something more conservative and familiar. I'm actually looking forward to reading about the development process for this game. I think everyone agrees that this has been a fairly tumultuous development process as far as Blizzard games go.

As to your question about other companies releasing Diablo clones in the same amount of time... How many C&C games were released between Starcraft: Brood War and Starcraft II? Like, didn't EA pretty much raise that franchise up and nearly burn it to the ground?

Scratched wrote:

I guess I'm just wondering what that alternate universe Blizzard would be like where they release early and often to build up their games over time. With (temporarily) cutting PvP it does seem like their "when it's done" attitude is biting them enough that they can't do it all.

Probably the same alternate universe where Vivendi/Sierra bought Valve and merged them with Blizzard.

My question is whether or not they're gutting PvP entirely or if it's just the Arena match stuff. If you can still go hostile in a dungeon and gank people then there's really nothing lost from the formula. In that case, I don't think they're going to patch in Arenas, but instead include it in the first expansion.

Regardless, it does sound like the team was given an ultimatum for a release date this year and that's probably forcing them to take a long hard look at their game and focus the development/design a lot. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some change in project management to get the game back on track and ready for release. There's been too many sweeping changes announced lately to suggest anything else.

I think it is quite comical at this point. Diablo is not exactly a very complex game. And it is not like they are re-inventing the wheel here. I think Blizzard is really beginning to slip these days. A victim of their own hype.

shoptroll wrote:

How many C&C games were released between Starcraft: Brood War and Starcraft II? Like, didn't EA pretty much raise that franchise up and nearly burn it to the ground?

I know what you're saying, but really C&C4 is the only big mis-step they did with C&C, and that was due to them taking what was originally going to be a F2P game and shoehorning it into a western full price release box. (note: I haven't played C&C4 going by repeated strong advice given when it turns up on deals).

There's also the upcoming Generals2, but that remains to be seen, and could be just them slapping the brand recognition on a "we need a strategy game" motive.

ZaneRockfist wrote:

I think Blizzard is really beginning to slip these days. A victim of their own hype.

I think this sentiment is expressed before every Blizzard game is released, and so far, it hasn't been accurate one time. How about we wait until the game is released and we can see that they actually did slip up before we go all doom and gloom on them once again.