Wow, looks like D3 is going to be even less of an RPG than the first two.

Obviously Blizzard can feed you shit and you'll still call it ice cream, right Antdude? PT Barnum loved people like you.

My immediate reaction was similar, though not as vulgar. Then I remembered back to D2 and that most builds (possibly all?) had one of two stat progressions. You set set strength and dexterity to the minimum required by your equipment and spent the rest on vitality. The other option was to spend more on dexterity to keep your blocking at 75%. You did that at the cost of vitality. No one who understood how the game worked in nightmare or hell spent points in energy (mana). If your build didn't follow those guidelines, you were ineffective in the higher difficulty levels.

I'm cautiously optimistic above this. It seems the devs have thought this through, but until we hear about the later levels and how equipment will work, I don't think we should condemn it without further explanation.

P.S. For the record, I'm glad health and mana potions are gone! I will miss my exploding potions though.

You sound like those kids that accused Valve of anally raping them because Half Life 2 was now being broken up into Episodes. And the basement virgins who thought they could do a better job on Diablo 3's art direction than Blizzard. As if this was a personal insult to you. Sorry, nice try but thanks for playing.

Jeez, tone down the arrogance, would you? You sound like a Blizzard attack dog. People are passionate about their hobbies, whatever they may be. The majority of people who responded negatively to Half Life becoming episodic didn't accuse Valve of "anally raping them"; they didn't like the idea of episodic content diluting the epic feel of the Half-life brand. Episode 1 was pretty mediocre when compared to the original Half Life 2. Episode 2 was much better, but still not on par with the quality of the original. Thankfully, Valve released it as a part of the incredible 'Orange Box'. Blizzard will have to come up with something equally earth-shaking to stave off the many fans who hate this new direction. Also, it doesn't take a "basement virgin" to be discouraged by the art direction of Diablo 3. I'm not to keen on it myself from what I've seen so far, and I'm married, have 2 kids, and don't own a basement.

This is a bad move on Blizzards part in my opinion. Will it mean I will not be getting Starcraft 2? I don't know - it's far too early to write the game off completely, but my excitement for the game dropped drastically after this announcement. Blizzard obviously has some real convincing to do to get many of the Starcraft fans behind this.

Bah, why am I bothering? You just joined to defend Blizzard (I wouldn't be surprised if you were a plant), and you'll disappear once you've presented your insulting counterpoints on their behalf.


This comment was edited on Oct 13, 2008, 15:43.

Attribute points are not player-assignable in D3. They’re not in the blizzcon build, but we thought that was just to simplify things for new players at the show. Jay says no, that’s how it is in the game now. His explanation was that it makes items even more important, and that it lets the designers plan a bit better (they can assume players will have at least X in each stat by a given level). You still get attributes, and they will still be required for equipment use, but they are automatically assigned each level up. Thus every Wizard will have the same base str/vit/dex/etc as every other Wizard of the same level. Same for the Barb and WD

Fuck, shit, cunt, bitch. Ok call me a typical Bluesnews' hater all you want but right now Im contemplating methods of open warfare against Blizzard. I guess I should have seen it coming when WoW came out.

ActiBlizz == Ea == Games for Retards.....

Here's the thing, kiddo: If you were a Starcraft or Diablo fan at all, you'll still buy the game when it comes out.

And this is supposed to prove what, exactly? Or are you expecting us to act all surprised at your novel conclusion that fans of a previous version of a game are likely to buy the latest version?

Or, to use a counter-example, I'm sure a lot of fans of Deus Ex bought Deus Ex: IW. Should we conclude that IW didn't suck?

You sound like those kids that accused Valve of anally raping them because Half Life 2 was now being broken up into Episodes. And the basement virgins who thought they could do a better job on Diablo 3's art direction than Blizzard. As if this was a personal insult to you. Sorry, nice try but thanks for playing.

what was once a great company for gamers an is now losing their edge and only concerned with fleecing those gamers for every red cent they can get?

Here's the thing, kiddo: If you were a Starcraft or Diablo fan at all, you'll still buy the game when it comes out. You know it and I know it. But please, until then, feel free to nerd rage all you want.

This comment was edited on Oct 13, 2008, 04:30.

Now, they are completely changing the way they do business. Who wouldn't be concerned?

That announcement by itself isn't enough to make me concerned. But I am concerned by the other announcements that seem along the same line. Charging for character customization in WoW (not that I play it, but it's a step in the "wrong" direction, imo). Claiming that they'll have some sort of "pay" option in Diablo 3 for... well, no idea yet, but I can't think of anything that'd be good. Adding console-style "health/mana bubbles" to Diablo 3. Removing standard units from Starcraft 2 multiplayer.

Taken individually, again, each one of those is questionable. But taken as a whole, it has me greatly concerned. I've played all the single-player Blizzard stuff in the past (ie, everything but WoW), and enjoyed them. I was excited for Starcraft II and Diablo III. But the more I hear about them, the more I start to wonder if they are going to end up shooting themselves in the foot.

I suppose that's the wrong term to use - I expect that they'll do tremendous business, because, hey, they're Blizzard, and everyone and their dog will be getting the games. I'm more worried about what it'll do to their reputation if it turns out that they are going to start nickle-and-diming people. Blizzard got their reputation by putting out top quality products, and going the extra mile long after other companies have moved on (check the last patch dates for Starcraft and Diablo II). But it's one thing to earn a reputation, another to keep it. And, frankly, their reputation hasn't been tested in a long time now (Warcraft III expansion would be the last game I can recall - I don't count WoW in the same vein). I really hope that it's not overrated.

Any time a new poster comes in to defend a specific title, especially after a controversial announcement, I have a hard time shaking the thought that they are on the developer payroll for damage control. There were a lot of 'one-posters' when EA announced the ridiculous DRM for Spore, too. This is in no way as bad, but it is worrisome.

(I don't feel like re-writing the reason for my initial dislike of this announcement, so I'll copy and paste it here. Yeah, I'm lazy.)

...One of the things that made the original Starcraft's campaign brilliant was how they cleverly intertwined the races and their stories. Just when you got tired of playing Terran, things were switched up and you played the starkly different Zerg. Just when that that started to get old, it was time to play the again altogether different (but altogether awesome) Protoss. And in the final missions, you got to play with more than one. This is what made me play through the entire campaign, which is a rarity indeed since I almost never finish the single player portion of an RTS. All of this is lost by splitting the races into different releases.The game still has a good chance of being an all-time classic like the original; regardless, I am a lot less excited about this game than I was a few days ago.

Blizzard just wouldn't be Blizzard if they didn't miss their original release date by a year. Gamers tend to be forgiving of it because the quality of the title when it does come out is second to none. Now, they are completely changing the way they do business. Who wouldn't be concerned?


This comment was edited on Oct 12, 2008, 23:58.

I was at the Blizzcon panel when this was announced and believe me, there was no booing or bitching at this decision

Wow, you mean a bunch of obsessive fanboys didn't express their displeasure at getting screwed over by what was once a great company for gamers an is now losing their edge and only concerned with fleecing those gamers for every red cent they can get? Tell me Antdude, what did you do for the costume contest? Go as a brown-nosing fanboy? Oh right, you already are.

Any updates to MP will be deployed through B-net the same way it is now, so no one is left out.

Do you have a source for that comment? So far all I've seen is the fact that the expansions will have "updates" for MP - with nothing being said about whether those would be available to people who haven't bought the expansions.

150 to play what I used to be able to play for 50? Hey it's blizzard they can do anything they want and can not do wrong.

"I was at the Blizzcon panel when this was announced and believe me, there was no booing or bitching at this decision."

Yes, well most of us aren't big enough fans of Blizzard to go to Blizzcon so we won't be supporting Blizzard's stupid ideas with blind faith.

Well there is some good news and bad news to this. The bad news is that Korea will go bankrupt with 3 games to purchase. The good news is due to the economic collapse of Korea, we will no longer be pestered by gold farmers in any MMO.

wow thats retarded

Notice how they didn't actually answer the question.

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http://www.gamemusicjukebox.com/
Game p/reviewer for http://www.gameindustry.com/
DRM needs to die... now

BlizzCon 2008 Costume Contest Winner.

Looks like a Geisha riding a turtle

-----
http://www.gamemusicjukebox.com/
Game p/reviewer for http://www.gameindustry.com/
DRM needs to die... now

Way, WAY too much sandy vagina in this thread.
I was at the Blizzcon panel when this was announced and believe me, there was no booing or bitching at this decision. They clearly have some major plans for the Starcraft franchise.

Guys, take a breath and consider: Instead of waiting at least another year for the game, you get the Terran SP campaign and the complete MP(which has been done for a while, now) in the box. And, seriously guys, did anyone think that Blizz wouldn't release at least one expansion for the game?

Lots of you could care less about the campaign and will fire up Battle.net right away. You get all the Terran/Zerg/Protoss multi-player goodness right away.
Any updates to MP will be deployed through B-net the same way it is now, so no one is left out.

When the other campaigns come out, they will undoubtedly have some cool new additions as the game matures and the devs see how people are playing it. Probably some new units we haven't even seen yet, plus improvements to the editor for modders.

If the game has the same legs as the original, you will be playing it years from now, as well, so how do you not get your money's worth?

Yes, Battle.Net's future is still unannounced, but Blizz knows they have a good thing going now. Do you really think they would screw that up with a subscription or pay-to-play model? Just wait and let them announce the actual plan before you all jump off the cliff.

Think back on Blizzard's track record: Do their games just suck? Do they still support all their old titles? Do they at least try to keep the cheating to a minimum?
I'll go with a proven track record and keep an open mind.

if this isnt a factor of this game being pirated I dont know what is. I was all set to buy this game until I read that artical. They can now kiss my ass. Im so over Star Craft 2, fuck Blizzard and their stupid fucking ideas.

"We are going to monetize features so that we get to make them," said Wilson. "We kind of have to."

Uhh... have to? Is there ANY game company out there that makes more money than these guys? They don't have to do anything. I'm really worried that they are going to convince me to NOT buy this game.