Battle.net has a post on the future of
Diablo III written by Josh
Mosqueira, who is filling the game director position for the action/RPG sequel
vacated by Jay Wilson in January.
Josh fills us in on his background and qualifications and also offers some
general thoughts about the direction of the game, which continues the theme of
concentrating on revamping items and closing the Pandora's box they opened with
the game's auction house:
In the year since Diablo III launched, we've
made good strides, but there are still things we can improve and new surprises
in store for everyone. As Travis mentioned earlier, itemization is one of our
big focuses for Diablo III moving forward. We want items to feel more
meaningful, and we want players to be excited about the next loot drop. Our goal
is to make the loot experience more enjoyable for ALL players. This includes
reducing the amount of loot that drops while improving the overall quality,
introducing targeted Legendaries, and giving players ways to directly customize
their character's armor—both visually and mechanically. We're also looking into
ways to reduce the impact of the Auction House. While we think the feature does
provide a lot of value, it shouldn’t feel like the end-all-be-all force driving
character progression.
We've built a solid foundation for the future of Diablo III and we're focused on
staying true to the core essence of the game, while pushing boundaries to evolve
gameplay in ways that will keep players like you excited. We hope you'll agree
that with each update, the game keeps getting better and better, and we're only
just getting started. In the future, we'll be focused on preserving the core
fantasy by cultivating the roots of the Diablo storyline, fine-tuning the heroes
for what lays ahead, and creating new monsters and demons that will once again
plant the seed of fear in your hearts. While some Diablo players out there are
just looking for a fun single playthrough of the game, for many others, part of
the appeal of the game is coming back again and again to test their mettle
against challenging foes in an ongoing search for rare treasures, with the goal
of making their heroes more and more powerful. We want to give those players,
and really everyone, even more reasons to keep coming back to Sanctuary, and we
have some great ideas brewing for ways to address randomization, what our
endgame should offer, and how to make playing online with friends truly
fulfilling.