Diablo 3 (08/01/2011)

        Today at 12:01AM EST the veil was lifted off of the Diablo 3 beta press event. A plethora of details were released into the gaming community, with some hit and miss information (particularly the Diablo 3 BattleNet auction house, but more thoughts on that later). The fans of the Diablo title have been waiting eleven years for Blizzard to release information on the new installment, and in the first and second quarter of 2011 the evidence was piling up that they had been indeed working on the fabled game. Now in quarter three anticipation is rising, and the only thing most fans can think to do is scour for even the tiniest bit of information on the long awaited game. After a press conference last Wednesday, where media was allowed time to preview the game, a couple large chunks of information were set free.

        First was the fact that skills points had been eradicated from the game. No more does one have to worry about building the perfect character through the point allocation system, as the Blizzard dev's have decided that it the point system in Diablo 2 was flawed because after a while it became more of a cookie cutter, copy and paste character skill allocation. They argue that most players would level up to the skill they desired, then respec the character to place all points into the skill they wanted. Some fans claim that this removes a level of immersion, and prohibits character customization. Jay Wilson assures us that customization is kept in tact through Runestones (a previously announced game system, see a 14 minute Jay Wilson interview here about the runestones effects.)

"They would have magic missile, they'd get to arcane orb and decide 'I don't want magic missile anymore, I want arcane orb.' So they'd respec that early skill. Take five or six points out of it, and mass dump it into arcane orb." -Jay Wilson

             Next would have to be the Banner system and the Recall Stones. Let's start off with the more familiar item on this list, the Recall Stones. As it seems so far the stone allows instant fast travel between town and a current location, if need be. Similar to the Hearth Stone in Blizzards World of Warcraft, but only in that way as it has no cooldown and has a 10 second cast meaning if you are interrupted by an attack it will be impossible to use. This is essentially the way to eliminate running in the midst of a battle, further elevating the strategic points of combat. Secondly we have the banner system. The banner will be a reflection of your personal accolades, displaying how many PvP battles you have been in and also all of your in game achievements. Besides being used for this, lack of a better phrase, virtual dick measuring contest it also serves an in game purpose. Upon entering a friends game where he is far out of town, you won't have to worry about traversing the wretched lands fighting monsters and demons alike, you may click on his banner in the town which will teleport you directly to them.

An Example of a D3 banner

                Finally we find ourselves among talk of one of the most controversial developments so far in the Diablo 3 universe. The Auction House. Of course taking after World of Warcraft's auction house it allows players to sell items over Battle.net for gold, but not only can you place items up for in game gold but you can sell them for real world cash. That's right, Blizzard has developed a system where you can sell your Diablo 3 items for some serious dinero. You are allowed the options of placing it directly into a BattleNet account, which you can only spend on the Battle.net sight, or you can send it directly to a third party system (One speculation is PayPal) to get you some of that sweet, sweet legal tender to line your pockets. This is of course leading to the same joke over and over and over again about quitting your job to play Diablo 3 full time. HA HA. In all seriousness this has gotten under some fans skin. The obvious down side is that one could spend hours and hours on Diablo 3 searching for the best equipment, but a friend or fellow gamer could spend ten minutes looking for the same item on the Auction House and shell out some cash for the same gear. If you really think about it though, the only people investing in this auction house are probably just trying to level up fast to show off their virtual dick size yet again.

Money, Money, Money

              So in the long term, this may not be such a big deal. The thrill of the game is to PLAY the game. If you're paying your way through it you might as well go to FaceBook and sink some of your hard earned cash into FarmVille because, let's face it, buying your way through a game is a fast way to make it a boring experience. So for those who plan to play it long term, and are disgusted by the thought of this happening, don't worry about the size your virtual dick (they are just overcompensating anyways). Of course this is all speculation and open to change. It's important to realize this is all guesswork, and since Diablo 3 is only in beta testing, nothing is set in stone. By the time the real deal hits the shelves (hopefully by quarter four this year) everything listed here may have been changed.

-Chris (Designation15) Henson

08/01/2011

Sources:
Machinima Realm

Force Strategy Gaming