Diablo III's New Game Director Addresses The Minions

[Steven Bogos]

Diablo III's New Game Director Addresses The Minions

Josh Mosqueira, taking over from Jay Wilson, stresses the need for itemization improvements.

Earlier in the year, Diablo III game director Jay Wilson announced he was Battle.net blog post [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121582-Diablo-III-Game-Director-Steps-Down], telling us a little bit about himself and his plans for the game. In his introduction, he specifically stressed the need for itemization improvements.

Mosuqeria has quite the impressive resume, having worked as a writer and designer on iconic games such as Homeworld, Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, and FarCry. He served in the Canadian army, has written two books, and is very deeply in love with the Diablo franchise. His previous responsibility was determining whether or not a console version of Diablo III would be possible, so you can either thank or despise him for that depending on your feelings of the recently announced PlayStation port of the game [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122269-Blizzard-Bringing-Diablo-III-to-PlayStation-3-4].

"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 don't just ship a game and leave it at that; we make sure that it grows and evolves after launch," said Mosuqueria, as he went on to detail his plans for Diablo III's future. "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." Mosuqueria wants items to drop less frequently, but be more powerful on average, and also reduce the impact of the Auction House.

"In the future, we'll be focused on preserving the core fantasy by cultivating the roots of the Diablo storyline," finished Mosuqueria, promising "new monsters and demons that will once again plant the seed of fear in your hearts."

Source: Battle.net [https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/9773963/messages-from-hell-the-future-of-diablo-iii-6-5-2013]

Permalink

 

[Ferisar]

I don't know what to make of the concluding line in his statement. I mean, I like it, but it's awkwardly putting down the current game, which is, well, awkward. (Not to say I disagree fully, just think it's a little out of character for PR talky-talk)

His resume is certainly a bit grim...dark. I suppose if anyone should be overlooking development of a game like Diablo it's probably him.

The stance on Itemization is certainly a plus, though. Right now, there is a whole lot of confetti and very little behind that confetti. I think most people get tired of grabbing yellows and legendaries knowing that they will likely be sub-par in comparison to anything they are either wearing or looking to buy. The AH... ugh. I don't even know what to say. The AH right now is just... cringe-worthy. There's a lot of functional budget selling on it, but the better items skyrocket so hard in price it becomes absolutely hilarious. I can't possibly imagine what the plan for that is, but here's to hoping.

 

[Compatriot Block]

They'll never get rid of the auction house, and it really doesn't bother me. It's not like people didn't buy stuff in Diablo II with real money.

If they make gear more appealing and less time-consuming to find (within reason), I will continue to not use the auction house and have fun. It doesn't affect me because I can just say no.

 

[Atmos Duality]

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.

Oh yeah! Good strides!
You've managed to not implement PvP after a solid year, watched the in-game economy nearly crash, and fucked up security so badly on your end it resulted in my friends and family's accounts getting hacked serverside.
(Resulting in a pain in the ass that I had to deal with, since I'm the most computer-literate of the lot. So even when I go out of my way to avoid Diablo 3, I still had to deal with its bullshit.)

A job well done! *golf clap*

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.

Well if the D3 team truly felt that way then perhaps they shouldn't have built the entire fucking game around milking players at the Auction House.

Sincerity is in practice; not promise.
And it's not like this is an original complaint; shit-itemization has been a major issue since the game launched.
You don't even have to play the game to know that; it's that infamous.

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.

Ooooohhh; "Core essence", "pushing boundaries" and "evolve gameplay". This shit is so cutting edge it's Darwinian.
Before I was cynical, but after hearing such an original and rousing line I'm so fucking stoked right now!

Seriously: Did you think of that yourself? Or did marketing slip that in there?

We don't just ship a game and leave it at that; we make sure that it grows and evolves after launch.

"We don't send the cattle to the butcher; we milk them cow's tits til they shrivel up and fall off!"

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Yeah, you're a couple of years too late Mr Mosqueira.

Now that I've splurged on Metro: Last Light and reached enlightenment, I'm heading back to Torchlight 2 and Grim Dawn!

 

[ciasteczkowyp]

I wonder how he plans to reduce the impact of this toxic auction house that changes the game into a gold grind. In DII It was fun to kill some Mephistos in the morning just for a chance of getting nice, valuable loot, now there's no reason to turn on the game.

 

[Nurb]

Good riddance. In his own words... Fuck that loser

 

[Ferisar]

Good riddance. In his own words... Fuck that loser

I really do not understand this meme in the slightest. When some dipshit insults you publicly, I think you are allowed to privately talk shit about him among colleagues/friends. The only reason it ever became a big deal is because it got public, despite not being intended for the public.

Like, seriously. It's not even worth talking about.

 

[Nurb]

Good riddance. In his own words... Fuck that loser

I really do not understand this meme in the slightest. When some dipshit insults you publicly, I think you are allowed to privately talk shit about him among colleagues/friends. The only reason it ever became a big deal is because it got public, despite not being intended for the public.

Like, seriously. It's not even worth talking about.

He made it public by insulting the creator of the IP via facebook over some criticism of the execution of the game, of course it's going to to be talked about.

Brevik didn't do a damn thing

 

[Ferisar]

Good riddance. In his own words... Fuck that loser

I really do not understand this meme in the slightest. When some dipshit insults you publicly, I think you are allowed to privately talk shit about him among colleagues/friends. The only reason it ever became a big deal is because it got public, despite not being intended for the public.

Like, seriously. It's not even worth talking about.

He made it public by insulting the creator of the IP via facebook over some criticism of the execution of the game, of course it's going to to be talked about.

Brevik didn't do a damn thing

Except What Wilson said was to his colleagues who felt insulted after Brevik decided to take the route of "side-ways dickbaggery" in an interview. It was a response to a facebook comment that his team made in RESPONSE to Brevik's comments. It's a very common rule of thumb not to talk shit about other developers. It's just rude and makes you look bad. The biggest reason why Jay Wilson got all of hell's shit flung at him was because people needed am outlet for being pissed at D3, not because he did something unjustified.

I don't take either side, because both sides acted like ten year olds, however, at least that provides an even context for both parties to be on.

CAPTCHA: mirror
Pretty much captcha, pretty much.

 

[Aeshi]

He made it public by insulting the creator of the IP via facebook over some criticism of the execution of the game, of course it's going to to be talked about.

Brevik didn't do a damn thing

"This game wasn't made how I would've made it (and is therefor shit)" is Criticism now?

 

[Arawn]

Aren't they porting Diablo III to consoles? Is that the reason for this change? I heard the console versions won't have the online only play function at least. Not sure about the AH system. Would it be tricky to have the PC and console players together? Most games separate them.

 

[wolfyrik]

Good riddance. In his own words... Fuck that loser

I really do not understand this meme in the slightest. When some dipshit insults you publicly, I think you are allowed to privately talk shit about him among colleagues/friends. The only reason it ever became a big deal is because it got public, despite not being intended for the public.

Like, seriously. It's not even worth talking about.

He made it public by insulting the creator of the IP via facebook over some criticism of the execution of the game, of course it's going to to be talked about.

Brevik didn't do a damn thing

Except What Wilson said was to his colleagues who felt insulted after Brevik decided to take the route of "side-ways dickbaggery" in an interview. It was a response to a facebook comment that his team made in RESPONSE to Brevik's comments. It's a very common rule of thumb not to talk shit about other developers. It's just rude and makes you look bad. The biggest reason why Jay Wilson got all of hell's shit flung at him was because people needed am outlet for being pissed at D3, not because he did something unjustified.

I don't defend either side, because both sides acted like ten year olds, however, at least that provides an even context for both parties to be on.

CAPTCHA: mirror
Pretty much captcha, pretty much.

I couldn't disagree more. Blizz South, headed by Jay Wilson, took over the game series that Brevik created with his team.
They could have learned from the mistakes made with D2, which were painstakingly addressed by Brevik and his Blizzard team who turned D2 into a game that people would still be playing ten years later, they didn't. Wilson started out developement with the philosphy that, diablo 2 was a bad game and detailed what he thought was wrong with it.
Wilson's crew then went on to make all the same mistakes of the D2 launch plus some new spectacularly bad ones.

Brevik originally said he was looking forward to seeing D3 and complimented the team on their previous achievements.

Later, post launch, D3 is a terrible game as recognised by many people. Brevik in another intverwiew detailed a few things he would have done differently, understandable given his experiences and the things he learned with D2, which have allowed hime to make far better games Like Torchlight. Nowhere near the scathing that Wilson gave D2. At no point did he call D3 a bad game or say that anything about it was bad, unlike Wilson on D2. Sure it may have been some sideways, may not have.
Wilson and his team, being freakishly hypersensetive, took the whole affair out of proportion. No doubt because of the denial they were in at the piece of shit they produced. Wilson publically stated "fuck that loser".

I cannot agree on any level that both parties were equal. Frankly I'm amazed at the diplomacy of Brevik. He could have described the litany of errors that went into ruining this piss-poor sequal to his game. He didn't. In my mind he would have been justified in directly saying
"oh my god, what have you done? Why would you do that to the loot system? You killed an iconic character with little more than a minion, are you insane? Always online DRM, that is a joke, right? Did you not even begin looking at how D2 was made and the horrible mistakes WE had to rectifiy? Have you even played it?"

 

[wolfyrik]

On topic, new guy looks like he could so something with D3. I'm not touching it with a barge-pole til the adjustments are live. If it survives til, then. Sure as hell not buying the expansion.

 

[elvor0]

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.

Oh yeah! Good strides!
You've managed to not implement PvP after a solid year, watched the in-game economy nearly crash, and fucked up security so badly on your end it resulted in my friends and family's accounts getting hacked serverside.
(Resulting in a pain in the ass that I had to deal with, since I'm the most computer-literate of the lot. So even when I go out of my way to avoid Diablo 3, I still had to deal with its bullshit.)

Do we have proof that it was Blizzards fault they were hacked? Because....well a lot of people say that, when in reality they've unwittingly given away their account details or fallen victim to a keylogger. In which case, it's not Blizzards fault, because the "hackers" have your password. I mean if you've got the authenticator, the odds of your account being compromised are pretty slim. And by slim I mean almost non existent.

True there was a small leak a while back, but still, authenticator, and it was hardly "really badly", not compared to say...Sonys leak. Plus Blizzards customer support are generally pretty good, it boils down to "I got compromised" "Ok, we'll roll you back to last Tuesday or whatever."

 

[Michael Collett]

I really wanted to love D3. I still hope they can turn it around, but a LOT of work needs to be done. The key mistakes of the game in my opinion were fueled by ideas stolen from MMOs - but without understanding why they work so well in MMOs and why they might not work in a ARPG.

Social Features: What social features? The diablo forums? No persistent world, no persistent groups (guilds), inability to tell what the players in an multiplayer game will be doing (in fact you are just randomly dumped in an MP game).

The Auction House: Works in MMOs because of extensive crafting systems and complicated material based economies and item drains (bind on equip items for example). I agree the BoE is a bad idea for diablo, but without some reason for items to removed from the economy the economy becomes crap.

Stats: You skill damage is tied to you stats way too much. They needed to do this to support the new skill system of no skill points, but the implementation is crappy. In D2 the main stats were pretty devalued, so extra stats like Crushing Blow, MF and Cannot Be Frozen were much more interesting. Because you are dependent on the almighty Crit trifecta, vitality, resistance and main-stats a lot of gear that is otherwise interesting but lacking in these stats is junk. Adding new affixes just makes it worse because now there is even less chance to get the good ones. The best rolled items have Vit/Crit%/CritDam/Mainstat/All Resist/Socket. You can only roll six affixes so there isn't even room for something interesting. It becomes a grind for bigger numbers - just like in an MMO. Except in an MMO loot is somewhat guaranteed from bosses, raid rewards etc. There is none of that in D3.

"The item grind" - Jay Wilson used to say D2 was all about the gear drops. Problem was, that for me the D2 was about the level grind. I liked choosing a wacky new build and grinding my way solo to see if I could make it work. Cool gear just fell in to my lap. Sure I never had any high-runes and engimas but I had a hell of a lot of fun for 10 years... In Diablo 3 there is no reason to relevel a character so that entire aspect of ARPGs - the planning and execution of an awesome unique warrior is completely absent. The time it takes to plan a build and determine if it sucks is around about 10 minutes in D3 and feels exceedingly shallow. It basically ripped the mask of the D2 system and showed me how boring picking 6 skills really was. Jay talked about the level grind like it was a punishment in D2. But for me, it was the game... I loved the D3 skill system originally, until I discovered it had no depth. Just like the rest of the game.

These features/paradigms can all work in games. But you need to know why they work, how to craft the mechanics and what needs to be in place to support them. Jay clearly was lacking this knowledge. I hope they can fix it through a better understanding of these fundamentals.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Yeeeeeaaaaah, we all know the best way to reduce the impact of the auction house.
and all know it's the one option you're not going to take.

Not sure if you mean that they should can it. There's too much money and complications in it now, just canning it would create a multinational clusterfuck due to so many people having real money in the system. Sorting all that out as well as dealing with all the angry people who use the game to make money would cost a shite-tonne of money. If stopping the service doesn't just stop an inflow of cash but actually loses them money, I don't imagine investors behind Activision Blizzard would be very pleased with that.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not defending it's existence. At best I would call an attempt to fix an issue that resulted in fracturing the very core of the game they were trying to make.

The only way I see to get rid of the auction house without without dealing with most of the issues that shutting down the auction house's would cause would be to:

A). Raise the % of cash Blizzard takes of transactions to something ridiculous like 85% which would deter people from using it since their ratio of time spent farming to profit made from it would be so low it wouldn't be worth it. This would garner quite a bit of bad press and complaints but it wouldn't be that bad (from a company standpoint, internet shitstorm is guaranteed anyway).

or..

B). Under the hood, increase magic find for all characters(and increase it in a way that people are more likely to find loot for the character they're using) to a point where the auction house is an impractical user choice to get better loot since the time required to upgrade is no longer measured in bloody days. This introduces the issue of people flooding the auction house with all their newly found loot but I think since less people need to look there, sellers would slowly drift from using the service as their stuff isn't needed and even if it were, a flooded auction house makes it harder for your item to be seen amongst many other identical ones.

Either way, both scenarios see a gradual drop in auction house use. Once the average uses of the auction house lower to a reasonable amount, Blizzard can then give a month or two deadline to users to clear what they can before the auction house servers go down.

...Long story short, you don't try to blow monster's head off, it's dangerous and can cause all sorts of trouble. What you do is tranquilize it and put a plastic bag over it's head as it begins to lose consciousness, then, once you know the threat is minimal...


Then you tell everyone you'll never create such a monstrosity again.


...This was fun.