Diablo II Dev: Diablo III Was Originally an MMO

[The Wooster]

Diablo II Dev: Diablo III Was Originally an MMO

With its auction house, microtransactions and awlays-online requirement, it doesn't seem surprising that Diablo III started life as an MMO.

At least, according to Blizzard North co-founder Max Schaefer.

"When I was working at Blizzard a million years ago we were working on Diablo III and it was an MMO," he told The Verge. "We were going to do the Diablo version of World of Warcraft. Blizzard obviously changed that pretty quickly, so we left to start Flagship Studios and we brought in a lot of the guys, so they rebooted with their own team."

Now we're talking ancient history here. Schaefer left Blizzard North, taking a sizable chunk of Blizzard talent with him, to form Flagship Studios back in 2003. The Studio only managed to release one game, the ill-fated Hellgate: London, before it went under. Schaefer's next start-up, Runic Games, found success with its likable Diablo II knock-off, Torchlight.

Schaefer went on to add that he doesn't think competition with Diablo III will do the upcoming Torchlight II any harm. In fact, he pointed out that the rate of Steam pre-orders for the game has risen by 40% since Diablo III's release.

"We're kind of piggybacking on their marketing," he added.

Source: The Verge [http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/6/15/3088982/diablo-3-originally-intended-to-be-massively-multiplayer-game]

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[MetallicaRulez0]

Diablo 3 pretty much is an MMO, except you can only play with 4 players at a time. It has universal chat channels and an auction house just like most MMOs.

 

[Something Amyss]

That really does explain a lot.

 

[Vault101]

.....[i/]originally?[/i]

fucking MMO's.....

what? I don't like them

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Well they kinda Butchered it didn't they?

"We're kind of piggybacking on their marketing," he added.

No you're piggybacking off their crappy customer service.

Marketing, customer service, is there really a difference these days with the word of mouth and the internet?

 

[Andrewtheeviscerator]

found success with its likable Diablo II knock-off, Torchlight.

Actually Torchlight was more of a dumbed down Diablo 1 knock off. Torchlight 2 is more like a dumbed down Diablo 2 knock off.

OT: Meh, kinda of a surprise. Probably for the best anyways I don't think Diablo 3 would have been as good had it been in a true mmo format to be honest.

 

[oldtaku]

Yeah, it's still an MMO. Just with very, very limited server populations.

 

[Dags90]

The part where Diablo 3 fails probably the most miserably is in its itemization[footnote]Actually that's not it, but that's what counts the most in the long term.[/footnote]. It's the epitome of boring and shallow. There are no items to look forward to, no sets to gather before you get to the "end-game", the legendaries are embarrassingly weak, no interesting or unique stats, nothing. Not to mention the issue that only exacerbates these problems - the loot game is designed for the auction house. It's cluttered with fluff stats [http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/7522/gameoftheyearloot.png] and is random [http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/9083/itemprogressiongoty.jpg] beyond any sort of reason and the vast majority of the "rare" or "legendary" items you get are just completely useless.

The crafting sucks balls, too. The gems are neutered, weak and cost exorbitant amounts of money for minuscule improvement; and the blacksmith is at least 10 times less efficient [footnote]Thanks to costing a ton to make anything and by being just as random as the rest of the game's loot.[/footnote] than going to the AH to buy something.

And there's my short rant on Diablo 3.

I'm not going to say I disagree, but it's stuff that's definitely fixable and Blizzard has admitted they've mucked up a bit on a lot of this. I sort of like the "rares as BiS" bit for certain things. It helps cut down on homogenization a bit. They definitely dropped the ball on weapons though.

Inferno balance is also wacky. I got through Act 1 at a reasonable pace, but elite/rare packs take me about two checkpoints of kiting backwards to kill in Act 2. Blacksmithing needs to have its priced slashed dramatically, at least by a half.

Leveling itemization has and always will be a pointless endeavor in games with quick leveling systems without major gearchecks. I'm actually kind of disappointed there are so many low level unique items.

 

[The Pinray]

This is the most surprising bit of news that I have ever read in my entire life ever.

Spoiler: Seriously

 

[Evil Smurf]

Now I really don't want to get it

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

hahaha, more proof that the devotion to blizzard is utterly undeserved

also, way to make yourself sound like a dick in your own statement, man

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I was having fun with Diablo until the brick wall of difficulty that is Act 2 inferno I have many Butcher runs ahead of me >_> I kind of refuse to use the real money auction house rofl.

I have already preordered Torchlight 2 and might buy four copies for my friends after I play it and see what it's like.

 

[Tamrin]

It doesn't help that Diablo III was finally cracked some short while ago either.

 

[weirdee]

welp, see yall in path of exile soon

keep all of your interest in a small tote bag so that it'll be safe while you navigate back out of diablo 3

 

[Bat Vader]

I wonder why Blizzard decided to scrap it as a full MMO. With the auction house and the always online requirement I think it would have done better as an MMO.