Blizzard Exorcises Companion Pets From Diablo III

[VladG]

They were only doing it to copy off of Torchlight anyway.

Flame away.

Though, honestly, it feels like, to me at least, Diablo's aesthetics have shifted from its previous iterations to something more like Torchlight.

Just look at <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.265110-Diablo-III-Looked-Heavenly-in-2005?page=1>these screens, I prefer the older cancelled style much more.

Good thing the Torchlight devs did in no way, as former Blizzard employees, copy the aesthetic of any game they've ever worked on. Torchlight has, in no way, the aesthetic of WoW and Warcraft 3...

OT
This is good news, they actually DO want to release this game sometime in my lifetime...

I'm sure they aren't done with pets for good, they will make an appearance in one of the expansions.

They didn't work on Warcraft 3, nor on WoW. As far as I know, they were part of Blizzard North, that was shitcanned some time after Diablo 2: LOD.

The reason they went with that look is because it's easier to develop low-poly models and weaksauce textures, and that's all there is to that.

They did actually. Not all of them, sure, but they came in from Flagship, and most people from Flagship were involved with WC3 and WoW (mostly WC3). Max and Eric Schaefer (the founders of Runic) worked on WC3, as well as Diablo2 (Blizzard North)

Hey, quit using facts on me!

Anyway, it's still probably because they're a really small studio.

Well, yes, it's a very good design philosophy when working with limited resources.

 

[loa]

Maybe this doesn't look exactly like Torchlight, but it does look like WoW. Get some HD screenshots, and look at two things. How blocky the models are, and how much of a painted quality all the textures have. Which is perfectly expected seeing as WoW's lead art designer is also Diablo 3's lead art designer.

I look at wow and the grass is so saturated, it pops my iris.
D3, nope.

The blocky look may be to make it less performance hungry? Also consoles.
It's confirmed after all but that's another story.

Just because it's 3d isn't good enough a reason.

Sure is.
2d is a way more controlled environment due to, you know, fixed pixels and all that?
A lot of things you can get away with in 2d simply aren't possible that way in 3d.
Notice how there's no hatching animations for the zerg in sc2? Yeh, stuff like that.

And diablo 2 was not exactly easy on the eyes being all low-res, low-framerate, same-y hues etc.
But you could get used to it due to the static, re-occurring 2d bitmaps.
Train your eye to filter out the patterns.
It's easier to "read" 2d images.

Compare this [http://static.mangachat.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/starcraft.png] to this [http://neunzehn72.de/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/starcraft2.jpg].
See how busy the 3d one looks even though there's actually less going on than in the 2d one due to the same shades used in the terrain and the units and lolperspective?

 

[Sylveria]

Just because it's 3d isn't good enough a reason.

Sure is.
2d is a way more controlled environment due to, you know, fixed pixels and all that?
A lot of things you can get away with in 2d simply aren't possible that way in 3d.
Notice how there's no hatching animations for the zerg in sc2? Yeh, stuff like that.
.

You're totally right. I mean, they haven't been able to pull off a good 3D Mario or Zelda game yet cause that new fangled 3D tech is just so confusing in 2012. Not even that, but I have yet to see a 3D game made in the past 15 years that looks good. It's just too new for companies with gigantic budgets to figure out.

Seriously, SERIOUSLY? You're defending design choice criticisms under the premise that 3D is too hard to use? NOW? If this was 1995 I may agree with you, but now? And are you honestly saying that making a pod hatching animation would be impossible in 3D?

 

[Alandoril]

So what they mean to say is "We were trying to make the game kiddy-friendly, and you called us out on it. Fair enough. If you hadn't moaned they would have gone in as is though..."

Why did they design such cute "pets" in the first place if it wasn't their intention to include them? Obviously they wouldn't. Fan backlash is the only reason for this "decision."

 

[Something Amyss]

I'd be worried that they seem to be cutting too much out, but if they intend to put them in later.

PETA to make a response in 5...4...3...

Voicing their approval.
Remember, PETA doesn't believe in pets.

Yeah, but wait until they find out they're being used to make armour.

And slippers.

 

[Hugga_Bear]

So what they mean to say is "We were trying to make the game kiddy-friendly, and you called us out on it. Fair enough. If you hadn't moaned they would have gone in as is though..."

Why did they design such cute "pets" in the first place if it wasn't their intention to include them? Obviously they wouldn't. Fan backlash is the only reason for this "decision."

Why is this bad?
Fans react negatively to a concept, you listen to them. You don't necessarily do what they say but odds are there'll be a nugget of truth in their complaints, so you look for it.

Fan pressure for a release date is part of this too, they want to cut the crap away and reintroduce it in a patch? By all means, look how D2 evolved over time, the original game compared to the 1.13 expanded game is so different it's surreal. They added features and content that they couldn't get in the original or that occurred to them over time.
Anyway, there's nothing bad about listening to fans, jumping to their every whim is bad but not this.

On the flip side, most of the beta testers seemed to like the pets, least from the feedback I was reading, so this is somewhat surprising and perhaps more to do with limiting content than anything else. So long as it comes back in a patch and not priced DLC I'm okay with that though.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

We think we can make companion pets into a much cooler system (both mechanically and visually), and evolve the reforging scrolls into a more meaningful system at some point in the future. For the time being, they will not be in the initial release of the game.

You know this is just cutting content to be repackaged and sold as separate DLC yeah?

I wonder if a "Pause" function will be released this way. Having to pay for the "privilege" to pause the game. Honestly, it would not surprise me in the least.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

PETA to make a response in 5...4...3...

Actually, Peta would be in support of this. They oppose the domestication of animals, so ridding the pet system in any game is something they'd give a thumbs-up to. I would have to guess that the Church of PETA has Ash Ketchum as its devil.

 

[Ghengis John]

"We think we can make companion pets into a much cooler system (both mechanically and visually), and evolve the reforging scrolls into a more meaningful system at some point in the future."

I guess that pretty much confirms these features as future revenue sources. Either as stand alone DLC or via expansion packs.

 

[Therumancer]

I have mixed opinions as to me it seems like them cutting out a feature. The whole companion pets thing was a bit much, but having NPC companions/hirelings with you, and the abillity to summon monsters has been part of Diablo, and it seems like simplification as much as anything to me.

That said, I kind of thought "Divinity 2, Dragon Knight Saga" had a cool idea in the form of a creature that you could assemble and modify using body parts from your slain enemies. In practice the idea wasn't that awesome, but it had potential, and could fit in pretty well with the dark themes of Diablo.

I had thought "Darkspore" was going to do something similar to the original vision I had with Divinity 2, but in reality it was a bit of a disappointment given that you pretty much had set body types for specific characters you couldn't fundementally alter and just kind of glued things onto them.

Truthfully I think it would be awesome to see some monster, go "wow, neat arms" hack them off, and glue them onto my pet... which could be anything from an artistic "frankenstein monster" type creation, to a shambling mounds of body parts, depending on my whims and aseticic sensibilities.