Diablo III Game Director Steps Down

[Brotherofwill]

I used to like Jay Wilson. I listened to his game design videos on Diablo 3 and to his Blizzard panels at Blizzcon and such and I enjoyed his well spoken responses. I challenged some ideas he had, but he seemed like he was in control.

Then I played D3...like 10 minutes in I hated the guy. Few of his design decisions fit the playing style or goal of an ARPG. Such a shame.

people from Blizzard. It's all about money now, just like the Call of Duty franchise.

TL2 is closer to Titan Quest than Diablo. TL2 had a smaller budget, less than a fraction of the development time and still turned out better in every way in comparison to D3. The puzzles are fun, the monsters and characters are colorful, the UI is one of the best I have seen in an action-rts.

D3 has the advantage of being more well known, but were D3 the first game in the series, we would have never heard of it again until the next decade, at least!

Yes. TL2 is better in every conceivable way. It's incredible if you consider how little time and money was spent on it in comparison to the game which shall not be named.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Alright! Time to order the pizza!


I'm going to call all of the ol' gang and do a speed run in Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 in celebration of this event!

WOOOOOOO, F*** THAT LOSER!!!

 

[Carnagath]

I remember a reddit quote

/paraphrase
If Diablo 3 had been the same game, but developed by another developer and called "Demon Slayer" then people would like it.
/paraphrase

D3 has some fairly significant flaws, but it does have some improvements as well over the last game (because I know I will be asked to point them out. D3 was better at setting up, letting you test and execute playstyles).

Either way it is a solid game for what it is. Not for what it was suppose to be.

Torchlight 2 is a prime example of this
It was an equally fun game with almost identical mechanics, which got about the same review scores as D3. Yet it was praised by "the vocals" (as they shall be named henceforth) while D3 was hated. If you look at the 2 objectively, they're pretty much identical (I have no favourite).

Did I just spawn a D3 vs T2 flame war? Maybe... We shall see *leans back and heats up the popcorn*

Indeed, they are identical. Apart from the fact that TL2 has no pay-to-win AH, has talent trees with a ton of customization, costs a third of D3 and doesn't have always online DRM.

Called it! *crunch crunch*

So, basically you make a silly, factually incorrect statement, with intent to cause inflammatory replies, and then spam "crunch crunch". There's a word for that, trolling. People don't like it very much around here :/

 

[kebab4you]

Oh around 12-13 ish. Directed at all the crap directed at him on the first page. I mean you don't have to like the guy or what he did but at least show him a bit of respect

Doesn't respect have to be earned, though? What has he done in that regard?

And why exactly are you calling Diablo 3 an impossible task?

Because of the hype for it. 11 years of fan expectations constantly building. It's impossible to get anywhere near that level.

Are you sure that's how expectations work? That the longer people wait for a particular game, the more they expect from it? Why would that happen?

And a little correction. It's not 11 years, it's 4 years. Diablo 3 was announced in 2008.

Just because it was announced in 2008 doesn't mean they started to working on it then:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_III#Development

Development on Diablo III began in 2001 when Blizzard North was still in operation

 

[Warachia]

If you dont think answering your own question and then making a person comment on that answer, then you dont know what a leading question is.

IncGamers: Do you think they bought the wrong people in? As we understand, Jay Wilson, for example, his background was RTS. From our point of view it looked like they misunderstood what kept people playing, The type of loot drops, which has been a big issues. One of the other issues is they have not listened to their community, and they have not analysed what makes up that addictive Diablo experience. What are your thoughts on that?

This right here is not an opinion question. This is a factual dictionary definition.

A question that suggests the particular answer or contains the information the examiner is looking to have confirmed.

No opinion needed.

That isn't a leading question, for it to be a leading question the interviewer would have to lead him toward a specific answer, which he didn't, Brewik could (and did) answer with whatever he wanted, they never asked Brewik to confirm their thoughts, they asked him to give his opinion on a statement.

As we understand, Jay Wilson, for example, his background was RTS. From our point of view it looked like they misunderstood what kept people playing, The type of loot drops, which has been a big issues. One of the other issues is they have not listened to their community, and they have not analysed what makes up that addictive Diablo experience.

Is not a a specific answer?

You are factually and objectively incorrect.

Not only that its nothing like anything Brewik says before in the interview.

When you say this isn't a leading question you are being objectively wrong.

Sorry, but you are wrong here, I didn't say it wasn't an answer, I said it wasn't a leading question, they don't want to have anything confirmed, if the did they would have said "do you agree with" or something along those lines, saying "what do you think?" makes it an open question, asking his opinion on their statement, they aren't looking for any specific answer.

 

[black_knight1337]

Why exactly would you "show some respect" for someone who spent 7 years and millions of dollars to make a game that has half of its prequel's features from 11 years ago and is infinitely worse than a game that 20 guys from New Zealand made as a side-job with zero funding?

And that's 100% opinion. The opinions of most that have actually given it a decent run, even some who left early on, is that it is, at the least, a good game. As for Path of Exile, same thing again. It's all opinion. Not going to go any further into that. Take it to a pm if you want more in that regard.

Do you actually have an argument or do you just call people "12 year-olds" because you are upset?

Why I am upset exactly? I have literally nothing to be upset about right now. What I am though, is disappointed. I am disappointed because instead of showing a man that has been constantly vilified for almost a year the respect that he deserves, he just continues to cop it even more. Why does he deserve said respect? Like I stated in my original post he "did a pretty good job at an impossible task with Diablo 3" that in itself makes him deserve a lot more respect than what he was shown. Another thing is from what I said above. He has been constantly vilified for almost a year and how has this actively effected him? It pretty much hasn't. No doubt that would be part of the reason he is leaving but prior to this point, he has done nothing but continue his work on Diablo 3 to continue making it an even better game.

Edit: There's also his work over at Relic Entertainment where he was the lead designer for Dawn of War. Which is rated highly by pretty much everyone. And there's also WoW which is still the most successful mmo to date.

Doesn't respect have to be earned, though? What has he done in that regard?

See above.

Are you sure that's how expectations work? That the longer people wait for a particular game, the more they expect from it? Why would that happen?

Yeah that is generally how it goes. Generally, the longer people are waiting for something, the more they expect from it.

And a little correction. It's not 11 years, it's 4 years. Diablo 3 was announced in 2008.

The last entry in the series was 2001. So yeah, that's 11 years.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

Excuse me for being uninformed on the subject, but what exactly did this guy do to garner so much hate? I had heard about Diablo 3 being disappointing, but this sounds like it runs deeper than just a disappointing game.

 

[Salakayin]

Eh, I at least enjoyed the game. It may have had some flaws and some odd design choices, but it was fun. Obviously some folks don't agree. Fine, we all have our opinions we're entitled to. But it sure ain't a reason to condemn a reasonable folk with such hate. We're all just people. G'luck to him on whatever future projects he migrates to.

 

[danon]

*snip*

Seriously you start off with that's 100% opinion and then you immediately spew baseless opinions like there is no tomorrow. The hipocrisy is strong in this one.

 

[Atmos Duality]

"Fuck that loser."

Coincidentally, that sums up my own feelings on Jay Wilson: "Fuck that loser."

He hasn't been sacked, and Diablo 3 is still a betrayal of the series proper as far as I'm concerned, so pardon me for not getting on the "Good luck in your future endeavors." bullshit bandwagon here.

Yeah Jay didn't deal with it very professionally, but he didn't throw the first stone here.

That doesn't excuse Jay from anything, nor does it lessen the blow of his statement.
To me, it's just the final piece in a larger collection of problems surrounding D3's development.
It perfectly summarizes the brand of arrogance and contempt he and Blizzard have for their fanbase.

 

[Warachia]

Sorry, but you are wrong here, I didn't say it wasn't an answer, I said it wasn't a leading question, they don't want to have anything confirmed, if the did they would have said "do you agree with" or something along those lines, saying "what do you think?" makes it an open question, asking his opinion on their statement, they aren't looking for any specific answer.

That is grasping for straws.

The correct definition of a leading question is a question that contains the information the examiner is trying to confirm. This follows that definition. It doesn't matter if you go "What do you think of that" afterwards. The issue is that he put the info in there as asking. You are still factually wrong if you deny it being a leading question.

I guess we can't find common ground, as I said, they weren't looking to confirm anything, they made a statement and asked his opinion on it, the statement itself is not part of any question, they just asked a question regarding it.

 

[black_knight1337]

Seriously you start off with that's 100% opinion and then you immediately spew baseless opinions like there is no tomorrow. The hypocrisy is strong in this one.

There was 2 sections in which opinion was used. In the first, which I believe is what you're referring to, I emphasised that it was all opinion. Both what he said AND what I said. Which was the point of the paragraph, that neither side is right or wrong in that regard. And it's baseless? Reread what I said and do some investigating. Don't just come here and make baseless claims.

In the second section there was 2 opinions used in the 5 statements I made. The first was just a straight opinion, but to say it's baseless is a load of bs. Reread what I've said and actually go investigate it. The second opinion used was to support the fact that I stated just before it. And again, in no way is it baseless. Do some investigating into it and you'll soon find that out.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Although I have had my fair share time with Diablo 3 (500 hours played) and seeing this news really doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

However, this makes me wonder how this game would of turned up if Blizzard kept the "Blizzard North" team that made the first two games to make the third installment. Guess we will never know.

With that said, I don't think any changes made to Diablo 3 at this point will bring it back to light. All I can do for it is wait for the expansion to play it again.

 

[Ashannon Blackthorn]

Jeez, I don't think you could pay me enough to have that guys job. Anything he does will have a vocal chunk of the fans spewing vitriol. He could bring a game down from the very heavens with angels and trumpets and Buddy Christ playing co-op and the ALmighty saying it's awesome and people would shit on it.

Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one, some of them stink.

I played D3, played till Nighmare act 3 got bored and quit. Played Torchlight 2 till act 3 got bored and quit. **shrug** Both game have good and bad point. I think it's kinda childish to heap on the scorn and flak on someone who's doing a job. Meh, not even childish, just pointless. if it was jay Wilson it would have been Wilson Jayson who did x instead of y and would have people shitting on him for x.