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Written by Steven
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Wednesday, 18 February 2009 00:07 |
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It's official! BlizzCon 09 has been announced, already! The day of the events are on August 21st and 22nd, 2009. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for its fourth BlizzCon gaming convention, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainments Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo universes. In response to the festivals increasing popularity, this years event has been expanded from three convention halls to four. BlizzCon will offer a wide variety of activities throughout the two-day event. In addition to serving as a gathering place for Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, attendees will be able to enjoy:
* Hands-on play time with upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games
* Discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers
* Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents
* Community contests with great prizes
* Commemorative merchandise based on Blizzard Entertainments game universes
* A silent auction
* More exciting activities and attractions to be announced I will most likely be going to this event. Perhaps even a Diablo 3 Beta key will be released for BlizzCon 09! Source: Press Release - Blizzard.com
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 February 2009 00:09 |
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Written by Steven
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Tuesday, 17 February 2009 05:03 |
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Blizzard has released a new poll for Diablo 3 on the Battle.net forums. You are to choose what you 'What Class Will You Play First?'. 
Who would YOU choose? Source: Battle.net
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 February 2009 05:05 |
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Written by Steven
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Friday, 13 February 2009 06:56 |
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Bashiok has gone on a post rampage by answering several questions for the Diablo 3 battle.net forums. Take a good look at what he has answered for us. Regarding bosses and looting, Bashiok said:It's possible the checkpoint system may affect boss encounters. If it turns out that checkpoints make kamikaze runs a viable technique to down a boss, there will probably have to be some measures to keep it in check.
I've also seen some alarmist concerns with it being used as a way to grief others, or take advantage of this system or that. They're certainly valid questions and concerns, but I suppose it's the conclusions that are being jumped to and the certainty in which they're held that's off-putting.
In general it seems some assume too much, that we're going to put in a feature, and then dust our hands off with a nod and say mission accomplished. No, if a feature makes the game too easy, too difficult, or more importantly doesn't make it fun and engaging, it's not going to go in as it is. That all takes a myriad of balance and playtesting to reach, and we're not there yet. We can guess at what issues may crop up, you can guess too, but they're all tweaks and changes for a later time. Bottom line - we're not going to put out a game we're not happy with. Source:Battle.net Here is an interesting bit of what Bashiok said about identifying items, Bashiok said:The identify system has gone through quite a few internal iterations already, and I think we'll probably see quite a few more. It's an interesting system in a lot of ways because first off it's something everyone remembers from the previous games, so if it wasn't there you'd probably wonder where it went. In a different light you could literally remove it entirely and probably not impact gameplay itself very much at all. It's also open ended enough where you could blow the system out and do something new and cool with it. Ultimately (and I know it's a broken record at this point) we'll do what is best for the game and what adds to the best game experience possible.
Personally - my own personal thoughts on the system - are that I think you could do almost anything with it and I'd be just fine. It wasn't annoying to me when playing the previous games, it was just a part of how they played, if it was removed I don't think I'd really miss it either, and if it was changed for the better then that's cool too. Also, take a quick look at what Bashiok has revealed about Deckard Cain! His whole exoskeleton is made of gold! Bashiok said:Little known fact, Deckard's aortic heart valve is made from solid gold. Source:Battle.net Last but not least, see what a battle.net member had to say about the weapon system, Ezk said:In D2, its very common to see wands and staffs with mana/life steal, elemental damage, and others affixes that are useless in these type on items. I hope it isn't back in D3. Here is what Bashiok had to say in responce of his statement, Bashiok said:You raise a valid point but I'll propose some of my own thoughts on why I think limiting random attributes can be a bad idea.
First of all you'd probably end up limiting the item pool by ensuring that only optimal items are dropped. It may not sound amazingly cool but we do want some amount of non-optimal items dropping and circulating. This helps build out a drop-pool so that you can drop a lot of items. Which is one of the things that makes Diablo awesome, seeing items thrown out all over the place. Sure you might pass over some of them, but there's that "oooh! aaah!" feeling when you see a ton of loot flung out of a monster or chest. It wouldn't be the same game without it.
In addition, even when the game launches we're probably not going to have an idea of everything that can be accomplished with what we're providing. We want a lot of variety in how characters can be built, and in that variety there's going to be a lot of unknowns. I doubt that until it's actually on the shelves and in everyone's hands for a while we won't know all of what can be done. It's a scary thought for us, but also really exciting, and by building items completely how we "think" they should be, we'd be removing a lot of that ability for you to try out crazy things and maybe find the new hotness build for a class.
All that said I don't think it's out of the question, I think you could intelligently limit some factors but for the reasons I gave (and probably some I haven' t thought of) I don't think it's something we're inclined to explore at this point. Source:Battle.net
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Last Updated on Friday, 13 February 2009 06:58 |
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Written by Steven
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Wednesday, 11 February 2009 22:20 |
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Bashiok has made some statements about the Gem/Rune system regarding socketed items. Bashiok said:Thus far we've shown that items do have sockets, and gems can be placed in them. We're not continuing runewords, and the term 'rune' is now associated with the rune/skill system. What other options may be available, we're not telling. :) Later on in the forums, he also made this statement, Bashiok said:We haven't released any information on our site, but it was possible to collect socketed items as well as gems in the BlizzCon demo, so any news site or fan site that attended MAY have included that as information. I don't remember any specifically reporting on it off the top of my head.
The gem stats at this point are more or less just the basics yanked from Diablo II to get the system running and have something to play around with. Basically, the rune system is completely different, but the gem system is yet to remain the same from Diablo 2, until further notice. Runes now increase stats and skills of your character. Source:Battle.net
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 11 February 2009 22:24 |
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