However, Blizzard is known for its vague comments when it comes to monetization:
Are there any plans to monetize Battle.net 2.0 service? Mike Morhaime limited to answer: “I’m not ready to talk about that today”. Mike Morhaime confirmed that Battle.net 2.0 will be free to those who buy StarCraft 2 retail.
Of course, you need to remember that Starcraft 2 is coming out not in one but in THREE retails boxes (for a total of around $100). So even one measly box gets you into Battle.net 2.0 for life? I’ll take it.
Well, Diablo 3 takes center stage at this Blizzcon! The Barbarian is displayed prominently on the homepage (next to something green looking like a Starcraft II ghost).
OK, a few bullet points about Blizzcon 2009!
If you’re not able to attend, there’s the poor man’s Blizzcon - live Directv coverage for just $39.95. You do the murloc marine pet, so if you need a green/blue blob around you at all times, make sure you give your hard-earned cash to Blizzard.
Bill Roper is the producer of the original Diablo and Diablo II and he thinks that Diablo is a Gothic fantasy. He thinks the CLOWNs at Blizzard have took the game over and have repainted the graphics in their favorite cartoony colors.
I think that one of the things that we always tried to get across was that Diablo was Gothic fantasy and I think there was just a need that was put in there from the visuals that I didn’t necessarily get. I got it from the architecture and to a degree from the character design but not the feeling of the world. I can’t say that I dislike it. I didn’t look at it and go, oh my God that’s horrible. But I looked at it and went, it’s not really… to me as a player it just didn’t really ring with Diablo.
Admittedly, it could be that Bill Roper is bitter about the dismal failure of the Hellgate: London project. Frankly, though, I agree with him - we need MORE blood and guts and dark horrors, not LESS.
Blizzard has just announced a theme park contest. If you’ve ever imagined taking a Diablo ride, this is your chance to get acknowledgment for your imagination.
OK, let’s go over how runes worked in Diablo 2. There are 33 runes that drop from monsters. Note that some runes drop often while others drop extremely (e.g. Zod rune). Also, there are items with sockets that are able to take runes (or jewels). Some rune combinations (called runewords) create Runic Items, which are among the most powerful items in the game.
For example, socketing the runes Hel + Ohm + Um + Lo + Cham gives your axe or hammer a whole bunch of additional stats and it also adds the label “Doom”.
OK, so what are the changes to the runes in Diablo 3? Runes will still be used to CUSTOMIZE your character, however, runes no longer modify ITEMS. Instead they’ll be added to skills (each skill has a single rune slot).
Also, to make runes easier to use, rune names will be changed to reflect their effect, e.g. Rune of Multistriking. How does this affect gameplay?
For example, a Minor Multistrike Rune attached to the Skull of Flame will make projectile skip along the ground once , but higher quality Runes like the Major Multistrike Rune may raise the amount of bounces and the distance traveled by the projectile.
Jay Wilson, Diablo 3 Lead designer, expressed his strong desire to make each skill customizable while at the same time retaining the uniqueness of each class. In other words, he doesn’t want the Barbarian to be able to mimic the Wizard by adding certain runes to skills.
The barbarian character looks fine when reduced five times but zoom in and you see brush strokes - it looks like the artist had an hour or less.
It does carry the message that barbarian armor is crude and rugged but I’d love to see a bit more details. Other AAA titles have MUCH, MUCH superior art.
Update: I see a few Blizzard fanboys commenting how I don’t appreciate Blizzard brushstroke genius. I simply said “I’d love to see a bit more details“. Here’s what I mean - compare Warhammer concept art to Diablo 3 concept art. Now, tell me Blizzard are not taking shortcuts when it comes to concept art. They do and you’ll be blind as a bat if you don’t see a difference in the level of “finish”.
First, some background: a guy who played Diablo 2 for years got a DOL rune and experimented with it until it crushed the game. He got an error message … a series of meaningless numbers. Or are they?
64 69 61 62 6c 6f 20 33 20 20 30 39 2f 30 39 2f 30 39.
So why is this significant in ANY way? OK, this is the geek part: 64 69 61 62 6c 6f 20 33 20 20 30 39 2f 30 39 2f 30 39 is hex for : Diablo 3 09/09/09. That means that if you translate the hexadecimal code, it gives you Diablo 3’s release date.
Now, the critical part. How likely is that Diablo 2 developers knew in advance when Diablo 3 will be released? NOT LIKELY. At the same time, if I were head of development at Blizzard and I was a bit of a numerology freak… I’d pick EXACTLY this date. Why?
Well, it’s pretty obvious. 09-09-09 represents 666 if you turn it upside down. The number of the beast! (cue the Iron Maiden song here)
The guys at Joystiq are going over their first Diablo 3 multiplayer experience during Blizzcon.
The quality of the video is way better that most I’ve seen. You need to wait a bit for the multiplayer gameplay to start (at 3:08). The party is complete with all three Diablo 3 classes: Barbarian, Witch Doctor and Wizard.
The only complaint was that the screen was a bit overwhelmed with all the special effects.The Wizard skills revealed thus far are:
You can watch the Wizard in action at Blizzard’s site here.
