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Rob Pardo is sad about the community reaction [Jay’s departure from Diablo III]

Rob Pardo - Chief Creative Officer said:
This thread saddens me greatly. I know that the Battle.net forums have earned a reputation for rough justice, but I do not believe justice is being served by how people are speaking about Jay’s departure from Diablo III.

I am very proud of the Diablo franchise and what the team was able to accomplish with Diablo III. As a gamer I have enjoyed the game and played for many, many nights with friends and family. I’m not, however, going to use that as an excuse. The Diablo community deserves an even better game from Blizzard and we are committed to improving it. We have a talented team in place and have no intention of stopping work on Diablo III until it is the best game in the franchise.

I’m the only person in this thread who has actually worked with Jay. I hired Jay to head up the Diablo project and had the pleasure of getting to work with him, both in building the team and designing the game. He has great design instincts and has added so much to the franchise with his feel for visceral combat, boss battles, and an unparalleled knack for making it fun to smash bad guys. I’ve worked with many, many designers at Blizzard and Jay is one of the best. He has a great career at Blizzard ahead of him and I guarantee that you will enjoy Jay’s game designs in future Blizzard games.

If you love Diablo as much as we do, then please continue to let us know how you feel we can improve the game. If you still feel the need to dish out blame, then I would prefer you direct it at me. I was the executive producer on the project; I hired Jay and I gave him advice and direction throughout the development process. I was ultimately responsible for the game we released and take full responsibility for the quality of the result.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7592242994?page=106#2104
 

denshuu

Member
What was everyone's problem with Jay? I tried reading through some of those threads but all I saw was just vitriol.
 

triggaz

Banned
internet communities are pretty shitty overall though. Get off the boards developers have your vision make your game if it sells great if not on to the next one. I've never have and never will make a game but the negativity even get's to me much less being the target of it.
 

JWong

Banned
What was everyone's problem with Jay? I tried reading through some of those threads but all I saw was just vitriol.

I know one person doesn't make all the decisions in game development, but he definitely let a lot of poor designs slide into the final product.
 
Diablo III was my first Diablo, and while I found it to be pretty polished, it wasn't very fun. If that's what fans of the series are getting on him for, then I think it's well-deserved. For a game that prior to release many had pre-ordained GOTY, it seemed to show up on very few GOTY lists. Probably not what Blizzard wanted.
 

AEREC

Member
What was everyone's problem with Jay? I tried reading through some of those threads but all I saw was just vitriol.

Diablo 3 turned out to be a mess of a game and he was the person in charge. Granted some people take it a bit too far.
 

denshuu

Member
Play Diablo III and then look for the person to blame.

I'm not dumb enough to think one person is to blame for one game being disappointing. But if that's the reason why people hate him, then I think I understand the level of discussion in that thread now.
 

Xenon

Member
What a honorable man to fall on the swor... er internet bitchfest. What a twit...ter-esk bunch of nonsense. Just fix the damn game, make something better, or let people take their deserved lumps.
 
Play Diablo III and then look for the person to blame.

If only people could blame their own nostalgia, there might be an actual productive Diablo III thread on the internet.

I get that some people didn't get the game they wanted out of D3, but I wish they would objectively sift through what was good/bad about the game that was delivered instead of complaining to high heavens about how it wasn't the game they believed it should have been.
 
Diablo 3 was no where near as much of a mess as people claim.
Yes it was. The itemisation and loot were terrible, in a loot game; it also happened to be the sequel to one of the best loot games ever.

It was fun for 15min periods of just clicking on stuff to watch it explode though, it was like a tech demo.
 
Rob, this is what happens when you burn goodwill without replenishing it.

This is what happens when you promise perfection.

This is what happens when you tell people what they should want, like, and find good in your games.

This is what happens when you spend more effort talking about being like a storied developer instead of working on being a storied developer.
 
I'm not dumb enough to think one person is to blame for one game being disappointing. But if that's the reason why people hate him, then I think I understand the level of discussion in that thread now.

Also when the co-founder of Blizzard North and lead creator of the original Diablo games said in an interview that he wouldn't have made the same decisions as the Diablo III team, Jay Wilson posted "Fuck that loser" on Facebook.
 

Kayo-kun

Member
What was everyone's problem with Jay? I tried reading through some of those threads but all I saw was just vitriol.

In my opinion he was one of the major reasons why the Diablo franchise was ruined with all the fundamental changes in Diablo 3. I went from a hardcore Diablo 1/2 fan who has been playing these games for years, to someone who has no interest in completing Diablo 3.
 

coopolon

Member
I think his behavior on facebook announced open season on himself.

And well, Diablo 3 is a really awful game. And I think people underestimate how important one person is in directing a game.
 
What was everyone's problem with Jay? I tried reading through some of those threads but all I saw was just vitriol.

He made hack&slash version of Demon's Soul when people were expecting toddler friendly difficulty level and uber items raining from the sky every 15 minutes.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
From what I remember of his posts and write ups, Jay came of as very arrogant. Like he knew what he was doing and that everyone would like it, or else.

That would have been fine if the game he released after seven years was amazing, but it wasn't. There were ton of problems, and there continue to be a ton of problems with the game, so it's not surprising to see people overjoyed that he's leaving the project. There's not a lot of good game design in there.

He made hack&slash version of Demon's Soul when people were expecting toddler friendly difficulty level and uber items raining from the sky every 15 minutes.

Wow, you really don't know what you're talking about. Have you even played Demon's Souls?
 

Brickhunt

Member
It's one thing to blame him for all bad decision in Diablo, another one is blame him for his know bad decisions and the fact he was the one who coined the "fuck that loser" line by insulting one of the guys from Diablo II who expressed his of III without resorting to insulting.
 
He made hack&slash version of Demon's Soul when people were expecting toddler friendly difficulty level and uber items raining from the sky every 15 minutes.
Diablo 3 was nothing like Demon Souls. Demon Souls was fun, had proper difficulty, and was challenging. The comparison is laugh worthy.

Diablo 3 was a click fest that required you to farm weeks for a minor improvement in the hope that you could advance to the next level. There was no difficulty; it wasn't challenging, it was just a gear check.
 

MYE

Member
Rob, this is what happens when you burn goodwill without replenishing it.

This is what happens when you promise perfection.

This is what happens when you tell people what they should want, like, and find good in your games.

This is what happens when you spend more effort talking about being like a storied dev like Blizzard instead of working on being a storied developer like Blizzard.

How does any of this justify the monumental bitchfest surrounding the game?
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
How does any of this justify the monumental bitchfest surrounding the game?

How doesn't it? I got over Diablo 3 a while ago, but I can't blame anyone for being monumentally disappointed at the game.
 

Rokal

Member
He made hack&slash version of Demon's Soul when people were expecting toddler friendly difficulty level and uber items raining from the sky every 15 minutes.

You know, minus that whole "skill-based combat" part of Demon's Souls. Jay Wilson is responsible for the game not allowing you to dodge 99% of attacks in Diablo 3, even ranged attacks.

Diablo 3 is no Demon's Souls.
 

Sciz

Member
It is fun to smash bad guys. Game had other problems, though, like the wretched writing and nonexistent randomization.
 

Nibel

Member
Yo Pardo

I couldn't play the single player (!) for two days, then it finally worked and I played through it - of course I was kicked out of my games several times

I reached Inferno and realized:

Your game sucks, man - everything is built towards the AH, every little fucking thing. Polished? Yes. Fun? Hell no.
 

CSampson

Member
Diablo 3 was no where near as much of a mess as people claim.

Okay, okay, my turn: Anyone who thinks Diablo 3 wasn't a failure never played Diablo 2 and doesn't understand what a Diablo game should be.

Woo, blanket generalizations!
 
How does any of this justify the monumental bitchfest surrounding the game?

It doesn't when it comes to the attacks against this one person. Blizzard as a company need to shoulder a lot of blame for making this product, but the way people has one single person to be the one to attack is pretty ridiculous, and a lot of comments are comical and/or scary. It's just a game.
 
You know, minus that whole "skill-based combat" part of Demon's Souls. Jay Wilson is responsible for the game not allowing you to dodge 99% of attacks in Diablo 3, even ranged attacks.

Diablo 3 is no Demon's Souls.
I remember people complaining about still being hit after teleporting away, and Wilson said that was working as intended as they didn't want players avoiding damage.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
It is fun to smash bad guys. Game had other problems, though, like the wretched writing and nonexistent randomization.

Christ, I thought it was satire. Army of Two is more nuanced than Diablo 3. 'WAHAHAHA I AMBECOME EVIL NOW!'
 

Acerac

Banned
He made hack&slash version of Demon's Soul when people were expecting toddler friendly difficulty level and uber items raining from the sky every 15 minutes.

Have you ever actually played Demon's Souls?

Compared to D3 that game has amazing loot and much more fair enemies.
 

Salz01

Member
All of the hate that D3 gets is justified. I don't just blame Jay, I blame Blizzard as a whole. It's a game I thought I was going to play every day, or at least once a week. That's just not the case. Honestly what kind of reaction did they think they were going to get by making that thread anyways. If he is shocked or saddened by the community response, then it makes them look even worse. It just seems so out of touch.
 

King Boo

Member
this rob guy should stop wasting time by defending a horrible decision he made by hiring that man, and start fixing the game.
 

Duxxy3

Member
What was everyone's problem with Jay? I tried reading through some of those threads but all I saw was just vitriol.

His comments regarding the always online DRM, RMAH, fuck you loser and the general decision to base the game around the auction hall.
 
How does any of this justify the monumental bitchfest surrounding the game?

It doesn't. You'll also note there's a ton more reasoned, articulated disgust along my view around that gets brought up alot less often than the b.net kiddies' feces flinging for some reason...
 

Terra

Member
At a glance I thought Rob Pardo in the thread title was my username and I was really confused.

Pure magic!



On topic.
Yeah, the community reactions was sour. But no smoke without fire.
It's all about the amount of shit that is Diablo 3. Talk about screwing up a promising title...
 

Acerac

Banned
Christ, I thought it was satire. Army of Two is more nuanced than Diablo 3. 'WAHAHAHA I AMBECOME EVIL NOW!'

Personally I loved Azmodan, the Infernal Lord of Honesty who told you every plan he had before he enacted it.

How diabolical.
 
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