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Jay Wilson moving on from Diablo III

i'm proud to be part of a handful of people who called this shit months before release. i need a cookie or something, fuck i feel special.
 
Heavy said:
It's actually a pretty good game now with all the patches and features they've added, but the problem is that it could have been so much more. The core issue, which IMO is not going to be something the expansion will be able to fix, is that the items fucking suck. Items are dependent on your main stat, so you just aim for stat+vita+all res on every piece with a few niggles here and there and then call it a day.

This will never be fixed because it's the entire foundation of the item system. They would have to completely revamp it for the expansion for it to come near D2's item system, which would pretty much make it a different game.

Item systems and mechanic in D3:

* your damage output is solely dependent on your weapon's DPS. This was a critical design error that was done to streamline the game but in turn made customization a complete joke.

* no charms

* no jewels

* followers/mercs are shit and can't even put armor on them like in D2, and they're not in multi-player games

* no runewords

* crafting is terrible and has really no use at all, the results are low end garbage. Compare this with d2 and the fun and weird shit you could craft (i.e. the "blood" craft tier) that could turn out godly with lucky rolls

* item affixes blow

* no upgrading items, this was a huge mechanic in d2... you could find a lvl 20 rare axe in hell diff with great stats and upgrade it twice to a berserker and have a godly item, you could do this with armor items too.

* no ethereal items, no items with multiple sockets (cept an OP bow Manticore), in d2 you had up to 6 sockets on shit, goddamn

* gems blow in d3 and have a fraction of the uses d2 gems had

* no skills on weapons (whirlwind assassin anyone?)

* low level uniques and sets that completely suck. In d2 some of the best uniques/sets were super low level. Even the godliest of end-game equips would have items like magefists, bloodfists (this is like a level 5 item lol), angelic set, just take a stroll down memory lane and look at this: http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/uniques.shtml

I could go on for a while with this, but you'll notice similar traits in each bullet-point above... they fucking streamlined everything. They took a shit on customization. Instead of a real sequel we got Babby's First Diablo.

There were of course things D3 did exceptionally well, mainly the combat and actual gameplay... easily the best and most satisfying in any loot genre game. Hell I don't even mind the lack of skill points. The core issue is the loot... the one core value of the game Blizzard had to get right they fucked up. That's the gist of it.
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This sums up my feelings on the game in much larger post than I would have made. D3 is a good game, easily the best feeling combat in the genre, but dear god it is a shit loot game. 15 guys from New Zealand have made a better loot game than a multibillion dollar corporation in far less time.
 
I'm worried about where the Jay Wilson is going, exactly.

Blood+On+Doors.jpg
 
Pyronite said:
ITT, guy who tries to do well gets pissed on by making mistakes and speaking less of his mind than anyone ITT.

Maybe it's because I work in the game industry and know he's a human being, but come on. Have some class.
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People aren't protected from scrutiny and scorn by simply being a human. Maybe he should've thought about the influence or attention that was on him more than defending his project's integrity or honor.
 
Pyronite said:
ITT, guy who tries to do well gets pissed on by making mistakes and speaking less of his mind than anyone ITT.

Maybe it's because I work in the game industry and know he's a human being, but come on. Have some class.
Click to expand...

Video games, yo. People take this shit seriously.

In all seriousness though, it's not like people are shitting on him for no reason. I'm sure most devs try to do well. That doesn't mean that people can't get upset at their mistakes after paying $60 for their product.
 
Heavy said:
It's actually a pretty good game now with all the patches and features they've added, but the problem is that it could have been so much more. The core issue, which IMO is not going to be something the expansion will be able to fix, is that the items fucking suck. Items are dependent on your main stat, so you just aim for stat+vita+all res on every piece with a few niggles here and there and then call it a day.

* crafting is terrible and has really no use at all, the results are low end garbage. Compare this with d2 and the fun and weird shit you could craft (i.e. the "blood" craft tier) that could turn out godly with lucky rolls
Click to expand...

I just started playing after patch 1.0.5 in which they fixed a lot of the early problems so I completely agree with that first bit. I really enjoy the game because of those things.

The next patch is addressing crafting (we'll see how well it does at that).

The rest of your points are valid.
 
What strikes me as a failure in game design is blizzards back and forth on the inferno difficulty.
Launch
"Its super hard and we dont expect everyone to finish it'
Post patch
"Ok inferno is basically like Nightmare now but look, we have 10 new difficulty settings."

Its like they had their end product with 3 difficulty settings like D2 but it didnt work out, so someone had the brilliant idea 'hey why dont we have a 4th difficulty setting.' Then it was still shit so someone threw out the idea 'Why dont we add 10 more difficulty settings.'
 
Loofy said:
Its like they had their end product with 3 difficulty settings like D2 but it didnt work out, so someone had the brilliant idea 'hey why dont we have a 4th difficulty setting.' Then it was still shit so someone threw out the idea 'Why dont we add 10 more difficulty settings.'
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correct me if im wrong, but the "Players 8" thing was in diablo ii, so it wasn't as if someone actually thought that specifically.
 
Does anyone else see this as a huge cop out on his part? He messed the game up so much that there is basically no way to save it at this point and so he calls it quits? No accountability at all. On top of that he's still staying at Blizzard. What a joke.

I don't think they can do anything at this point that would make me reinstall that game.
 
Good bye, old buddy.
 
Heavy said:
It's actually a pretty good game now with all the patches and features they've added, but the problem is that it could have been so much more.
Click to expand...

Ehhh.. it's an OK game. Certainly fun in short bursts and with friends. I agree with the rest of your post though: its fundamentals are broken, so nope, it's not a "pretty good game" yet, and maybe it will never be.
 
Otheradam said:
Does anyone else see this as a huge cop out on his part? He messed the game up so much that there is basically no way to save it at this point and so he calls it quits? No accountability at all. On top of that he's still staying at Blizzard. What a joke.

I don't think they can do anything at this point that would make me reinstall that game.
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Nah, I think he did the right thing. If he even had any choice in the matter is up to debate, in the first place.

Usually "moving on" would seem to imply a corporate choice, not a personal one.
 
Blizzard got wrong Wilson. They hired Jay Wilson instead of Chris Wilson (path of exile main director)


As for why this happened. Jay simply didn't know how good Diablo like game works. What mechanics need to be in place to be interesting. DPS and defence proved he had no idea how things works in arpg.




Otheradam said:
Does anyone else see this as a huge cop out on his part? He messed the game up so much that there is basically no way to save it at this point and so he calls it quits? No accountability at all. On top of that he's still staying at Blizzard. What a joke.

I don't think they can do anything at this point that would make me reinstall that game.
Click to expand...

I'll translate this message for you from corporate to human:

I fucked so much that they demoted me from this project to some place in basement of blizzard hq.
 
Pyronite said:
ITT, guy who tries to do well gets pissed on by making mistakes and speaking less of his mind than anyone ITT.

Maybe it's because I work in the game industry and know he's a human being, but come on. Have some class.
Click to expand...
You won't win this fight. Not Against the Internet.
 
crowphoenix said:
You won't win this fight. Not Against the Internet.
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I'm on Pyronite's side, but to be honest, Wilson 100% did it to himself with the "Fuck that loser" comment.

Really just completely set himself up for that one. Not too surprising to see people hardly be sympathetic to his situation.
 
Okay I need to know just why the game is getting such incredible hatred. Most of the time, every big-name game gets shit on but this is a new level and makes even less sense when you consider Starcraft II came out unscathed.

From my experience, gamers only get too vocal over the much fewer issues than the successes of a game. So what is it in this case.
 
Oemenia said:
Okay I need to know just why the game is getting such incredible hatred. Most of the time, every big-name game gets shit on but this is a new level and makes even less sense when you consider Starcraft II came out unscathed.

From my experience, gamers only get too vocal over the much fewer issues than the successes of a game. So what is it in this case.
Click to expand...

Starcraft II is Starcraft, 2.

Diablo 3 is not Diablo 2, 3.

People were happy with SC so they're happy with SC2. People were happy with D2. They are not happy with D3.

Had D3 been a different better game, I'm sure there would be some mixed feelings, but as it is, a looooooooooooot of old fans don't like it much.
 
Oemenia said:
Okay I need to know just why the game is getting such incredible hatred. Most of the time, every big-name game gets shit on but this is a new level and makes even less sense when you consider Starcraft II came out unscathed.

From my experience, gamers only get too vocal over the much fewer issues than the successes of a game. So what is it in this case.
Click to expand...
StarCraft II and Diablo III are completely different genres of games made by completely different people and are of completely differing levels of quality.

Also Dustin Browder never called Chris Metzen a "loser".
 
Oemenia said:
Okay I need to know just why the game is getting such incredible hatred. Most of the time, every big-name game gets shit on but this is a new level and makes even less sense when you consider Starcraft II came out unscathed.

From my experience, gamers only get too vocal over the much fewer issues than the successes of a game. So what is it in this case.
Click to expand...

The fact that it's not Diablo 2 HD and the fact that there really are a lot of issues with the game sadly. The issues are fixable, though, so I'd keep an eye on the game in the future. Also a lot of people were new to Diablo and didn't know what they were getting themselves into. Some complaints people made about Diablo 3 were also "issues" in Diablo 2, like no free content patches.
 
antitrop said:
StarCraft II and Diablo III are completely different genres of games made by completely different people and are of completely differing levels of quality.

Also Dustin Browder never called Chris Metzen a "loser".
Click to expand...

Why would he? Metzen is still at Blizzard no?
 
Oemenia said:
Okay I need to know just why the game is getting such incredible hatred. Most of the time, every big-name game gets shit on but this is a new level and makes even less sense when you consider Starcraft II came out unscathed.

From my experience, gamers only get too vocal over the much fewer issues than the successes of a game. So what is it in this case.
Click to expand...

They ruined the loot... in a loot game. In Diablo 3. Yes, the Diablo 3.
 
Diablo was amazing, Diablo 2 was amazing and the best co-op game of all time, Diablo 3 was just a perversion of the franchise in terms of gameplay and art style
 
Doc Holliday said:
Why would he? Metzen is still at Blizzard no?
Click to expand...
It was in reference to Browder being the project lead of StarCraft II, and Metzen being the lead of StarCraft 1 (kinda, sorta). In the same relation to Wilson being the lead of Diablo III and David Breivik being the lead of Diablo II.

Basically, Dustin Browder is very well-liked by StarCraft II fans. He's pretty much the anti-Jay Wilson.
 
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