Blizzard Starting Diablo III Beta Slowly
by Craig Getting on September 2, 2011 3:46 PM ESTIn an investor webcast yesterday, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime confirmed that Diablo III would enter a closed beta “later this month,” though it appears some friends and family may already have access. According to MMOsite, Blizzard has also issued beta invitations to members of variousDiablo/Warcraft fansites.
If Diablo III releases in December 2011 (as has been speculated for a while now), Blizzard will have had four solid months of beta testing to iron out any major kinks. Beta participants will have access to all five character classes and roughly four hours worth of early-game content. A version of Diablo III’s controversial Auction House, which allows for player-to-player transactions of in-game items, will also be in the beta, though it’s not clear if this feature will be available at launch.
You can join the opt-in pool for the Diablo III beta through Battle.net. If you don’t receive an invitation, you can always keep an eye out for footage and screenshots that will surely flood the Internet over the weeks to come.
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AnnonymousCoward - Saturday, September 3, 2011 - link
The D3 logo and cover picture are so disappointing. It looks like computer generated crap. Nothing like the artistic styles of D1 or D2.tunapez - Saturday, September 3, 2011 - link
Out of curiosity, is any of the talent that created Diablo, D2 or Expansion associated with Blizzard anymore?Meh... I'm not buying a game I have to call home to ask permission to play, either way.
Craig Getting - Saturday, September 3, 2011 - link
re: talent, I'm not sure. Max Schaefer (who helped create Diablo) is over at Runic now, making Torchlight.The lead on D3 is Jay Wilson, formerly of Relic (Warhammer 40k, CoH) and the lead world designer is Leonard Boyarsky, who was the art director on the original Fallout.
AnnonymousCoward - Saturday, September 3, 2011 - link
D3 is not looking good.-Constant Internet connection required.
-No mod community due to no offline mode.
-Bad art direction and overuse of special effects.
-Arcade-style health orbs.
-No attribute customization.
-No skill points.
-Paying real money for game advancement = cheating.
xsilver - Sunday, September 4, 2011 - link
what? no attribute customization?no skill points?
is this diablo or gouls and goblins?
Im not a big fan of using real money for advancement either but I know its a necessary evil; they should however implement some way to notate that X player has used money to get items so you know who you're dealing with.
Sunagwa - Sunday, September 4, 2011 - link
Yea you pretty much covered everything I'm hating about this game.My biggest issue is the $ auction house. I can understand how some people might like a feature such as this and blizzard did a wonderful job spinning this to make it seem as though its just a necessary evil to help fight gold farmers. There may even be some truth to it, though I remain skeptical.
Maybe I'm just getting old but I feel games are supposed to be about having fun and it feels like this is taking away from that and making it more about what blizzard is and always has been focused on, making money.
I won't be supporting this game unless they make the $ auction houses on separate servers and provide servers that don't support them. Kind of like how wow has PvE/PvP servers.
IMHO
AnnonymousCoward - Sunday, September 4, 2011 - link
Blizzard's reasoning on some of these decisions is laughably stupid. For instance:1. An offline mode is a problem, because if you played it, and later decided you wanted to play online, you'd have to start a new character from scratch! http://tinyurl.com/3c7ecra
2. Jay claims that in D2, every build should obviously have 120 or 220 str, 75 dex, no energy, and the rest in vit. This is supreme and there's no advantage in anything different, so having the ability to customize is pointless. He concludes D3 would also have 1 mathematical answer, so they'll auto-assign attributes. http://tinyurl.com/3dwgbhn
3. Skill point customization can't work, so just have skills automatically get more powerful as you level. And then items control their power (5 types of runes and 7 power levels). So this brings us back to Auction House: just pay $$ (cheat) for the best runes and be a god. http://tinyurl.com/3forpab
In other news, Torchlight 2 is being developed by Blizzard North, it'll cost $20, have an offline mode, have mods, have point customization, and no Auction House.
gnesterenko - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
1. happy they did it. Been in the same boat multiple times. Also been in the boat where such protections were not in place, I would join multi-player with my single-player character, and realize that because everyone is cheating, i have aboslutely no place online - unless I ALSO want to cheat. I hate it as it destroys the game as it was intended to be played. Sounds like you maybe want to cheat?2. And instead give you *meaningful* customization options. Sounds like you want the illusion of choice over actual options?
3. See point 2.
I played Torchlight - the most unispired, boring, repetitive RPG I've ever had the displeasure of having to uninstall from my system. Well, I suppose that applies to everything Bethesda has made as well once you finished the 5 hours of story and realized you have another 105 of 'exploring' the same exact thing - over and over and over...
Conclusion - Feel free to play TL3 and not buy D3 - you won't be missed. Cheers!
Posting from work, so need this disclaimer:
"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."
GivMe1 - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Eh, to each his own. I'm looking at this as a PvE perspective. PvP the optimizations would make a slightly bigger difference, the changes level the playing field somewhat... but people that take the time can still combo a better skill/rune combo that is probably much better anyway (so not losing any edge there).1.) online- They always try to gloss over the real reason for always-on connection requirements trying to make them sound beneficial. I would greatly prefer offline/LAN gameplay, but I don't blame Blizz for adding this in to combat cracker/hacker/pirates. More of an incentive for them to make a good game if they can keep 100%, maybe they'll still end up releasing crap rehashes (like EA - though they've gotten better).
2.)stats- Stat points really don't matter at all, it's more skills build, I've never been too big a fan of stats, you do usually just pour them in 1 or 2 stats depending on your class, but with D3 you might want vastly different stats with a battlemage vs mage.
3.)skills- At first reading I was worried about this point, then I watched the vid... Skill points are kinda a joke also, the real customization is in the actual skills. The actual skills compliment each other, the difference a few skill points in 1 or another skill matters little. It may mean a "main" skill turns out alittle weaker without the ability to pile on all your points, but it'll be more balanced which I prefer.
4.)Auction house- People buy crap online anyway, I'd much rather Blizz to be getting some cash then 3rd party farmers (well farmers will still be around and getting money, but it'll be much more legit, and Blizz will get a benifit).
5.) Mods- I do love mods for other games, but never did any in D2 (played it tons, got tired, found other games, haven't bothered with mods), hoping they get unlocked a year or so down the road, though not really too attached to them. If Blizz makes a great game, no need for mods.
FITCamaro - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Are you sure that mod content is out even with the internet connection being required?