Diablogging

Titan Quest 75% off, grab it now!

2012-01-24T19:12:00.000+01:00

Titan Quest + Expansion = 2,49€

Grab it here, 24 hours left!

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/402/

So, what about early 2012 release, Jay?

2012-01-19T23:29:00.002+01:00

Source of this awesome news is here. Let's be honest guys, Blizzard keeps trolling us. Over and over.
Tell me how on earth you can say "polishing phase" when you are overhauling the most basic mechanics of the game. Oh well, we'll meet this summer, I guess?

Those damned ''quality standards''... once again.

2011-12-19T12:28:00.000+01:00

So Blizzard decided to give us additional info about the (in)famous release date. They decided to speak out, in public, on their official forums...

So what do we know now? Do we finally have a vague idea of a possible release date of this supposed-to-be-uberfantastic-and-nearly-perfect game?

The answer is -of course- no. Instead, we are given yet another "soon, when it's ready, we are working hard, we're almost there, just be patient we love you..." crap:

While you bring up a number of points of speculation, I just want to cut right to it and state that the reason we don’t have a release date yet is because the game isn’t yet where we want it to be in terms of our quality standards.

As of December 19th they still don't have the power to give us a release date? That does not sound anything close to "early 2012 release", in my opinion. And there is one another thing that really makes my "bulls*it detector" go crazy:

While it is indeed playable from beginning to end, we’re still actively working on many individual game elements and the ways that they interact with one another, with a great deal of iterative tweaking, balancing, polishing, adjusting, redesigning, and retesting going on.

So the game appears to be "playable from the beginning to the end". Again, "wow!"... very impressive, I'm astonished. Given that Blizzard was aiming to deliver it before 2012, I really did not expect it to be "playable from beginning to end"... Of course the fact that Korea caused tons of problems to Blizzard (real money auction house stuff) did not influence the release date, right? Nah... it's just about meeting the quality standards... Sure!

But there is more. Someone asked why the beta is not openly playable, right now. If not for everyone, at least for a larger audience. The answer is simple: the infrastructure is not ready yet:

The service currently available is a single test site, it just couldn't hold that many people. While we'd certainly like to make people happy, it wouldn't be a good experience, and frankly letting people try the game is not the purpose of the beta test.

I am very curious about HOW Blizzard is testing the game. Diablo III is supposed to attract millions of players. Many of them will be playing the RMAH, dealing with real money. Meanwhile Blizzard still has to implement the "virtual wallet" thing on Battle.net and properly test the AH. And what about PayPal? No clue, we will discover mechanics and fees when the game will go live, I suppose. Also, where is the damned "stress test"? Again, nothing.

I'll be honest, I'm getting a bit bored of everything even before seeing the game. I guess that's the side-effect of too much anticipated hype. Hype that YOU, Blizzard, decided to generate from nothing between September and October. Grrrrrrrrr....!!!

First RMAH fees revealed

2011-12-01T18:20:00.001+01:00

Here we go, Blizzard finally decided to test the RMAH. Of course everything will be done using "virtual money" and there will be no PayPal involved. That basically means you will be using the GAH (Gold Aucion House) with "beta coins" instead of "gold coins". I fail to see how that could reflect the RMAH (which involves multiple fees and PayPal) but it's still a good update.

Q. What are the auction house fees?
During the Diablo III closed beta test, the Seller will incur a 0.15 Beta Buck listing fee and a 0.65 Beta Buck fee per successful transaction in the currency-based auction house. These numbers are not final and are for testing purposes only; they're subject to change.

Of course the Blizzard's rule number one always applies: everything is subject to change. I guess those numbers reflect the general expectations, at least for what concerns the listing fee. If 65c seems a bit high, keep in mind that we're talking about fixed rates. Not having to deal with percentage-based fees is very very good for everyone. That sounds bad if you try to sell your stuff for few dollars... but it looks much more interesting for higher numbers.

What about PayPal? Not a word about it, yet. Let's wait... and see.

Release date pushed to 2nd quarter of 2012...?

2011-11-29T11:17:00.001+01:00

Small warning: this wasn't confirmed by Blizzard and it's still a rumor. Sadly, it's more than just a pure guess or random estimation. As you can read on Diablo IncGamersa (source), Amazon.de sent a mail to every customer who preordered Diablo 3 on their site, informing that...

"[...] we have updated information from the developer, saying they won’t make this new projection either. Diablo III is now scheduled to release within the 2nd quarter of 2012"

I was already a bit skeptical about a Jan-Mar release. The "closed beta" did not really shine: instead, it showed tons of flaws, bugs and missing stuff. The Real Money Auction House is still under development, we don't have a clue about auction fees, the rune system was changed more than one time already... I mean, where is the supposed "stress test" of a "nearly finished product" that Blizzard wanted to give us?

Someone could argue that "only Blizzard knows when the game will be released". I'd answer "yes and no": sometimes even the most secret information slips out of your hands and becomes public. You just need a random angry employer at Blizzard to get THAT info, after all. Let me also add that I really see no logical reason to send a random email to your customers informing that "sadly... your preorder is not going to be shipped as intended, instead you will need to wait even longer". I am sure lots of (potential) gamers would just cancel the preorder, so that's a very dangerous action if you don't have some kind of "decent" source to confirm the delay. And I guess Amazon... could have that source.

There is another interesting fact that -in my opinion- is not helping at all: blizzard is working on the console version of Diablo 3. They always showed some kind of "interest" in the past, but they now admitted they're focusing on the porting project already. If history can teach us anything, we can say that's not a good thing. Generally speaking, I am totally against pc/console porting. I'm a console and pc owner, so that's not a matter of preferences: it's just that "porting" stuff usually does not end very well for pc's.

Well, that's all folks. I won't deny I am a bit tired of this annoying "let's keep the hype up in every possible way". If Blizzard really decides to push the game to 2nd quarter, confirming this early prediction, I guess I'll quit blogging about the game and focus on something else. Let's see what happens.

Stackable items? Less scam, more convenience.

2011-11-23T14:29:00.001+01:00

If you have ever played World of Warcraft, I'm sure you already know the very popular "fake stack" auction house trick: you post a single item (or a smaller stack) for the price of a full stack.

Example: 1000 "Uber Arrows" usually sell for 4 gold pieces. You post 10 auctions for 4G each, then you add few stacks of 100 arrows for the same price. When a random buyer fast-clicks your auctions one by one, he/she will eventually buyout the 100 arrows stacks too. That means -for you- a net 10X gold income for each smaller stack.

This trick used to work pretty good with big stacks because the game interface could lead the buyer to believe that "100" was "1000" with the last "0" hidden (example: some 3rd party mods can change the font size and the number does not fit in the icon).

There is another typical scenario: sometimes you look for one item and everyone is posting full stacks, instead of single pieces. Example: you need 1 "Amazing Gem" that goes for 100 gold and you just find stacks of 20 (total: 2000 gold). Annoying, isn't it?

Diablo 3 Auction House will fix all of this by introducing what I would call a "smart stacking economy": you can buy entire stacks or parts of them based on what you need. So if you sell a stack of 20 items, someone could buy 5 only, effectively removing them from your auction (that would now become a 15 items stack).

This feature works for the buyer:

Rather than having to hunt through pages of listings yourself to find the best-priced stack, you can instead select the stackable item type you're looking for, type in the amount of the item you want, and then buy that amount for the lowest price currently available to the market. This may mean that you're buying from multiple sellers at many different price points, and the Auction House will manage all of those individual purchases for you automatically. (source)

and of course for the seller too:

Similarly, you can use the Auction House to quickly place your stackable items up for sale. Simply choose the amount you'd like to sell, type in the sale price for an individual item, and your auction is ready to go. Since the Auction House manages how others will purchase your items, there's no need to separate your items into smaller stacks or list them individually. (source)

All in all it's a very good "tool" for every buyer, because the risk to buy fake stacks is gone. And you can finally buy what you really need, instead of "buyouting a full stack" because you're in a hurry and needed 1 piece for your craft. Is it good for sellers too? Yes, because it simplifies the process of creating new auctions and opens more possibilities for those who just need one or two pieces (and would skip your full-stack auction).

Offtopic: when is Blizzard going to announce the official release date? There is much debate (based on other games and betas from Blizzard) and many "experts" focus on March as a good canddate.

You know what? I don't care at all. I've got a perfect placeholder: Skyrim.

Offline gaming is far from being dead

2011-11-14T13:57:00.001+01:00

We all know that Diablo 3 will be "online only". Blizzard did it the right way: by saving everything on Battle.net we will avoid the insane mass of cheaters that usually plague online communities. Of course no company will ever be able to 100% defeat bad players (see Battlefield3 and World of Warcraft, for example). That said, "few cheaters" is still better than "insane amount of cheaters".

When Blizzard announced this "online only" feature, most of us went nuts. Because let's say it: Diablo has always been a true offline title, where you can grin for hours wherever you are: home, work, airplane, train, mountains, a deep cave in the mountains. We never "needed" internet to play Diablo, why is it mandatory now? Well, both cheaters and Real Money Auction House are a good answer.

But... are players really interested in the old "offline" mode? Diablo 3 will come out in 2012, is it really possible that someone still focuses on single-player and/or offline games? The short answer is yes, absolutely. Skyrim (launched November 11th) game gave us an amazing example with detailed numbers. Considering the PC version and peeking at the numbers provided by Steam (that takes into account both digital and retail versions), here we have a comparison between this game (Skyrim, released on 11/11/2011) and a "best seller" like Call of Duty MW3, released on 08/11/2011:

Skyrim day one

Skyrim day two

As you can see, these numbers are massive... and impressive. With a mere difference of 2 days between the release dates, Skyrim is now grinding almost 4X the users, compared to CoD MW3. It basically means that people still love single player and offline titles. Skyrim is also highly moddable, another "plus" that surely grabs the attention of many of us, because it allows the game to last for years.

Would Diablo 3 benefit from any kind of "offline gaming" and/or "moddable opportunities"? Yes, definitely. I guess it would grab at least twice the audience, because those numbers clearly show us how much gamers still care about being able to customize a game and play it without the hassle of being constantly plugged to the net.

P.S. - Blizzard is too quiet these days... Too much.

Data source: here.

Beta access? Yep!

2011-11-12T00:06:00.001+01:00

This will keep me a little busy while waiting for Diablo...

Diablo III on steroids... That's just amazing.

2011-11-11T00:17:00.001+01:00

Too bad it's not Diablo. It's something that looks better though. I mean a lot better. But... really a LOT. This is why I was a bit worried about the Diablo 3 graphics and overall "lack of details", even in the latest beta. Enjoy this video, don't forget to switch HD on and feel free to skip to 01:00.

Gameplay first... but what about graphics?

2011-11-04T23:22:00.001+01:00

The beta client was recently patched and the (few) available beta testers took the opportunity to show us some changes to the game UI. I'd say they're mostly minor cosmetic adjustments, but what I really don't understand is... if Blizzard intends to ship the graphic engine "in its current state".

The patch added a long-awaited feature too: antialiasing. I was expecting to see something different, maybe, but I am a bit worried now. Please don't get me wrong: I am not a graphics-maniac at all. But watching some (new) screenshots of the game I asked myself... can this "thing" be a 2012 videogame?

Just a random example. Look at this screenshot, taken from this news:

Click it and watch the full-size version. Can you see the details and the overall quality of the textures? No, you cannot, because -to be really honest- it looks like a 10 years old game. The 3d models are quite simple (crates, tables, bodies, ...). The textures... well you can love or hate them, but if you ever played World of Warcraft I am sure you will find all of this quite familiar.

Two more examples (2nd one without antialiasing), focused on models and textures:

My overall feeling is that we are watching something in low-quality, that completely lacks any attention to little -yet important- details. I really hope Blizzard will add some better textures (via "ultra-high" settings, maybe) because right now I can't say it looks modern and "well done". I don't discuss the amazing mechanics behind this title, we are all here for the fun after all. But... is this for real? I mean do they expect us to love this graphic engine in 2012?

I am not in the beta but I -like many others- managed to play around with the client on my computer (hint: use Google to find how) to carefully analyze the graphics. I was not impressed, at all. It looks like World of Warcraft zoomed out. Nothing less, nothing more.

Not to sound annoying and repetitive but... if you check any random screenshot of Titan Quest (a 2006 title) you will immediately notice an insane difference. Amazing textures, *tons* of details, impressive models. All of this was made 5 years ago by a software house that no longer exists. How can a titan like Blizzard release a "meh..." 3d engine 6 years later?

Selling legendary items, yes or no?

2011-10-27T13:57:00.000+02:00

This is a kind of "addendum" to a previous post. Everyone -me included- is very excited about the idea of gathering some (real) coins while playing our favorite game. Many people are already speculating about how much, when and where you can earn huge amounts of money by playing on the auction house. Speculations aside, we still need to have a clear idea about fees.

In case you still did not know, selling stuff on the AH for real money will trigger some annoying taxes in favor of both Blizzard and Paypal:

Auction post flat fee (by Blizzard)
Item sold flat fee (by Blizzard)
Blizzard cash-out flat fee (by Blizzard, to transfer the money to PayPal)
PayPal cash-in percent fee (by PayPal, to accept the money on your account).

There is a 5th transfer (PayPal to bank account) but -incredibly- it will be free. Yay! The most annoying part of this pay-per-sell process is that you will get taxed "per transaction", be it a single item or a complete stack. It's still unclear if we can sell pre-packed items (1 armor + 1 weapon + 10 potions) but I guess it's just a personal dream. Unless Blizzard decides to charge us few cents, no one will be selling low-priced items: too risky and not profitable at all.

Back to topic. Let's say you finally find this legendary double-axe that you were farming for weeks. Not only is "very rare" but you were super-lucky and it also features the best possible random stats. Your Barbarian is finally "complete", because that's all you needed to feel "uber" and vanquish even the hardest boss of the game (in the hardest possible mode). You obviously can't sell it, because it's so rare and so good that it wouldn't be worth 1000$...

...Then you casually decide to check the auction house and find that a similar item goes for 800/1100$. Now that's a real tricky situation: will you keep the item, because it's so rare that you could never find another one with perfect stats... or will you just hurry up and try to sell it for 800-1000$?

I personally don't have any doubt: I would instantly try to sell it on the Auction House. Real money transfer between players will not be allowed (for obvious reasons) so -if anything- I could only earn gold (virtual money). I think I would sell it even if the medium price was in the 50-100$ range, to be honest.

I guess that items with "perfect stats" will sell for insane numbers in the first months. Yes, there will be a lot of players on the same server but that means more demand and more offer, selling stuff wont be a real problem. I also think that being 99% PvE, this game will almost completely kill the sense of competition between players. That's good and bad: good because we can finally avoid griefers, morons and annoying people, bad because expensive stuff will be purchased by maniacs/collectionists only (the minority). So, in the end, we will lose all those players who want to be competitive and reach the top ranks (because... there are no PvP ranks at all) and need "the best of the best" to deal more damage and climb the ladder (again... no ladder in Diablo III).

If Blizzard really plans to add some decent PvP to Diablo III, legendaries will suddenly become a "must have" for every serious player. I can already see someone spending 1000$ on that double axe just because it could add +1% to the overall DPS...

Sweet Diablo III item tooltips for your website

2011-10-19T17:47:00.000+02:00

That's right, Blizzard released the Javascript code to add item tooltips to any link. Just find the item on the official site, copy its url and link it on your website. Job done! Mouseover this exquisite piece of jewelry, for example. Or have a look at this powerful axe.

It works with almost anything currently present in the Diablo III official database, skills and builds included. Random enchants will not appear though, so you will be able to link the "basic" item. That means we wont be able to brag on our blogs about "that impressive ultrarare drop".

Official tooltip code page
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/tooltip/

Good tool, thanks Blizzard (I still hate you a little but Titan Quest is saving my hunger for now).

#BLOGGER TIP#
If you make a linked word in bold, it will break the script. Apply the bold first, then attach the link.

Do yourself a favor: play Titan Quest

2011-10-18T01:00:00.000+02:00

I have already discussed about the importance of diablo placeholders, at least until Diablo III hits the (virtual) stores. There is no official date yet, I hope Blizzcon will bring some light upon us and redefine that annoying "early 2012". If blizzard comes out with another "Early was too early" mantra... I swear I will drop Diablo III forever.

Back to topic: do you know Titan Quest (and its expansion, Immortal Throne)? If not, get out of your cave and be extremely happy. TQ is an impressive Diablo clone. Calling it "clone" is reductive, though, because it's extremely well done, polished and packed with frantic action. I would even say that Diablo II looks like a clone of Titan Quest. You can find lots of screenshots and videos on Google Images and Youtube, as well on the official Steam pages linked above. I've already posted about the 2,50€ deal few days ago, now it's time to get into the game a little deeper.

Being a Diablo-like game, I will not annoy you with details and specs... because you should already know the genere: hack'n'slash with tons of enemies to kill and tons of items to collect. That said, I will instead focus on installation, pro's and con's (few).

INSTALLING TITAN QUEST THE RIGHT WAY

TQ was developed in 2006 by Iron Lore Entertainment. Don't get fooled by the age, it's still up to date and can crush almost any competitor. Graphically speaking, I find it's even better than Diablo III (current) beta, enough said. Problem: Iron Lore no longer exists and the game is not supported anymore. This is why you need to know the basics for a good gaming experience:

Buy Titan Quest Gold edition on Steam (link). It now goes for 6.66€ (promotion) but the full price is still ridiculous: 9,99€. Yes, it works fine on Vista/Seven 64bit.
Install the unofficial fan-made patch 1.17. It will fix several bugs and nasty things. Don't worry, it will not modify content, balancing or anything else. The game will be just "better", not "different".
Install and run Titan Quest first, then quit the game. This step is required to play the expansion.
Install and run Immortal Throne. From now on, forget about Titan Quest, just play the expansion. It's the same game with some new stuff added one year later (2007). An additional area to explore, items, enemies and some good improvements (shared stash for your characters, caravan to store more items, inventory autosort, ...).
Optional - If you play at high resolutions and you are not an eagle, I strongly suggest to install two fan-made mods: Arial font for text readability (quests, items, tooltips, ...) and Large Fonts to get bigger tooltips/texts. You can save your eyes if you play more than 10 minutes in a row. I guess back in 2006 most gamers were running at 1280x1024 or less.
Optional - If you need some assistance or just want to share your love/hate, visit the Titan Quest Steam Users' Forum or the unofficial TQ Forums. They are still very active.

Now you are ready to go. Start TQ Immortal Throne, set your graphic preferences (ingame) and don't forget to configure the antialiasing stuff. If it does not work, use the nVidia/ATI panel. Create your character and play. No matter what class you decide to play with, the player always starts with a "noob" character. Your class will be decided depending on where you decide to spend your points, that's one of the coolest things of TQ.

PRO'S

A *huge* world to explore, offering various different themes.
Mythological setting: Greeks, Egyptians, ... and more.
Hand-made and non-random environments. That means everything was carefully planned by the developers, instead of relying on a semi-random generator.
Amazing graphics, try it with 8X antialiasing and 16 aniso at any high resolution. Trust me, you wont believe your eyes, some places are just stunning.
Great animations (check the moving grass/crops/bushes when you move) and very detailed models (houses, enemies, fences, crates, doors, chests, ...).
Tons of items to collect... prepare to empty your bags multiple times.
A grand total of 81 possible classes, obtained by mixing the 9 available mastries. Battlemage? Rogue? Elementalist? Druid? Templar? Ranger... ?
3 difficulty levels: normal, epic and legendary. Normal is relatively easy, legendary is... well... the name says it all.
Portals (insta-travel from your location to any major city).
Offlline gaming, LAN and modding, something uncommon by the end of 2011.
Budget price. Even if you play it for 2 hours only... it's still worth the money.

CON'S

Non-random environments. Unlike Diablo, if you play the game all over again you will see the same stuff once again. I'm not a fan of randomization, to be honest, but for someone it could be annoying.
Some mastery combinations can be extremely fun and hard at the same time, making some boss fights nearly impossible at the supposed level. On the other side... if you find the right combination/weapons you will one-shot enemies on sight.
The UI (User Interface) is not that great. Tiny text with a "meh" font (unless you apply the mods, see above) and fixed tolbars.
Can be repetitive, don't expect a clever game with incredible quests to be solved. It's mostly a "go there, kill hundreds of mobs and come back".
Being entirely offline, you could be seriously tempted to cheat. Don't.
Repeating everything 3 times (normal, epic and legendary) requires true determination.

That's all for now. Give it a try, you can download the demo and see how things go for you. I can't stop repeating how good the game is, even without considering the low price. Have fun!

Diablo III with your kids on a table? Lego Heroica!

2011-10-16T21:00:00.001+02:00

The road length to Diablo III is still ~~damn long~~ unknown, so what's better than finding some nice alternatives to kill the time while we wait? For those who -like me- have children... here's an awesome solution: Lego Heroica. With multiple dungeons/scenarios. And classes. And loot.

I'm not kidding you, Heroica is a board game with very simple rules and lots of replayability. Think about a nice Flash game translated to real life: simple, easy and somewhat addictive... with no privacy or payment problems. Choose among 6 classes (Barbarian, Wizard, Druid, ...) and face the goblins inside 4 preset scenarios.

Much like Diablo, Heroica can offer random levels. Just add more pieces, add some imagination and creativity and let the fun begin. Players can fight their way to the boss or play against another player, who will control the "bad guys" (a kind of ultra-simple Dungeons and Dragons).

The game features loot too, yes: gold, potions, gear, treasure chests, ... I can't wait to prepare a table-sized dungeon for my older kid. He already begs me to watch the monitor when I play Titan Quest (yet another great placeholder while waiting for Diablo III) so I bet he will have a lot of fun actually moving heroes and acquiring some "real" loot.

A good Diablo III clone for 2,50€? Yes please!

2011-10-12T17:38:00.003+02:00

I know I should follow the "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" Godly rule but let me say so: Titan Quest + Titan Quest expansion for 2,50 € 6,66 € it's just too good to be skipped. Even for a true Diablo fan like me.

This offer is available on Steam (here) and it falls under the "today's deal" category. Grab the deal before it expires, you wont regret it. You will be following the "Stay hungry, stayfoolish" mantra too. Foolish by playing a non-Diablo game, hungry by trying something different and looking for a valid alternative for the next months (at least until BF3, Skyrim or SWOTOR hit the stores).

For those who don't know the game, just think about Diablo and pack it under a different name. I know, I know... "it's not the same, how can you dare comparing the king with a mere copy ?!?". Well, the truth is... TQ is not a "mere copy". It's a good game, with very good graphics, good grinding, lots of items/drops and tons of monster to click-kill ad infinitum. Forget the dark-gothic atmosphere and prepare for Greek and Egyptian mythology.

I played the first chapter back in 2006 when it came out, but I skipped the expansion (2007). I did not even know there was a second chapter, to be honest, so now it's time to explore it. You can find some user reviews here (Metacritics) if you want some non-paid feedback. I'll quote some players for you:

October 11, 2011 - A four year old game that runs great on my 2009 quad core PC. Its a pretty little Diabolo clone that has interesting class builds and skill sets. This looks like a bit of fun for a rainy day. Its perfect as a hold over until Diabolo 3 is published. What do you know? Value for money. Fun. Replayability.
May 20, 2011 - This is THE best hack and slash game since Diablo II. This game is a pure DII clone, but of highest quality and with beautiful graphics. The possibility of mixing so called masteries offers totally 45 possible combinations! Collect item, make a perfec build, improve your gear by collectim artifacts and relics. Classic stuff - nothing fancy but exactly what one may expect form this kind of game.
May 17, 2011 - Ah, the beautiful expansion to an already amazing game. Titan Quest is great, but it pales in comparison to Titan Quest: Immortal Throne. Now on top of the original three acts (Greece, Egypt and Orient) you have another act, and it's the longest one too, and also the most atmospheric and challenging.

Testing Diablo III real-money model in World of Warcraft

2011-10-10T19:41:00.001+02:00

Here we go, Diablo III was delayed to 2012 but its economy model is already moving the first steps in another environment: World of Warcraft. Blizzard recently added -for the first time- a BOE (bind on equip) vanity item purchasable on the Blizzard store for 10$ (source):

The Guardian Cub is a tradable, one-time-use pet that permanently binds to a single character upon use. When you purchase the Guardian Cub from the online store, the character you designate will receive a bind-on-use item to carry in his or her inventory

Few weeks ago Blizzard (randomly) posted on the official forums that they are not particularly interest in adding a real money AH to WoW. After all, this is something that would require a lot of work and it's just unlikely to happen. Much like gender change, faction change, and flying in Azeroth, ... What?

By offering a legal way to trade real money (store item) for ingame currency (gold), Blizzard is just testing the market and the players. Rare pets usually sell for thousands golds and I don't see why a 10$ item should go for less. I predict 20K-50K minimum for the Guardian Cub.

Will customers spend 10$ and sell the vanity item on the AH? If the answer is yes and people show great interest... expect a RMAH patch for WoW soon™.

The silence of the devs

2011-10-03T21:51:00.000+02:00

Once upon a time, there was a forum where developers used to post nice updates about their soon-to-be-released game. Following discussions was fun, thrilling and interesting at the same time. What's better than having some good info's, post and discussions about the game you are soooo waiting for?

Then... something happened.

The developers silently closed the door behind them and the news and updates followed them, leaving the forums empty day after day. Coincidentally, that happened the same day Blizzard officially announced that -whooppsss- “Soon” Was Too Soon and Diablo III would have never seen the light in 2011. Instead, the new target became "early 2012". We moved from the era of "soon" to the age of "soon was too soon" and slowly crawled to the Renaissance: "early 2012". In terms of precision Blizzard surely set a a new record.

Now the question is: what happened to Blizzard's communication-skill and interaction with fans?

The official blah blah answer is very simple and lackluster at the same time: the game is not ready for 2011, because to deliver it by the end of the year... Blizzard wouldn't meet their super-awesome-unbelievable quality standards (that are supposed to be a trademark of the company). I agree with them: a game that does not meet the required standards must be delayed, at all costs.

I just don't understand how on earth Blizzard discovered those missing standards... 3 months before the end of the (supposed) release date.

To be fair, Blizzard never-ever stated that Diablo 3 would have been released this year... and at the same time, developers decided to flood the forums with amazing stuff: Classes Database, Skill Calculator, Items Database, daily (detailed) infos, Closed Beta and much more. After years of silence/vapor... we suddenly found ourselves swarmed by juicy news, videos, screenshots and real data. Every little bit of information was leading fans to the most obvious of the conclusions: the game is almost ready.

I'm a little worried about this concept of "readiness", though. If Diablo III is "almost" ready and Blizzard tried everything to release the game this year... how could one month change everything? If not one, two maybe? What? Three? Four? Yes, indeed. If the game is not ready by December, it wont be ready one month later, no way.

My personal opinion is that Blizzard decided to wait. The game IS ready, saved some "last minute" stuff, but they want to skip a very hot period (between 2011 and 2012) which will see a new World of Warcraft huge patch (4.3), Star Wars The Old Republic, Skyrim and Battlefield 3.

Releasing the game in the middle of the action would cause some serious troubles to the sales. I am sure everyone will be happy to spend 60$ for Diablo 3, don't get me wrong, but if players are busy with other big (and good) titles... they will wait a bit. Wrong timing = bad idea.

That's all. If the game wasn't really "done" by now, 2-3 months wouldn't make the difference. On the other side, if the game is NOT done, don't even think to see it in "early" 2012, no way. I could see some cosmetic and balancing stuff, yes, but nothing else. The rune system, the demon hunter class, the beta bugs... they showed us that Blizzard can fix them in no time. So -technically speaking- I don't believe they are waiting for some real "quality" improvement.

The only thing I am complaining about is... reading the official forums became boring and totally uninteresting. People waiting for a (non-existent?) beta, angry ~~birds~~ fans repeating the same stuff over and over... and no news. Even the unofficial sites keep reposting videos of the short beta, every single day.

We don't have a clue about Diablo III but... be happy. Foo Fighters will be at Blizzcon...

Meh.

I could dye for that piece of gear!

2011-09-26T11:24:00.001+02:00

Back in time when I was a (very) active WoW player, I remember a common "wish" among every player: the ability to add more customization to our characters. The game features countless weapons/armors, some are good and some are just amazing. Unfortunately, the endgame is always made of copy-paste people: everyone runs around sporting "the best of the best", resulting in a kind of "world of clone" (things will change soon, though).

Diablo III is not a MMO but it's still a game where you have your online presence. People will be able to inspect you, check your gear, your achievements and more. The "vanity" factor will be important. This is why a good variety of gear sets and weapon models will be crucial for the success of the game.

Contrary to many popular games, Diablo III will offer a very good "visual and technical" customization: every gear/weapon piece will have random stats (and some common "base" stats, of course), plus you will be able to dye your gear with 20 different colors. Not happy with your color combination? No problem, the All-Soap's Miraculous Dye Remover will reset everything and return your gear piece to its original color.

Clown therapy no more
If you had the time to explore Azeroth I am sure you experienced the annoying "clown effect" of wearing armor pieces from different sets (example here). I wish we had the dyes, really.

Naked huntress looks sweet
The Vanishing Dye will render a single piece of armor invisible. More dyes will render more pieces invisible. That sounds... interesting.

Market opportunities
Let's not forget about the RMAH (Real Money Auction House). More "vanity" stuff means more customers and I am sure dyes will sell pretty good, at least until everyone hits the endgame and plays with the best armor available (some years?).

Items galore

2011-09-23T11:21:00.000+02:00

Ahhh... the old good days where I spent hours on the WoW Armory page, playing with those amazingly-well-done icons of spells, items and gear. Now that I don't play WoW anymore (and will focus on Diablo 3) I don't think I will ever need a diablo-related armory....

... unless Blizzard decides to ruin my days with another impressive tool. You know what? That happened, of course, and I am sure we will see a lot of new tools like this over time (I want item-tooltips embedded on my blog!).

Once again Blizzard did a great job. Every items features a superb amount of details, it's a joy to look at them. I still don't know how they will actually look on our characters... but considering that we will spend half of our gameplay time on the inventory/stash, that's a good thing anyway.

#EDIT 1#

Maybe I've already found a potential "best sellers" for item collectors, WoW fans, maniacs, Murloc lovers and other crazy players (me included, I guess):

The Murlocket

Legendary Amulet

+12-24 Cold Damage

+333-378 Armor

Each Hit Adds +9 Life

+1 Random Property

I wish I was able to shake the hand of every single member of the Blizzard's crew. They are doing an awesome job and we're still in the (closed) beta phase. Let's pray for a 2011 release, really.

#EDIT 1#
The same day Blizzard releases this amazing stuff... they announce the game will be released "early 2012". Sadly... that's nothing different that a usual "soon" or "when it's ready" answer.

The Diablo III Beta Is Now Live!

2011-09-20T23:45:00.002+02:00

Official news from the official website. This is the end of the hated-loved "sign of beta" mantra. I will be refreshing my Battle.net account page one gazillion times. I know that.

Chances to get in are lower than gaining the lottery I guess... Let me know if you guys get access to the beta. Fingers crossed, good luck! You can still opt in for a chance to get selected. Don't, because you could potentially steal my spot.

I hate Blizzard. I love Blizzard. I hate Blizzard. I love Blizzard. ...

Sign of beta!

2011-09-19T12:19:00.003+02:00

Our "waiting for Diablo 3 beta" craziness on the official forums became history... and found a place on the Urban Dictionary:

Sign of Beta
The act of incoherently perceiving everything or anything as a sign and/or clue of a highly anticipated upcoming occurrence.This phrase originated in Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo 3 Message Boards when the highly-anticipated Closed Beta version of Diablo 3 game was on the verge of release. Users began posting incoherent events as signs that the Beta was about to begin. Nearly all of them proved to be false, or were jokes."A pigeon just flew above my head whilst upside-down. Sign of Beta."

I was going to report the news on the forums but my account is currently flagged as "not eligible", because it suddenly does not fin my Starcraft2 and WoW licenses. Sign of beta?

Surviving the hype

2011-09-17T08:00:00.000+02:00

Blizzard forums these days are hot. Hot as hell, indeed. Fans around the world keep posting the same question, over and over: when is the (closed) beta coming out?

If we are lucky, the game will be out by the end of the year and the beta (hopefully) bu the end of September. That's why a small glimpse of Diablo 3 (even if that's just a beta) will relief us.

As I use to say to my older child, waiting for a present is often better than actually receiving it. He's 4 years old now and he got a pair of socks from his aunt for his birthday. He was not happy of course... and he admitted "daddy, you were right".

While reading the EU forums I came across this amazing quote. I think it perfectly and sarcastically summarizes our feelings NOW that we're still waiting for the game:

" I can't wait for that one day when I can look back
at this moment and be happy I outlived it " - Lorgarn (EU)

Is hype bad or good? I'd usually answer that's bad... but not in the case of Blizzard games. I really believe this company has a natural gift, a supernatural power, ... something "special" that makes those ~~damned~~ blue posts look like the words of God. When fans call for answer, Blizzard hits with (intelligent) sarcasm or (funny) trolling.

I hate and love them, sometimes.

What You See Is What You Loot

2011-09-16T08:22:00.001+02:00

The greedy times of hysteric-clicking on every single item dropped by mobs is over. Diablo III will introduce a WYSIWYL (What You See Is What You Loot) technique that will stop people being greedy and a bit too much competitive over items. Every kill will grant random loot to every party member. So if a boss drops 2 items while playing alone, it will drop 8 items if you go grouped (4 people, 2 granted drops per player). The only catch is... yo don't see the drops of your party members: you just see your loot.

Overall I think it's a good solution, yes, but I'm not quite sure about the real benefit from killing a boss alone or grouped with 2-3 players. We could say that "if the boss drops 1 item for you (alone), it will drop -overall- 4 items for the party. That's good, because you get more stuff to share with others... in the same time". I agree, it should work fine when you group with people you know/ trusted friends.

The question is: will random party members really trade non-used/ less-useful items? I'm not sure about that, let me try to explain why (note: this is not a rant, it's just something it came up to my head this morning).

1) Items don't bind to characters
If your barbarian obtains a crossbow (he cannot use it)... no problem. Place it in your shared stash and keep it just in case you decide to play a hunter, trade with another trusted friend, sell it on th RMAH/AH, whatever. Items can be shared, used, shared again, sold, used, shared, sold again and so on, forever. Unless you plan to play just one class forever, there is reason to trade good items. You could need them later.

2) Every item will have a real-money value
This is something that could potentially destroy good relationships. Even your best friend would go crazy if he/she manages to acquire a Super Rare Sword of Awesomeness that goes for 200-300€ on the auction house. I guess that's the main reason why Blizzard decided to hide every drop (saved yours, obviously). Will your friend trade the sword with you (because you still sport a Crappy Wooden Lamedagger)? Will he/she tell you about the drop... or will you just hear "Baaah, no good drops for me!"?

3) No real incentive in trading until you get to the endgame
The path to maximum level (60) will be long and hard and will require players to stock gold and materials for weapons, artisans and constant upgrades. Useless stuff can be salvaged to get crafting mats or instantly converted in gold (no need to go back to town, you will do that on the fly using these handy tools). Why should you trade your stuff with other players, if you can make profit from it and/or get good deals on the AH?

Things should change when you will reach the hardest level of the game, because you will be probably overloaded with gold, materials and useless stuff. You will only need THAT damned rune to get some more damage to beat the game... and you will gladly trade a nice (insert-less-desirable-item-here) for it.

Little gems that make me (us) love Blizzard

2011-09-14T18:59:00.000+02:00

Everyone already knows the awesomastic Skill Calculator. If you don't know what I am talking about, you're free to go back to your cave for the next 200 years, thanks. Now let's go back to the page and scroll down to the bottom, where you see the "mysterious" clickable gem. It's just a simple eye-candy, right?

Wrong, try it yourself.

While on the Skill Calculator page, click it and get a random build for the selected class. I am sure Blizzard never intended to actually make use of that gem... but having read tons of posts like "click the gem 1 gazilion times to get a free beta key" I guess they decided to add this little Easter Egg. Tested on Firefox, Explorer and Chrome.

More of this stuff, please. Ahhh dear Blizzard... you really know how to make us drool. After just one day of blue silence (*) you reappear and deploy this incredible tool. Everyone is gone crazy and we still have to seethe game (if we exclude all the streams from the beta). Thanks Kanashimi for the tip.

#EDIT#
~~Currently working on the EU website. This is another incredible news: US forums are behind EU forums. This is a sign... something will happen very soon...~~ and the heavens shall tremble! (fixed)

(*) when developers suddenly disappear from the official forums (for few hours) and stop answering the drooling-begging-hysteric fans

I just peeked in the closet

2011-09-13T10:56:00.000+02:00

Today Blizzard released an awesome update to the official Diablo III website.Thei added tons of info about classes, skills, runes and more. They also gave us a (superb) "skill calculator" to play around with skills and passives. Ohhh Lord, I feel like a little boy waiting for Santa.

You know what? I am not alone... I know you feel the same. This is why I really want to shake the hand of Okota (US forums) who found the best way to express these feelings while reading the new Game Guide or testing the Skill Calculator:

" I can't stop giggling uncontrollably. I feel like i just peeked
in the closet and saw all my christmas presents early! "

Waiting for a present is often better than actually opening it. And now that Blizzard is constantly teasing us with new screenshots, official blue answers, tools and more... Well, it's like feeling the smell of a gigantic pizza (with "pepperoni") while you're literally starving.

Unfortunately we still have to wait a couple of months (the game should be released by the end of 2011). I want my pizza!

Is Diablo 3 a "pay to win" game? Naaahh...

2011-09-12T08:59:00.000+02:00

Generally speaking, a "pay to win" game offers three specific advantages for paying customers: unique items, full content and better chances to win. Basically if you do not spend a cent you can still play, of course, but you will never reach the "top" status because you will not have access to the same content as paying players.

A good example of pay2win is the latest Age of Empires Online, a great RTS where you need to pay 20$ per civilization if you want to unlock every feature (instead of playing a limited-but-still-nice demo). If you don't pay, you will not be able to craft high-end items, obtain better units and overall make your town stronger. And -sadly- this will drastically hurt your score when playing pvp.

Diablo III does not feature any kind of "premium" content. You buy the game and that's all, you get everything. Then you can decide to spend real money on the auction house.. and that's completely optional and up to you.

No unique/featured items for real-money auctioneers
Every single item in Diablo III will be available to everyone and it will be obtained via loot (drops). Sure, if you spend some gold/money on the auction house you can get it faster and with no effort... so what? Good for you, so you can spend less time grinding and more time having fun using what you like. The item was found by someone in the game anyway, you cannot "add id to cart" and pay with your Visa. The game does not feature a "shop", this is not Farmville.

No exclusive content
As said above, everyone gets the same (full) game and you cannot spend money to "unlock" special features. This fact alone should wipe any doubt about whether the game is a Pay2Win type... or not.

No advantages for real-money auctioneers
Spending real money will help some players gearing faster. That will be good for those who don't have 8 hours a day to grind the dungeons in search of rare and valuable items. The truth is, you will not do "better than others", because Diablo 3 is not based on player competition. There are no ladders, no raids, no factions... You play alone if you want, the game is exactly the same and you can finish at the highest difficulty without help. Even if you gear faster than others, you will not get any kind of benefit (score, rewards, ... nothing).

Time is money
Let's say that you find a very rare item on the auction house. Something that would require a tremendous luck or weeks of endless grinding. The item is listed for 10€. Would you spend the money? I would, for two reasons: first I cannot play all the day, so I will hardly see that item in my gaming life. Second... I can use the item and sell it later, because it's not bound to my character (I love this feature).

We will see good deals, in my opinion, because we will be able to get "cool stuff" without wasting days grinding the same mobs over and over. As said in another post, beer lovers and smokers will love the real money auction house.

I will miss Silver and Copper coins

2011-09-10T09:00:00.000+02:00

Diablo III will feature gold coins as main currency (and $/€/£/... for the Real Money Auction House). If you watched at least one video stream from the current beta... I am sure you noticed the insane amount of gold dropped by mobs. Even the crappiest enemy is worth 3-6 coins.
We could argue that "it's just a beta" but I don't think they added better gold drops just to please the testers.

Being the demo a very small portion of the game, we can assume that higher level monsters (at higher difficulties) will grant even more money. Now I would like to ask Blizzard: why didn't you implement a currency system based on copper - silver - gold, as you did with WoW? I don't have a personal problem with "big numbers" but I don't like the idea of items sold for billions. Because if players are already stockpiling up to 8.000 gold in this short beta... that means we will swim in a pool of money.

We will surely see gold sinks (repairing bills, extra inventory slots, ...) but with good farming... I guess that gold coins will rain upon us. Huge numbers are annoying to read and type. They need more space on a list (auction house) and lead to insane values when you deal with expensive (rare) stuff.

Don't spend money for a bunch of pixels... O'rly?

2011-09-09T13:53:00.001+02:00

Last night I was talking with a friend about the interesting option offered by Diablo III: buying "cool" stuff with either gold or real money. My friend is a gamer too, of course, but he's totally against using euros/dollars in a game (with the exception of the initial purchase of the boxed/digital software).

His point -as well as mine too, until few months ago- is simple: why spending "real" money for "virtual" items that will not last for a long time... and will never be in your pockets?

Maybe 5-6 months ago I would have answered "Yes, I agree... I will never use my money for vanity/virtual/pixelized items. No way!". Then Diablo III, few F2P indie games and a lot of chit-chat with other people around the web (forums, blogs, IIRC, ...) helped reconsidering my radical position. So much that I now think the exact opposite.

Let's be honest and just think about real life: we daily spend (real) money for vanity, useless and non-durable items. And we spend quite a lot, happily, with no remorse. A couple of practical examples:

Cigarette - One of the stupidest ways to trash your money. You pay for something that can kill you (or just shorten your life, if you're lucky) and lasts a couple of minutes. Is it expensive? It depends on your "addiction level" but considering the final result (convert your lungs in a tumor-friendly environment) I'd say it's one of the most expensive ways to have "fun" or "relax". Call the way you like it.
Beer - Same as above. Next time you argue that spending 5€ for a "Cool Sword of Awesomeness" is not a smart move... please consider how much money you can spend for your cold beers or a good Mojito.
Cheetos - Chips, fat/fast food, ultrasweet beverages, candies, etc. You can waste a lot of money for a very short pleasure-duration. As a side effect, you can shorten your life too, become fat as a pig and have infinite health problems. Everyone perfectly knows that a good diet grants a healthy life. But most of us don't care and just move on tho the next Maxi Pizza with pepperoni + XXXL Coke + Mega Donut drowning in a pool of cream.
Cinema - Movies are another great example of fast-spending money for "ethereal" stuff. Take your car (wasting gasoline), go the next theater and pay for a decent parking, purchase the tickets, spend a couple more € on (non-healthy) food and finally sit and enjoy a great movie... for 2 hours, at most. Then go back home and game over. I am sure a "Cool Sword of Awesomeness" would last much more and cost far less.

Making this real vs. virtual fun comparison we can say there are no differences at all between 3€ spent for a beer or 3€ spent for a Wooden Shield of Sadness. The truth is... a virtual item can last longer, be healthier and offer more pleasure and overall satisfaction. It's all about moderation, in any case. I would not suggest to drink 10 beers a day, or eat your salary in vanity pets for World of Warcraft.

I wish I was here

2011-09-07T14:53:00.000+02:00

But I feel I will not. I downloaded the beta client even if I am not a beta tester. Well, I wish I did not do that... I can smell the food but I can't eat it. And I am starving, really.

It's good we have an (almost) endless feedback from beta testers. And it's good I will not spoil too much the game, unless I really decide to fall in temptation and read everything about the beta. Watch out for spoilers out there... official forums, fan sites, blogs, ... the spoiler detector should be enabled by default.

Smells like beta

2011-09-05T17:04:00.004+02:00

Here we go with another "guess the date" post/speculation. While reading the official US forums (I'm EU-locked so I can't post there... shame on you Blizzard policy!) I found this thread and noticed a "suspicious" avatar:

Subliminal message?

Look carefully: since when you can customize your avatar on the official Blizzard forums? I guess the beta is coming very soon and Mydi should be already a happy tester. Thanks to Kelvar from the EU-IT forums (source).

UPDATE 1 - Upon further investigation... yes, that's an official beta avatar (check url):

http://us.battle.net/d3/static/local-common/images/d3/portraits/beta-avatar.jpg

UPDATE 2 - Beta Feedback forum featured its first post... for few seconds at least (source)

Hamletic decisions: valuable gear and you

2011-09-04T17:57:00.000+02:00

To keep or not to keep...

As you may already know, Blizzard removed the concept of "soulbound" from almost every item available in Diablo III (saved few quest-only items). That basically translates into "I can sell/share everything without limits".

I think that's great. It will add a lot of fun and "market" opportunities to the game. But here we come with the Hamletic question: say you find a fantastic (legendary) item that goes for 300-500€ on the auction house.

What will you do?

Legendaries and endgame items will certainly sell for a good amount of money, but they will be very scarce. Even if there will be tons of gamers farming day and night... it's not like we will see a rain of fantastic items on the auction house. So whenever we'll be lucky enough to put our hands on something valuable (both economically and in terms of pure stats)... it will be a hard decision.

There are more factors to take into account. First, you are free to use the item as soon as you acquire it, and sell it later. It will not be bound to your character, so you can equip/gem/enchant it as much as you like. The day you get bored... you can put it on the auction house. Second, something that could not be useful for your class tight now... could be great for another class you may play later.

I would consider a "moral" aspect too. Let's say you are incredibly lucky find a fantastic axe worth 1000€ on the Auction House. With a super-low drop rate, you are currently the only one who found it in one year of gameplay. If you sell it, you will make a good amount of real money. But you will probably not see that item anymore in your entire Diablo III gaming life. Another option is keeping the axe. You now feel "super" but think about it: you just indirectly spent 1000€ for that item.

I think it will be very very hard to keep concentrate and wisely decide about "using" or "selling" valuable items. In theory the stronger you are, the better you farm (and find more gold and stuff in general). That would suggest you should always keep "the best" items, aiming to sell something less valuable (that you would never use anyway). On the other side, finding such a valuable item and selling it in one shot would grant you a lot of cash and less time spent grinding/selling on the auction house.

RMAH, watch out for possible scams

2011-09-03T09:11:00.000+02:00

I love the new Real Money Auction House, I really do. But I don't like that listed items are anonymous. I would like to know who-is-selling-what, like it always happened in World of Warcraft and similar games. The main reason is that I had the habit to make friendships with good merchants, something that helps a lot when trying to have a good deal and buy at cheaper prices.

Problem
As noted on the official US forums (link), anonymous listings could potentially harm players who want to cash-out money from the Battle.net account. Blizzard will not directly allow that operation, so smart users will use 2 accounts: the first one will post the item for the exact wallet amount, the second account (eWallet) will buyout it from the first account. The trick should work like a charm but it's a bit risky: someone could "smell" the transaction and list the same item for the same amount of money, luring you to accidentally buyout the wrong auction (remember: the auction's creator is anonymous).

Solution
Don't list common items that would easily reveal your intentions. If you want to move 173€ from your Battle.net account, don't list a Crappy Wooden Sword for that amount. Instead, as suggested by another user (link), choose a rare item (green, blue, ...). In Diablo III items feature random stats each time. This is why a malicious user will have some serious troubles in finding the same-exact item.

Battle.net eWallet. Do we really need it?

2011-09-02T20:45:00.000+02:00

With Diablo III, Blizzard will be introducing a new tool to the Battle.net platform: a nice electronic wallet (eWallet) to store your money and spend it for ingame gear and Blizzard products.

It will be working like a bank account, except... you will not be able to withdraw your money. Unless you decide to spend it for Blizzard-related products, you will be forced to keep everything in the wallet. The cash-out option will be only available when selling something and it will be "per transaction" based. So if you purchase a 2$ item, the system will ask you something like "do you want to put the money in your eWallet account OR cash-out via PayPal?" (or any similar 3rd party partner).

The eWallet solution should be working like Valve's Steam platform: you deposit real money in a virtual account and use it for your needs, whenever you buy a new game, a gadget, whatever. The only bad aspect of this model is that you will always leave some unused money in the account. Maybe few dollars/euros... but multiply it for the total number of subscribers and you get the idea.

I recently purchased a 7.50€ game on Steam. I had to add 10€ to my wallet, because they (smartly) force you to add a fixed amounts of money. So I'm left with 2,50€ that are completely useless. Should I buy a 9€ game, I will be asked to add +10€, leaving me -yet again- with unused money that I cannot withdraw at all.

To be fair, Steam offers a lot. You can spend the money in multiple ways, and the base idea of that platform is indeed "we sell games". But why replicate this model on Battle.net? The supposed "Blizzard products" are Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft and Diablo III (plus very few oldies for nostalgic players). That's all. What's the point of growing my eWallet if I cannot use it? Most important question: why should I give more money to Blizzard... and accept the idea of being denied to withdraw my money?

Goodbye WoW, welcome Diablo

2011-09-01T00:32:00.000+02:00

As a former ex-WoW player I must admit I am very excited to start a new journey with Diablo III. I've been playing World of Warcraft for years and I've played one class only (hunter).

I had a lot of fun, really... but I eventually got bored of the "Kill 10 rats" mechanism and managed to completely abandon the game (that happened 7 months ago).

Unfortunately I am not really interested in lore (a very important component of the game, let me say so) and that helped a lot when repeating the same tasks over and over... and over. I was not a "guild" guy either, meaning that I joined few guilds over time but I never managed to have fun with them. Lastly, I had some serious problems about managing real life stuff with ingame schedules (raiding, events, meetings, ...). I think a teenager has an easier life, in that sense. Having a wife and 2 children I really did not want a game with a lot of time wasted in silly things (endless LFD queues anyone?)

But the real problem was my constant feeling of being a "beta tester". Cataclysm was fun, yes, but it added tons of changes over time. Nerfs, buffs, class changes, changes reverted back, ... That happened with the previous expansion too (Lich King). As a hunter -my main character- I suffered a lot (not to mention the PvP aspect of the class). One day I decided to take a break and watch things from outside. That was when I discovered I was not really having fun anymore (that's a "T1 fun", see this insightful post for reference).

Why should Diablo III change the course of (my) gaming history? It will feature a lot of repetitiveness, it will be patched very often, it will surely need some grind. That's true, yes, but it will also remove the annoying "scheduled time" requirement. I will just login, jump in a game (or play alone) and quit when needed. No one will be harmed or get offended. No "raiding progress" to take care of. No more need to be FORCED to grind (reputation, daily quests, ...) if I want to grow and "do better".

Diablo III is not a MMO, of course, and that's why it will be very different from WoW. But I was a dps player... and the feeling in D3 will be very similar: get better gear do do more damage, kill faster and get better loot. Maybe WoW tanks and healers will have a hard time at click-killing mobs... But for me that will be a lot of fun. I was already used to do that, after all.

Diablo III classes will also generate less hate and competition, possibly encouraging people to help others and give good advices to do better. No more "blame the tank", "healer wake up", "dps get better gear". Everyone will be on the same boat, more or less. And that will help the overall gaming experience.

Blogging about... what?

2011-08-30T00:56:00.000+02:00

This blog will teach you the top 10 tricks to gain money and fame in Diablo III... No, not really. There are tons of "become rich in D3" blogs already. Most of them are exquisite crap. Very few of them are well written, intelligent and actually useful (the game is not out yet, but the blogs start giving creative advices in advance). If you are looking for yet-another-gold-blog this is not the place for you (please refer to my blogroll on the right). G93VY8WKGX48

Diablolic is a place where I (Loque) will be sharing feelings, ideas, tricks, suggestions, experiences and whatever it comes to my mind -and I think it's worth a post- while playing Diablo III. The game is still in the pre-beta process, with a beta coming in September, but the blog is a way to "heat the engines" in advance and meet new people and share the fun.

I don't have a specific goal for Diablo III. I just want to have a lot of fun. I will dedicate some time to the "make money" party of course, but overall I am more interested in playing the game (all difficulties) and grind achievements (I love them, in any game). With the exception of very few players, Diablo III will not make rich anyone. If anything, we will be able to gain some bucks, yes. That will be good enough. Of course a lucky "rare" drop will always be like winning the lottery on the Real Money Auction House.

A small plea to my readers: should you decide to comment any article, please consider using the login option. Anonymous comments are always welcome but the idea here is to find new Diablo fans.