Diablo 3 - Boyarsky & Wilson on Classes @ Eurogamer

Eurogamer have a lenthy interview on Diablo 3 classes.

There are still many things we don't know about Diablo III: how the rune skill customisation system will work (it wasn't in the build of the game at BlizzCon, as the designers are still iterating on this terrifyingly flexible feature); how randomised events will spice up the more carefully-crafted "overworld"; what form player-versus-player combat will take; and what the Battle.net online feature set will be (although, after the example set by StarCraft II, expectations are very high indeed). But the game is defined by its classes, and all four were available to play over a very extensive demo at BlizzCon. So I hogged a terminal for as long as I dared to delve into each one, and discussed them in detail with lead world designer Leonard Boyarsky and lead designer Jay Wilson. This is what I found.

More information.

Woah. Leonard Boyarsky is over at Blizzard now? That makes me more excited about Diablo 3.

The amount of hype generated these days for games that aren't even going to be out in a year is getting really annoying. Many of them end up sucking too… remember Spore? They were talking that thing up like 3 years before it was out.

Originally Posted by Erogamer
There are still many things we don't know about Diablo III…

…and even many more things we don't *want* to know.

Great article. First discussion of classes that's made the Witch Doctor sound interesting to me. Also seems like they're really taking things to a new level in a lot of ways:

It's clear that even at its most basic, Diablo III has far more to think about, far more mechanical sophistication than its predecessors. "Is it more considered? Yes, that is our goal," says Wilson. "To make a game that… well, we don't want chess. We want an action game. But we do want an action game that does occasionally make you think, challenge you, make you approach a situation in a different way… Creating a combat model that has a bit more depth is I think one of the keys to moving the series forward."

The difference won't be so apparent at Normal difficulty, he says, but on higher settings Diablo III will become more cerebral, rather than just more unforgiving.

Sounds good to me. There've been way too many Diablo imitators that have made players bored and really tired of left-clicking mobs all night. Imo, to take a hack and slash and make it work anymore, it needs more complex tactical and structural elements.

Originally Posted by Sergius64
The amount of hype generated these days for games that aren't even going to be out in a year is getting really annoying. Many of them end up sucking too… remember Spore? They were talking that thing up like 3 years before it was out.

I find myself in agreement. It's not that I have any concern whether the game's going to suck or not; it's more that I don't understand the point of trying to sustain a buzz for this long. Who cares what the buzz level is before the game can even be purchased? I mean, maybe building it up a little while ahead of time makes sure that interest is whipped up, but yeah why is it years of hype now? Shut up and develop your damned game. Call us when there's a beta.

But maybe the extended hype does impact sales. Did Spore generate good revenue despite its lackluster critical reception?

Originally Posted by Yeesh
But maybe the extended hype does impact sales. Did Spore generate good revenue despite its lackluster critical reception?

I'm sure it did. But at the same time two years of marketing and advertisment effort can't be cheap… But my main gripe was with the fact that this is a bit annoying from a customer's perspective, and it's not just the Publisher/Developer who's to blame, all these magasines and review websites go out hunting for these snippets of meaningless information. And as soon as they hear more they almost spoil the entire game before its even close to being out.

Imagine if we went to the movies and half the previews would be full of meaningless info on movies that were 2 years away from being finished and the other half of the previews would be ones that totally spoil some movie thats a year from being finished.

Oh quit bein such a couple old ladies, for crissake. It's a game that tons of people (myself included) are looking forward to, are anxious to see how it's coming along and what details have leaked out. The developer of course is more than happy to feed people to get them more excited. I'm more excited, theyve done their job. There's an industry built around this sort of thing.

Nobody's tellin you that you have to look at it!

I'm all for the witch doctor at this point Mags, zombie dogs and flaming skulls… need anything more? I'm waiting patiently for a nice ranged class to appear