Diablo III Lectures on GDC 2013

[Spriggs]

Gamasutra has reported that Blizzard will be attending GDC 2013 and Jay Wilson will be giving a lecture on Diablo 3! Read below for the details.



Shout at the Devil: The Making of Diablo III
When building any game, but especially when it's a sequel to the beloved Diablo series, it's critical that you have a series of core design goals, or pillars, that you can use as a guide to making decisions and defining what you want the final vision of the game to accomplish. In this postmortem, we'll explore the pillars that guided Diablo III's development and how well we felt we accomplished each of them. We'll focus specifically on the ones we feel we struggled with and the game design lessons we learned during those struggles. Examples of specific challenges of living up to these values will be provided, prioritizing them against one another, and evaluating how well they were accomplished after Diablo III was released.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/1...p#.URQ88aVwrnj

[MoanaLisa]

That should be an interesting session. I hope they bring security. They may need it. If Wilson can step back far enough and is honest enough to really engage with the topic and not use it as a self-serving reason to cover up on the mistakes that led up to launch, it could be extremely enlightening. I hope someone captures and posts a good video of it.

[Spriggs]

Yeah. I'm pretty sure this will be the first time we've seen the Diablo 3 devs discuss the game in public since Blizzcon 2011, and that was before the game launched. I'm interested to see how it turns out. I'm surprised this news isn't getting any more attention.

[Hellfury]

Diablo III: How to develop a game that sells 12million copies and has very little content and almost no updates so doesn't hurt the major cash cow(WOW)

[Deleted]

Diablo III: How to develop a game that sells 12million copies and has very little content and almost no updates so doesn't hurt the major cash cow(WOW)

make a decent game 10 years ago
get a team to make a sequel
scrap every good idea you have pre release
release a crappy game
sell millions
???
profit

[Buu]

That should be an interesting session. I hope they bring security. They may need it. If Wilson can step back far enough and is honest enough to really engage with the topic and not use it as a self-serving reason to cover up on the mistakes that led up to launch, it could be extremely enlightening. I hope someone captures and posts a good video of it.

Honestly? After "FUCK THAT LOSER" I think the security will be used to fill the astronomical amount of empty chairs and don't make it look as such a big fail.

Probably the most interesting stuff will be said in off if Wilson was transferred to try to release Starcraft Ghost.

[Anjerith]

I tend to appreciate Diablo 3 pre-patches much more than the average bear.

[Confucius]

Jay Wilson is gonna get booed

[Duster505]

They calling it "how not to design games"?

---------- Post added 2013-02-11 at 09:50 PM ----------

Jay Wilson is gonna get booed

Like he should. Only have to look at POE to see how stone dead D3 design was from scratch.

[tehdef]

Jay Wilson is gonna get booed

GDC is a bit more grown up than that. It'd serve you well if you were also.

Jay Wilson is still an accredited AAA designer, and while D3 might not have lived up to the expectations of the vocal forums whiners, it doesn't mean the game is necessarily bad. It could be improved, and much as since it's launch last year in May, but regardless... It's tactless to call for 'booing' or just outright being rude and making negative comments to someone who is obviously trying.

[zalmatra]

Poe is lightyears ahead of d3s flawed designs

d3 never felt immersive like d2 or d1 it just felt mehish the whole way through i beat the game but i didnt feel a sense of accomplishment the graphics were okay and the music was okay but the gameplay and how it all tied together just didnt draw me in like d1 or d2.

it felt like playing a okay diablo clone i had more fun with titan quest then i did with d3.

the storyline certainly didnt win any stars or was unexpected while playing poe i have a strong feeling of immersion. one that has not faded as i go deeper into the game but infact is growing stronger as i explore the world of wareclast. my witch grows more powerful as i slay the dark beasts within it

---------- Post added 2013-02-11 at 10:14 PM ----------

the various leagues the map generation all of it provides a strong sense of completion and difficulty the sad thing is for all of d3s's advances i never feel any strong connection it languishes on my computer untouched for so many months because i dont feel compelled to play it or replay it.

the real money auction house has nothing to do with my disintrest it has to do with the fact that as a whole d3 is not a very compelling game it dosent grab you or enchant you the storyline does not draw you in at all.

the failure of d3 is a failure of atmosphere a failure to incorporate the visual and audio elements that make a very compelling game to craft a story that weaves itself through its sounds its visuals even the interface a game uses is part of it.

d3 failed on every level to draw me in. it was okay but i never felt strongly compelled by its gameplay or storyline to continue forward.

and if you dont feel a compulsion strongly to keep playing in what sense has a game accomplished its goal.

[Grummgug]

GDC is a bit more grown up than that. It'd serve you well if you were also.

Jay Wilson is still an accredited AAA designer, and while D3 might not have lived up to the expectations of the vocal forums whiners, it doesn't mean the game is necessarily bad. It could be improved, and much as since it's launch last year in May, but regardless... It's tactless to call for 'booing' or just outright being rude and making negative comments to someone who is obviously trying.

Amazon runs a list of top 100 best selling PC games & hardware.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-V...games/229575#3

Diablo 3 is currently at #55 as of this writing. They also allow users to rate each item from 1-5 stars. Out of ALL 100 items, the LOWEST rated item is Diablo 3. Even the crappiest mouse that falls apart for most people after a couple months gets at least 2.5 stars.

You might think D3 is not neccessarily bad, but boy does that say a lot. That's seriously hard to do, to get ranked dead-last.

[rhorle]

Amazon runs a list of top 100 best selling PC games & hardware.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-V...games/229575#3

Way to selective edit. If you go to just games it is number 33 which is pretty decent for a game almost a year old. It still has sold 12 million plus copies since release which is a remarkable feet for any game. Its not hard to get ranked dead last when you have a bunch of idiots out there that think the game should have been something it never was intended to be.

A lot of the stupid complaints are for things that Diablo 2 did. A lot of people didn't know what a typical ARPG has and hate Diablo 3 for those things (like lack of content updates and nothing to do but grind for gear)

[Nerraw]

Amazon runs a list of top 100 best selling PC games & hardware.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-V...games/229575#3

Diablo 3 is currently at #55 as of this writing. They also allow users to rate each item from 1-5 stars. Out of ALL 100 items, the LOWEST rated item is Diablo 3. Even the crappiest mouse that falls apart for most people after a couple months gets at least 2.5 stars.

You might think D3 is not neccessarily bad, but boy does that say a lot. That's seriously hard to do, to get ranked dead-last.

And how many of those "reviews" are actually more than two sentences long and going deeply into the game and it's systems?

[Mongoose19]

"Fuck that loser" - on how to fuck those losers/customers.

Ye it will be fun lecture.

[Grummgug]

Its not hard to get ranked dead last when you have a bunch of idiots out there that think the game should have been something it never was intended to be.

Every game and device on the Amazon list has its haters. You act like D3 is the only one. And that's the beauty of the list, it does a great job of accounting for haters equally among all items, and factoring them out. What were left with then is a fair grade. And its dead last.

[Nerraw]

Every game and device on the Amazon list has its haters. You act like D3 is the only one. And that's the beauty of the list, it does a great job of accounting for haters equally among all items, and factoring them out. What were left with then is a fair grade. And its dead last.

Looking through the 1-star list (I want to gouge out my eyes now btw), the majority has no clue how ARPGs work and/or haven't actually bought the game. The rest are complaining about the BMAH (not using it has NO influence on how YOU play) and the required online connection (which has been known since the game was revealed over 4 years ago).

[Komati]

Amazon runs a list of top 100 best selling PC games & hardware.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-V...games/229575#3

Diablo 3 is currently at #55 as of this writing. They also allow users to rate each item from 1-5 stars. Out of ALL 100 items, the LOWEST rated item is Diablo 3. Even the crappiest mouse that falls apart for most people after a couple months gets at least 2.5 stars.

You might think D3 is not neccessarily bad, but boy does that say a lot. That's seriously hard to do, to get ranked dead-last.

It means every angry Diablo 2 fanboy rated the game 1/5. Which is totally unfair. It's not a 5/5 game, but it's certanly better than 2.5/5, considering what the other games on that list got.
I am no big fan of Diablo 3 myself, and thought it was a disaster in terms of pacing, but I enjoyed it far more than I did with The Sims 3 Medieval, and I think most of the people that rated D3 really low feels the same.

[Nerraw]

Oh, and funnily enough the average rating on the CE is over a point higher than the normal version.

[juzalol]

It's probably going to be about how they managed to create a game that sold over 12 million copies as
I don't think Blizzard will publicly discuss about the flaws of the game.

Technically the game was very impressive. The combat is fluid and responsive, the game runs smooth and
they implemented new rather complicated features like the RMAH. In short the game works. [well if you have an SSD]
So the coders and system designers deserve a praise but I don't think Diablo III is a good game to talk about core
design goals and stuff.

If EA would buy the Path of Exile IP and build the same exact game on Diablo III engine, that would be the true successor
to Diablo II.

I mean it's a good framework for a hack and slash game but the game itself is kinda rubbish. Hopefully they will talk about
the flaws in the design, in short: How did we miss the mark by such distance.