Is Blizzard planning to counter SWTOR with Diablo III?

[sleekit]

after the "Honeymoon Phase" of SWTOR is over Bioware will be releasing Mass Effect 3 . . .
perhaps we should phone them and tell them not to "compete" with SWTOR huh ?

honestly the concept some people have of cross genre competition is completely inane.

[Trollsbane]

Examples? Most of what I've heard contradict that entirely. So either you played early beta (in which case its really no surprise that it sucked), or your opinion just differs from others.

Yep. I've played it as well, and I'd go so far as to say it is already one of my all time favorite games.

[Ighox]

SWTOR has been confirmed to be released this year, whereas diablo 3 will not be coming this year, so no, they wont.

How do you know D3 isn't coming this year?
Blizzard said they were aiming for a 2011 release but that nothing was 100% and it might not be released if it's not finished.

You're kidding, right? I meant real MMOs not Fail-MMOs like this. They will all be done 3month after Release. APB is Free2Play already and really one of the worst MMOs ever. TERA is a sugar-colofur Asia-Grinder even more retarded looking than Aion and Guild Wars will be like RIFT, a WoW-Clone in bad!

And by your same retarded logic we can then also say that SWTOR is a single-player WoW clone with lightsabers that's gonna fail within 3 months because they aim way too high with it.

[MSuarez]

I don't like SWTOR, but I don't think Diablo 3 will be better. To be honest, I believe that Blizzard's every game will be the best, but I don't know why, this time I feel very bad about Diablo3. I'm afraid that Diablo 3 can't be better than Diablo 2.

[moaradin]

A good amount of people from NeGAF got into the beta. Some that weren't even expecting it to be good are all now saying its amazing.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=364002

The last 30 pages or so are worth skimming through.

Here's a nice quote

Holy shit. This game. This fucking game.

It's very hard to convey my feelings about this game without breaking the NDA so I'll put it like this: I cannot believe this game exists, with all its scope and detail, all its content and features. I can't even begin to imagine the resources that had to go into it, or the balls it took to even imagine it. I don't know much about what's been said about the finances, but I have no doubt that this must be the most expensive game in history.

When I consider the fact that EA actually greenlighted this and bankrolled it, the only explanation I can come up with is that they really want to take Kotick's lunch money. And after playing it, all I can say is that I hope they get it. They deserve it.

Any complaint I can come up with is trivial, even at this phase. It's only closed beta and already it's consuming my life. It is life ending. I am afraid to play the retail product. The real world may never see me again.

I haven't really played the game at all in its current state, but from all the beta impressions from countless sources that I've gathered over the past months, I have a hard time believing this game could be anything other than a colossal success.

Here's another post by someone else in the beta. It's a long one so I wont quote it, but here's the link.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost...postcount=3974

[Redgoon23]

That quotes awesome. I hope I love the game as much as he does.

[Bane123]

I've read over and over again that SWOTOR isn't different enough from WoW to be a threat

What's SWOTOR? Star Wars of The Old Republic? lol j/k

I'll give you just 5 reasons why it's different from WoW

1. No auto attack. You might say meh that's not really a reason, but coming from a person who played melee characters for the majority of WoW, I'd see that as a noticeable difference when playing, as i'll have to be actively engaged in fighting or else i would most likely die unless my companion is good enough to take out the whole group for me. Whatever damage you do is a result of what abilities you use, no more white hits on your damage meters hehe.

2. Fully voiced NPCs. That's pretty huge in an MMO where there are tons of different characters that you'd encounter out in the world and even your own character has a voice of his/her own. Daniel Erickson the lead writer for the game stated that there are hundreds of thousands of lines of dialogue present in the game, and enough to fill 50-60 novels. That is a really huge undertaking for an MMO to do, and it will eliminate the quest text skipping that majority of the players have done in WoW and keep them actively involved/immersed in what's actually going on in the story (but there is a skip button - spacebar for those who could care less, but you still have dialogue choices based on what's being spoken in-game).

3. You don't have to farm your mats for yourself. This is true, you won't have to grind for mats any more, although you can do it if you want, but why would you do that when you have 5 companions that can do it for you? I don't know the specific numbers but i think i remember someone stating that you can send out 3 companions to gather the mats for you. You can even tell them to farm it while you're offline, so when you log on you can just get the mats with minimal effort from yourself. It makes sense because in the movies you don't see Darth Vader farming mats, he had his minions do all the grindy work for him.

4. Romance-able companion characters and NPCs. Yes you can romance your companion characters (just the humanoids - no Jawa sex!). Your companion characters have separate personalities and feelings towards your actions, and you can take advantage of that by playing with their feelings and romancing them. You can even do this with NPCs. In a leaked video from a beta tester he kissed one of his quest NPCs (the rest is unkown since it fades to black hehe). You definitely can't do that in WoW hehe.

5. The leveling is different for each class (for the most part). I remember leveling alts many times, just repeating the same quests in the zones that were the easiest to do quests over and over because it was the fastest way to level. In SW:TOR each class has a separate and distinct story that is different from the other classes that you might have played. Some people have stated that it can take 200 hours to level a class. I wouldn’t doubt it because this game is pretty much KOTOR 3 to maybe even 10 combined with the scale at which this game is being made. And beta testers have said that it feels like Vanilla WoW leveling. Different players can level at different rates but with the class stories and world story quests present in the game it can take you longer to level to 50 than it is to level from 1-85 in WoW and it will still feel different when you play a different class because you can’t repeat the same quests or repeat the same dialogue options as they are completely different. Also the dialogue choices you make which can affect your alignment (Lightside/Darkside/Neutral – Grey) can affect the type of gear you can wear and the different looks that come with it, and can give you access to different titles and the looks of your character.

Anyways the list can go on and on with the differences, but it can also go on and on if you’re just playing the game to nitpick to look for similarities that SW:TOR is to WoW. It’s similar and distinct at the same time

I know it doesn’t really have much to do with D3 but as a forum lurker (mostly on SW:TOR threads I always see stuff like “It’s a WoW clone it will fail”, “Meh, it’s just WoW in space” or like yours “I've read over and over again that SWOTOR isn't different enough from WoW”. So just wanted to state some differences.

But as for D3 I can’t say much as I never played the Diablo series, and from what I’ve seen it seems to be of a different genre like more action-hack and slash. But it can affect the sales if released sometime near SW:TOR’s release due to budget/time constraints to play a certain amount of games.

PS. I don't know if all of the information is 100% accurate but some other knowledgeable SW:TOR fans can correct some of my statements if needed

[Jumpieboi]

I think the only post in this entire thread was given by the 2nd poster.

It'll probably be released about 2 months after SWTOR.

That or the Deathwing patch.

[Zanardam]

Heresy!!!!!!!

Dark Millenium online will beat all of them!!!!!!

ALLLL OF THEM 0o

[Zeta333]

I honestly cant beleave you all are arguing over this shit. OR is coming out when its coming out, Diablo 3 is coming out when its coming out. Who cares if its released to counter a game? Will it really ruin your day?

[rzy]

Diablo 3 isn't an MMO. While some games like Diablo will consume people for a month at a time, I doubt people who planned to subscribe to an MMO will stay unsubbed just to play a non MMO game.

They aren't really comparable in terms of subscriptions.

I for one will be playing D3's arena instead of Wow's or ill do both :/

[Niter]

I think every single game competes with other games.

Even if they are different genres, they still require the same resource from the player, and that is time.

People do not plan ahead like that: I am going to buy this game, and pay a subscription, it is my commitment!. It does not really work like that AFAIK. People buy what they think is interesting, and stick to it until they get bored.

Having said that, it is almost guaranteed that very few titles can compete with the Diablo franchise. Blizzard knows that once Diablo III is release, people will be playing it, and even WoW should see some variation in subscriptions. Let's not forget that Blizzard is making the game just like Starcraft II in regards to how it interacts with Battle.net. Even in single player, multiplayer and so on, there will be people sending messages to you. It is actually quite clever, and more power to Blizzard, and I think that actually strengthens Blizzard's 'market share' in the long run.

OT: from what I have seen, SWTOR is not as strong as some are led to believe, and the only thing we have seen until now can be perfectly described in one word: hype. It has been a while since Bioware made an acclaimed title. Perhaps this is going to be them going back to their former glory, but I honestly doubt it.

[Deleted]

whereas diablo 3 will not be coming this year

They're still aiming for 2011 release.

[moaradin]

OT: from what I have seen, SWTOR is not as strong as some are led to believe, and the only thing we have seen until now can be perfectly described in one word: hype. It has been a while since Bioware made an acclaimed title. Perhaps this is going to be them going back to their former glory, but I honestly doubt it.

Mass Effect 2 will like a word with you. Game of the Year 2010 and it's Bioware's highest rated game since, I don't know, KOTOR?

I'm not sure if you know either, but the lead developer of SWTOR is James Ohlen, who was also the lead developer for Baldur's Gate, KOTOR, Dragon Age: Origins, etc. If anyone can bring them back to their "former glory", then it would be him since he made all those games you praise haha.

[Niter]

Mass Effect 2 will like a word with you. Game of the Year 2010 and it's Bioware's highest rated game since, I don't know, KOTOR?

I forgot about that, even though I was thinking more about 'staying value', and the game has been out for... 5 months?

Thanks for the reminder, I hope Bioware has not used all of its touch in ME2. And yes, it is definitely their greatest title since KOTOR

[moaradin]

I forgot about that, even though I was thinking more about 'staying value', and the game has been out for... 5 months?

Thanks for the reminder, I hope Bioware has not used all of its touch in ME2. And yes, it is definitely their greatest title since KOTOR

I don't know Mass Effect 2 had more replay value than any game I've played in recent memory. I can't think of another single player game that I have played over 5 times for over 100+ hours, besides KOTOR of course. I'm still not done with it because of the whole save game feature that Bioware has done so well on.

[Niter]

I'm not sure if you know either, but the lead developer of SWTOR is James Ohlen, who was also the lead developer for Baldur's Gate, KOTOR, Dragon Age: Origins, etc. If anyone can bring them back to their "former glory", then it would be him since he made all those games you praise haha.

I hope he does, since those games were excellent. Except for DA, I never really liked it that much

I am not against SWTOR, I am actually hoping it is a great game, and that it sells well because it is a good game and not simply because of its name. However, I have been largely unimpressed by it so far. Art style, animations and customisation being my main concerns. Story-wise I doubt it could fail, since it is Star Wars after all, and Bioware tells a good story.

[moaradin]

I hope he does, since those gamers were excellent. Except for DA, I never really liked it that much

I am not against SWTOR, I am actually hoping it is a great game, and that it sells well because it is a good game and not simply because of its name. However, I have been largely unimpressed by it so far. Art style, animations and customisation being my main concerns. Story-wise I doubt it could fail, since it is Star Wars after all, and Bioware tells a good story.

Low quality youtube videos really aren't a good indication for those things. I personally think the art style is the best thing they could have done to make it look good, unique and accessible which is something MMO's need. I also think the animations are definitely underrated. They aren't overly flashy but flashy doesn't mean good. I don't think any MMO has done something as impressive as the deflecting animations in SWTOR. Listen to anything who played the game for an extended amount of time to really dissect it, and they will say the same.

[Niter]

Low quality youtube videos really aren't a good indication for those things. I personally think the art style is the best thing they could have done to make it look good, unique and accessible which is something MMO's need. I also think the animations are definitely underrated. They aren't overly flashy but flashy doesn't mean good. I don't think any MMO has done something as impressive as the deflecting animations in SWTOR. Listen to anything who played the game for an extended amount of time to really dissect it, and they will say the same.

It is not the picture quality I am talking about. It is more about the colours, items, and the models. To me it looks like the arms of the characters are kind of short, I do not think they got the proportion thing right. As for animation, they just do not look fluid enough to me, I expected quite a bit more from it. To me they look rather clumsy, I am not sure I can figure out a proper word to describe it.

I have seen several opinions saying the game is good, several others saying it is not. I am still waiting for the game so I can try it, because, we all know, Star Wars fans can be quite protective of SW products, it takes a while before most would admit a SW simply sucked. I have seen that several times in the past, so I am still willing to try it before I have a complete opinion on the matter. So far I think the game is lacking, and I I am sincere in saying that I want to be wrong

However, I am not so sure about Diablo 3 either, so both games could actually not live up to their names. LOL

[Riathy]

Really people who think Diablo 3 only has a month gameplay are deluded...

Diablo 2 is still one of the most solid games out there, I would still be playing if it had a better resolution option.
Unlike wow, D2 is free in how you play the game, you can make any type of character; and with runewords even your "own class" to some extend.
The replay ability in Diablo 2 is huge....