Patch 8.3 PTR - Corruption Tooltips and Changes, Diablo Interview, DLC #704

[chaud]

Patch 8.3 PTR - Corruption Tooltips and Changes
The new build of Patch 8.3 has changed the way corruption debuffs are presented as well as adding a new debuff and changing certain corruption debuff thresholds.

• Corruption debuffs are no longer displayed on the debuff bar UI.
• Creeping Death still shows up in the debuff bar UI.
• Instead, corruption debuffs are listed in the Corruption UI by placing the cursor over the corruption eye on the character sheet. Active debuffs are highlighted in red.
• A new corruption debuff - Cascading Disaster has been added for breaching 60 corruption.
• The corruption debuffs have been reordered and have new threshold corruption levels:
  
  • 1+ Total Corruption - Grasping Tendrils - Taking damage has a chance to slow your movement speed for 0 sec. The magnitude of the slow increases with further corruption.
  • 20+ Total Corruption - Corrupted Zone - Your spells and abilities have a chance to create a corrupted zone at your location, dealing Shadow damage to you every 2 sec. The size and damage of the corrupted zone increase with higher Corruption.
  • 40+ Total Corruption - Grand Delusions - Taking damage has a chance to summon a Thing From Beyond, which pursues you for 10 seconds. Its speed increases with further corruption.
  • 60+ Total Corruption - Cascading Disaster - If you are struck by the Thing From Beyond, you will be immediately afflicted by Grasping Tendrils and Corrupted Zone.
  • 80+ Total Corruption - Creeping Death - All damage taken is magnified significantly, increasing with further corruption.

PCGamer Blizzard Interview with Diablo's Original Creators
PCGamer posted an article recently with David Brevik, Erich Schaefer, and Max Schaefer (Founders of Blizzard North and creators of Diablo). The full interview will be up later, but the three discussed how Blizzard as a company has completely changed since their involvement.

• The only original Blizzard developers who remain are senior art director Samwise Didier and senior vice president Allen Adham.
• Max says the old Blizzard is gone. It has grown from a small company into an empire.
• Blizzard is now a video game empire that has to appease shareholders.
• The change in values and culture is a natural part of any company growing into a massive corporation.
• There was a constant battle between Blizzard North and Blizzard Entertainment (the main branch) over Diablo 2's gory, dark aesthetic.
• As the company grew, it became harder for the trio to focus on creative design and avoid corporate bureaucracy.
• A big difference between then and now is that they didn't talk about shareholder value. The only thing they ever discussed was what they wanted to create and what fans would like.
• You can't grow that big and be as free-wheeling as the past.
• One of the reasons that they left was to be more self-deterministic and not be beholden to some monstrous organization.
• The three left Blizzard back in 2003 and never had to deal with the modern challenges facing the company.
• They agree that sometimes you wake up in the morning and you're in a no win situation, which is what Blizzard faced with the Blitzchung controversy.
• They believe that Blizzard buckling under pressure from the Chinese government was a "conspiracy theory" and just thought with their wallets first, which underestimated people's perception of the decision.
• They agree that Blizzard had to do something because if not the company would have become a free speech platform for any kind of political movement that anybody wants to take up. It was not handed perfectly, however, and that's why Blizzard apologized.

Dark Legacy Comics #704
DLC #704 has been released.

[Charge me Doctor]

Basically "we used to make games for fans, now we make them for shareholders" if i read that interview correctly.

[Cavox]

Max says the old Blizzard is gone. It has grown from a small company into an empire.

I've been saying that for years now. Don't call this abomination "Blizzard", because it's "Activision-Blizzard" and it doesn't make good games anymore.

[calathiel-]

Nothing new except the confirmation that THEY (Blizzard) is very aware as much as we are of what they have become. No need to pretend otherwise. I don't necessarily want them to go back to small business mentality, but I would definitely would like to see them split from Activision some day. Wishful thinking, I know.

[Railander]

Basically "we used to make games for fans, now we make them for shareholders" if i read that interview correctly.

that is the best tl;dr

[Chonar]

"Oh cool an interview with the original Diablo creators and a big screenshot of the main baddie of Diablo4! I can't wait to read their opinions on Diablo4 and where the franchise is going, and how Diablo3's gory aesthetic is gonna hold up in comparison to the original Diablo and Diablo2 and the less-gory Diablo3 and...

.... oh."

[enigma77]

It's good to finally hear what we have all known to be true for many years now from ex-Blizzard itself.

The company is in the moneymaking business now, not in the business of making great games.

[MrLoque]

One of the many reasons why Path of Exile is a successful Diablo clone: Grinding Gears isn't Blizzard and they care about their customers.

[Kaleredar]

Basically "we used to make games for fans, now we make them for shareholders" if i read that interview correctly.

It's good to finally hear what we have all known to be true for many years now from ex-Blizzard itself.

The company is in the moneymaking business now, not in the business of making great games.

Nothing new except the confirmation that THEY (Blizzard) is very aware as much as we are of what they have become. No need to pretend otherwise. I don't necessarily want them to go back to small business mentality, but I would definitely would like to see them split from Activision some day. Wishful thinking, I know.

It's good to finally hear what we have all known to be true for many years now from ex-Blizzard itself.

The company is in the moneymaking business now, not in the business of making great games.

These guys left in 2003.

So unless you're singing the praises of Warcraft 2 and the Lost Vikings and think Vanilla WoW was some corporate cash-grab overreach from the get go... you're using the wrong people's testimony as evidence, here.

Oh, and the hilarious part of this quote:

I've been saying that for years now. Don't call this abomination "Blizzard", because it's "Activision-Blizzard" and it doesn't make good games anymore.

So you're pining for the 2003 days... when Blizzard were owned wholesale by Vivendi instead?

[Vakna]

One of the many reasons why Path of Exile is a successful Diablo clone: Grinding Gears isn't Blizzard and they care about their customers.

It's also exceptionally amusing that people are always implying that Blizzard buckling to the Chinese is what's causing the cesspit that is their current games. But GGG is also 80% owned by TenCent (the chinese company that part owns Blizzard and many other western game devs)... 80% of their company is owned by the Chinese and looks how successful they still are.

It's not the Chinese that are ruining our gaming experiences, it's just Blizzard.

[Loveliest]

Yeah, 2003 is too far back to compare if you want to say things about WoW.
On the other hand, the whole gaming industry has changed, so we don't really need evidence of it. Those who still make games because they'd love to play something like that are indie developers, big companies are just that.
And not only that, but the gamer community has changed as well. The biggest part now, the most who are bringing in money, are not those gamers of old - those who played for a long time, who liked challanges and so on. It's the new gamers, those who play mobile games, those who pay for random loot boxes, those who spend less time actually playing and more boosting their egos.
We're the ones basically out of place. Just like the movie industry changed and it became more child and teen focused on the big screen and more serious and higher quality for TV/ platform series, so did the gaming industry.

[Charge me Doctor]

These guys left in 2003.

So unless you're singing the praises of Warcraft 2 and the Lost Vikings and think Vanilla WoW was some corporate cash-grab overreach from the get go... you're using the wrong people's testimony as evidence, here.

Yeah, after re-reading it, this interview really sounds like some people just speculating about how things are now in the blizzard.

[Fitsu]

I see a lot of people interview David Brevik about Blizz as he was a lead dev on D2... But why do people hold his opinion is such high regard? I mean since he left Blizz because of "One of the reasons that they left was to be more self-deterministic and not be beholden to some monstrous organization." the two main things hes worked on have been Marvel Heroes and Hellgate: London... Both commercial failures which have had their servers shutdown.

The other two have worked on Torchlight... Which I mean, it was fine but nothing revolutionary. Kinda feels like they just get interviewed because they the things about Blizzard that people want to hear so they can be like "yeh, damn those big companies putting the little guy down. All they care about is themselves!".

[Soeroah]

I agree with their take on the China situation.

I see too many people acting like Blizzard is pro-totalitarian dictatorship and anti-democracy when really they just chose money over morals, like most big businesses do these days.

And there is a point in the free speech platform thing. If they allowed anyone, regardless of political side, to talk about it in one of their streams, they can't then deny others the opportunity to do the same without seeming biased. And the last thing anyone should want is the potential for political screed in interviews.

[Asrialol]

Brevik really tries to be relevant.

[Nozuka]

I love how everyone jumps to "i knew it! blizzard only cares about shareholders/money nowadays!" even though these guys left in 2003 and are just speculating

[Tiwack]

"We used to take chances but now we're too big to afford taking any"

[huth]

These guys left in 2003.

That should have been the first line of relevance from the interview in the news post. And the only one, too, since it renders the rest irrelevant.

[Tiwack]

"Oh cool an interview with the original Diablo creators and a big screenshot of the main baddie of Diablo4! I can't wait to read their opinions on Diablo4 and where the franchise is going, and how Diablo3's gory aesthetic is gonna hold up in comparison to the original Diablo and Diablo2 and the less-gory Diablo3 and...

.... oh."

If that's what you're looking for you should check the posts and videos from the blizzcon panels on D4.

[Donald Hellscream]

Taking what people who left the company more than a decade and a half ago says as gospel is pretty silly.

While Blizzard is obviously much bigger these days than it was in 2003, its pretty fucking dumb to assume, that all the people working on the games, don't care about the work that they do.