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 by Sp3tSnAz, Level 34
Last updated at July 1, 2009, 5:39 am
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First Bashiok talked about the lack of LAN in Diablo 3 after someone asked a question about it:
Q u o t e:
All removing LAN support does is hurt legitimate buyers, pirates will have LAN and their free game.It might take them a while to reverse engineer it, but they WILL have it.
More so than overbearing/invasive anti-piracy measures that would affect everyone who buys the game regardless of how they're going to play it instead of just those that may want a LAN feature? I would doubt it.
I don't know a lot about it, Diablo III isn't really facing the brunt of the Battle.net 2.0 features just yet, but I think that removing LAN in an attempt to avoid more severe anti-piracy measures is pretty cool. We're saying "Hey, we're pretty sure you're going to love our game. The multiplayer is really the best part though. In order to get in on that that we'd just like to make sure you bought the game. Cool?"
Next was a really big quote about patch 1.13 and why it was delayed:
Many of you are wondering what's up with the patch and the ladder reset. While I've sprinkled some information around, it's about time it was all mashed up in one easy-to-read location.
The Story -
Once upon a time our internal legacy development teams wanted to put some much needed love into Diablo II. Diablo II doesn't have tournaments with millions of dollars swirling about them, so it generally took a back seat to the patch development time of our other legacy titles. But one day the planets aligned, and it was finally time to give the old girl a new coat of paint and break a bottle of champagne over her bow with the release of a patch. This went well. Meetings were held, the community was involved and polled, and an extremely long list of ideas and changes was created. That list was then cut down to changes felt to be either necessary changes, or easily implemented to ensure development time was efficient. This also went well.
Not long after, the alarm bells sounded. The patch was progressing quickly, and the release was potentially imminent. Early on it was decided, and somewhat of a no-brainer, that a ladder reset with coincide with the patch release. With the patch progressing well, a potential release of two weeks was estimated, and as always this is the exact amount of forewarning given to players and the community before a ladder reset. An announcement was made quickly and immediately to ensure a full two week notice was given. There are many reasons for this standard two-week notice, not the least of which is that most players don't understand the meaning of ladder and non-ladder, and how a reset affects their characters. Following any reset our support departments are flooded with issues related to the change of their characters, so we attempt to inform beforehand and avoid any unnecessary confusion.
This was all well and good, the community was excited, and the developers were having fun and enjoying being able to work on Diablo II again. Then, as it tends to do, reality struck. (Warcraft III Custom Map Security Warning http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=16888549346&sid=3000) Work had to be swiftly and immediately realigned and has and continues to be focused on addressing issues for a different title to resolve a very serious issue.
The Now -
The Warcraft III patch is now on the Public Test Realm (PTR) and testing is progressing. Once that patch is released work can shift back to Diablo II and the 1.13 patch, and we'll be working to getting that patch up on its own PTR as soon as possible. This could be a matter of weeks. Once it's up and in a testing state for all of you, it's then going to be a matter of ensuring the features are good and it's a solid patch. The more people we have testing the patch and providing valid feedback, the better the patch will be, and hopefully the quicker it will be released. So that's my challenge to you. You've been waiting a long time, you want an awesome patch, you want a reset. To get all that, we need good solid testing and feedback, reproduction steps for bugs, detailed descriptions of issues or errors, etc. So once this goes live on the PTR, I expect some crazed-youruinedtheeconomy-testing.
Next someone asked whether Diablo 3 will cost any money to play online:
Mike mentioned it in an Activision Blizzard investor meeting [paraphrased] "A player that buys Starcraft 2 at retail will have the ability to play on Battle.net with no additional fee."
I'll point out that this is a very carefully worded statement.
as well as:
Someone then asked about loading screens in Diablo 3 and Bashiok had the following awesome news:
There aren't any loading screens. Personally I think it's amazing and I don't understand the magic the programmers have worked, but the game is instant or near instant. The same is true for initial game load. Start up the game, create a character, click a button and the game world shows up. No waiting and no real discernible pause. Mileage may vary slightly of course, but it would (from what I've seen) be in the realm of a second or two second pause at most.The Story -
Once upon a time our internal legacy development teams wanted to put some much needed love into Diablo II. Diablo II doesn't have tournaments with millions of dollars swirling about them, so it generally took a back seat to the patch development time of our other legacy titles. But one day the planets aligned, and it was finally time to give the old girl a new coat of paint and break a bottle of champagne over her bow with the release of a patch. This went well. Meetings were held, the community was involved and polled, and an extremely long list of ideas and changes was created. That list was then cut down to changes felt to be either necessary changes, or easily implemented to ensure development time was efficient. This also went well.
Not long after, the alarm bells sounded. The patch was progressing quickly, and the release was potentially imminent. Early on it was decided, and somewhat of a no-brainer, that a ladder reset with coincide with the patch release. With the patch progressing well, a potential release of two weeks was estimated, and as always this is the exact amount of forewarning given to players and the community before a ladder reset. An announcement was made quickly and immediately to ensure a full two week notice was given. There are many reasons for this standard two-week notice, not the least of which is that most players don't understand the meaning of ladder and non-ladder, and how a reset affects their characters. Following any reset our support departments are flooded with issues related to the change of their characters, so we attempt to inform beforehand and avoid any unnecessary confusion.
This was all well and good, the community was excited, and the developers were having fun and enjoying being able to work on Diablo II again. Then, as it tends to do, reality struck. (Warcraft III Custom Map Security Warning http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=16888549346&sid=3000) Work had to be swiftly and immediately realigned and has and continues to be focused on addressing issues for a different title to resolve a very serious issue.
The Now -
The Warcraft III patch is now on the Public Test Realm (PTR) and testing is progressing. Once that patch is released work can shift back to Diablo II and the 1.13 patch, and we'll be working to getting that patch up on its own PTR as soon as possible. This could be a matter of weeks. Once it's up and in a testing state for all of you, it's then going to be a matter of ensuring the features are good and it's a solid patch. The more people we have testing the patch and providing valid feedback, the better the patch will be, and hopefully the quicker it will be released. So that's my challenge to you. You've been waiting a long time, you want an awesome patch, you want a reset. To get all that, we need good solid testing and feedback, reproduction steps for bugs, detailed descriptions of issues or errors, etc. So once this goes live on the PTR, I expect some crazed-youruinedtheeconomy-testing.
Next someone asked whether Diablo 3 will cost any money to play online:
Mike mentioned it in an Activision Blizzard investor meeting [paraphrased] "A player that buys Starcraft 2 at retail will have the ability to play on Battle.net with no additional fee."
I'll point out that this is a very carefully worded statement.
as well as:
No.
Q u o t e:
So you mean you have to subscribe to the online fee in order to find the high level weapons and use all of battle.nets features right?
Someone then asked about loading screens in Diablo 3 and Bashiok had the following awesome news:
That's about it for the news!
Enjoy
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4 comments
Sp3tSnAz Jul 1, 2009 at 5:47 am
+1 votes
Just a small addon that was posted on diii.net. They wanted to ask Bashiok questions about D2 and he had this to say:
Bashiok: After talking to the legacy producers we decided it might serve the community and the developers better to use [the questions] as a post-1.13 sort of “well what now?” approach… Please let people know that we’re waiting until after 1.13 is released to look at the future of Diablo II development and so we’re going to wait until then to answer any questions regarding it.
Bashiok: After talking to the legacy producers we decided it might serve the community and the developers better to use [the questions] as a post-1.13 sort of “well what now?” approach… Please let people know that we’re waiting until after 1.13 is released to look at the future of Diablo II development and so we’re going to wait until then to answer any questions regarding it.
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Sp3tSnAz Jul 1, 2009 at 8:38 am
+1 votes
Lol, guess he meant that he only took a portion out of what Mike said and only quoted the very relevant bit even if it's a bit out of context specifically to give us some hint...
Who knows how the mind of Bashiok works! :p
Who knows how the mind of Bashiok works! :p
The Extremist Jul 1, 2009 at 9:22 am
+1 votes
Hey, we're pretty sure you're going to love our game. The multiplayer is really the best part though. In order to get in on that that we'd just like to make sure you bought the game. Cool?
Ah, perspective is a funny thing. To him it looks like that but to me and I'm certain every other gamer not near a Battle.NET server Blizzard is saying:
"Hey, we're pretty sure you're going to love our game. The multiplayer is really the best part though. In order to get in on that, even if you paid full retail price for it sukkah, is to live in North America, Europe, or Asia. Hahahahaha you poor Southern Hemisphere noob we couldn't care less about your fraction of sales."
But maybe I'm just angry right now :P
Ah, perspective is a funny thing. To him it looks like that but to me and I'm certain every other gamer not near a Battle.NET server Blizzard is saying:
"Hey, we're pretty sure you're going to love our game. The multiplayer is really the best part though. In order to get in on that, even if you paid full retail price for it sukkah, is to live in North America, Europe, or Asia. Hahahahaha you poor Southern Hemisphere noob we couldn't care less about your fraction of sales."
But maybe I'm just angry right now :P
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