No one can seriously dispute that the Diablo franchise was a major player in PC gaming. For us, Diablo 2 easily sits in the top three games occupying our time, neatly sitting beside Counterstrike and World of Warcraft (WoW). For Blizzard, this is quite a feat, as two of their titles managed to grab our attention and hold it fast. This all said, it’s no surprise that we join the many Diablo fans in excitement over the announcement that Diablo III is in the works, but at the same time, we’re hesitant to trumpet widely about, and our reasons are both simple, yet overlooked.
For one, Blizzard’s revitalization of the Diablo franchise is yet another example of how Blizzard likes to play it safe; Blizzard doesn’t want to take any financial risks, and so rather than build a game on new intellectual property (IP), they instead dig up a previous bread-winner in hopes of earning some easy cash. That’s not to say that Diablo III is just rehashed old material, merely that there’s not as much riding on Diablo III’s success as would be on the success of a brand-new title. Call this the Episode One Effect (EOE), where George Lucas famously crapped in a cup and sold it for billions simply because any movie with the words “Star Wars” in it was guaranteed to sell billions of tickets, even if it was utter shit. We saw a similar phenomenon with the latest Indiana Jones movie, and despite bad previews, movie-goers flocked to the theaters in droves, only to be disappointed with Lucas’ influence.
The EOE is what we don’t want to happen with Diablo III, and there’s some indication that Blizzard will advance the genre instead of drain what life is left from it. This is evident chiefly in the idea that Diablo III is not supposed to be a potion chug-fest like its predecessors, and instead be a tad more strategic in how one engages certain types of enemies. Yet, Diablo III loses the type of strategy a game like WoW has, because Diablo III, despite any synergies that Blizzard builds into Diablo III’s classes, is primarily a solo game, and in that respect, Diablo III is little more than a watered-down, darker WoW. The focus is still on loot, but the game mechanics are more hack’n slash, as the genre itself suggests. The differences between WoW will grow, however, because while Diablo 2 became a springboard for many of WoW’s classes, it’s unlikely that Blizzard will maintain these similarities, because they will want class differences to stand out.
For example, based on design direction mainly apparent from certain abilities, one can easily see the following transitions from Diablo 2’s classes to WoW’s.
- Amazon –> Hunter
- Assassin –> Rogue
- Barbarian –> Warrior
- Druid –> Druid, Shaman
- Necromancer –> Warlock
- Paladin –> Paladin
- Sorceress –> Mage
While some of these transitions are more apparent than others, some, like the Paladin duo, are too close to overlap. In other words, since Diablo III will be sold while WoW is still seeking subscribers, Blizzard will make a rabid effort not to draw too many analogies between classes, which means that in all likelihood, Diablo III will not directly feature many of Diablo 2’s classes. This is already apparent with the announcement that Diablo III will feature the Witch Doctor, which, if anything, is a humanoid melting pot composed of abilities drawn from WoW’s Warlock class, yet sans traditional minion summoning components.
If the shift in classes isn’t something to worry about because Blizzard will somehow explain the loss of former classes in-game, at least the game will build upon Diablo 2, right? Not necessarily. As Tobold recently pointed out, Diablo’s simplicity, buried beneath a sheet of shiny polish, is what propelled it into legend, and why Diablo 2 was an instant success. Never mind the potential that Diablo III could live up to, because the EOE is a very real possibility here, meaning that Diablo III’s developers needn’t address any of Diablo 2’s shortcomings – the game will sell regardless.
From a financial perspective, Blizzard would be negligent to spend the effort at dramatically innovating upon Diablo 2, despite the fact that a natural progression for the series would be to elevate the game into a MMOG akin to Guild Wars. We would argue that the net effect of a Blizzard-produced Diablo-MMOG would be minimal on their WoW market, given specific limitations:
- Make every dungeon instanced, like Guild Wars.
- Restrict an instance to party members, and only allow four players per party.
- Control drop rates for certain items to maintain rarity, so as to produce a market for these items by players themselves.
- Make money meaningful, by controlling how much as dropped.
- Allow for a degree of crafting, and remove the reliance on NPCs for certain tasks, by making these tasks cheaper to do by players (i.e. identifying items, repairing gear, etc.).
- Integrate arena-PvP.
- Keep the game free.
The key would be to keep monetary inflation low, and to sell Diablo III as a a “small party” game, where all gear is obtained from PvE play. In this way, PvP itself would be a secondary focus, but nonetheless an available option for players who have run through the game’s instances a dozen times (just as we all killed Diablo a hundred times in the previous games). As the PvP wouldn’t be a priority, Blizzard can easily showcase WoW as a game with more of a PvP priority, and at the same time, position WoW as the “big party” counterpart, complete with he extensive raiding priorities the game is known for.
Sadly, however, Blizzard won’t do any of this, and will simply repackage Diablo 2 with a new graphics engine, new levels, and modified/replaced class archetypes. The big innovation will be in how Blizzard addresses the strategic elements to defeating certain mobs, but not necessarily in regard to class synergies. This is a safe formula that wouldn’t put Diablo III up against Guild Wars 2, and as Blizzard is the undisputed heavyweight champion when it comes to hack’n slash ventures, Blizzard will be able to capitalize on the lack of hack’n slash adventuring with the EOE.
That’s not to say that Blizzard won’t drop an addictive game on us come next year. Diablo III has purportedly been in development for four years already, which is plenty of time to have designed the core engine, along with a slew of goodies that may surprise and delight us. Nonetheless, we’re inclined to suggest that Diablo III hasn’t been in full-time development for four years, and that Diablo III’s delight will be roughly equivalent to fan impressions of a graphical makeover for Diablo 2, along with an expansion for same.
Similar Posts:
- Diablo III: the mini-WoW? – Show us a gamer who’s not excited about Diablo 3, and we’ll show you a liar. Diablo 2 was the maste…
- How hero classes will ruin WoW. – Years after Hero Classes were first mentioned, they have finally arrived. Or, will arrive for the ne…
- Less pets, please. – Cameron Sorden emphasized the Pokemon factor of World of Warcraft’s Hunter class effectively in a re…
- Oh yeah, that WoW thing: I gave it up. – I suppose I forgot to mention that I gave up World of Warcraft. I did so back in July, actually, aft…
- Diablo’s Necromancer class not as simple in WoW. – Over at WoW Insider, Tim Y. posted about the potential for a Necromancer class in World of Warcraft …
