Changes

While Diablo III is fully playable solo, without any "[[raid]]" type content that requires multiple players to defeat, the [[D3 Team]] had cooperative co-operative multiplayer in mind as their highest priority all alongduring development. As frequently stated in interviews, "Do no harm to co-op." was one of their main considerations during all development decisions, and whenever they speak of the most fun way to play Diablo III, they stress that a friendly party of up to four players (which is the [[maximum game size]] in Diablo III) is the best way to experience the game.

Diablo III features several improvements over Diablo II's multiplayer experience: there are now individual loot drops, there is no nonconsensual PvP ([[PKing]]), and other game features such as the party system and the [[quests]] system have also been upgraded. On the other hand, some of D2's major bonuses to group play, such as greatly increased drop rates and experience gain are not present in Diablo III, and there are many fewer skills with shared benefits for the whole party.  As a result , fans have often pointed out[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/bonuses-to-co-op-in-d3] that while D3 removed numerous problems with D2's MP play, it's actually removed a lot of the bonuses as well, and that the D3 developers seem to simply assume fans will play together, even in the absence of actual benefits for doing so. That the vast majority of games during the Diablo 3 beta are single player seems to support this concern.

* Many quests and [[boss]] battles are designed so players can (or must) do them together to receive the rewards, and the game includes mechanisms to instantly transport all players to the boss's level for the big fight.

The trading system has been entirely overhauled in Diablo III. Trading is now automated and made much more convenient through the [[Auction House]]. Ironically, this has removed almost all of the multiplayer aspect of trading, since players no longer need to speak to other players to exchange items.  Whether these changes are good or bad for multiplayer can be debated, but most players felt the Diablo II system was hopelessly inefficient, and that Diablo III's will result in much easier distribution and acquisition of desired item upgrades, which will be beneficial to the overall play experience. There are also public chat channels, including Trading channels, which players can use to hawk their wares, if they so desire.

Blizzard intended to phase [[chat channels ]] out of B.net with their newer games, starting with [[Starcraft 2]]. That plan did not last in the face of intense player criticism, and chat channels were added back into Starcraft 2 some months after release.

<blue>Bashiok: Regarding chat Chat channels, they weren't a debuted with [[Starcraft 2beta patch 13]] launch feature but are indeed comingin February 2012, and proved instantly unpopular due to their small size and general lack of convenient chat features. See the tech will be there and waiting [[chat channels]] article for Diablo III, I'm surefull details.</blue>

As of the beta test, the [[Friends List]] is at least partially integrated into the game creation options. A buddy on your Friend's List can see if you are online or in a game, and can join into your game instantly, if there's room. So far there's no automated way to stick Players in the same game can also instantly create a new game together and move from one game to another, though as the developers talked about creating such realization of a system during feature long desired by the development processdevelopers. [http://pc.ign.com/articles/101/1017305p1.html] <blue>There was some poor matchmaking in Diablo 2, it was kind of esoteric and hard to use. We want a platform that puts you right next to someone else who's into the same thing as you, at the same level. We want you to be able to open up that friends list and say, oh, my friend Steve's killing Diablo, join! And you're right there next to them. We want players to be able to play together very, very easily. That's going to be a lot of work.

...It's not in Public games are no longer named and displayed for the gamejoining, so as they were in Diablo I and Diablo II. Many fans have complained about this is not a promise, but I can tell you that my desire for that is Blizzard has insisted that you just be able to hit Escapetheir automated system, menu comes up, and you can say, I want to redo what we just did. I want to replay this part which will sort characters into games with other characters of the gameappropriate level, restart my game essentially, with all the same people. And I just get is a confirmation thing, hey, you want superior solution to? If they say yes, we go, and if they say no, they stay in that same gamethis issue.