Difference between revisions of "Media Coverage"

Revision as of 01:42, 8 July 2011

This page lists all Diablo III coverage; previews, interviews, pictures, videos, designer diaries, forum post, and more. Anything from the D3 Team that's substantial enough to warrant a news post on Diablo: IncGamers gets an entry on this page. Larger interviews and other features are sometimes archived in this section one month after they go online, to ward off link rot.

• If you're interested in updating this page, please check out the Media Coverage/Guidelines first.
• Jump back to the earlier years of Media Coverage, archived to keep down the page size. Links right below here.

If you are new to Diablo or Diablo III development, you can read up on the topic here:

• Diablo 3 Basics - The light source of all known Diablo III data in one fact sheet.

May 2011

• Blue Post: May 12, 2011 -- Diablo III's Followers system is revealed via website, interviews, and forum posts. Fan reaction is mixed -- most fans like the NPC design and skills system, but the fact that D3's mercs are only useful in normal difficulty is a hard pill to swallow.
  • A vote before the system reveal showed that 72% of fans wanted D3 mercs to be as strong or stronger than they were in D2.
  • A vote after the system reveal shows only a 35% approval, with most fans disappointed that mercs are only useful on normal, or that there are mercs in the game at all.

• Blue Post: May 9, 2011 -- The Diablo community finally received concrete word from Blizzard regarding the Diablo III beta test during the Activision-Blizzard conference call on that same day. The timeframe given was the third quarter of 2011, later clarified by Bashiok to mean July 1st to September 30th. Fan anticipation was acute, with a huge throng in Diablo.IncGamer.com's live chat, but chained to reason, as shown by the consensus correct choice on a vote asking when the beta was likely to start.

• Commentary: May 9, 2011 -- The seventh Diablo podcast from incgamers surfaces, and it includes an excellent interview with Seth Schiesel, who was the author of a New York Times interview with Jay Wilson.

• Blue Post: May 8, 2011 -- Bashiok responds to a fan about "useless" traits, revealing that three traits have been removed from the game (with the possibility of more), being Just...Stay...Dead!, Demonsbane, and also Beast Hunter, including rationale behind how Blizzard handles the traits.

• Picture: May 8, 2011 -- A delicious facebook update (numbering fifteen) is released showing the amazing interpretation of Diablo from Glowei, in addition to two screenshots featuring the Wizard and Demon Hunter (casting Fan of Knives) in Act I.

• Interview: May 7, 2011 -- Flux secures an interview with Matt Uelmen, former Blizzard music composer, now working for Runic Games. He gives some interesting insights into the process of creating music for video games.

• Blue Post: May 6, 2011 -- @Diablo cruelly teases about the diablo beta by offering 5,911 winning points to someone participating in the hashtag twitter promotion. It is widely accepted specualtion that 5,911 points refers to Unicorn Day, the 9th of May, where the Blizzard conference call will be held speaking in one manner or another of the Diablo III beta.

• Interview: May 5, 2011 -- In an interview with Frank Pearce, the subject of mobile phone gaming emerges where Pearce makes speculation as to what Diablo III fans may be able to look forward to in terms of apps, citing the armory and Auction House apps for World of WarCraft. General fan reaction is very positive.

• Picture: May 4, 2011 -- Diablo (from Diablo II) is featured in Blizzard's Facebook one-million likes wallpaper.

• Picture: May 3, 2011 -- While not official game art, Varquynne finds a pic called "Skeleton Queen" by current Blizzard artist Oliver Chipping.

• Blue Post: May 3, 2011 -- Bashiok offers an explanation on the changes to the skill hotbar on the interface, and it proves to be almost as confusing to explain as item tiers.

• Picture: May 2, 2011 -- The fourteenth facebook installment is released, showing a rather odd version of the goatman in concept art, along with a pleasant screenshot of the Witch Doctor casting his Firebat spell.

• Picture: May 2, 2011 -- Another BlizzCon graphic featuring Diablo is shown on the Blizzard BlizzCon website; this time it is an animated flash file showing a mysterious four-sectioned hole in Diablo's animated chest. Speculation ranges from humorous to absurd.

• Interview: May 1, 2011 -- The full interview with Jay Wilson from diablo3.cc is posted, and expands on what was commented on before.

April 2011

• Blue Post: April 29, 2011 -- Bashiok dips into the bnet forums to speak on why BoE was dropped from the game, and also elaborates a bit on how set items will function in Diablo III, revealing that they are all of legendary quality.

• Interview: April 29, 2011 -- An interview with Jay Wilson surfaces, conducted by Chinese fansite diablo3.cc, discusses key bindings, BoE being dropped from the game, Set Items, and more. Kuangtu also posts new photos of Jay Wilson from the interview, which are, of course, DiabLOLed to great effect.

• Commentary: April 27, 2011 -- The fourth episode of the Diablo Podcast debuts, centering on the subject of the arena demo from BlizzCon 2010.

• Interview: April 26, 2011 -- A preview emerges by the New York Times with Jay Wilson, offering fans a commentary on trade, and also a tantalizing quote by Jay Wilson about how the game is in the final stretch. Those who are not excited are those who followed StarCraft II's development, realizing that "the final stretch" can extend well past the horizon into cosmic space where time has no meaning.

• Picture: April 26, 2011 -- The thirteenth episode of Facebook likes reveals concept art for Caldeum guards, and a screenshot of an arena battle which is nearly identical to all the other arena screenshots.

• Video: April 25, 2011 -- Machinima assembles a History of Blizzard video which manages to cover much more than the 20th Anniversary video from Blizzard itself.

• Commentary: April 25, 2011 -- The Diablo podcast returns to speak about BlizzCon with fellow convention goers Dana, Exile, and Neinball.

• Commentary: April 23, 2011 -- The demo specs were revealed for the machines running Diablo III at G-Star in Korea. It is widely accepted that these specs have no true bearing on the final system requirements for Diablo III, as the game had yet to be optimized at that point.

• Blue Post: April 22, 2011 -- Bashiok replies to a fan's question about whether or not the game plays differently from 2008 to 2011, and also @Diablo comments in a sarcastic tone to a request for a new monster description, and some shallow commentary on lore.

• Picture: April 21, 2011 -- Another facebook milestone is reached, the twelfth to be exact, revealing concept art for the Unburied monster, in addition to another screenshot featuring the Demon Hunter and her Entangling Shot.

• Blue Post: April 19, 2011 -- This posting by Bashiok is rather a milestone in the development process of Diablo III as, for the first time, semi-specific details about the Diablo III beta are released.

• Blue Post: April 19, 2011 -- Bashiok breaks up a slappy fan-fight on the battle.net forums on the subject of {{iw|Breakpoints breakpoints] in Diablo III.

• Commentary: April 18, 2011 -- The second DiabloCast emerges, where Flux and Elly continue their interview with Max Schaefer, this time pointing the mic at Torchlight and aspects behind designing that type of game.

• Interview: April 17, 2011 -- Kevin Martens performs his spectacular voodoo in an interview with Atomic Gamer. Martens speaks of what makes the Diablo franchise last as long as it does, Diablo on consoles and smartphones, and more.

• Picture: April 17, 2011 -- Pictures emerge from the G-Star Korean gaming convention, by the player named "Vader, showing off some interface shots in addition to a death screen, and more.

• Blue Post: April 16, 2011 -- Bashiok comments on unchanging skill runes in Diablo III after a fan voices concern that the base skill won't be represented or used within the game.

• Blue Post: April 15, 2011 -- @Diablo returns to comment on synergies, health orbs in the arena, and also plugs a youtube video offering a summary of Diablo I's storyline in a humorous fashion.

• Picture: April 15, 2011 -- The eleventh edition of facebook likes shows off a fancy torture device, in addition to a screenshot that does not contain the torture device. However, a high-resolution shot of an as-of-yet unnamed Monk skill can be seen in the screenshot.

• Blue Post: April 14, 2011 -- @Diablo speaks out about armor dye and item modifiers. Not much in the way of new info, but it is revealed that not all of the armor dyes have been...revealed.

• Other: April 14, 2011 -- A "report" from a supposed playtester for Diablo III surfaces, on 4chan of course, about details on the game. It is widely assumed to be completely fake, but Blizzard never offers a confirmation or rejection.

• Blue Post: April 14, 2011 -- Bashiok covers the subject of when and how the game is randomized, and the differences in randomization between the "overworld" and in a dungeon. He also talks smack about the cowardly Fallen, ironically represented by one himself in the battle.net forums.

• Picture: April 13, 2011 -- New artwork for Diablo emerges for BlizzCon 2011, showing Big Red himself taking center stage, in all of his/her/its fiery glory.

• Blue Post: April 13, 2011 -- Blizzard ramps up their twitter campaign by introducing the hashtag program. These run sporadically to mixed fan reaction, before being largely forgotten/abandoned by mid-June.

• Blue Post: April 12, 2011 -- The sales date for BlizzCon tickets is announced, so fans can be prepared to not get to buy tickets on both May 21st, and also May 25th, 2011.

• Interview: April 12, 2011 -- The incgamer's Diablo Podcast emerges for its first episode, with an interview with Max Schaefer on the subjects surrounding Diablo III development by Blizzard North. The fact that D3 was originally planned as an MMORPG is greeted with a great deal of debate.

• Blue Post: April 10, 2011 -- @Diablo goes on a micro-post spree, following the subjects of Witch Doctor skills and builds, balancing mechanics, and also life leech in Diablo III.

• Blue Post: April 9, 2011 -- The official Korean Diablo twitter account reveals no new information, besides that an official Blizzard twitter account exists for Korea.

• Picture: April 9, 2011 -- The tenth edition of facebook likes hits the wall, showing off concept art for a goatman spearman, in addition to a screenshot featuring Arcane Orb post-kablooey.

• Blue Post: April 8, 2011 -- Bashiok posts on the subject of rushing (and why it may be acceptable to a point), and also comments on salvaging materials as drops instead of, well, salvage.

• Blue Post: April 7, 2011 -- The Polish April Fool's box art is denied by Bashoik and debunked by fans who recognize it as WoW fan art.

• Blue Post: April 6, 2011 -- That same day, Bashiok emerges from his long beastly slumber to make very elaborate arguments for the level 60 hard cap in Diablo III.

• Picture: April 5, 2011 -- A latent April Fool's Day grenade blows up amongst the Diablo community when a fake concept box for Diablo III appears from a Polish website. The graphic is very unimpressive, and yet somehow manages to fool a large portion of the community.

• Picture: April 1, 2011 -- The ninth edition of the facebook likes campaign was a missed April Fool's opportunity, but featured another stunning concept from Brom of an Activated Vessel, and another Act I screenshot.

• Other: April 1, 2011 -- April First appears in all its glory, all its horror, as Blizzard announces their Horadric Cube smartphone app, in addition to StarCraft II on kinect, while World of WarCraft receives a dungeon helper and the tomb of immortal darkness. Diablo fans around the globe wet their collective one-piece pajamas in jealousy. Later in the day, a set of very funny patch notes appear for SC2 and WoW.

March 2011

• Video: March 31, 2011 -- Another video appears showing Leap Attack, Ancient Spear, Mirror Image with a crimson rune, and many others. The video takes place in an arena battle.

• Video: March 30, 2011 -- A ninja'd video from BlizzCon 2010 appears on youtube, showing off Blizzard, Zombie Bears, and Fetish Army.

• Commentary: March 29, 2011 -- A poll appears on Diablo: IncGamers asking players how they played the PVE game. Large numbers of them chose the option of experimentation along with several favorite characters and builds.

• Blue Post: March 28, 2011 -- @Diablo announces that Blizzard is not ready to make a beta announcement, despite the paradox. The community is shocked and surprised that Blizzard requires more time.

• Blue Post: March 28, 2011 -- Bashiok announces that the ladder reset is completed for Diablo II.

• Interview: March 28, 2011 -- Mike Morhaime and Frank Pearce speak about Bobby Kotick, a fellow who is adored world-wide for his compassion, intelligence, and business ethic. Morhaime and Pearce defend his good name in an interview with MCV UK.

• Interview: March 27, 2011 -- Frank Pearce comments on the subject of a "Blizzard University" in this article from GamaSutra. It is supposed that there will be a class revolving around usage of the word "soon".

• Picture: March 26, 2011 -- An interesting chart showing the "lineage" of former Blizzard employees is released by PC Gamer.

• Blue Post: March 25, 2011 -- Bashiok speaks up on the subject of item tiers (again), hardcore death in arena, a mysterious comment on Town Portals, and more.

• Picture: March 24, 2011 -- The facebook like campaign reaches another milestone, and fans are greeted by concept art for Horrify and an unrelated screenshot featuring the Demon Hunter shooting a Bolo Shot.

• Interview: March 22, 2011 -- Max Schaefer comments once more on Torchlight, Diablo III, and consoles in this interview with Charged Shot.

• Blue Post: March 22, 2011 -- Bashiok speaks on how to enter the beta and how the beta keys will be given, and Flux is threatened multiple times for a very attention-grabby headline. Shenanigans ensue.

• Blue Post: March 22, 2011 -- The Diablo II ladder tale finds itself entering another chapter when it is announced that the reset will occur March 28th.

• Picture: March 21, 2011 -- The facebook like campaign produces pixels again with viper concept art by Brom in addition to a screenshot of arena play.

• Interview: March 21, 2011 -- Frank Pearce speaks on the subject of cannibalizing the World of WarCraft fanbase by releasing Diablo III in this interview with GamaSutra.

• Commentary: March 21, 2011 -- Argument ensues when the facebook "likes" begin to quicken their pace in dramatic fashion.

• Blue Post: March 18, 2011 -- Bashiok posts a flurry of responses on the subjects of alt'ing for items, trade and pvp concepts, the Barbarian's Revenge skill, and more. @Diablo later returns to further clarify the use of revenge.

• Blue Post: March 18, 2011 -- Bashiok responds to a fairly odd question from a fan about character movement directions.

• Picture: March 17, 2011 -- The facebook like campaign bears rosy sweet blooms of Hydra concept art goodness, along with a screenshot chiefly featuring Activated Vessels.

• Blue Post: March 17, 2011 -- Bashiok speaks at (great) length on why Diablo III developers don't comment on the forums, and general responses to questions and comments about PR. Flux is indicted on charges of shenanigans. Bashiok also comments on it later.

• Blue Post: March 16, 2011 -- Blizzard announces their contest where contestants must make a video detailing their memories of Blizzard.

• Commentary: March 16, 2011 -- Diablo: IncGamers posits to gamers whether or not they'd play in a Diablo III ladder season, with the results being heavily skewed towards "no".

• Interview: March 15, 2011 -- Max Schaefer comments on the threat of the looming, yet never impending, release of Diablo III getting in the way of Torchlight's success, and also speaks on how controls can and should operate on console versions of ARPGs in this interview with cgmonthly.

• Blue Post: March 15, 2011 -- The winners of the fan fiction contest are revealed. In related news: Diablo stories have no representation.

• Blue Post: March 15, 2011 -- Bashiok speaks at length on the philosophy behind balancing PVP and PVE separately, stating that PVP balance shouldn't ever affect PVE.

• Video: March 14, 2011 -- The art controversy shows its colorful head once more in the form of another edited gameplay video uploaded to youtube.

• Blue Post: March 12, 2011 -- Bashiok decrees that Diablo won't be showing its face at PAX East.

• Picture: March 11, 2011 -- The Diablo facebook campaign yields goodies for the fifth time, showing concept art of the Treasure Seeker and a screenshot featuring the Monk in Act II. Bashiok comments on the treasure seeker later in the day.

• Blue Post: March 10, 2011 -- Bashiok returns to the scene of the crime to once again confuse fans out of their wits about the item tier system. Perhaps visual aids are in order.

• Blue Post: March 10, 2011 -- @Diablo makes micro-remarks on the subject of BlizzCon, the Gargantuan, bosses, and item nerfing via patches.

• Blue Post: March 9, 2011 -- Bashiok comments on combat stats such as dodge, the process of swapping runes, and weapon choices.

• Blue Post: March 9, 2011 -- Bashiok weighs in on ladder resets for Diablo II.

• Picture: March 9, 2011 -- Early Ranger/Demon Hunter concept art is revealed by Phroilan Gardner, repeat offender.

• Blue Post: March 9, 2011 -- Blizzard shows off the underwhelming Blizzard timeline for their 20th anniversary, being referred to by one fan as a "WarCraft wankfest".

• Blue Post: March 8, 2011 -- Bashiok comments on the development stage of Diablo III, following confusion surrounding the Morhaime/Pearce comments earlier in the week.

• Blue Post: March 8, 2011 -- @Diablo continues to confuse fans by attempting to explain the item tier system.

• Blue Post: March 7, 2011 -- Bashiok reveals that the Barbarian's signature blue warpaint will reappear as an actual item look.

• Picture: March 4, 2011 -- New claw viper art is revealed by ex-Blizzard employee Phroilan Gardner.

• Picture: March 3, 2011 -- New screenshot and artwork via the Facebook "likes" campaign, including the ever-creepy Tristram cathedral.

• Blue Post: March 1, 2011 -- @Diablo speaks on the subject of gems, zoom, and Blizzard jobs.

• Interview: March 1, 2011 -- Mike Morhaime and Frank Pearce speak about how Diablo III is technically completed in a French interview.

• Blue Post: March 1, 2011 -- Bashiok details arguments surrounding Magic Find.

February 2011

• Blue Post: February 26, 2011 -- Bashiok argues for balance in the PvP Arena play... just not too much.

• Picture: February 22, 2011 -- New screenshot and artwork via the Facebook "likes" campaign.

• Commentary: February 20, 2011 -- The Demon Hunter's dual-resources, Hatred and Discipline, are evaluated with info from the recent D3 Team interviews.

• Blue Post: February 19, 2011 -- Bashiok on Diablo III's less "spiky," "macro" style of combat damage.

• Interview: February 18, 2011 -- The male Demon Hunter at last debuts, with screenshots, concept art, and four new developer interviews with Gamestar, DiabloFans, GamePlanetNZ, and Gamespot. His animation is added a few days later, and a vote finds that nearly 80% of 2200 voters "love" or "like" the character's look.

2005 shot from Blizzard North's early D3.

• Picture: February 17, 2011 -- The first screenshots ever leaked from Blizzard North's version of Diablo III appear, via Kotaku. Fan comments are legion, and largely positive. A vote on Diablo: IncGamers reveals that a slight majority of fans prefer the look of the 2005 version of the game.

• Picture: February 15, 2011 -- The second pair of Facebook images are released, for 25k more "likes."

• Blue Post: February 12, 2011 -- @Diablo reveals a pair of new runestone effects.

• Blue Post: February 11, 2011 -- Bashiok tirelessly defends Blizzard's very slow, iteration-heavy game design philosophy.

• Blue Post: February 11, 2011 -- Blizzard kicks off their 20th anniversary celebration with a shiny page that has no real content.

• Blue Post: February 10, 2011 -- One of the WoW community managers answers 20 questions about what the Blizzard CMs do in their jobs.

• Blue Post: February 9, 2011 -- The 4Q 2010 Activision/Blizzard conference call creates a huge controversy by seeming to rule out any Blizzard game releases in 2011. That conclusion is disputed by Bashiok later that day, then in a more formal forum post, then by Rob Pardo later that week. All say that D3 may still be released in 2011, and that Tom Tippl's investor legalese was misunderstood in the conference call.

• Video: February 9, 2011 -- A short video interview on G4TV includes zero new info from Jason Bender.

• Picture: February 9, 2011 -- The first Facebook screenshot/artwork is released, creating some annoyance for fans who had expected never-before-seen imagery.

• Other: February 9, 2011 -- A fan re-scores the Diablo III cinematic introduction, creating a whole different viewing experience.

• Blue Post: February 9, 2011 -- Bashiok explains the big changes to defense, resistance, and blocking in Diablo III. Lots of follow-up posts are added a couple of days later.

• Blue Post: February 8, 2011 -- @Diablo on NPC deaths and critical hit displays.

• Blue Post: February 7, 2011 -- The Diablo Facebook page "looks for likes" program kicks off, promising new images for every 25,000 likes from 550k to 1 million. Updates commence at a pace of about one per week.

• Blue Post: February 7, 2011 -- Blizzcon 2011 is announced for October 21-22, once again in the Anaheim Convention Center.

• Blue Post: February 5, 2011 -- Bashiok comments on how Diablo III will avoid (or not) the "clown clothing" look that often afflicts characters in Diablo II.

• Commentary: February 4, 2011 -- How similar will the items your character wears look to items in the inventory or on the ground? Quite similar, in most cases, as this article discusses.

• Other: February 2, 2011 -- Demons in real life vs. computer games. A huge fan debate over an article by a guy who used Diablo to overcome his fear of the supernatural goes some distance towards explaining why Blizzard has worked to remove all of the crosses, pentagrams, and other Christian references from WoW and D3.

January 2011

• Interview: January 24, 2011 -- Bashiok discusses higher difficulty level monster AI changes and improvements with Flux. The non-transcript contains some interesting tidbits.

• Picture: January 20, 2011 -- Very cool light show photos of Christina Estrada in her Blizzcon 2010 costume contest winning female Monk cosplay outfit are discovered.

• Commentary: January 20, 2011 -- Shrines enter the discussion. Can their largely-irrelevant role in Diablo II be improved upon this time around?

• Blue Post: January 20, 2011 -- The Demon Hunter's new skill, Sentry is revealed via a pair of @Diablo tweets.

• Blue Post: January 19, 2011 -- Blizzard reveals the winners of their 2010 Holiday Card Contest, and amusingly includes one entry that reused official Diablo II artwork from 2004. (Blizzard sticks the newest CM hires and interns with judging fan contests, and they tend not to know anything Blizzard did before WoW.)

Strong and sexy?

• Blue Post: January 19, 2011 -- @Diablo disputes a fan's claim that the female Barbarian is not sexy.

• Blue Post: January 18, 2011 -- Starcraft II finally gets chat channels, plus a retrospective of the B.net chat for all Blizzard titles.

• Commentary: January 17, 2011 -- Class silhouettes are compared to the final versions and found... to represent early concept art, not the finished model.

• Blue Post: January 14, 2011 -- @Diablo with a burst of tweets on items, skills, runes, and more.

• Blue Post: January 13, 2011 -- Bashiok says the male Demon Hunter is nearly ready to reveal. Two weeks later the reveal was pushed back since his animations needed more work. Additional explanation came the next day. (Yet when he was revealed, it was all in artwork and still shots that showed us nothing of his movement style.)

• Blue Post: January 13, 2011 -- Bashiok provides detailed answers to five questions about runestones.

• Blue Post: January 11, 2011 -- Bashiok defends the Wizard skill Disintegrate from accusations of being overpowered and unbalanced.

• Blue Post: January 11, 2011 -- Bashiok reports that Diablo III pets and minions won't have direct control in their AI.

• Other: January 9, 2011 -- Two monsters designed for in the first, Blizzard North version of Diablo III, are revealed.

• Blue Post: January 8, 2011 -- Torchlight X-box port announced, with info on how the controls will be converted. Insight into the Diablo III console project?

• Blue Post: January 7, 2011 -- Bashiok on lighting differences in the Act 2 desert.

• Blue Post: January 6, 2011 -- Bashiok on what's now considered "canon" and what is not.

• Video: January 6, 2011 -- A giant fan-recorded video of 17 minutes of Arena battle from Blizzcon pops up and is greeted with delight. Another 14-minute Arena video recorded by the same guys shows up a week later.
• See the Gameplay Video page for links to all gameplay videos, official and unofficial.

• Blue Post: January 5, 2011 -- @Diablo on Charged Bolt changes and end game skill variety. A follow-up/explanation was issued the next day.

Older News

Earlier headlines and articles are archived on the Media Coverage Archive pages:

• Media Coverage: 2008
• Media Coverage: 2009
• Media Coverage: 2010