Difference between revisions of "Media Coverage"

Revision as of 07:40, 29 April 2010

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 Diii.net 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.

April 2010

April kicks off with the usual blitz of Blizzard April Fool's Day jokes and features. Their first movement comes on March 31st, with a Diablo-style teaser image. This year's crop includes,

A later post provides a nice wrap up of other good gaming-related AFD activities around the Internet.

March 2010

• Blue Post: March 31, 2010 -- Bashiok on Wizards, Mana, and Instability.

• Commentary: March 27, 2010 -- Fan debate breaks out on the issue of paying to beta test. A vote is held in which most players say they would not.

• Blue Post: March 25, 2010 -- Blizzcon 2010 is announced for October 22-23, 2010, once again in the Anaheim Convention Center.

• Picture: March 23, 2010 -- The female Witch Doctor in-game animated model is added to the official site. Also, five new Witch Doctor screenshots are released. Fan reaction to the female WD's look is largely positive.

• Blue Post: March 23, 2010 -- Blizzard announces that the v1.13 patch and ladder reset will take place on the 24th. The patch is released, with the full readme.txt. Direct download links and largely positive early player feedback.

• Blue Post: March 18, 2010 -- Is the Female Witch Doctor too Sexy? Blue post turning into a major debate about how the characters should be presented; realism vs. eye candy.

• Blue Post: March 17, 2010 -- Blizzard on Armor Types and voting for Blizzard in a developer vs developer voting match.

• Interview: March 17, 2010 -- Jay Wilson on Game Development. Possibly a Google translate of a Chinese industry conference where Jay Wilson made his contribution by talking about the seven shared development points of making a video game.

• Blue Post: March 16, 2010 -- Diablo 3's Trading System will fix everything, according to Bashiok. Item trades, gold selling and many other topics discussed.

• Blue Post: March 16, -- 2010 Blizzard @ PAX East: D3 Staying home, unfortunately. No Diablo 3 gameplay at PAX East.

• Blue Post: March 15, 2010 -- Blizzard announces that the D2 v1.13 patch and ladder reset are coming soon. More info on the coming patch and future patches was added a few days later.

• Blue Post: March 13, 2010 -- Rob Pardo learns from design mistakes in an article by Shacknews. Stuff like the D2 gold economy is a lesson learned and not repeated.

• Interview: March 12, 2010 -- Blizzard Composer Russel Brower interviewed by CVG, and he says they will take the music wider and further in Diablo III.

• Blue Post: March 12, 2010 -- Bashiok discusses class-specific weapon concepts in Diablo 3. Much more follow up a few days later.

The Burning Tower.

• Blue Post: March 11, 2010 -- Shields, pets and healing discussed in blue posts by Bashiok.

• Commentary: March 10, -- 2010 The mysterious burning tower is explored by Flux, who brings up screenshots and facts from various sources. The Burning Tower also has a wiki article.

• Picture: March 9, 2010 -- New Artwork, and new better versions of older known artwork. Sons of the Storm has released new batches.

• Other: March 7, 2010 -- More D3 Previews on the Jace Hall Show, but since it's a humour show, it;s nothing real and as such nothing major.

• Other: March 6, 2010 -- A community vote measures the popularity of the various characters, showing a fairly even distribution of fans amongst the four so far revealed: Barbarian 24.22%, Wizard 21.06%, Witch Doctor 16.9%, Monk 16.17%, Undecided. More infos, plz 12.54%, Fifth character will be the coolest 9.11%.

• Blue Post: March 5, 2010 -- Bashiok on random monsters and scripted events.

• Other: March 5, 2010 -- Activision fires Infinity Ward studio heads responsible for the mega-popular Modern Warfare 2. The question is, does this mean they can do similar things with Blizzard employees and people like Mike Morhaime.

• Blue Post: March 4, 2010 -- Bashiok on dungeon entrances and deadly traps.

• Blue Post: March 3, 2010 -- Bashiok confirms that Diablo 3 is aiming for an M-rating.

• Other: March 3, 2010 -- Blizzard confirms the first working hack against the Blizzard Authenticator.

Pouty male Wizard = controversy.

• Picture: March 3, 2010 -- Blizzard adds the in-game animation of the male Wizard to their character page, sparking immediate complaints that he looks "effeminate," "wimpy" and "submissive." Detailed analysis of the various character models shows that almost all of them have a similar pose, and it was further pointed out that no one objected to the male wizard's look when playing him at BlizzCon 2009. A community vote ultimately showed strongly mixed opinions on his look.

• Blue Post: March 3, 2010 -- Bashiok made several lengthy posts on D3's economy in late February and early March, with ramifications for BoE, BoP, and BoA. Also see this one, and this one, and the discussion on the issue from Blizzcast #13.

• Commentary: March 2, 2010 -- Diablo 3 will not be released in 2010 and why it's irresponsible for sites to speculate from ignorance.

• Blue Post: March 2, 2010 -- Bashiok on ]http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/blizzard-on-various-game-issues/ mana globes, NPC conversations, and the UI].

February 2010

• Blue Post: February 28, 2010 -- Bashiok on game difficulty and PUGs. Great fan debate about whether any D3 content should "require" more than one person ensued.

• Blue Post: February 27, 2010 -- Bashiok on Blizzard beta machine selection requirements.

• Blue Post: February 26, 2010 -- Bashiok on screen-shaking and other game special effects.

• Interview: February 25, 2010 -- Blizzcast #13 goes live with Diablo 3 commentary on "phasing," respes, non-mana resources, randomness in the game, gold/item durability (which may return?), and BoE item issues.

• Blue Post: February 25, 2010 -- Bashiok weighs in on class-specific weapons, and issue that always excites great player discussion. He returned to this issue a week later, with news that some of the class restrictions had been lifted.

• Commentary: February 24, 2010 -- Diablo 3's quests debated and compared to other RPGs.

• Other: February 24, 2010 -- v1.13b goes live on the patch test realm.

• Blue Post: February 23, 2010 -- Bashiok confirms that Diablo 2 hacks will never be fixed permanently.

• Blue Post: February 20, 2010 -- Bashiok on D3's music and unrevealed item enchanting system.

• Blue Post: February 18, 2010 -- Bashiok confirms that there will be complete gender equality in Diablo 3. After fans raise some objections, he returns with some more explanations.

• Other: February 17, 2010 -- The Starcraft 2 beta test gets underway.

• Blue Post: February 16, 2010 -- Female Barbarian in-game animation added to the official Diablo 3 page. Also a new piece of female barb concept art, and six new screenshots.

• Blue Post: February 16, 2010 -- Bashiok comments on the "must always be connected" aspect of Starcraft 2 play, and confirms that it can be played offline. Diablo 3 should work the same way.

• Blue Post: February 12, 2010 -- New monster and city concept artwork added to the gallery.

• Picture: February 11, 2010 -- Tomb Viper artwork by Brom is revealed in a photo. More about Tomb Vipers.

• Other: February 10, 2010 -- Activision/Blizzard Q4 2009 conference call coverage. Business over pleasure. Transcript of Mike Morhaime's talk about Blizzard (no mention of D3) here. Financial analysis of the news here.

• Commentary: February 10, 2010 -- Are there new/mysterious monsters in the artwork on the character pages? A closer look reveals... uncertain results.

• Blue Post: February 10, 2010 -- Bashiok on the megasized shoulderpads (pauldroons) the Diablo 3 character concept art sports.

• Video: February 10, 2010 -- Blizzard releases a preview movie showing off some of the new features of Battle.net 2.0. Discussion and analysis followed a few days later.

• Blue Post: February 9, 2010 -- A Bashiok post on the topic sets off another endless weapon switch hotkey argument/debate.

• Blue Post: February 9, 2010 -- Bashiok on Necromancer and Paladins perhaps showing up as NPCs, and more on the Female Monk's design.

• Picture: February 9, 2010 -- Female Monk concept art revealed in high quality.

• Picture: February 6, 2010 -- Female Monk design criticism. A fan photoshops the female monk some more skin, and much debate ensues.

Female monk concept art.

• Blue Post: February 5, 2010 -- Bashiok confirms the Female Monk pics from the Jace Hall show, and promises HQ versions "soon."

• Blue Post: February 5, 2010 -- The first look at the female monk in concept art, from the Jace Hall show. Outtakes from the show were posted a week later.

• Blue Post: February 5, 2010 -- Diii.net's vote for the best fan-art of the female monk semi-finals. The official version won big in the finals, vs. the top 3 pieces of fan art.

• Blue Post: February 5, 2010 -- Bashiok on D3's character animations and another sneak preview of the Jace Hall show.

• Other: February 4, 2010 -- Blizzcon 2010 date set for October 22-23 at the Anaheim Convention Center... but it's just a rumor, and is wiped away a day later.

• Picture: February 3, 2010 -- Original artwork by Brom that the Diablo 2 box was based on debuts in the Blizzard art gallery.

• Blue Post: February 3, 2010 -- Bashiok on character heights and Blizzcast coming not-soon.

• Blue Post: February 1, 2010 -- Three new screenshots added to the official site.

January 2010

• Blue Post: January 30, 2010 -- Bashiok on shared party skills, "griefing" in Diablo 3, and the employment benefits of being a forum slut.

• Video: January 30, 2010 -- Diablo 3 humor featured in Episode 1 of the Jace Hall show. No female monk reveal (that came in the next weeks' show). The D3 content was teased in a trailer a week earlier,

• Blue Post: January 27, 2010 -- Bashiok on Diablo 3's evolving world lore and story, and real world influences upon them.

• Commentary: January 27, 2010 -- Is Diablo 3 the new Duke Nukem Forever, with endless delays before release (or cancellation?)

• Picture: January 26, 2010 -- Blizzard's Female Monk Art Challenge "nontest" announced by Bashiok. More entries posted a few days later, and the final batch a week later. Voting began in early February, with the final five selected later in the month, and a final vote.

• Blue Post: January 26, 2010 -- Bashiok jokingly confirms that the Monk is so overpowered no other characters will be developed.

• Interview: January 23, 2010 -- Blizzard CEO Paul Sams interviewed by GamesIndustry.bz.

• Blue Post: January 22, 2010 -- Bashiok again explains why there will not be any guns in Diablo 3.

• Blue Post: January 22, 2010 -- Bashiok on hard to see item drops and how Diablo 3 will work around that issue.

• Blue Post: January 20, 2010 -- Bashiok on the "naked" female wizard, what she'll look like in her unarmored, starting gear, and how that look has recently been improved. Another post the next day shared more details, and a screenshot.

• Blue Post: January 16, 2010 -- Bashiok on the size of the D3 Team and the female Monk development process.

• Blue Post: January 15, 2010 -- Blizzard updates the game lore with retcon adjustments to the Timeline and Deckard Cain's Journal.

• Blue Post: January 14, 2010 -- Blizzard on Mongrels and Waypoints.

• Blue Post: January 7, 2010 -- Bashiok on generating Fury and other resources in a brand new game.

• Blue Post: January 6, 2010 -- Bashiok gets snarky about OP Monks, release dates, and Witch Doctors vs. Necromancers.

• Blue Post: January 6, 2010 -- Bashiok on release date issues and the fun (or not) of expansion classes.

• Blue Post: January 4, 2010 -- Bashiok on the Monk's resource system and those of other characters.

December 2009

Diablo III Year in Review. Twelve-part monthly recap of all the news and developments.

• Diablo 2 on Best of the Decade lists:
  • #7 best game of the decade, by Destructoid.
  • #5 of the decade by GameZone.com.

• Other: 29 December, 2009 -- A psychologist analyzes why fans find the loot/reward model of gaming so addictive.
• Commentary: 23 December, 2009 -- Diii.net asks if fans want to see bonus seasonal content? Or do you find Xmas trees in Tristram a ridiculous idea? Feedback is mixed.
• Preview: 23 December, 2009 -- The Morlu Caster gets covered in detail and added to the wiki bestiary.
• Blue Post: 19 December, 2009 -- Bashiok on v1.13 changes, feedback, and future plans.
• Blue Post: 17 December, 2009 -- Bashiok on why Diablo 3 will not have day/night cycles. (Areas look better with one preset level of lighting.
• Blue Post: 17 December, 2009 -- Bashiok on Act 2 level variety and D3's non-customizable interface.

Merch! Barb statue.

• Blue Post: 16 December, 2009 -- Bashiok defends the return of Magic Find against all comers.
• Blue Post: 16 December, 2009 -- Bashiok on game difficulty via random boss mods.
• Commentary: 12 December, 2009 -- The one mystery of v1.13, Klar and Tyraneus, is examined. A later vote shows that most fans think they are just a pointless distraction.
• Blue Post: 10 December, 2009 -- v1.13 hits the patch test realm to the enormous shock of virtually everyone. Fan reactions to the limited, timid, and partially undocumented patch changes are strongly negative.
• Blue Post: 8 December, 2009 -- Bashiok talks about changes to the Resurrection function in Diablo 3.
• Blue Post: 7 December, 2009 -- Bashiok defends skill runes in articulate fashion.
• Other: 5 December, 2009 -- The power of TorchED is shown with a Torchlight mod that creates a dungeon that looks exactly like the Diablo 3 WWI gameplay movie dungeon.
• Other: 4 December, 2009 -- A Diablo 2 player writes about how not to buy a used Diablo 2 CD-key.
• Blue Post: 3 December, 2009 -- Bashiok on laughing skeletons.
• Commentary: 2 December, 2009 -- Religion and Morality debated. Could/should Diablo 3 have more ethics and morality in its content?
• Other: 1 December, 2009 -- Diablo 3 Merch comes to life as the Barbarian statues arrive.
• Other: 1 December, 2009 -- In news that most found horrible or great Blizzard joins Facebook with new pages for Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft. Fan opinions are very mixed.

November 2009

• Blue Post: 24 November, 2009 -- Bashiok on Act 3 testing, non-linear game construction, and Diablo timeline ret-con efforts.
• Interview: 23 November, 2009 -- Travis Baldress, lead dev of Torchlight talks about the similarities with Diablo 3.
• Interview: 23 November, 2009 -- Rob Pardo on Blizzard announcing their games too early.
• Blue Post: 21 November, 2009 -- Skill Trees are gone. This big news requires several days of updates to impart all of the details.
• Blue Post: 21 November, 2009 -- Bashiok on character clipping, i.e. the characters can walk through each other in Diablo 3. This one created enough controversy for a follow up post a few days later.
• Blue Post: 18 November, 2009 -- Bashiok on color blindness and why there won't be any Ninja/Samurai classes in Diablo 3.
• Blue Post: 17 November, 2009 -- Bashiok provides illumination into the ongoing debate over how to make two-handed weapons viable.
• Blue Post: 15 November, 2009 -- Bashiok on the latest v1.13 delay/denial and why the aged infrastructure that powers Battle.net can't take na' more. (So no bigger stash for you!)

Torchlight vs. Diablo 3.

• Blue Post: 15 November, 2009 -- Bashiok on gameplay movie glitches and skill hovers.
• Blue Post: 14 November, 2009 -- Bashiok on Fallen, fire-breathing demons, and the Diablo 3 wait stretching on...
• Other: 13 November, 2009 -- Blizzcon 2010 to land in Las Vegas! Or not...
• Commentary: 12 November, 2009 -- Interesting news on Torchlight's extensive modding efforts, compared to Blizzard's disinterest with Diablo 3.
• Blue Post: 11 November, 2009 -- Bashiok on the D3 Team's movie nights: Lone Wolf and Cub and The Thing.
• Other: 9 November, 2009 -- Blizzard makes official what most of us already knew. Diablo 3 will not be released in 2010. More reinforcing details when/why/where released a week later.
• Blue Post: 6 November, 2009 -- Bashiok requests an end to the Torchlight discussion and adds a few words about the Talisman.
• Blue Post: 5 November, 2009 -- Bashiok on the fifth character and original character designs.
• Blue Post: 3 November, 2009 -- Bashiok on camera angles and why Diablo 3 has a fixed isometric, rather than a roving 1st person PoV like WoW.
• Other: 3 November, 2009 -- Ridiculous rumors that Blizzard would have to remake Diablo 3 because of... Torchlight?
• Blue Post: 2 November, 2009 -- Bashiok on how Blizzard views cool game features in other games (such as Torchlight).
• Interview: 2 November, 2009 -- USA Today interviews Jay Wilson. Unfortunately this is a typically-generic mass-media interview, without any new game info.
• Other: 1 November, 2009 -- New FPS/RPG Borderlands incorporates a large number of Diablo 2 references. Several are listed in this news post.
• Picture: 1 November, 2009 -- Torchlight comparisons continue with a piece stacking TL screenshots side by side with D3 shots. The similarities are largely incidental/accidental.

October 2009

• Interview: 29 October, 2009 -- Julian Love interviewed by the Diablo Source.
• Blue Post: 29 October, 2009 Bashiok on item colors, monster colors, the D3 narrator's voice, and survivors from Harrogath.
• Commentary: 28 October, 2009 -- Are party-friendly skills required in Diablo 3?
• Blue Post: 21 October, 2009 -- Bashiok on detailed damage displays.
• Interview: 21 October, 2009 -- Leonard Boyarsky interviewed by Hellforge.
• Commentary: 21 October, 2009 -- Twitter commentary confusion demonstrates the inherent shortcomings of the medium?
• Other: 16 October, 2009 -- Blizzard's Warcraft and Diablo community managers get into some heated Twitter-based grabass.
• Blue Post: 16 October, 2009 -- Bashiok announces the latest v1.13 delay.
• Interview: 15 October, 2009 -- Julian Love interviewed by Planet Diablo.
• Blue Post: 13 October, 2009 -- Bashiok on item pickups and party sharing.
• Blue Post: 10 October, 2009 -- Bashiok confirms that there will be no return to Harrogath in D3. (The town was destroyed by the Worldstone's explosion.)
• Interview: 8 October, 2009 -- Jay Wilson interviewed by Diii.net
• Blue Post: 3 October, 2009 -- Bashiok on gold and the D3 economy. A follow up came 3 days later.
• Blue Post: 2 October, 2009 -- Bashiok posts to promote the defend the @Diablo twitter feed.
• Other: 2 October, 2009 -- Blizzard announces five D3 uniques submitted by fans via their Twitter contest. (Other entries were listed previously.)
• Other: 1 October, 2009 -- A true Diablo fan gets his back inked to prove it.
• Blue Post: 1 October, 2009 -- v1.13 delayed again so the larger stash can be removed.

September 2009

Late September 2009

• Blue Post: 30 September, 2009 -- Bashiok on the still-unrevealed female monk.
• Preview: 30 September, 2009 -- GamesRadar previews Diablo 3. No new info.
• Other: 30 September, 2009 -- New, Flash-intensive layout for Blizzard.com and all Blizzard's gaming sites.
• Blue Post: 30 September, 2009 -- Bashiok on the Monk's non-mana resource.
• Other: 28 September, 2009 -- Blizzard Jobs visits Waterloo University.
• Blue Post: 28 September, 2009 --Bashiok on skill runes and Teleport's cooldown time.
• Preview: 26 September, 2009 -- Bosses and champions in D3, discussed in detail.
• Blue Post: 23 September, 2009 -- Bashiok on the Witch Doctor, and total skill numbers.
• Video: 23 September, 2009 -- Great videos from a D3 presentation at Digital Taipei 2009.
• Blue Post: 22 September, 2009 -- Bashiok on Low Level Dueling, skill variety, and more.
• Blue Post: 22 September, 2009 -- Bashiok on SC2 vs. D3, and the Wizard and Monk's non-mana resources.
• Preview: 21 September, 2009 -- All about the function of quests in D3.

• Picture: 20 September, 2009 -- New screenshot and concept art.
• Preview: 19 September, 2009 -- Detailed article covers the controls and inventory system in D3.

• Interview: 15 September, 2009 -- Activision/Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick on, "taking the fun" out of game development.
• Blue Post: 12 September, 2009 -- Bashiok on skill caps and D3's development.
• Blue Post: 11 September, 2009 -- Bashiok on Act 2 Map.
• Interview: 8 September, 2009 -- Michael Ryder, Blizzard's Vice President of International Business, interviewed by GamesIndustry.biz.
• Other: 7 September, 2009. Leah confirmed as an in-game NPC sighting.

Penny Arcade Expo, September 4-6, 2009

Diablo 3 was playable at PAX and numerous hands-on reports and chunks of (ninja-recorded) gameplay footage surfaced from the convention.

• Gameplay Reports from PAX: (In descending order of length/quality.)
  • A fan posts his detailed game observations from PAX.
  • Another fan with great hands-on play reports.

• • ThatVideoGameBlog.com shares tehir impressions.
  • Co-Optimus hands-on preview.
  • GameStooge.com liked what they saw.
  • The SF Examiner saw D3 at PAX.

• Gameplay movies (All fan-grabbed with cell phone cams, so the quality is fairly low.):
  • Video with a Wizard in a desert dungeon and some item hovers.
  • Two more videos from the show.
  • Several more PAX videos embedded in this post.

• Miscellaneous Articles from PAX
  • Gamasutra describes what makes PAX special and different from other conventions.
  • Neowin.net posted pictures of the Blizzard booth.
  • NoMoreGameBlogs posts an "interview" with a Bliz PR guy who can neither confirm nor deny anything.

Early September, 2009

• Blue Post: 4 September, 2009. Bashiok on auto-attributes, the issue that never dies.
• Blue Post: 3 September, 2009. Bashiok on the various types of damage utilized in Diablo 3.
• Blue Post: 3 September, 2009. Work commences on the D2 v1.13 patch. No ETA is offered.
• Blue Post: 3 September, 2009. The Great Art Controversy (sort of) returns, with half a dozen marked up screenshots from the new gameplay movie. Bashiok argues, fans chime in, and the consensus seems to be strongly against the nitpickers.
• Blue Post: 3 September, 2009. Bashiok on replayability, character variety, and respecs.
• Preview: 2 September, 2009. Wired quotes Jay Wilson on the unannounced 5th class.
• Other: 2 September, 2009. Blizzard confirms that Diablo 3 will be playable at the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo.
• Blue Post: 2 September, 2009. Bashiok speaks at great length about BoE (Bind on Equip) and BoP (Bind on Pickup) items in Diablo 3.

August 2009

August was a tremendously busy month for news, headlined by the biggest ever outpouring of Diablo 3 news, from Blizzcon 2009. There was also a fair amount of info released at the Gamescom convention, and items from those events are found in the Media Coverage: 2009 article.

Older News

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

• Media Coverage: 2009
• Media Coverage: 2008