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* Eric Dodds, Senior Designer, Diablo 3
''(Jay Wilson does 90% of the talking. All questions are from audience members.)This transcript groups questions by general categories, since it's so long. The questions are in chronological order within the subcategories.''
=General Interest Questions=
'''Q: I'm not a Diablo player. What should I be excited about?'''<br>
A: One of the great things about the Diablo franchise is that it's very quick and easy to get into. We all play a lot of WoW and it's a great game but when you just want to spend a short amount of time it's not always the best choice. So that's one of the things we think
'''Q: Game engineHow large is the dev team?<br>'''<br>A: ItWe's a brand new 3d engine we built in-house. No official namere about 50 or 55.
'''Q: How Diablo 2 came out long have before World of Warcraft. Now that WoW is such a phenomena, Blizzard has changed a lot. The expectations are much higher. Do you feel that the way you been working on Diablo 3work or what you're expected to deliver is different? Does it influence how you work?<br>'''<br>A: It's been Yeah Jay, how does it feel to be working on one of the most anticipated sequels in dev for quite a number of yearsthe industry? Fine... (audience laughter) You know... We had it up at I came to Blizzard North for a couple of 2.5 years ago and one of the reasons I really wanted to join Blizzard was because I love their games. What I found was a company that felt like it's been at Bliz South for a whilealways sounded from the outside. Probably about 4 overall. (Blizzard North closed in fall 2005, nearly 3 years before makes the WWIgreatest games. We try to make games we like to play. We play our games as much as our fans. It's known that preliminary work began on So we try to make decisions we think fans will like. We saw a lot of the expectations before Diablo 3 back in 2000 came out, and it was well underway by 2002, though almost all one of the work things the Bliz North guys put in fans said was thrown out when the project moved to Irvine and started virtually from scratch, "They won't make it an overhead game, they won't make it like D2. They'll use 1st person...)"
'''Q: How did you I have a follow up question. Is it difficult to keep the secret for company in the same state of mind? With so longmuch attention from the world media?<br>'''A: WeYou mean when you have to do press conferences with over 100 of you guys? It've very secretive and security conscious. There was s definitely a joke in the Penny Arcade comic about the bombs planted in the backs of the heads of our employeesculture change for us, but we recognize that. It's not that far offimportant for us to recognize the growth we've had over the last few years. We value our privacy. The have almost 3000 employees recognize the importance of keeping this under wraps worldwide, and the value we get from a big announcement like this. They're very proud ve changed some of the things we do to be sure we can communicate our work. The development team is most motivated company philosophy to 3000 people, as compared to keep it under wraps30 people from like 10 years ago. It feels good to talk about it at last. If you find us at presents different challenges, but as long as we keep a bar tonight focus on making great games and make sure everyone internally keeps that focus I think we'll probably just be shouting "Diablo 3 Diablo 3."[[Image:Pa-bliz-secret.jpg|center|thumb|500px|The [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/5/23/on-the-keeping-of-secrets/ Penny Arcade comic] Jay Wilson referenced in the chatcan manage it.]]
'''Q: BattleQuestion about the [http://www.diii.net changes?/articles/667288/the-wwi-splash-image-mysterysplash images and pre-WWI teasers] on blizzard.com.<br>''' <br>A: WeI believe that was the face of Diablo, actually looking through. As for the hidden images, I don're not announcing anything yett really know. We do have There were a lot of plans for the new version of battle.net that will appear hidden images in there, more so than they showed me in the futureadvance. WeI'll reveal more ve been in France for the future. Youpast week, so I haven'll actually see t really been following it, and I think they put in some of more stuff at the new stuff with Starcraft 2last minute.
'''Q: What features does the game have for competitive playThere wasn't a huge strategy behind it?<br>'''A: Right now weI'm sure there was, I just don're not talking about any PvP or competitive play featurest actually know.
'''Q: Do Aren't you have a number for how many players can be in the same game togetherafraid of losing wow subscribers as they change to playing d3?<br>'''A: No, we're not afraid of that. We have a limitover 10m WoW subscribers, but itthere's based on fun not as big of a crossover (between WoW and gameplay than technical. We're debating itDiablo fans) as we would have expected. We can support quite a number of players technically, but hope the game plays better with slightly fewer, and we'll focus on what makes WoW community will be interested in the game play the bestDiablo experience. (Other panels said 4-5 is the likely number, at this pointEven if they cross over they're still playing Blizzard games.)
'''Q: (Long mostly inaudible question.)Simultaneous release?<br>'''A: For e-sports? We're going to add pvp features, but not adding them yet. I donThat't know how to answer that w/o talking about pvps our goal. E-sport is important It takes a lot of work to us and the development team has some ideas localize in mindevery region, but we canit't talk about it at this early state. The d3 team is definitely thinking about e-sports, thoughs our goal to do as many as possible.
'''Q: Differences between co-op and single playWill there be a demo?<br>'''A: WeI've done a lot of things to make it better. We canm sure we't talk about co-op details yet. Some of the simple things, the health system with ll explore that when the red globes you pick up share the healing to others. Makes everyone a makeshift healertime comes. We've improved the loot drop, so you only see items on the ground for you, which creates a more cooperative spirit of sharing Feedback during the adventure. Little changes dev process is very important to make a better co-op experience. Down the road we'll have more elaborate features, but can't talk about yetus.
'''Q: (Long, inaudible question.)What's the defining difference between D2 and D3?<br>'''A: There are a lot of things we like to focus on. Surface, graphics. A lot of improvements to action game, monster design, boss design, char abilities, char classes, bigger focus on role playing and story. We havendon't settled want to force that on a final number of classesplayers, though. There will We want the story to be several morethere, though. (Official site says 5but for players who want to just click through, as they did in D1 and D2, that's their option.)
'''Q: Console platformsWow has seasonal events. Do you want those in D3?<br>'''A: Blizzard would love to do consolesReally good idea. We're very interested in too far out to really discuss that. No plans at this timeyet internally, but it's a cool idea.
'''Q: Did any of the Diablo clones released in the last few years contribute Will you continue to your game designupdate SC and D2?<br>'''A: We're here ll continue to talk about D3 todayupdate them as long as there's a player community. It's hard 10 years since SC came out, and we're here to discuss see tournaments at the competition w/o... certainlyWWI, we play everythingand one of them is a SC tournament. We're all serious gamersThere are professional SC players. We play other games. But we don't want to talk about the competition or any specificscontinue to support our communities.
'''Q: Is there any facility to port over D2 characterBuilt in voice chat mode?<br>'''A: We're going to cross over some characters... oh you mean actual playable d2 chars? No theredecision on that yet, but I's no way. Itm sure we's not compatiblell look to support it. Different classes, different game engines, etcWe do it in WoW now.
'''Q: Can you give us some examples of monster AI and cooperationVoice over IP?<br>'''A: Probably. We try want to make monsters work together. A lot of just mob monstersimprove the audio quality going forward, and the big guys behind them are designed to be make it more specific. There's a summoner skeleton in the demo. When you get several of those guys going they're really hard to keep up with since they're generating just lots and lots of skeletons. The goatman shaman convenient than it is another example. He is what we call a "support character." He can do all sorts of buffing of his other guys. He becomes a really high priority target. That's what we keep revealing. We have soooooo many monsters. Endless variety. The ones we've shown today are cool, but the ones we held back are betterthrough WoW.
'''Q: Classes How do you deal with it when players who are very different levels? How to keep a lvl 100 and skills infolvl 25 can work together with both getting benefits?<br>'''A: Wedon're not talking about skills and talents t have that in yet. When we announce the skill trees, or whatever skill system we decide to use, but we will look at Diablo 2 and World of Warcraft and other systems, or maybe come up with something new. We haven't worked out anything exactly yetre still working on it.
'''Q: Auction houseWere you inspired by anything in WoW you wanted to work into d3?<br>'''A: We donI't have any specific decisions on that yet. The ad hoc trading that went on in D2 isnm a big WoW fan, so definitely it't the greatest exp for playerss been an inspiration to me. We want players to look at a lot of the bosses and we have such a great experience. We want design opportunity to interact with the wow crew to improve trading, but we've not worked out exactly how yetsee what makes a good boss fight.
'''Q: How long will the game play take to finishWhat makes a good boss fight? <br>'''A: Too early to say since weI've got a lot of work yet to dod let the wow team answer that. WeFor me, I're targeting d probably wait until we actually show a length equivalent to that of Diablo 2, but it's impossible to say yet. It may be longer or it may be shorterboss off.
'''Q: Will you have something like the armory from WoW for D2? So we can display our actual game character equipment on forums?(Long, inaudible question.)<br>'''A: No info We haven't settled on that yet. It's a fairly late game dev featurefinal number of classes. We'll explore somethingThere will be several more, though. We definitely want to add functionality to the web(Official site says 5. )
'''Q: I want to show my WoW char Can you give us some examples of monster AI and my D3 character in my forum signature.cooperation?<br>'''A: ThatWe try to make monsters work together. A lot of just mob monsters, and the big guys behind them are designed to be more specific. There's a summoner skeleton in the demo. When you get several of those guys going they're really hard to keep up with since they're generating just lots and lots of skeletons. The goatman shaman is another example. He is what we call a "support character." He can do all sorts of buffing of his other guys. He becomes a really awesome ideahigh priority target. That's what we keep revealing. (deadpan) We should get someone working on thathave soooooo many monsters. Endless variety. The ones we've shown today are cool, but the ones we held back are better. (audience laughter)
'''Q: Diablo 2 came out long before World of Warcraft. Now that WoW is such a phenomena, Blizzard has changed a lot. The expectations are much higher. Do you feel that the way you work or what you're expected to deliver is different? Does it influence how you workClasses and skills info?<br>'''A: Yeah Jay, how does it feel to be working on one of the most anticipated sequels in the industry? Fine... (audience laughter) You know... I came to Blizzard 2.5 years ago We're not talking about skills and one of the reasons I really wanted to join Blizzard was because I love their gamestalents yet. What I found was a company that felt like it's always sounded from When we announce the outside. Blizzard makes the greatest games. We try to make games skill trees, or whatever skill system we like decide to play. We play our games as much as our fans. So we try to make decisions use, we think fans will like. We saw a lot of the expectations before look at Diablo 3 came out, 2 and one World of the things the fans said wasWarcraft and other systems, "They wonor maybe come up with something new. We haven't make it an overhead game, they won't make it like D2. They'll use 1st person..worked out anything exactly yet."
'''Q: I have a follow Where does the story pick up question. Is it difficult to keep the company in the same state of mind? With so much attention from the world media?<br>'''A: You mean when you have to do press conferences with over 100 Twenty years later than Diablo 2. After the destruction of you guys? It's definitely a culture change for us, but we recognize thatthe worldstone. ItWe's important for us to recognize ll talk about the growth we've had over lore more in the last few yearsother panels. We have almost 3000 employees worldwideEssentially, and weit've changed some s been long enough that most of the things we do to be sure we can communicate our company philosophy to 3000 peoplemajor plot events as depicted in Diablo 2 are forgotten, as compared to 30 or mythical. Most people from like 10 years agowho knew about what really happened don't really believe it. Most of them are mad. It presents different challenges, but as long as we keep a focus on making great games and make sure everyone internally keeps The idea is that focus I think we can manage wanted to get some distance from the other game. What happened after it.? What/ Why? No demon invasion?
'''Q: Randomly generated levels again?<br>'''
A: We have a design panel later today that will go into more detail on this. But yes, we're doing randomized maps. We do a mix of random and static, like d2 did. Definitely the dungeons are randomized. We've experimented with different kinds of randomization. Random dungeon entrances, random monster placement. We've got a new feature that creates random events.
'''Q: (inaudible. Something about areas and D2 areas.)<br>'''
A: Generally strong themes and striking areas are the best video game areas. There are some areas that return. Like some parts of Tristram. You'll travel all over Sanctuary and see a lot of variety of areas.
A: We haven't nailed down the details on socketing or enchanting or other, but you can expect some crazy stuff.
A: It's a system we use, they are real physics, although it's not a pure physics reactionary system because of the networking we do. Most physics options are kind of lost once they go into the gameplay. But we've figured out some tricks to let them still work as we want them to work. Basically we're trying to make anywhere it looks like it really should, it will. We want players to be able to interact.
'''Q: Are there going to be any physics puzzles?<br>'''
A: The way that we do that system we could create such puzzles if we wanted to, but we're not a real puzzle-heavy game. We're a smash monsters game. So I wouldn’t expect many puzzles of that. We like monster combinations in combat. We could do that if we wanted to, though. You never know, we come up with crazy stuff.
'''Q: What differences are there between the difficulty levels?<br>'''
A: We have not decided on difficulties yet. We plan on being similar to D2. How exactly we tier it isn't yet decided.
'''Q: Hardcore coming back?<br>'''
A: Um... we haven't specifically talked about it, but I don't see why not.
A: Will D3 it be more character driven than D2? We'll cover that more in the later panels. We want to make the characters have their own plot lines and be more individualized. There are a lot of cool NPC characters too.
'''Q: You showed a few monsters that had great coming together and breaking apart sequences. Are those going to be for main bosses infrequently seen? Or very common?<br>'''
A: We don't have the frequency down for those things. I can tell you about that creature that got constructed, that's not a boss character. It's just how he shows up. It won't be that uncommon. We try to put in that kind of scripted cool mini scene all the time.
'''Q: End game?<br>'''
A: We have not made decisions on that yet. We're aware of the issues. D2 has an end game, but we really want to do more on that front with D3.
'''Q: Character customization options more than just male and female?<br>'''
A: Not really. We focus on getting into the game as quickly as possible. We pretty much want you to just dive right in. And get to the monster killing.
'''Q: Any differences in gender?<br>'''
A: No, just the same in game play.
'''Q: Do you have stages? Like end bosses who are huge and complicated?<br>'''
A: The short answer is yes. We use games like Zelda and WoW for some design ideas. Much more cool and complicated end bosses. We can improve on Diablo 2 in that. We want to do it.
A: You'll gain exp and levels, but beyond that we're not talking about it yet.
'''Q: Is there a secret cow level?<br>'''
A: No comment.
'''Q: What about in game transportation? Waypoints?<br>'''
A: We'll change that somewhat, but not sure yet. We want players to be able to move around the game world quickly and easily.
'''Q: Mounts?<br>'''
A: We've considered it but we don't think it's necessary.
'''Q: Loot. Variety?<br>'''A: We'll have more references that have an item reference and are more about the story. Not every item, some will be random, but the really good stuff will be more tied to the overall plot. Part of our goal to make a better role playing game and story. '''Q: Will there be we see the Horadic cube again? New cube recipes?<br>'''A: Not made a demodecision yet. '''Q: Mule characters?<br>'''A: IWe will have a lot of cool new inv features. We want to make trading a lot easier. We don't like the muling process in D2. Open game, drop item, switch characters, etc. '''Q: How is your focus on the single player experience? <br>''m sure we'll explore that A: We really see our SP and co-op as the same thing. That sounds odd, but when you play the time comesco-op game alone, you're just doing it by yourself. Feedback during When we design it's all the dev process is very important same, we want it to uswork for both.
'''Q: What's the defining difference between D2 and D3Difficulty level adjustments?<br>'''A: There are a lot of things we like to focus We've not worked onthat so much yet. Surface, graphics. A lot of improvements to action game, monster design, boss design, char abilities, char classes, bigger focus on role playing At this point we just let everyone jump in and story. We don't want adjust to force that on players, though. We want the story to be there, but for number of players who want to just click through, as they did in D1 and D2, thatthe game. It's their optiona cool idea to have more adjustments.
'''Q: Wow has seasonal events. Do you want those in D3How many levels for characters?<br>'''A: Really good ideaWe haven't really decided. We're too far out ll give it some consideration compared to D2. I don't know about 99... why not go to really discuss that yet internally, but it100? But we can's a cool ideat say.
'''Q: Loot. VarietyCan you expect a lot of sequences when players get mobbed?<br>'''A: We'll have more references that have an item reference and are more about the story. Not every item, some will be randomYeah, but the really good stuff will be more tied to the overall plot. Part of our goal to make a better role playing game tons and storytons.
'''Q: Security measuresDoes D3 force teamwork more than in D2?<br>'''A: The biggest anti-piracy effort we have is that we have an online community everyone wants to be part ofI don't know if you can really force it. We encourage it. We talked about the health system, the way loot works. We don't penalize players for being together. We give them bonuses. We want to make the online exp so compelling that people will buy to get a cd-key to join init beneficial.
'''Q: Will we see You'll still be able to play through the Horadic cube again? New cube recipeswhole game alone?<br>'''A: Not made a decision yetYes. Absolutely.
'''Q: Players do private WoW serversGame engine? '''<br>A: From what I understand the play experience isnIt't as good since the content trails behind what s a brand new 3d engine we do on the built in-house. No official serversname.
'''Q: One of the problems of playing on D2 on Battle.net is that there were so many power gamers who would crush everyone, or you'd get younger players who were tough to put up with.Console platforms?<br>'''A: Blizzard would love to do consoles. We're looking at features and functionality to improve battle.net and to increase accountability online. Details to reveal very interested in the future. Part of that is how you design your game. Foul language filters can be gotten around. If you make a game that encourages players to co-op and get along with each other you will encourage good play experienceNo plans at this time.
'''Q: How is your focus on the single player experienceIs there any facility to port over D2 character? <br>'''A: We really see our SP and co-op as the same thing're going to cross over some characters. That sounds odd, but when you play the co-op game alone, .. oh youmean actual playable d2 chars? No there're just doing it by yourselfs no way. When we design itIt's all the samenot compatible. Different classes, we want it to work for bothdifferent game engines, etc.
'''Q: Will you continue to update SC and D2System requirements?<br>'''A: We'll continue Nothing to update them as long as there's a player communityreveal yet. It's 10 years since SC came out, and we're here Its always our goal to see tournaments at the WWI, and one run on a broad variety of them is a SC tournament. There are professional SC players. We want to continue to support our communitiesmachines.
'''Q: Built in voice chat modeSecurity measures?<br>'''A: No decision on The biggest anti-piracy effort we have is that yet, but I'm sure we'll look have an online community everyone wants to support itbe part of. We do it want to make the online exp so compelling that people will buy to get a cd-key to join in WoW now.
'''Q: Mature ratingPrivate servers?<br>'''A: Diablo's always been a mature rated gameNon-battle. I don't know the EU rating system as well as the US systemnet? No, but we don't intend re not going to back away from the mature contentdo that. We really want to focus players to get on battle.net. that's our goal. ( The new D3 website requires age checks to view the movies though they are quality of the "enter your DoB" style experience on Battle.net should be so fun that can be effortlessly lied players will not want to.)
'''Q: How will you deliver ongoing contentPlayers do private WoW servers?<br>'''A: WeFrom what I understand the play experience isn're real far away from thatt as good since the content trails behind what we do on the official servers.
'''Q: Is the game designed with ongoing content in mind?<br>'''
A: At the very least we'll design to update with expansions, but in terms of ongoing online content... we've done that with every Blizzard game, but can't say specifics on D3.
'''Q: Any way for the community to contribute to the game? Designing levels or challenges?<br>'''
A: Nothing specific. Diablo isn't a very mod-friendly game because of how it's designed and the randomness. Very high technical hurdle to clear. We look for a way for our fans to contribute, but hard to do with d3.
'''Q: Where are you in How many monster or things can physically be on the development process nowscreen at once?<br>'''A: W/o getting too specificThe programmers don't give us a limit. We keep throwing more on the screen to see how it goes. There are differences by the monster. The wraith monsters that appear from the chest are fairly expensive, in terms of their flowing cloth and other animations, so we have a game that tend to limit their numbers. I don't think we've broken 100 on the screen at any time yet, but we enjoy playing and 've flirted with it. =Diablo III Development Issues= ''s super fun. We're Q: How long have you been working on content which is the lionDiablo 3?'''<br>A: It's share been in dev for quite a number of developmentyears. We can't hazard had it up at Blizzard North for a guess as to any percent done. Itcouple of years and it's not been at Bliz South for a straight curve for blizzardwhile. Probably about 4 overall. (Blizzard North closed in fall 2005, nearly 3 years before the time curve changes at different partsWWI. Even if youIt're 75% done s known that preliminary work began on Diablo 3 back in 2000 and it doesn't mean you've only got 25% of was well underway by 2002, though almost all the work the Bliz North guys put in was thrown out when the time left. Final testing might take longerproject moved to Irvine and started virtually from scratch.)
'''Q: Difficulty level adjustmentsIs D3 the same thing as your secret project code named Hydra?<br>'''A: (Long pause.) Wedon've not worked on that so much yet. At this point we just let everyone jump in and adjust to the number t publicly discuss details of players in the gameour secret project names. ItSo you's a cool idea ll just have to have more adjustmentslive without that knowledge.
'''Q: How many levels did you keep the secret for charactersso long?<br>'''A: We haven't really decidedve very secretive and security conscious. There was a joke in the Penny Arcade comic about the bombs planted in the backs of the heads of our employees. It's not that far off. Wevalue our privacy. The employees recognize the importance of keeping this under wraps and the value we get from a big announcement like this. They'll give re very proud of our work. The development team is most motivated to keep it some consideration compared under wraps. It feels good to D2talk about it at last. I don If you find us at a bar tonight we't know about 99ll probably just be shouting "Diablo 3 Diablo 3."[[Image:Pa-bliz-secret.jpg|center|thumb|500px|The [http://www.penny-arcade. why not go to 100? But we can't saycom/comic/2007/5/23/on-the-keeping-of-secrets/ Penny Arcade comic] Jay Wilson referenced in the chat.]]
'''Q: Were you inspired by anything Did any of the Diablo clones released in WoW you wanted the last few years contribute to work into d3your game design?<br>'''A: IWe'm a big WoW fan, so definitely itre here to talk about D3 today. It's been an inspiration hard to mediscuss the competition w/o... certainly, we play everything. We're all serious gamers. We look at a lot of the bosses and play other games. But we have such a design opportunity don't want to interact with talk about the wow crew to see what makes a good boss fightcompetition or any specifics.
'''Q: What makes a good boss fightMature rating?<br>'''A: Diablo's always been a mature rated game. Idon'd let t know the EU rating system as well as the wow team answer that. For meUS system, Ibut we don'd probably wait until we actually show a boss offt intend to back away from the mature content. (The new D3 website requires age checks to view the movies though they are of the "enter your DoB" style that can be effortlessly lied to.)
'''Q: Do you miss any of the people who left blizzard? Bill Roper?<br>'''
A: We've always tried to ensure that no one individual is essential to the games we make. This dev team is 50 people. There were 40 to make d2. it takes a big team to make our games, and while we all miss Bill, any combination of talented people can make one of our games. Bill's doing well with his stuff and we're dong well here. It's good for everyone.
'''Q: Diablo is not a mod-friendly game. What about UI mods, will you allow it?<br>'''
A: We're specifically not going to allow player mods in D3. they're necessary in WoW, but we think such things can make a simple to control game very complicated, so we're not going to let them into D3.
'''Q: Voice over IPWhere are you in the development process now?<br>'''A: ProbablyW/o getting too specific, we have a game that we enjoy playing and it's super fun. We want 're working on content which is the lion's share of development. We can't hazard a guess as to improve any percent done. It's not a straight curve for blizzard, the audio quality going forward, and to make time curve changes at different parts. Even if you're 75% done it more convenient than it is through WoWdoesn't mean you've only got 25% of the time left. Final testing might take longer.
'''Q: Have you stayed true to your original ideas for D3?<br>'''
A: It's a broad question and hard to answer, but I'd say overall we've stayed fairly true to our plan and consistent. Defining our gameplay and our visual look has taken the most time for us. Even some of the features we're not talking about yet, cool stuff we're showing in the coming months. The core of what we wanted has really stayed constant.
'''Q: How many monster or things can physically be on Diablo is about killing a lot of monsters and kicking ass. What do you think is the screen at oncemost kick ass feature as a player, and what are you most proud of as a designer?<br>'''A: The programmers doncoolest feature we didn't give us show yet, so it's hard. For me I like the most and am proudest of the character classes. We look at the characters as that's who the player wants to be. We work to fulfill the fantasy of being that awesome character. We put a limitlot of work into the look and feel, effects, skills, everything. We keep throwing more on have a denizens of D2 panel tomorrow, and our lead monster guy has a section where he talks about all the screen to see different ways that monsters can be annihilated. It's pretty awesome how it goesthe deaths change with the level types and damage types. That's my favorite feature. =Battle.net Questions= '''Q: Battle.net changes?''' <br>A: We're not announcing anything yet. There are differences by We do have a lot of plans for the monsternew version of battle. The wraith monsters net that will appear from in the chest are fairly expensive, future. We'll reveal more in terms the future. You'll actually see some of their flowing cloth and other animations, so the new stuff with Starcraft 2. '''Q: Will you have something like the armory from WoW for D2? So we tend can display our actual game character equipment on forums?<br>'''A: No info on that yet. It's a fairly late game dev feature. We'll explore something. We definitely want to add functionality to limit their numbersthe web. '''Q: I want to show my WoW char and my D3 character in my forum signature.<br>'''A: That's a really awesome idea. ''(deadpan)'' We should get someone working on that. ''(audience laughter) '' '''Q: Auction house?<br>'''A: We don't think wehave any specific decisions on that yet. The ad hoc trading that went on in D2 isn've broken 100 on t the screen at any time yetgreatest exp for players. We want players to have a great experience. We want to improve trading, but we've flirted with itnot worked out exactly how yet.
'''Q: Can Are you expect a lot of sequences when players get mobbedlooking at micro payments? Or traditional buy the box?<br>'''A: Yeah, tons and tonsWe haven't made a decision about our financial model. Every region is different. Asia is different than the others. We've not decided yet how we're going to handle that.
'''Q: Does D3 force teamwork more than in One of the problems of playing on D2?on Battle.net is that there were so many power gamers who would crush everyone, or you'd get younger players who were tough to put up with.<br>'''A: I donWe't know if you can really force itre looking at features and functionality to improve battle. We encourage itnet and to increase accountability online. We talked about Details to reveal in the health system, the way loot worksfuture. We don't penalize players for being togetherPart of that is how you design your game. We give them bonusesFoul language filters can be gotten around. We If you make it beneficiala game that encourages players to co-op and get along with each other you will encourage good play experience.
'''Q: You'll still be able to play through the whole game aloneHow will you deliver ongoing content?<br>'''A: Yes. AbsolutelyWe're real far away from that.
'''Q: Diablo is about killing a lot of monsters and kicking ass. What do you think is features does the most kick ass feature as a player, and what are you most proud of as a designergame have for competitive play?<br>'''A: The coolest feature Right now we didn't show yet, so it's hard. For me I like the most and am proudest of the character classes. We look at the characters as that's who the player wants to be. We work to fulfill the fantasy of being that awesome character. We put a lot of work into the look and feel, effects, skills, everythingre not talking about any PvP or competitive play features.
'''Q: Do you have a number for how many players can be in the same game together?<br>'''A: We have a denizens of D2 panel tomorrowlimit, but it's based on fun and our lead monster guy has gameplay than technical. We're debating it. We can support quite a section where he talks about all number of players technically, but the different ways that monsters can be annihilated. Itgame plays better with slightly fewer, and we's pretty awesome how ll focus on what makes the deaths change with game play the level types and damage typesbest. That's my favorite feature(Other panels said 4-5 is the likely number, at this point. )
'''Q: (Long mostly inaudible question.)<br>'''
A: For e-sports? We're going to add pvp features, but not adding them yet. I don't know how to answer that w/o talking about pvp. E-sport is important to us and the development team has some ideas in mind, but we can't talk about it at this early state. The d3 team is definitely thinking about e-sports, though.
'''Q: Differences between co-op and single play?<br>'''
A: We've done a lot of things to make it better. We can't talk about co-op details yet. Some of the simple things, the health system with the red globes you pick up share the healing to others. Makes everyone a makeshift healer. We've improved the loot drop, so you only see items on the ground for you, which creates a more cooperative spirit of sharing the adventure. Little changes to make a better co-op experience. Down the road we'll have more elaborate features, but can't talk about yet.
[[Category:WWI 2008]]