Paper doll
The term "Paper Doll" refers to the human figure seen in the Inventory window, which players dress up with various items. In Diablo III the paper doll is part of the Inventory menu.
Changes from Diablo II
The Diablo III version of the inventory/paper doll is changed in a variety of ways. The Inventory page details the improvements to the inventory and character storage space. Other differences include:
- There are two more item slots in Diablo III -- Shoulder Pads and Pants are new item types, joining the Helm, Amulet, Rings, Chest Armor, Belt, Boots, Gloves, and Weapon slots of Diablo II.
- There's no space now for weapon switch slots. It's assumed that feature will return, but just hasn't been worked into the graphics yet.
- The Talisman is a new type of item/function.
New or Missing Features
There's no visible slot for the weapon switch. At least not yet.
The Talisman is apparently back in the game. It was disabled at Blizzcon in October 2008, but the graphic looks just the same in this new shot, six months later. Nothing is known about the function.
The empty square on the lower left is presumably reserved for a future feature. Or perhaps a feature that's already in, but that the D3 team didn't want players to see just yet.
The left and right hands of the character are switched; what looks like left in the paperdoll actually appeared on the right, at least in the WWI gameplay movie. This switch doesn't seem likely to have any game play importance, though.
The whole inventory window is narrower. In Diablo III, it only takes up 1/3 of the screen width. It consumed half the screen in Diablo II.
Items now show a small image of themselves on their hover display, as seen in this thumbnail.
Paperdoll Evolution
The Inventory Window and most of the other game interface screens have changed many times during the development cycle. And can be expected to continue evolving. Here's a view of the much less polished paper doll/inventory from the WWI Gameplay movie. This is how the interface looked back in June 2008, when the game made its debut.
During the GamesCom 2010 Artisan reveal video, a new updated avatar was seen. This is probably not the last iteration of the inventory.