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Many game designers end up producing most post-release content for the end game, since that's where most players are spending their time, rather than simply making new level 1 characters and going through the whole experience again. The {{iw|Pandemonium_Event Pandemonium Event}}, added to Diablo II in the v1.11 patch, is a good example of added end game material, since it was only available on the realms, and only possible to engage in with very high level, well-equipped characters.
* See [http://diablo.incgamers.com/categories/category/end-game the End Game category] for numerous Diablo III news items related to this issue.
==Max Clvl 60 Announcement==
Diablo III's end game debate changed radically in September 2010, when the developers revealed that the maximum level characters could achieve in the game would be 60, rather than 99 (or 100) as they'd previously hinted. [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-iiis-maximum-level-announced-60/]
::'''Bashiok: The 60 level cap we’re working with came from a lot of time and thinking about our content and how we want the experience to feel at every level. It so happens that it works for us really well.
::Of course it all comes down to an XP curve. We could, for instance, say the level cap in Diablo III is 60 and then pace that curve and gain out over what we estimate it took someone to reach 99 in Diablo II. Of course we wouldn’t do that but it should help illustrate that the time from 1-60 in Diablo II does not equal the amount of time it will take to reach 60 in Diablo III. 60 levels versus 99 levels doesn’t mean less content or less powerful characters, etc.
::The leveling experience is always going to stop somewhere because the real game is the item hunt. So, instead of letting it drag out to a less meaningful 80 or so levels like most people saw in Diablo II we have 60 levels of awesome; at every level you’ll get a meaningful and noticeable increase in power. It has a ton of other benefits and fixes a lot of problems a higher cap causes, but I’ll take pause.
===The Leveling Curve===
The number (60 vs 99) isn't the real issue, of course. It's just a number. What matters is how the content is balanced to the level progression, and that's where D3 makes a huge change. The design goal is that the levels match the amount of content; a character who finishes all three difficulty levels should be around level 60. Thus the end game becomes about finding items, PvP, reaching achievements, and creating new characters to do it all over again. This was first explained in September 2010. [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/more-on-d3s-end-game-and-achievements/]
::'''Bashiok: '''The experience curve to 60 isn’t going to be a perfect three playthroughs of the game on each difficulty. It’s of course expected you’ll be exiting and then starting up new games, but it isn’t intended to be a grind to level. The number of levels is intended to match the amount of content. Meaning when you beat the game on Hell, yes we expect you to be around level 60. Maybe you’re a level or two shy, or maybe you’ve been 60 for a while, depending on how you played.
Additional posts made clear that the projected level up rate is something like 30/50/60 when finishing the Normal/Nightmare/Hell difficulties.
===Fan Reactions===
Though this is a big change, Blizzard's explanations for it have proven fairly convincing, and most fans[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/vote-diablo-iiis-clvl-60-level-cap/] are on board with the changes, or at least the design motivation behind them. A public vote on Diii.net demonstrated this, and in most comment threads about the issue, a majority of fans are supportive, or at least not full of angry objections.
===Expansion Increases===
It's universally-speculated, thought not yet confirmed, that the maximum level of characters will rise in the expansion packs. This is done in many RPGs, most noticeably in World of Warcraft which began with a max level of 60, then saw it rise to 70, 80, and 85 in the first three expansions.
==Official Comments==
[[category:basics]]
[[category:gameplay]]
[[category:end game]]
