Category: games
Diablo 3 Announced
In my younger days, I was as avid a computer games player as anybody today. I concentrated on a few games to feed my obsession, games like Star Wars Galaxies, Planetside, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Anarchy Online.
And then there was Diablo I/II/LOD. The time I spent looking for miscellaneous Diablo loot by doing Baal and Mephisto runs far exceeded the total time I spent grinding my Jedi in Star Wars Galaxies, the time I spent getting to BR20/CR5 in Planetside, the time I spent playing RTCW to improve my gameplay, or any other effort I put forth on any other of the games I played in. Literally hundreds of hours over a several year period were spent playing the Diablo series of games. I grew older, my priorities shifted, and Blizzard started putting it’s push behind WoW so I figured Diablo had run it’s course and was done.
Well it turns out that Diablo is going to be back for a 3rd installment. After reviewing the PC Mag story and the 1up.com writeup, I’m left with some brief and probably premature impressions.
I like the following about what I read/saw:
Game Engine: The game engine looks strong. They’ve retained the isometric perspective (although tweeked a bit) and have done a seemingly great job with things like creature scaling, interactive environment, and textures (with one notable exception I explain below).
Performance: While I realize the gameplay shown was just a demo and likely tweeked/enhanced for sellability, the gameplay looked smooth and didn’t appear to be struggling. Hardware is only going to get better by the time this is released so there is at least some hope that the game will be playable by what will then be mid-line rigs.
Viewable Demo: So many times when a game is announced, there isn’t anything other than artist renderings of what the game will look like. The clip on 1up.com shows a full 20 minutes of gameplay through an entire section including one boss. I have to applaud Blizzard for getting that done before announcing the game to the public.
Having said all of that, I do have a couple of concerns:
Color Palette: One thing I didn’t really care for is the choice of color palette used in the demo. Diablo has always been a dark, dare I say gothically skinned game with lots of browns. The demo appeared very blue to my poor eyes, a bit too clean compared to previous Diablo efforts. I’m hoping that Blizzard keeps an eye on the online petitions circulating requesting a change in the overall color palette.
Vaporware: Blizzard seems to deliver what’s promised, I just hope they haven’t bitten off more than they can chew with this effort, WoW, and the upcoming Starcraft II release. Sony Online Entertainment suffered from too much product in the pipeline too quickly, I’d hate to see Blizzard have to make some bad choices.
Subscription Model: If Blizzard forces a monthly subscription on players, I suspect this game will fly like a lead balloon. I’m hoping that Blizzard decides to keep the game free to play online even if a larger amount of money is needed upfront in terms of sales price.
I’m going to keep an eye on this, if the game isn’t subscription-based and not too outrageous in terms of cost, I’ll buy it. While I’ll never play an online game the same way as before committments, there is room for distractions.
Posted: 07.02.2008Blizzard Sues WoW Bot Creator
I was intrigued by Slashdot’s story detailing Blizzard’s lawsuit against the maker of MMO Glider, a “grinder” program for World of Warcraft. While I admire the ingenuity behind such products, they end up causing real damage to balance and virtual economy aspects of the MMO.
The decision in the case is forthcoming.
Posted: 03.27.2008Online Virtual Assets
As an online game enthusiast (thankfully reformed), I began to see an interesting trend in online gaming. Online assets making real world wealth.
As an avid Diablo II and later Diablo II LOD player, I invested 100’s of hours of gametime devoted to both bettering my characters and improving the equipment they had. There were many players that had better stuff and more powerful characters than me because they devoted 1,000’s of hours playing the game. It wasn’t hard, I simply had a job and a social life that prevented me from attaining the same level. Then something disturbing happened. Players starting selling their super premium items on eBay, and the Diablo in-game economy and the game itself died as a result.
I eventually landed as a Star Wars Galaxies player. I again invested a great deal of time in developing my character, and I had unlocked my very own jedi in Publish 9 (April 2004 if memory serves). Once again, e-game assets met eBay, and jedi characters were being sold for hundreds of dollars, over $1,000 initially. Later, another trend appeared in SWG, credit farming. Low priced labor was taught how to play SWG, then they would generate credits by playing. Those credits would then be sold on eBay for a profit. The scheme generally involved the use of Chinese or other labor happy with earning $2/day. This also had a devastating effect on the SWG virtual economies and arguably has diminished gameplay.
And now comes this C|net story that highlights a press release that boasts that the virtual world Second Life has spawned a real life millionaire.
It doesn’t really matter if the story is true about somebody making a million dollars by selling online virtual assets. The fact that it is possible is amazing to me.
Posted: 12.05.2006Star Wars Galaxies Emulation
Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has had problems with their Star Wars Galaxies online game franchise. This game should have been a no-brainer as Star Wars remains a strong brand with tremendous fan loyalty. Instead of players being treated to an interesting and immersive experience set within the timeframe presented in the movies, the game has suffered from game play bugs and a severe lack of focus with a story line that suffers from timeline continuity problems. The end result: a game that has lost a significant portion of it's player base in the past year, especially after the introduction of the New Game Enhancements (NGE) in November 2005.
Why mention this? Slashdot has reported that a team has successfully run their first Alpha stage test of a reverse engineered version of Pre-NGE Star Wars Galaxies server software. If this software team is able to withstand the legal barrage SOE will launch at them, this might well be the last nail in the SOE Star Wars Galaxies coffin.
Posted: 06.26.2006