Aaaaannnnnd now it's over

Diablo: Immortal, Blizzard's egregiously manipulative and exploitative pay-to-win-fest, launched only days ago, and the outraged reaction has been swift and and loud. Blizzard, though, has mostly kept quiet about the game's negative press and near-zero (or, for PC, actually zero) user score, doing nothing more than send out the game's director, Wyatt Cheng, so disseminate some extremely disingenuous double-speak. 

It was also as if they were just hunkering down, waiting for the storm of outrage to blow itself out, and for the posts by the game's whales to start bubbling up: tales of the best places to farm XP, of the best builds for each class, of how to beat a tough early boss, all with nary a mention of the cash shop in sight.

So, how well is that working, you ask?

No, I will not be playing Diablo: Immortal

Has it really been 3½ years since Blizzard first announced this fucking thing?

Way back then, in the pre-plague times, my take on Blizzard's mobile D3 port was pretty simple: If the game was free to play, and if the monetization wasn't too obnoxious, I would give the game a try. I was curious to see what they'd managed to pull off, just not curious enough to spend money on D:I.

A lot has happened between now and then, though. Among other things, Diablo II was Resurrected, to collective yawns. That prompted Blizzard to re-think their plans and bring Immortal to PC, in a fairly desperate attempt to mend fences with the single biggest contingent of remaining Diablo fans, but early reactions to the game's play-to-win monetization were... less than enthusiastic, shall we say.

Now the game is out (on mobile, anyway... the PC version won't launch until tomorrow), and reviews are starting to trickle in. So, what's the verdict?

Activision Blizzard's crisis of systemic abuse finally delivers its first high-profile resignation

Like many, I've been watching the unfolding story of Activision Blizzard's crisis of failed leadership and resulting employee abuse with horrified fascination. From:

• the moment that the details of the court papers were reported out, complete with butt plug business trips and at least one employee harassed to the point of suicide; 
• through the abhorrent, insulting initial responses to the lawsuit from ATVI's leaders, who mostly seemed to think they could bluff their way out of this one; 
• to the apparent reasonableness of Bobby Kotick's official response to the whole mess, which initially tried to at least strike the right tone, although it later turned out to be the announcement that he'd hired union-busting law firm WilmerHale to staunch the bleeding of ATVI's legal liability, and didn't appear to be much concerned with actually improving the situation for employees at all;

ATVI's flailing responses have demonstrated, as clearly as anything could, that the leadership of that company see employees as interchangeable and essentially disposable and easily replaced, and care only for limiting their own costs. That shouldn't have been a surprise; the aforementioned Bobby Kotick just finished pocketing $155 million USD in bonuses following a year in which he also laid off nearly a thousand employees, not because ATVI didn't need people doing those jobs, but rather because they wanted cheaper people doing those jobs.

I've avoided commenting on the situation though, simply because I didn't feel like I really had much to add to the conversation. What does one say? Yes, the details are horrifying. They are also not surprising; women in the video game industry have been complaining about these same problems for a long time now; only specific details were missing, details which we now have. 

It seems to me that ATVI is a fish that's been rotting from the head down for a long time now. The fact that so many more lurid, damning details are still coming out, now that the press has actually started digging, would seem to indicate that there's basically no end of this insanity. Seriously, guys, a Cosby Suite? One company demanded a Misogyny Tax before doing business with you, and told you why, and had you barred from Black Hat, and you still didn't see any reason to actually take a real look at yourselves until now?

And the failures of leadership just keep coming! Fran Townsend, now billed as "Activision Blizzard's Torture Apologist Executive," has responded to Bobby Kotick's promise that leadership were listening to employees by blocking those same employees on Twitter. Not a good look.

And so, with all of this swirling, and with ATVI's share price dropping by 12% and counting in less than a month, the next thing that I expected to see was for rats to start fleeing this obviously sinking ship. It's too late for them to avoid having the stench of this follow them to other gigs; even people like Mike Morhaime and Chris Metzen, who'd left ATVI before the scandal broke, have seen their legacy indelibly tarnished by the failures of their own leadership here; after all, most of the behaviour described in those court filings happened while they were in charge. 

But still, I was waiting for someone with a greater sense of shame than Fran, or maybe just less intestinal fortitude, to decide that it was time to "spend more time with family," or to "pursue new opportunities," or some similarly meaningless PR pablum phrase. The only remaining mystery was: which rat would flee the sinking ship first?

Well, today we have the answer to that question, and it turns out to be no less a person than Blizzard president J. Allen Brack. Yikes.

From Blizzard.com's own announcement:

Starting today, J. Allen Brack will be stepping down as the leader of the studio, and Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will co-lead Blizzard moving forward [...] The following is a message from J. Allen Brack:

“I am confident that Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will provide the leadership Blizzard needs to realize its full potential and will accelerate the pace of change. I anticipate they will do so with passion and enthusiasm and that they can be trusted to lead with the highest levels of integrity and commitment to the components of our culture that make Blizzard so special.”

There's also a lot of investor-friendly boilerplate about how Oneal and Ybarra are totally qualified to do this job, and how they'll do a great job, so there's no reason at all for shareholders to be taken aback by the fact that Blizzard's president resigned suddenly with immediate effect in the midst of a leadership crisis; you can read the full text there if you like. We'll "hear more from Jen and Mike soon," apparently, and I for one can't wait to hear how they plan to set about "rebuilding [our] trust."

But for the moment, let's ignore them, and focus on the fleeing rat du jour. Brack is not, apparently, being fired for having done a terrible job leading Blizzard, although he would appear to have done a terrible job leading Blizzard. He's not resigning to take responsibility for his failures to ensure that Blizzard employees had a safe and inclusive place in which to work, although he's clearly failed on that front, too. No, according to reporting from Jason Schreier, Brack is leaving to "pursue new opportunities," as per an internal email announcing his departure. Not an email from Brack, though; the email came from Daniel Alegre, who is apparently Activision Blizzard's president (Brack was only Blizzard's president).

As Schrier points out, it's noteworthy that Oneal and Ybarra are designated as "co-leaders" of Blizzard, not "co-presidents" of Blizzard. Apparently, they've been given a typically corporate bullshit opportunity to take on more responsibility, but without actually having any more authority, or more pay, or even proper titles, for their trouble. It's pretty clear that "Bobby" will be the one issuing marching orders to his new Blizzard hench-people. I am not sanguine about the possibility of meaningful reform happening, but I suppose we'll see.

The other noteworthy detail here? Brack hasn't, apparently, penned or posted a proper farewell letter to Blizzard's employees, or even Blizzard's fans, the way Morhaime and Metzen both did when they left. I wonder why that might be?

One thing seems clear. WilmerHale have a row to hoe if they're to stop the bleeding here. Because Activision Blizzard's ongoing scandal has become exactly the type of scandal that someone embroiled in the scandal hates to see: one being kept alive, and in the headlines, by a steady drip-feed of new, lurid, details.

Drip. Cosby Suite. Drip. Misogyny tax. Drip. Blizzard's president suddenly resigns, but without actually speaking about the scandal in his resignation statement, and without bidding a proper farewell to Blizzard employees and fans. Drip, drip, drip.

UPDATED: 

Activision Blizzard's"Senior People Officer," Jesse Meschuk, has also stepped down. As reported by Bloomberg:

A human-resources executive, Jesse Meschuk, also left the company this week, according to an Activision Blizzard spokesperson. Meschuk was the senior people officer at Blizzard and the unit’s top HR representative.

There are no specific details as to exactly when or why Meschuk stepped down, and no statement was issued at the time, but it appears that Meschuk may actually have beaten Brack out the door. 

Drip, drip, drip...

The loot box fallout keeps on falling, hitting everyone... except EA.

Just days after the Netherlands called on other EU nations to join with them in regulating gacha mechanics in videogames, Belgium has stepped up to do just that. And how. From Kotaku:

Loot boxes in FIFA 18, Overwatch, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive are now illegal in Belgium, with the country’s legislators declaring today that if the games’ publishers don’t remove the offending microtransactions, people behind the games could face fines and even time behind bars.

As reported by Eurogamer, Belgium minister of justice Koen Greens said in a statement that the loot boxes in these games were in violation of the country’s gaming legislation and thus the companies selling them are subject to criminal punishment, including fines of up to 800,000 euros ($974,605) and prison sentences. This determination was made after Belgium’s Gaming Commission spent several months reviewing how loot boxes operated in these games and others following the controversy surrounding Star Wars: Battlefront 2’s microtransactions.

[...]

Neither Overwatch publisher Blizzard nor CS:GO publisher Valve immediately responded to requests for comment.

Ironically, EA and SW:BF2 will avoid Belgian censure, "since at the time of the survey, EA had temporarily removed microtransactions from the game." MTs have since been added back into SW:BF2, but they're not tied to gambling mechanics anymore, and therefore don't break Belgian law. Which means that EA, having thoroughly shit the loot box bed, have completely ruined the fun for everybody else while dodging the fines and other penalties. Huzzah!

Still, if you were wondering if the loot box furor had died down... it hasn't. At all. And I have a feeling that it will be a long, long time before AAA videogame publishers attempt this particular trick again.

The Pandering continues...

If you were wondering which was actually the most successful game of Blizzard's Diablo line, consider this: after years of claiming that Diablo III was a YUGE success, Blizzard has apparently abandoned development on D3 almost completely, with only one further DLC (the Necromancer class) planned, and nothing else in the pipeline. Diablo II, meanwhile, appears to be getting a high-def remaster.

From GameRant:

Without a doubt, the Diablo franchise is one of the most revered series to ever be released thanks to its populous fan base that is so dedicated to the titles, that some have even made a theme wedding revolving around the art, characters, and design style of the releases. With this being the case, long-time followers and even newbies to the action-RPG will likely rejoice to learn that a job listing on Blizzard’s website points to the possibility of there being a remaster for Diablo 2 in the works.

The posting on the publisher and developer’s jobs page is advertising a “Lead Software Engineer, Engine” role and it insinuates that not only is Diablo 2 seemingly getting an HD upgrade, but also a Warcraft 3 remaster is in the cards as well. The open position originally alluded to these titles getting enhanced versions, but it has since been changed. Thanks to the screenshot from Blizzplanet below, however, fans can see that the following quote was at first used as a means to get folks to apply prior to being scrubbed and relisted as an “unannounced project.”

The job posting itself looks like this:



I've said it before, and I'll say it again: D3 is dead, and Blizzard knows it. Their best hope for resuscitating the Diablo franchise involves pandering to the same D1 & D2 fans that they spent years talking alienating, but they've been trying to have their cake and eat it: pretending that D3 was still a popular goldmine, while simultaneously pandering to D2 fans with Kanai's Cube, the Darkening of Tristram event, and even the classes they've added to the game, starting with almost-the-Paladin, and culminating with straight-up-the-Necromancer.

Well, the pretense seems to be finally nearing its end. With a straight-up remaster of D2 in the works, and nothing much in production for D3, it sure looks like Blizzard is squarely aiming their nostalgia cannons at D2 fans in an effort to win them back, while simply letting D3 lie fallow.

The problem? After having spent years telling D2 fans that they needed to let it go and move on, most of them actually have let it go, and moved on, mostly to competitors' games like Grim Dawn and Path of Exile. Having moved on to other, better games, from developers that didn't spend years shitting on them, I'm not sure that D2 fans actually have whole lot of nostalgia left for Blizzard to tap into.

Time will tell, I suppose, but I'll tell you for nothing that I'm neither excited nor surprised by the news that Blizzard is taking the obvious next step with their Diablo franchise. It's just a little too little, and much too late, for me to actually give a shit.

#D3isdeadandBlizardknowit
#xisdeadandtheyknowit

How to kill a golden goose, the Blizzard way

A while back, I deleted my Battle.Net account, and all my Blizzard game licenses with it. I was done with Blizzard's bullshit, and had no intention of ever going back, and certainly no intention of ever spending money on another Blizzard product. There was still one Blizzard game that I kept an eye on, though, one game which looked to be something that might potentially lure even a die-hard downer like me back into Blizzard's orbit.

That game, of course, was Hearthstone.

Free to play, or at least free to try, Hearthstone was a real departure from the rest of Blizzard's stable of games. While their other franchises seemed to be locked into the AAA death spiral of searching for new ways to extract increasing amounts of revenue from diminishing player bases, the Hearthstone team seemed to be keenly aware that a game like theirs can only thrive if it keeps attracting new players. The Whispers of the Old Gods expansion, in particular, gave every player at least one of the set's fun legendary cards to play with, along with a handful of essential support cards for that legendary, and then strung together a series of "free pack" reward quests for those players who actually decided to play the game afterwards. And it was fun, like really fun; fun enough that I actually bought a few Hearthstone packs just to show my appreciation.

That was before I deleted my account information, of course, but I'll admit that I kept an eye on Hearthstone anyway, just to see if Blizzard managed to keep it on this same course. Maybe, I thought, they'll convince me to buy back in, at least for this one game.

I needn't have bothered, though, because Blizzard have done nothing since WotOG that hasn't served to screw up the new player experience. And results have been predictable; the game's active player population has dropped sharply, fewer new players are entering the community, and the players who are still around are spending less. F2P games like Hearthstone really do need to keep luring in new players; Hearthstone isn't doing that anymore, and revenues are down as a result.

Blizzard's solution? Why, to make it even harder for new players to get into the game, of course. How AAA of them!

From The Independent:

With Journey to Un’Goro, Blizzard has released their first back-to-back Expansion. Importantly, this happened following a price hike as well, two packs previously costing £1.99 as opposed to £2.99. These two factors have led to outrage among Hearthstone fans.

A price hike was always going to cause issues; who wants to spend more money on the same product? Releasing back-to-back expansions is a less obvious problem, but something that has affected players quite deeply. For an extended period of time, we’ve been purchasing packs with no guarantee of a card they actually want. Adventures gave stability — core cards every player could use — and often form deck archetypes.

[...] Singular cards have never dominated deck archetypes as heavily as with the introduction of Legendary Quests, a new card-type singular to Un’Goro. These cards require you to build decks around them and will no doubt help define this year’s meta. However, to gain a Quest — like with all Legendaries — you need to be very lucky with your card openings, spending huge amounts of money.

The argument can be made that Hearthstone requires you to eventually earn these cards as time goes on. But, considering there are nine of these Quests, and each is basically a requirement for the majority of new deck archetypes, these have become almost essential additions to your collection.

By introducing so many Legendary-but-pretty-much-necessary cards, Hearthstone now commands you spend your savings to make the most of the game. We’re not even talking about £49.99 you would spend on an AAA game — that would likely only get you one of the Quests. Plus, in four months when another expansion is released, you’ll need to spend the same amount again to stay on top.

These Quests should probably been released differently. Perhaps through an Adventure-like system where you complete challenges to win them, therefore not forcing your wallet to empty itself unnecessarily. Whatever the case, Hearthstone currently feels like a huge cash grab when it hasn’t before, and that’s putting off casual players like me.

This is looking more and more like the consensus opinion, too. Take Polygon:

WHY SO STINGY, BLIZZARD?

While the issue of quests is specific to the Journey to Un’Goro expansion, the question of how much value packs provide (and how frequently) is a much bigger question that players have struggled with for a long time now.

Popular Hearthstone streamer Kripparian lays out the problems elegantly in the video above [link]. He makes a living off of playing and making videos about this game. He played Journey to Un’Goro for 17 hours on the day it launched and opened over 1,100 packs on stream, so obviously he’s not concerned about missing cards.

But Kripp also plays others digital cards games, and he’s noticed a clear trend: Every other major digital card game is much more willing to provide players with free packs, doling them out as daily login rewards, event celebrations or as a gift for even the briefest of server problems.

Blizzard, by comparison, is downright miserly. When the developer announced the details of Hearthstone entering the Year of the Mammoth, I praised the news that the game would implement daily login rewards for the first time ever. In addition to the regular quest rewards, players could get gold, dust and even full packs just for logging in each day.

It was a big, smart step forward for the game. Unfortunately, it was also short-lived. The login rewards were only offered for a couple of weeks, as part of the celebration of the Year of the Mammoth beginning. As of the launch of Journey to Un’Goro, they are no longer in the game.

There’s no easy fix to the issues Hearthstone is facing, but I have no doubt that Blizzard needs to fix them. The game certainly isn’t at any immediate risk of failing. As of last year, it had reached a milestone of 50 million players. But to keep that number climbing, it needs to pull in new players.

Some people have pretty definite ideas on how Blizzard can fix some of these issues, and do so pretty much immediately -- por ejemplo, Paul Tassi at Forbes:

'Hearthstone' Should Dump 50 Free Un'goro Packs On Every Player (Seriously)

I’ve been thinking a lot about Hearthstone this week in the wake of the Un’goro expansion. It’s a game that I’ve sunk a lot of time and money into, with more hours played than anything else in my library other than say, Destiny or Diablo 3 these past few years.

Yet it’s hard to feel like the game isn’t in a bit of a downward spiral as of late. Revenue has been falling pretty sharply on mobile, and a bit on the desktop version as well, which has led Blizzard to try and extract more and more money out of Hearthstone to compensate. Now, that’s led us to a point where Adventures no longer exist, and old drop rates and duplicates now feel oppressive due to the fact that there’s an extra expansion per year, and this latest one is designed around must-have legendaries that are hard to get.

My solution? Blizzard should dump 50 free Un’goro packs on every player, full stop.

This is not me saying “Blizz messed up, give us free stuff plz.” Rather, I genuinely believe this is the kind of gesture that Blizzard needs to consider for its fans, maybe for this expansion especially, yes, but possibly for all future expansions going forward, for the sake of the overall health of the game.

For what it's worth, I think Tassi and Kripparrian are onto something, here. Rather than doing the AAA-standard thing of strangling your player base by extracting as much money as possible while giving back as little as you think you can get away with, Blizzard should really look into how much they can afford to give away, and trust that the benefits of that, in the form of new and returning players that add to the enjoyment of the game even for their regular players, and who might even spend some more money, too. Sadly, Blizzard seem to only care about pulling as much money as possible out of their remaining "whales," even if it harms the long-term prospect of the game.

I am not surprised to see Blizzard going down this road; there's a reason why I cancelled my account, after all. I have, however, still managed to be slightly disappointed. Hearthstone looks like a potentially fun game; it's a real shame that Blizzard's corporate overlords seem so intent on spoiling it. There's nothing inherently wrong with the Free2Play business model; I'm still a long-time and active Path of Exile player, after all. But there is a point at which your game stops feeling like it's F2P, and starts feeling like it's Pay2Win, and Hearthstone would seem to have strayed a long way into P2W territory, apparently with no idea how to find their way back... or any desire to do so.

GG, Blizzard. GG.

The infinite value of player-created content

Yes, yes, I know... It's probably an issue for me, but I'm still coming across stuff on the Internet that makes me think of Diablo III... even when it's not directly about D3.

Por ejemplo, this article at Kotaku:

Overwatch’s PTR just got a bunch of new custom game options, and people are using them in responsible, measured ways to— just kidding. They’re turning the game into a dang Bugs Bunny cartoon.

The new custom game options allow players to boost movement speed, remove cooldowns, change team sizes, ban heroes, and alter all sorts of other values. That’s already resulted in a handful of cool ideas. Also, a whole lot of chaos.

And, boy oh boy, are they ever not kidding. Predator mode, Zombie mode, a Pro Genji Simulator, Juggernaut mode, various Counter-Strike themed maps, Lucio Racing, and on, and on, and on.

All this, and the new custom options have only been live on the PTR for a couple days. I imagine things will only spiral further out of control once the server browser hits live servers.

This should be a lesson to every game developer out there. The larger population of gamers includes a large number of creative, and often technically-savvy, people, who apparently cannot wait to add content, and thus value, to your game. Give them the option to create custom games, or maps, or mods, and the free content will flow; give them an easy way to showcase their creations for other players, and you can extend the lifespan of your game by years, all at zero cost to you. Even the mod tools don't cost anything, since they're probably the same ones you used to make the game's official content in the first place.

The other option, of course, is to lock down your game, insisting on rigid control over every aspect of the experience, and nerfing the shit out of any creative fun way the players find to play your game that isn't the core experience you'd intended. Basically, the approach taken by Diablo III, whose players spent years begging for the ability to mod the game... before losing interest and leaving because Blizzard refused to even discuss the possibility.

The kicker here? Overwatch and Diablo III are both Blizzard games. As is StarCraft II, a game with best-in-class modding capabilities and an Arcade showcase that makes finding them super-simple. SC2's Arcade is available with free editions of the game, too, meaning that you can play all the SC2 mods you want without spending a cent... including basically-complete versions of Diablo and Diablo II. Yes, you read that right... you can play fan-crafted HD "remakes" of D1 and D2 in the SC2 Arcade, but not as D3 mods.

D3, of course, is basically moribund, with Blizzard planning only one new class (as paid DLC) and no other new content that we know of, and players openly wondering whether Blizzard is getting ready to abandon the game entirely, while Overwatch is inspiring a flood of creative player-created content, even before the custom game functionality goes live. The two situations, both in games from the same publisher, couldn't be more different; it's actually hard to believe that both games were made by the same company. I don't think it's a coincidence that the vibrant, thriving game is the one whose dev team appreciates and encourages the creativity of its players, while the team that's taken the opposite approach from the very beginning is the one that's struggling to sustain player engagement.

Learn the lesson, devs. Unleash the creativity of your players; give them toys to play with, and an unstructured place to play, and you can reap the rewards of other people's creativity and passion for years. The alternative is for you to maintain the flow of content by yourselves... which, while certainly possible, it a lot harder and more expensive to do.

BlizzCon cometh... whoopity do...

I've blogged before about my Diablo III experience, but just in case I wasn't clear enough before, let me state this explicitly: I believe that D3 is shit.

It's very glossy, highly-polished shit, to be sure, all glossy and kinda pretty from a sufficient distance, but if you get close enough to smell what it's made of... well, there's just no mistaking what it's made of:

• of D3's four primary attributes, two are mechanically identical to each other, a third is mechanically equivalent to the first two, and the fourth (Vit) goes up at the same rate for all classes as they level, meaning that it may as well not exist, either;
• of D3's many, many skills, most are so boring and useless as to see no use at all; the only ones that get used are those with 6-piece sets, or set-compatible legendary items, to support them;
• breaking the game's attribute system actually broke its combat mechanics, creating a "hit box" problem which gets worse as characters' move speed increases, which is (at least partly) why characters' move speed bonus is capped at 25%;
• breaking D3's attribute system broke its itemization, too, resulting in a game where every character, regardless of class, uses exactly the same gear, where the gear is mostly boring and interchangeable, and where melee characters need 30% of extra damage reduction to be viable;
• gutting the game's RPG systems and putting all of its gameplay into the loot system resulted in a game where short-circuiting the loot hunt is game-killing, according to Blizzard themselves, and yet also essential, which is why they added Kanai's Cube (and its multiple legendary-yielding formulae), and eventually Haedrig's Gift (which just gifts you with a 6-piece set if you play the latest season);
• leveling a new character is so trivialized that it's possible to reach the level cap in just 33 seconds; 
• the story is so lacklustre that Reaper of Souls added an entirely separate game mode in which players don't have to interact with the story at all; 
• even in that mode, bounties are so boring that people only run them when they need the crafting mats that you can't get any other way, and rifts are only run to obtain greater rift keystones, resulting in an expansion that actually contracted the experience, leaving all of the remaining active player base doing one thing, and only one thing, which is running grifts over and over.

Do I need to go on? Because I can. You know I can.

Most of these issues have been issues since the game launched in May of 2012; four-plus years of additional development have added polish and gloss, but haven't actually fixed the game, since the developers have been either unable or unwilling to admit that the game's problems all have their roots in these core design flaws. D3 is a game which feels very fluid, thanks to some stellar character animation work, and which is neurologically stimulating, thanks to glossy visuals full of flashing lights, bright colours, frantic motion, and constant chiming sounds, but it's pretty and stimulating in exactly the same way slot machines are stimulating; and, like a slot machine, it's designed to be addictive without being engaging at all.

That's why the Reaper of Souls expansion sold so poorly that Blizzard won't talk about its sales numbers, and redefined the term "Reaper of Souls" at the end of RoS's release quarter to mean all basic game licenses going back to the base game's launch in May of 2012. It's why Blizzard quietly stopped telling Diablo II fans to take off their "rose-tinted glasses," and started talking up their love of the Diablo legacy at BlizzCon 2015. It's why they started nakedly pandering to Diablo II fans with features like Kanai's Cube, which was literally pitched as being reminiscent of the older game:

Those who played Diablo II might remember the Horadric Cube, a unique device which allowed you to combine items. Useful as it was, it was easily surpassed in power by the item from which it originated, Kanai’s Cube. In Patch 2.3.0, players will be able to discover this powerful ancient relic and utilize its incredible potential, including the ability to break down Legendary items and equip their special effects as passive skills (which are separate from your other passive skills), convert crafting materials from one type to another, and so much more.

Diablo III is a highly polished turd, a glossy, smelly mess which sells millions of units whenever launched in a new market, but which totally fails to retain those players. Blizzard desperately needs to bring those older Diablo fans back into the fold, but can't just admit that their latest Diablo game is crap, or apologize to Diablo II fans for having spent years talking smack to and about them.

So, if you were wondering why Blizzard is leaked the concept art this week for a new Necromancer class that could be coming to D3... well, now you know why.

Of all the recent BlizzCon Diablo rumours, this is the one that I believe, simply because it's exactly the kind of desperate, pandering bullshit that Blizzard have been doing for years, trying to convince Diablo II fans to come back to Diablo III (and buy its expansion pack) in spite of the fact that D3 is simply an inferior game, in spite of its gloss and polish.

D3's problem is not that it lacks a Necromancer class; its issues are all the result of terrible design decisions which continue to cripple the game from its core, and a terrible story that even Blizzard themselves would rather you not think about anymore. I know, there are some active D3 players who have been basically begging Blizzard for years to add a Necromancer class to the game, and I'm sure they'll get some enjoyment from playing with it, but even Necromancers can't raise D3 from the dead. And when Blizzard eventually add the Druid class (which you'd better believe is next on the list), it will not shape-shift D3 from a shit game into a good one.

So, it's the wee hours before BlizzCon, but I'm not excited. Why would I be? More than anything else, the one and only thing that I want from Blizzard this BlizzCon is closure... which I'm not going to get, because they're still trying to sell their expansion-which-contracts-the-game-experience pack to me. 

D2 fans are not going to get an apology from Blizzard for having fucked up Diablo so badly, or for years of belittling and insulting us when we complained about their terrible product, or about the broken state in which it launched. Instead, we're going to get a broken, boring, bastardized D3 version of a popular D2 class in a desperate attempt to pander to exactly the same nostalgia that Blizzard spent years mocking us for.

Oh, and a pre-recorded video of Dave Brevik helping to celebrate Diablo's 20-year anniversary... pre-recorded because he's overseas, helping Grinding Gear Games launch Path of Exile in China, a game that he describes as pushing the ARPG genre "to new heights" in exactly the way that D3 didn't. GG.

BlizzCon 2016 starts today, and Path of Exile is running a three-day race event, with thirty-four races in three days. I think I'll do that instead.

Diablo fans still holding their breath for a big BlizzCon announcement

Q: Why? 

A: Because they're gluttons for punishment. That's why.

Exhibit 1, from Digital Trends:

World of Warcraft: Legion just released to critical acclaim and Overwatch continues to be the best competitive game of 2016, but Blizzard’s loyalists are hoping that another popular franchise, Diablo, will also be getting some love this year. For a few hopeful fans, this could mean a full-fledged fourth game.

The rumor mill and speculation came after Blizzard North co-founder David Brevik tweeted that he was “proud to be the adviser for the game that pushes this genre [dungeon crawlers] to new heights.”

...

So, just what do these posts mean for the future of Diablo? According to Brevik, absolutely nothing. About a day after his previous tweet was posted, he released an update.

"There has been a lot of speculation (and hope), but I’m not working on the Diablo franchise currently or in the near future,” Brevik says.

Roper clarified on his account, as well, writing that it would “be an honor” to come back to Blizzard to develop a fourth game but that the stories were just rumors.

And don't forget the tetrahedral die (a "d4," in pen & paper RPG parlance) that came in BlizzCon goodie bags, and was (mis)printed so that one set of results reads "1-1-4" rather than the usual "1-1-1" -- an unmistakable reference to Nov. 4th, i.e. the opening day of BlizzCon (unless, of course, you know something about the printing of such dice, which actually get misprinted in exactly this kind of way with some regularity).

Just forget entirely the fact that the Diablo series didn't have a director until about five minutes ago (assuming they've actually hired one, that is, and not just stopped looking -- Blizzard haven't actually announced anything yet), or the fact that anonymous sources inside the company are leaking about D4 being dead, with the next Diablo project possibly being a mobile game of sort, or the fact that Diablo's booth at BlizzCon is, once again, the same size as the nearest washroom.

Brevik visited Blizzard! Surely that must mean something! Except that Brevik himself says otherwise...

These are the knots that Diablo fans have been tying themselves into for months, now, and the speculation seems to be approaching something of a fever pitch as BlizzCon draws ever nearer. And, for a wonder, Blizzard themselves are almost entirely blameless. They're not hyping anything; this time, fans are hyping themselves, aided and abetted by exploitative click-bait articles like Digital Trends'.

Gamespot did a somewhat better job, bluntly stating that "at this point, there's little reason to get excited yet," and admitting that there's been "no official indication about what the future of the Diablo series holds," but even Gamespot go on to assert that "its success guarantees it isn't going anywhere," concluding by promising to "report back with details of that event, as well as any other possible teases that emerge in the meantime." Really, nothing to see here, Diablo fans, but stay tuned anyway!

I wish that these people would just stop, already. The only new morsel of information here is a wee bit of something about Dave Brevik that was immediately debunked by Brevik himself. Diablo fans are already setting themselves up for yet another crushing disappointment -- they really don't need any help with that.

UPDATE: Not only are Brevik and Roper not advising Blizzard on another Diablo project, Brevik has actually joined rival Grinding Gear Games to consult on the upcoming launch of Path of Exile in China.

From Diabloii.net:

We now know what game David Brevik is advising on, he’s joining the Grinding Gear Games Path of Exile team in an advisory role and will help them with their launch in China.

The news comes via a press release put out by Tencent addressing Chinese Path of Exile players and news that both Chris Wilson and David Brevik will be heading to China to meet fans.

Grinding Gear’s CEO Chris Wilson confirmed the appointment and told Diabloii.Net, “David is an advisor, primarily for our launch in mainland China, but we hope to learn from his experience as much as we can over the coming months.”

The search is now on for the next Diablo-related breadcrumb that can be turned into a click-bait lede and draw some views over the next two weeks. Man, BlizzCon can't get over with soon enough...

Diablo III @ BlizzCon 2016

For months now, fan forums and games media sites have speculated breathlessly about what Blizzard might announce at the upcoming BlizzCon for their Diablo franchise. The gist of all the speculation, apparently based on a single tweet and a misprinted four-side die, is that some sort of announcement was coming, and it would be "awesome" -- whether it was a sequel, or a prequel, or a 2nd expansion, or maybe a mobile game, there would definitely be something announced in November. Surely Blizzard aren't about to let a third BlizzCon go by with nothing substantive to show their Diablo fanbase. Right?

Wrong. At least, so say Blizzard themselves.

From Battle.Net:

From all over the world, members of our community will band together to invade the halls of the Anaheim Convention Center. Whether you’re planning to be there in person or tuning in at home with the Virtual Ticket, here’s what intrepid Diablo fans can expect at BlizzCon 2016.

Diablo 20th Anniversary Panel
Get the inside scoop on what’s in store for Diablo III! Join us as Lead Designer Kevin Martens, Senior Game Designer Wyatt Cheng, Lead VFX Artist Julian Love, and Art Director John Mueller share the gritty details on the celebration plans that lie ahead for all our eager nephalem.

• What: A retrospective on Diablo’s 20-year legacy and first look into upcoming content.
• When: Friday, November 4 from 5:00 to 5:45 p.m. PDT

Diablo III Dev Talk and Q&A
Get the inside scoop and ask your burning questions about Diablo III! Join us as Lead Designer Kevin Martens, Senior Game Designer Wyatt Cheng, Senior Game Designer Adam Puhl, Senior Game Designer Joe Shely, and Senior Game Designer Travis Day review upcoming content and features for Diablo III and take live questions from the audience.

• What: A deep-dive and Q&A on the content and features headed to Diablo III.
• When: Saturday, November 5 from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PDT

Darkmoon Faire: Quick Talks
Similar to the miniature panel-like chats we had last year at the Slaughtered Calf Inn, quick talks are making a return at this year’s Darkmoon Faire! Join our developers as they share insider details about their most passionate Diablo projects and hang out after to chat about your favorite Diablo memories.

• What: A series of quick talks from our developers on various aspects of Diablo III.
• When: Friday, November 4 at 1:30 p.m. PDT and Saturday, November 5 at 12:30 p.m PDT

This should look very familiar to Diablo fans, since it's basically the same lineup of events from BlizzCon 2015, where they had one panel (which opened with 20 minutes of the D3 devs enthusing about their love of Diablo's "legacy"), an announcement of patch 2.4's content (mention of new D3 content is notably absent in 2016's announced events), and the Slaughtered Calf Inn, a space smaller than the nearest washroom and located behind the face-painting booth, where players could chat informally with the D3 dev team (most of whom have now either left D3, or left Blizzard entirely). 2016's offerings appear to be slightly more formal than the Slaughtered Calf Inn, but no more substantive; in fact, if anything, there's less substance on offer.

In 2016, Diablo fans will get 45 minutes in which Blizzard will try to convince them that they really did love the Blizzard North Diablo games, 1 hour in which they'll answer (some) questions about the current state of the game, and a series of "quick talks" in which the remaining D3 devs will talk about other Blizzard games, and reminisce about their time at Blizzard, generally.

That's it. That's all Diablo fans are going to get, this BlizzCon. And, yes, the Diablo area is, once again, the same size as the nearest washroom. To say that Diablo fans are underwhelmed would be something of an understatement.

I wish I could say that I was surprised, but I'm not.

‘Diablo 4’ Release Date: Major Announcement at BlizzCon 2016!!!!

Or... not. Because Blizzard haven't announced anything at all, yet.

I've been seeing articles like this one, from GameNGuide, popping up every few days for a few weeks now:

‘Diablo 4’ Release Date, News & Update: Major Announcement at BlizzCon 2016; New Game Or Expansion Coming?

BlizzCon is set to happen on Nov. 4 and 5, 2016 in Anaheim, California, and fans are already excited for big news. Blizzard Entertainment previously shared that they have a huge announcement to make, which many believe involves "Diablo 4," among others.

iTechPost reported that "Diablo 4" fans were dismayed when Blizzard did not have any fresh details about the franchise at Gamescom in August 2016. Many thought that the game company may have saved big news and updates for their own major event - BlizzCon 2016. The "Diablo" official Twitter account stated that they have something great to reveal in 2016.

Some "Diablo" fans speculated that Blizzard may be preparing an enhanced version of "Diablo II" or "StarCraft." There are rumors that Blizzard might remake either of the two hit titles to suit current platforms. Others opined that the game creator might feature a prequel, sequel reboot or expansion for "Diablo III." Others shared that there might be a mobile "Diablo" game. The rest are hoping that the company will introduce "Diablo IV" soon.

In another iTechPost report, there has yet to be a suitable replacement for "Diablo" game director Josh Mosquiera. Blizzard is reportedly looking for more staff members to work on the "Diablo 4." There are talks that senior designer Wyatt Chang might replace George Musketeer as game director, although he will continue some of the work already commenced. Even if "Diablo 4" is already in the works, it will take a while to complete, so an announcement about a "Diablo II" remake or "Diablo 3" expansion seems more likely to arrive at BlizzCon 2016.

For those counting, these are the actual facts in this excerpt:

1. BlizzCon is indeed set to happen on Nov. 4th and 5th;
2. there are indeed many rumours and much speculation flying around Diablo fan sites, forums, and Reddit about what Blizzard might announce at BlizzCon about Diablo, if anything; and
3. iTechPost has indeed posted multiple articles filled with those rumours and speculations.

That's it. Speculation aside, Blizzard haven't announced who the next game director of Diablo will be; George Musketeer was never actually announced as Diablo's game director by Blizzard, and there's no evidence that he was replaced as such, by Wyatt Cheng or anyone else. All the older "Diablo team" job listings have vanished, and new ones have been posted, suggesting that some folks were hired and that they're hiring more, but right now, that's all we know for sure.

Full disclosure: My journey with Blizzard's Diablo franchise

BlizzCon is coming, and once again, Diablo fans seem to be cranking up their very own hype machines, building their own expectations up to a fever pitch that Blizzard can never satisfy. This is actually the kind of hype that I meant to be writing about when I started this blog, and I am going to talk about it, but there's something I need to talk about first.

First, I'm going to talk about why I loved Blizzard's Diablo franchise... and why I consider Diablo III to be one of the worst consumer experiences I've had, ever. Yes, kids, it's story time, a kind of full-disclosure exercise that will put all my biases on full display for later reference. If you're not interested, by all means skip this one.

If you are interested, though, then by all means... read on.