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

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.