Diablo 3 is excellent if you can think of it as a stand-alone game and not a better Diablo 2 which is what people expected. Diablo 3 gameplay is about killing awesome monsters and having good reflexes while fighting them. Unfortunately, Blizzard HAD to let everybody know that it will have PVP so they would get better initial sales but that's how it works, sorry to the softies but this is an INDUSTRY, these people make the games for themselves, to make a good living and have artistic freedom requires some actions that may seem like selling out if you look at it from the outside in. It's not about Player versus Player and it's not so much about collecting gear because there is no Orgimmar to show it off in. It's about killing the highest caliber monsters and it's not easy with crappy gear. So I like the Auction House because I just want to kill the baddest monsters and have a cool looking character doing it. I don't have time to grind for 20 hours, staying up late, looking at the screen, I'll let somebody else do that for me and then I will give him $1.25 for the sickest Wand in the game and I go make the heavens tremble. So am I doing something wrong by saving 20 hours with $1.25? If it is in fact 'wrong', it will still remain, in fact, 'smart'.
Blizzard prototyped Diablo in space
"Starblo" was playable, would have taken place in deep space, with players able to customize spaceships and travel across the galaxy.
Following the launch of Diablo II, Blizzard Entertainment considered taking the role-playing franchise to outer space. That's according to author David Craddock, who provided an excerpt from his book Stay Awhile and Listen about Blizzard Entertainment to Shacknews.
"Have you ever finished a round of Diablo and said, 'You know, I bet that addictive slot-machine formula would be a blast in a science fiction setting?'" Craddock asked. "Blizzard North thought so, too. After [Diablo II], the company split into separate teams: a Diablo team and a 'We love Diablo but it's time to try something new' team. They started and scrapped more than half a dozen ideas before a few team members suggested making a Diablo clone, but set on a space opera stage."
According to Craddock, this project was nicknamed "Starblo" by developers. Like Diablo II, it was designed to take place over several chapters, but instead of having players travel across a singular world, "Starblo" would have allowed them to customize spaceships and fly them across the galaxy, killing and looting creatures they found along the way.
Blizzard has produced several playable builds of the game, Craddock said, but a final name for the project was never conceived. It is not clear if Blizzard has scrapped this idea entirely.
Deep space is not the only place Blizzard considered for its Diablo series. Earlier this month, Craddock revealed that the studio had conceived a Diablo game for the GameBoy, tentatively titled "Diablo Junior." It bore resemblances to Nintendo's Pokemon series, but was ultimately canceled due to steep production costs associated with handheld games.
Stay Awhile and Listen launches in early 2013, published by Digital Monument Press.
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