Diablo III - Development Story
Автор: TOPCommander#1945
I am trying to understand what went wrong with Diablo III.
Is this sequence more or less correct?
1.
Game Director is hired as the Director for Diablo III. Game Director has an RTS background, and has never created an ARPG before, but somehow gets the job after the interview. Sources told me he said "When D2 launched, I took the day off, sent my wife and the kids away on vacation, and played D2 for two days, while eating pizza", and then Blizzard said "You're Hired".
2.
Game Director not having an ARPG background, removes all ARPG features from the planned D3 Roadmap document. He directs a game where all you do literally boils down to killing monsters and then picking up dropped items. That's it.
Removes quests with permanent character boosting rewards
Removes Skill-Trees
Removes Runes because he could not find or trade for HRs in D2
Removes Runewords because there are no more Runes
Removes Charms because they "cluttered" his inventory
simplifies and Reduces Affixes from 100+ Affixes to 30+ because affixes in D2 confused him as a player
Turns White items into useless objects
Turns Grey items into useless objects
Creates Magic, Rare, and Gold-Colored Items, and gives all items identical chances with the same affixes. Adds special Text to Gold-Colored Items.
Goes on to reduce players to 4 and reduce usable skills to 6 to get the guy from the console department off his back
Calls in Special-Task-Force-Meeting to discuss what kind of BS story to deliver to the public on his decision about reducing players to 4 and skills to 6 (which coincides with 6 usable buttons on console-controllers, and max players on consoles using a single-screen)
After a 3-Hour ultra-productive meeting decides to go with "6 Skills are more than enough and most people did not need more than that in D2 anyways." As well as "After long internal testing, we came to the conclusion that 4 players is the perfect number, and more players would fill the screen with too many effects"
Goes to the Effect Animators the next day and tells them to ensure that physical classes now also deal fire, cold, lightning, and poison damage. Tells them to make sure that spell effects can be plenty even when it triggers epilepsy in a handful of people
High-Five's Key People on the D3 team every morning on Job-Well-Done
3.
WOW Art-Team comes in to create art for Diablo III and start drawing and designing artwork like yesterday, when they worked on WOW. No one dares to ask questions, because WOW is a sales-monster and makes Blizzard Billionaires. Everyone keeps their mouth shut. WOW-Art must be a no brainer to also use it for Diablo
4.
D3 is announced and Diablo fans that have been playing D2 for the past decade are shocked and intrigued to hear D3 is coming. Community becomes critical of the Art-Direction. Blizzard defends "We know what we do, trust us".
5.
D3 Beta launches, Community voices distaste about Art-Direction and Itemization. Blizzard defends "We know what we do, trust us", "This is just the beta, you will be blown away when it launches".
Devs decide to double down by working on a "Pony Level" in a colorful map which triggers epilepsy in certain people. Game Director imagines how the Pony Level will go down in history as the best easter-egg to have ever seen the light of day.
6.
D3 launches. Multi-Billion-Dollar Gaming-Developer-Behemoth underestimates how many people will try to play the game when it launches at midnight, despite knowing the pre-sales, and have a good idea on the launch-day sales. Not enough servers are ready to take the load. Error 37. Long-Term-Image-Damage of catastrophic proportions for the Diablo franchise and Blizzard in general.
7.
People that can log in, play the game, but must create new games to switch acts, or even move between waypoints within the same act. People unlock Skills as they level up, but cannot boost the skills of their choice like they used to in D2 through skill-points. Players are confused. people continue to play through Normal, Nightmare, and Hell, and realize Cain is killed by butterfly and are mad.
8.
People reach level 60 and realize thats max-level and not 99. People check quest-log for quests that give various permanent character perks like in D2, but there are none. People get mad again.
9.
Players finish Hell difficulty and realize Inferno is 10000% harder than Hell difficulty. Players continue to play Hell difficulty because Inferno is too hard. People realize after few days that Items needed for Inferno do not drop outside inferno difficulty. People realize Blizzard did not test the transition from Hell to Inferno difficulty during alpha testing. People check youtube videos that show "chest-runs" in inferno, that exploit the annoying "check-point" mechanic. People run chests in inferno and get rich by selling Blue and Yellow items on the AH to 90% of the player base that did not know about chest runs. 90% demographic gets frustrated due to repair cost and being broke in gold-terms, pays real money to get these items. Blizzard Nerfs Chest runs. People start leaving D3. Already very poor Metacritic user-ratings receive final meltdown.
10.
People find very rare Legendary items, but items are no different than Magic and Rare items. Since Legendary items are no different from Yellow and Blue items in terms of randomly generated affixes, chances for Blue and Rare items to be better are astronomically high since they drop 10000% more often than legendary items. People remember that Uniques used to have static affixes and tight ranges on certain number of affixes. People find out Legendary items in D3 are still fully randomized like Magic and Rare items. People get mad. Further people leave D3.
11.
Blizzard introduces "Paragon-Levels" after Streamer urges Devs to introduce some system with "Point-Allocation" since character building is non existent. Due to the simplified affix system in D3, Blizzard is forced to use CC, CHD, Mainstat, Life%, Vitality, Gold-Find, CDR, Walk-speed, Attackspeed as areas to let players allocate point into. Magic Find is removed as an affix from the game and nerfed because "We did not want people to sacrifice an affix slot on their items for Magic Find, because CC and CHD is so much better". Buffs drop chances for Legendary items, People still mad, because Legendary items are still fully randomized, instead of having pre-set affixes and tight ranges like in D2.
Dev responsible for Pony Level consumes hallucinogens again. Dev decides that there should be monsters in the world that cant attack, but drop better than Bosses in D2. Blizzard proudly presents "Goblins". Further people leave the game.
12.
Blizzard takes heat from community. Game Director is frustrated and very stressed. Whole D3 team is stressed, despite having finally shipped a game that they worked on for over 6 years. Mood is on a all-time low. Frustration is huge. Game Director slams the inventor of Diablo in a semi-public Facebook post after Diablo Inventor voices honest and truthful criticism of how D3 was made. Scandal erupts. Community outcry is massive. Game Director offers apology on D3 Forums. Further people stop playing D3.
13.
Community and D3 Devs back and forth discussion. D3 Devs patch game again and again, Fixing issues. Further people stop playing D3.
14.
Game Director Steps down. Moves to WOW team.
15.
New Console-Version-Director steps up to announce new expansion and how they want to fix D3. D3 team presents expansion plans which have been already in the works while Original Game Director was still in place. Console-Version-Director holds meeting with D3 team, and they agree that he should be credited with "saving D3" with the launch of Expansion 1. Console-Director receives credit for Reaper of Souls and "saving D3". Media-Attention rises.
16.
Controversial Real-Money-Auction-House is removed. Gold-Auction-House is removed. Trading is removed. Items become Bind-On-Account. Further People leave the game.
Reaper of Souls releases. "Please come back, D3 is awesome now". "New Director brings you ROS, BUY NOW". Game receives D2 style ability to travel between acts and waypoints from within the same game. D3 team gives this feature the name "Adventure Mode".
No one plays "Story Mode" ever again.
ROS brings "Rifts" and "Grifts". Rifts are an attempt to "randomize" the world like it was in D2, since D3 only has static maps. Rifts shuffle 1-2 layouts every time they are created, to make casual players think Rifts are randomized worlds. Only works if casual player plays 2-3 rifts per year. Normal players are mad. Some people that left D3, come back and buy ROS. Huge swats of new casual players come to D3.
Loot 2.0 turns out to be only increased drop rates of crappy gear. Legendary items now come with Legendary-Affixes turning them into must have items. Sets become mandatory. Diablo veterans either left long ago, or leave now. Further casuals and newcomers join the franchise.
Second Game Director leaves Blizzard to join Bonfire Studios while his public approval and popularity are peaking (smart career move - hopefully - fingers crossed). "I felt D3 was in a good place, and my departure wont have a big impact on the team" (Because it indeed wont have an impact on the team, and the second Game Director was more of a public figure following the original Game Director's step-down few months after the Insult-Scandal)
17.
CEO tells D3 team "Win back the fans, release free content". Devs cancel Expansion 2. New areas are introduced. Useless Set-Dungeons are implemented which no one plays. Challenge Rifts are introduced to send Casuals and Noobs "to School" and teach them how other noobs are playing the game. Algorithm chooses builds from people that use special hardware-equipment and render the skill allocation un-usable for people with regular mouse/keyboard. People develop Finger-cancer from weird builds in Challenge Rifts due to retarded algorithm.
18.
Casuals and noobs demand higher drop rates. Main community of D3 consists of 90% casual newcomers, 5% franchise fans without any other alternative to D3 as PoE doesnt appeal to them, and 5% "forum-players" trolling the forums on a 24/7 schedule.
19.
D3 Forums erupt in stupidity and flamewars. Blizzard stopped reading the forums a long time ago. Blizzard focuses on Twitter and other platforms, where casuals and noobs are more likely to re-tweet positive replies about new transmogs or cos-play news. Further casuals join D3, further demanding higher drop rates and reducing the difficulty of certain monsters. Casuals fight casuals on forums. Previous casuals see themselves as Pro-Gamers now, and make fun of new incoming casuals. Fisher-Price-Noob-Fiesta
20.
Devs wonder if they should publicly announce that the Alpha testing of D3 finally concludes on August 15, 2017.
CEO tells them to not post any news at all.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6VjPM5CeWs[/youtube]
Is this sequence more or less correct?
1.
Game Director is hired as the Director for Diablo III. Game Director has an RTS background, and has never created an ARPG before, but somehow gets the job after the interview. Sources told me he said "When D2 launched, I took the day off, sent my wife and the kids away on vacation, and played D2 for two days, while eating pizza", and then Blizzard said "You're Hired".
2.
Game Director not having an ARPG background, removes all ARPG features from the planned D3 Roadmap document. He directs a game where all you do literally boils down to killing monsters and then picking up dropped items. That's it.
Removes quests with permanent character boosting rewards
Removes Skill-Trees
Removes Runes because he could not find or trade for HRs in D2
Removes Runewords because there are no more Runes
Removes Charms because they "cluttered" his inventory
simplifies and Reduces Affixes from 100+ Affixes to 30+ because affixes in D2 confused him as a player
Turns White items into useless objects
Turns Grey items into useless objects
Creates Magic, Rare, and Gold-Colored Items, and gives all items identical chances with the same affixes. Adds special Text to Gold-Colored Items.
Goes on to reduce players to 4 and reduce usable skills to 6 to get the guy from the console department off his back
Calls in Special-Task-Force-Meeting to discuss what kind of BS story to deliver to the public on his decision about reducing players to 4 and skills to 6 (which coincides with 6 usable buttons on console-controllers, and max players on consoles using a single-screen)
After a 3-Hour ultra-productive meeting decides to go with "6 Skills are more than enough and most people did not need more than that in D2 anyways." As well as "After long internal testing, we came to the conclusion that 4 players is the perfect number, and more players would fill the screen with too many effects"
Goes to the Effect Animators the next day and tells them to ensure that physical classes now also deal fire, cold, lightning, and poison damage. Tells them to make sure that spell effects can be plenty even when it triggers epilepsy in a handful of people
High-Five's Key People on the D3 team every morning on Job-Well-Done
3.
WOW Art-Team comes in to create art for Diablo III and start drawing and designing artwork like yesterday, when they worked on WOW. No one dares to ask questions, because WOW is a sales-monster and makes Blizzard Billionaires. Everyone keeps their mouth shut. WOW-Art must be a no brainer to also use it for Diablo
4.
D3 is announced and Diablo fans that have been playing D2 for the past decade are shocked and intrigued to hear D3 is coming. Community becomes critical of the Art-Direction. Blizzard defends "We know what we do, trust us".
5.
D3 Beta launches, Community voices distaste about Art-Direction and Itemization. Blizzard defends "We know what we do, trust us", "This is just the beta, you will be blown away when it launches".
Devs decide to double down by working on a "Pony Level" in a colorful map which triggers epilepsy in certain people. Game Director imagines how the Pony Level will go down in history as the best easter-egg to have ever seen the light of day.
6.
D3 launches. Multi-Billion-Dollar Gaming-Developer-Behemoth underestimates how many people will try to play the game when it launches at midnight, despite knowing the pre-sales, and have a good idea on the launch-day sales. Not enough servers are ready to take the load. Error 37. Long-Term-Image-Damage of catastrophic proportions for the Diablo franchise and Blizzard in general.
7.
People that can log in, play the game, but must create new games to switch acts, or even move between waypoints within the same act. People unlock Skills as they level up, but cannot boost the skills of their choice like they used to in D2 through skill-points. Players are confused. people continue to play through Normal, Nightmare, and Hell, and realize Cain is killed by butterfly and are mad.
8.
People reach level 60 and realize thats max-level and not 99. People check quest-log for quests that give various permanent character perks like in D2, but there are none. People get mad again.
9.
Players finish Hell difficulty and realize Inferno is 10000% harder than Hell difficulty. Players continue to play Hell difficulty because Inferno is too hard. People realize after few days that Items needed for Inferno do not drop outside inferno difficulty. People realize Blizzard did not test the transition from Hell to Inferno difficulty during alpha testing. People check youtube videos that show "chest-runs" in inferno, that exploit the annoying "check-point" mechanic. People run chests in inferno and get rich by selling Blue and Yellow items on the AH to 90% of the player base that did not know about chest runs. 90% demographic gets frustrated due to repair cost and being broke in gold-terms, pays real money to get these items. Blizzard Nerfs Chest runs. People start leaving D3. Already very poor Metacritic user-ratings receive final meltdown.
10.
People find very rare Legendary items, but items are no different than Magic and Rare items. Since Legendary items are no different from Yellow and Blue items in terms of randomly generated affixes, chances for Blue and Rare items to be better are astronomically high since they drop 10000% more often than legendary items. People remember that Uniques used to have static affixes and tight ranges on certain number of affixes. People find out Legendary items in D3 are still fully randomized like Magic and Rare items. People get mad. Further people leave D3.
11.
Blizzard introduces "Paragon-Levels" after Streamer urges Devs to introduce some system with "Point-Allocation" since character building is non existent. Due to the simplified affix system in D3, Blizzard is forced to use CC, CHD, Mainstat, Life%, Vitality, Gold-Find, CDR, Walk-speed, Attackspeed as areas to let players allocate point into. Magic Find is removed as an affix from the game and nerfed because "We did not want people to sacrifice an affix slot on their items for Magic Find, because CC and CHD is so much better". Buffs drop chances for Legendary items, People still mad, because Legendary items are still fully randomized, instead of having pre-set affixes and tight ranges like in D2.
Dev responsible for Pony Level consumes hallucinogens again. Dev decides that there should be monsters in the world that cant attack, but drop better than Bosses in D2. Blizzard proudly presents "Goblins". Further people leave the game.
12.
Blizzard takes heat from community. Game Director is frustrated and very stressed. Whole D3 team is stressed, despite having finally shipped a game that they worked on for over 6 years. Mood is on a all-time low. Frustration is huge. Game Director slams the inventor of Diablo in a semi-public Facebook post after Diablo Inventor voices honest and truthful criticism of how D3 was made. Scandal erupts. Community outcry is massive. Game Director offers apology on D3 Forums. Further people stop playing D3.
13.
Community and D3 Devs back and forth discussion. D3 Devs patch game again and again, Fixing issues. Further people stop playing D3.
14.
Game Director Steps down. Moves to WOW team.
15.
New Console-Version-Director steps up to announce new expansion and how they want to fix D3. D3 team presents expansion plans which have been already in the works while Original Game Director was still in place. Console-Version-Director holds meeting with D3 team, and they agree that he should be credited with "saving D3" with the launch of Expansion 1. Console-Director receives credit for Reaper of Souls and "saving D3". Media-Attention rises.
16.
Controversial Real-Money-Auction-House is removed. Gold-Auction-House is removed. Trading is removed. Items become Bind-On-Account. Further People leave the game.
Reaper of Souls releases. "Please come back, D3 is awesome now". "New Director brings you ROS, BUY NOW". Game receives D2 style ability to travel between acts and waypoints from within the same game. D3 team gives this feature the name "Adventure Mode".
No one plays "Story Mode" ever again.
ROS brings "Rifts" and "Grifts". Rifts are an attempt to "randomize" the world like it was in D2, since D3 only has static maps. Rifts shuffle 1-2 layouts every time they are created, to make casual players think Rifts are randomized worlds. Only works if casual player plays 2-3 rifts per year. Normal players are mad. Some people that left D3, come back and buy ROS. Huge swats of new casual players come to D3.
Loot 2.0 turns out to be only increased drop rates of crappy gear. Legendary items now come with Legendary-Affixes turning them into must have items. Sets become mandatory. Diablo veterans either left long ago, or leave now. Further casuals and newcomers join the franchise.
Second Game Director leaves Blizzard to join Bonfire Studios while his public approval and popularity are peaking (smart career move - hopefully - fingers crossed). "I felt D3 was in a good place, and my departure wont have a big impact on the team" (Because it indeed wont have an impact on the team, and the second Game Director was more of a public figure following the original Game Director's step-down few months after the Insult-Scandal)
17.
CEO tells D3 team "Win back the fans, release free content". Devs cancel Expansion 2. New areas are introduced. Useless Set-Dungeons are implemented which no one plays. Challenge Rifts are introduced to send Casuals and Noobs "to School" and teach them how other noobs are playing the game. Algorithm chooses builds from people that use special hardware-equipment and render the skill allocation un-usable for people with regular mouse/keyboard. People develop Finger-cancer from weird builds in Challenge Rifts due to retarded algorithm.
18.
Casuals and noobs demand higher drop rates. Main community of D3 consists of 90% casual newcomers, 5% franchise fans without any other alternative to D3 as PoE doesnt appeal to them, and 5% "forum-players" trolling the forums on a 24/7 schedule.
19.
D3 Forums erupt in stupidity and flamewars. Blizzard stopped reading the forums a long time ago. Blizzard focuses on Twitter and other platforms, where casuals and noobs are more likely to re-tweet positive replies about new transmogs or cos-play news. Further casuals join D3, further demanding higher drop rates and reducing the difficulty of certain monsters. Casuals fight casuals on forums. Previous casuals see themselves as Pro-Gamers now, and make fun of new incoming casuals. Fisher-Price-Noob-Fiesta
20.
Devs wonder if they should publicly announce that the Alpha testing of D3 finally concludes on August 15, 2017.
CEO tells them to not post any news at all.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6VjPM5CeWs[/youtube]