I'm this >< close to resubscribing again, what with finding SWTOR kinda meh and knowing that people who stay in WoW are ones who still enjoy WoW, not so much self hating elitists.

This could be a great time to get back in, especially with the new Looking for Raid tool, I never was very good at dedicating my time to rading, this all sounds soo good.

Originally posted by itchmon

I AM NOT PLAYING AND FINALLY THEY ADD A ROGUES ONLY LEGENDARY!!!!! :\

I fucking know man, I know! 

The strangest thing happened after trying TOR this past weekend. At the same time I realised how much I want something completely different from WoW, and got this strange wish to resub to experience WoW gameplay again, some PVP and new instances, even get that Bloodfang set I always wanted...

Ah Blizzard, you so good at what you do.

I was planning on buying it, if for nothing else, but to try it for the free month. After trying it this weekend, I changed my mind, I will not be buying it.

I found the voice acting excellent, story was fun and engaging in some parts and completely ridiculous at others, it don't see this changing in later parts of the game. Everything else was just a letdown. Graphics while stylised felt washed out and somehow empty, lifeless. The gameplay itself is WoW with a twist but just shy of that good feedback loop you get from a combination of great spell effects, animations and sound design. Some story choices increase immersion, while others are just frustrating because all (both) choices seem childishly black or white.

This game comfirmed what I allready new, I am still looking for that new mythical MMO to rule all MMOs. I played WoW for a long time and enjoyed it very much, but I just can't see myself suffering trough less than stellar combat to get to potentially great story parts.

Mostly it reminds me of RAGE, this game is exactly the sum of it's parts, nothing more and nothing less, i just want more, i need something more.

P.S.  Forget to say, it runs silky smooth and had no technical problems whatsoever, that was really great.

Originally posted by Epicent

Until they make a game better than wow? Where have you been? I can name at least 3 off the top of my head that are WAY better than WoW. And no, there is no correlation to sales meaning a game is better as that logic actually supports the belief that Justin Bieber is better than every other band out there and I REFUSE to accept that or believe it lol. Go look up his youtube vids and see what I mean. Anyway. Stop assuming and stating that one game is better than another as if it is a fact when it is so obviously an opinion. Or do I need to actually state the definition of each one of those words to you here as well.

Irony on the internet is funny every time.

I will probably get SWOTOR on release, but I'm so there to play my Kung Fu Panda healing Monk with his man servant argent gruntling.

Drunk, fat, Panda Monks!  Hell Yeah, I'm so there.

That's besides the point dough, Pet Battles is the killer app here. I have never seen a more universally positive response to an announced feature for WoW. I was watching on WoW friendly sites, but those places can be the most contenteous places on the internet, not this time, they were all singing in unison 

Originally posted by Shatter30

More of the same ole garbage, just reskinned...again

This actually looks like the first time that isn't true.

I think it's just devious!

When everyone is expecting some spastic reaction from Blizzard to counter SWOTOR and GW2, they decide to give everyone something cute, and fuck you if you don't like it.

I'll play SWOTOR untill my free month runs out (if it blows me away, I might subscribe for a month or two) and continue playing GW2.

"Game journalist: n - An individual who writes professionally about computer and video games, although may not adhere to a professional work ethic. May not research or fact-check stories. May be more interested in hyperbole than actual constructive criticism of media. May be incapable of determining the mathematical average of a 0-to-10 scale. May be unable to handle criticism. May claim to be "just a blogger" or "not a journalist really", which is at least partially true. See also: Game PR."

If anyone wants to dig deeper into this, feel free to visit http://gamejournos.com/

I'm really enjoying the feel and flow of the combat, a bit slower, more methodical with really awesome sound design. I never could get into MW or TF2, but this, this is tickling just the right parts of my brain.

The fact it looks just gorgeous doesn't hurt it either.

Originally posted by Lobotomist

But watching some of the videos. Smaller dungeons have exactly same layout.

Maybe its different for large dungeons.

But i am quite dissapointed by random generation in the game. (from what i seen)

 

And its one of main elements of Diablo replayability

I know what you mean, but when i think about Diablo 2, the randomized world was mostly frustrating, not so much interesting, especially on my #th playtrough when I knew where I wanted to get and what to do when I get there. It would just become an exercise in frustration untill I found a way out of the samey maze again and again. 

Dungeons, not so much, because when I entered a dungeon, I was there with intent and intent was to kill every thing moving, so exploring and finding all the monsters had much more sense.

I don't know, I'm neither here nor there yet.

Originally posted by Lobotomist

I watched about half. One thing concerns me. I didnt see any randomised maps. All the dungeons and areas are exactly the same for every playtrough

This is very much against spirit of this kind of games. And to add insult to injury, outside maps are no more than cleverly maskedlinear passages.

The way I understand it is that overworld is generaly static with random dungeon entrances and random events (special bosses, side quests and maybe some set pieces) you can see it if you look at few videos, it's like every playtrough, different "switches" are turned on. 

Dungeons are completely randomized though, it's just that areas are not made out of small square screen size areas, they are made out of larger, more detailed pieces, so you get stairs, balconies, generaly more layered spaces.

Originally posted by tavoc

Other than that thats no where near as close as what blizzard is doing here. and long term consiquences are there.. Think about it, how many already disturbed people will sit there, playing and playing because they think they can make a living off of d3.. no joke. Also its kinda a step backwords.. last few years alot of companies are fighting rmt, instead bliz.. the one company with the reasorces to actualy put up a real fight, embraced it and joined the other side just to turn quick profit. and to make it worse they made the game pay to win.. Which is a 2nd strike to many of the people here at mmorpg.com.. and alot of mmo players that still paly P2P games. Why? because no one woudl be happy about turning around and getting wtf rolled by some guy that put in minimal effort and paid cash for all their gear.. Its retarded.

/rant off

I see this a lot, but how exactly does one fight human nature? People would risk losing their characters and accounts for breaking EULA and they still did it, how much harsher can you get than banning an account?

Unless they turn it into an FPS and remove all currency and item progression.

I'm not saying it can't be done, I'm just saying the only way to do it in this model is to change the game so much it's not the same thing anymore.

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by marinrider

I'm also strongly opposed to blizzards laziness in combating this industry.  They took the "If you cant beat em, join em" mentality and it really pisses me off.  I'm very likely to just go with TL2 and use that for my dungeon crawling needs.  Not only is it $40 cheaper, but it doesnt have a RMAH and its got people from the D1 and D2 teams working on it.  Oh and did I forget moddable?

Lazyness? They thought "how can we get these money instead of some gold farming company?".

That is not lazy, it is more greedy.

However I think this takes focus from the fact that this is more a Wow game than a real Diablo. I seen the old screens Blizzard North did before Blizz fired them, they actually looked just right. What we seen now is nothing near the 2 classic games. :(

I would argue Diablo is far more than just the visuals, and even if it was just about visuals, it's just a slight adjustment to the art style. If you zoom really close, or take a screen shot and zoom in to the point of seeing the jaggies than you might have a point, but ever so small. The way it's meant to be played, all the way zoomed out, it looks much more detailed than WoW, with far better lighting and it's own feel. I guess you can choose o view it's style as WoW in isometric view but it would have to be a completely deliberate choice, try watching some of the HD videos from the F&F beta, it might not change your opinion, but it might give you a better sense of how the game looks in motion.

That's deliberately reductive view on the whole matter. I won't deny it serves as DRM at some capacity, just not in a sense we are accustomed to experience DRM. I believe it's use here is more in line with keeping the game rules consistent for each client due to the RMAH and all the troubles real money brings to the whole equation. If ever was a reason to keep any sort of cheating or exploits to a minimum it's a situation like this. There are diffirent methods to battle cheating but I don't really know a more efficient one than keeping a constant eye on the client and monitoring every exchange it makes with the server.

As for the "cheaply" comment, if that was the case, wouldn't they just do what ubisoft is trying to do and put some code on top of the game that doesen't let the game run unless software detects it's being connected. Blizzard is splitting parts of the game and running it on the server while keeping the assets on your PC, much like WoW is doing. Keeping those two integrated seamlessly without you noticing it is a much bigger task than just gating the exe file from initiating without a connection.

If nothing else, at least Blizzard is trying to add addtional functionality to the always online requirement, cloud storage, you can play your char on any PC with D3 installed, persistent friend list trough all of your Blizzard games and constant stat tracking to allow fast and precise bug fixes or mechanics adjustments.

Starcraft 2 made some huge changes to the way basic game play functions, on the surface it is the same game, but they made many quality of life changes to how you control your army and economy. The way campaign works was also completely changed, from delivery of story to the way it lets you customize your army trough upgrade choices. These changes might seem insignificent to you, but for someone who was very invested and loved the first Starcraft, I can say the changes were far from being just a knock off.

Diablo 3 is even more different from a gameplay point of view, with more imersive story delivery, better fleshed out characters, all the little enviroment details that bring the world to life, to completely changing how you aquire skills to ensure your customization is based on experimentation and personal play style.

P.S. I would just like to add, I would still prefer it offers an offline mode for people who really do suffer from poor internet, but for the rest of us who are online as soon as our PC is on, I just find it erroneous to complain about it.

Originally posted by psyknx

Originally posted by SonofSeth

Originally posted by NeonShadow

Usually people who are play testers aren't people who went to school to study compsci / art / whatever and then later got a job in game development. Usually they aren't even people who know how to code. They are just friends of friends who have been hired to look for bugs.

So what does being a play tester have to do with being a game dev?

Because this is a comic exactly for people like you who think they know what they are talking about.

Like you? Because hes right. - Kinda..

I have a degree in chemestry stuff (Whatever its called in English), yet I was accepted by EA to be a game tester/Translator, I was offered full compensation for my relocation to Spain. (I applied for fun so didnt go)

In fact, they didnt even ask me about my current job or education. They probably hire people who never went to school.

 

Didnt read the article so maybe my post makes no sense. -.- Maybe it does.

Being a game developer is one thing, but becoming one is something completely different. Many developers will tell you that one of the ways to get into the industry is to become a tester and go from there.

You don't just finish school and go develop games, there's a process and one of the available steps in that process is being a tester.

So, David Jafee maybe isn't a tester now, but he sure as hell was when he started.

Originally posted by NeonShadow

Usually people who are play testers aren't people who went to school to study compsci / art / whatever and then later got a job in game development. Usually they aren't even people who know how to code. They are just friends of friends who have been hired to look for bugs.

So what does being a play tester have to do with being a game dev?

Because this is a comic exactly for people like you who think they know what they are talking about.

Originally posted by tristanryan

Ive just reactivated after a year or two and i think its pretty fun so far.

My first break from the game was also a loong one, and when i came back it was with a friend, it was infinitely more fun that way. Eventually, it was just too much of the samey thing for too long, but as long as it's fun, ride it and ride it hard.

Originally posted by RajCaj

Originally posted by just1opinion

Originally posted by RajCaj

....and no amount of lipstick on the pig will change its appearance.

 

I think I just keep hoping if I get the right SHADE.....you know....that will change it.

 I've been looking for that shade since Ultima Online. LOL

 

Its interesting that many gamers chase that same game exerience that pulled them into the genere....yet rarely find it again.

Well, you never know untill you find it. I never knew I love MMOs so much untill I played WoW, but sadly, it spoiled me forever onwards. Now, i'm looking for something completely diferent and hoping to discover another thing I never knew I loved.