02-24-2012, 12:06 AM
Games have been a big part of my life, and that trend continues today. Playing them, modifying them, designing them, talking about them. The main thing is to have fun. Games are loads of fun, on their best days. I've had a knack for opening a window on to my fun, thus sharing it with an audience. The size of that audience has varied. Sometimes it's been very personal, shared only with a few. Which few has varied as well, switching around from game to game, year to year. Sometimes the stage has been larger, the audience wider. Working on games has given me an even larger audience and more impact, but that is a more distant and impersonal connection than writing is.
As the time for Diablo 3 nears, the memories of Diablo 1 and 2 surface in my mind. The urge to create new adventures in the mold of the old ones is there, I must admit. I still feel comradery with fellow Legit players from D1 and the early days of battlenet. I still remember the closeness of the beyond-legit players, making up their own end game for Diablo by crafting new gameplay out of their own imaginations. And I wonder. Now that Blizzard has had its years with World of Warcraft, and trying to craft ways to keep people entertained, whether there will be any effort on their part to supply a lively "end game" for Diablo 3 -- and what that might entail. I also wonder if it will get in the way of the user-made end games of old style.
I took the link and watched the video of the guy in the D3 beta doing a Naked kill of the Skeleton King, which took 20 minutes. I did not go in to it expecting to watch the whole video, but I ended up staying anyway. There wasn't any great magic there, and I worry whether Blizz will repeat their D2 mistake of making melee builds unsurvivable in the late game, forcing every character to run around killing from range, in one way or another. On the other hand, there was some potential. Let's call it "space" in which to play and have some fun, including some not expressly designed in to the game. Clearly D3 will be more akin to D2 than to D1, but I am willing to try it and see what it offers. If the basic gameplay is sound, then surely there will be plenty of room on the canvas for us to paint all manner of things there.
The original Diablo was great more in what it did not do than what it did: it did not get in the way of my fun. There were a lot of things wrong with it. Many simple things could have been improved. If you were there, you know what I mean. Still, there was a lot we managed to do with it, by focusing on its positives and angling our play to the game's best parts. We dealt with overpowered elements by not using them, when challenge was what we sought. We learned not to drink from the unmarked fountains, and which marked ones to avoid. You spent a lot of time walking to Wirt if you wanted certain types of items, and it was quite the grind -- but sometimes some of us cared enough to endure it. The game didn't force us to play the way it was envisioned: it was open enough to let us find fun that was not imagined, yet the game made possible. ... If Diablo 3 has a healthy portion of that openness, then we will be well served. Let us hope that Blizz designers had the insight to realize this.
After ten years, I have mellowed enough to let all the ghosts rest. There are no old grudges, complaints or agendas still lingering for me. I know better than to expect the game I would design. I also have a much more informed perspective on what's possible to do in a game -- an inside look that may forever differentiate me from the version of me that anybody here would remember. The question now is, will Diablo 3 set up a stage upon which I could have the kind of fun that would, for the first time in many moons, let me open a window and share it via writing about it? I have no idea. But I do know that whatever fun is to be had there, that it will be expanded by interacting with others.
This I can promise you. I will not have my game designer hat on with Diablo 3. I will not be dissecting it, critiquing it, and lobbying for this or that modification. I will leave all of that to others. For me, either it will hold enduring fun or it will not. If not, I'll soon fade back in to the shadows, not having much to talk about and not caring to join in on the bashing. But if it's fun, good fun that isn't over quickly, then I will give serious consideration to writing about some of what I do, as well as getting involved in group endeavors with my fellow old schoolers.
It's good to see familiar names around.
- Sirian
As the time for Diablo 3 nears, the memories of Diablo 1 and 2 surface in my mind. The urge to create new adventures in the mold of the old ones is there, I must admit. I still feel comradery with fellow Legit players from D1 and the early days of battlenet. I still remember the closeness of the beyond-legit players, making up their own end game for Diablo by crafting new gameplay out of their own imaginations. And I wonder. Now that Blizzard has had its years with World of Warcraft, and trying to craft ways to keep people entertained, whether there will be any effort on their part to supply a lively "end game" for Diablo 3 -- and what that might entail. I also wonder if it will get in the way of the user-made end games of old style.
I took the link and watched the video of the guy in the D3 beta doing a Naked kill of the Skeleton King, which took 20 minutes. I did not go in to it expecting to watch the whole video, but I ended up staying anyway. There wasn't any great magic there, and I worry whether Blizz will repeat their D2 mistake of making melee builds unsurvivable in the late game, forcing every character to run around killing from range, in one way or another. On the other hand, there was some potential. Let's call it "space" in which to play and have some fun, including some not expressly designed in to the game. Clearly D3 will be more akin to D2 than to D1, but I am willing to try it and see what it offers. If the basic gameplay is sound, then surely there will be plenty of room on the canvas for us to paint all manner of things there.
The original Diablo was great more in what it did not do than what it did: it did not get in the way of my fun. There were a lot of things wrong with it. Many simple things could have been improved. If you were there, you know what I mean. Still, there was a lot we managed to do with it, by focusing on its positives and angling our play to the game's best parts. We dealt with overpowered elements by not using them, when challenge was what we sought. We learned not to drink from the unmarked fountains, and which marked ones to avoid. You spent a lot of time walking to Wirt if you wanted certain types of items, and it was quite the grind -- but sometimes some of us cared enough to endure it. The game didn't force us to play the way it was envisioned: it was open enough to let us find fun that was not imagined, yet the game made possible. ... If Diablo 3 has a healthy portion of that openness, then we will be well served. Let us hope that Blizz designers had the insight to realize this.
After ten years, I have mellowed enough to let all the ghosts rest. There are no old grudges, complaints or agendas still lingering for me. I know better than to expect the game I would design. I also have a much more informed perspective on what's possible to do in a game -- an inside look that may forever differentiate me from the version of me that anybody here would remember. The question now is, will Diablo 3 set up a stage upon which I could have the kind of fun that would, for the first time in many moons, let me open a window and share it via writing about it? I have no idea. But I do know that whatever fun is to be had there, that it will be expanded by interacting with others.
This I can promise you. I will not have my game designer hat on with Diablo 3. I will not be dissecting it, critiquing it, and lobbying for this or that modification. I will leave all of that to others. For me, either it will hold enduring fun or it will not. If not, I'll soon fade back in to the shadows, not having much to talk about and not caring to join in on the bashing. But if it's fun, good fun that isn't over quickly, then I will give serious consideration to writing about some of what I do, as well as getting involved in group endeavors with my fellow old schoolers.
It's good to see familiar names around.
- Sirian
![[Image: ember-mini.gif]](http://sirian.warpcore.org/ember-mini.gif)
