UGO has published a blogpost regarding their meeting with three Diablo 3 developers, of which one was Jay Wilson. Its not much news in here, as diii.com also write, but 2 tidbits are new (at least for me):

There are additional plans to streamline item-sharing between different characters, one suggestion being to allow items to be traded or sent through whispers.

And…

Pricing for the game is still being decided, but don’t expect to pay subscription fees for access to Battle.net. Sure, there’s always the possibility that different membership tiers will be introduced later on, but nothing we heard during our chat suggested that the team has anything other than a free-to-play model in mind for Diablo III’s online play.

Some quick questions and answers from the community answered by Bashiok.

Will the acts be separate, or all blur together?

Act transitions haven’t really been discussed externally. It would be cool to have something a bit more engaging; however, I think the Diablo II style zoom-zoom to the next act …worked.

Can characters fall or be pushed off the edge of a level?

No. Unless it’s part of a special event or something.

Can we filter B.net games by mod being used?

We’ve never supported and don’t intend to support “mods” for Diablo II or III.

If there are forest landscapes like the Kurast jungle, can we clear them out or will they be pre-defined paths like in D2?

We haven’t announced/shown any locations beyond those on the website.

(more…)

A recent thread regarding playing in singleplayer or multiplayer first led to this response from Bashiok, the always present Blizzard representative:

One thing that seems to be a fairly consistent experience for a lot of people when they first picked up Diablo II was their introduction to Battle.net. And it wasn’t generally a positive one.

Most people, including myself, went home and installed the game and started playing. Over maybe a few weeks or months they’ve finished the game maybe a few times, they had a ton of fun, but they keep playing and trying to find more items.

One day while loading up the game they notice the “Battle.net” button and decide to click it… and, their characters aren’t there. They have to start over. Any of us would have gladly played on Battle.net (in passworded games if necessary) just to have that online/trading option for their character available to them. It felt like a lot of wasted time to find the actual game, which was on Battle.net.

While “starting over” is something almost every Diablo II player is going to do any way, the lack of on-screen instruction or indication as to what the different systems meant left a bad taste.

To help avoid that type of situation we’re going to try to find ways to encourage Battle.net character creation first and foremost.

Diii.net has a nice rumor that probably does not surprise or raise any eyebrows, but its a nice bit of rumor on a otherwise rather quiet Diablo 3 monday.

I received this tip from a long time site reader, who read it in a private forum. The names are removed and this is strictly a rumor; we’re not saying it’s true, or that we think it’s true. Just read it and be entertained and/or amused.

I’ve lived in Austin for almost 2 years and Blizzard has a small outpost of operations here. I have made friends with some of the managers for Blizzard and found out the following:

When D3 comes out, Blizzard will be making major changes to battle.net. All players will have a universal battle.net account for all games. They will start selling a $6 key chain with a digital face that updates every 10 minutes or so with a new 11-digit number. That 11-digit number will be your password. This will make it nearly impossible to keylog or bruteforce accounts.

The programming that is going into D3 is totally different than D2. They are not updating from D2-D3 like they did from D1-D2. They are rehashing the entire underbelly of the game and using many of the things they’ve learned from WoW to make it more secure. Duping items is going to be impossible. The way it was explained to me was: “It’s going to be a game with WOW architecture but with a D2 skin.”

I asked, but don’t have any word on weather or not it will be pay-to-play. With security measures like the keychain-code, I’m sure it will be.

It is known that Blizzard has a huge customer service and internal support division in Austin. Also, during the various Diablo III panels at the WWI, the D3 team frequently remarked on the major structural changes coming to Battle.net with Starcraft 2, changes that Diablo 3 would be utilizing and adding to. And the Blizzard Authenticator is already in service for WoW. So it’s a reasonable rumor, so far as rumors go.

My HKW friend Luzbel raises a interesting question regarding a possible change in Diablo 3 and its art…

Just read an article in yahoo! about the uproar several fans are causing due to the “colorful” and “rainbow brite” aspect Diablo 3 was presented with. Seems there’s even a petition page complaining about the game graphics being too colorful that has already gathered OVER 50 THOUSAND signatures! (And those are only the 50 thousand that know they can sign a petition online, or that take the precious time to fill it).

Blizzard is currently looking for a graphic designer… and the stuff in the parenthesis seems exactly what they would need to do to modify the current aspect of Diablo III. Who knows? Maybe the Diablo community was indeed displeased with the game presentation. For what I’ve seen on the forums at Battle.net, the longest debates don’t revolve around excitement, but concern about the graphic quality of D III being “too WoWish”. I’ve read some people even worried there’s such a “stupid class like the witchdoctor”, and on top of that they didn’t even like the clothing of the character…

Today I checked my IP Ban status as usual and noticed that one battle.net IP on USEast and Asia no longer listed me as banned, so I tried to logon again. It took several tries before I was connected to the right IP, but there it finally was…the registration form! I am now registered again on USEast and can roam there for a while until my designated playground USWest is available for me.

I hope this is a sign that the IP ban is close to its end because its bugging the crap out of me not to be able to get online after all the trouble I had getting new discs for the game!

I still have not heard from Blizzard or my ISP AllTele that I contacted about changing my IP…

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Its been years since I last held Diablo 2 and Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction in my hands, but now I finally have them both and will begin installation shortly.

I had some bad luck with my old Diablo 2 disc where I actually managed to break one of the discs and after letting my brother in law borrow my Lord of Destruction it suddenly became very difficult to get it back because he live to far away.

Fortunately I managed to get my hands on both at a great price on an auction, so in a few hours I’ll be back on Battle.net again for a short spin and for a trip down memory lane.

Care to join me?

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