Diii.com is going all out with this contest and it looks like a really nice one, so if you have an oppertunity to join, then why not give it a go? Here is the information from Diii.com.

Do you want to win a cool book on swords by one of the D2 artists, a spot in the ongoing WoW beta, and an in-game Tyrael mini-pet? Of course you do, and here’s your chance! We’ve got four signed copies of Ben Boos’ first book, Swords: An Artist’s Devotion, and we’re giving them away in two different contests. We’re even throwing in some Blizzard prize cards, each of which holds a code to get you into the WoW beta, and to get you one of those ultra rare Tyrael mini-pets.

We’re running two contests; you can win with your fan art, or your very short story writing, and we’re even picking two non-winning entrants at random and giving them prize cards, so your odds have never been better. Full rules and details on how to enter can be seen in the official contest article. Add your 11-word story to the comments of that thread, to enter.

Even if you care nothing about the WoW-themed prizes, you’ll want to check out our interview with Ben Boos, and the sample images from his new book. Swords is set for release on September 9th, and it’s a gorgeous volume, full of Ben’s original artwork depicting swords and their use throughout human history. In the interview Ben talks about his artistic inspirations, his work on D2 and D2X, how he got hired at Blizzard, how he sold his book, his next project, and more.

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.

This comes from diii.com as well and they report the news that is posted on MTV’s multiplayer where Jay Wilson goes over the modified screenshots that the petition-nuts have be spamming all over the place to show their bleak view of their Diablo 3 wet dreams…

D3 lead designer Jay Wilson sat down with the folks over at Mtv’s Multiplayer to go through some examples of player-modified D3 screenshots. Jay talks about how the effects were created, how they resemble earlier art design passes on D3, and what’s wrong with using that darker, grittier, desaturated style of art for the final game. It’s a fascinating read, and here’s one example, with Jay’s comment above the shot in question:

	Blizzard Quote:
	Jay Wilson, Designer of “Diablo III”: The key thing to remember here is that this has been Photoshopped. This isn’t created by the engine. Though it looks really cool, it’s almost impossible to do in a 3D engine because you can’t have lighting that smart and run on systems that are reasonable. If we could do that, we probably would in a few of the dungeons. Now in terms of the actual texturing, this texturing, where they grayed out everything and it’s very flat and the monsters are all kind of a similar tone — that does not play well. It’s very boring to run through more than a couple of times, and it’s very difficult to tell creatures apart and pop them out of the environment. So those things don’t really work for us. A lot of the lighting stuff I think is very cool, but it’s also not very doable for us.

One other interesting tidbit, when discussing this shot. Emphasis added:

	Blizzard Quote:
	Wilson: A lot of this change is adding noise to the screen. If [the characters] weren’t centered on the screen — like find the witch doctor. Especially think about him as a friend [in co-op play]. Standing over there, you can’t even tell the difference between him and the zombie. And that’s another player, and when you can’t tell the player apart from the creature, that’s horrible. You’ve got to think that there’s potentially up to seven other people in addition to yourself, and several dozen monsters. All that noise just translates into unplayable, especially when this starts moving. This texturing was actually very similar to one of our previous art styles. But when you started moving and the whole screen just kind of shimmers, you can’t really tell anything that’s going on.

Slip of the tongue, or confirmation of 8 players in the game? The designers said it would likely be just 4-5, for better gameplay/party size, during the WWI panels.

This news has already spread far and wide since I have been a bit off this weekend, but it seems that Blizzard are planning to introduce a achievements system into Diablo 3, Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft in the expansion Wrath of the Lich king, which will all be linked to a “Blizzard Account”. This will give you some sort of “Blizzard Level” depending on your progress and activity in all the games, which I am not sure what to feel about…

Lets see what diii.com report:

In the latest press event, Jeffrey Kaplan, the Lead Designer of WoW at Blizzard Entertainment revealed that Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2 will have achievements linked to them, just like the WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King. A global “Blizzard Account” will be used to track Achievements. The Achievements from different games will accumulate to your “Blizzard Level”. MTV reports:

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	When I spoke with lead “World of Warcraft” designer Jeff Kaplan yesterday about the game’s new Achievement system, he revealed that eventually players will have a Blizzard Account that shows Achievements from other Blizzard games they’ve played, including the upcoming titles “Diablo III” and “StarCraft II.” “Eventually, our plans are for the Achievement system to become an account-based system,” he explained. [...] “Your ‘WoW’ score would be just one factor that will go into your Blizzard Level. And rather than call it a ’score,’ we just wanted it to be like you’re leveling up on Blizzard games… You’ll have this Blizzard identity, and you’ll be able to see things like ‘Oh, this guy was great at Diablo III, but he never played Starcraft and he was mediocre in WoW. That sort of thing.”

The system will launch with Wrath of the Lich King, the WoW expansion, in a per-character basis, but will be changed to account-related achievements, and to be posted on the World of WarCraft Armory. The next step is including StarCraft II and Diablo III, and we are guessing any new game that is released, and possibly even the older ones.

This also teaches us something about Battle.net 2.0, where this account probably will be located. A big update on Battle.net 2.0 info will soon be released, so make sure to keep your eyes open!