17 replies to this topic

[IMG News]

Blizzard Entertainment's Jay Wilson, lead designer for the upcoming action RPG sequel Diablo III, recently revealed that the game will not ship with player vs player functionality. Rather than delay the game to add the final polish to the PVP Arena system, the company has decided to save the feature for a post release patch.

As we’re counting down the days until we’re ready to announce a release date for Diablo III, we’ve come to realize that the PvP game and systems aren’t yet living up to our standards. Today, we wanted to let you know that we’ve made the difficult decision to hold back the PvP Arena system and release it in a patch following the game’s launch. After a lot of consideration and discussion, we ultimately felt that delaying the whole game purely for PvP would just be punishing to everyone who’s waiting to enjoy the campaign and core solo/co-op content, all of which is just about complete.

While we work on making sure PvP lives up to its full potential, we hope you’ll find some consolation in the fact that soon, you’ll be having a blast leveling characters, finding items, learning the classes, and perfecting builds…and that when the Arenas do arrive, you’ll be all the better prepared for battle.

When the PvP patch is ultimately ready, it will add multiple Arena maps with themed locations and layouts, PvP-centric achievements, and a matchmaking system that will help you and your team get into fairly matched games quickly and easily. We’ll also be adding a personal progression system that will reward you for successfully bashing in the other team’s skulls.

We know a lot of you are looking forward to PvP, and we’ll be focusing our post-launch efforts on making sure the Arenas are as brutal, bloody, fast-paced, and awesome as we know they can be. In the meantime, we’re in the process of putting the finishing touches on what we think is a truly epic campaign and co-op experience for launch.

Read more at the links below.

Return to Full Article - InsideMacGames News

[Jeyl]

I could complain about this, but after experiencing Mass Effect 3, this news is the most reassuring thing I've heard in a long while.

[strangemax]

Meh.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Not unexpected. 4 years after announcement, and they are still removing features. They have some serious direction issues in that team.

[DaveyJJ]

Thain Esh Kelch, on 12 March 2012 - 01:17 PM, said:

Not unexpected. 4 years after announcement, and they are still removing features. They have some serious direction issues in that team.

Truth. And yet, they still have to remove the most onerous of the game's requirements. I gave up on this two years ago. Bring on Torchlight II!

[Hobeaux]

as if we all won't go out and pick up a copy when it comes out. personally, i've never played with/against another player in Diablo II--tend to favor solo play.

torchlight 2 should be nice, but i'm hoping it's much better than 1--i find the gameplay very, very repetitive and the skill trees kinda strange. assuming, of course, that it actually makes it to the Mac. They've stated their intent to come to the platform but they are focusing on the PC right now...

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Hobeaux, on 12 March 2012 - 01:58 PM, said:

as if we all won't go out and pick up a copy when it comes out. personally,

I'll wait for it to hit 10$ now.

[The Liberator]

Jeyl, on 12 March 2012 - 08:03 AM, said:

I could complain about this, but after experiencing Mass Effect 3, this news is the most reassuring thing I've heard in a long while.

Was it really that bad? I guess although Blizzard might be going in the wrong direction, Bioware already have a head start on that.

Lib.

[Wumpus]

Its not like PvP isn't going to happen, its just not happening at launch. Everyone will be busy with solo/co-op play for awhile anyway. I'm personally unconcerned, and wouldn't do PvP until probably after I beat the game at least once.

And I'm definitely buying a copy on launch, even at $60 Its just too fun much, and doing the beta was a good demo for me. I think you'll be waiting a significantly long time for it to hit $10. Starcraft 2 came out ages ago and the cheapest its ever been i I think $30 for a day or two. Its likely D3 will follow the same pattern. Much like CoD games which are wildly popular it takes forever before the price goes down.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Wumpus, on 12 March 2012 - 03:33 PM, said:

I think you'll be waiting a significantly long time for it to hit 10$.

Im aware of that, but i have plenty of games to play in the mean time.. Just trying to signal that I really think they blew it.

[Eric5h5]

Hobeaux, on 12 March 2012 - 01:58 PM, said:

as if we all won't go out and pick up a copy when it comes out.

I'm not going to.   I don't even have Starcraft II.  (Although I will buy it eventually.  100% of my Blizzard games are of the Battle Chest variety--4 of 'em--so I'm waiting for the Starcraft II Battle Chest.)

Quote

torchlight 2 should be nice, but i'm hoping it's much better than 1--i find the gameplay very, very repetitive

No more so than Diablo.

--Eric

[The Liberator]

Eric5h5, on 12 March 2012 - 09:20 PM, said:

I'm not going to.   I don't even have Starcraft II.  (Although I will buy it eventually.  100% of my Blizzard games are of the Battle Chest variety--4 of 'em--so I'm waiting for the Starcraft II Battle Chest.)


No more so than Diablo.

So, it appears you will be waiting a few more years by the looks of it.

[DaveyJJ]

Hobeaux, on 12 March 2012 - 01:58 PM, said:

as if we all won't go out and pick up a copy when it comes out.

Nope. And I'm one of the biggest DI DII/LoD fans here.

Hobeaux, on 12 March 2012 - 01:58 PM, said:

personally, i've never played with/against another player in Diablo II--tend to favor solo play.

Yup. Solo play rocks. Wish they'd release a game that I could play solo, without a Net connection; sort of, uh, solo-like . DRM/always on? Notsomuch.

[Eric5h5]

The Liberator, on 12 March 2012 - 10:36 PM, said:

So, it appears you will be waiting a few more years by the looks of it.

Yep.  Plenty of other things to play in the meantime.

--Eric

[Thain Esh Kelch]

DaveyJJ, on 13 March 2012 - 07:25 AM, said:

Nope. And I'm one of the biggest DI DII/LoD fans here.

Same, but with the new loot system, I might actually start going online to get some social action out of it.

Quote

Yup. Solo play rocks. Wish they'd release a game that I could play solo, without a Net connection; sort of, uh, solo-like . DRM/always on? Notsomuch.

I'm much more worried about hardcore characters.. "Oh, your connection dropped 10 seconds, and your lvl75 was in a boss fight? Well, bo ho."

[UmarOMC1]

...no PvP? No big deal for me.

[Wumpus]

Thain Esh Kelch, on 13 March 2012 - 10:48 AM, said:

Same, but with the new loot system, I might actually start going online to get some social action out of it.


I'm much more worried about hardcore characters.. "Oh, your connection dropped 10 seconds, and your lvl75 was in a boss fight? Well, bo ho."

When your connection drops, everything pauses, it doesn't keep going. It did for me in solo play at least, I didn't have any drops during co-op so can't say how it would react, but I suspect there's a system in place to prevent your character from perma-death due to a connectivity issue. Blizzard isn't that stupid.

[Jude]

DaveyJJ, on 13 March 2012 - 07:25 AM, said:

Nope. And I'm one of the biggest DI DII/LoD fans here.



Yup. Solo play rocks. Wish they'd release a game that I could play solo, without a Net connection; sort of, uh, solo-like . DRM/always on? Notsomuch.

I'm skipping Diablo III.  I, too, want a game I can play solo without being connected.  I didn't get Starcraft II, either, and I have all the Mac Blizzard games before that.
Keeping my old Mac to keep playing Diablo II LOD (which won't work without Rosetta, I've heard, or at least it won't work under OS X 10.7).