Diablo 3 Rumored

[kandrathe]

The Problem imho is that a company that buys a developer that has one or more very high profile games usualy goes for maximum money without caring much about the past titles.

There are ways to go for maximum money that work, though. First you excite your current fanbase, then deliver to their expectations. Second, you are innovative, creative and pre-market the heck out of the product so that you attract pre-orders and media buzz (ala Doom3). Games or movies have the same problem to create sequels that are part of the original broad story line and fit the fans expectations. There are only a few examples of success with both games and movies. For instance, there was so much potential in the "Highlander" story and yet they hacked together the sequels and totally destroyed the mythos.

For me, a good game involves two things -- a good "game" as in game theory where I am motivated and sucked into the game play, and "content". The expectation I have for a good game is that it is infinately replayable. When I buy a movie DVD, it is because after view it once I feel I might want to view it again, in a few weeks or months. Diablo delivers that because it takes along time to wear out one character and there are enough "builds" to try that one can play the game through a number of times without boring of the game. Back when I was building games, our motto was "Hot, Deep and Simple". You want it to be aesthetically pleasing and exciting with good gameplay, have as close to infinite playability as you can design into it, and easy to use or get into.

Ultimately, it comes down to the producers being able to look objectively at the market and develop games that fill gaps, or press into a new space. When Hollywood studios get into that "... uh, oh. Paramount is doing a race car movie, we need to do a race car movie" mindset we are guaranteed to have any number of stinkers. That is the case with MMORPG's now. I applaud "City of Heroes" producers for backing something other than another D&D adventure game. I've been looking at any number of demo's lately -- this week it was Sacred, Thief3, Doom3, and Alice. I liked each them enough to play through the demo, but something is still missing, like something new and interesting.

Back to Diablo -- for me this game is a dungeon crawl defined as much by its free internet "realm" offering and a compelling single player mode as well. Diablo3 needs continue that legacy and be derrived from the existing story, and yet offer something new and interesting to a saturated marketplace.