Diablo III's player-versus-player is getting cut -- at least for launch. Stating that "the PvP game and systems aren't yet living up to our standards," Diablo III Game Director Jay Wilson says the plan is "to hold back the PvP Arena system and release it in a patch following the game's launch."
"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," writes Wilson, adding that all of the game's content is "just about complete."
The PVP patch will include "Arena maps with themed locations and layouts, PVP-centric achievements, and a matchmaking system."
While this is obviously disheartening news for the many fans out there who are eagerly awaiting to even hear an official release date, Wilson hopes "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."
Diablo 3 v.0.7.0.8610 (2011/ENG/Beta) PC | ENG | Developer: Blizzard | Publisher: Blizzard | 2011 | 9.38 GB Genre: RPG (Rogue / Action) / 3D / 3rd Person
Two decades have passed since the demon lords: Diablo, Mephisto and Baal - swept through the Sanctuary at the head of the ruthless armies. But those who fought against an ancient evil is still stored in the memory of those terrible events.
In search of knowledge, which can overcome new forms of evil, Deckard Cain returned to the ruins of the cathedral Tristramskogo. At that moment, from the sky, flames, went the herald of the Apocalypse: blow came in the very place where in the world of Diablo penetrated. Heaven is a flame re-awakened an ancient evil. Today, the heroes of Sanctuary to defend the mortal world are designed by the raging forces of Hell.
System requirements: - OS: Windows Vista / Windows 7 - Processor: Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo 2,4 Ghz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600 + 2.8 Ghz - Memory: 2 GB - Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 260 / ATI Radeon HD 4870 - 12 gigabytes of free hard disk space - Internet connection
Features: - Explore the Sanctuary - a realistic three-dimensional world of Diablo III in the style of Gothic fantasy. - Fight with an army of evil spirits from the Underworld: at your disposal not only converted the classes familiar from previous games - such as the mighty barbarian - but also completely new (naprime, sorcerer). - Obrushte his anger at the monsters and use against the enemies of the world: arrange the ingenious traps, throw objects at enemies, hide from retaliatory attacks for the trees. - Play in Diablo III with your friends! Thanks to the modernization of the platform Battle.net multiplayer game became even more energetic and more saturated, and the connection - more stable.
According to "MMORPG Italy", the Italian branch of Blizzard Entertainment have just revealed the Release Date and Price of the game. (Thanks for the heads up Anonymous.) The game will be releasing on Tuesday, April 17 and the prices are €54.90 for the Standard Edition and €89.90 for the CE.
Interestingly, this wasn't the usual retailer estimation, but rather it allegedly came from Blizzard directly and it was sent to several large retailers prematurely. It also came along with their price structure which was something that never accompanied any of the other retailer Release Date "leaks", but it's something that has always accompanied a game's Release Date announcement. (That's the part I found most interesting.)
The release of this new information seems awfully close to the predicted (by Incgamers and some other whispers) March 5th release date announcement, but the release would be only 1 month away which would be quite unusual for Blizzard given their past minimum 2 months. It's something I've discussed in the past (a compressed timeline), so I'll have more to say on the subject if this Release Date ends up being true.
It won't be the sight of a bloated corpse exploding into a cloud of snakes that frightens. It probably won't be the visage of a once proud king, now merely a vessel for an evil spirit. In fact, no specific paranormal or demonic resident of Diablo III's vast menagerie of hell's starting lineup need concern would-be demon hunters, monks, barbarians, wizards, or witch doctors.
To the contrary, it will be the clicking of mice in the Diablo III auction house that will raise the most eyebrows and drop mouths agape, in fear of not only what it means for the game itself, but also what the ramifications are for future Blizzard games and the industry at large.
While it's important to keep in mind that Diablo III and its auction house are still very much in beta, Blizzard has already made its intentions clear--it wants to create and control a safe space for equipment and gold transactions that originally occurred on auction sites outside of its domain. Also, every transaction that occurs for that new piece of armor or that enchanted sword lets Blizzard skim a set fee off the top.
It all seems very straightforward and harmless--an everyone-wins scenario. Some might even traverse Diablo's wistfully detailed lands without ever knowing of the auction house's existence, but here's the sinister short and simple of it, part one: Blizzard just boldly (and perhaps unintentionally) subverted the free-to-play model, and it has done so by retaining all of the characteristics of that ecosystem while simultaneously charging an admission fee of $60 to access them. If the idea of grinding for gear or gold doesn't sound that appealing, but spending real-world money for fake-world items does, then the auction house is the place to go, as long as you paid for the game like everyone else.
Granted, the foundation of this system sits firmly on the idea that this economy is adequately funded by its players and not Blizzard, which means that its success largely depends on player behavior and the audience's ability to keep the auction house stocked with items players actually want--the simple economics of supply and demand. If World of Warcraft's own auction house is any indication, that shouldn't ever be an issue, and if anything, positioning gold as an additional commodity to be sold all but ensures a steady inventory of frequent activity and a happy Blizzard.
And therein lies the foreboding part two: Gold farming (or item farming of any kind) by proxy is not only condoned but encouraged and incentivized through the use of real-world money. That alone is cause for trepidation since Battle.net will no doubt be flooded with games dedicated to solely accomplishing such dubious tasks, but the bigger concerns are gold inflation and equipment deflation--otherwise known as the whirlpool of contradictory economic sadness.
If acquiring wealth is as simple as paying real dollars for it, then what's preventing gold's purchasing power from dropping faster than it did in World of Warcraft? Likewise, there's no binding on equip in Diablo III at this time, which means any kind of item (aside from some generated by quests) can feasibly flood the market, making even the best gear worthless from a valuation standpoint. Members of the development team have stated that they believe the salvaging feature (using items to craft other items) combined with a strategy of consistently introducing new items will counteract the problem, but these both leave a massive lingering question: Is that enough to combat the problem?
The Diablo III auction house rabbit hole raises even more questions the deeper it goes, and while there's no way to accurately predict what will happen, this much is certain: Its success would have far-reaching implications on the gaming industry. For example, there's no reason a similar feature couldn't exist in any other game with a prominent multiplayer component, namely something like Battlefield or Modern Warfare, but even single-player games could integrate an auction house funded via other players playing the same game. Even Titan, Blizzard's massively multiplayer online successor to World of Warcraft, can theoretically toss the shackles of a subscription fee and its associated problems--one of which is motivating the user base to subscribe to more than one MMO--in favor of a strictly real-world currency auction house, provided the economy can sustain itself and generate enough income for Blizzard.
In its current state, the auction house fulfills its purpose beautifully, enabling those with less spare time these days to create a respectably geared character without slaying so much as a single demon. That's an attractive proposition for many and will no doubt fuel much of the engine that drives this business model forward. Still, it's a little frightening that the seedier side of the gaming industry now has an official place to conduct its boomtown operations, but perhaps even more worrisome is Blizzard's amalgamation of the free-to-play and traditional retail model--the best of both worlds for those whose eyes are planted firmly on the bottom line.
Two decades have passed since the demonic lords, Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal, set out across the world of Sanctuary on a vicious rampage, twisting humanity to their unholy will. Yet for those who battled the Prime Evils, the memory fades slowly.
