You’d have thought “sequel to beloved game announced after eight year silence” would be good news for Diablo fans. And to most, it was. Not everyone felt the same way though – an undercurrent of disappointed muttering had it that the game looked too bright and cartoonish compared to its darker predecessors. Most of us will doubtless wait to see what the game’s actually like before passing judgement based on its appearance alone, but slighted naysayers have banded together for one of those e-petition thingies, determined to talk Blizzard into changing the game’s art style after just four years of development. Can’t fail, surely.
“What we ask Blizzard is to find a way of pleasing the fans of the Diablo universe by giving us a true sequel to Diablo 2 that is graphically coherent with the Diablo universe it belongs to.” Inevitably, they also bitch that they think it looks like “a remake” of WoW. Never forget, folks – A Bit More Colourful and Exactly Like World of Warcraft are in fact one and the same, no matter what the logical part of your brain might be telling you.
There are currently 9352 signatures on the petition, which, while a fair old chunk of disgruntlement, will probably need at least a couple more zeros on the end before Blizzard even read it. So, y’know, good luck with that.
Here’s one of the Photoshopped screenshots they’re using to state their case (original here). My, what elegant captioning:
Joining the ranks of Angries, albeit in rather more restrained fashion, is Fallout 3 producer Ashley Chen [Source]. “I must say I am disappointed that Blizzard has stayed on the conservative side in terms of design with their updates to Diablo and Starcraft”, he notes in a recent blog post, carefully sugar-coating the barb with comments about Blizzard’s knack for fun and polish.
Which is an interesting/brave statement for a rival RPG developer to make in public. While I believe there’s much we’ve yet to see – most especially in terms of co-op/multiplayer – I’m inclined to agree a little at this stage. That D3 is so hugely similar to its eight-year-old predecessor in its play style seems a greater cause for potential concern than that it’s using a few more primary colours. I do hope there are some meaty surprises to come.
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@ alarik
Caring is one thing, ill be as pissed as any fanboy if DIII turns out shit. However bitching about what they see in a 20minute video which is in no way, or could be representative of the whole game. a slightly different palette or higher gamma is no reason to go off ones nut in a cyclone of hate and garbled rhetoric.
It’s fine the way it is, personally all that darkness was bad for my eyes I couldnt see for crap! LEAVE IT ALONE
it looks awesome, and we should be happy they even choose to make another Diablo game, SHAME ON YOU idiots bashing the color. I think it looks AWESOME!!!
Mo’s comment: “I love their before/after shots. The formula goes: Diablo 3 screenshot lower brightness & contrast = t3h 4wes0m3 gaem!!” made me just about piss myself! Fantastic!!
But on a serious note, “What we ask Blizzard is to find a way of pleasing the fans of the Diablo universe” ….
Hold on a minute, *I’m* a fan, and i LIKE the new graphical direction, where’s my poll?!…regardless of the colours, or lack of, surely the most important factor is how the gameplay feels.
Like many have said, best to reserve judgement till the game is actually out. You never know, Blizzard might put in a Gothic contrast/brightness modifier option to keep everyone happy.
First of all, to those who have complained within the first thirty seconds of the gameplay demo, shut up. What were seeing now will probably not even make it into the game. Its blizzard. Five months before it’s release date they are going to scrap the entire game and do it over with twice the expertise they finished the first version with. So again, shut up. I particularly ENJOYED the techniques the barbarian showed. I always thought many of the original characters and characters in D2 worked off of different skills that were kind of “the same”. Or there were so many build-up skills that were more or less wasted. I liked that the barbarian’s skills were fairly varied and much more tactical. Even the shaman had some of these characteristics despite the fact that im not completely sold on it. (i have a deep love relationship with the necromancer class). As far as the brightness goes, get over it. It’s a different game. If you want the color settings of D1, go play D1. Idiots.
At the same time however, it is their right to voice their opinions. If some constructive criticism will, in the end, make the game better. Then so be it. But thats what forums like these are for. Not stupid petitions that attempt to force blizzard into changing a gorgious looking game. It’s THEIR game. NOT yours. Leave a comment, and get on with your life. They sure wish you would.
I liked Diablo I and II, and really, in my opinion the ones who say it could be darker may have a point. For one, the whole world and theme of the Diablo games has been rather dark and ominous. Now, that doesn’t mean there cannot be bright environments. Diablo II had those. But they weren’t as.. colour-saturated. It could do with a bit more grime, a bit more despair. An outside area can be light and bright, but grass doesn’t need to look like over-the-top my little ponies green. Yes, that’s exaggerated for emphasis.
That’s especially so in the dungeon parts. Now, if Diablo III has ‘durance of hate’-like environs (a rather.. atmospheric and dark dungeon in Diablo II), I’ll be dang pleased. It doesn’t need to be all gloom. But if that dungeon they show is exemplary of all darker areas.. I’ll be a tad disappointed. A tad, because the game looks good, but it’ll be less than it could be.. for the use of colouration and art style does impact the atmosphere of a game.
And what could use a bit of ‘gloom-and-doom-ifying’ may very well include not being able to see the edges of the screen. For me, having that added to the horror-movie like aspect for the many dungeons. It’s a vicious, dark world. Things do crawl up on you out of the dark.
Now, if this actually is an issue (which I think it may well be) the changes necessary needn’t be too big to satisfy many of the dissatisfied fans. But the time to speak is -especially- now, I’d say. For the longer you wait the harder it’ll be for the developer to actually change anything. In fact, it may be too late already, given the fact that the product is out in the open with screenshots, movies and all.
Personally I expect nothing will be changed exactly because of that. I think they’ve decided on a course, an art-concept. And yes, it has some resemblance to the (much brighter and shinier still) other product they’re developing: Starcraft 2. Indeed, I think what we may be seeing in the artwork is the result of a somewhat different art-direction than they had in the days of Diablo II and Starcraft.
Also, given the gameplay of the Diablo franchise, players have little to fear for radical changes there (especially knowing Blizzard). And given the propensity for many hardcore players of Diablo II to keep on hacking for hours upon hours through the various difficulty levels all the way up to level 99, they’ll sure be seeing a lot of the game in the time it takes to get there.. if III follows II in that aspect, which I suspect it will. So I think it’s a rather valid point to target if one is doubting Blizzard’s current direction.
@Twizted Mettle: But it IS their game, too. Really, who other than great fans of the previous Diablo games would bother? It’s simply a case of players actually caring for a product turning out the way they hope it will. That doesn’t mean the petitioners represent the entirety of the fan population, but it doesn’t invalidate their opinions. And I rather doubt Blizzard would like to see any long-time customer of theirs leave. At the very least responding to concerns among the player-base makes for sound business practice.
The point is, we really can be certain that those dungeons are not an indication of EVERY (or even most) dungeon that will be in the game… Blizzard would be crazy to show the best bits year(s) away from release. So we should not criticise the whole game because of those videos, that much is evident.
Talking about how the whole game is too bright right now, or even a wish to change the few bits that are bright is as stupid as saying the game’s now less dark because we don’t see any dead bodies laying around for us to loot even if they’re impaled, hanged, or whatever else we saw in previous games. I’m sure such sights will be apparent throughout the game even if none are visible in the tiny areas we’ve seen so, again, silly to act as if we know nothing like that exists in the game.
Claiming now is the time to speak will only make the stupid whiners think much of themsleves when the full game gets released and it includes a ton of gloomy, bloody, horrifying, nightmare areas and they start talking about how they’re the reason things got done right, when Blizzard had planned it all along. Petitions against rainbows my ass.
As for having a small light radious as in previous games, I’d be against that. I’d like to be able to see the whole screen area and appreciate the environment design more. The way the camera works you already don’t really know what’s expecting you a few metres ahead, there’s no reason to reduce it further by adding a pitch black ring around your character. I guess the effect could be replicated just by making the screen’s edges fade a bit for a smoother finish without really narrowing your field of vision much (or nowhere near as much as in D2 at least) but that’s not a big issue either way.
@Alexander: Well first of all, all things I’ve seen and read so far point towards a more ‘colourful’ style. You may not have seen this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB-nVF2UcdE&feature=related
Also, why should they (or anyone else concerned about something about the game) not talk about the things they would like to see if speaking up now makes it more likely they will get implemented? Certainly, those who think otherwise are allowed to speak their minds, too. That, and there’s no telling what Blizzard will change (if anything) anyway. That some people will be overreacting and exaggerating no matter what is just something you have to take in stride if you take a look at opinions from fans at all.
And on the light radius: well, I liked it. I may like Diablo III just as much without, but hey, at least I know I liked that. ;) That, and it’s obvious there’ll be conflicting opinions on just about anything, so feel free to disagree.
In the end, as I said, the problem may be nonexistent.. but there’s no way to say for sure at this point. Maybe that’s an argument to postpone criticism, but given the circumstances there may be sufficient reasons to speak up now or to have your voice disregarded because it’s all decided anyway.
I can certainly see what the complaints are getting at, the darker screenshot certainly seems more atmospheric and a bit more ominous, but there’s no telling how that would look in motion. I personally had no problem with the art-style from watching the video, but after seeing the comparisons, I can’t help but feel that a bit more gloom would aid the atmosphere of the game in the same way that STALKER’s aesthetics do. There’s no reason why deeper, more dangerous dungeons couldn’t be darker; I’d love to see them slowly progress from the “light” to the “dark” as you got further into the game, but after listening to that video interview I can appreciate what was said about the art style. Blizzard have probably already tried a darker style, similar to the other games, but felt it didn’t work as well overall, so I’m not going to suggest they change off the back of a screenshot comparison.
It look fine to me. I like the atmosphere the way it is. Do the PhotoShop’d images improve the game…no. It’s just different and I doubt this opinion based call for change will (or should) matter. I could play it with either style but prefer the original.
The current signatures for the petition is 41489 as of 7/12/08
This looks like more of the same crappy games we have had to slog through for so long…. Diablo 1 was original, diablo 2 was large and in charge but three looks like a colorful squishy piece of crap. C’MON PEOPLE OPEN YOUR EYES…. Im just saying I want a game that will be awesome, not just something to make a little money to go on top of the WoW folder
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