Ain't No Pleasin' Some Folks
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.