Diablo 3 devs to Diablo 2 Dev "F that Loser"

[CaseAgainstFaith]

http://i.imgur.com/mVhWE.png (big image so I figured I would link it instead)

    IncGamers: You are very well known in the world of ARPGs, and I am going to ask you, Diablo 3 is probably the most anticipated PC title in 10 years. What’s your opinion on the final product?

    David Brevik: Honestly, I think that they did a lot of the things the best they could, it was a very different game than I would have created, the team and personalities, the people, the talent and all the design philosophies of the people that worked on it in Irvine, we called them Blizzard South, those people have their own style and the their own way they like to design. It was very, very different from the Blizzard North.

    So I think that when Blizzard South took over the development of Diablo 3 it was inevitable that they were going to create an experience that was in the Diablo theme but concentrated more towards the things that they liked to experience. Including more story and things like that.

    When Blizzard North shut down they lost a ton of experience with why the Action RPG works and what about it works. That’s really difficult to recover from. They didn’t have the experience of people that knew it well. This is why you do things with random levels for example, and so when you lose that experience you are going to create a very different experience in the end than we would have created.

    IncGamers: Do you think they bought the wrong people in? As we understand, Jay Wilson, for example, his background was RTS. From our point of view it looked like they misunderstood what kept people playing, The type of loot drops, which has been a big issues. One of the other issues is they have not listened to their community, and they have not anlaysed what makes up that addictive Diablo experience. What are your thoughts on that?

    David Brevik: Well, the loot system. They made some decisions with the loot system that were very different than the way that we did it in Diablo 2 and I think that obviously the community has been upset with some of the decisions they made. Having all of your powers work off your main weapon and things like that, to having blues that are more powerful than yellows. Eventually the auction house and how that worked, even something as simple as when you equip an item and it’s bound to your character permanently would have totally changed the dynamic of the game.

    It seems odd that they have not really responded in a quick fashion to some of these things. I think they are very well aware of the problems at this point and are trying to fix some of this stuff. It’s a shame that they had to learn some of these painful lessons

    IncGamers: As you created Diablo, how do you feel about it? Do you feel a little let down that the legacy has kind of been mashed up?

    David Brevik: I have very mixed emotions about it (laughs). On one hand I am sad that people haven’t enjoyed Diablo because it’s a love, a passion, and its obvious people still have a giant love and passion for Diablo and they are speaking out about it because they have such love for it. That makes me feel great.

    I am sad because people are outraged and, you know, some of the decision they have made are not the decisions I would make and there have been changes in philosophy and that hasn’t gone over very well. I think in that way I am a little sad.

    I am also a little happy, which I hate to say, it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was and how unique and special that group was. I am hoping that, as this happens very often in the industry, you see it with Call of Duty and things like that , when the people leave the game changes and it shows how critical people are in this industry.

    IncGamers: One of the questions the Gazillion guys asked me to ask you was, where did the name Diablo come from?

    David Brevik: I thought of the game when I was in high school and I lived in the east part of San Francisco in a town called Danville and I loved at the base of Mount Diablo and that’s where the name comes from. Once I found out what the mountain name was, I thought that was awesome, I didn’t speak Spanish, so I thought I wanted to use that as a title for a nemesis in a videogame. It’s simply from where I lived.

    IncGamers: Well thanks a lot David, you’ve brought a lot of pleasure to millions of people over the years and hopefully you’ll continue to do so.

(the site is down now so I had to use a cache mode to see this)

I find it funny that D3 creators are bashing him so hard.  Almost like they are jealous of him.  But it just goes to show that when you have someone that majors in RTS games trying to do something out of his element that it will crash and burn. It also makes it quite clear that Blizzard doesn't listen to their community at all and will always do things how they want to do it only highway option is to quit the game.  I hope Torchlight 2 becomes more popular than D3....that would be awesome.

[Distind]

Questioning design decisions is a great way to start a fight with programmers, let alone game designers.

Not that I don't share his opinion and still wish the original team had something to do wit the game, just a wonderful way to start something. Particularly when you're respected by the community and the new team isn't so much.

[Witchyjoshy]

Is it sad that I can actually see things from their point of view?

He's a major name that more or less pinned the blame on them for the game's faults in an interview that thousands of gamers would look at.

Honestly, I'm tempted to say that the topic title should be "Diablo 2 Dev pins blame on Diablo 3 Devs"

[CaseAgainstFaith]

Is it sad that I can actually see things from their point of view?

He's a major name that more or less pinned the blame on them for the game's faults in an interview that thousands of gamers would look at.

Honestly, I'm tempted to say that the topic title should be "Diablo 2 Dev pins blame on Diablo 3 Devs"

Who else would be to blame?  I mean the D2 dev does have a point to. How would you feel if you made this awesome game that almost had a cult like following only to see your baby taken from you and then bastardized into a cash grab with the same title?  I would be pretty smug too.

[Witchyjoshy]

Is it sad that I can actually see things from their point of view?

He's a major name that more or less pinned the blame on them for the game's faults in an interview that thousands of gamers would look at.

Honestly, I'm tempted to say that the topic title should be "Diablo 2 Dev pins blame on Diablo 3 Devs"

Who else would be to blame?  I mean the D2 dev does have a point to. How would you feel if you made this awesome game that almost had a cult like following only to see your baby taken from you and then bastardized into a cash grab with the same title?  I would be pretty smug too.

Who else is to blame?  Let's see..

1. Producers
2. Executives
3. Fans that are so fucking finicky that they put cats to shame
4. D2 Dev himself

How would you feel if you worked your ass off on a game for many years, dealt with producers, executives, and such, all of that bureaucratic bullshit, realizing that no matter what you did, it would never live up to the hype... and finally succeeding in releasing that game... only to have the fanbase complain about a "cash grab" (no one is forcing you to participate in the auction -_-) and to have the original D2 dev throw you under a bus?

I have no sympathy for this smug bastard.  He deserves the backlash.

[CaseAgainstFaith]

Is it sad that I can actually see things from their point of view?

He's a major name that more or less pinned the blame on them for the game's faults in an interview that thousands of gamers would look at.

Honestly, I'm tempted to say that the topic title should be "Diablo 2 Dev pins blame on Diablo 3 Devs"

Who else would be to blame?  I mean the D2 dev does have a point to. How would you feel if you made this awesome game that almost had a cult like following only to see your baby taken from you and then bastardized into a cash grab with the same title?  I would be pretty smug too.

Who else is to blame?  Let's see..

1. Producers
2. Executives
3. Fans that are so fucking finicky that they put cats to shame
4. D2 Dev himself

How would you feel if you worked your ass off on a game for many years, dealt with producers, executives, and such, all of that bureaucratic bullshit, realizing that no matter what you did, it would never live up to the hype... and finally succeeding in releasing that game... only to have the fanbase complain about a "cash grab" (no one is forcing you to participate in the auction -_-) and to have the original D2 dev throw you under a bus?

I have no sympathy for this smug bastard.  He deserves the backlash.

Okay have you played D3? There is more bitching going on than the RMAH here. Lets see always online - bad idea, scraping talent trees - bad idea, rares (blues) better than yellows (legendary) - bad, no modding allowed - bad idea, Inferno was untested before release and they admitted so - bad idea. See the trend? All they honestly had to do was update the graphics from D2, expand on the story from the previous, and add new loot items and it would of been a grand slam.  But they didn't do that.

Also here is something else that might shock you, D3 was only in development since roughly 2010. Well I should say the D3 that was released however.  There was a original D3 that the old Blizzard North started on and even had some screenshots leaked. But for whatever reason Blizz South decided to scrap it at the end of 09 early 2010 and start completely over. 

[Witchyjoshy]

All they honestly had to do was update the graphics from D2, expand on the story from the previous, and add new loot items and it would have been a grand slam. endless bitching and moaning about how Blizzard never does anything new, never takes risks, the gameplay is so dated, it's just click click click click, the original is still better, blah blah blah blah blah if I wanted to play a clone of Diablo II I would've just played Diablo II.

Fixed a minor error in your post.

One thing the gaming community has taught me - they are, literally, the unpleasable fanbase.  They will whine about everything.  Take Road A, whine that you took Road A and not Road B.  Take Road B, whine that you took Road B and not Road A.

The D2 dev is feeding into this, proving he's quite the opportunist.

So no, I don't have sympathy for him.  What he did was pretty low, and the D3 devs are right to be angry with him.

Also, you can't discount the version that was scrapped.  That was still time spent on the game.  Those man-hours didn't magically disappear because the work was tossed in a bin - those design choices still had an impact on the final version.

[Rime]

Producers and execs.  You have a point seeing as the executives are Jay Wilson, a guy who's stated that "Battle.net is the best experience" to defend their "always online" DRM while the version that's out there was overrun with spambots and cheaters.  And Larry Kotick, a guy who's DNA states "milk it for all the profit you can get and shut it down as soon as it gets too low."

Fans?  Wrong there.  While over six million people were happy with crumbs, I don't see why I should be.  Can you explain why I should be happy with crumbs without saying that I'm just being finicky?

Brevik?  They gave him an interview.  The better man wouldn't have said "Fuck that loser," but that's what I expect from polyps which can be found on Activision's ass.