Why Diablo 3 Is Going To Change Everything 
I don't know about you, but I hate RPG's. In fact, I'm not sure why anyone today plays them. For one, the quality titles have a continuous subscription fee every month on top of the original purchase price of the game. Now I have no problem paying for a game up front, but to continue to pay the developer and publisher for the honor of wasting away my life on their pixels every 30 days is a bit much for me to stomach.
The second reason I really can't stand RPG's is that they're, well,
Role Playing Games. Look, it's OK to admit you were a
D&D guy back in the 80's... many were (though these folks also probably haven't played hide the salami yet with someone of the opposite sex... or phylum). But in today's fast paced and
gimme-gimme-gimme now world of instant gratification, the time involved to build up a character in an online realm is usually a long and girlfriend/spouse/job-consuming project. We just don't have enough time to really enjoy games as the average 18-50 year old male. That's because we are working, earning money to pay for all the fancy shit that this world is trying to convince us we need to make our lives better. And let's face it,
I need me some iPhone!
(the sign of the apocalypse...for my relationship in 2002!)
So needless to say, I've spent the better part of my gaming life playing FPS shooters, not sims, RTS or RPG games. Well, that was until one day when my good
Counter-Strike/Quake III buddy told me about this new game I had to try out from Blizzard:
Diablo 2. I think I played for around 5 hours the very first night I tried this game, and probably another 8 the next day...and everyday thereafter for about a year's time. In fact, I played this game like that for two time-spans in my lifetime. Sad...really, really sad... but god damned, it was fun!
But why? Why had I, the guy who regularly ripped on people who played these types of games, become so enraptured by the experience of
Diablo 2 and
Lord of Destruction? Because the game was easy to turn on, play for an hour or even thirty minutes (not that I ever did), then turn off and head back out into the real world.
Diablo 2 was much like the thinking man's shooter. It involved many of the same tactics as a shooter; being partied up, working together (ala
TFC) as a group with different character classes, ect to achieve a goal. Plus you got to blow shit up, hack shit up, freeze/burn shit up, electrify shit up, ect, ect... and who doesn't love a good gore fest!? Add in the fact that you could enhance this by equipping yourself with better weapons, armor and charms, and you've got one heck of a compelling game for someone like me that just can't wait to use a bigger gun.
Ok, ok... so now that you see why I liked
Diablo 2 so much, let me get into why I think
Diablo 3 is going to have much of the same effect on gamers worldwide.
Simply put, the world is ready for the next big game.
World of Warcraft is still the 800lb gorilla, but as popular as it is, it isn't bringing in any new players from the western world. If anything, much of
WoW's growth is from developing nations that are just finding their way to PC's and to the internet.
WoW is old enough to run well on a rather low-tech computer, and many of our recycled PC components go to overseas organizations that donate computers to lesser developed places in the world. And you can bet they're doing more than plotting the next drainage canal for their corn fields in Uganda on them.
So the fact that many EU and North American folks have had their fill of Blizzard's
World of Warcraft is reason enough to believe
Diablo 3 could be poised to become the next big online title. Games like
Conan and
Warhammer have seemingly come and gone, not sticking to the gaming community as the developers (and investors!) in those games had hoped. So in the hardcore RPG community, you have one very large base of individuals looking for that next big game to get them back into the basement, pasty white, 20lbs overweight and without employment again. That's much like the religious right when it comes to US politics. They're a large group that should be reckoned with whenever possible because of their far reaching and recorded influence in events today. Basically, nerds hold sway... whether you like it or not.
(if the nerd-herd likes Diablo 3, it's lights out for WoW)
Now onto the folks like me... and I think if you stop to ponder for a minute, you'll find that you just might be one of them. People like me are where
Diablo 3 really stands to grow Blizzard's client portfolio. We like to log on, own, get something for it (drops, ect), see our stats, log off, and get on with life. It is my belief that Blizzard has been targeting people like this for the next installment of
Diablo as much as it has been going after the hardcore
up-all-night RPG players.
I'm only guessing here, but it seems to me that Blizzard would be well served to bring us a gritty, cooperative, quest and loot-laden title to satisfy the needs of people who aren't necessarily wearing wizard robes every Saturday night, but are also not opposed to wearing one on Halloween just to show a little g33k-cred amongst friends and fellow gamers. We want an RPG title for the shooter crowd. Something we won't be ashamed to have on our desktop. Something we can play with 2-5 people for thirty minutes at a time, hack limbs off of bad guys, investigate creepy dungeons, run screaming from foes of massive scale, and bask in the victorious glow that is defeating an end-level boss and scooping up some uber-loot. And I truly believe with all of my
magic find ability that
Diablo 3 is going to bring us just those very same attributes when it ships... and in spades!
Diablo 3 is going to change much of the landscape of gaming. It will be geared at much more than the romper room style of kid's game that
World of Warcraft is. It will be aimed at those who like horror flicks, war movies and fantasy novels from time to time, as well as people that might not like any one of those things, but loves RPG titles and the
OMFG-what-did-it-drop!?!? aspect of those games the best. It will appeal to far more people than even
Diablo 1 and 2 did and it will do it convincingly.
Diablo 3 will bring us a
WoW meets
Serious Sam adventure that is loaded with goons, gore, guns (well, sorta), scary moments, awesome cut-scenes, dialogue, replayability and more. This game will be around longer than
WoW... bet me!
Now of course I could be wrong, and I will be the first to admit such should that time ever come to pass, but you'll have to tear me away from the computer for more than ten seconds to tell me I was wrong once this game arrives... and even then, I probably won't hear you over the moans and groans of what it is that is lurking around the corner and down that dark, damp passageway.
but great write up craig
