Diablo III Beta Impressions

[Syncourt]

I guess that's where we differ in opinion.

When I play MMOs they don't really seem 'massive' to me because I'll either play them solo or in small groups.

So MMO to me is just a game with online grouping.

So if I say that I play COD single player only, then that somehow changes the games genre to no longer include multi-player?

And you were the one having a go at me for trying to restrict the word to what I enjoy...

[Marius]

That's a bit of a stretch...

My point was I don't define MMOs by their potential number of players because it's quite irrelevant to play experience.

[nudge]

You objected to the use of the MMO term. While no-one is saying that this is the new definition of what it is to be a MMO, they are saying that it is not as far off as what your post seemed to suggest. The auction house alone makes it very similar to MMO's that use instanced quest areas, like Guild Wars and Dragon Nest.

Would it only count as an MMO if you had the ability to see everyone's avatar at the same time? Is a huge sin to call it as such to compare the changes in D3 that separate it from the games currently in the same sub-genre?

You have built up yourself as a brains trust of different sub-genre's but you seem rigid in how things fit together. What will you do if the Diablo universe starts adding instanced Auction houses that 'everybody' can move around in at the same time, or any other number of little things that will make it slowly more like recognized MMO's and less the action rpg game that it is. Will it need a new genre for you to accept discussion about it while the rest of the community are happy to just say that it shares features with MMO's.

[poida]

tomato, tomahto!

[Syncourt]

You have built up yourself as a brains trust of different sub-genre's but you seem rigid in how things fit together. What will you do if the Diablo universe starts adding instanced Auction houses that 'everybody' can move around in at the same time, or any other number of little things that will make it slowly more like recognized MMO's and less the action rpg game that it is. Will it need a new genre for you to accept discussion about it while the rest of the community are happy to just say that it shares features with MMO's.

What is it about an auction house that you think is strictly for MMO's? Why couldn't you have an action house in any other RPG, like say Dead Island that forces you to play online anyway? The other players are already logged in so why not? But doing so wouldn't make dead island an MMO and you know this. You don't need an auction house to be an MMO as there are many without one and it has absolutely nothing on defining what an MMO is.

You can't have an instanced auction room where everybody can move around because instanced is when an area is created just for your or your private group. If you mean persistent, again I'd go back to guild wars. They have persistant towns, they can class themselves as an MMO but they know that the rest of the game isnt like that so they dont base it on it.

[nudge]

So you are saying that a persistent auction house is what it would take for you to allow the term MMO mentioned while talking about Diablo or any other game? So the only thing lacking from Diablo is the fact you can't walk around in the auction house with everyone else. But you can still talk, trade, buy and sell with everyone.

[Syncourt]

So you are saying that a persistent auction house is what it would take for you to allow the term MMO mentioned while talking about Diablo or any other game?

No. If you read what I've said it would technically feature an MMO element for a small portion of the game. But it's not enough to really class the entire game as an MMO.

So the only thing lacking from Diablo is the fact you can't walk around in the auction house with everyone else. But you can still talk, trade, buy and sell with everyone.

Just like Diablo 2 hey.

[Marius]

I'm going to call it an MMO and you can't stop me.

[Syncourt]

Go for it. You're not a gaming website, so I don't expect you to be educated on game genres.

I only posted it originally because it was funny that a gaming site was classifying it to be like an MMO, when a gaming site should know better. But Tim already clarified that.

I know there are a lot of people out there who couldn't tell the difference, nor care to be able to. But again, you're not the gaming news site.

[IvanTSR]

Shouldn't I need to hate on something first before that retarded line is viable?

lol. hopefully somewhere in Origin's EULA they'll have something banning people being this annoying. there might be an upside after all.

[BillyBawb]

"Massively Multiplayer Online. Games like World of Warcraft (aka “WoW”) where there is a persistent “world” and thousands or even millions of players can interact in different parts of it simultaneously. Many different varieties exist."

I think the difference is persistent world. I don't recall d2 multi having a dedicated server that was always running 100% of the time was there? it was more P2P joining other players?

[PlasmaDavid]

So to throw a log across the rage train express line and change the subject:

There's no skill trees? You just unlock all abilities as you level up?

Where does the rune-skill-equiping system I vaguely heard about come into it?

I'm playing Diablo II LoD through properly for the first time with a bunch of mates LAN style at the moment, such insanely good fun co-oping and trading weapons etc etc

I'm not even going to cry about how much is changing in Diablo III since I'm yet to play through most of DII and it gets it so incredibly right anyway.

But after LAN same room sessions with mates I have no patience for DII online at all, probably DIII as well.

[Bronze_D]

from what i can see at least, there doesn't seems to be any skill trees.

you have a full suite to choose from and then pick a handful that suits your style.
essentially the same as guild wars or other games that used similar system.

All in all it's a more flexible way rather than the rigid tree, one can think of it as the old skill tree where you can respec any time you want outside combat, but with the added flexibility that you are not forced to travel down any skill tree to get the skill you want which is irrelevant anyway since unlike skill trees, the later skills in D3 so far doesn't seems to be strictly more powerful or anything than the previous skills, they simply add more tools to the situation.... again very similar to guild wars.

[PlasmaDavid]

So the power levelling is going to be tied in with your character stats?

ie in Diablo II Strength only affected the weapons you could wield, not the damage done. And the Skill levels determined how powerful your abilities now.

So in DIII, which factor adds power to abilities as you grow, or is it all tied in with your character stats and your equiptment?

[Serval]

So the power levelling is going to be tied in with your character stats?

ie in Diablo II Strength only affected the weapons you could wield, not the damage done. And the Skill levels determined how powerful your abilities now.

So in DIII, which factor adds power to abilities as you grow, or is it all tied in with your character stats and your equiptment?

I haven't been paying massive attention to how skills will work but I think you can only have a few active skills at a time and you can change (enhance) the effect of a skill with a rune.

This lets people plan some things, if you pick skills for the slots and then click on the circles to the right of them you can see how different runes affect different skills.