Bennet Ring is the GameSpy Editor-in-Chief and is also one of the few people who can play the Diablo III beta. He uses the ENTIRE article to speculate how Diablo III would be as a FirstPerson game listing pros and cons.
Diablo III is also his very first game with an isometric view. Seems he has only played FirstPerson games before.
No need to say that he got massively flamed for his article.
I don't see any wrong with making odd comparisons. Angry Internet Men need to calm down a few tons.
The reason for some of their anger might be because the readers wanted info on gamemechanics and stuff and not some comparison they couldn't care less about.
I think it may have something to do with him being Editor-in-Chief of anything related to gaming, and not being familiar with the isometric camera angle. As a former Editor-in-Chief, I can't help at wonder as to how he got the job.
But still, he makes a few good points. I would be curious as how the Diablo world would feel made into a first person immersive experience, like Vampire TM Bloodlines, or Deus Ex, or even the classic Ultima Underworld. Games he doesn't actually mention, which he would if he actually meant to suggest that kind of first person experience, and not just a first person camera.
A part of the article is just intentional flamebait, like the part with the Diablo games not having any difficulty, that's just wrong. D2 on hell will bloody murder you every chance it gets. When I first played it, I found it difficult even on normal. The first fight against Diablo was brutal.
He does however point out that the isometric view makes the game stand out, something that a first person camera wouldn't, and that it's a great experience.
If their intention was to get hits regardless, and it certainly was, than the article is perfect. Who cares that people like me used to spend weeks researching and coming up with ideas of engaging articles, when I could just write "Why isn't Homerworld a cover based console shooter?", and get more hits than I could ever dream of.
That reminds me, look out for my new series of "Why isn't your favorite childhood game being turned into something that's a betrayal of everything it was, and how can we make it happen today."
Kind of knew it wasn't going to go down well for him when I read the article. He really should have passed that privilege to one of his staff writers that uh.....knew better than to say something like that. I don't think Diablo II is so old you can try and talk about it like it needs to be explained to a new audience.
World of Diablocraft can be a FPS debauchery. Diablo 3 is already looking to be terrible enough.
Stupid is as stupid does. ~ Forrest Gump
Gamespys part of the whole Rupert Murdoch empire. Sorta gives the spy in gamespy a whole new relevance eh?
I'm sure a spinoff would be great. So long as it was devised by the artists and not the executives.
And if it was a spinoff and not the latest release of the core game.
Why speculate? Go play Hellgate London to learn
I was on the Hellgate London test server from almost game start. So I could adjust my build as I went along.
Hellgate London was great, when it worked. On the second pass, Nightmare. Never a dull moment. I did think of it as like Diablo as a fps. I stayed in fps mode mostly with Marksman and Engineer.
So I too do not fully understand why Blizzard went isometric with Diablo 3. Yes, I am an experienced D2 player and many offshoots. I understand isometric. But getting right into the action as fps is more immersive IMHO.
I hope that Blizzard's Titan project, another mmo, learns from the D3 experience. WoW seems harmless as weak beer these days except for moments of extreme danger mostly to be found in dungeons.
Critics of different points of view on D3 should lighten up and smell the coffee. Isometric may be traditional for Diablo, but it is very old technology dating back to the time when computers were powered by hand crank generators.
It still has its place. 3d requires a different design philosophy entirely, and the first thing most games screw up on in first person perspective is the detail level.
Blizzard has experience designing Diablo game-play around the isometric perspective. Their experience with full 3d worlds is....ok. But they're working on 8 year old tech there too. Personally I still like isometric perspective games, and games that are trying to sell me full 3d have to work much harder at it. Bethesda has been doing it for years, and only now with Skryim have they really started delivering good 3d environments.
As opposed to the first person perspective that's only been around since the '70s? Technology has nothing to do with perspective. It's a choice of style and gameplay. Neither first person, nor isometric are wrong choices if they are implemented correctly. Also keep in mind that doing first person melee combat, which Diablo 3's gameplay is composed about 50% of the time, is hard. Few studios have actually managed to pull it of.
Also to the also, anyone is free to comment regarding the perspective chosen for Diablo or any other game, just as everyone else has the same freedom to prefer the old perspective. Neither side is wrong, as long as they don't intentionally troll the other side, like the Gamespy article does.
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