First I apologize if this was already posted and I missed it.
I wanted to share a story I just read at IncGamers.com.
Blizzard react angrily to IncGamers David Brevik interview 20 August 2012 by Paul Younger Last night we posted an interview with Diablo creator David Brevik who is currently working on the ARPG Marvel Heroes. Over night things heated up and sadly members of the Diablo 3 development team took offence at Davids responses in our interview.
This is not how you conduct yourself When I conducted the interview I asked David to be honest and open about the latest Diablo title, after all, he had invested years in helping build up the franchise name and created two outstanding ARPGs with the first two Diablo titles.
This morning I think the whole industry was saddened to see the Blizzard Diablo 3 team hit Facebook with very uncalled for comments. Not only was David polite but he was also entitled to his opinion, just like anyone who has picked up and played Diablo 3 since launch.
Having followed Diablo 3 more closely than most, I was extremely disappointed to see that Blizzard can not take criticism from their customers or from members of the videogame industry. It is highly unprofessional to react in the way they did.
As we all know, and David quite rightly pointed out in the interview, the Diablo 3 team made some fundamental game design errors which effectively turned many of the fans off the game in a matter of weeks. Not even Blizzard can deny that Diablo 3 has been hit by massive game issues, despite being alerted to them by the community for years, which is why the Facebook responses this morning were all the more shocking.
It is refreshing when a developer speaks his/her mind, the industry needs more of it. Constructive criticism from developers and the community is of the utmost importance during a games development cycle to help make a game the best it can be. Developers need to embrace this feedback, something Blizzard has failed to do for a long time now.
As Blizzard watched players numbers drop after launch they had to take notice of the community, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime stressed in a statement to the players he wanted this to be game that was played for many years to come so action had to be taken and fast. It was only after all the backlash from the players and the lack of people actually logging in that anything was done.
Blizzard has gone back to the drawing board to sort out the endgame and intemisation with patch v1.0.4, and as a Diablo player, I am hoping that these changes will revitalise the game and help bring the franchise back to its former glory.
What the current Blizzard team seem to forget is that although Diablo 3 sold 10 million copies on release, it was the previous two games that more than helped shift these numbers. David Brevik is part of the Diablo franchise legacy and Blizzard should not forget that.
If you have not seen the interview then you can watch it below
Blizzard taking close-mindedness to the next level? by HI5 Published on 08-20-2012 05:19 PM
As probably all of you know, since release of Diablo 3 and even earlier since announcement of Mists of Pandaria - blizzard is having big issues with taking criticism. Jay Wilson, Chris Metzen and other blizzard workers are constantly trying to convince us that their semi-good ideas are brilliant and that we will love them eventually no matter what we're saying.
But just yesterday Blizzard took it to the whole new level - Jay Wilson and other Blizzard Developers has posted very non-professional and rude comments about incgamers interview with David Brevik, on Chris Haga facebook page (screen and link to the interview below). You might wonder why they've acted in such a childish way? was David Brevik rude in his interview? -no. Was he speaking honestly what he don't like about the game -yes (in a very polite way). Yet the Blizzard developers did something that professionals should never do (as example Jay Wilson comment "F**k that loser")
This is not the way professional should act, and its very sad that long year game developers company not only can't take criticism from their own customers / fans, but also from the other game developers.
You can find full article about this whole situation and the video with original interview on incgamers.com Blizzard react angrily to IncGamers David Brevik interview | IncGamers.com
I will call it now. Fire Jay Wilson and the designers under him should at least be retained to alternative projects. Get new meat into Diablo III to save it. Otherwise screw it.
There really is a huge difference between huge pre-sales through marketing and hype (D3, SWTOR) and continued success through solid gameplay (League of Legends, WoW).
I am sure I wont buy diablo 4 and sc3 when ever that comes out. Nothing new comes out with this blizzard. Is like those stupid movies sequel. I miss the old blizzard.
Change the number. More or less sh-edit. Up the graphics skin.