5 ms·

Blizzard announces Diablo III

36 points by henning 18y ago

hbien 18y ago
Sweet, I <3 Blizzard because their games work on my Mac.
schtog 18y ago
I loved the first two games. Blizzard is such an amazing company, every game is so high-quality.
markbao 18y ago
Suddenly, deadlines are silently postponed for a month.
- xlnt 18y ago
  it's not out yet ;p
- whalesalad 18y ago
  Wow yes. We're never going to launch. ever. If there is one game I can play for hours on end, it was Diablo II. Cannot WAIT for this!!!!
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
  - ovi256 18y ago
    >We're never going to launch. ever. You should sue them :-P Big corporations should create good, addictive games to ensure young startups never get anything done. Oh, wait, so this is Microsoft's strategy with the XBox.
- spencerfry 18y ago
  ...I'd have to agree if it was coming out today. Good thing D3 isn't coming out until Summer 2009 (my educated guess). Furthermore, you've got SC2 this holiday season (also, just a guess) and then D3 to follow that as it was announced second.
  - andreyf 18y ago
    Furthermore, you've got SC2 this holiday season... cries why can I only have one life to live?
iamwil 18y ago
I'd like it better if this post on HN had some commentary as to why it's relevant to startups. I don't hear of too many startups having to rely on Diabolo 3 coming out to make or break them.
- wallflower 18y ago
  One example: Diablo's culture is like a startup...and they "make something people want" "Another gigantic reason for our success is our open development process. We strive to hire people who love games, and we make games that we want to play. Every member of the team has input into all aspects of the game. Discussions around the halls and at lunch become the big ideas that shape the game. A programmer suggested to a designer the concept of gem-socketed, upgradeable weapons, which turned out to be a huge crowd-pleaser. A musician's dislike for the old frog-demon's animation inspired us to redo it. As a team, we don't have to wonder what our audience wants, because we are our audience. If we like the game we are making - especially if, after two years of playing it, we are not bored to death - the game is clearly going to be a winner." http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3124/postmortem_blizzards_diablo_ii.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3124/postmortem_blizza...
- pg 18y ago
  We changed the name from "startup news" to "hacker news" over 10 months ago.
  - iamwil 18y ago
    oddly enough, I mis-typed, even though I knew it and think of it as "hacker news"
- Prrometheus 18y ago
  Some of my friends from college have a video game startup. Not every startup is a website.
- henning 18y ago
  I think studying a good, popular game will give you a lot of examples of difficult design decisions that you have to make. For example, in World of Warcraft, Blizzard intentionally decided to make the classes unbalanced in 1 versus 1 player vs player combat (one person fighting another), but instead focused on making them balanced in larger groups (3v3, 5v5, and "battlegrounds" which is potentially up to 40 players on each side). How do you make a large game environment that has a variety of environments but also feels like it's a part of a whole? How do you entice casual players to really get into the game and play for quite a while but also reward hardcore players for putting in lots of time? There are so many tradeoffs to make, and considering what an organization like Blizzard must have had to think about is a good exercise.
gms 18y ago
My life is over.
anr 18y ago
Diablo I & II were the last games I played. I stayed away from computer games because I don't need another time-sink. And then I read about Diablo III... The thing is highly addictive. The diablo-receptors in my brain already started firing :-)
LPTS 18y ago
I must play this game until my fingers wear off. I wish I could start today. I've been sitting there hitting refresh for over a day now. They need to hurry. Another few months of checking for D3 updates 240 times an hour and this becomes unhealthy. This looks like a mona lisa of a video game. I haven't wanted to play a game this bad since that last metroid game came out.
daniel-cussen 18y ago
If this were online, and free, I'd be sniped so hard. http://xkcd.com/356/ http://xkcd.com/356/ Luckily, I don't buy games.
pavelludiq 18y ago
I remember 2001 i was 11 and me and a buddy of mine went to a computer club to play D2. We started the game, conected with each other, but i played with someone elses carecter and we robed him. We made a lot of gold and then got beat up by the owner of the character. I miss those days, i didn't care about anything and i was happy playing for hours(i didn't own a PC then so those hours cost money). Now i only wonder which one should i choose, playing Diablo 3 or studying for my math exam next year, or getting a girlfriend?Blizzard, why are you so cruel to meeee!

36 points by henning 18y ago

hbien 18y ago

Sweet, I <3 Blizzard because their games work on my Mac.

schtog 18y ago

I loved the first two games. Blizzard is such an amazing company, every game is so high-quality.

markbao 18y ago

Suddenly, deadlines are silently postponed for a month.

xlnt 18y ago
it's not out yet ;p
whalesalad 18y ago
Wow yes. We're never going to launch. ever. If there is one game I can play for hours on end, it was Diablo II. Cannot WAIT for this!!!!
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- ovi256 18y ago
  >We're never going to launch. ever. You should sue them :-P Big corporations should create good, addictive games to ensure young startups never get anything done. Oh, wait, so this is Microsoft's strategy with the XBox.
spencerfry 18y ago
...I'd have to agree if it was coming out today. Good thing D3 isn't coming out until Summer 2009 (my educated guess). Furthermore, you've got SC2 this holiday season (also, just a guess) and then D3 to follow that as it was announced second.
- andreyf 18y ago
  Furthermore, you've got SC2 this holiday season... cries why can I only have one life to live?

iamwil 18y ago

I'd like it better if this post on HN had some commentary as to why it's relevant to startups. I don't hear of too many startups having to rely on Diabolo 3 coming out to make or break them.

wallflower 18y ago
One example: Diablo's culture is like a startup...and they "make something people want" "Another gigantic reason for our success is our open development process. We strive to hire people who love games, and we make games that we want to play. Every member of the team has input into all aspects of the game. Discussions around the halls and at lunch become the big ideas that shape the game. A programmer suggested to a designer the concept of gem-socketed, upgradeable weapons, which turned out to be a huge crowd-pleaser. A musician's dislike for the old frog-demon's animation inspired us to redo it. As a team, we don't have to wonder what our audience wants, because we are our audience. If we like the game we are making - especially if, after two years of playing it, we are not bored to death - the game is clearly going to be a winner." http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3124/postmortem_blizzards_diablo_ii.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3124/postmortem_blizza...
pg 18y ago
We changed the name from "startup news" to "hacker news" over 10 months ago.
- iamwil 18y ago
  oddly enough, I mis-typed, even though I knew it and think of it as "hacker news"
Prrometheus 18y ago
Some of my friends from college have a video game startup. Not every startup is a website.
henning 18y ago
I think studying a good, popular game will give you a lot of examples of difficult design decisions that you have to make. For example, in World of Warcraft, Blizzard intentionally decided to make the classes unbalanced in 1 versus 1 player vs player combat (one person fighting another), but instead focused on making them balanced in larger groups (3v3, 5v5, and "battlegrounds" which is potentially up to 40 players on each side). How do you make a large game environment that has a variety of environments but also feels like it's a part of a whole? How do you entice casual players to really get into the game and play for quite a while but also reward hardcore players for putting in lots of time? There are so many tradeoffs to make, and considering what an organization like Blizzard must have had to think about is a good exercise.

gms 18y ago

My life is over.

anr 18y ago

Diablo I & II were the last games I played. I stayed away from computer games because I don't need another time-sink. And then I read about Diablo III... The thing is highly addictive. The diablo-receptors in my brain already started firing :-)

LPTS 18y ago

I must play this game until my fingers wear off. I wish I could start today. I've been sitting there hitting refresh for over a day now. They need to hurry. Another few months of checking for D3 updates 240 times an hour and this becomes unhealthy. This looks like a mona lisa of a video game. I haven't wanted to play a game this bad since that last metroid game came out.

daniel-cussen 18y ago

If this were online, and free, I'd be sniped so hard. http://xkcd.com/356/ http://xkcd.com/356/ Luckily, I don't buy games.

pavelludiq 18y ago

I remember 2001 i was 11 and me and a buddy of mine went to a computer club to play D2. We started the game, conected with each other, but i played with someone elses carecter and we robed him. We made a lot of gold and then got beat up by the owner of the character. I miss those days, i didn't care about anything and i was happy playing for hours(i didn't own a PC then so those hours cost money). Now i only wonder which one should i choose, playing Diablo 3 or studying for my math exam next year, or getting a girlfriend?Blizzard, why are you so cruel to meeee!