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Blizzard: DRM For Diablo III? No, Thanks, We Have Battle.net
Posted by Michael McWhertor at 3:00 PM on October 16, 2008
Rob Pardo, executive vice president of game design at Blizzard says that the company has "no particular plans" to institute software verification checks for Diablo III to prevent piracy. Pardo tells Wired's Game|Life blog that its solution is "more similar to Steam than EA," good news for Diablo fans who don't want a steaming pile of anti-piracy debacle a la Mass Effect on their hands.
Over the last couple of days I've briefly touched on Diablo III's new rune system, but after talking a bit with the game's lead can designer Jay Wilson I figured the system warranted it's own post. You see, while past games have featured items that augment the powers of your abilities, the massive scope of the rune system sets it apart.
Remember that excited feeling you got when you first killed a monster in the original Diablo? How you knew that this was going to be a game that ate a great deal of your life? And then Diablo II came out, and it was pretty much the same feeling as Diablo I, only updated for the computer systesm of the day, somehow maintaining the same level of excitement and fun as the original? Well I've just gotten a chance to play through a half hour of Diablo III, and damn if I don't have that same giddy feeling all over again.
I'd have to say that the very best cosplay I've seen at BlizzCon 2008 I've sadly seen without a camera. Like the two girls dressed up as a demon and a Draenei, kissing each other as I rushed to an interview with the lead designer on StarCraft II. Priorities won out in the end, but I will forever carry the image etched in my mind. Here's a selection of some of the costumes I did manage to catch on film. Oddly enough, the pirate is a girl I've known for nearly 10 years now and hadn't seen in nearly six of them. Smallish world after all, isn't it?
I just got out of a brief interview with Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson, where we discussed a few things about the role of gender in video games and the new rune system in Diablo III, but the whole time I was in there I couldn't take my eyes off of his t-shirt. I've seen it around the convention, but this was my first chance to see it up close. Behold, the new logo for Diablo III. I really dig the ponies.
Blizzard followed up the announcement of the wizard class for Diablo III at the opening ceremonies of BlizzCon 2008 with a Diablo III design panel, during which designer Wyatt Cheng explained some of the powers and background of the latest addition to the fight against evil. The wizard isn't about drawing runes or casting bones. The wizard is a character class that manipulates the laws of the universe in order to get things done. She's all about High Magic - no alchemy, no scrolls, no mystical symbols - just explosions, explosions, and more explosions.
Anyone keeping score in the 'will Diablo III appear on a console' stakes can add another tiny tick to the Yay! side of the board.
The folks at Blizzard don't beat around the bush when it comes to their swag. You show up to pick up your badge, and bam, big bag of swag, for you! Once I got back to my secret lair at the fashionable Super 8 Hotel, I did what many folks who have stayed in this hotel in the past have done before me - I spread it out and started taking pictures.
