Diablo III Wild Speculation and Rumor Mongering Abounds

[Lakov_Sanite]

To reply/comment on my own post: Bayonetta was an over the top sexually charged devil-may-cry type game. In a setting like that, high heels are not only ok but to be expected. Diablo on the other hand has always been a fairly serious setting to me, maybe some disagree but blizzard had warcraft for the cartoony stuff and diablo for 'teh serious' but now diablo is going high heels and uzi-crossbows.

[Musashi]

Really though, hunting demons in stillettos is about as practical as hunting them on stilts.  Also her run animation looks stupid, which is what annoys me.

It's also about as practical and hunting demons in running shoes or combat boots, as in it's not.  It's all fantasy so why get all uptight about it?

This has always been, and will always be, a retarded argument. But you've won me over, my next D&D game will feature a technological moon base inhabited by smurfs named after pop culture characters, because hey, it's magic, why get worried about 'realism' or 'consistency'.

Dude.  It's not retarded at all.  Worrying about realism or consistency in a fantasy game is retarded.  It's like double retarded, bolded, italicized and underlined.  

It's people who worry about shit like that who totally miss the god damn point of playing games in the first place.  You know.  Fun.  My D&D character is a Minotaur Barbarian named 'Dookie.'  Every time I kill something I shit on its chest.  Every time there's something important, I pee on it.  They guys I play with test shit for WotC.  Now you'd think they would not want to play with an asshole like me.  But, actually having been in on games where some god damn mother fucker has to spend a half an hour explaining lore, I can tell you that I'm pretty sure they don't mind.  We have fun.  We drink beer.  We roll dice.  We eat pizza.  Who fucking cares what my character shits on or your smurfs are doing in outer space?

[Ingmar]

None of this surprises me about you, though.  

EDIT: I'm also not making my point very clear, apparently. I'm not saying 'nobody can ever have anything wacky ever'. I'm saying that when you're all GRR GRIM GRITTY DIABLO and then she cartwheels in on her high heels shooting her dual pistols like it's the Matrix, the game loses something. I would be bothered the same way if say No One Lives Forever, a game where fighting in heels and silly jokes and the like would be entirely appropriate, suddenly took a turn into LA Noire super-serious land.

[Rasix]

Can we stop hyper-dorking threads for just an hour or two?  

edit:

Musashi's "Dookie" story aggravated my acid reflux a bit, I'll admit.  However, my most favorite console game ever went from super serious drama "wah, I'm depressed since my girlfriend sacrificed herself for me" to a jokey scene with a gay pro-wrestler vampire being play tortured by a scantily clad dominatrix.

I think you can be a little silly-stupid with Diablo without ruining it.

[Sheepherder]

Diablo on the other hand has always been a fairly serious setting to me

Have you seriously never played a barbarian?

[Fordel]

Can we stop hyper-dorking threads for just an hour or two? 

We can try, will we succeed though? 

[Malakili]

Really though, hunting demons in stillettos is about as practical as hunting them on stilts.  Also her run animation looks stupid, which is what annoys me.

It's also about as practical and hunting demons in running shoes or combat boots, as in it's not.  It's all fantasy so why get all uptight about it?

This has always been, and will always be, a retarded argument. But you've won me over, my next D&D game will feature a technological moon base inhabited by smurfs named after pop culture characters, because hey, it's magic, why get worried about 'realism' or 'consistency'.

Dude.  It's not retarded at all.  Worrying about realism or consistency in a fantasy game is retarded.  It's like double retarded, bolded, italicized and underlined.  

It's people who worry about shit like that who totally miss the god damn point of playing games in the first place.  You know.  Fun.  My D&D character is a Minotaur Barbarian named 'Dookie.'  Every time I kill something I shit on its chest.  Every time there's something important, I pee on it.  They guys I play with test shit for WotC.  Now you'd think they would not want to play with an asshole like me.  But, actually having been in on games where some god damn mother fucker has to spend a half an hour explaining lore, I can tell you that I'm pretty sure they don't mind.  We have fun.  We drink beer.  We roll dice.  We eat pizza.  Who fucking cares what my character shits on or your smurfs are doing in outer space?

Not everyone has fun the same way.  Your version of a fun D&D session sounds like one I'd never go back to.  Thats FINE, I don't really care how your group plays, but the fact that you enjoy it doesn't make someone else's fun "retarded."  I don't give a shit about heels in D3 when it comes down to it, but I can certainly understand why that type of thing matters to some people.  Its more or less the same reason extreme realism mods are popular for stuff like Fallout 3.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Diablo was not silly, the action was over the top but the setting always took itself seriously and for the most part this look to be more of the same.  Which is why the heels/uzi's stick out, they don't seem to fit with the setting.  You can't just say because it's fantasy that anything goes, I couldn't imagine a more childish explanation. Shall we ride unicorns into hell and face diablo wearing kilts made out of bannanas? I mean its FANTASY right?

Fantasy can be over the top, it can be cartoony, it can be serious with some comedic bits. You can pretty much do anything you want so long as you are internally consistent.

[Paelos]

Yeah I never thought of Diablo being campy or ridiculously out there. It was just darker, creepier, and had the music and ambiance to set a very cool tone. The story is pretty well told in cutscenes what little of it that actually show you.

[Ratman_tf]

Dude. They've got a witch doctor in this one. Ooga Booga!



The goofy ship sailed a few years go.

[Sheepherder]

Which is why the heels/uzi's stick out, they don't seem to fit with the setting.

Again, barbarian with claymore in each hand slowly rotating into combat.

[Teleku]

STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP






Seriously.  Game over.  This discussion has gone far enough, and I'm sorry I contributed.  You hate the style or you don't.  For the love of god just stop on the style/fashion comentary and discuss the game.  PLEASE.  Lets talk about game mechanics or something.  No more discussion about the realism of the game.  For the love of god please.  I want to have a real flame war over if this game will be worth while or not.  Or we could keep calling each other fags.  At least, lets do it over game play, not fashion.

[Furiously]

Stay awhile and listen.. I didn't see 8 inch stilettos or bondage ballet slippers. Bloodrayne taught me fighting in those is totally easy.

Is it pandering? Perhaps a bit. Is it going to ruin the game? I guess we'll see.

[Amaron]

I'm personally firmly on the side of the argument that says "Make the woman sexy and damn the PC".   Heels are just a dumb choice though.  It is a make believe model which can have legs of any length/shape.   The heels don't even make it look sexier.

[K9]

[Lantyssa]

I'm personally firmly on the side of the argument that says "Make the woman sexy and damn the PC".   Heels are just a dumb choice though.  It is a make believe model which can have legs of any length/shape.   The heels don't even make it look sexier.

It's not sexy that concerns me.  It's not even fetishism that bothers me.  I'd find a gimp mask equally as silly as far as appearance goes.  That's not my objection though.

But I think this bit has really run its course.  My displeasure is noted.  Move along.  Move along.

[Amaron]

It's not sexy that concerns me.  It's not even fetishism that bothers me.  I'd find a gimp mask equally as silly as far as appearance goes.  That's not my objection though.

No I understood your objection.  I was simply agreeing they are objectionable and since I don't care about them I also agree it is dumb to add them.   Bikini armor is also objectionable but it's HOT so it stays.

[Margalis]

To reply/comment on my own post: Bayonetta was an over the top sexually charged devil-may-cry type game. In a setting like that, high heels are not only ok but to be expected. Diablo on the other hand has always been a fairly serious setting to me, maybe some disagree but blizzard had warcraft for the cartoony stuff and diablo for 'teh serious' but now diablo is going high heels and uzi-crossbows.

It's fairly clear at this point that all paths at Blizzard lead to WoW.

I mean ffs Starcraft 2 has what are essentially WoW characters in it.

[Ingmar]

I mean ffs Starcraft 2 has what are essentially WoW characters in it.

Come again?

[Ironwood]

Yeah, I'm struggling with that one myself.  Eh ?

[calapine]

Come again?

Yeah, I'm struggling with that one myself.  Eh ?

Maybe he means the mechanic in the armor bay on the ship, the one who is basically a dwarf in disguise. Picture  

[Sheepherder]

I mean ffs Starcraft Diablo 2 has what are essentially WoW characters in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSlGQpvl_IA

[Malakili]

It also has a dancing night elf.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOiiCEMu-7Q

[Ironwood]

Weak connection is weak.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I think what he is trying to say is that stylistically starcraft has as the name implies, always been warcraft but in space. People have cartoonish bodytypes and the science is very over the top, almost fantasy sci-fi.  So blizzard had cartoony fantasy, cartoony sci-fi and then they had diablo for the more realistic dark horror approach.  Except now Diablo is getting more and more cartoony(it seems)

[Margalis]

No, I mean specifically Starcraft 2 has a dwarf, Spectre is basically a troll, it has the dancing Night Elf and a Tauren Space Marine. There's also Warcraft stuff in the Battle.net portraits (Pandaren marine, etc). Plotwise SC and WC seem to be converging as well. Remember when SC2 came out there was a fair bit of disappointment over both the plot and how it was delivered. Tonally I also think SC2 changed in ways that make it more similar to Warcraft than it was before.

One thing to remember is that Diablo used to be made a different group, and that Warcraft, SC and Diablo were all top-tier franchises. At this point I think it's safe to say that Warcraft sits by itself on top of the heap at Blizzard.

Even at non-Blizzard companies Warcraft is an extremely common touchstone for everything from systems to art. So many people have played it it's just extremely easy to talk about things in WoW terms. If some guy is working on an enemy he's a lot more likely to say "let's make him like so-and-so Warcraft guy" than he is to reference just about anything else in the entire world.

I would also point out that the "Blizzard art style" didn't exist until WoW. Up until that point different franchises had distinct looks. Now everyone just accepts the fact that there is a single unified art style at Blizzard - the WoW one. To me WoW bleeding into other Blizzard projects is basically a given.

[Ironwood]

 

[Amaron]

Remember when SC2 came out there was a fair bit of disappointment over both the plot and how it was delivered.

Sorry I don't remember that.   I thought the way SC2's story was delivered was pretty much the best part about SC2.

I would also point out that the "Blizzard art style" didn't exist until WoW.

 

[Margalis]

If anything to me older Blizzard games are characterized by darker, muted color palettes (especially background elements) and a vaguely European aesthetic. Not just Diablo - Blackthorne, Rock and Roll Racing, Lost Vikings, etc.

Hell look at Warcraft Adventures. That's basically an animated cartoon game but it also looks a lot more European to me than Disney-esque.

[K9]

Diablo 2 was a rainbow orgy of special effects in every colour under the sun.

The aesthetics are all fine. Like all blizzard games, they are very very polished, that's the main uniting factor.

[Ratman_tf]

Remember when SC2 came out there was a fair bit of disappointment over both the plot and how it was delivered.

Sorry I don't remember that.   I thought the way SC2's story was delivered was pretty much the best part about SC2.

It's a pretty common complaint. I don't see it as any worse that most vidya gaem stories, myself.

[Murgos]

Diablo 2 was a rainbow orgy of special effects in every colour under the sun.

This is the truth.  It's only in the hindsight of a decade of change that it looks muted and drab, and there are enough screenshots of D2 floating around to disprove that it ever was entirely muted and drab.

[Amaron]

Not just Diablo - Blackthorne, Rock and Roll Racing, Lost Vikings, etc.

Diablo was made by North.   It's sort of inevitable that it was different.   WoW's current art style definitely started with Warcraft 1 though.

[Fordel]

SC2's story is as shitty as SC1's story, it's just most people were very young when they played SC1 and didn't realize how retarded it all was.

[Malakili]

SC2's story is as shitty as SC1's story, it's just most people were very young when they played SC1 and didn't realize how retarded it all was.

At least in Starcraft 1 Raynor wasn't a bro.