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Diablo III

Diablo III Patch 1.0.7

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diablo screenshot 1

Well, patch time is upon us yet again and this time Diablo III is getting all of the attention. Blizzard has made patch 1.0.7 live and with it comes some nice features.

The Jeweler and Blacksmith will now possess new recipes which will be account bound and have an iLevel of 63.  A new tier of account-bound gems of has also been added to the game, Marquise. For Players who are looking to fight each other, you will now be able to do just that in a new zone called, “The Scorched Chapel.”  Players can duel with up to four players in a “free-for-all” fighting environment. This addition also comes along with a brand new PvP chat channel, so you can brag about how awesome you are.

As always the patch also contains various tweaks and bug fixes, which you can read a complete list of on Blizzard’s official Diablo III community site.

Here are a few of the major bug fixes introduced in this patch:

  • Fixed an issue where new Hardcore characters were not labeled as Hardcore on the Main Menu
  • Fixed an error that could occur when closing the World of Warcraft client while the Diablo III client was still running
  • Players will now be properly removed from both the party and the game session whenever a Vote Kick has passed
  • Players will no longer be disconnected from the game whenever vote kicked during a boss encounter
  • Legendary items now have a new mini-map icon
  • This icon should now persist properly and be shown on the mini-map so long as the player is in the same zone as the dropped item
  • Rare Sand Dwellers will now spawn in The Forgotten Ruins
  • Champion Plague Swarms will now spawn in Cryder’s Outpost
  • Champion Fallen Cur will now spawn in The Storm Halls
  • Goldskin will no longer proc when attacking monsters that drop no loot
  • Plans: Staff of Herding can now be dropped on the ground, or sold to a vendor for 0 gold
  • All Staves of Herding can now be sold to a vendor for 0 gold

Jay Wilson Moves On From Diablo III

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Jay Wilson has been Game Director for Diablo III for seven years now and has done an amazing job. However, Jay will be leaving Diablo III behind as he moves on to other projects at Blizzard Entertainment. In a post on battle.net, Jay mentions that although he will no longer be working directly on Diablo III, it doesn’t mean that Diablo will be anything less than amazing. He continued on to say that Diablo isn’t the work of just one person and the team who created Diablo III will still continue to support the game.

“I recently celebrated my seven-year anniversary working on Diablo III, and while it’s been one of the most challenging and rewarding periods of my life, I’ve reached a point creatively where I’m looking forward to working on something new. The powers that be at Blizzard have been gracious enough to give me that opportunity. Over the course of the next several weeks, I will be moving off of the Diablo III project and transitioning elsewhere within Blizzard. This decision was not an easy one for me, and not one I made quickly, but ultimately it’s what I feel is right.”

Jay-Wilson
Jay Wilson( Credit: Flux, DiabloWiki)

Jay Wilson is an incredibly talented man with a passion for what he does and it really shows up in his work. Like many others that work at Blizzard, Jay consistently thanks the fans for their support and in his post about leaving Diablo III, he does just that.

If you haven’t watched any of his videos about the Diablo III development process I would encourage you to check them out. You can see an interview with Jay Wilson where he is discussing a bit about Diablo here.

The original post about him leaving the Diablo III team is on battle.net and can be found here.

Diablo III Expansion Confirmed

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Yes, it is official a Diablo III expansion is in progress. Mike Morhaime of Blizzard Entertainment confirmed the expansion during an earnings call.diablo3logo

The details are limited at this time and we don’t have any hints towards how much progress has been made on the new expansion, but knowing Blizzard’s reputation for releasing games when they are “ready”, it’s probably safe to say it’s going to be a little while. Opinion of Diablo III is split down the middle as many fans were disappointed in some aspects of the game. The lack of an offline gameplay mode was disappointing  for long time Diablo fans who didn’t want to have to deal with server issues just to play the game by themselves.

The controversial real money auction house (RMAH), has some gamers claiming that is takes away one of the major incentives to keep playing the game, finding loot. Diablo III has seen some improvement through the release of patch 1.0.5, but something still feels likes it’s missing. I think that Blizzard should move their focus away from some of the previously mentioned features and really fine-tune the gameplay experience itself. Hopefully we will see this next expansion reinvigorate Diablo with not only new lands and lore to explore but adding or removing, some key features.

diablo screenshot 1

Regardless of how you feel about Diablo III, Activision has stated that the game is the #1 bestselling game in dollars and units on the PC in the U.S. and Europe since it’s launch. I had a feeling the game would sell well considering how many players still love Diablo II and it’s expansion, Lord of Destruction. The real question is whether or not those same people who originally bought the game will continue to stick with Diablo and purchase the new expansion.

As always we will keep you informed on the latest details surrounding the D3 expansion.

Diablo III and the Paragon System

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Blizzard has introduced a new Paragon system for Diablo players.Diablo3 Box Art Once you hit level 60 all of your experience gained goes toward Paragon levels. You will gain an over core stat increase each time you reach a new Paragon level, similar to normal leveling.

A new portrait system has been introduced that changes every ten levels just to let others know how awesome you are. There will be a Magic and Gold find cap of 300% and the amount of time investment needed to attain the final levels of the new Paragon system will be similar to the time needed to reach level 99 in Diablo II.

I am excited to see many of the other changes that have come along in patch 1.0.4 and I feel Blizzard is really making a good attempt to add more depth to the game. This recent patch has my imagination running again as I think of how Diablo III  is in many ways just getting started.

The latest patch for Diablo III is now live and all the details, including the Paragon system, can be found on the Diablo III community site here.

Diablo III Player Makes $10,000

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Diablo III

WishboneTheDog, managed to make more than $10,000 using the real money auction house in Blizzards’ Diablo III. He has even posted a Reddit AMA showcasing his work.
He claims that it’s all completely legit and earned his cash by diving into the games economics. He mentions that he has been enjoying playing around with item markets in other games such as Neopets for years and used many of the same techniques.

Making the move towards the use of real money in video games has been a controversial subject and it still remains to be seen how well these types of gaming features stand up to the test of time. Many players however have embraced the idea of spending hard earned cash for video game progression. Don’t forget about the many apps we use on our mobile devices that ask for cash in order to gain levels or grab special items to move past all of your friends and level up.

As long as gamers are not being punished for not wanting to participate with real money then I don’t see why these features can’t exist. We already spend a lot of money on our favorite games to begin with.