User:Tyciol/Diablo III

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Diablo III is the fan-given title to the predicted sequel to the successful Hack and Slash gaming series Diablo by Blizzard Entertainment.

Many rumours have been floating around as to whether or not Diablo III is a hoax, but several well connected gaming gurus have insisted that the leaking of rumours and job postings were done purposely by Blizzard to get the ball rolling^{[citation needed]}. Some close to Blizzard employees claim that this game has been in development for over 4 years, but was re-evaluated and is now being heavily updated and modified^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Plans

Based upon the success of the Diablo and Diablo II games and their expansion packs, and the open door left at the ending of Lord of Destruction, a third game has long been expected by fans. Blizzard released Diablo in 1996, the Hellfire expansion pack in 1997, Diablo II in 2000, and the Lord of Destruction expansion pack in 2001. Following this timeline, a Diablo III would be long overdue.

Since Diablo II, Blizzard once again explored the Warcraft environment, producing three products for it. Public plans have also been stated for Starcraft: Ghost. However no such announcements have been made for Diablo III.

[edit] Plot speculation

At the end of Diablo II and Lord of Destruction, the three prime evils Mephisto, Diablo and Baal, have all been slain and their Soulstones destroyed. The lesser demon lords Andariel and Duriel were also eliminated. Two lesser demon lords, Azmodan and Belial, still survive, and are likely enemies for the heroes. As Baal had reached the top of Mount Arreat and corrupted the Worldstone (from which the Soulstones were forged), Sanctuary is no longer divided from Heaven and Hell. This will likely increase the tide of demons flowing into the world, as well as instigating the angels to take a more active role than they have so far.

[edit] Implications

• Possible bosses: While it is likely that Diablo, Mephisto and Baal could return, there are two Lesser Evils that have not been seen in the Diablo games yet are mentioned in the Diablo game manual as well as several books in the original Diablo. They are Azmodan, the Lord of Sin and Belial, the Lord of Betrayal. There is also Lilith, the Mother of Misery and the mother of Andariel.
• Corrupted heroes: The warrior, rogue, and sorcerer of the original Diablo game were corrupted to become the Dark Wanderer (who would end up being Diablo in human form, revealed in Act III cinematics), Blood Raven, and Summoner of the sequel. Following this trend, a sequel might corrupt the Amazon, Barbarian, Necromancer, Paladin and Sorceress (and possibly Assassin and Druid) into more sinister versions for the character to battle.
• Hirelings: With the popularity of hirelings, they would probably return, although the number of hirelings a character can hire at once may exceed one. Rumours also circulate^{[citation needed]} about mounts, built upon by Blizzard's inclusion of this feature in World of Warcraft.
• Corrupted NPCs: The Diablo characters of Griswold and Wirt were both killed. Wirt is assumed killed by the cow demons, and Griswold remains in Tristram as a zombie. The status of Gillean, Adria, Pepin, Ogden, and Farnham the Drunk are unknown, although their deaths are suggested by the human remains that can be found near where each stood (with the exception of Adria) in the original Diablo. Cain is the only known survivor. While "Diablo II" contained 4 (then 5) sets of NPCs for each respective act, thus adding a much larger cast (to whom the character is less attached), it is possible they may make reappearances in a sequel in some form.
• The cow level: Capitalizing on the success of the cult favorite, the Secret Cow Level might make another appearance.
• Quest items: Items in Diablo II were often associated with characters or monsters from the past game, as well as associated as sets with plot elements.
• Guilds and Guild Houses: Guilds were one of the things promised before the release of Diablo II, but never made it in.

Here is the official announcement made by Blizzard :

"Guilds will not be in the Beta, nor in the final shipping version of Diablo II. During development it became clear that making Guilds bullet-proof, balanced, and completely secure would delay shipping Diablo II. Fundamental, major changes to the Diablo II, Battle.net, client-server architecture would be required. Testing and all-important balancing would make our fans wait even longer. In the interests of getting the game to our fans -- we had to decide to drop Guilds. Rest assured that we are exploring ways of adding Guilds after Diablo II ships."

When no patch for Diablo II included guilds, it was logical for fans to await them in Lord of Destruction, but similarly failed to receive them. Many fans expect to finally get them in the third game.

• Capes and cloaks: These were armour items in the original Diablo, but failed to make a reappearance in the sequel. Due to expanding item types, adding these in as a yet-again inferior form of armour would be simple. As these are billowy items that do not interfere as standard armour, and due to their popularity as an aesthetic addition to super-heroes and nobility, adding them as an optional second armour would be possible.
• Novels content: Kingdom of Shadow and Moon of the Spider by Richard A. Knaak and The Black Road by Mel Odom are official novels authorized by Blizzard, and may offer content regarding future plot.

Rumors of a sequel to Diablo II have been largely insubstantial, but not nonexistent.

• In early 2006, Blizzard posted a job opportunity on its website, stating: "The team behind Diablo I and II is looking for a talented, motivated, and experienced Art Director to help lead our art team in developing beautiful, cohesive game worlds for an unannounced PC Project and future projects." [1]. Listings for various game development positions within the Diablo team were simultaneously listed, as well. Among fans, this has resulted in elevated hopes for a Diablo III release.
• A show on the Space channel in Canada about science fiction art called Visions From The Edge broadcast Friday evening Dec 02/05, and later on Saturday Dec 03 at 5pm EDT, had a piece on an artist named Peter Beveridge. One of his pieces of art briefly displayed what appeared to be a demon with the word Diablo beside it and three vertical strokes running through the word Diablo^{[citation needed]}.
• Mega Games posted a false claim [2] about a message alleged to be from ex-Blizzard employee Chris Hartgraves stated:

Blizzard will also use the BlizzCon event to introduce Diablo 3 to gamers and if the excitement of Blizzard employees is anything to go by, the game will be a big deal. According to a message sent to WoW Guru by former Blizzard employee Chris Hartgraves, Diablo 3 takes place in heaven. Hell is trying to take it over and it is AWESOME looking ... Imagine the brightness of heaven being taken over by the darkness of hell ... Imagine WoW but in a Diablo world in amount of size and playability ... Also, guild housing is available in this game for those of you who know about it. They should have a gameplay demo to show at BlizzCon.

This was later shown to be a hoax, not from Hartgraves at all, and a misunderstanding founded upon the expansion for World of Warcraft, based on its name, The Burning Crusade. Many speculate that the expansion for World of Warcraft took the place of the announcement of Diablo 3 at the 2005 Blizzcon. Chris Hartgraves still holds true to his original statement and that he apparently saw Diablo 3 gameplay with his own eyes at a Blizzard employee function called "Show & Tell", where the different sections of Blizzard Ent. show the projects they have been working on. Chris Hartgraves states that BlizzCon is the new place that Blizzard will announce all the latest major news for their comapny instead of at E3 - Which would make sense since this year at E3 2006 Blizzard is only displaying their latest patch, instead of a major announcement. So look out at BlizCon 2006 this year. Also, it might be noted, that Blizzard North was completely relocated to Blizzard headquarters in Irvine, CA late in 2005 secretly.

• The gaming gossip site Kotaku posted yet another rumour[3] that Diablo 3 was being thrown out and reworked:

Rumor has it that the current work on Diablo 3 was canceled and that the game is going to be completely reworked. My tipsters tell me that Blizzard North’s work on the game was, to put it kindly, below expectations. While this is mildly disappointing, it’s nice to know that Blizzard still so zealously guards their name.

• Blizzard has registered new domain names :
• http://www.diablo3.de/
• http://www.diablo3.fr/
• http://www.diablo3.es/
• http://www.diablo3.com.au/
• According to rumors, Blizzard has purchased 1,500 Opterons servers. It is more than three times the number of servers used for World of Warcraft, so some people speculate these servers will be used for Diablo III. (source : DailyTech)
• Gaming Steeve claims many things on the developpement of Diablo III.
• At E3 2006, chief operating officer Paul Sams said Blizzard is currently developping unannounced games. (source : Gamespot)
• A musician of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra pretends having played during some recording sessions for the Diablo III soundtrack. (source : Diabloii.net)