Diablo III director Jay Wilson is “very sorry” for comments he made to Blizzard North co-founder David Brevik. Earlier this week, Brevik commented that he had “mixed emotions” about Diablo III, which prompted Wilson to lash out on Facebook, commenting “F*** that loser.”
Now, Wilson has taken to battle.net, issuing an apology and shifting the conversation to focus on Diablo III and its upcoming changes. “As many of you probably know, I recently made a comment on Facebook about Dave Brevik. I want to make it clear that I am very sorry for what I said,” Wilson wrote. “I have higher expectations for myself than to express my feelings in such a rash way and disrespect a fellow developer like Dave, someone who deserves to be treated with greater respect.”
“What I said was expressed out of anger, and in defense of my team and the game,” he continued. “People can say what they want about me, but I don't take lightly when they disparage the commitment and passion of the Diablo III team. Dave is awesome. In Diablo and Diablo II, he made two of the games that have most affected me as a developer. I respect his vision for Diablo, but just like he said in his interview, the Diablo III team must drive a vision for the game that is true to us. We believe in Diablo and have stuck by it through years of hard development to make it a reality.” He later added “It was hard for me to see [the team’s] contributions be diminished by someone they worked alongside, and even harder for me not to try to jump to their defense. I only wish I'd done so in a more professional manner.”
“I'd like to apologize to all of you, the players in our community,” Wilson concluded. “You deserve better than my reaction to Dave's comments. You deserve more honest communication about the game and what we're doing to make it a more awesome experience for us all. We care about Diablo very much, and appreciate your passion for it. Without you, we wouldn't be able to do this, and for that I can't thank you enough.”
Elsewhere in the post, Wilson addressed the changes on the way to Diablo III in its 1.0.4 patch and beyond. According to Wilson, “Playing Diablo III needs to be a rewarding experience. The new legendaries are a big step in the right direction, as are tweaks to item drop rates. But I'm not convinced that we've gone far enough. If you don't have that great feeling of a good drop being right around the corner -- and the burst of excitement when it finally arrives -- then we haven't done our jobs right. Out of our concern to make sure that Diablo III would have longevity, we were overly cautious about how we handled item drops and affixes. If 1.0.4 hasn’t fixed that, you can be sure we'll continue to address it.”
Diablo III’s endgame has been a point of contention since the game’s release in May, with even Diablo III’s community manager noting that “the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game” back in July. Wilson agrees, and notes that it’s something the team at Blizzard is working on. “Many of you have stated that there needs to be more to the game than just the item hunt, and we agree completely. The Paragon system is a step in the right direction, giving meta-progress for your time in the game, but it does little to address the variety of activities you can do while playing. I don't think there’s a silver-bullet solution to this problem, but I do think we can make this aspect of the game better, and as such we're planning more than just PvP for the next major patch. Not trying to be coy, but we're still firming things up and will talk about this as soon as we can.”
Finally, Wilson addressed the game’s auction house, which he admits needs to be fixed. “The Auction House has also proven to be a big challenge. It adds a lot of power for players to trade and acquire items. Getting a great Monk drop that you can trade for better gear for your Wizard is obviously a great benefit, but it does come with a downside. The Auction House can short circuit the natural pace of item drops, making the game feel less rewarding for some players. This is a problem we recognize. At this point we're not sure of the exact way to fix it, but we’re discussing it constantly, and we believe it's a problem we can overcome.”
“While these are some of the major issues with Diablo III, they aren't the only things we're looking at,” Wilson concluded. “On a daily basis we ask ourselves if the classes are satisfying to play, if rares and champions are fun to fight, if they’re tuned well relative to normal monsters. Can we make further improvements to social elements of the game? How can items be even better? We made Diablo III because we believe in the Diablo games. We think the gameplay is awesome, the world is compelling, and it's the game we all wanted to play. Because we believe in it, we'll continue to stand by it and make it better. We are committed to making Diablo III the best Diablo game to date, and we hope you'll continue to help us do just that.”
Diablo III’s 1.0.4 patch is set to arrive in the coming weeks. In addition to changing certain skills and enemy difficulies, 1.0.4 will also improve legendary items and modify each of the game’s classes. Blizzard will also add a new Paragon system, which gives players 100 Paragon levels to work through once they reach the level cap of 60.
Wilson’s full post from today can be read over at battle.net. For even more on the upcoming changes to Diablo III, check out our interview with Wilson and senior designer Andrew Chambers.
Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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