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Interview Diablo Creator David Brevik Discusses Diablo 3 at IncGamers

Crooked Bee

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Tags: Blizzard Entertainment; Blizzard North; David Brevik; Diablo III

IncGamers offer an interview with David Brevik, a co-founder of Blizzard North and the developer behind the first two Diablo games, in which he criticizes the approach Blizzard took with Diablo 3. The interview is rather short, so I will quote it in full here:

IncGamers: You are very well known in the world of ARPGs, and I am going to ask you, Diablo 3 is probably the most anticipated PC title in 10 years. What’s your opinion on the final product?

David Brevik: Honestly, I think that they did a lot of the things the best they could, it was a very different game than I would have created, the team and personalities, the people, the talent and all the design philosophies of the people that worked on it in Irvine, we called them Blizzard South, those people have their own style and the their own way they like to design. It was very, very different from the Blizzard North.

So I think that when Blizzard South took over the development of Diablo 3 it was inevitable that they were going to create an experience that was in the Diablo theme but concentrated more towards the things that they liked to experience. Including more story and things like that.

When Blizzard North shut down they lost a ton of experience with why the Action RPG works and what about it works. That’s really difficult to recover from. They didn’t have the experience of people that knew it well. This is why you do things with random levels for example, and so when you lose that experience you are going to create a very different experience in the end than we would have created.

IncGamers: Do you think they bought the wrong people in? As we understand, Jay Wilson, for example, his background was RTS. From our point of view it looked like they misunderstood what kept people playing, The type of loot drops, which has been a big issues. One of the other issues is they have not listened to their community, and they have not anlaysed what makes up that addictive Diablo experience. What are your thoughts on that?

David Brevik: Well, the loot system. They made some decisions with the loot system that were very different than the way that we did it in Diablo 2 and I think that obviously the community has been upset with some of the decisions they made. Having all of your powers work off your main weapon and things like that, to having blues that are more powerful than yellows. Eventually the auction house and how that worked, even something as simple as when you equip an item and it’s bound to your character permanently would have totally changed the dynamic of the game.

It seems odd that they have not really responded in a quick fashion to some of these things. I think they are very well aware of the problems at this point and are trying to fix some of this stuff. It’s a shame that they had to learn some of these painful lessons

IncGamers: As you created Diablo, how do you feel about it? Do you feel a little let down that the legacy has kind of been mashed up?

David Brevik: I have very mixed emotions about it (laughs). On one hand I am sad that people haven’t enjoyed Diablo because it’s a love, a passion, and its obvious people still have a giant love and passion for Diablo and they are speaking out about it because they have such love for it. That makes me feel great.

I am sad because people are outraged and, you know, some of the decision they have made are not the decisions I would make and there have been changes in philosophy and that hasn’t gone over very well. I think in that way I am a little sad.

I am also a little happy, which I hate to say, it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was and how unique and special that group was. I am hoping that, as this happens very often in the industry, you see it with Call of Duty and things like that , when the people leave the game changes and it shows how critical people are in this industry.

IncGamers: One of the questions the Gazillion guys asked me to ask you was, where did the name Diablo come from?

David Brevik: I thought of the game when I was in high school and I lived in the east part of San Francisco in a town called Danville and I loved at the base of Mount Diablo and that’s where the name comes from. Once I found out what the mountain name was, I thought that was awesome, I didn’t speak Spanish, so I thought I wanted to use that as a title for a nemesis in a videogame. It’s simply from where I lived.​

Source. (NB: The source article is down at the moment of posting due to a database error.)
 

Zed

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I'm glad he's honest. Diablo 3 is a complete disaster in terms of game design.

The game has fun hack n' slash combat, but that's only fun for a little while. The upcoming patch seems to correct a lot of balance issues with the game, but the linearity and story will still hinder the game from ever becoming good. It's like improving cookware to cook a piece of shit a little better.

The designers at Blizzard have become incompetent. Like BioWare, they suffer from talent leaving their studio and starting their own things. I don't know when this started to become a big problem, but probably around the time North was shut down. Poor design in many areas has been painfully obvious in the latest WoW expansions, Diablo 3 and even the upcoming SC2 expansion. Their reputation of having a "it's done when it's done" quality assurance approach have gone down the shitter.

It also feels like they're focusing more and more on game services rather than the games. Another problem is that they suck at game services as well. This could very well be an evil introduced with the Activision merger. I don't remember when it was, but when they were about to introduce "must use real names on forums" was probably a turning point for the worse. They obviously flip-flopped on that particular issue after a big outcry from the gaming community, but they made their intentions clear. More protection, more isolation, more DRM - more reliance on service maintenance and external parties.
 

IronicNeurotic

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Jay Wilson responds with the mature depth of a D3 dev.

sQBJ0.png
 

Zed

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"Fuck that loser."

Extreme butthurt detected.
 

Twinkle

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Shit, and this guy made some of the most imaginative and memorable levels for Blood. Holy cow, how deep can you sink over the course of 15 years?
 

Infinitron

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Re: echochambers
You can probably count the number of game developers capable of self-criticism on one hand. Maybe two.
 

DraQ

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When Blizzard North shut down they lost a ton of experience with why the Action RPG works and what about it works. That’s really difficult to recover from. They didn’t have the experience of people that knew it well.​
Mushroom farming methodology at work - thank you Activision!​

I'm glad he's honest. Diablo 3 is a complete disaster in terms of game design.
More like blizzaster.
:smug:

Jay Wilson responds with the mature depth of a D3 dev.

sQBJ0.png

:what:

Hand me my pith helmet and heplerphant gun. :obviously:
 
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I really care nothing of any of these games but this is some very valid criticism, and to be honest I am disappointed that he tip-toes so cautiously around communicating his honest feelings in order to avoid directly antagonising anyone. He is clearly thinking "I really hated it and I feel smug that they failed after throwing our ideas out and substituting in their own" but really it fails to communicate the extent of this. I get the way the industry works and you can't be badmouthing everyone but if there was a current of integrity then people wouldn't be so scared of and outraged at valid criticisms as they are and would instead embrace them and learn to respect people who speak their mind via constructive criticism. The world is too full of veiled opinions and fake performances as it is.

I'm surprised at those people shown above who act like he is some rude upstart that didn't hold back at all. It doesn't even matter who makes the criticism, only what is said and it's valid. I've spoken my thoughts on this "Jay Wilson" pretty clearly before now, but yet again, a "leader" in the gaming industry surprises me with a new utter low in both professionalism and human decency. Being able to take criticism is the bare minimum required to be a professional in a creative field. Him and everyone like him needs to find a new industry to pollute.
 

FeelTheRads

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:lol:

Highschool level butthurt.

You did the best game ever, he just did that piece of shit. You're a much, much better man. *slurp slurp slurp*

Also funny how working on a game now means making that game. Random technical artist (sounds like a made-up job to me) created Diablo 3, just so you know.
 
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Pompous bastards. No wonder Diablo 3 is so shit. And their "fixes" are so slow and shallow even as the game fails more and more. And mainly concentrate on RMAH. :roll: O Blizzard North where art thou? :(

Btw. most of the things this guy says were complaints from players since the beta. And they completely ignored it, till now, when their glorious money grabbing scheme of RMAH failed. Now they started thinking about keeping a large player base. To bad the original Blizzard North can't replace Jay Wilson and co. At least for future expansions. They could actually make a good Diablo game. When your vision of a game is rotten from the beginning you can't change anything other than lying (because they are obviously satisfied with the game they made, it's just that so little people play the game and more and more quit - now that surprises them - they want $$$ from RMAH) and changing superficial things.
 

Scruffy

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so the fact that "diablo" is a devil is just a coincidence? Yeah, no, i don't believe that.
 

Hobo Elf

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Just sit back and close your eyes. Go back to the 90's. Imagine what Blizzard was like then. Now open your eyes and wake up. Look at Blizzard now. Fuck them all. I'm tired of this shit industry and all its people who take criticism against the games as a personal attack.
 

Ion Prothon II

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The biggest target group of modern games are kiddies, so it's not reasonable to expect the developers to act like adults.
 

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