"As we’re working to create Diablo III we’re also working to create a more visually complete Sanctuary"

Would this elude to a future "next-gen" mmo?  Since they want us to have a better understanding and concept of the world of sanctuary?

Yea, could be something down the line, fleshing out the world for more games or an MMO.

Two points: They draw a lot more concept art than they turn into final game stuff.  The artists (though like, 95% of what they’ve released has been by Peter Lee) spend years turning out interesting ideas and theories, and of course not all of it makes it into the final game. That includes character outfit ideas, monster types, and areas.

Or, this could be for an expansion, or some kind of bonus content. They’ve not said anything about expansion or “continuing revenue” plans. We know they want to make some money in an ongoing fashion, and we know there won’t be a straight MMO-style monthly fee. So pay for expansion areas? More online content? or maybe just D2X-style expansions.  They’re keeping their options open, or at least not committing to anything this early in the process.

I hope for a good old classic expansion with one or two more acts to play. After that, I don’t mind if they go MMO style with the Diablo franchise. That’s probably how it will turn out to be.

Diablo Online, StarCraft Online… Blizzard has work and money secured for at least 10-15 years with their current franchises.

It seems from Bashiok’s tone that he blames the players for the min/maxing phenomenon.  Well what do you expect if you make a game that rewards players with items for doing repetitive tasks?  The players want the reward so they’ll do those repetitive tasks and forget about the "game experience."  What’s more is that they’re going to find the most efficient ways to do so!

The real solution is to provide rewards for effort put into "playing the game" that are comparable to the rewards for effort put into grinding.  It’s simple economics: if you want people to do something, you have to give them "monetary" incentive to do so.

Must blizzard attack all the aspects of replayability in Diablo 2? Are they really going to come up with better things, that actually will make people want to keep playing D3 for over eight years or more?

I don’t think they’re attacking replayability; they’re just pointing out that the replaying of D2 tended to be very monotonous. Over time, bloody runs, cow runs, meph runs, pindle runs, travincal runs, baal runs have equaled what, 99% of the end game PvM on the realms?  The reasons for that were obvious; that’s where the best gain was, whether exp or loot. They want to diversify our replayability in D3, and they want to do it by making multiple areas compelling and interesting, rather than artificially placing obstacles in the way of popular runs (i.e. nerfing the cows, tripling the size of durance 2, etc)

after D3, World of Sanctuary seems imminent to me. As long as the story in D3 doesn’t involve destroying the world or something. I just hope they don’t over-saturate the story. That was a disappointment for me with Warcraft. You had Warcraft I Orc vs Humans, then by the end it was Elves, night elves, tauren, orcs, humans, trolls, dwarfs, gnomes, troggs, pig-guys, undead, forsaken, ogres, goblins, owlbears, dranei, demons, etc… I always liked how Diablo was just Humans, fighting all sorts of evil. but that simplicity has a charm.

I’m trying to say that I hope they preserve Diablo while they "Flesh-out" sanctuary.

I’m glad they’re thinking about this, though it could be hard to give up boss runs entirely.  I just hope they get it right, in general.

I thought about something today, when I actually had the sound on (!) for killing normal Diablo in hardcore… at the end of his death music, they play a little tristram guitar riff from Diablo 1.  That’s the kind of attention to detail that made D1 and D2 great, so hopefully D3 is done with the same kind of care and respect for the past games, not just "let’s change everything!"

[QUOTE=SanctumDDD;6787071]after D3, World of Sanctuary seems imminent to me.

It’s not unlikely. They have said things about story etc that also hints at levelling out the story lines for a “flat end” with few loose threads.

On the other hand, the same goes for StarCraft, as well as huge investment in Lore. The MMO is still as elusive as before. We probably won’t hear anything on BlizzCon, but we can hope!