Jay Wilson interview @ AusGamers

[fmulder]

Another Jay Wilson Australian interview, this time its AusGamers:
http://www.ausgamers.com/features/read/3205698

AusGamers: The whole Blizzard philosophy of “done when it’s done” and not really having a release date perse -- what’s the vibe usually when you get to that final two weeks, three weeks of all that stress testing and just knowing that ultimately there is going to be a ship-point. What’s the vibe in the office like?

Jay: Uh, lack of belief... it’s funny, you go through a lot of emotions. it’s one of the hardest if not the... it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done and you go through frustration, you go through exhaustion. It’s almost like the 12 stages of grief. And then elation.

I’ve shipped games before, but I’ve never... I don’t know that I’ve ever had a moment on anything I’ve worked on, that felt as good as the day we announced the release date. It’s not even the release date, it’s just the announcement of the release date. And leading up to that, I was getting Twitter feeds like crazy of people just wanting the release date and I’m like “we’re so close to telling them, I wish I could tell them!”.

So yeah, it’s pretty exciting now, but in some ways it’s still just sinking in that it’s real.

AusGamers: Just the level of challenge that comes up, especially with cooperative play.

Jay: I guess your question is, is the game going to get more challenging? I can say, unequivocally... and I don’t like to firmly stamp my foot down on things -- because that almost always comes back to bite me -- but I can honestly say, that the end-game of Diablo III is way more challenging than Diablo II; way more.

There’s none of the... because we’ve added Inferno -- the max-level difficulty -- there’s no case where you had in Diablo II, where you simply out-levelled and out-geared the content. The content stays relevant. So it takes... when you get into Inferno for the first time, if you haven’t spent time in Hell, just farming for gear, you will get crushed.

We die... we have encounters in the Inferno mode, where we will die a dozen times trying to take a rare down. And I mean, that rare, not only do they have a host of different abilities that we don’t even have earlier in the game -- things like the ability to create walls in front of me and enemies; the ability to do all different kinds of spells and effects that control area around the player and dish out damage.

Just being able to make creatures that are faster than the player, which you don’t really see in the earlier difficulties very often -- we can make any kind of common creature faster. And you take all that, and we also have enraged timers, where if you don’t kill the monsters in a certain amount of time, they enrage and then they do massive damage.

You take all those things together, and it creates an experience that’s a lot more challenging.

AusGamers: Is there an issue... well I don’t want to use the word issue, but in terms of... the game has been coming for a really long time and there’s such heritage there. Diablo II came out close to 12 years ago, by the time D3 comes out. Do you ever feel like there’s always going to be a point where hype for the game -- based on its heritage and just how much information you’ve given everybody and how good the game looks in terms of the media outlay that we get -- that you’ll never quite reach a point where everybody’s satisfied?

Is that something that always sits with you guys? Or is it just a case of “let’s get it out there and we’ll deal with it later”?

Jay: You know, I would have said “yes” about a year ago. I would have said “oh yeah, that terrifies me”. Now, no, because I’ve played the game. Sitting in our test area and we’re doing four-player Inferno. I can’t name a time in the last few years I’ve laughed so hard and had such a great time.

So, do I think there will be someone out there who will be disappointed? Yeah. There’s always somebody you can’t satisfy. But seeing people playing the game; playing the game myself and also seeing the response to the beta that’s been so overwhelmingly positive and to me, I look at that and say “wow, you guys aren’t even playing the good part yet!”. To me, the early part of Act I on Normal difficulty, that’s boring. It’s not hard enough, you know. When I have to do testing, that’s the part that I grind through so I can get to the good stuff.

It’s funny because it starts getting better. Even almost right after beta, I think it starts getting better because it gets a lot more challenging. But in Act II and especially Act III it really takes off. But overall, I’m really proud with how the game has turned out. So I don’t worry about people being disappointed or [the game being] over-hyped. I think if the game’s great, then people will enjoy it and if they enjoy it, then the hype is justified.

[Amarules]

Enrage timers... Imokwiththis.jpg

[Zog Varnoka]

ust being able to make creatures that are faster than the player, which you don’t really see in the earlier difficulties very often -- we can make any kind of common creature faster. And you take all that, and we also have enraged timers, where if you don’t kill the monsters in a certain amount of time, they enrage and then they do massive damage.

Yea enrage timers. I knew it was coming
Seems like inferno will require more tactical thought than most folks figured on. Not to mention bosses will probably need a definite plan to defeat them ala WoW style. I'm getting even more excited for the game now!

[BellaStrega]

I liked this interview.

I'm okay with them tuning Inferno to be really hard. Obviously it should be doable, but hard. Enrage timers? Sure.

[HardRock]

Awesome interview all around, thanks fmulder for the heads-up.

Enrage timers are huge gear and skill checks. Now I see why progress through the later difficulties will be slower. You won't be able to cheese bosses by chain-stunning them and then slowly weathering them down. A good balance of defense and offense will be required. I like it.

[CoFran]

Yea enrage timers. I knew it was coming
Seems like inferno will require more tactical thought than most folks figured on. Not to mention bosses will probably need a definite plan to defeat them ala WoW style. I'm getting even more excited for the game now!

i also hoped for that, but dont think its gonna be that complex, you have to figure its supposed to be soloable, no class or skill requirements. An enrage timer is easy to implement it can follow the same +75%HP to the boss per player rule but apply it to time.

[HardRock]

I doubt he would have used this term if D3 enrage timers won't be same as in WoW, meaning that after a fixed amount of time the damage of the boss will double, triple or whatever will cause players to wipe.

[CoFran]

yes thats what I mean, what i was saying is to not expect much more complexity from encounters then traditional enrage timers.

Unless inferno is not soloable (even when overgeared) because of mandatory classes or skills.

[Ivan E]

Enrage timers are lazy design, but I figure they had to use something as a gear check, so I guess that's what it's going to be.

My hope is that enraging makes a mob more challenging but not automatically impossible, at least, though I can see how that might defeat the purpose of the timer in the first place.

[z00t]

Hah - QUANTIFIABLE proof that D3 scales harder than D2. Take that, doubters!