Difference between revisions of "Diablo III"

Revision as of 22:37, 11 December 2012

Diablo III

Diablo III text Type Video Game Launch Date 2012 [1] Status Active Product Line product Platform Microsoft Windows, OS X Website http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/d3/

Gameplay

Screen capture of a wizard defeating monsters.

Taking place in a the world of Sanctuary^[3], players assume the role of one of the five lone heroes: The Barbarian, Monk, Witch Doctor, Wizard, and Demon hunter. Each hero has a distinctive storyline and background as well as their unique set of weapons, skills, and resource system. The style of gameplay varies greatly depending on the hero that the player chooses to play. The amount of decision-making present in the gameplay is furthermore increased through the combinations of weapons and armor the player can choose from, different skills the players can choose from and the newly integrated rune system.^[4]

The storyline in Diablo III is divided into four different ACTS, each taking place in a different setting. In each ACT, players will need to complete a quest chain by navigating through randomly generated maps and dungeons filled with many types of monsters and bosses. The monsters will increase in difficulty as players progress throughout the game. At the end of each ACT, players will be challenged with a final boss, which takes more effort to defeat. The death of each boss is often accompanied by a cut scene revealing an important section of the storyline. When a player completes all four acts, the player is will be granted the choice of moving onto the next level of difficulty. In total, there are four different levels of difficulty: Normal, Nightmare, Hell and finally Inferno. The Inferno difficulty was a new installment in Diablo lll for re-playability. The Inferno difficulty was implemented to challenge players who have finished the game, and offered incentives of better gold and item finds.^[5]

Controls and Navigation

Control and navigation in Diablo III is similar to previous Diablo franchises. Most navigation is accomplished by pointing-and-clicking with the mouse. Diablo III portrays the character in 3rd person, so interaction with environment and monsters through clicking. Skills and abilities are bound to numbers 1-4 on the numpad.

Leveling

Players gain levels by gaining experience through defeating monsters and bosses, completing quests and discovering treasure chests. Leveling up provides player heroes with additional base stats and ability to unlock new skills and skill runes. Leveling up also enables the player to equip more-advance equipments. Certain level limits also must be attained before players are allowed to progress onto the next level of difficulty.

Currently, the maximum level a player can attain is currently set to level 60. At level 60, players are granted the access to play on Inferno difficulty as well as equip meta-items (level 63 items).^[6]

Paragon Level

On August, 20th, 2012, Blizzard announced the integration of Paragon Levels in update patch 1.0.4, increasing the level cap by an additional 100 levels. Paragon levels do not provide bonus stats and skills; they only provide bonus magic and gold find, increasing the likeliness of discovering better items. ^[7] This system was implemented to encourage players to continue exploring even after reaching level 60.

Storyline

Twenty years have passed since Diablo ll, the long awaited demonic evasion is imminent. As the worldstone (stone that locks the forces of hell out of the realm of men and the heavens) has become corrupt, Tyrael, the angel of justice, sacrifices his status as an angel and immortal to help the mortals in Sanctuary (Realm of man). There, a wandering hero assists Tyrael in combating the forces of evil. Eventually, Tyrael and the hero to High Heavens, in pursuit of Diablo, the 'Prime Evil'.^[8]

Items

Diablo III uses a random generator system to determine item name, quality and attributes. Items in Diablo III are categorized by different qualities. Weapons of different qualities offer different bonus 'stats' and different number of bonus attributes, the attributes influence the cost of each item. Items are dropped by monsters, bosses, treasure chests and other various interactive environmental objects such as weapon shelves and logs.

Item types

• Inferior items are the weakest. Inferior items normally harbor less-than-average attributes. Inferior items are commonly deemed useless and therefore left behind.^[9]

• Normal, or common items are items that hold no special attributes. Normal items are frequently used for only the first few mission of the gameplay.^[10]

• Magic items are colored blue. Magic items are improved versions of common items, they hold 1-3 bonus attributes aside from the better base damage they provide.^[11]

• Rare items are colored yellow/gold. Rare items are improved versions of magic items, they have multiple bonus attributes. Rare items are the most-commonly used items towards the end of the game.^[12]

• Set items are colored green. Set items are improved versions of magic items. Although set items normally offer the same number of bonus attributes, equipping multiple green items on the same character completes a set, providing bonus set attributes. Set items are the most difficult to find and are the most expensive items to purchase in the game.^[13]

• Legendary items are colored orange, they are improved versions of magic items. Unlike set items, legendary items do not provide set attributes. However, legendary items provide one or two bonus attributes unique to each item. Legendary items have distinct names, unlike magic items and are very rare to find. Legendary items are the most powerful and expensive equipments in Diablo III.^[14]

Gems and Sockets

Different qualities of a Ruby Gem.

Gems are a type of item to be dropped in Diablo III. There are in total four different types of Gems^[15]:

• Ruby Gems offer flat attack damage and bonus to Strength.
• Amethyst Gems offer bonus % life and bonus to Vitality.
• Topaz Gems offer life-on-hit and bonus to Intelligence.
• Emerald Gems offer bonus % critical strike damage and bonus to Dexterity.

Gems in Diablo III have many different qualities, from chipped to radiant star. Many of the same quality gems must be combined by the Gemcrafter(NPC) in order to create a gem of a higher quality. The quality of the gem also determines the magnitude of the bonus provided.^[16]

Equipments have a chance to have a socket in them when identified. Depending on the equipment, an equipment can have up to 3 scokets. Sockets can be 'socketed' with gems that provide unique attributes depending on the color and grade of gems. Once socketed, gems can be un-socketed from equipments for a small fee at the Gemcrafter(NPC). The higher quality of gem, the more expensive it is to un-socket.^[17]

Hero Classes

A female monk being selected on the character selection screen.

In Diablo lll, there are five different heroes which a player can choose from. Each hero holds different back story as well as playing styles as determined by its set of available skills, items and resource system.^[4] Although players have the choice in making their characters male or female, the characters are illustrated with specified genders in the game.^[18] However, each character has been voiced by voice actors of both genders to improve gaming experience.^[18]

• The Barbarian is one of the two class to have been preserved from Diablo ll. The Barbarian uses brute strength to defeat his foes. The Barbarian is commonly viewed as the 'tank', or damage taker.^[19]

• The Demon Hunter is a newly added class to the Diablo series. The Demon Hunter excels in ranged combat with her arsenal of traps and ranged weapons.^[19] The play style of the demon hunter requires the user to be always on the move as the Demon Hunter is coined to be a "glass cannon" - Having strong damage output with low survivability.^[20]

• The Witch Doctor is similar to the necromancer in Diablo ll. The Witch doctor utilizes voodoo and dark magic to corrupt his enemies. The Witch doctor can also summon many undead minions to fight on his side.^[19]

• The Monk is a new addition to the Diablo series. The Monk excels in agility and dexterity. The Monk's survivability is measured in his ability to dodge incoming strikes as compared to the Barbarian's ability to take damage.^[19]

• The Wizard is the second character class to have been adopted from Diablo ll. The Wizard excels in arcane magic, utilizing the forces of nature to take down his enemies.^[19]

Ethical Issues

Gold Farming

A major ethical issue faced in Diablo lll is the issue of 'gold farming'. Traditionally, the issue of gold farming started in China, where gamers undertake terrible living conditions to perform repetitive tasks in order to gain virtual currency. After, players sell the accumulated in-game currency for real-world currencies. As a method of mitigating this issue, Blizzard incorporated an Auction house system into the game which includes a feature allowing players to trade in-game items and currency for real-world currencies. However, the implementation of the auction house has been viewed by many as a 'virtual sweatshop' where Blizzard collects a dollar + 15% of all transactions.^[21] With the auction house, Blizzard also has the power to set different rates for in-game to real-world currencies.

Power Leveling

Another prevailing ethical issue similar to gold farming is the issue of power leveling services. Against the code of conduct on Diablo III, many gamers will offer to level up one's character for a small fee.^[22] This, often times, involve either the seller to manually level up, use bots and scripts to level up characters or sell bots and scripts to the user to level up their characters with.^[23]

DRM (Digital rights management)

A major complaint brought to Blizzard by a majority of the gaming community is the issue of Diablo lll's DRM (Digital rights management). Unlike both of its predecessors, Diablo lll can no longer be played offline. Instead, all players are required to log into Battle.net and remain connected for the duration of their game. Diablo lll's DRM raised a lot of debates regarding the "stripping away of ownership rights in place of leasing non-tangible, non-sustainable services."^[24] Some issues caused by Diablo lll's DRM include players not being able to play during server maintenance and server down-times. The inconvenience brought about Diablo lll's DRM was made most public shortly after its launch, when servers experienced constant crashes due to many people wanting to log in to play at the same time.^[25]

Controversies

God-mode Glitch

Shortly after launch, players discovered an exploit in Diablo lll that allowed the sorcerer class to have invincibility or 'God-mode'. As this exploit was discovered shortly after launch, players who have been playing sorcerers held the advantage in being able to hunt stronger monsters without having to worry about dying. As a result, players who decided to use this exploit had the advantage in finding better gear and more gold without having to put in as much effort. In response, the Diablo lll community shared an uproar and demanded immediate balancing of the character classes.^[25]

Account Security

Account security became another concern shortly following the launch of Diablo III. There have been reports of "Diablo III" players "logging into the game one day to suddenly find all of their hard-earned virtual goods and money had simply vanished overnight." ^[26]

Account Used for Money Laundering

Shortly following the implementation of the Aunction House, where players can sell virtual goods for real world currencies, controversies over Paypal accounts used to launder money arose. Players have reported their Paypal accounts having been hacked and used for laundering money overseas. ^[27] To combat this, Blizzard has implemented a direct virtual currency-to-real world currency system to reduce the price of virtual currency.^[28]

See Also

References