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Bill Roper: "Diablo III isn't gothic enough"
The ex-vice president of Blizzard North and one of the chief architects behind the Diablo series, Bill Roper thinks that the upcoming sequel Diablo III isn't "Diablo" enough.
By Raivo 'stormm' Streistermanis
Mar 19, 2009 06:30
The ex-vice president of Blizzard North and one of the chief architects behind the Diablo series, Bill Roper thinks that the upcoming sequel Diablo III isn't "Diablo" enough.Bill Roper could be named as one of the reasons why all three major Blizzards games earned their success. Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo franchises are just some of the games that he played a major role in.
After parting ways with Blizzard, Bill Roper co-founded Flagship studios, the developer for Hellgate: London and later on joined Cryptic Studios as their Design Director and Executive Producer for their newest project, Champions Online. A superhero-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
In an interview with VideoGamer.com (via kotaku) speaks about the new Diablo III, the design team behind it and its visuals.
Here's what he had to say:
After parting ways with Blizzard, Bill Roper co-founded Flagship studios, the developer for Hellgate: London and later on joined Cryptic Studios as their Design Director and Executive Producer for their newest project, Champions Online. A superhero-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
In an interview with VideoGamer.com (via kotaku) speaks about the new Diablo III, the design team behind it and its visuals.
Here's what he had to say:
"One of the things I always enjoyed about that separation between Blizzard and Blizzard North was that the Diablo games had a very distinct art style. They had different art directors, they had different people working on it, they had a different sensibility about them. Diablo was I think grittier and darker and a little more leaning towards the photo realistic. Whereas the Craft games that were being built down in Irvine were bigger and broader in scope, brighter colours, just different pallets and different presentation. Both of those were very strong from that visual standpoint, for example."
"But it makes complete sense to me where they went because they basically took the Diablo universe and then approached it from the Blizzard Ivine stance for the visuals. That's the way they approach things. It wasn't that I looked at it and went, oh my God that looks terrible. I was like, that looks like Blizzard. The guys in Irvine. That's what it looks like to me. Their interpretation of it."
"I think that one of the things that we always tried to get across was that Diablo was Gothic fantasy and I think there was just a need that was put in there from the visuals that I didn't necessarily get. I got it from the architecture and to a degree from the character design but not the feeling of the world. I can't say that I dislike it. I didn't look at it and go, oh my God that's horrible. But I looked at it and went, it's not really... to me as a player it just didn't really ring with Diablo."
"But it makes complete sense to me where they went because they basically took the Diablo universe and then approached it from the Blizzard Ivine stance for the visuals. That's the way they approach things. It wasn't that I looked at it and went, oh my God that looks terrible. I was like, that looks like Blizzard. The guys in Irvine. That's what it looks like to me. Their interpretation of it."
"I think that one of the things that we always tried to get across was that Diablo was Gothic fantasy and I think there was just a need that was put in there from the visuals that I didn't necessarily get. I got it from the architecture and to a degree from the character design but not the feeling of the world. I can't say that I dislike it. I didn't look at it and go, oh my God that's horrible. But I looked at it and went, it's not really... to me as a player it just didn't really ring with Diablo."
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of course now all the douche bags are gonna thumb me down.You , this game is like the old fairy-tale about the King and his new clothes.I hope u aint that retareded to get the metaphore
idiot :/
No need for a change )
I was 1st in one of the ladders^^
Ill be buying D3
Hellgate was the worst bullshit i've ever played and i guess D3 won't be. It just looks like "hey, i'm not in Blizzard anymore, let me say something negative"
D3 will be great. no matter if dark or not. you play like one hour and you won't notice it anymore :>
get some brain asap
I mean, how can you not see the obvious propaganda in such a move ? He used to be an important person in Blizzard's staff and he used to believe he was gonna make something out of his talent without the huge team. Well obviously that didn't work out so great for him, so he's trying to make publicity for his games by every way he can, that's just sad.
when he thinks of diablo he connects it with red grey and black colours for the most part i guess so it's only natural the new design doesn't feel good for him
i don't realy care how the diablo looks
what matters to me is if it's going to pull me to the screen and make me destroy left mouse button 8 hours a day like the 1st and 2nd part did
the only dark diablo is the first one, and if you look at the difference between 1 and 2, the 3rd one the logical choice.
"wtb" is wow-slang :/