Review: Blood Sweat and Pixels, Chapter 4

Hello, and welcome back to my review of the book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels! This chapter is based off the development of Diablo three… post-launch. I never played Diablo 3, so my opinions will be based off of similar experiences and the information provided by the book. From what I read, Diablo 3 is a dungeon crawler where the loot is randomized. No two experiences will be the same, and the earlier games prided themselves on their difficulty. Diablo 3 launched only to have major server crashes And major community backlash. With the help of a new developer, the games difficulty, loot system, and other major mechanics were overhauled in a manner that brought the game to be better than its predecessors.

A Diabolical Dungeon

Two of the major issues of Diablo three, if you exclude the launch issues with the game’s servers, were the in-game market and loot system. The in-game market had complaints about how they could be used to cheat the system and needed actual money. The complaints about the market even led a group of players, known as the Ironborns, to abstain from the market altogether. When it comes to the loot system, the harder difficulties were near impossible without better armor, but the armor was equally as hard to come across on easier difficulties. This meant people were left smashing pots or buying items with money instead of actually enjoying the game.

When it comes to changing mechanics inside of a game, it really is a case by case basis. For example, Splatoon 3 changed the player respawn from a static point to a launcher, which helped prevent spawn camping. I can also remember the Banjo-Kazooie series: the third game completely changed up the formula in a way the fans did not like. Ever since super paper Mario, the paper Mario franchise refuses to stick to the same combat system. I personally believe that each of the games mentioned had different reasons that they should or should not have changed the mechanics. Splatoon was suffering from casual matches that got way too competitive, Banjo-Kazooie had not released a game in years, and a lot of the fans of the paper Mario franchise are yearning for a return to the original formula. I believe that Diablo 3 was in a case where the mechanics needed to change.

When it comes to in-game purchases, I have mixed opinions. On one hand, I know that these types of purchases allow a game to continue updating for months or years after the initial release. On the other hand, I can also see it as a scummy way to line the pockets of the higher ups. When I play a game, I try to play it with as little financial purchases as possible. I probably would have been one of the Ironborns.

Would I ever play Diablo 3? It isn’t really the kind of game I like, but reading about the love and care that came to making the third game the best it could be made me interested. I wish all of the developers who worked on the game luck in their next adventures. This book has been an amazing read, and I have enjoyed everything that has come out of it so far. This book has several chapters left, but the next chapter might be the last one that I review.