Many sources have already reported that Blizzard has contacted the owner of Diablo3.com and made an offer to purchase the domain name. Blizzard quickly ensured us that this was not an official announcement that the third installment of the Diablo franchise was on its way. Believing this to be a coverup, I began to think about what I believed Diablo 3 needed in order to be a success.

Total Control The first thing to keep in mind is that Diablo is one of three major franchises that Blizzard can boast – the other two being Starcraft and Warcraft. Despite being very different, these games also share a similarity in that point and click action runs the majority of the game. I assume that this will continue in Diablo 3, but I feel that any other control scheme would mean its doom. This control scheme – along with the Hotkeys – allowed Diablo players to quickly move about the map with ease and have no problem casting necessary spells along the way. Don’t fix what isn’t broken, Blizzard.

All Walks of Life

The character diversity in Diablo 2 was done very well. Each class had effective spells and weapons to gather throughout the game, and players could build their characters to specialize in certain areas of the game that made them must-haves when teaming. We saw a similar leveling branch in the World of Warcraft series.

This installment needs to take the foundation of this class diversity and take it to a new level. Player killing is inevitable, so that needs to be considered when tweaking old spells or creating new ones. The idea of class-specific weapons was cool, but it needs to be improved upon. Give the players a variety of different weapons to use for different situations. Force the players to think.

Expanding Horizons

The one thing that always irked me when it came to Diablo was that everything seemed so scripted. I absolutely had to go in one of four directions to find my path, and I had to take that path for the game to continue.

How well would the game play if these barriers were taken down and the players were allowed to explore much larger areas? I think it would be amazing. Add a little adventure into the hack-and-slash madness, and I believe that the game’s replay value will triple. Blizzard lightly brushed upon this with Diablo 2, and I hope that they can take it to a new level with the third installment.

Bust the Punks

The number one complaint with Diablo games is the rampant cheating. It really does suck to have someone join your game simply to cast Nova Wave, kill everyone, and then leave. I can still remember the days where one would enter a game and ears would literally be everywhere.

It’s time to bust the punks. If they cheat, then ban them. No argument in the world can justify allowing them to play online again; they openly cheated. They got their money’s worth with the offline single player campaign.

Thanks for reading my ideas for Diablo 3. Later on.

-Debaser