More negativity coming out of the Blizzard camp today, with industry veterans posting snarky comments and insults on facebook.
It all started when co-founder of Blizzard North and creator of the Diablo series, David Brevik, did an interview with IncGamers. In the interview he gave his rather candid and honest opinions when asked about Diablo III. Here are a few highlights of the exchange:
“IncGamers: You are very well known in the world of ARPGs, and I am going to ask you, Diablo 3 is probably the most anticipated PC title in 10 years. What’s your opinion on the final product?
David Brevik: Honestly, I think that they did a lot of the things the best they could, it was a very different game than I would have created, the team and personalities, the people, the talent and all the design philosophies of the people that worked on it in Irvine, we called them Blizzard South, those people have their own style and the their own way they like to design. It was very, very different from the Blizzard North.
So I think that when Blizzard South took over the development of Diablo 3 it was inevitable that they were going to create an experience that was in the Diablo theme but concentrated more towards the things that they liked to experience. Including more story and things like that.
When Blizzard North shut down they lost a ton of experience with why the Action RPG works and what about it works. That’s really difficult to recover from. They didn’t have the experience of people that knew it well. This is why you do things with random levels for example, and so when you lose that experience you are going to create a very different experience in the end than we would have created.
IncGamers: As you created Diablo, how do you feel about it? Do you feel a little let down that the legacy has kind of been mashed up?
David Brevik: I have very mixed emotions about it (laughs). On one hand I am sad that people haven’t enjoyed Diablo because it’s a love, a passion, and its obvious people still have a giant love and passion for Diablo and they are speaking out about it because they have such love for it. That makes me feel great.
I am sad because people are outraged and, you know, some of the decision they have made are not the decisions I would make and there have been changes in philosophy and that hasn’t gone over very well. I think in that way I am a little sad.
I am also a little happy, which I hate to say, it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was and how unique and special that group was. I am hoping that, as this happens very often in the industry, you see it with Call of Duty and things like that , when the people leave the game changes and it shows how critical people are in this industry.”
A lot of noisy fans agree with Mr. Brevik, but some people did not take too kindly to the very polite critique of the final result that is Diablo III. If Jay Wilson and the rest of the current D3 team are just waving their hands in dismissal of Brevik’s thoughts and opinions, are they then doing the same with the thoughts and opinions of the fans?
Some of the more unhappy and snarky reactions came from the D3 dev team in the form of a facebook post. Technical Artist Chris Haga posted the interview on his facebook account saying he felt like he was, “thrown under a bus.” With others chiming in and adding their voices to the chorus of displeasure. Jay Wilson, the game director of D3, even got in on it, calling Brevik a loser and using less than polite language.
Facebook is not as private as one might think. Wilson has since deleted his comment. We’re still waiting on an official statement from Blizzard about this whole exchange.
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