Independence Day: Freeing My iMMOGination

by Ralsu

As we get ready to celebrate the birth of America, we at Ten Ton Hammer are thinking about another type of independence: we're setting our imaginations free to think about the perfect massively-multiplayer online game (MMOG). I started out by thinking about Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach (DDO) as my basis of comparison. DDO is not a perfect game, but it is the only MMOG to which I subscribe at this time. DDO definitely does things I like. I like that DDO taps a familiar and thoroughly tested core system in Dungeons & Dragons. I also like that DDO offers a mechanic that allows players to have very different character builds even when picking the same class. Finally, I like that DDO prevents most forms of griefing. So, as I sat down to think about my perfect MMOG, I had three key points with which to start:

1. familiar, tested core system
2. character customization
3. prevent griefing

Now I just needed to identify which core system I'd like to see make it to MMOG.

Sanctuary: World of Diablo

When Ten Ton Hammer recently reported that Blizzard could be dreaming of taking its other big franchising into the MMOG realm, most people were excited about the idea of a World of Starcraft. I was more jazzed about the prospect of a Diablo MMOG. While many people believe that Diablo is little more than an overrated loot-fest, I have always enjoyed the building of characters in the Diablo universe. With the dark setting of Sanctuary, avatars in Diablo are not the "chosen" elite. They are ordinary men and women who undertake great peril in order to save the world from demonic influence. And though my paladin may have chosen to focus on auras to be group-friendly, your paladin could be a combat specialist able to dish out a lot of damage.

World of Diablo (WoD) would certainly be built upon a familiar and tested core universe, and Blizzard has shown gamers it can build an MMOG with a ton of customization options. The folks behind WoD would have to work a little more to reduce all forms of griefing, but I'm sure it can be done. So, what else would be needed to make the game perfect? To start the process of creating my perfect MMOG based on Diablo, I tried to divide the game into pieces: , the story, the world, the combat, the quests, the character building, and diversions. Other gamers will key in on different design aspects, but these 6 are big for me.

Story
Building off of the conclusion of Diablo II (the Worldstone has been shattered in the process of defeating Baal), WoD has an easy time fitting into D\Diablo lore. The shattering of the Worldstone has weakened the barrier between Sanctuary and hell. Demons spill into the world from every crevice, and soon all of mankind is subject to the rule of hell. Players are charged with helping turn the tide against the demons.

World
For WoD to work, Blizzard would need to stay true to the dark atmosphere of the world that is Sanctuary. When players arrive in Lut Gholein to find the city under siege from demon hordes, we need to see squalor in the streets and terrified non-player characters (NPCs) in the pub.The cartoony graphics of World of Warcraft won't cut it for WoD. To capture that essence of the battle between heaven and hell for the souls of the people, Blizzard must use a darker color palette.

WoD would justify a large overworld that could be divided into zones based on the areas surrounding major cities or important sites (think Tristram or Kurast). A lot of dungeons would take players underground or into buildings, though. These would demand the necessary detail. Sewers need to be dank and oppressive, cathedrals grandiose, and ruined temples dusty and disused.

Combat
Part of the fun of Diablo is getting swarmed by a small army of Fallen only to slaughter the lot of them and leave behind only bloody debris. To recreate this feature in WoD, Blizzard would need to create a perspective similar to their 3/4 view and allow for point-and-click movement and combat. Additionally, minor enemies would need to be weak enough and numerous enough to keep the frenetic pace of combat Diablo fans love. WoD would need to mimic the behavioral patterns of the monsters found in Diablo as well. The Fallen will need to be temporarily frightened into retreating when one of their brethren meets a hasty end on a barbarian's axe. Likewise, sand maggots will need to burrow and hide when they take too much damage.

Quests
Diablo II did a decent job of giving us overarching goals with subplots to keep us going. WoD would need a ton more quests, though. Lore would likely be a great place to begin. Barbarians could start in Haragoth and need to complete certain quests for the tribe before earning his rights to be a full-fledged barbarian. Perhaps each starting city would have its own problems to deal with in the battle against the minions of hell, or maybe Blizzard could incorporate the authorized Diablo novels and give players of different regions unique problems, such as defeating the reanimated form of Bartuc the Bloody. Plus, there are tons of lesser demons vying for dominance or favor within the ranks of hell. In short, Blizzard would need to put the writers to work. Fun quests involve story, and fetch quests get old quickly. Not only that, Blizzard would do well to include more puzzle-like quests, such as activating the runes to open a portal to rescue Deckard Cain.

Character Customization
If Diablo II had a failing in its many options for character-building, it was that some skills were vastly overpowered while others were next to useless. For instance, few necromancers found a use for Bone Wall, but nearly all necromancers saw the value of Corpse Explosion prior to the patch that changed how its damage was calculated. Blizzard would need to work hark to ensure that skills came with better balance at launch and with a good distribution of availability. It's not cool for the sorceress to start owning monsters with a Static Field at level 6 while the amazon has to wait until level 30 to get the Valkyrie summon.

Diversions
This category includes those things you do when you're tired of the grind. This includes crafting. The Horadric Cube was a nice way to craft in Diablo II, but Blizzard would need to go farther. Players will want to create weapons, armor, jewelry, and potions. WoD should provide all of that. A main reason Diablo games didn't require much diversion was because the pace of the game was so quick and character milestones came every few minutes. WoD would never be able to survive if players could hit the level cap in a week, so progress will need to be slower. As an alternate form of keeping players in the thick of it, WoD would have to introduce other milestones to mark achievement. Perhaps players could earn ranks for kills or deeds. Or maybe Blizzard could introduce new gameplay elements into the world of Sanctuary, such as helping rebuild a town devastated by demons or razing a sinister temple.