The original Diablo was what introduced me to Blizzard and would eventually lead me to start my current love affair with their games. Yes I consider it to be a love affair (and not the creepy backseat of a car kind), mostly because now that I play World of Warcraft, I find it hard to believe that I would be able to drop almost 50 dollars a month on something that I didn‘t love just a little bit. And I will continue to tell myself that to soothe my aching wallet…so
that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

When Diablo II was released I was ecstatic; it was like the original Diablo, only better! I played Diablo II
until almost literally right up to the launch of World of Warcraft. By then the player base had fallen off and many of my friends had jumped to other games so I left the Diablo world fall into the past and embraced WoW with open arms. Since then I’ve played WoW almost religiously only diverging to try new games here and there but none have left me impressed.

But now almost 15 years after the original release of Diablo we players will get the chance to once again hack and slash our way through the world of Sanctuary, which is once again in need of heroes. Without a doubt many of us dedicated WoW players will be eagerly waiting to answer the call when the release date finally comes but what will the fallout be for World of Warcraft as the two Blizzard games face off?

Browsing gaming forums you will find plenty of claims that Diablo III will be what finally kills WoW or that people are “shocked” Blizzard would release Diablo III knowing that it would be in direct competition with World of Warcraft their current “pet” game and mass money maker. Many are already sure the sky of Azeroth is falling and they are ducking and taking cover accordingly.

I for one refuse to be like the mislead Chicken Little and will not be taking cover until a big old chunk of sky bonks me on the head. Sure thinking that Diablo III could possibly be what finally brings the titan down is an easy assumption to make, especially considering the loss of WoW subscribers that we have seen over the past few months combined with the popularity of the Diablo series. But, I think this assumption is the wrong one to make.

A Wizard in Diablo III casting Electrocute to vanquish his foes.

In my opinion Diablo III will have little to no impact on the WoW community or WoW in general. An outrageous idea I know, but like Alice I often believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast, so believing in this one is easy enough and I even have some sound reasoning to back it up.

One of the major worries is that because Diablo III and World of Warcraft are created by the same company that somehow WoW - the far older game - will somehow garner less attention meaning less patches and less new content in general. I for one find this laughable. WoW may be losing subscribers but Blizzard is still making a ton of money from the game and there is no way they are going to turn their backs on it now. Not to mention I’m pretty sure the company has enough cold hard cash to hire more than enough employees to supplement both games simultaneously. Patches will still roll out and new content will be abundant in WoW for a long time coming and I’m willing to bet all the gold in my bank on that.

The second biggest “scare’ factor I noticed was the assertion that players would ultimately choose one game or the other. That players would not or could not play both games at the same time. All I have to say to this is why the heck not?! While players will still continue to
pay to play World of Warcraft, Diablo III is essentially a free-to-play game meaning after the initial purchase players can go online and play to their hearts content with no additional fees (unless decided by the player as in the Auction House function). This leaves no reason for the
current player base to leave WoW to go to Diablo III as they won’t be incurring any new monthly fees to play both games at
once.

I know what you're thinking: won’t players drop WoW to get rid of the 14.99 subscription fee? I’ve thought long and hard about
this and I just don’t think this will happen with the grand majority of players. 14.99 a month (as long as you are paying for one
account) is really a drop in the bucket for most of us, I don’t even plan on cancelling my THREE subscriptions just because Diablo III is being released. It just doesn’t make sense.

To further cement this fact keep in mind that WoW and Diablo are totally different games. While they are created by the same company the similarities (if D3 turns out to be much like its predecessors) will be minimal. So why choose just one when you can get two vastly different play experiences for the same subscription fee that you were already paying? Because the two games are bound to be different, and I stand to be corrected if this turns out to be untrue, and as long as your love affair with WoW is still strong, there is no reason to choose one game over the other.

Now don’t get me wrong, there will be some D3 casualties. There are always the players who have limited time and can only choose one game and others who no longer have that loving feeling for WoW and will move on to greener pastures but no more than players leaving other similar pay to play games for Diablo III such as Rift or Aion. Basically life in WoW will go on as usual, there will just be a fun new option to turn to when achievements get tough, players pwn your face in PvP, or you wipe on that boss one too many times. So don’t put on your
protective gear, the sky likely won’t be falling for WoW just yet.

What are your thoughts on how Diablo III will impact World of Warcraft? Will there be a major fallout or little to no damage? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!