Former Blizzard Internal Tester Fired: Reveals All About Diablo 3
By Lo-Ping - Wed Apr 13, 6:27 pm
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In my perusing of online message boards, I came across a posting from someone who claimed to be a former internal tester at Blizzard. He was willing to post anything people wanted to know about Diablo 3. The rationale being “there’s nothing in my contract that says I can’t reveal anything AFTER I’m fired.” Enclosed are the questions asked and his answers unedited:
The Former Tester made his post on 4chan’s infamous videogame board /v/. Source is HERE, but it’ll most likely disappear unless archived.
UPDATE: NEW SOURCE HERE
Is it fun? How true does it stay to D2?
Hm, it depends, if you liked torchlight, then it’s very fun, if youre an old d2 addictee like myself, then you will be disappointed.
Level design? In what order? I.E: Does the desert come second act, or later?
first act: tristram and surrounds (monastery, leoric castle,etc)
second act: desert as you guys already know
third act: something they called the bastion keep. really shit act.
fourth act: begins where the meteor hits, then you descend into hell
Why’d you get fired?
I was just too honest and said things they didn’t like
Well, the obvious one first, did they completely ruin everything we love about it from Diablo 2?
Not everything, the loot sucks and the level design makes the game boring, just like torchlight level design
Tell me mr Troll, there is any kind of in game codex for shit like monsters and spell rune combinations?
No. There are recipes, and some special items like lost scrolls with some lore in them, used in recipes
Coming to consoles?
they are intending to port it to consoles when the expansion development begins
If you’re afraid they’ll do something to you, the fact you said you were fired narrows down their search a bit. If you dont care what they might do to you for disclosing info, then theres no reason not to show proof. Either way, you’re a f@%$t for helping a shit game be made
im not afraid, dumbass. like i said, my contract didnt say i couldnt disclose things after fired (i couldnt disclose while working for them)
link to the leak ? didn’t leak ? why the fuck you got fired before doing it ?
no leak
You’re either a liar or an idiot. Don’t even bother trying to explain it because you’re clearly not smart enough to pull it off. You’d of signed an NDA when you began testing, and the NDA is separate from any work contract and still applies after being fired. Blizzard has their shit together and wouldn’t allow a loophole that lets some little shit who got fired from such an awesome company to go and post secrets about a game.
ok. fuck you.
Are levels randomly generated?
Yes, in a very mediocre way
Runewords: Please tell me these are gone, I’m tired of casters just ripping shit apart with Enigma
no runewords
EDITOR’S NOTE: This previously read as RUNEWORLDS. Upon review of the original source material, we’ve corrected it to runeWORDS. We apologize for any confusion.
i dont really want to know deep dark secrets, or WHAT CHANGES havent they announced, or any shit like that, just one thing. Is it going to be fun?
like I said, it plays like Torchlight. The level design is really boring
What are the system requirements?
very low system requirements. It is more scallable than torchlight. You can play with a geforce 6 or any shit laptop from 3 years ago (on low settings, obviously)
“Let’s just say there wasn’t anything in my contract saying I couldn’t disclose things AFTER fired.” Except yes, there would be.
no, there isnt. I fucking loled after reviewing the contract after they fired me.
Try telling us something we dont know or hasnt been announced already troll
ok, ask
Which character class is the most fun to play? How long will the single player story take to play through? Anything cool about the game that they haven’t released info on yet that might get us excited?
i liked the wizard. roughly the same lenght as d2, if you do the sidequests. d2 is bigger if you compare completing both games 100% (map, quest wise). you fight tyrael in act 4.
what’s the online look like? will we be able to create LAN servers, private servers online, or will everything run through battle.net? is it really as bright and cartoony as we saw awhile ago, or are the dungeons actually kinda dark and spooky again?
same model as starcraft 2, no lan
Wasn’t the final stage confirmed to be the High Heavens? Y’know, since Tyrael goes insane.
nope
Tell us the games story and plot then
the plot is very simple, when tyrael broke the wordstone in d2, it basically destroyed what separated the mortal world from heaven and hell. so asmodan devised a way to ressurrect diablo because his essence wasnt completely destroyed with the soul shard. they invoked a meteor to hit sanctuary for its impact would generate energy enough to provide a portal from hell for a massive army. tyrael was corrupted by asmodan also. asmodan is boss of act 3
“i was just too honest and said things they didn’t like.” What where you saying that they didn’t like?
as a tester, my job is finding bugs and doing what they call 100% coverage run test. but they called us in meetings that asked us our opinions about a lot of things. i said the game was boring and doomed to be a failure.
What are boss battles in D3 like?
they are scripted pieces of shit. the bosses are big and make a big mess in the scenario, but they are easy
Compared to D2 why is it boring?
it doesnt feel as open as d2. the levels in d2 were much bigger than in d3. d3 open world areas are small ways with little side areas, and its ramdonly generated dungeon levels are mediocre, with rectangular areas glued together
What are the first 3 numbers of your EID? They’re all the same so obviously I’m not here to rat you out. But if you really are/were a Blizzard employee, you should be able to answer this very easily. But I can pretty much tell you don’t work with us from how pathetic your story is.
528
what’s metzen like in person? pardo? samwise?
they are normal people, doing their jobs. i have nothing against them. the problem with blizzard are their rh department and some very stupid women with psychology mds trying to moderate the teams
who has the most say in art direction on the team?
the most say is always from the team that makes the interface with the stock holders
they have moderators? what’s their purpose exactly?
to ensure the teams behave well, no internal conflicts arise, to ensure everyone behaves like sheep, etc
-Do you know anything about blizz’s other projects?
-Who exactly is accompanying you on the quest?
-brief thoughts on all the classes if you don’t mind?
-fav thing from D3?
-Is it ever going to be released?
that titan mmo, it will be integrated with facebook, and will be more or less like second life
what quest? i think the classes are well designed, with each having different gameplay
i liked the skill system plus runes
expect beta announcement at blizzcon
does the story end the same as the other two?
the end is the hero sacrificing himself to act like the wordstone before it was destroyed, thus separating once again hell and mortal world. diablo isnt destroyed, it just got chained at hell
Were you able to play all the classes?
Are the classes all very well developed or some more than others?
Are there any homages/refernces to blizzard’s other games?
Are the bosses fun?
Are there a lot of random named elite enemies you fight?
Anything particularily funny in the game?
yes, it was my job, to do a 100% coverage test. well, they are developed, i dont understand what your asking, but if you intended to know if they are balanced, they are not. the demon hunter is extremelly overpowered (as of my last play). bosses are boring as fuck. they are scripted. elites are not as crazy as in d2, they have less enchantments. its funny to try out all rune combinations
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sounds about right to me.
ok so everything this guy says about Diablo III’s scenario is complete bullshit.
what credit can we give to the rest of his story now?
Not a Blizzard fan, but someone gets fired (for as far it is true), of course they talk crap about the game and the company.
Seriously, who wrote the questions? Some of them are already amswered in his previous answers… geez.
thanks for ruining the ending
D3 is gonna suck if you are a D2 fan the only thing that actually was good that i've read about D3 is shared inventory otherwise go buy WOW cause D3 is closer to that than D2
Have the same inpression from comparing the talent sistem announced for Diablo and the one announced for Mists of Pandaria… They seem to recycle a lot of the WoW game designing experience in D3. Which is not necessarily bad, if the two games remain distinct.
I just wonder when D3 comes out….anybody knows? probably nobody!
I played Diablo 3 at Blizzcon, and a lot of shit he's saying is just false. It does not play like Torchlight, it plays like.. well, Diablo. The controls are much better than Torchlight, dungeons are fairly large, although I imagine at Blizzcon, they on purpose put you in a smaller dungeon so you can get out of it and into the net area.
Just sounds like an imaginative person with too much time on their hands.
if the level design truly sucks and the game plays a lot like Torchlight's blend and boring cramped up corridors,
i'll be sure to tell my PR buddy at Youtube to campaign on youtube [NOT] to buy D3 and to ignore the worst anticipated game ever.
I'm not saying this is real or fake, but maybe you shouldn't post statements say that you are right without a doubt, because if this ends up being real, you're gonna feel like an idiot. Oh wait, never mind, online community, that happens all the time.
I find it excessively difficult to believe this guy is a liar. No NDA? ORLY?
Titant is a fps if i remember correct… didnt they hire bungie to help make the game? dont think it will be like "second life" 🙂 just my 2 cent
Many people will call bull on this, they said the same about the slate leak 😉
But what he said about Titan certainly drew my interest. It's the exact same thing that Daeity said before Blizzard perma shut down his blog. He said that the closest comparison to Titan was Second Life there was a large variety of environs, customizable player appearances (e.g. suits, ties, dresses, army outfits, fantasy & scifi wear, etc), heavy interaction with social networks like Facebook and other ARG-like influences, maybe even "customizable worlds" that can be shared with friends. There was a load of other leaked info, but it was killed fast and I didn't take screenshots.. cuz who could have really anticipated that would happen. What I saw of the art work though it looked awesome!
@kOOpat: With that logic, the guy who posted this could easily have been a reader of Daeity's blog prior to it being shut down, so his information was taken from there.
The fact remains that this was posted on 4chan of all fucking places, and that he's lying about the NDA loophole (no company miswrites NDAs to that extent)
To easily discredited to take seriously, and the fact that he sounds like a raving lunatic.
Did it occur to you that maybe he's one of the many people that read Daeity's blog? He's more than likely recycling info from that. Blizzard shutting it down made tons of people believe in the info's legitimacy, so this chumpstain thinks he struck gold.
I, for one, believe nothing. I mean sure, does some of his plot info sound plausible? Yeah absolutely, if only this wasn't coming from this particular chumpstain. Lifeless losers have gone to much less trouble to achieve their 15 mins of anonymous e-fame.
This is obvious nonsense (OF COURSE nondisclosure agreements are going to cover for employees who leave the company – that would be a pretty glaring oversight for a billion dollar company don't you think?), but even if it weren't, nothing he said is particularly useful or interesting.
For one thing he's mistaken about ARPG level design being important. Torchlight's boringness had nothing to do with its level design. D2 actually had a tremendous amount of variety in its dungeons and overworlds, from wide open spaces to ultra-tight corridors, and it all worked more or less equally well. The skill design is make these kinds of games fun.
basically I call bull.
1. no one gets fired for telling what they think. at most they get pressured into quitting themselves
2. in any tester contract it is stipulated that all shit you worked with is the company's property and you get fucked if you spill.
3. Although everything seems plausible in his story: "runeworlds" what the fuck, he doesn't know they're called runewords?
lolol, Socialism, time to wake up, and smell the ashes, cause dorthy, kansas has gone bye bye…
lol, at "and its ramdonly generated dungeon levels are mediocre, with rectangular areas glued together"
D2 lvls were the exact same way >.< its either small sqaure rooms linked togeather or one massive square area. So basicly all he is saying that u wont have to spend 10 mins traveling in a2 just to get to that next area. Cause in the end he says the areas are not as big as they were in d2….. as big buddy? dude, everyone and there mom just had a sorc tele and use tps. they wanted to get away from that. ugh this guy is so dumb lol, its no wonder why blizz fired him.
This guy is also not taking into account hes playing the game in alpha, so of course the bosses are gonna be ease for testing purposes. as for loot sucking…. d2 release loot compared to end pre xpac and compared to end game xpac had huge gaps. of course the loot wont be "uberly impressive" at start.
I for one find his story beleavable but hes not taking alot of stuff into consideration. which is what blizzard saw and which is why he was clearly fired.
ive played both d2 and torchlight and thought both were excellent games. Combining elements of both games will just equal 100% win. and for the record, in my opinion torchlight was for the most part an exact rip off of diablo 1/2 except it didint have multi player. (and yes im aware it was made by the orignal makers of diablo)
Overall, treat this guy like you would about someone qq'ing about WoW sucking. out of millions of players that like the game and will like d3, he is in that 10,000 number who's opinion does not and will never reflect the majority of players. Tis a ton he is not taking into consideration.
My only regret is reading the story spoilers since that is the only thing that is 100% true in my opinion since it makes logical sense the story would go that way.
I kind of believe it actually. Unfortunately I can see the quality of D3 going down, I mean for Starcraft 2 the single player campaign wasn't exactly roses. I also remember a leak happening with Warhammer Online that was written in a similar vein and that turned out to be right on the money. The whole facebook thing with the new mmo sounds extremely plausible too, I mean remember the whole SC2 fiasco with facebook?
In the end I have a feeling this guy is telling the truth, D3 is going to look better, but the magic that made D2 such a great game will be lost. He's not exactly saying the game is utter shit, he's just saying as a fan of Diablo 2, you will be dissapointed.
This guy seems like he was fired because he was more so a hazard at the workplace. He doesn't seem like he'd be an enjoyable employee to work around.
Not to mention your job as a tester is to TEST THE GAME. Not comment on how you think it's "shit" without any constructive criticism.
I honestly hope he never gets another job as a tester of any type or works on any projects where you need to keep a secret. Most unprofessional statements I've ever read.
Someone there to keep you acting like sheep? Wtf? Go rebel against the government you fucking hippy.
@NoNeed
Um, I think he is reacting like any other person would react in his situation, a$$hole.
If you were fired for giving your honest opinion because it wasn't what upper management wanted to hear you'd probably do the same thing. Get off of your knees. Don't expect an email with a job offering from Blizz just because you are a pre-madonna in "the work place" and you opening sniff Blizzard's farts and ask for more.
NoNeed you lack logic. Now where does he give us the details of how we was fired except a sentence of several words. You can't deduce anything from that other than assumptions. Anybody who gets fired would be pissed esp if it was a bad firing (which we don't know).