I played a monk the first time, how can you tell?

Remember that game that at one point boasted 15 million registered users that also was developed by Blizzard? You know, that MMORPG that birthed a new wave of web-trolls:

World of Warcraft, or WoW (as it goes by on “the streets”), had its service interrupted along with every other game tied to Battle.Net because of the demand for its spiritual successor: Diablo 3. Let us be clear, Blizzard’s Diablo franchise now bookends one of the most successful videogame money-making streaks of all time, a fact that made the botched launch such an incomprehensible catastrofuck considering they had an MMO infrastructure that was second to none in supporting the largest active subscribed player-base of all time; did I mention most of those players thought the game was a supposed “single-player?” Across the vastness of the interwebs, many nerds (myself included), lamented the forced online presence of a “Diablo game.”

After beating the “prime evil” for a third time, I can now say that I was not wrong for being pissed at the company for dropping the ball on the launch, but I was wrong about my rationale:  the Diablo franchise is no longer a “single-player,” it is the sum-total of Blizzard’s financial and gameplay breakthroughs — it is an MMO.

The term “MMORPG” now carries a ton of preconceived ideological baggage about the factors that do and don’t affect whether or not a game can be considered to be a true massive-multiplayer online role-playing game. WoW, and its clones, have had a lot to do with setting the “expectations” of an MMORPG, but let’s go through the typical list given by any fanboy:

1. Single-Player questing, with the option to tackle larger challenges and enemies with a bigger group for better loot.
2. Open world exploration
3. Server and “zone” social chat and networking.
4. Customizable talents and the ability to improve a characters stats and skills through better gear.

So after playing Diablo 3 for about 25 hours now, let me go back through that list:

1. There are built-in “quests” in the narrative that reward easy XP that serves to reduce level disparity in parties – they will always be there when you go back through the game. I haven’t found many, if any, true “optional” quests. That being said, there will always be an incentive to play the game with the max 4 person party. Each person added ups the in-game difficulty of the mobs, but also allows for faster levelling and gear progression, in that there are always four loot tables that drop; even though you cannot see the other players’ drops on-screen, you can always trade or drop items that are better suited for another player’s class on the spot.
2. Not so much — I cannot even be certain how much random “dungeon” placement there is outside of the story-driven locals. With no true exploration outside of the set maps, at least there aren’t “collect 20 demon hides and return them to the tailor in Tristram” runs. The 3D world, however, is beautifully eery to run through, and fun to interact with.
3. Actually yes, in that any friends across any Battle.Net game (including WoW and SC2) can be chatted with at all times. Also, there is an MMO style economy in a game-wide auction house that will also eventually incorporate a “real-world” dollar alternative.
4. Oh sweet baby jeebus yes, a thousand times yes.

Playing Diablo 3 is like tracing the decade-long development bloodlines that essentially has run through all the successful Blizzard “RPG” releases since the last sequel, Diablo 2. Anyone who popped on Diablo 2 in the last few weeks would find it impossible to not see how that game’s innovations in class customization and loot system blossomed later in the Warcraft RTS and MMO. Blizzard has essentially never stopped building upon those core gameplay archetypes established over a decade in the “instantly rewarding action-RPG genre.” If you take out the open world exploration and that “social-hub” atmosphere where people vainly peacock their new armor sets and gear-score around in big virtual cities – ask yourself, are those really the factors that would make or break a game being classified and MMORPG?

It all comes down to this anyway

For some try-hards, maybe, but I can guarantee that there are substantially more gamers who wouldn’t mind not having to do another unmounted delivery quest 45 minutes away just so you could marvel at the scenery. Does anyone really still read quest text for that matter? Diablo 3 represents Blizzard’s solution to the MMO fatigue that is quickly afflicting WoW, its giant cash cow: non-stop action and loot. To be honest, isn’t that what we have come to really want as a player-base that is sick and tired of the forced “raid-night” end-game character progression? Life is too short to sit there and wait 40 minutes for a full-group to show up, only to tackle the same tired dungeon and ubiquitous loot, and eventually have to settle for the guild drunk whose ineptness (but chat hilarity) will end up costing you 3 hours of existence and repair bills.

Fuck this, anyone want to play DoTA 2?

Like losing your virginity, Diablo 3 has the “in and out” mentality that appeals to both causal gamers, MMO burnouts, or the hardcore grinders. You can play solo, hop in with some friends who are at one stage of the story, or start over completely with some new friends. You could stay in a 4-player max group for as long as you like, and if you need to bounce –bounce. Unlike WoW, whose end-game demanded forced social interaction and cooperation to achieve the best gear, Diablo and your group won’t hold it against you if you decide life has more pressing concerns, like going out and getting laid, because there really is no detriment to the group. If you want to play with some other friends, but their characters are too low, start a new character because gold, loot in the “stash,” and advancement in the crafting system are shared between all your characters. Anything you do will benefit your total Diablo experience in some way.

And after all the “talent tree” iterations gamers have had thrown at them the last decade since the release of Diablo 2, it would only make sense that Diablo 3 would come to usher in the new wave of copy-cats and pretenders. Yes Diablo is still about amassing “phat loots,” but the combat and talent system are revelations, and I am so thankful that Blizz took another 8 months after the initial announced release window to get it right. Here is a pic from August 2011 (on the left) of the talent tree, and then what looks like today .

2011 Talents (on the left)

2012 Talents

We were almost doomed to another round of skill trees. Thankfully, the redesign is a system that not only reduces all chosen abilities down to a hotbar, but within that seemingly limited selection exists the striking irony of infinite gameplay variations. How can this be possible? I’ll let this poindexter explain the change:

This new system is so simple, yet so diverse in the way the player can swap out abilities in a second, that I honestly can’t see Blizz turning back. This type of talent and character flexibility is what most MMO gamers crave after being bottle-necked into a one skill-tree or role. Sure, you could “respec” in the traditional MMORPGs, but then you would have to manage new gear to augment the new play style, and lets just say it is a fucking hassle to do without the right add-ons. Not only are the talents and skills now often wholly independent of gear concerns (to a point, though certain gear bonuses could diminish the usefulness of a talent or rune, it still won’t require a massive second gear set), but you could switch from a “trash spec” that is good for taking on multiple weak enemies, to a single-target “boss-spec” in that matter of a few clicks — free of charge and in the dungeon. This kind of dynamic and fluid combat experience will be as transformative for the MMO genre as Diablo 2‘s innovations were, and I am almost certain some of the time for the shifted release window could also have been so that Diablo 3 could debut well after Blizzard’s current crop of high-profile contenders, namely Star Wars: The Old Republic.

So is Diablo 3 an MMORPG? Though some would lament the loss of freedom to scour an entire world, Blizzard has clearly taken all of its MMO successes and streamlined them into a Diablo context that is wholly familiar to that universe, but in a way that is now more fun to casually jump in with a diverse group of friends (especially on vent), has infinite character variation and loot, and is blessed to be free of any semblance of a Barrens’ chat. That my friends is a success, no matter how much Blizzard has blurred the lines of what it means to be a successful MMO.