A couple of days ago David Brevik, the creator of the Diablo franchise, had an interview with IncGamers. The interview was about Brevik’s new project Marvel Heroes, but there were also questions about Diablo 3, which Brevik had no hand in designing.
During the interview Brevik admitted he had ‘mixed emotions’ about Diablo 3 and the direction it went in. He spoke about how the new team behind the Diablo franchise added some gameplay decisions that he personally wouldn’t have, and raised some other concerns that fans have raised before; examples of this being the loot system and the implementation of the auction house.
These were just honest opinions from the mind behind Diablo and everyone is entitled to them. However, Diablo 3 Game Director Jay Wilson wasn’t too pleased with what he read. Below is the FB exchange between members of the D3 team.
As you can see from the exchange above (image courtesy of Gawker) Jay Wilson rounded up his thoughts into the sentence “Fuck that loser.”
Now, first off this shows a complete lack of respect from Jay Wilson and some members of the team regarding the creator of the Diablo franchise, which allowed a Diablo 3 to exist, but it also reveals something much more serious. David Brevik was echoing the thoughts of many Diablo fans, and if this is the reaction that Brevik faced about those criticisms, what kind of attitude do the developers have towards the fans of the series? Is the same ‘Fuck you’ attitude directed to people who raise concerns about Diablo 3?
teflon
Childish and immature reaction to what I felt was a fairly genuine interview by Brevik. All he said was that Diablo 3 is a different game to how it would have been developed by him and the team of ARPG experts that we laid off. The D3 team are having to learn from what fans of the series have to say about their game, that’s it!
To react in this way and just slam into him and his games is a poor show.
KeRaSh
Exactly. He was voicing the opinion the fans voiced and I think he did this in a very respectful manner. The reactions of the D3 devs implies that they are very insecure about their work especially after receiving so much criticism from the fanbase. My guess is they weren’t ready for such a backlash. They probably thought they could get away with everything because it’s Diablo and people love Diablo… Wrong. Out of my circle of contacs there is only one person still playing D3 and he is a hardcore D3 fanboy (his words).
The Lone Steven
It’s so nice to know that developers are starting to act like MPs in parliment. :-/ Seriously, what ever happened to being proffessional and actually respecting your rivals? Plus if he actually meant feck you to Diablo 3’s fanbase then he has commited career sucide as no publisher will want to hire a developer that disrespects their fanbase.
bmg_123
Well doesn’t that FU comment just describe the state of the AAA games industry…for some publishers anyway.
An-dz
Very unprofessional of them.
bunimomike
Precisely my thinking. Both immature and churlish, at best!
DJ Judas
I doubt there’s any direct link between their reactions to Brevik and their possible reactions to player criticism. It appears they have reacted poorly to being professionally critiqued rather than it being the opinion of a customer, although you’d be forgiven for thinking that many developers take this approach to the opinions of the end-user as well.
Their tone is inappropriate and they have hugely over-reacted. However removing the tone and they’re simply defending their work from being criticised by a fellow professional. If my work was criticised by someone who I felt didn’t exactly have the best recent track record I would probably find myself citing their poor form too.
colmshan1990
To be fair, he did say he was glad that D3 wasn’t that good as it made him and his team look better…
Basically, it’s two bitter directors who haven’t quite grown up just yet.
As bad as each other.
yogdog
I actually loved Hellgate: London. I recognise it had huge flaws but I still loved to play the game and pine to be able to play it over multiplayer servers again :(
These are some immature people though, right?
Forrest_01
Fuck those losers.
The Lone Steven
I think they can afford to hire their own hookers. ;)
3shirts
Reddit has been hilarious in response to this.
hazelam
they made a game that was designed to generate sales for their real money auction house, with player enjoyment coming in second in their list of priorities, and they get upset when they get criticised for it?
boo freaking hoo.
i’m sure they’re really upset anyway, while swimming in their pools of money.
http://cdn3.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1141128/Scrooge-in-gold-coins.png
Bladesteel
In the process they’ve ruined their chance of future profits by to selling me Diablo IV. That is unless the problems are fixed/patched. I’ll probably finish III eventually, to see how the story ends, but then it looks like I’d rather go back to diablo II if I feel the need for some hack&slash.
The amazing thing is that they have the balls to reply like that to the guy. Without his previous work on diablo their sales would have been small at best.
hazelam
exactly, why did Diablo 3 get so many sales?
because of the love the fans had for Diablo 1 and 2.
i doubt Diablo 3 will have inspire similar devotion..
YOURMUMANDME
What a disgraceful, tasteless and underhanded thing to do.
To echo what’s been said all over the Internet, how can Jay Wilson and more importantly the team behind Diablo III slander Breviks name like that? “Coming from the man who made Hellgate” I think you’ll find that the money in your bank account is there thanks to his genius Diablo & Diablo II. It’s unfortunate that he wasn’t at the helm of the latest iteration, at least if there were faults he would listen to the mass majority and no doubt the game that paid money for would be mine, on my computer.
Actually, thank you Jay Wilson. Perhaps Blizzard will now re-evaluate your position and those of the ’12 likes’ too.