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The new game director of Diablo 3, Josh Mosqueira, took to the game's official website today to outline Blizzard Entertainment's plans for the future of the action RPG. According to Mosqueira, that includes a focus on making items feel more meaningful and reducing "the impact of the Auction House" in Diablo 3.
Mosqueira says he was originally brought onto the Diablo 3 team to help develop the console versions of the game. (The title is coming to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.) After the departure of former game director Jay Wilson, who has moved on to another Blizzard project, Mosqueira shifted his attention from the console version to Diablo 3 as a whole.
He says he wants to keep the "core magic formula" of Diablo in tact and refine the game's experience. Here's how.
"We want items to feel more meaningful, and we want players to be excited about the next loot drop," Mosqueira wrote, echoing similar sentiments posted by fellow Blizzard designer Travis Day. "Our goal is to make the loot experience more enjoyable for ALL players. This includes reducing the amount of loot that drops while improving the overall quality, introducing targeted Legendaries, and giving players ways to directly customize their character's armor-both visually and mechanically.
"We're also looking into ways to reduce the impact of the Auction House," Mosqueira adds. "While we think the feature does provide a lot of value, it shouldn't feel like the end-all-be-all force driving character progression."
At the Game Developers Conference this year, Jay Wilson said Diablo 3's gold-driven and real-money auction houses "really hurt the game."
Mosqueira goes further in discussing the future of Diablo 3 in his post, explaining that Blizzard will be "focused on preserving the core fantasy by cultivating the roots of the Diablo storyline, fine-tuning the heroes for what lays ahead, and creating new monsters and demons that will once again plant the seed of fear in your hearts."
