Diablo III Developer Journal: Itemization Update

In a new developer blog over on the official Diablo III website, game designer Travis Day reflects on the current state of the loot in the action RPG and some of the ideas the development team has for exploring its future. The ongoing iterations are no doubt inspired by the upcoming PS3/PS4 versions, as well:

Item diversity is a topic that comes up a lot. Right now when people are talking about the best items in the game or looking for ways to improve their power they gravitate towards items with Critical Chance, Critical Damage, and Attack Speed. While these stats are great for boosting your damage they aren’t necessarily interesting or what we like to call “game changing.”

We want players to feel like entire new builds can open up if they get their hand on the right items. Glimmers of this idea are already in the game with The Three Hundredth Spear and Thing of the Deep. The plan is to embrace the idea and push them to more extremes. Potential future Legendary item ideas include a Voodoo Mask that increases pet damage, a Barbarian set that makes Call of the Ancients last until they die (after we give them full pet survivability), a Wizard Orb that allowed for two Hydras to be active at once, or the “Ethereal” boots idea I posted here. While these specific ideas may not make it into the game, they are good examples of the kinds of game changing effects we want to introduce to items. It will take time, but our goal is to try to provide players with compelling alternatives to trifecta items when talking about what items they want to acquire.

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The auction house is a new addition to the Diablo franchise. And, while it serves many purposes for our players and helps to keep the economy fluid, some would argue that it has done more harm to the game than good. There is value to be had in providing players a way to freely exchange unwanted items for gold, or giving Demon Hunters an easy means to sell unwanted rubies in order to purchase emeralds, but the question has to be asked: is what the auction house provides worth what it took away from some players?

If the “right” way for some people to play the game changes from killing monsters to camping the auction house, is the game better off for it? Ultimately we don’t think it is, but we also don’t want to take something away that has become such an enjoyable part of the game for others. So, the question instead becomes: how can we refocus the end game away from farming the auction house back to farming monsters? It’s a complicated issue, but one we are committed to addressing.

The first solution always presented when we discuss this problem is “Why don’t you just get rid of the auction house?” and while completely removing the feature would in fact fix the problem it created, it would also create a void that the auction house was originally designed to address. For example, we don’t want players to feel like the only way to trade with other people is by sitting in chat and spamming “WTS [item link]” and “WTB [awesome item]” all day. This is definitely not ideal.