Lost a Day and Diablo III

I will open up with an apology. Yesterday there was no post posted up on my blog. That is not to say I did not actually write something up, which I did, it was just that I had to remove the page and the grounds of my own stupidity and misunderstanding. I did not know how to fill the void and re-edit the page, so I just took it down.

I was on an amazing rant about how awesome Stumbleupon is and how everyone and their dog should use it, as it is the best tool for a procrastinator.

Anywho,

I shall open up today with a post as well as a post later tonight to make up for the gap.

This morning's post will be about Diablo III and how it urks me. Don't get me wrong, I like the game, I do find it fun - but working in the development of games myself, Diablo III is complete mediocrity. 

Now I'm going to set a standard and that standard is 'Torchlight'. Great game and they did amazing things for the budget they had. The game was great, it was fun, colourful, and exciting. For a lower budget game, this took the icing off any cake. I am incredibly excited for Torchlight 2, namely because it has multi-player.

Not only was Torchligh a low budget game, it was developed in 11 months. That is incredibly impressive for any game. The FIFA and NHL franchise can boast the same development time, however, those teams have a much higher budget and far more people to throw at the product as well as a previous iteration to work from. But 11 months for Torchlight to go from concept to release, that is an amazing feat.

The game itself can sell for $20 about and the studio makes enough to live on to create Torchlight 2.

Jump to Diablo III:

The aesthetic appeal, looks just above par to Torchlight.

The player and monster animations look about on par with Torchlight.

The story would be on par with torchlight.

The audio, music and all, would be on par with Torchlight.

The only thing that Diablo III blows every single game in the world out of the water, would be from the cinematics. The skill and amazing detail in the cinematics is absolutely stunning. But put this aside, as this actually hasnothing to do with gameplay or the ability to draw the player in.

Now that Diablo III has been set to just above par, lets look at some of the things that makes this game 'Bad'.

Diablo III was in development since 2001, It was probably shelved a couple of times, but the concept was there in 2001, 2008 the game was first announced; then finally, May 2012, the game was released. 

Development Time:

Diablo III - 11 Years

Torchlight - 11 Months

If you actually watch the credits to Diablo III, there were a ton of people who worked on the title, this game's budget was massive.

The game needs to be sold at $60 a unit, minus the collectors edition crap.

Product Cost:

Diablo III - $60

Torchlight - $20

This is starting to look like a common theme. Though Diablo III and Torchlight are amazing games, Diablo III was vastly over budgeted and it looks as though they wasted the money to come out with a game that would be 'Good Enough'. Either that, or the millions upon millions it took to develop the title went into their animators for those amazing cinematics.

I will also put in a big minus for the DRM system they have.

I don't want the argument of "You're on the internet all the time, what does it matter if you want to play single player and have to be online?"

I work on server games enough to know, it's not the user that is the problem. Generally the servers will fuck up, the server will be at fault, and when the servers go down for any reason, millions of people now cannot play the title and enjoy the game. This is an example of a poorly implemented DRM and the people who orchestrated this should be ashamed. This is a slap in the face to any and every aspect of user experience. They get an automatic 0 to the score's average for this mess up.

To put Diablo III to a score using Torchlight as the base of 5, it would be the following:

Diablo III:

Animation: 5

Story: 6

Aesthetics: 6

Audio: 5

Voices: 7

Gameplay: 6

Online: 10

Game Length: 5

Dev Time: 1

Unit Cost: 3

DRM: 0

Final Score : 4.9/10

For this style of game, I will always refer to Torchlight until a new par is set. Until then, my review for Diablo III is a 4.9/10. This game was definitely a flop in achievement and it looks as though they paid way too much much to reach par. That is why Diablo III is a mediocre slosh.

I will reiterate my first comment, I in know way hate Diablo III, I like it and play it and enjoy it. But for the amount of effort that went into the game, absolutely nothing shows for it except that blizzard has an amazing marketing team who I applaud. If this was any other studio, the game alone would have been an utter waste of money and the studio would have had to close, if the project was not already permanently shelved. Thanks to marketing, the fans of blizzard that eats anything they throw, the game is a success.

Now to keep with tradition, enjoy a bit of distraction:

The Need for Support

I've come to the conclusion that I need career advice. I have no Idea as to where I am going and where my heading is. I used to have a goal and a heading, but that was blatantly shot in the foot.

Needless to say, the support group that helped me move up has moved on. Those that had a plan for me and with me have long since left and I am stranded in a position where I don't have my 'Yang'. I am only half as effective without my 'Yang'.

I can clarify about my 'Yang'. That 'Yang' was a co-worker and friend of mine, Mike Palmer. During my early years in QA it was me and him supporting development. We sat next to each other and supported each other. If I didn't know something, Palmer would know and vice versa. We learned our weaknesses and learned from them and so we grew and took on more responsibilities. My weaknesses weren't always my weaknesses as we would share knowledge and fill the gaps in our skills.

Needless to say, he moved into another team and started setting up shop and success there while I moved into a profession completely alien to me. He stayed in his support base and knowledge base, I moved into a position I knew I wanted to go into but had absolutely no idea what I was doing or what was needed of me. I also had no support base. Every mistake was a glaring sore, every under performance was treated and inspected as a bacterial infection. I had no clue that I had no chance and no one took me to the side and told me what I should be doing, well not until it was far too late. I was told I was not allowed to stay in the position then they told me what was wrong and went that was that.

I slaved for hours to the best of my knowledge, being grotesquely underpaid, all in the hopes of being hired full time. This was to no avail. I did what was needed of me then pushed out the door. I moved from QA to Development, then back to QA. I had no real choice. No one was even looking at my resume, I never even got my foot into an interview position. (I can probably blame my crappy networking skills for that.)

I had no choice but to move back into QA, but with my senority and what I thought were my skills sets, I moved into a more project manager position. I may be able to do the job, I like the team, but I have no passion for the position; and this affects my performance. I commonly find myself not knowing what questions need to be asked and sometimes get caught in a reactionary for instead of a proactive form.

Long story short, I need career advice on how to find another 'Yang' or how I can improve without one, because as of right now, I am listless and lost; aimlessly wandering through the position trying not to fail the team. This, some may agree, is not the best situation to be in.

I must remain positive though, and with that note....