Blizzard Admits Diablo III Endgame isn't Sustainable

Blizzard has agreed with claims that the Diablo III item hunt isn't enough for a sustainable endgame.

Speaking on the game's forums, community manager Bashiok stated, "There needs to be something else that keeps people engaged, and we know it's not there right now".

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We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game.

"We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game," he said.

"There are still tons of people playing every day and week, and playing a lot, but eventually they're going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already). Killing enemies and finding items is a lot of fun, and we think we have a lot of the systems surrounding that right, or at least on the right path with a few corrections and tweaks.  But honestly Diablo III is not World of Warcraft. We aren't going to be able to pump out tons of new systems and content every couple months."

Given the fact that Diablo was recently beaten on the game's hardest setting, some players have been suggesting Blizzard didn't provide enough content at launch.  But Bashiok is quick to assert that this doesn't mean the company is content to sit idle while players are bored.  He cites the upcoming PvP arenas along with a progression system as potential solutions, though neither will arrive soon.

He explained, "We're working toward 1.0.4, which we're really trying to pack with as many fixes and changes we can to help you guys out (and we'll have a bunch of articles posted with all the details as we get closer), and we're of course working on 1.1 with PvP arenas.

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Hindsight is 20/20, but we believed pre-release that the item hunt would be far more sustainable, and would work to be a proper end-game for quite a while. That didn't turn out to be true.

"I think both those patches will do a lot to give people things to do, and get them excited about playing, but they're not going to be a real end-game solution, at least not what we would expect out of a proper end-game. We have some ideas for progression systems, but honestly it's a huge feature if we want to try to do it right, and not something we could envision being possible until well after 1.1 which it itself still a ways out."

Several players were quick to suggest that this proves Blizzard released Diablo III before the title was ready, but Bashiok refutes this.  He did admit however that, "Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose, but we believed pre-release that the item hunt would be far more sustainable, and would work to be a proper end-game for quite a while. That didn't turn out to be true, and we recognize that."

Despite this, the game doesn't appear to be in the dire straights that some are extrapolating from his admission.  Comparing the title's retention with Blizzard's other juggernaut, World of Warcraft, he revealed that Diablo III was still performing well and that the game is yet to be released in several key territories.

"We have hundreds upon hundreds of thousands playing every night. Comparing to just normal drop-off post release of a WoW expansion, Diablo III has been very solid, and it's not even out in China yet," he said.

Diablo III became the fastest selling PC game of all time when it released in May, shifting 3.5 million copies within 24 hours.  Our original review found the game to be amazing, though a bunch of our editors recently sat down to discuss how their experiences have progressed since then.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant.  You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Community Creator Replaced as Showrunner

This is not news that will be greeted with joy by Community fans, I'm guessing (And yes, they'll be a healthy dose of editorial in this news story). Dan Harmon, the man who created Community and has served as its showrunner, is being replaced in that capacity in Season 4, reports TV Guide, along with other outlets. The new showrunners will be newcomers to the series, Moses Port and David Guarascio.

Port and Guarascio wrote for Just Shoot Me and created The CW's short-lived Aliens in America. Recently, they served as consulting producers on Happy Endings. However, the tough pill to swallow, regardless of Port and Guarascio's own accomplishments, is not having Harmon be the guiding force for the series anymore, given Community's very unique feel and vision among the sitcom landscape.

TV Guide says Harmon was only signed to a one-year deal last year. He will have a consulting producer title on Community going forward, though TV Guide stresses that doesn't mean he's be actively involved in the show. No doubt fans will ponder what it means hearing Sony (who produce the series) "had been looking to make a change at the top," according to TV Guide, which is why they hadn't made a new deal with Harmon.

Community is a rather low-rated show, but one with excellent reviews and an intensely loyal core fanbase who know much about the people who make it. That being the case, it's odd to see this dramatic change behind the scenes, as many of the key creators of Community will likely be dramatically different next season. Besides Harmon no longer running the series, executive producers Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan are leaving for a new deal at 20th Century Fox while co-executive producer Chris McKenna has a new deal at Universal TV. TV Guide says McKenna also wouldn't have taken the showrunner job if offered without Harmon's involvement in the series.

All of which begs the question, will Community: Season 4 feel like Community? TV Guide says Sony had been "looking at ways to broaden Community and attempt to extend the show's life on NBC," as they sought new showrunners. But it's pretty clear fans of the series love Community the way it's been.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/19/community-creator-replaced-as-showrunner

Community: "Introduction To Finality" Review

Looking for reviews of the other two Community episodes that aired Thursday night? You can find the review of the video game-themed "Digital Estate Planning" here and check out the review of "The First Chang Dynasty here!

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

Our Community cup runneth over - three episodes in one night to sign off on Season 3! One can hardly complain, now can one? Where "The First Chang Dynasty" was a great way to bring the season to a close, "Introduction to Finality" felt a little out of place, with a tagged on series final ending, you know… just in case. This hurt the episode a bit, especially after two such notable outings.

The timeline of the last few episodes has been a bit of a problem for me. We've been skipping months at a time, and with "Digital Estate Planning," we seemed to leave the timeline altogether. The group got expelled, then months later learned that Chang might be behind the whole thing, then took a break to play a video game, then got reinstated to Greendale, and then months later are taking summer classes. Ultimately this isn't really a big deal, but it did hurt the flow of storytelling. When "Introduction to Finality" began, it was another episode that felt out of place, as if it could have been the first episode of next season.

And perhaps it was intended to be. "The First Chang Dynasty" gave us some great endings to multiple arcs and also supplied us with an interesting cliffhanger, having Troy sacrifice himself to the air condition repair school to save the group. As a first episode to Season 4, "Introduction to Finality" would have restarted the story telling be showing us the aftermath of Troy's departure (Abed cracking into Evil Abed) while also putting things back on track be quickly putting an end to Troy's air conditioning journey. Meanwhile, it started a storyline for Shirley and Pierce and their sandwich shop. But this was still Season 3.

So even though the laughs were there -- Evil Abed making Britta 10% darker, the quirky alternate reality of the repair school -- the whole thing felt very disjointed. And the Summer Fun Court storyline was very average, with Jeff's speech at the end being tedious and overwrought. And then the ending montage started and the purpose of this episode became very clear. This was shot months before anyone knew the fate of the series, and Dan Harmon and the writers had put together an ending to give us some closure on the series, if in fact this was going to be the last episode.

It was a nice montage, set to Community's theme song. Had this been the last ever episode, we would know that Jeff was one step closer to graduating and that he was ready to seek out his dad. We'd know that Abed was ready to grow up a bit, though not entirely. We'd know that the future for these characters looked hopefully. And we'd know that Star-Burns lives. But tacking this ending on to what was already an average, out of place episode simply added to the anticlimactic feel following the season true finale, "The Last Chang Dynasty."

But who can really complain? We get a Season 4!

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/18/community-introduction-to-finality-review

Community: "The First Chang Dynasty" Review

Looking for our reviews of the other two Community episodes that aired Thursday night? You can find our review of the video game-themed "Digital Estate Planning" here. The season finale review will be up later this morning!

Full spoilers for the episode follow.

I love me a good heist movie. Heck, I love me a mediocre heist movie. So as it became clear where "The First Chang Dynasty" was going to take us, I was grinning from ear to ear. Sure, it was mostly a riff on Ocean's 11 and not the genre as a whole, but since said movie falls squarely in the "good" category, why complain? Where "Digital Estate Planning" faltered by feeling so out of place as an episode, "The First Chang Dynasty" continued (and ended) the story arcs we've been following for weeks.

Chang's rise to power had been a background story for much of the season. And I like that it's been in the background. Too much Chang can really wear thin. Tonight, we got some full on Chang, and since things have been leading to this, it was nice to give him free reign for a while. Britta perfectly summed up his leadership: "He's just like Stalin back in Russia times." The Chang posters around the campus, the aggressive security, the prescription throne-- all were exactly what we'd hope for once we got a clear look at Chang's rule.

Click on Chang's fearsome face to enter for your chance to win a Chang poster signed by Ken Jeong!

Watching the study group figure out a way to free Dean Pelton was a hoot. Once Troy got his inside info from the air conditioning repair school, the plan was put in place. Things unfolded perfectly, with Jeff going over the steps while split screens showed the action that was taking place. It was a delightfully perfect Community spin on Danny Ocean breaking into the Bellagio. And it was funny. This series always does an amazing job of smartly, often meticulously mimicking countless genres while never forgetting to make the audience laugh.

And even get emotional on occasion. After the failing plan that was all part of the plan actually failed, the study group found themselves locked up without a way out. This is where Troy stepped up and made his wordless pact with the AC school: "A man is only as good as his nod through a camera to a guy with a button." This brought us back to another storyline carrying through mush of this season. It took a while, but Troy was now promised to the repair school.

IGN TV Executive Editor took this pic of Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs and Jim Rash on the set of "The First Chang Dynasty"

Really, "The First Chang Dynasty" brought some pitch perfect closure to numerous storylines running through Season 3. The Ocean's 11 riff was a fun way to wrap the package, but the gift on the inside was seeing how everything would come to an end. There was still one episode left, but "The First Chang Dynasty" worked perfectly as a conclusion to the season.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/18/community-the-first-chang-dynasty-review

Halo 4 Box Art Revealed Thanks To Group Puzzle-Solving Effort Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

Microsoft is using the lure of Halo 4's box art as an excuse to teach the fan community about a little thing called cooperation. A series of e-mails were sent out to the community, with each one containing a chunk of an image and a note that read: "Your piece of the Halo 4 puzzle." The NeoGAF hivemind then put its many heads together to assemble the image (via Kotaku), revealing the official box art for Halo 4.

It's a pretty sweet image, wouldn't you say? We all got our first glimpse of the post-Halo 3 Master Chief in an announcement trailer at E3 2011. News has been trickling out slowly since then, with the latest big one being the long-awaited confirmation of the game's release date: November 6, 2012. We'll certainly be seeing more of the game at E3 2012, so stay tuned for more news in the coming weeks.

Source : http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/723782/halo-4-box-art-revealed-thanks-to-group-puzzle-solving-effort/

Community: Life After Expulsion

Last week's Community episode ended on a big note, as the "Greendale Seven" (AKA: our main characters) were expelled. So what do they do next? Well, therapy for one!

We've got an exclusive first look for you at a scene from tomorrow's new episode, "Curriculum Unavailable," as Abed goes to see a therapist (played by The Daily Show's John "I'm a PC" Hodgman)... but not alone.


Community airs Thursday at 8pm on NBC.

Source : http://tv.ign.com/articles/122/1224534p1.html