There are many people out there who enjoy the optional games most RPG’s contain. Final Fantasy VII did a fantastic job of this with Chocobo racing, and the Gold Saucer. Blizzard has also been quite successful with extracurricular outlets such as professions and battlegrounds. Unfortunately, the depth to some of these additions is noticeably mind numbing; to the point where the community has revolted with parody and satire, e.g. Fishin’ Kids .

A simple solution might be to implement an attractive gimmick, much like “rare loot” and “bigger bosses”, a visual reminder that something is happening outside of algorithms and random numbers. My idea for fishing would be to add some flair by replacing the [     Fishing     ] bar with something more interesting, a slot machine perhaps.

Imagine this, a typical three column’d slot bar popping up everytime you drop your bobber; it would contain 3-6 images of whatever fish or junk is in the water and would work like a traditional slot machine. Every cast of the reel would act as a 6-9 second timed pull of the handle, eager players would watch as a sucker fish, sea turtle [jackpot], manta ray, rock lobster, neddle fish, and salmon spun round and round. It would be visually pleasing and offer transparency to the player; waiting for that third turtle to lock into place on a slot machine is much more rewarding than an invisible roll of the die everytime I throw my bobber in the water.

My disbelief with Blizzacast #8 has to do with the simple changes Blizzard is making to item color schemes in Diablo 3. Jay Wilson quotes, “now magic items are blue, rare items are yellow, unique items I think they’re purple”. Usually blizzard is reluctant to deviate from design fundamentals, thank god but by doing it here they’re cutting us short.

Let’s take a step back and reflect on the significance of gold items in the first place, during Diablo they were the quintessential link between “average” and “mind blowing”. The golden text served as a primordial trigger that injected us with adrenaline and burst speed as we made millisecond ground-to-inventory clicks.

To illustrate this point I’m going to reinstall Diablo right now and play until a unique drops and see if I could imagine it being any other color, e.g. The Tail of Diablo.

After revisiting Diablo for a few hours I stand firm, gold is classic and exciting, there is no reason to replace it. Confusing gold and yellow is old hat, a Diablo 2 nuance that is easily adjusted to. Can you imagine if SOJ’s were purple? Ten bucks says they would’ve never became a currency,this isn’t candy land, it’s a realm of arcane majesty and that’s embodied in the gold text people!

My final thoughts on this matter are in reference to a vastly inferior game called Dungeon Siege II. This Diablo-like third person RPG happen to use purple as it’s unique item color and as a result lacked any relevant allure. There are some out there who may try and argue WoW’s success in using purple font. To them I reply, the point is irrelevant simply because purple has always been the epic standard. Not to mention the game’s loot dynamics are entirely different; items don’t sit on corpses waiting to be looted in Diablo, they spew from them!

In other news, here are some nostalgic quips from my day in Tristram.

The Things You Never Forget about Diablo

1. The music and ambiance of Tristram
2. “Fresh Meat”, encountering the Butcher!
3. Rolling Mage because you know its OP
4. Wishing they had invented the run key

Diablo was filled with  fantastic design features, the random dungeon generator, a nifty concept that re-mapped entire levels randomly so that the user had a unique experience everytime they replayed a level. Unique loot, beautiful emblematic swords and armor that had their item names plated in gold to stand out among the rest. Battle-net, free online play that allowed adventurers the ability to erridacte the bowels of hell in groups.

Blizzard engaged me in a new methodology of gaming, a concept that unified beautiful art, music, fantastic storytelling and interactivity wrapped in simple game play and friendly GUIs.