Open World

One of the things that's evolved over time in World of Warcraft, and is going to evolve more in The War Within, is that you can make choices about what you get up to in the game.

Well, I liked the Diablo 4 open beta, anyway.

We're officially in the pre-expansion lull, and as always many players will take advantage of the time to solo old expansions or farm rare mounts.

Let's start with a question -- what is the first word that comes to mind when you think of those beautiful Diablo 4 demos from BlizzCon 2019 and clips from BlizzConline?

I've been thinking about those Blazing Ingots again.

We are seeing more and more information about Diablo 4 and that has me really starting to think about what kind of game it's going to be.

When I think about Diablo 4, one of the things I muse about the most is how having it as an open-world game is going to feel when compared to its predecessors and current open-world games.

I don't know if the term closed world makes any sense per se, but considering that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim ushered in the term 'open world' and it's become synonymous with a certain kind of gameplay experience -- also known as sandbox games -- I thought I'd talk about whether or not gamers are finally ready to embrace games which don't subscribe to that philosophy.

Update 3/6/19: Blizzard responded to player complaints with a lengthy forum post outlining more reasons they're moving forward with this change.

If I had to list my favorite games of the past decade, I know that Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft would be on that list, but I also know that Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Dragon Age Inquisition and now Assassin’s Creed Odyssey would also be high on that thing. And I really wish, in all the really good multiplayer stuff that Blizzard is putting out, that there felt like there was anybody there willing to take one of those IP’s I love like Diablo or StarCraft and go nuts with a gigantic open world game that I could play whether or not my internet connection was up that moment.

I know, this is a perennial complaint with me. But still, I’d love to play a single player RPG with the polish and attention to detail of Overwatch. 

Basically I’ve been spending a lot of time in Ancient Greece lately and I’d love it if I could have that kind of experience in Sanctuary is what I’m saying. Anyway, it’s the Queue, let’s do this.