20 Years to be Celebrated in All Blizzard Games - Diablo 3 - MMORPG.com

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20 Years to be Celebrated in All Blizzard Games - Diablo 3 - MMORPG.com

Diablo 3 News - With the arrival of the twentieth anniversary of Diablo on December 31st, Blizzard is pulling out all the stops across its many games. In Diablo III, of course, players can play the Darkening of Tristram event but players in Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, Overwatch, World of Warcraft and Starcraft II will also find celebratory goodies.

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Warlyx

20th anniversary...................wooohooo ,what we should do? lets put some portraits and be done with it ....let the interns do all that work is xmas time!

DreadTooth

Diablo One, You my only friend.

SinfulChris

Almost as bad as Metroid's 25th, atleast they gave us nothing to disappoint it with.

FelixMajor

RIP Blizzard.

H0urg1ass

Has it really been that long since I installed Diablo 1 and spent all night playing when I had class in the morning?  Between Diablo, Warcraft, Baldur's Gate and a few others, it's a miracle I graduated college.

Ataaka

Im still banned.

Tintagil

Diablo was the game that started it all for me. It was my first computer game. My mom was given it and a handful of other forgettable PC games from a co-worker that did not want them. It was still in its original packaging. You know the kind, big, brilliant packaging, the likes you only see in modern day collectors editions. I knew immediately sensed what sort of gem that fool had given up. Needless to say I plunged deeply into the dark and foreboding world of Sanctuary and never looked back.

Still can't believe that was 20 years ago...

Dullahan

Thanks for making me feel old.

MadCoderOne

lol crappiest anniversary events ever? I remember EQ1 would put in quests, event, items, etc... it was great. This is ... disappointing

H0urg1ass

MisterZebub said:

Hrrrm. I hate to be a Negative Nancy but in all honesty celebrating twenty years of Blizzard's success is a bit like celebrating being ruled by the dictatorship of Kim Jong-il. I'm not saying that Blizzard hasn't put out quality products, but thanks to them and other juggernaut companies such as EA having such a massive stranglehold on the industry, I can't help but wonder how the gamescape would look if the smaller indie companies of the past were still around. Sadly we'll never know.

To be honest we would have hundreds of barely finished, or incomplete games that are still a decade behind where graphics and gameplay are now.  It's really the infusion of money that has led to incredibly polished and playable game releases that we just didn't have 20 years ago.

It's a double edged sword that has eventually led us to where we are now.  But really, the money grubbing in this industry didn't start hardcore until about five years ago.  Until then, gaming was a relatively cheap hobby, even if you bought new titles on release day, because they didn't hold back 50% of the game to sell later as DLC.

Tintagil

MisterZebub said:

Hrrrm. I hate to be a Negative Nancy but in all honesty celebrating twenty years of Blizzard's success is a bit like celebrating being ruled by the dictatorship of Kim Jong-il. I'm not saying that Blizzard hasn't put out quality products, but thanks to them and other juggernaut companies such as EA having such a massive stranglehold on the industry, I can't help but wonder how the gamescape would look if the smaller indie companies of the past were still around. Sadly we'll never know.

An interesting perspective. While I don't think your analogy of Blizzard to living under the dictatorship of a murderous mad man is really that appropriate or accurate, I will acknowledge that their immense success has likely stifled creativity among many publishers and/or developers and contributed to the current state of the MMO genre. However, to lay the blame squarely in their hands is an oversimplification of reality, and likely scapegoating. There are many guilty parties that have led us to where we are (e.g., the many consumers willing to pay and play WoW clones, which encourages publishers to continue to make them).

Anyway that is all tangential to why I initially responded to your post. I too am saddened by the loss of Indy devs in the post-WoW era, but I take heart in the growing number pioneers using crowd-source founding. While there are known risks involved for both backers (e.g., loss of investment), and devs (e.g., loss of credibility), I do think it puts the power back in the hands of those respective parties. Thus, encouraging innovation, and innovation my friend is what will drive us forward.

Just my thoughts. Happy New Year  

rojoArcueid

icons and sprays!!!!

way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of the biggest franchises in history...
...NOT.

ckotoc

Small companies should learn from blizzard and release good quallity products if they want to survive.Instead they release half made products,they beg for peoples money when they are still in development and they finally give to players a buggy f2p p2w mostrosity.

zerocount

"pulling out all the stops" I think not, appears to be a sad excuse of a celebration, would hate to go to one of their office parties!

BeansnBread

I'd be so down to go to a Blizzard office party.

Cygi

20 years anniversary and we're having icons and such - way to go Blizzard, way to go...

BabyFace765

This is beyond sad and pathethic...this is depressing...it actually depressed me to read about this celebration...

It's like that one guy that you know...and you don't really consider him your friend...or your enemy...he just...exists, and you find out it's his birthday soon, after knowing him for 20 years...you just now discover when his birthday is, and you get him the stupidest cheapest card you can get your hands on...you don't even make one yourself, personlized...no...he is not worth the time, you just get the cheapest one possible on your way to work and give it to him like "Hey...congratz you didn't die for another year....take this...bye"

that's sad

Coolit

There's nothing wrong with marking milestones, The FF franchise is 30 next year and I'm sure they have many things planned too including more cross game promotions.

Kunai_Vax

Diablo themed card back for hearthstone.. boring. 
Diablo themed hero for hearthstone...yes please!

narg1

guys, i dont find enywhere, how long will stay that event in D3?? just one day or longer ??

Pierrenard

Thats way too much i dunno how i can thnx them for that crap

tawess

So... Since nobody seem to have asked the question...

What did people want/expect from this..? 

simsalabim77

tawess said:

So... Since nobody seem to have asked the question...

What did people want/expect from this..? 

A 5 foot pure gold D3 statue encrusted with diamonds sent to everyone who has a BNet account. I'm sure even then they'd find something to complain about.

rojoArcueid

simsalabim77 said:

tawess said:

So... Since nobody seem to have asked the question...

What did people want/expect from this..? 

A 5 foot pure gold D3 statue encrusted with diamonds sent to everyone who has a BNet account. I'm sure even then they'd find something to complain about.

I think most are valid complaints. Those are things they usually give for free with minor patches or in boxes, not a flipping 20th anniversary celebration. My thoughts.

Overwatch skins based on Diablo characters would make a lot more sense than icons and sprays. That's just one example of a better way to actually celebrate the franchise. I'm sure Blizz thought about that and said -nah... we can actually sell those skins later, lets give them icons and sprays!-

tawess

rojoArcueid said:

Overwatch skins based on Diablo characters would make a lot more sense than icons and sprays. That's just one example of a better way to actually celebrate the franchise. I'm sure Blizz thought about that and said -nah... we can actually sell those skins later, lets give them icons and sprays!-

Sure but then you need to make either 21 proper skins of the same quality... OR people will complain because their favourite hero did not get a skin... Icons and sprays can be used by everyone.