Pre-Release Discussion 1#: Diablo III

    Lately I have found myself surrounded in discussion of one game, Diablo III. For those who are unfamiliar with the Diablo series,  it's a fairly simple RPG as you explore dungeons, collect weapons and armour, and kill monsters to gain levels. Not a very unique game but certainly one that many people became hooked into from the start. But i'm not here to discuss the past, but rather the future of the Diablo series.

   What to expect from Diablo 3: A graphically enhanced, Diablo 2 with the option to essentially "buy" your avatar by paying real world money to buy in-game items from other players. You might be thinking, well why should I care: how does this affect me? Whether you are paying cash for items, or simply trying to play the game normally this WILL have a very negative affect on your gaming. I'll take blizzards trademark MMORPG, World of Warcraft as an example. In WoW, the selling of gold or items for real world money is against the game rules, although still on any given day you can expect your favorite farming or grinding spot to be PACKED with gold farmers, all playing for the sole purpose of making money. Now imagine how bad the problem will be on a game where selling items for real world money is not only legal, but ENCOURAGED.

   So should I buy the game?  A question iv'e been asked more times than i'd prefer, but one that I can feel confident in answering when I say; no. I'm not here to babysit people into what games to buy and not to buy, but unless you are a die-hard fan of the series, I have to encourage everyone NOT to purchase this game just to stop any further encouragement towards Blizzard that this is a good idea. Once they see the revenue this brings in, there not going to think twice about doing it to there next game. At that, I must add one last note... that if you do buy this game, as it is very likely I will end up buying it too, that you do not make use of the legal real world trading as it is simply a game ruining feature.

-Take my words with a grain of salt because that is all they are, my words, my opinion. I say this simply because I know there are alot of Diablo fans who won't be too thrilled with what I have to say in this blog.