I just got back to my hotel after the pre-Blizzcon dinner event, which was randomly awarded to people who signed up on the Blizzard website. I'm glad I did.

I got to meet and chat with many industry leaders, such as John Cash and Ray Gresko. I even chatted with Ray about when he worked on Dark Forces and Jedi Knight. They were super open and very friendly to me, and I even got their cards so I can talk with them about the industry. I plan on transferring to UC Irvine after I get my two year degree and majoring in computer science. Both of them suggested I apply for QA at Blizzard as a stepping stone into the company.

I know this is sort of a random post, but I'm too damn excited about this experience for me not to share it.

i hope they're gonna announce the d3 characters, more sc2 footage, and maybe some other stuff

world of starcraft

Sounds like you had one hell of a networking experience.

What did you go dressed as?

That's freaking awesome!

I was dressed decently for the dinner, I wore slacks and decent shoes, etc.

The dinner was held at the Hilton in Anaheim and the chance to buy tickets was randomly given to about 100 people, most of which asked nothing but World of Warcraft questions. I used the opportunity to talk about the gaming industry and how they got involved, and how I can get involved. It was great.

I thought the new monk class was cool.

The WoW expansion trailer was meh. I didn't like the narrator and this expansion seems like not much of a big a deal. New races are added and more race/class combinations are going to be made, but no big change really.

The WoW trailer was almost comical. The game reminds me of big kid action figures at this point.

The monk class also felt a little too arcade to me. The animaitons aren't as polished, the graphics seemed muddy, and it just didn't have the weight and feel the other classes shown so far have.

It was as if they had to toss some things together for blizzcon.

They're doing ANOTHER expansion? Lame

yeah and its more or less just a big patch with more raids and dungeons
i honestly thought the lich king would be the apex of the world of warcraft series seeing that hes the supreme evil (or maybe seragas)
wow has been pretty milked

the diablo ad looked like n64 graphics

They actually said during the Diablo 3 panel that they're going to use arcade style animations, which disappointed me.

Don't get me wrong, the Diablo 3 demo was fun, but as of now it doesn't feel like the old Diablos. It didn't feel as dark, and it played differently. It felt like a Diablo II UI pasted onto Dungeon Siege 2. However, it was still alot of fun, and the game is still very much beta, so much can change. For instance, this years Diablo 3 beta was very clean and was truer to Diablo 2, versus last years alpha.

Today I went in line 4 times to play each class. I found myself liking the Witch Doctor the best, mainly because I like casters and generally hate melee type characters.

The witch doctor had 2 summon abilities, one that summoned 2 dogs that basically tanked **** for you, and an ability that temporarily summons 4 spiders that just attack your focus. Also, the witch doctor had an arcing flame attack that hit for AoE damage, but the ability felt clunky and slow to me. Lastly, it had a fear-type AoE that I never really needed to use.
Final grade: So far, this class is the most cohesive. Obviously more talents are coming, and I hope they remain the same quality. A- because of the flame attack's clumsiness.

The wizard was my least favorite class, because it was way too squishy. To put it simply, that class needs teleport. It has no real escape abilities besides a 2 second AoE freeze, but since the targets are.. frozen.. you find yourself stuck in a corner with frozen enemies blocking your path. Teleport needed? Verily. Other than that, the wizard has a straight shooting shadow type attack that hits for massive AoE damage, and a melee range magic spell. There is also a frost armor, which works just like ice armor from WoW's mages, it just has a chance to slow melee targets for a few seconds. The only other ability was Mirror Image, which summoned a false image of my character and made me last only a few seconds longer before getting my *** kicked.
Final grade: This class needs work. It has more melee range attacks than ranged, and can't stand hits worth ****. C.

The monk, while being a newer class, was probably my 2nd favorite. It's main attack was a simple melee attack that after 3 swings hit for AoE damage. Other than that, it had a sort of chain-charge type ability. This ability just charges random targets in a group several times (amount of times affected by talents). The most useful part of this ability is that while charging, the monk is invincible. I used this ability more often to stay alive than to damage targets. The monk also has an AoE crowd control (I can't remember what it was, I think it was a stun?) that lasts for several seconds but gets broken by damage, and a prayer that reflected damage for a second or two. The reflect damage spell was extremely powerful against casters, and made the game more tolerable as I played this character just after the wizard.
Final grade: This class needs more abilities before it can truly be judged. This classes biggest fault is that it just doesn't seem to fit the Diablo series. B.

The barbarian was just as it sounds: a hack n slash, chop em up type of character. It's main attack was melee swing, secondary attack was cleave (up to 3 targets? I'll check tomorrow). Besides that, it had a battle cry and an.. what a surprise.. AoE stun. The play style was almost identical to the monk, but the barbarian was nicer to play because the ****er could take hits and not die. The play style gets boring faster than the monk though, as you find yourself running into a group, hit stun, cleave cleave cleave cleave, repeat.
Final grade: Like I said for all of these classes, this class just needs more abilities and talents. Nothing special in the talent tree, etc. B-.

Even though the panel claimed Diablo 3 would have unique play styles, at the moment the play styles were terribly similar. 1. Walk into monsters; 2. AoE crowd control; 3. Either single focus the strong monster or AoE them all down.

Graphically and physically the game was kickass and fun, but definately needs more work.

Gameplay: B-. Needs more!
Graphics: A+. Although graphically outdated by a few years, the animations and effects are crisp, and look great.
Sound: A-. Nothing special but nothing bad.
Overall grade for the demo: B. Blizzard needs to focus more on keeping the game true to the originals versus expanding ideas, as of right now the game doesn't feel like it should.


The new WoW expansion: although the graphics and storyline are interesting, they're simplifying the game to an extreme level.. which I hate. They're removing Armor Penetration because they feel it's too "Mathy", and I quote that word directly from Blizzard's presentation. I'm not too excited about the WoW expansion, to be quite frank besides the new zones I think it will suck.

Edit: my grammar is terrible..

Also, potions in Diablo 3 were on a cooldown and there were no mana potions. ****ing aggravating.

"mathy" is hilarious. Looks like MMOs will never be fun ever.

EVE is the "mathiest".

I totally just read the title as "I'm so stroked right now."

yeah and contraption looks like contraception

what are you guys talking about