Diablo III UI influenced by World of Warcraft


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Diablo III UI influenced by World of Warcraft

We've gotten a first look at what the interface will look like for Diablo III, and as Blizzard points out, it takes a lot from the very successful World of Warcraft.

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It should come as no surprise that Blizzard's upcoming Diablo III will draw some inspiration from the massively successful World of Warcraft. One of the areas that this will be most visible is in the game's user interface, which will attempt to combine the best elements of WoW with popular elements from Diablo II.

One of these types of changes is the introduction of tabs to separate large and small items. "We?ve experimented with a few things and one of the big things that everyone liked from Diablo, as an entity, were the large objects," senior artist Mike Nicholson said on the latest episode of BlizzCast. "While it was more efficient to go with a WoW style one-size-fits-all icon, which is what most people have seen, we really wanted to see what we could do and so we went back and re-evaluated the system and we?ve decided split it into large and small objects...we ended up tabbing the inventory, so now you have your large items, and then you have a tab for small items, and there?s a third tab for quest items."

In an attempt to further streamline the inventory system, DIII will also include expandable bags. "You?ll get bags and they will expand, you know kind of like in WoW, except you?re not going to open up separate windows," Nicholson explained. "You?ll start off your inventory with say?you know, eight slots, right, and then you?ll get a new bag and that has ten, so two more slots will open up within that tab, but you?ll never have multiple tabs. Like you won?t have two or three 'large' tabs."

WoW's influence will also be seen in the icons, which will be more colorful this time around in order to better separate them, something that may displease some fans. "I love the WoW icons," said Nicholson. "And y?know what we?re trying to do is see, OK, what works about the WoW icons? They?re illustrative; is there a way to try to maybe bridge the gap? You know what worked about the more symbolic DII icons, and what works with the WoW icons, and trying to find a way to put the two together."

It seems clear that Blizzard is looking at its most successful title for inspiration. The again, we still have no idea when the game will be released, so these aspects could very well be changed yet again before DIII ships.

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http://static.arstechnica.com/GamSource: g]

Source: Ars Technica

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kinda ironic considering WoW was influenced by D2 lol

...technically we can just cut out the middle man and say D2 influenced D3 :laugh:

Not for those talent icons... D2's were ridiculously ugly -- just two-color symbols.

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Looking good! I have never played WoW (blasphemy, I know) but it doesn't look like a huge departure from the other Diablo games. I welcome the addition of color and updated icons as well. It is looking much better than those silly "How It Should Look" fan mockups when the first footage of the game was released.

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you know what I see when I look at these pictures? Wow. Than again its not the original team so meh, i'll just end up buying the game and loving it like I did for diablo.

P.s I WANT TO PLAY TEXTRIS WITH ME LOOT!

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you know what I see when I look at these pictures? Wow. Than again its not the original team so meh, i'll just end up buying the game and loving it like I did for diablo.

P.s I WANT TO PLAY TEXTRIS WITH ME LOOT!

Yeah, honestly, that bugs the hell out of me when people say they won't play the game because it isn't the "original team". It's like, what makes them so special that no other can successfully continue the story? I mean, Blizzard is well known for their extreme quality control, so I don't see it likely that they'll release Diablo III if it isn't truly what they want it to be.

Besides, the so called "creators" of Diablo took off and made what? Hellgate: London? No thanks...

Anyhow, like you said, many of us will most likely buy it and hopefully end up loving it just as much as Diablo II. :)

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you know what I see when I look at these pictures? Wow. Than again its not the original team so meh, i'll just end up buying the game and loving it like I did for diablo.

P.s I WANT TO PLAY TEXTRIS WITH ME LOOT!

Sometimes it is not the people involved, it is the whole system that matters. Even after Blizzard North was closed, Blizzard, with its whole development/management system, still continues to make great games. On the other hand, look at the Blizzard North crew, they made Hellgate London, and it wasn't really a good game. :)

EDIT: Back on topic, the UI looks great. (Y)

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I'm not a big gamer but this game has got me interested :)

Is online play more linear than MMORPG's? Like, do you start off with a party of players and go from point A to point B with a boss at the end or something? I haven't played WoW or any Diablo games. :p

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OFF TOPIC:

anyone thinks that Blizzard wants us to buy story campaign for Starcraft 2 separately is ridiculous?

No. given that each campaign will be the size of a standalone game. Plus, we get it sooner.

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Pero yes it is. They all better be stand alone game worthy.

WoW took elements from D2 and improved on them. D3 is taking elements from WoW and improving on them. Key word improving. While that screenshot does have some WoW influence to it, it does not look like WoW. Besides we still got, what, couple of years before this goes gold so I'm sure things will chance and the elements from WoW they are taking will be improved and given that distinct diablo-esque feel and look to it.

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BAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

im definitely buying the game, cause i loved D1, and D2, but im also a little scared they've tarnished the game...

one thing that bugs me is how much it looks like wow, with different character models......

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Interesting. This is the first time I've ever seen the UI for Diablo 3. Unfortunately, I haven't really played Diablo 1/2. I was more into StarCraft. I'm sure you can guess which Blizzard game I'm looking forward to. :p

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Yeah, honestly, that bugs the hell out of me when people say they won't play the game because it isn't the "original team". It's like, what makes them so special that no other can successfully continue the story? I mean, Blizzard is well known for their extreme quality control, so I don't see it likely that they'll release Diablo III if it isn't truly what they want it to be.

Besides, the so called "creators" of Diablo took off and made what? Hellgate: London? No thanks...

Anyhow, like you said, many of us will most likely buy it and hopefully end up loving it just as much as Diablo II. :)

And when was the last time Blizzard made a bad game :p

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Yeah, honestly, that bugs the hell out of me when people say they won't play the game because it isn't the "original team". It's like, what makes them so special that no other can successfully continue the story? I mean, Blizzard is well known for their extreme quality control, so I don't see it likely that they'll release Diablo III if it isn't truly what they want it to be.

QFT. Blizzard has always kept to high quality control standards. Thats why their titles are so far-and-few between and always blockbusters. Unlike other producers (*cough* EA games *cough*), Blizzard won't shuffle **** out their door.

BAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

im definitely buying the game, cause i loved D1, and D2, but im also a little scared they've tarnished the game...

one thing that bugs me is how much it looks like wow, with different character models......

Only thin that looks like WoW to me is the talent tree. Everything else looks like D2. And what made Diablo so great was its intense gameplay. I was very disappointed with WoW didn't use the gameplay from D2. I love killing hordes of monsters and watching their blood splatter on the wall.

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No. given that each campaign will be the size of a standalone game. Plus, we get it sooner.

funny how valve used this excuse... and how long has episode 3 now been in the making? :p

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im definitely buying the game, cause i loved D1, and D2, but im also a little scared they've tarnished the game...

one thing that bugs me is how much it looks like wow, with different character models......

I played the Diablo 3 demo for quite a bit at Blizzcon last year... it doesn't look or feel like WoW at all. It feels like diablo :)

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Seriously, all the people who keep saying D3 looks like WoW and it's going to suck because of it need to unplug their ethernet cables. The art design is not like WoW's (with the exception of the talent trees), and IMHO it's much better to boot. And, so D3 has more of a color palette than black, grey, and red. It still looks fantastic and the game is still going to be killer fun (pun intended).

funny how valve used this excuse... and how long has episode 3 now been in the making? :p

Too long... :angry:

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