IGN announced recently that Blizzard Entertainment has joined the IGN Summer of Gaming line-up to be scheduled soon for June 2020.
The importance of this happening is two-fold. This event is more-or-less replacing what E3 2020 would have been now that the event got cancelled due to the pandemic; and June 29 is the 20th anniversary of Diablo II.
“Update 5/11/20: IGN is proud to announce that Ubisoft, Blizzard, and more are the latest additions to the Summer of Gaming line-up. We’re also happy to say that Blizzard will be making an appearance during the month, too.” — source
Rhykker had the opportunity to interview the founders of Diablo/Diablo II and former Blizzard North members at ExileCon.
It was kinda awkward to see two of them onstage wearing Blizzard Entertainment t-shirts instead of Graybeard Games or Double Damage or Echtra, Inc. ones — the companies they founded separately.
Originally, Diablo was going to be a turn-based video game, but eventualy they built the technology that allowed them to play Diablo the way it turned out. They talked about how Skill Trees were introduced in Diablo, inspired by another video game with tech trees.
The Swedish Tax Agency wants every Swedish gamer that earns money from online-gaming to pay tax for the money earned. There are a few games where you can earn money in-game for example Second Life and Diablo 3. The gamer needs to register all earned money from gaming to the tax agency; but this isn’t that easy since the gamer needs to know who the buyer is.
The criteria for the tax is that the seller is from Sweden and that he is a person that can pay taxes. This means that if the gamer is selling items on an online auction house, or something similar; he/she needs to find out who the seller is, and if the seller can pay tax, then report this.
There won’t be that many sellers reporting this income to The Swedish Tax Agency. This law seems pointless to me, would be nice to see a follow up on this from the tax office next year to see if there was actually anyone paying taxes for their earnings.
Diablo II players should take care of their business (a mal paso darle prisa); and hurry the hell up [no pun], because ladder will be reset in two weeks. This is an opportunity for players who stopped playing months ago to get renewed battery charge to rush the new Diablo II ladder.
This new ladder season starts barely three weeks away from BlizzCon 2010, which developer Jay Wilson dubbed the best Diablo III news ever. Sync up your internal countdown timer along with millions of players around the wolrd, and spread the thrill.
Share your hell yea comments at the following official forum thread. Please, follow the forum guidelines, and offer constructive feedback.
[BLUE]The Diablo II ladder will be resetting on September 28. When reset, all ladder characters will be moved to non-ladder. To play in the new ladder season you will need to create a new character.[/BLUE]
Diablo II players should take care of their business (a mal paso darle prisa); and hurry the hell up [no pun], because ladder will be reset in two weeks. This is an opportunity for players who stopped playing months ago to get renewed battery charge to rush the new Diablo II ladder.
This new ladder season starts barely three weeks away from BlizzCon 2010, which developer Jay Wilson dubbed the best Diablo III news ever. Sync up your internal countdown timer along with millions of players around the wolrd, and spread the thrill.
Share your hell yea comments at the following official forum thread. Please, follow the forum guidelines, and offer constructive feedback.
Blizzard Quote:
The Diablo II ladder will be resetting on September 28. When reset, all ladder characters will be moved to non-ladder. To play in the new ladder season you will need to create a new character.
I posted over at Diablo.IncGamers my thoughts on a recent article by Robert B. Marks (of Garwulf’s Corner fame) which denounced the piracy of his Diablo: Demonsbane. You can read my post here.
I invite everyone to use word of mouth, social means to support Robert’s message. Say no to piracy. Buy the Diablo, Warcraft and Starcraft books in either eBook or paperback/hardcover formats. Read and enjoy. Then continue to support these amazing writers, publishers and Blizzard’s Creative Team.
Blizzard has announced the 2010 Blizzard Global Writing Contest. Get the chance to visit Blizzard’s headquarters and BlizzCon. Meet the Creative Development Team as a bonus. Who wouldn’t want to shake hands with Chris Metzen the Bourbon Cowboy, and Micky Neilson?
Blizzard Quote:
You’re called to action once again, to use your wits and strength, to compete for the ultimate prize. Your weapons? They seem to be but a musty tome and quill, but know that their power is far stronger than the armies of the Scourge, far craftier than the zerg Swarm, and far mightier than any demon from the Burning Hells. Ready your tools, scribe, and prepare for combat with the inky beast called fiction!
Enter a short story for the chance to win a free trip to Blizzard’s headquarters in southern California! This contest is open to entrants from around the world and will be judged by Blizzard’s very own writers and masters of lore. For more information, head to the contest page: https://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/contests/writing2010
The Diablo II: Lord of Destruction patch 1.13c patch notes are now available.
A new Mystery has been revealed!
Adventurers of Sanctuary are hereby warned once again, that a new challenge awaits you. Within Diablo’s Bosses, spanning across the world from the ancient Monastery Catacombs to the Throne of Destruction, is where you’ll find what you seek…
Major Bugs
Fixed an item dupe bug.
Video improvements for Intel Mac machines with OS 10.5 or greater.
Fixed an issue where some players could kill other players while in town (“TPPK”).
Fixed an issue where some players could disconnect other players when they had too many active states.
Fixed two issues where players could stack auras in an unintended way.
Manual download of both the LoD and Original patches have been added to the IncGamers file server for your convenience.
Uber Mephisto now checks for both Uber Baal and Uber Diablo to be killed before spawning summoned minions (Before he would only check for Uber Baal).
The game will no longer stop and then restart the game music after the window loses and then regains focus.
Fixed an issue where the game window would minimize when running in windowed mode when it lost focus.
Fixed an issue where the game window wouldn’t center properly when it was created.
Fangskin should now properly drop loot in Hell difficulty.
Fixed an issue where auras were not re-applied to your mercenary after it was resurrected.
Fixed an issue where if you had two items which provided auras to a mercenary and you unequipped one, the aura from the remaining item never became active.
Fixed an issue where the Paladin class runeword ‘Principle’ wasn’t having all of its stats applied properly.
Fixed an issue where the Paladin’s Charge ability would become locked out if Holy Shield faded while charging.
Fixed an issue where the Barbarian’s Leap ability could become locked out if they were hit when they started to leap.
Specific changes/improvements
Respecialization is now possible! Completing the ‘Den of Evil’ quest will now additionally reward 1 free respec which can be saved. Players who have already completed this quest should receive 1 free respec in Hell difficulty.
Increased the drop rate of high runes.
Support for blit scaling in windowed mode. The game can now be maximized to the largest 4:3 resolution supported (hooray widescreen users).
Some rare drop items now have an orange color. i.e. Runes and items required for Uber Tristam.
Modified the gold bank limit to be a flat cap not bound by level.
Removed the requirements to create a hardcore character.
Greatly reduced the explosion damage dealt by Fire Enchanted monsters.
Uber Mephisto and Uber Baal’s summoned minions no longer give experience.
Removed Oblivion Knight’s Iron Maiden curse.
Hellfire Torch Firestorm proc rate has been reduced to 5%.
Users can now toggle the display of text over the Health and Mana globes by clicking on the bottom area of each orb.
When creating a single player game, each difficulty button is now bound to a unique key: Normal ‘R’, Nightmare ‘N’, and Hell ‘H’.
The ‘Enter Chat’ Button in the battle.net waiting room is now bound to the ‘Enter’ key.
Added the windows system buttons to the game window (MIN, MAX, CLOSE).
Added new command line parameter ‘-nofixaspect’ which allows users to not fix the aspect ratio to 4:3 when maximizing in windowed mode. This lets the game ‘stretch’ to fill your monitor.
Added support for ‘-sndbkg’ command line switch. This enables sound in background.
Added the following aliases for pre-existing command line options, ‘-nosound’, ‘-window’, and ‘-windowed’.
Revised Skill balance for Player Character classes
Amazon
Immolation Arrow – Increased radius of Explosion effect by 33% and Immolation effect by 50%.
Immolation Arrow – Explosion effect damage increased by 20%.
Immolation Arrow – Increased base duration by 33%.
Assassin
Dragon Claw – Synergy receives 4% additional damage per point of Claw Mastery.
Dragon Talon – The bonus to Attack Rating per point has been increased to 35.
Shadow Master – Increased resistance range per point from 5-80 to 5-90.
Combo points awarded by combo moves now last 15 seconds, up from 9.
Barbarian
Whirlwind – Reduced initial mana cost by 50%.
Masteries – Changed critical strike chance from 0-25 to 0-35.
Paladin
Blessed Hammer – No longer ignores resistances of undead and demons.
Druid
Werebear – Damage bonus increased by 15% across all ranks.
Werebear – Increased health by 25% and armor by 1% per point.
Shockwave – Synergy from Maul adds 5% damage per point.
Necromancer
Blood Golem – Removed negative shared life effect (player no longer loses life when the golem takes damage).
Corpse Explosion – Increased base damage dealt from 60% – 100% to 70% – 120% of corpses health.
Poison Nova – Increased base damage by 15%.
Sorceress
Firewall – Synergy receives 1% damage per point of Inferno and 4% per point of Warmth.
Blaze – Synergy receives 1% damage per point of Firewall and 4% per point of Warmth.
Hey, folks. Bashiok announced today that the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction ladder will be reset on March 23, marking the release of Diablo II patch 1.13 into the live realms.
Blizzard Quote:
We will be resetting the Diablo II ladder on Tuesday, March 23 with the release of patch 1.13. We anticipate all Diablo II realms to be down for approximately six hours during the reset. More specific information on realm availability on the day of the reset will be posted in the Battle.net Status forum. When the ladder is reset, all existing ladder characters will be converted to non-ladder.
All characters and items being converted to non-ladder will remain intact, but once converted these characters will no longer have access to ladder content such as creating ladder-only rune words. For more information on ladder characters please visit the Arreat Summit Realm Character Types page
DIABLO II 1.13 Q&A
What’s the advantage to creating a Ladder Character?
This is similar to starting out on a brand new realm. Players will be able to experience Diablo II like when the game was first released. When the Ladder Season first begins, players start at Level 1 and do not have powerful items. They also cannot use powerful high-level items or other high-level characters to help them level up faster. Players create a character in a brand new world (Ladder Character world) where everything (economy, levels) starts from the beginning. The main advantage of creating a Ladder Character is being able to join in on a totally new economy where powerful items are very valuable.
What if I don’t play ladder or don’t want to compete on the ladder?
Although they are called Ladder Characters, players do not have to compete on the ladder to play. You can simply play at your own speed and not worry about how you are ranked on the ladder.
Can I convert existing characters to Ladder Characters?
No, you must flag a character as a Ladder character when it is first created.
How long will the ladder season last?
This has yet to be determined.
What happens when the ladder season is over?
All Ladder Characters become either Normal Core or Normal Hardcore Characters depending on what type of Ladder Characters they are. If you want to be a Ladder Character for the next Ladder season you must create a new character and flag it as a Ladder Character.
Do I get to keep my Ladder Only Items when the season is over?
Yes. Any Ladder Only Items will be converted over when your character is converted to a Core character. These items can now be traded with other Core characters. That is the only way for Core characters to get ladder only items, as leftovers after a season is over.
Do I have to beat the game with a Ladder Character to create a Ladder Hardcore Character?
No, you can finish the game with either a Normal character or a Ladder character to unlock Ladder Hardcore Characters.
Can you convert a Ladder Character to a Normal Character?
No. Blizzard does this automatically when the Ladder Season ends.
Does the ladder offer anything beyond a more stable economy?
Yes there are some items that can only be obtained with a ladder character such as some class specific and elite uniques. There are also some ladder-only rune words as well as cube recipes that can only be created by a ladder character. While these items can eventually make their way to non-ladder after a ladder reset, they can only be initially found or created by using a ladder character.
