Blizzard says it's open to even more Diablo 2 expansions and reworks unless people get really mad at it about this one: 'We're going to have to see what the players say'
I woke up this morning to learn that Diablo 2 had gotten a new expansion and—for a brief, glorious second—I was right back in the early aughts, carefree and full of the irrepressible potential of childhood.
And then I was 32 again, my jaw hurt and it was raining. Still, chin up: in a chat with Eurogamer ahead of Reign of the Warlock's release, Blizzard suggested that, if no one gets mad at it for D2's new expansion, it might kick off active development on the venerable ARPG, bringing further expansions and more opportunities for your author to briefly feel like he has his whole life ahead of him again.
"We are excited for the opportunity we have right now to see what the community says about what we're making," said lead designer Timothy Vasconcellos. "If we're trusted with that legacy and if it's a positive reception and they say: no you guys actually did do this very intricate dance preserving the 1999 game, then maybe we can think about how we pursue those opportunities in the future."
In other words, Blizzard is reading your Reddit posts, and if you lot kick off too much about the changes it's made to D2 you won't get any pudding. I joke, but it sounds like a good policy to me. D2 is a precious and cherished thing, and touching any part of it this long after release risks upsetting an incredibly dedicated playerbase that has literally grown up alongside it. It seems wise to hold off until you're certain your tinkering is welcome.
"We still have millions of people who play Diablo 2—millions of them," said lead producer Matthew Cederquist. "I sure hope [Reign of the Warlock] is as epic to the players as we find it. But is it a declaration of something new? We're going to have to see what the players say."
Daringly, possible future changes even include reworking pre-existing D2 content (to be fair, Reign of the Warlock has already done a bit of this, with things like the addition of stash tabs and loot filters), but Blizzard wouldn't just shadowdrop that kind of patch.
"Let's say if we wanted to change Barbarian for some reason," said Cederquist. "I wouldn't want to surprise people with that. That is working with the community hand in hand, to listen to their feedback about the changes that we would make if we wanted to."
Reworking old classes feels like a good way to upset a lot of people, which is presumably why Blizzard has effectively created two different branches of Diablo 2 with the new Warlock expansion. There's D2: Resurrect Cool Original, and the wild and wacky new branch where the new expansion (and possible future expansions) exist.
"We do have the opportunity to change with feedback, but also preserve what people love in Resurrected, and all that data set is totally split," said Cederquist. "If you don't want to play a warlock for whatever reason and you hate loot filters, you can still have Resurrected and it's going to stay there. If we make any future changes to any classes or whatever, it's going to happen in that Reign of Warlock space."
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