Former Blizzard Internal Tester Fired: Reveals All About Diablo 3

In my perusing of online message boards, I came across a posting from someone who claimed to be a former internal tester at Blizzard. He was willing to post anything people wanted to know about Diablo 3. The rationale being “there’s nothing in my contract that says I can’t reveal anything AFTER I’m fired.” Enclosed are the questions asked and his answers unedited:

[Dart89]

xDDD some of those ? were funny.

[Darkseeker]

Obviously a troll attempt.

Beta announcement at blizzcon? They already started to hint the beta is starting around may or something.

Blizzcon is too late for beta especially since they said they wanted to release the game in 2011 if they could.

[No_Pantaloons]

I can't disagree with you on whats been said, but this is blizzard were talking about. They have pushed the release of almost every game they've made more than once. You really can't take any of their projections as anything but guess work.

[barb_wire]

I thought Blizzard already stated that Diablo 3 won't release until 2012.

[JsonHenry]

If "Titan" turns out to be an attempt at making another Second Life then we will know this dude was at least somewhat in the know.

[palaeomerus]

Player: Blizzard support?

DM: Yes! How may I help you?

Player: I am playing Titan and...uh...

DM: Yes?

Player: How do I made it rain dildos? ¯\(°_o)/¯

DM: ....FFFFffffuuuuuuuuu..

Trool (Player): Problem?

[thekiddfran]

grammer fail + not funnny = facepalm.

[PapaSmurf11]

"thekiddfran"
Grammar*
Problem?

[dktxx2]

Good luck getting another job at a game company. Something tells me he's not going to get a glowing recommendation.

If he's not a troll that is, which he most likely is.

[moe84]

For that guys' sake, lets hope this is fake. Otherwise, he will be quite butt-hurt after the legal kids at Blizzard finish running a train on his ass.

[Xof]

It's probably a troll. After all the disappointment that accompanied Starcraft II, the easiest "prediction" to make out is that D3 will turn out the same way.

And it probably will.

But all that nostalgia-love people have for older Bliz. games will ensure a very vocal reaction.

[doctorstrange]

Must have been a terrible contract then, because 99% of the time there definitely is.

[Lich120]

I can't imagine blizz's legal team missing that. More likely this is a troll or the kid missed that clause. If true, Im pretty sure hell be getting a nice message from blizzard's law department.

[evilmonkey501]

He misread his contract......This seemed legit to me. This guy is gonna get crucified.

[Bigpappy]

I like this Rat. He seem honest and independent (a real man or man in the making).

[jay2]

Ouch! that doesn't sound good if true.

[HK6]

Gotta love accurate Google Ads.

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[xtremexx]

hahahaha

[noxeven]

could be a bit of trolling mixed with a bit of truth who knows. only time will tell. and when the time does come we can compare what we got to what was posted here if anyone cares at that point

[Darkseeker]

I doubt what he says it's true. They wouldn't fire him for saying the game is bad. They try to listen to what he has to say and ask him why it is so and they'd try to see what didn't work out.

[RememberThe357]

He was probably unprofessional. You can't just walk into a meeting and say "this game sucks." That will get you fired. You have to go in and say, "These parts don't work very well and should be improved." It's about how you present yourself.

And I always question people who call PHDs "stupid" like a game tester would know more about human behavior than people who study it.

[evilmonkey501]

I know a stupid person with a Phd in Psych.
They tend to treat people like pets or children.
Very annoying.

[Lirky]

D2 is darker grittier etc.

D3 colorful brightly magical.

What i HATE blizzard, unlock so we keep characters if we dont play for 60days instead of characters getting auto-deleted.

[ThanatosDMC]

It's Runeword not Runeworld... might be legit though.

[PandaJenkins]

Totally fake or trolling.

[CoaCoaNutt]

"The Former Tester made his post on 4chan’s infamous videogame board /v/"

I hesitated reading the rest of the article after coming across that...

[kesvalk]

fake or not, i am not buying D3 anyway

i hate they new blizzard way, after the segmentation of starcraft in 3 games, and the fact that the game is the same as starcraft 1, i lost my faith in it...

hope someday they go back to being the great dev they were...

[Perjoss]

still don't get it?

The depth they wanted to take each of the 3 campaigns led them into being quite long. So they had to split them up. SC2 WoL has a lengthy campaign and fantastic multiplayer. That's already more than you get with most games. But I guess you want 3 games for the price of one.

[kesvalk]

you just ate their PR vomit...

warcraft 3 had a awesome story, and is only one disk...

[Perjoss]

call it what you will, lets make a deal, you keep hating, I'll keep enjoying AAA titles.

[Daver]

That sounds very plausible if it is tho then it sucks.. I fear that like he said it wont be as good as Diablo 2. Theres only 1 thing to do I guess.. wait and see...

[BeastlyRig]

day 1 buy for this game!

[Tzuno]

some things seems real but who knows...

[BenEViolent]

No wonder he was fired. He's trolling.

[Relientk77]

Is it fun? How true does it stay to D2?
Hm, it depends, if you liked torchlight, then it’s very fun, if youre an old d2 addictee like myself, then you will be disappointed.

Oh, no I am a D2 addictee, I'm slightly worried now

:(

[Spinal]

Day one buy. Cant wait Diablo 3! woot! like I care what some unemployed douchebag has to say. i've seen gameplay vids and im sold!

[Eades]

This is clearly fake...a company as large and well established as Blizzard-Activision obviously would have some clause in the NDA prohibiting him from spilling the beans in the event of his termination from the company.

I have read over and signed the BioWare NDA from my time there, and if Blizzard's is anything like it you pretty much can't say anything about anything. Ever!

[Eades]

And in the game industry no one gets fired for "being too honest". That's the sort of thing you hear from someone who was either terrible at their job, or a jerk around the workplace.

[blackhammer]

"...they called us in meetings that asked us our opinions about a lot of things. i said the game was boring and doomed to be a failure."

If he literally said the exact words, "This game is boring and doomed to be a failure," there's a good reason for the guy to get fired. Rather than using constructive criticism, it seems he would rather choose to troll.

No evidence behind this dude's claim as a tester or even being on any property owned by Blizzard, so this can be easily found as a false story.

[ERMAC_]

Kinda why I didn't buy this either.

Even if true, it's this guy's opinion, and you have to take into account that he's probably putting such a negative spin on it because he's sour and trying to get back at the company.

[Simco876]

To far down to warn anyone... but if this is true... SPOILERS!

[nevermore]

a year from now we'll be seeing a bombardment of sites giving diablo 3 a 6/10 right here on N4G.

[CaptainSquirts]

Ahhhh don't say that! I want Diablo 3 to be bawler and consume the next 3 years of my life like Diablo 2 did.

[undercovrr]

Blizzard is up there with Valve when it comes with keeping secrets. I HIGHLY DOUBT that they have such a big loophole in their contract that prevents pissed off employees who get fired from spilling their guts about the game. If this was another game dev i'd probably believe this guy, but in this case, I don't. I guess we have to wait and see if he's right, but I highly doubt it

[Xenomorph]

Fake as crap. If any of this were true it would be taken down in an instant.

[gamey]

His answers satisfy me. Seems knowledgeable, potential pain to work with, but legit. No reason to drill the guy because he has an axe to grind. He still said relatively positive things about the game. I think it's funny that people feel like they have to take a polarized and definitive stance on this guy. Hero, Troll, A-hole. Who cares? It's some dude with some knowledge and a bit of an axe to grind after getting fired.

[dragunrising]

I wouldn't mind Diablo 3 coming to consoles... :-)

[madara0sama]

Going after console is just trying to reap as much $$$ as you can but that's not surprising anymore. Seems like a troll to me giving his own opinion of the game so far or someone got way too butthurt.