In a somewhat unusual move, Jay Wilson of Blizzard Entertainment spoke out about major changes in some of the new features for Diablo 3 late in its development. But rather than just listing what had changed, he gave some concrete and understandable arguments. There are certainly bound to be people not pleased with these changes, but for the game itself, I do believe that these changes are good.

But my intend here is not to detail through each of Mr Wilson's arguments and the new changes, but rather discuss the principle in general. It is apparent from his entry that Blizzard wanted to be bold with the changes for Diablo 3. They wanted the classic foundations for the series to remain, but they wanted to make it substantially different from Diablo 2. Whether it was experimenting or just 'change for change's sake' is unknown, but one thing is clear, this is not an overnight decision.

For one thing, most of the changes are already implemented or partially implemented. I assume for a long while, the developers and game designers looked over playthroughs and how the players were reacting to certain elements of the game, realising that it was not a numbers' game, but a game game. Changing mere numbers for these unviable elements would not do any good, as it was the elements themselves that were the problem. In none of Mr Wilson's list of changes, does he describe minor changes like these. They are all major. Of course not 'ground breaking' like changing the game from real time to turn based.

Now, a lot of posters on their forums are already accusing them of milking the development, steeping to lowest denominators and so on. But if you actually read the reasoning, they are all sound arguments in favour of better gameplay. Gameplay is not about how many options but the right options. Certain elements in Diablo 3 simply increased confusion or took away player decisions. So they were changed.

And lastly, if you worry that such changes this late is going to postpone the release significantly, you may be in over your head. These implementations are already closed to finished. Yes, Mr Wilson mentions there are more to come, but I suspect that these changes have been making the rounds over the past half year at Blizzard, especially around the time testing began. Yes, changes like these will require a bit more testing, but I wouldn't worry too much. In fact, I would worry a lot more if they did not strive for a better gameplay than quicker release date.