Diablo Updates

There has been a lot of talk lately that the Diablo series might be getting a new game or expansion.  Recently, Blizzard is looking to hire a bunch of artists for an unannounced Diablo project.  Whether this project refers to an expansion or a new game is uncertain.  In my opinion, I think the Diablo series is working towards a brand new game.  My theory is that part of the Titan project (Blizzard's cancelled MMO project game) will be introduced in the new Diablo game.  We all know that the characters and gameplay that was created under the Titan project became to be Overwatch, which is about to be released soon.  Since Overwatch is not an MMO, I think that the MMO portion of the Titan project will be used in the new Diablo game.  If you think about it, it kind of makes sense because after spending 50 million dollars developing Titan (reportedly), Blizzard wouldn't just waste money like that (they would want to show people what they have done with that development money).  Sure, part of that development is now used in Overwatch, but the other part (the MMO portion) is still unused.  This is quote for what the Titan project could have been - "The main concept was this: you, the player, would maintain a mundane job—butchering, engineering, entrepreneurship—during the day, while waging clandestine warfare against opposing factions at night (or between work hours)." (source titanfocus.info).  Another quote that falls into the MMO portion is this - "Not only would players have been able to run their own businesses and shops, according to one source, they could maintain relationships with non-player customers and retail staff, even starting families thanks to a complicated AI system that Blizzard hoped to implement. (One source told me that Blizzard had hired a number of former Maxis staff who worked on The Sims in order to help put all this together).  The goal, according to one person who worked on the game, was to construct cities that felt like living worlds, full of businesses, shops, and NPCs with schedules and behaviors based on what was happening at any given time."  All of this is just pure speculation on my part but it is really interesting to note that Blizzard is only hiring artists for this Diablo project right now (perhaps that is all that is needed since the MMO system is sort of in place already).  This is very exciting news for us Diablo fans but I wonder if Blizzard was thinking of using the Starcraft universe instead of using the Diablo series since the Starcraft saga ended with the recent last expansion. 

Another topic in Diablo 3 that has come up lately is why so many people have stopped playing the game.  I know that this happens every season, where there is a bunch of people at the start of the season but after a month into the new season, most of the players have stopped playing the game.  Why is this? It is probably due to fact after a certain point, players come to a wall.  While finding upgrades and getting those paragon points is really exciting at the beginning of the season, after a while, there's a point where you aren't finding any upgrades and grinding for the paragon levels is all that is left to do.  So to combat this problem, I suggest having a Weekly Challenge Mode.  Just like the Tavern Brawl system in Hearthstone and the new Challenge Mode in Overwatch, the Weekly Challenge Mode can be changed weekly so that players can expect to play differently every week.  Although the Weekly Challenge Mode wouldn't be the main way of playing the game, it would be a nice change up to the game.  The Weekly Challenge Mode in my vision would be something that is quick and fairly easy to accomplish.  Here are some examples of the goals in a Weekly Challenge Mode (you could probably come up with much more of these):

1. Find "x" amount of legendaries in "x" amount of time.
2. Find "x" amount of death breaths in "x" amount of time.
3. Complete "x" amount of bounties in "x" amount of time.
4. Open "x" amount of chests in "x" amount of time. 
5. Find and click "x" amount of shrines/pylons in "x" amount of time.   
6. Destroy "x" amount of barrels in "x" amount of time.
7.  Kill "x" amount of Bosses in "x" amount of time.  

There could be more complicated ones as well:

1. Kill "x" amount of enemies with the Fallen Lunatic (Nagelring) at your side. 
2. Kill "x" amount of enemies just by using pets only.  
3. Kill "x" amount of enemies using the Death Watch Mantle.   

There might be certain rules that each Challenge Mode might offer such as:

1. No paragon points allowed.
2. Only weapon slots equipped.
3. No set items allowed.  
4. A pre-set character already made by Blizzard.
5. Only weapons and jewelry allowed.   
6. Randomized skill set.
7. Randomized passive skill set.  

Of course the main purpose of the Weekly Challenge Mode is to reward the players that try this mode so offering a reward after the first completion would be ideal.  Some rewards that Blizzard could give out are: Forgotten Souls, Death Breaths, certain legendaries, potions, Ramalandi's Gift, Horadric Cache materials, gems, and of course cosmetic items (pets, wings, banners, portraits).  Another idea for the Weekly Challenge Mode is to have either a co-op mode or a PvP mode.  Maybe a certain week, players need to work together to achieve one of the goals or in another week, players have to challenge each other (thus the much talked about PvPvE mode we've all been asking for).  I think this Challenge Mode would work well in both season and non-season and would probably force people to play different classes. 

Anyways that is it for now.  Diablo season 5 should be wrapping up in a couple of more weeks so I should have an update as to what my season 5 ended up with.