Despite D3 being MA, it felt like it was designed for a pretty young audience. Language was fairly clean, gameplay wasn’t very punishing, the world was extremely linear, plenty of epic-fantasy undertones, difficulty had a low entry-point, and any sexual references were extremely implicit. All tale-tell signs that their target audience was pretty young (13+?).
Blizzard wanted its cake and to eat it too.
My take is that blizzard designed the game for kids, but then just slapped the MA rating on it to help it appeal to adults. The game ultimately suffers when designing it to maximize appeal!.
AO would be fine; However, I don’t think AO is necessary; MA should be sufficient as long as blizzard stops trying to cast as wide a net as possible. The atmosphere should be horrific, the enemies formidable, and the game should end with sanctuary being momentarily saved at the cost of the heroes losing their souls. The game should show that sanctuary doesn’t care about morality and decency anymore due to the terrors that have been running rampant for so long. Betrayal and distrust should prevail. Gambling, robbing, and plundering should be common place. Pleasures of the flesh should be in high demand.
To help blizzard paint the proper atmosphere in sanctuary’s universe, here are 5 NPC arc types i recommend introducing: the weak, the survivors, the possessed, the naive, and the few.
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The Weak
The weak are at the mercy of the monstrosities of the night, without means to escape the horrors. They huddle around others of similar status so when the demons come, they can use their peers as distractions. The demon attacks are feared, but they also sustain the weak for it allows for scavenging of the remains (possessions and otherwise) of those less fortunate.
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The Survivors
The survivors prey on the weak to help them survive. They rob, steal, cheat, and plunder. Since there are no bastions of safety, they are always in a state of flux traveling to less demon infested regions, and since they never stay in the same place there is no reason to establish a repour.
We may see glimpses of these characters humanity, but it is always brief. They are survivors first; being humane is secondary.
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The Few
The few are the brave and strong who have maintained a portion of their decency and are either lucky or dead. They stand against the demons, but those in the most demon infested regions are inevitably overrun. The few have become accustomed to death. Those around them never last long. While the strength of the few is formidable, it is insufficient to protect those around them; As a result an indifference to their fellow mankind dominates their persona because those that lean upon their strength invariably can’t be saved.
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The Possessed
Some fates are worse than death. The possessed are those who have been swallowed by the abyss, but somehow emerged physically unscathed. Haunted by demons, they are perpetually tormented by the creatures of the night. They add to the chaos of the world as they are unpredictable. imbued with dark powers, the possessed can have surprising combat capabilities. However, the possessed turn malicious and masochistic at the worst possible moments sending them and their companions down the darkest paths towards the most conniving demon lords.
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The Naive
The naive always originate from the least demon infested regions of sanctuary. They are the last of the decent populous in sanctuary. Despite horrors that are rising up around them, they somehow manage to find a glint of light. Their positive outlook sends them and those around them to early graves. With rare exceptions, the naive quickly are educated by becoming members of the other groups.
Execution and consistency are important. I feel like in D3, leah was a “possessed” npc type. However, despite being the daughter of diablo there was no psychological evidence of this. To make being half demon more believable, she should have been more evil, contorted, twisted, disturbed, conflicted, warped, or masochistic. She should have qualities of a demon other than random bursts of power, which seemed like something out of an x-men comicbook.
With Leah, I get that they were going for a “twist” at the end; but it for me it fell flat. Partly because I skipped the cutscene AND the cinematic to keep up with my party. Additionally, I never established an emotional connection to leah. She was always this annoying girl who would follow me for what seemed like random bursts throughout the game. Blizzard was trying to force an emotional connection with an NPC in an ARPG.
In online games the only character that players form emotional connections with is their PLAYABLE character. If blizzard wanted us to form emotional connections with NPCs, then they need to focus more on the RPG elements of the ARPG. If they don’t, then just keep the story to a minimum and save yourself from further embarrassment.