Why does this man not post anymore? I checked his Linked.in. Word around the sewing circle is that he still works at Blizzard. Is he silenced by the man? He used to contribute a lot to the community.
I’ll let you all into a little secret. No matter what Blizzard designers post on the forums. It isn’t going to be picked up by Kotaku or any other blogs. No one cares about Diablo 3 aside from people who play it.
Please let our devs post freely on the forums.
He is not a Dev. He is a Producer. Neither are going to have free reign on the forums because what they say can have a serious impact. I wish they could talk freely, but it tends to be something legal and community prefer to review so there are no issues that could impact PR or legal. Funny, that even approved stuff for PR like Blizzcon 2018 explode in bad ways…so suits are not always right. Still, that is the rule.
We now have a new Community Lead who is hiring new Community Mangers. Those will be the front facing folks from her on out I suspect. I wish Matthew would come back though…I really appreciated him being so direct and helpful.
That’s funny. I was going to ask about you too.
Here’s a fun fact – The only people who care about Diablo 3 are people who play Diablo 3.
We do not represent a large enough segment of mainstream news to be covered by them.
Diablo 4? Another story…
I got into Blizzard games via D2 and was so addicted I got up at midnight so I could get a better dial up connection. I was very very hooked on it.
I like diablo 3 too, and it has some major improvements in stash, personal loot, etc. It has some drawbacks as well in a lack of char development via talents/etc. They are paper dolls you dress up with your gear, not chars that you invest in.
We DO have a solid player base or we would not have support for Seasons, new patches, new sets, new items, etc. But, Blizz has a policy of not revealing those numbers for any games. I don’t expect an 8 year old game to get the PR and Press attention of newer games to be honest. They don’t promote D2 anymore even though it rocks.
I expect to see more solid replies around here, esp during PTR cycles, but the new Diablo team is likely going to focus publishing, PTR, Community, etc on the newer franchise options such as D:I and D4. Does not mean D3 is not a good or popular game, it is that execs have a resource and $$ focus.
I am not going anywhere. The threads lately are just kind of repeats that I have already expressed my opinion on. I don’t need to say the same thing a billion times.
That’s an awesome post. I feel you. I worked at IGN as an Editor-in-Chief level for 15 years. What I am saying now, is, that our audience playing Diablo 3 is so small that our team (ANYONE) can say whatever crazy nonsense they want, and no mainstream news source will cover it. So please. Let our devs back on the forums. Have fun. Bring the blue posts back. Someday? It might be news. Today? NOPE.
If you want the truth there is only 2 people still currently working on Diablo 3. A senior lead and 1 developer and has been for the past year (2+ years now).
This was unintentionally leaked at Blizzcon 2019 during the D4 reveal when they were giving out Q&A sessions to community members who attended.
Given the 300+ people who were “let go”, covid19, downsizing from previous years and splintering teams to develop Diablo Immortal, Diablo 4, the Diablo board game and TV series and having senior developers moved to other Blizzard projects, D3 is less than a skeleton crew and has been for a long time.
that was obvious. is this a student?
because who else can “develop” a ridiculous picture 3-4 months for a season?
… and that they call worthy content?
Yes, he shared interesting info while he was actively posting. Let’s hope this trend of more open engagement with the player base continues in D4.
Well, I hope that if it really is only 2 people working on Diablo 3, that they can borrow talent from the other teams when needed.
My crazy theory was that Matthew was re-tasked to the Diablo 2 Re-forged / reimagined/ rewhatevered. project. Normally, I’d be all ra-ra- except I actually paid for the WarCraft3 Reforged mess. Other than the cool pet, it’s just been sitting on my hard drive taking up space.
I don’t make these posts to sound mean or to criticize Blizzard’s PR policies. I just think we are enjoying a window where there are no big gaming news sites left, Diablo 3 has a pretty small player base, and that developers should be allowed to communicate and post freely on the forums.
Imagine the level of interactivity we can have with our community?
I really don’t think it is that small, but hard to tell without numbers. I see the point you are making, that nobody will cover what Devs say for D3, but I don’t think Blizzard cares. They still won’t be making statements that could cause player issues because it can impact the Franchise as a whole - which can upset investors. They have more Diablo games coming down the road and would prefer to control messaging on all their games. They are not going to remove the restrictions on the Devs.
As for Matthew, I don’t actually know what team he is on. Not sure if he is on the Classic Team or the main Diablo franchise team (Team 3). They don’t hand out org charts to those of us who don’t work there. I have actually tried to get one via proper channels but alas, it was not releasable. Game credits and hiring notices do give insight though.
Most new communications are likely going to be handled by the two new CMs the CM Lead (PezRadar) is hiring. I also suspect the Diablo Community team will be for the franchise, not just D3. Our next major update will be the Q2 Diablo 4 News article. Past that, sometime this summer or fall I would guess on hearing some D:I news. For D3 we can anticipate a similar update cycle - although with new sets out, not sure what the focus will be. QOL improvements maybe as well as balance? D4 Alpha/Beta is way out and a D2 remake is mostly a wish some folks have (as far as we know).
If you look at the pool of players Diablo 3 has, compared to other games who share our platform, it’s pretty small. Did you see how many WoW classic accounts just got banned? Crazy. Imagine if that happened here. My point is that developers need to post and to engage the community. There are no big news sites left. No one is going to cover “So and so posted this or that” because outside of the people who play, no one cares. When Diablo 4 comes out? All bets are off. Be as restrictive as you want. Control information. Right now? NO ONE CARES. The only people who care are people who play the game. Why not let Blizzard and the gamers be on the same page? We have a couple years before D4.
Pez. Dude. Look at the accounts of editors who work in the biz. 99% of them have not logged in the past 90 days.
Maybe you won’t, but I will.
Not crazy at all. It matches up with the gold selling/farmers and the account theft that goes on. Gold is really hard to get in Classic and people WILL pay for it, sadly. We had the same issue back when Classic was new, and with D3 before the AH was removed. Those are not real players, although they do steal some real accounts, they are criminal gold farming/selling third party sites. It is a major money maker across games with currency, as I am sure you know.
And I hear you, you feel nobody will cover what the Devs say for D3 so they can say what they want. Mostly, the media won’t, but if it gets big on reddit for any reason, they will. Regardless, Blizz mgt does not care. They have restrictions and those will stay. Nothing posted on the forums or in news articles is allowed to be “free form” with some exceptions. Those exceptions include providing clarification on already released info like patch notes, answering questions about released news or content, talking about personal likes/dislikes such as a favorite class or game activity. They want any hints about future development of individual games, or a franchise as a whole, carefully vetted.
What I can say though, is that a greater push to get info approved for release would be nice. Now that we have a new Community team forming, maybe they will have a vision for a different process going forward.
Two blues in one thread, feel like two primals from one chest. 
One simple question, is the D4 Q update still on track for this month? 
I am an investor! Bought ATVI way back in the day Hold onto your seats cause Blizzard was offered at .96 per share in 2000 Bought 9000 shares!! Now its at 76.01 per share at close today. Do some math and you will see how much its worth now No one expected Blizzard to be what it is today. I thought they did.
Real life gold farming lol. Might sell it soon…or not Its a nice piece of change and a good investment for back in the day. You cant upset me lol.
Makes a whole lot of sense. Especially for the D4 team also lol.
Never get too excited before you ID haha.
But a full house is always nice to have. Bring on the D4 update guys, we are desperate for D4 news!
