Multiplayer was what made the Diablo franchise have staying power. To this day there are people on Battle.net playing Diablo 1, and some people even create strange variations on the game by imposing rules on themselves. One of these variations, "Ironman", pits players against the game with no gear, just skills, and is played in hardcore mode, meaning if you die you lose your character.
The problem is that Blizzard's multiplayer (excepting WoW) doesn't work very well. Throughout the history of both Diablo 1 and 2, cheats and exploits ran rampant on both closed and open Battle.net. Duplicated items, items with their properties hacked to make them more powerful, and player-vs-player exploits are still common in both games. Novel solutions like Blizzard's "Rust Storm" have been attempted, and mass bannings take place regularly, but nothing seems to really help.
In addition to this, the gaming etiquette of the players on Battle.net often leaves much to be desired. I wish to keep this article as clean as possible, so I won't go into details, but between Battle.net and the zone chat in the Barrens in World of Warcraft, I have lost faith in humanity.
So first things first, we need a better Battle.net. There are plenty of multiplayer games...none of them are like Battle.net. This shows it is possible to have large games with lots of players that aren't festering sewers full of cheats. Since WoW launched and took over the MMORPG market, Blizzard officially has more money that many countries; they can afford to spend a little time on the game's community.
The monsters in the Diablo franchise are awesome. I started giggling maniacally with joy the first time I saw Andariel, and cried just as horribly the first time I ran into Bishibosh on Hell difficulty. They are well-designed and fun to kill.
However, Blizzard took a page from the Final Fantasy book and made many of the monsters simply the same models with a differently colored skin and different names and abilities. Considering how late every release was, they could have a least given each type of monster it's own model. So Diablo 3 needs more variety in its monsters...I don't just want to go from fighting white vultures to red vultures to black vultures ever again.
The Diablo franchise has a lot of lore. There are full and epic tales behind all of it. You just have to go to websites to find any of it, because in the game the dialogue is limited to quick explanations of quests with a little bit of characterization thrown in that alludes to the lore without actually explaining it.
While I am not saying that we need the epic tales of a Bioware game, I would like a bit more coherency to the tale and for the characters to be more than convenient placeholders for game mechanics. There is a great story in there...let us have at least the option of "staying awhile" so we can find it.
I make no apologies, I am a Blizzard fanboy. Diablo 2 hasn't left my hard drive since it came out. But I know what is wrong with my favorite franchise, and I am willing to point it out. I think that Blizzard fans have done a lot for that company, and they can afford to give us a better community, more varied monsters, and better in-game access to the lore.
Till next time, keep gaming!