Josh Mosqueira, taking over from Jay Wilson, stresses the need for itemization improvements.
Earlier in the year, Diablo III game director Jay Wilson announced he was stepping down from the role to pursue other projects. Whether this was a voluntary or forced decision is something only Blizzard and Wilson know, but what we do know is that his replacement has been found. Josh Mosqueira, Diablo III‘s new game director, has introduced himself to the community in a Battle.net blog post, telling us a little bit about himself and his plans for the game. In his introduction, he specifically stressed the need for itemization improvements.
Mosuqeria has quite the impressive resume, having worked as a writer and designer on iconic games such as Homeworld, Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, and FarCry. He served in the Canadian army, has written two books, and is very deeply in love with the Diablo franchise. His previous responsibility was determining whether or not a console version of Diablo III would be possible, so you can either thank or despise him for that depending on your feelings of the recently announced PlayStation port of the game.
“We’re also looking into ways to reduce the impact of the Auction House. While we think the feature does provide a lot of value, it shouldn’t feel like the end-all-be-all force driving character progression.”
“We don’t just ship a game and leave it at that; we make sure that it grows and evolves after launch,” said Mosuqueria, as he went on to detail his plans for Diablo III‘s future. “Itemization is one of our big focuses for Diablo III moving forward. We want items to feel more meaningful, and we want players to be excited about the next loot drop.” Mosuqueria wants items to drop less frequently, but be more powerful on average, and also reduce the impact of the Auction House.
“In the future, we’ll be focused on preserving the core fantasy by cultivating the roots of the Diablo storyline,” finished Mosuqueria, promising “new monsters and demons that will once again plant the seed of fear in your hearts.”
Source: Battle.net
