So, Diablo. The cooler looking dark, gloomy older brother of WoW. Or the big titty goth girlfriend to the nerd kid that is WoW. You get the idea.
Despite being a cool franchise it is usually the black sheep at BlizzCon. After years of radio silence we finally got.......a mobile game. Okay.
But this BlizzCon will be different. Why? Stay a while and listen. First, because Blizzard knows they fucked up last year, and have to do something as damage control. A reveal has to come. Second, we have the latest content patch already on the PTR and a leak from a chinese website suggests that Diablo Immortal will be released before BlizzCon. What does this mean? Well, they are cleaning up schedule. They don't have to talk about patches or mobile games. Leaves them with more time to talk about...anything. A Diablo 3 expansion. A Diablo 1 or 2 remaster.....or Diablo 4.
But would it be called Diablo 4? I have reason to believe it will be a prequel, so it likely won't be named Diablo 4. It will still most likely be named Diablo: Something, but even that isn't really necessary. So why do I think it will be a prequel?
1. The power creep: In Diablo III the Nephalem killed the Prime Evil. In Reaper of Souls the end boss was the former head of the Angiris Council, empowered by thousands of dead souls AND the Prime Evil. There's not much left that can pose a threat to the Nephalem. Even if we get a different protagonist the mere existence of the Nephalem creates a problem.
2. The bad guys: Diablo was killed in the first game, but he corrupted his killer. Okay. In II he was killed and his soulstone destroyed. Supposedly if something is done at the Hellforge, it can't be undone, so him being sent to the Abyss can't be reversed. Okay. But we learn in III that the protagonist from I had a daughter while Diablo was inside him and now his daughter, Leah, also carries the essence of Diablo. As for the rest? Their souls still linger here. Well that's pretty fucking convient. The There's no explanation why Izual is still a demon, but okay. We are swiftly approaching comic book territory where an insane clone of Superman punched a hole into reality when trying to escape a pocket dimension and this brought back Jason Todd to life. No, really.
3. The good guys: So at present we have the confirmed death of: All three player characters from Diablo, everyone who lived in Tristram in Diablo, including Adria and Deckard Cain, The Sorceress from Diablo II, Warriv, and Leah. Tyrael is still around, with his days numbered, but overall we don't have much chance left to meet many familiar faces.
And none of these problems are actually problems, if the game is set during the Sin War or the Dark Exile for example. Imagine the latter. You help the original Horadrim and Tyrael on a hunt. Tal Rasha, Jered Cain, Zoltan Kulle. You visit iconic locations and new ones as you look for the three prime evils. A perfect setup for a Diablo game.
So we have our prequel. Let's call it Diablo: Dark Exile. Now to make sure it does not fail. Well, Diablo III didn't fail per se, but it didn't end up being a beloved classic like its predecessors. It did a couple of things wrong. Both the crafting, the insane set bonuses and paragon levels took away the excitement about individual drops. The RPG elements were pruned, act bosses acted like comic book villains with the constant gloating, and there was really no sense of danger.
But the biggest problem was that Diablo III had no monentization. This might sound like a good thing, but considering Blizzard does not seem to be interested in games they can't monetize, it really spelled its doom. Any new Diablo game should provide a steady stream of revenue, or it will wither and die.
The answer? Make a Diablo MMO. It is the perfect setting. It has iconic enemies, iconic loot, iconic classes, and an expansive world where every random building has two levels of cellars under them.
But dude, Blizzard already has two MMOs out there. Does it really need a third one?
Yes, it does. Classic is there for fans of old school MMOs. Retail WoW is there for a different generation. But most modern MMOs aren't like that. Most modern MMOs are free to play with microtransactions, housing, dynamic leveling content that looks a lot like adventure mode in Diablo III and, most importantly, action combat. Action combat wouldn't work in WoW, but it would be amazing in a Diablo MMO. And it would bring in players, that don't even want to touch either versions of WoW.
So what should be in Diablonline? What classes and what zones? Classes are easy, because in all the main series game, they follow a pattern. Knight, Archer, Spellcaster, Martial Artist, Barbarian. In Diablo these were the Warrior, the Rogue, the Sorcerer, the Monk and the Barbarian. The last two being from Hellfire. In Diablo II these were the Paladin, the Amazon, the Sorceress, the Assassin, and the Barbarian. In Diablo III we had the Crusader, the Demon Hunter, the Wizard, the Monk, and the Barbarian. It stands for reason, that our new prequel MMO would do the same. The rest will be whatever they want. For prequels, Demon Hunter is unlikely. They are a farely recent group. Fan favorites like the Druid or the Necromancer are likely to show up.
As for zones? We know we will go to Tristram. Or at least the place where Tristram will be established. It was a part of every game so far. It needs to be in. Another location I'm fairly certain we will visit is Xiansai. Why? Because I'm a filthy weeb and want it. Just kidding. It's because it has been set up. Even if I'm wrong and it isn't a prequel or an mmo, or even a sequel, we will go to Xiansai. Diablo III talks so much about Xiansai. It is where Shen is from. It is where the Wizard is from. Probably all the asian themed weapons are from there as well. Oh and almost all the legendary gems save for maybe one or two. It is an important place. And very new. And filled with danger. All the social intrigue might not make it ideal for a setting of a traditional Diablo game, but an MMO with a dozen reputation factions in a single city, could provide a gold mine.
That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed my little theory crafting (looting?). We'll see how much I got right, pretty soon.