MMOs that didn’t come out – Diablo II Online

Many people love the Diablo series with all their hearts, and a bunch of players has the fondest memories of Diablo II. Unexpectedly for players, Diablo II is back in the spotlight in 2021 with the remaster of this classic game. To get the most out of this popular game, we advise you to choose a cheap gaming pc under $500, which will meet all the requirements of the game.

Despite the fact that the game has released only one add-on. We cannot but mention modern service games as well. Much of this success is due to excellent game design and those successful discoveries that form the basis of the game from the beginning. Of course, we can not forget the continued support from Blizzard all this time.

But you may be surprised that Blizzard’s first full-fledged virtual world may have been Diablo II Online and not World of Warcraft. We continue to explore the MMO games, so let’s take a closer look at them.

Let’s start from the beginning. The original Diablo was released in 1997 and was a big hit for Blizzard, collecting millions of copies sales. Players loved the game, and a sequel was inevitable. So, the creative team of David Brewick, Erich Schaefer, and Max Schaefer continued to work on Diablo II. The task was not an easy one. They needed to create a game that was not only of equal quality to the original but exceeded it several times over. 

With Diablo II, it worked, and it appeared to be even more successful than the original. Released in mid-2000, it garnered numerous critical acclaim, awards, and, most importantly for Blizzard, sales of over 4 million units in its first year. It was a definite success. The game continued to be popular with fans and even made it into the top 20 best-selling PC games of 2008. Probably, everyone has their own story of how they discovered the game and some interesting incidents. In the same year, when Wrath of the Lich King, Warhammer Online, and Fallout 3 was released, Diablo II was still relevant and successful for players. Quite an impressive achievement for an older game.

A role-playing game in the genre of Hack’n’slash, now titled Diablo, offered the player to choose from five gaming classes plus two more, which appeared in the 2001 DLC Lord of Destruction. Players went through a total of five sprawling acts, upgrading their characters, getting awesome gear, and even hiring non-playable characters – mercenaries to follow them.

Now we come to the point. One of the features that set Diablo II apart from Diablo was the addition of multiplayer mode with constant network connectivity. Thanks to the Battle.net service, Blizzard could offer a group of players (up to eight ) the chance to meet up and go on adventures together. There were open worlds that players could host on their computers, along with closed worlds run by Blizzard, which it could protect from abuse and exploits.

It wasn’t yet a multiplayer world like the one we’re used to, but it was definitely a big step toward permanent online worlds for Blizzard Studios. Since there were loot and experience bonuses for groups of players, they used multiplayer mode to get more diverse loot. The multiplayer system even offered PvP, corpse looting, and gold exchanges.

The studio also introduced seasonal ladders, in which players would launch brand-new characters and compete against each other before the season came to an end. The first season began in 2003, followed by regular seasons. By offering this gameplay feature, Blizzard opened the door to long-term communities that could be formed and maintained. Groups of players enjoyed the opportunity to play their favorite game together and challenge themselves to conquer new heights. Meanwhile, the developers wanted to take the next step.

But that wasn’t all. The studio was in full swing to prepare for a major update that would take Diablo II to a whole new level. Thus, the game’s designer David Brevik confirmed that a second expansion for Diablo II was in development before he left the company and was to add a lot of new game features. There should be new classes, new areas of the world, and the world itself should be expanded. 

New mechanics were to appear in the form of world bosses. The guild system, delayed at the launch of the game due to its complexity, was finally ready for implementation. And the concept of the story was also redesigned. So, the guilds in Diablo were supposed to have their own housing, which was to be developed and modified through guild quests. But then the studio decided not to engage in such a global game overhaul and instead opted to work on Diablo III.

By the way, the developers were considering the release of the third part. It was expected to be in a format similar to the permanent living virtual world, but the studio rejected it again. If things had gone differently, we could have Diablo II with a large living world. There could be a lot of fussy heroes, huge world bosses to be killed by large groups of adventurers, guild bases, which change depending on your success and have a strong social component. The game was supposed to be a fusion of ARPG and MMO in a somewhat stripped-down and limited form.

And now, looking at the new Diablo IV, it’s obvious that it was almost based on the completed Diablo II upgrade. Though it did not come out, it was supposed to give players a large and rich world of Sanctuary in its online form. So if Diablo III does come out, you have to be fully prepared and have a good desktop under 500. Who knows, maybe the third time this project can finally see the light. And players will see the ideas and concepts laid down in the old days when the Blizzard logo on a box was the default sign of a high-quality game.