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  • Magistrate's avatar

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    Jun 27, 2009
    Magistrate posted a message on Age Ratings
    I think the title of this poll is ambiguous. My answer is more complicated than what the answers offer.

    My official stance is that we should have them, but my reasons are bipartisan.

    For families that feel they need have their children more closely monitored, or that feel that their children are more susceptible to negative influences, they should be there to warn them.

    For families that feel that their children aren't susceptible to overt negative influence from video games, the ratings mean nothing to them and so it does not matter (I would likely fall here if I had children).

    So, they won't affect the latter but will help the former.

    However, it should be made clear that ratings are relative- relative to the child's temperament.

    Furthermore, there should NEVER, EVER be ANY legal action taken to limit this kind of thing. Everyone should be fully-able to purchase any rated game. Anyone.

    If parents feel that their children are susceptible to these bad influences, they should be monitoring them more closely and should know what their kids are playing, and therefor there should be no need for government interference, because once the government starts getting involved in something, history has shown it's only a matter of time before they control it.

    That's a warning to my generation and all who follow.

    I voted OTHER.
    Posted in: General Discussion (non-Diablo)
  • Magistrate's avatar

    1

    May 24, 2009
    Magistrate posted a message on Just how heavenly do you want your Heaven?
    Okay then. Why? I think the issue here is that you're picturing Heaven like some show on Cartoon Network with frilly little babies playing harps in the nude on giant marshmallows.

    What could be more epic than the Host of Hell contrasting the Light of the High Heavens at the very threshold of the angels? What could be more polarized than complete, burning chaos set against perfect order? The light of angels falling to battle against the rising hordes of Hell before the walls of Heaven? What could be more spectacular than forgotten magics of all kinds and natures raining down upon the ramparts? What confrontation could possibly be more beautiful than the Prime or Minor Evils pitched against the Angiris Council and the armies of the Light?

    I really can't think of one.
    Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
  • Magistrate's avatar

    1

    May 22, 2009
    Magistrate posted a message on Blizzard's Writing Contest- We Have Winners, Folks!
    After nearly three months of sorting through tons of fan-made stories of all variations, Blizzard has announced (here) the winners to their writing contest announced back in March of this year. The wait is over!

    Quote from Bashiok »
    The first ever Blizzard Entertainment Global Writing Contest is now complete!

    We would just like to say how impressed we are by the overwhelming number of high-quality entries we received. Ranging from epic to earnest and hilarious to horrific, your stories conveyed true devotion, passion, and insight. The judges went through several rounds before selecting the finalists, but in the end only the big man himself, Chris Metzen, could choose the winning entry. We would like to thank all of the contest entrants for the time and effort that they put into their stories. It is always a pleasure to see our fans demonstrate their immense creativity and talent!


    The grand prize winner will be flown to Blizzard Entertainment headquarters to meet the Blizzard creative writing staff, and will be the owner of a brand new shiny (and pointy) Frostmourne replica sword by Epic Weapons.


    Grand Prize Winner!

    In the Shadow of the Sun by Sarah Pine


    Runners Up - (Alphabetical Order by Author)

    The Runners Up will be receiving signed copies of the Diablo Archive, StarCraft Archive, Warcraft Archive, and Warcraft War of the Ancients Archive.

    Kuma's Song by Tzu-Mainn Chen

    The Baron's Bird by Andrew Moeller

    Where Loyalties Lie by Michael Edmund O'Reilly

    Into the Void by Benjamin P. Reeves

    The Last Days of Crank Fizzlepop by Sean Lucas Riley

    Why We Fight by Jason Matthew Rodriguez

    Flag of the Black King by Erik Sabol


    Honorable Mentions - (Alphabetical Order by Author)

    While the Honorable Mentions haven't won a place in the contest, they've won a place in our hearts, and their stories have earned at the very least a mention to their greatness.

    Eyes of the Dead by Luke Jackson

    Dalaran Noir by Eric F. Kelley

    The Princess and the Peon by Ben Lappin

    Vengeance by Pamela Manasco

    Windmills by Brendon Mroz

    A Feast Fit For a Murloc by Kyle Schliesman

    Mason by Charles Shattuck

    The Defias Gambit by Craig E. Stalbaum

    By Whatever Means Necessary by Laurie Tom

    Inevitably Northward by Sam Zucchi

    What's more, Bashiok has also noted that winners may have parts of their hard writing work posted around the official Blizzard site! What would be a better reward than that?

    Quote from "Bashiok" »
    Thank you again to everyone who entered! We'll be posting select stories and excerpts on our website in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned to share in these truly inspiring stories.

    Is anyone here eager to read what Blizzard has deemed top-notch work? Has anyone been announced a winner here? And, more for speculation purposes, does anyone think that Blizzard may use some of the fan-created material from this contest to fuel the lore for Diablo III and other games?

    (This was also spotted by Chemedeiros via our Dev Tracker- pop him a rep point or two, ladies and gents!)
    Posted in: News & Announcements
  • Magistrate's avatar

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    May 22, 2009
    Magistrate posted a message on Diablo III Bestiary Update- Return of the Fallen!
    As first noted here on Diablofans by Pjanoo, the Fallen Ones of Diablo II (you can read more about them here in our Wiki) have returned for Diablo III! I'm sure many, if not all of you are familiar with the impish little devils - running away the instant one of their comrades have fallen. And I'm sure we can all recall fighting their leader in Act I, Rakanishu, whose name they chant incessantly, and probably having been slain, ourselves, at some point by his Lightning Enchantment.

    Well, as per a post in our Dev Tracker, the creatures have made their official comeback:


    Quote from Bashiok »
    "The Diablo III bestiary has been updated with a demon family you may recognize - The Fallen Ones!

    "When unleashed upon our realm by their master, Azmodan, these impish terrors display a tendency to swarm like flesh-hungry locusts, and they have been known to tear apart a sleeping village in minutes. Small of stature and simian in appearance, these creatures possess surprising strength and unnatural agility. Other than feasting on human flesh, the only act that gives these unspeakable horrors pleasure is breeding; hence the tendency to encounter them in large packs."

    Visit http://www.Diablo3.com for the full bestiary update, including concept art, screen shots, and video!"
    There are now 5 different kinds of Fallen Ones:
    Imps - These are the commonest of the fallen family of demons. They are the stereotypical fallen ones in look and behavior: small, red, swarming, bloodthirsty, and cowardly.

    Shaman - Fallen shaman priests lead camps of fallen. I have also heard it rumored that they possess the ability to raise imps from the dead!

    Lunatic - These enraged, oversized fallen creatures are bloated seemingly to the point of bursting, an impression buttressed by the fact that these insane demons rush their intended victims and then stab themselves until they explode. A more fitting name could not be found for these maniacal beings.

    Overseer - The fallen overseer drives his smaller impish charges into a frenzy with his ape-like leaping and growling. An overseer among a group of fallen is a dangerous thing, as the cowardice that usually characterizes them is overwhelmed by fear of their much larger brethren.

    Hounds - These slobbering abominations are commonly found among groups of the fallen and are utilized as guard animals, beasts of burden, or even food by their demonic masters. These beasts are loyal to a fault, regardless of the abuse heaped upon them.
    You can see their glorious new page on the official Diablo III site here: http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/world/bestiary/thefallen.xml. There's tons of new artwork and lore crammed in there- I'd encourage everyone to check it out!

    How does everyone feel about these things returning in the world of Diablo again? It does make sense since there were so many of them in Diablo II. I'd wager they'll probably multiply like bunnies. Thoughts? Comments?

    (And I'd pass a rep point or two to Pjanoo for posting this first!)
    Posted in: News & Announcements
  • Magistrate's avatar

    1

    May 20, 2009
    Magistrate posted a message on Diablo II, Battle.net, and Cheating- An Iron Fist or Empty Promise?
    Today, Blizzard has recently posted on the online client for Diablo II a blatant charge against cheaters and hackers of all types and sizes, promising higher standards and a scrutiny to out-do what in years past has been nothing but a laughable, vague shell of enforcement:

    Quote from Blizzard »
    Wednesday, May 20, 2009
    Blizzard Entertainment feels very strongly about cheating over Battle.net. We Believe that multiplayer cheats and hacks undermine the basic rules of fair play and weaken ansy sense of true competition and online gaming enjoyment. We would like to remind everybody that the use of any third-party software in conjunction with the game to modify Battle.net and/or change game play may result in account closures and a possible suspension of access to Battle.net. Third-party software may include, but is not limited to any program that allows you to run multiple instances of the game at the same time, cheats, hacks, and/or bots. To continue our agressive stance on cheats/hacks, we will be monitoring Custom games as well as Ladder games on Battle.net.



    Some important questions arise from this. In light of the recent announcement of patch 1.13 for Diablo II and the fact that one of the main focuses of the patch is player input, something on the top of every player's mind is Battle.net cheating, hacking, and security. For many years, most of us have done nothing but laugh at Battle.net and Blizzard's meager attempts at establishing any form of control over their free internet play client. Now, it seems, things may be taking a turn for the better.

    Does anyone believe that this may, in fact, be something more than an announcement in light of current goings-on? Could something of value in this respect be coming with the impending patch 1.13?

    It would make a lot of sense, seeing as Blizzard has announced also that the patch would be tested on a private testing realm:

    Quote from "Bashiok »
    Some exciting news - and it also may be some comfort - due to the types of changes we're making we will be offering the Diablo II 1.13 patch for testing and feedback on a [color=red]test realm[/color'] before its release. We'll have more information about how you'll be able to help test it in the coming weeks.

    (Source: http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18744.)

    Something of this nature would be best done in such a way, especially if they are wanting to clean up players' acts on Diablo II and want to effectively cover as much ground as possible to stop hacking and cheating.

    What are everyone else's thoughts on this? Could this really be Blizzard taking the first real stance in their fight against cheaters in nearly a decade or is this just another blast of hot air? Will this be something to be implemented in patch 1.13?
    Posted in: News & Announcements
  • Magistrate's avatar

    1

    May 17, 2009
    Magistrate posted a message on Jay Wilson - A hint on the next class
    The Wizard is from Xiansai, isn't she?

    I remember when I read over the transcription of this interview and thought the same thing, but also realized even if it was a "leak", 1) we basically knew that one of the remaining classes would be some manner of ranged attacker, most likely a variation of an archer since they're in every RPG, and 2) he was either 1) really only using it as an example or 2) was confident enough that we would all be smart enough to realize that a ranged attacker is an integral part of the class archetypes and so would have to be in the game eventually, so he didn't feel particularly wrong in releasing a possible hint of it before the announcement.

    My honest opinion is that it was just an example, since he used references from Diablo II and applied them theoretically to Diablo III to prove a point.
    Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
  • Magistrate's avatar

    1

    May 12, 2009
    Magistrate posted a message on Colors
    For the YouTube BBcode:

    Here's something I've wanted for a long time, so I went ahead and figured it out and got it working. We can finally embed Youtube videos in our posts instead of having to link to the videos externally and send people off of the site.

    You'll even notice a Youtube icon on the posting menu now.

    One thing that might confuse people about it, however, is that you only use a portion of the video URL (the actual unique video ID) when embedding a video.
    This is the correct way to use the code to embed a Youtube video.
    This is the incorrect way.

    Please make sure our forum members are aware of this. Basically, all they have to do is remove the "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=" portion of the URL. Might want to add it to an FAQ or something along those lines.


    I've never used it, though. If that doesn't help you, maybe someone else has advice to offer?

    -----

    At colors: YES! I know! It's screwed up for me, too! For that matter, WYSIWYG editing doesn't work in Chrome, for some reason. But I have that color issue with all browsers I've used- Opera, Chrome, and FireFox. I didn't try with IE, though.

    Not exactly sure what you mean with the quoting issue, exactly. I'll just read over that more carefully when I get back later.
    Posted in: Site Feedback
  • Magistrate's avatar

    1

    May 3, 2009
    Magistrate posted a message on whats up with.......
    People give it to you. For more on this thread, please see the existing thread here: http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16764. In the future, please do a search of the forum before creating a topic. And please make sure that your thread is in the correct forum- this belongs in Site Suggestions and Questions.

    Additionally, please read over the rules here: http://www.diablofans.com/forums/announcement.php?f=2.

    Thread locked.

    Thanks,
    Magistrate
    Posted in: Site Feedback
  • Magistrate's avatar

    1

    Apr 21, 2009
    Magistrate posted a message on [Art] Global avatar/sig request thread
    Well, here's my go, apples:

    The first one I didn't put the text ton to see if you liked it better without it:



    And the second one I included your text. It has a different feel and seems really busy:

    Posted in: General Discussion (non-Diablo)
  • Magistrate's avatar

    1

    Apr 18, 2009
    Magistrate posted a message on Seriously runes and gems look like crap
    It's all still in development. If you have an actual discussion to start, rather than a complaint spree about things in pre-alpha stage that are not already being discussed in countless other threads, feel free to start a decent thread or comment in already-created threads on these topics. As for this thread, it is now closed.
    Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
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