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Official Blizzard Quote:

What does Polish mean?
It's making sure everything is perfect. We're not really in a strictly polishing phase yet though, although certainly that's true for some areas of the game. Still, we're in the process of working on some rather large game system changes, some of which we'll be sharing shortly before or with the next beta patch.

So this means that once those large game system changes are set, that will be the time when the D3 team goes in the "strictly polishing" phase?
I wouldn't get hung up on thinking about it that way. It's a big game and each individual piece may be at some different level of development.

So is the rune system set and is currently being implemented entirely?
Not yet. Once we have an implementation and we're at least moderately sure it's going to work out we'll share all the details.

re far are you guys (generally) from being able to ship a game that is polished? In other words is it still an early 2012 planned release?
We don't know. We were shooting for the end of 2011, and now we're shooting for first quarter 2012. As soon as we're sure of something (release date or otherwise) we'll be sure to let you know.

Firebats

Official Blizzard Quote:

All messaging for #DiabloBeta's 2nd round winners has been sent out at this time. Congratulations to the winners! (Source)

All #D3 beta keys for our #Blizzard_ANZ contest have now been sent. Congrats to the lucky entries! (Source)

Official Blizzard Quote:

It's the ideal situation. Random dungeons, random monsters, random item drops, all of these things throw huge wrenches into any ability to really finely tune a level progression. You may very well have to stay in Hell for a while longer to hit 60, or you may want to go back through certain areas of Normal to gear up better before moving to Nightmare. We're simply not going to be able to get it right for everyone with all of these random elements, but we're trying.
It's also going to just make good sense to stick around and play a bit more Hell and gear up before attempting Inferno even if you are 60.

Leonard Boyarsky

Official Blizzard Quote:

GameSpot: With people dissecting the lore, and you as a team cautious of making it too predictable, have you found yourself in the position where you've changed content because players have already guessed how it will play out?

Leonard Boyarsky: No, not really. We figured out what we wanted our story to be, and pretty much stuck to it. If some people guess what we're doing, that just means they'll be pleasantly surprised. Sadly, it's a minority of people who really care deeply about the lore. There are a lot of people out there who do care deeply about the lore, but, in terms of our overall fan base, it's not the top thing on people's list. I think that the kind of people who really care about the lore and delve into that will feel proud if they feel like they figured it out. We haven't seen a lot of people make correct guesses, by the way! [Laughs] (Source)

A few months ago I wrote about my participation within the book project named Diablo III: Book of Cain. Because the book was not released at that moment, I was not allowed to show the three drawings I was commissioned to do. I promised to post the drawings as soon as the book is released. (Source)

General

• Gold for quest rewards changed. (total from main quests now 503g, up from 285g; hidden event quests now give a total of 205g, up from 0g)
• New type of chest called "Bloody Chest" (found in Den of Fallen - seems to drop same stuff as regular chest. [Picture])
• Grotesques no longer contribute to XP bonuses such as Mighty Blow and Massacre
• Reduced the number of items that pop out of Haedrigs' apprentice's body
• Ghastly Gravediggers apply a Chilled debuff in addition to knockback on their attacks
• Cast time on Stone of Recall shortened to 5 seconds down from 10.
• The gold collection speed of companions is noticeably faster
• Jar of Souls quest wording changed to "Survive the skeletons raised by the Jar of Souls"
• Nephalem Altar moved again, to the SE of the Waypoint in New Tristram
• New "Recommended Items" tab in the AH [Picture]
• Stone of Recall and Nephalem Cube now rewarded at the end of 3rd quest (was end of 2nd and mid 3rd respectively)

UI

• Different font is now used for various UI parts: floating combat text, quest tracker text, tooltips.
• Floating combat text used to truncate decimals. Life regen ticked as +0 if below 1.0. Now only skips ticks, and displays +1 when it hits that
• Nephalem Cube slot and Cauldron of Jordan slot in inventory UI switched places

Sounds

• New sound for Checkpoint (changed from same sound that was used for completing a quest objective)
• New sound for yes/no dialog prompts (like when canceling cinematics or using the Portal Stones)

Art

• New "Epic Banner" [Picture]
• New art for Plagued [Before | Now]
• New art for Molten explosion [Before | Now]
• New art for Frozen: [before | Now-Impact | Now-Crater]

Official Blizzard Quote:

Real Money Auction House
The reason for the RMAH being implemented is not because we want to force you all to use it, this is because we want to give you a safe, secure and Blizzard supported way of selling and buying Diablo items using real currency. If you choose not to use it because you feel it would have an ill-effect on your gameplay or for any other reason, then you do not need to. I do not feel that there is a requirement to segregate players who choose to and do not choose to use this service as it might diminish player experience or cause other problems. For example, if your friend wants to use the RMAH and you don’t, then you cannot play with them

It is our goal with all of our games to ensure that players have a highly enjoyable experience when playing. Due to this, we will not remove the gold Auction House, so that people can play the way they want to. One of the most important parts of the Diablo series is to obtain the best possible gear. In the past, some players would use external and potentially dangerous methods to perform real-money transactions for gear and gold in Diablo such as third-party real-money-trading organizations.

The transactions between these third-party organisations and players generally went awry, and led to a poor player experience as well as a large number of customer-service issues such as scams and item or account theft. Because we feel that it would be best to offer players an in-game and Blizzard certified way to perform these transactions in a safe and secure manner, we decided to implement the RMAH.

So just to re-iterate, even in Diablo 1 and 2, players were buying gear and gold with real-world currency, it's just more visible and safe now. It will be no different than in the past, in that you do not have to use real money at all to improve your character, however if you do decide to, it will now be much more safe and secure.

I hope this explains why we don’t want to remove one Auction house or the other, nor segregate the player bases.


Whats to stop spam bots shouting "X item in RMAH £14 now"

It's not really possible for people to spam players easily, to do so they will need to either have your Battle.Net as a friend or BattleTag ID and personally contact you. They can also go into your game if its public and talk there, or in a public channel you are in. If they do any of those though, you can simply ignore them and they will miss out in becoming friends or communicating with fine people such as yourselves.


The question I was trying to ask was how are you going to keep the two in balance?

Well, glad you asked
Inflation in a particular currency is fine, and for things to increase on price depending on demand is good, however as you are asking about; we do not want worthless currency.

Take for example (excuse the comparison) WoW, gold is heavily inflated but people still use it for everything, just more of it. We have many tools to ensure gold remains a worthy currency in comparison to the RMAH and vice versa. Do not worry, we will be very carefully keeping an eye out for problems with inflation and one AH becoming less valuable ^^ We have many knobs and controls at our disposal to ensure that everything works out fine! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Official Blizzard Quote:

Thank you for voicing your concerns, Starbird. I realize you and many other people are excited to play the game, and are probably feeling a bit let down that we haven’t yet announced a release date. While you bring up a number of points of speculation, I just want to cut right to it and state that the reason we don’t have a release date yet is because the game isn’t yet where we want it to be in terms of our quality standards. We aren’t holding it back on account of any one piece of the game, or for any other outside factors. While it is indeed playable from beginning to end, we’re still actively working on many individual game elements and the ways that they interact with one another, with a great deal of iterative tweaking, balancing, polishing, adjusting, redesigning, and retesting going on. We’re going to continue beta testing, and before too long that’s going to include a large influx of new invites.

Much of this iteration obviously takes place behind closed doors, so I can sympathize with the concerns about the lack of visible progress, and the sentiment that we should just go ahead and ship the game. Until we’re able to reveal more of the results, I can only assure you that we are indeed working on critical game systems that directly impact the core of the experience.

I also realize a lot of people were hoping for a release date announcement at the VGAs. We’re simply not going to be able to dispel or comment on release date rumors and speculation every time someone expects an announcement. We’ll be announcing a release date when we determine the game is ready, and not holding it back just to line it up with any particular game-industry event.

The bottom line is that development of our games and preparations for release are long and complicated. We’re just as excited to get the final version into your hands as you are to play it, but making sure it lives up to our quality standards will always be the most important factor in that process.


Why not make the beta open now. Mayby all the hard fans can have a chance to ploay before release.?

The service currently available is a single test site, it just couldn't hold that many people. While we'd certainly like to make people happy, it wouldn't be a good experience, and frankly letting people try the game is not the purpose of the beta test.


Also why not tell us what your working on fixing and let the people in the beta help?

Well most everyone already knows we're working on runestones still, and we have some other changes that are going to shake up characters a little bit. We'll be letting you know as soon as we're sure they'll work out at all, and then we're going to be asking everyone for feedback.

We'll be continuing to add players to beta as we need. We recognize that there are many people that want to be a part of helping out and we appreciate that. We just aren't able to provide any particular schedule for additions.

The ongoing, concerns on timing of the release are understandable, but in some cases are a bit overblown or overly pessimistic. We recognize that it's mostly due to anxiousness and the desire to get in and stomp demons, but as Bashiok said in his post, we'll release it when we're ready. We believe it will be worth it.

We appreciate all of the constant support and enthusiasm for Diablo III and it is something that continues to inspire us to make sure we release a game we can all be happy with and have many great adventures in.
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Cyclone Strike

Binkles the Frog

Quote from Leeodin

“Come gather people of Tristram and listen to a tale, the hero we know, as Binkles…”

A frog of might, a heroic delight;
Binkles’ the Demon Slayer.

He is a legend about this place;
Fighting hellish minions for all.
He has the strength of an epic mace;
and his croak blows holes in walls.

He hops about town licking enemies to the ground;
Binkles’ the Demon Slayer.

Some say a man hidden from sight;
well others a frog with demonic blood.
One thing we know, he murders with delight;
And brings a curse upon the evil crud.

Protects us and heals, kills with skill;
Binkles’ the Demon Slayer.

A masked hero working for good;
seeking no reward or fame.
Punishing those that brings the flood
of evil that comes from hell’s domain.

Our Streets are safe; Thanks to our saviour;
Binkles’ the Demon Slayer.
A champion forever, a hero of the night;
Binkle’s the Demon Slayer.

A song from a travelling musician...

Quote from Jaelzadeon

I'm not good at writing stories. I always get ideas in my head, but have no idea how to really put them together to make them sound as cool as I think they are. Anyway, I'm not going to pass up a chance for a Diablo III beta key, so here's my attempt.

The origin of Binkles the frog -


"You scum!"

"Darling, please, it's not what you think..."

Of course it's what you think, it's always just what you think. Your asshole husband in bed with another woman - it's exactly what it looks like, exactly what you think it is.

The strange woman gets up out of the bed and hurries out of the room, naked, with nothing covering her except for a cloud of embarrassment.

You eye your husband as if you're about to straddle him and pierce his heart with a poison dagger.

What the hell was he thinking? He vowed to stay faithful to you for all eternity.

Now this? What happened to what you once shared...


You met him when you were barely an adult, out in the world on your own for the first time, doing what you felt was right to help humanity. You had gotten yourself into a little trouble, and he was there, he helped you out. He was your hero.

Your hero. This is your hero?

At that time, he didn't quite understand you. You explained to him that you were a witch doctor, you dealt with spirits, voodoo, poisons, but he didn't understand any of it.

Despite differences, however, the two of you fell in love. You complemented each other well in battle with anything that came against you. The two of you promised to spend your life together, forever. Always together, until the very end.


"What were you thinking?" You cry, rage in your voice. "What of our promise?"

"We still have our promise..." He stammers, "We're-We will still be together. She was nothing, just- We'll always be together, my dear..."


He was right, the two of you would always be together. In one swift motion you jump atop him, your hand coming up to his neck. You smell the sweat stench from the strange woman on him and you do not hesitate. Where your hand was placed on his neck, it's now the sharp end of a dart, slowly pumping dark liquid into his veins.

"What was that?! What did you..." He's grabbing desperately at the object sticking out of his neck.

You stand up tall over him. "You're right, my dear." You grin. "We will be together until the end. But I won't have you in bed with every harlot that comes into town."

He starts to shake his head, but suddenly pain takes over his entire body. His limbs start to transform, smaller at first, then elongated, with webbing between each digit. His body shrinks, his skin turns smooth and the colour changes. His neck is replaced by a large jaw, and his eyes grow big and round.

All that sits in front of you in the blankets thrown about the bed is a small frog.

You pick him up, and pat him gently.

"Yes, my dear. We will always fight together."

Quote from dnavarre

Binkles the Frog. That was his new name, and he had better get used to it. Diablo had chosen to return in the most obvious way possible, in a comet, in order to instill terror in peoples all around. Mephisto, however, had wanted to come back in a more covert way. Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred, had returned as the most hated thing of all--a simple mosquito. His plan had been to invade and take over the body of a human--perhaps a certain Necromancer that had gotten lucky years before--but alas, it was not meant to be.

Upon his first night of return in Sanctuary, in the swampy woods of Kurast, he had encountered his first problem. The angel-demon offspring had found a deep magic to disguise themselves...they called this magic "repellent" and kept it contained in impenetrable bottles of all shapes in sizes. For a week, Mophistosquito hovered around the village of the Kurast Docks, waiting for the invisibility spray to wear off, hoping he would by chance run into the fiendish creatures. By the time the seven days were over, he felt age getting to him, as if he had lived half a lifetime. Mophistosquito knew then that time was running short.

He worked faster, spreading out further as his hope failed. And then he saw it: a human male, emerging from an outhouse--the evil magic had been overriden by some other smell, highlighting him! Mophistosquito charged, needle-nose extended as much as possible. But his greatest challenge awaited him. A creature many times his size and weight, rippling with an odd skin, pounced in front of his path. A frog, green to blend in with the swamp, had wandered into town. Mophistosquito pulled back, trying to stop or avert his course, but it was too late. The tongue lashed out and wrapped around his outstretched nose, pulling him in to the beast's mouth. He tried to struggle, only to puncture the frog's throat with his needle. Instead of blood pouring in, Mophistosquito was sucked out. The frog's green coloring became tainted, becoming more yellow.

Mephrog was born, but it was not over yet. The human had reached him and was bending over. Mephrog's body quivered with rage and fear--he was in no state to fight!

"Yes, you'll do quite nicely," the man said. "Come, I take care of you. You Binkles. Binkles the Frog. I Witch Doctor and we have much fight to do. Oh, yes, many demons come and Doctor and Frog must unite in battle."

And so Binkles the Frog was born...or reborn. Whatever.