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Posted on April 14, 2011, CJ Miozzi Fired Blizzard Employee Tells All About Diablo 3

Let me start this by stating the obvious: we cannot verify that this is legitimate. Odds are, it’s not. Much of the evidence points to this being a case of grade-A trolling. But in the off chance that this is legitimate, I’d be remiss if we didn’t cover it, so here’s the story.

An alleged recently-fired Blizzard internal tester posted on the 4chan forums (first red flag) that he would answer any questions about Diablo 3. He refused to offer any proof of his claim (second red flag), claiming he “doesn’t give a [censored] if you’re going to believe [him.]”

Other evidence that makes his claims ring hollow is that he can’t even stay consistent with his own replies, he mostly provides information already available to us, and he covers topics that an internal tester would have nothing to do with. Further, he claims:

There wasn’t anything in my contract saying I couldn’t disclose things AFTER being fired.

This strongly suggests this fellow has never seen a Non-Disclosure Agreement in his life, because NDA’s are certainly not contingent on one’s employment status.

The following interview has been culled from this monstrosity, cleaned up, and made slightly more intelligible for your edification/amusement.

The alleged employee didn’t provide his name, so I’m going to call him Thomas Rholl.

Is it fun? How true does it stay to Diablo 2?

T. Rholl: It depends. If you liked torchlight, then it’s very fun; if you’re an old d2 addict like myself, then you will be disappointed.

Level design? In what order? I.E: Does the desert come in the second act, or later?

T. Rholl: First act: Tristram and surroundings (monastery, Leoric castle,etc)

Second act: Desert

Third act: The bastion keep. Really [bad] act.

Fourth act: Begins where the meteor hits, then you descend into hell

Why’d you get fired?

T. Rholl: I was just too honest and said things they didn’t like.

Did they completely ruin everything we love about it from Diablo 2?

T. Rholl: Not everything. The loot sucks and the level design makes the game boring, just like Torchlight level design.

Is there any kind of in-game codex for [stuff] like monsters and spell rune combinations?

T. Rholl: No. There are recipes, and some special items like lost scrolls with some lore in them, used in recipes.



Coming to consoles?

T. Rholl: They are intending to port it to consoles when the expansion development begins.

You’re either a liar or an idiot. Don’t even bother trying to explain it because you’re clearly not smart enough to pull it off.

You’d of signed an NDA when you began testing, and the NDA is separate from any work contract and still applies after being fired.

Blizzard has their [stuff] together and wouldn’t allow a loophole that lets some little [bugger] who got fired from such an awesome company to go on 4chan and post secrets about a game.

T. Rholl: OK. [censored].

Are levels randomly generated?

T. Rholl: Yes, in a very mediocre way.

Runewords?

T. Rholl: No runewords.

What are the systems requirements?

T. Rholl: Very low system requirements. It is more scalable than Torchlight. You can play with a GeForce 6 or any [bad] laptop from 3 years ago (on low settings, obviously).

Which character class is the most fun to play? How long will the single player story take to play through? Anything cool about the game that they haven’t released info on yet that might get us excited?

T. Rholl: I liked the wizard. Roughly the same length as D2, if you do the side quests. D2 is bigger if you compare completing both games 100%. You fight Tyrael in act 4.

What’s the online look like? Will we be able to create LAN servers, private servers online, or will everything run through battle.net?

T. Rholl: Same model as StarCraft 2; no LAN.

Wasn’t the final stage confirmed to be the High Heavens? Y’know, since Tyrael goes insane.

T. Rholl: Nope.

Tell us the games story and plot.

T. Rholl: The plot is very simple. When Tyrael broke the Worldstone in D2, it basically destroyed what separated the mortal world from heaven and hell. So Asmodan devised a way to resurrect Diablo because his essence wasn’t completely destroyed with the soul shard. They invoked a meteor to hit Sanctuary for its impact would generate enough energy to provide a portal from hell for a massive army. Tyrael was corrupted by Asmodan. Asmodan is boss of act 3.

What where you saying that they didn’t like?

T. Rholl: As a tester, my job is finding bugs and doing what they call 100% coverage run test. But they called us in meetings that asked us our opinions about a lot of things. I said the game was boring and doomed to be a failure.

What are boss battles in D3 like?

T. Rholl: They are scripted pieces of [junk]. The bosses are big and make a big mess in the scenario, but they are easy.

Compared to D2, why is it boring?

T. Rholl: It doesn’t feel as open as D2. The levels in D2 were much bigger. In D3, open world areas are small with little side areas, and its randomly generated dungeon levels are mediocre, with rectangular areas glued together.

-Do you know anything about Blizzard’s other projects? Brief thoughts on all the classes? Favorite thing from D3? Is it ever going to be released?

T. Rholl: That Titan MMO will be integrated with Facebook, and will be more or less like Second Life. The classes are well designed, with each having different gameplay. I liked the skill system plus runes. Expect a beta announcement at BlizzCon.

Does the story end the same as the other two?

T. Rholl: The end is the hero sacrificing himself to act like the Worldstone before it was destroyed, thus separating once again hell and the mortal world. Diablo isn’t destroyed; he just gets chained in hell.

Were you able to play all the classes? Are the classes all very well developed or some more than others?

Are there any homages/references to Blizzard’s other games? Are the bosses fun? Are there a lot of random named elite enemies you fight? Anything particularly funny in the game?

T. Rholl: Yes, it was my job to do a 100% coverage test. [The classes are not balanced.] The demon hunter is extremely overpowered (as of my last play). Bosses are [incredibly boring]. They are scripted. Elites are not as crazy as in D2; they have less enchantments. It’s funny to try out all rune combinations.