For those of you who don’t already know, I’m a huge fan of action RPGs, in particular Blizzard’s Diablo series. Naturally, I was thrilled when, way back in 2008, Blizzard announced that there would be a Diablo III. Since then, Blizzard’s kept mum about much of the game and only released little tidbits of information here and there.
At Gamescom today, Blizzard announced a new feature of Diablo III: the artisan. Artisans are special merchant NPCs that follow your character through Sanctuary. In addition to basic buying and selling, artisans will also be able to make items for you based on materials that you find during your travels. For example, the blacksmith will create weapons, while the mystic will make scrolls and charms. You will also be able to level up your artisan to give them access to better skills and abilities.
This news is probably going to piss off people who think that D3 is already too much like World of Warcraft, but I think it’s cool. I particularly like the news that you can now salvage unwanted goods for their raw materials rather than just selling them for gold. In games like Diablo II and TitanQuest, it’s really easy to become as rich as Crassus and there comes a point where it’s not worth picking up most stuff since you already have more gold than you’ll ever need. But if you can break stuff down, salvage the materials, and then use them to make something cool, loot-gathering starts to serve a purpose again.
Here’s a video narrated by D3 game director Jay Wilson that introduces the blacksmith artisan:
What do you think of the artisans? Will they make D3 more enjoyable or are they just another example of the evil influence of WoW?
Codex Lochianus 