What do you think of the Annual Pass now that D3 is out?Follow

M: An argument isn't just contradiction.
A: It can be.
M: No it can't. An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.
A: No it isn't.
M: Yes it is! It's not just contradiction.
A: Look, if I argue with you, I must take up a contrary position.
M: Yes, but that's not just saying 'No it isn't.'
A: Yes it is!
M: No it isn't!

A: Yes it is!
M: Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of any statement the other person makes.
(short pause)
A: No it isn't.

Eh, from what little I've heard (been trying to avoid spoilers), Diablo 3's story seems a lot more "way out there" than Diablo 2's, or especially Diablo 1's.

Diablo 1 had a very simple storyline. You're a wanderer. You came to Tristram, and learned that the local cathedral is cursed and there are demons everywhere and you're a brave hero so you go down there to kill demons and look for survivors and wind up uncovering a major evil in the process.

Fairly simple and straightforward.

Diablo 2 added some more story into it, but heck, it at least sounded plausible. Simple, but plausible. You lock demons inside of soulstones and then smash em to kill the demons permanently.

I'm not going to post any spoilers about Diablo 3, but from what I've heard of its storyline, Late Act 3 through Act 4 sounds absolutely whacko. I'm like "just who wrote this, anyways!?"

Heck, the cutscene at the end of Act *ONE* sounded a bit "off" to me. Angels fighting each other? Or where Kulle tells you in Act 2 that the Angels wanted to wipe humanity out? errrrr? wtf?

Even my mom was scratching her head at that one.

That's been canon since at least the Sin War novels which started in 2006. I know a Diablo 1 in-game book mentioned the Sin War, but I don't think it included the vote for Sanctuary's fate. Lord of Destruction talked around the whole thing with Izual and Inarius/World Stone, but I'm not sure what information was relayed where.

Short version when it comes to the conflict: Diablo's angels are not Christianity's angels. They are very... human and fallible.

Longer version: An original power of good and evil split into angels and demons, and they fought for a very long time. Humans are the offspring of angels and demons who got tired of the war and created Sanctuary to hide from it. When discovered two of the 5 leading angels wanted to destroy them because the humans had evil inside and so could be turned to the side of the devils (Valor was a warmonger, and Wisdom abstained which was counted against preservation). Two of them wanted to protect humanity because they could decide their own fate (which Hope and Fate found appealing). Tyrael (Justice) had the deciding vote, which he cast in humanity's favor when Uldyssian sacrificed his life defending the Worldstone rather than abusing its power.

As for the act 3/4 plot, it fits with Blizzard's style of straightforward corruption/betrayal/redemption/betrayal/back to corruption plots, like what is seen in Starcraft and Warcraft, and the other Diablo games for that matter. The hero of D1 sticks the soulstone in his head to prevent Diablo from getting loose, and canonically he lasted all of two weeks before becoming the Dark Wanderer of D2. The Act 3/4 plot may be a little hammy (ok, VERY hammy, almost BRIAN BLESSED hammy), but not unusual.

You are a racist and it's not a joke.

edit. In light of Bhodi's post, further discussion would be counter productive. Bhodi, well spoken.

I'm really not liking the various critters that drop those rotating "lazers", I get so mesmerized by just hacking and slashing and don't see them swirling around until it's almost too late.

See, this is something I wish Blizzard would stop doing.

Okay, side-stories and such in novels is OK, but when you explain core concepts of a franchise only in novels to the point that someone playing all three games like I did who still doesn't know WTF is going on, that's when you're putting too much lore in novels and not enough in the games.

You don't know anything about "Sanctuary", or Angels and Demons doing it, or any of that crap until you get to Act 4 Diablo 3 from what I hear.

So basically, you play Diablo 1, Diablo 2, and half of Diablo 3 thinking that "Angels" and "Demons" are close to the same "Angels" and "Demons" that you already know from other sources and then WHAM, Act 4 says "oh, no, we're not talking about THOSE Angels and Demons!" other than a few very vague hints in the previous two games that could easily be taken the wrong way.

I played Diablo 1 very thoroughly, as well as Diablo 2.

But, because I didn't buy a bunch of novels that I didn't even know existed, I was utterly clueless to the real story behind the games.

This is a mistake, IMO. Like I said, side-stories and filler is OK in novels, but not the core concepts behind a story. That's like, oh, I don't know, releasing a movie and a couple novels. You watch the movie and you're going "Errr, wtf?" because you missed out on a lot of "this is who this is, this is who that is, and this is why they're fighting" that the books tell you.

They have been getting very close to doing this in WoW, too; I notice some of the newer novels explained a LOT that isn't even mentioned in-game (like Alexstrasza after the events of Wrath, the whole part where she loses her mate). So a player who only plays WoW is scratching their head when they're talking about eggs getting corrupted and such and they're going "I thought we saved those in RS?" but yet they didn't know otherwise because they didn't read that novel.

Well don't get too excited, because in the soon to be released Diablo IV, a mini Diablo bursts out of Tyraels chest (wearing a top hat and cane) and he of course dies, being mortal and all now. The back story behind this is that during one of the slaying spree runs he joins you on in D3, he actually got a face full of some of that demon gore, and injested it, where it incubated inside him. Thus Diablo lives again and the franchise continues.

Basically, in Diablo 1, you learn...

1). When you start the game, "dark riders" came and attacked the town.
2). The King went mad when his son disappeared, the archbishop whipped up a "frenzied mob".
3). A bunch of people went down into the cathedral to look for his son, very few came back out and you're supposed to go there and search for survivors.
4). IF Leoric's Area spawns (it doesn't always) on Level 3, some of the townsfolk tell you more of Leoric's story (which you already know from Lachdanan's scrolls in D3 and/or Leoric's journals, and/or things you are told in D3).
5). You don't learn anything new about the main plot until you get down to the lower areas, when you get to Lazarus's floor, and Cain tells you that he's certain that Diablo is behind all of this. There are random quests that will sometimes spawn, like an ancient armor, or the anvil for griswald's sword, etc, but none of these really have much to do with the main plot.
6). You kill Diablo and you get a short cutscene of the dude/girl ramming the soulstone into their forehead and...... the game ends. That's it.

That's Diablo 1 in a nutshell, best I remember it.

None of the unofficial expansion is considered canon from what I heard...

Edited, Jun 3rd 2012 10:45pm by Lyrailis

You forgot the best one.

I can see what you see not
Vision milky then eyes rot
When you turn they will be gone
Whispering their hidden song
Then you see what cannot be
Shadows move where light should be
Out of darkness, out of mind
Cast down into the Halls of the Blind.

Pch... y'drink... waaaater!?