Is World of Warcraft really World of Diablo?
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jul 12th 2008 at 8:00PM
So how do you design Diablo 3 anyway? Bargain Bin Reviews has an idea -- just retrofit World of Warcraft. Shift talent points to spells, decrease enemy health and damage and increase the number of enemies by a factor of 10 or so, do away with healing spells and tanking, and you're essentially done. It's a bit silly and a bit tongue in cheek, yes, but it also brings up a good point. In the end, WoW is probably influenced by Diablo 2 as much as it is by Warcraft 3, if not more.
Many skills from WoW seem to take their cues from Diablo 2. WoW Paladins have D2 Paladin skills such as Holy Shield and Holy Bolt nearly intact with slight name and mechanic changes, and many of their Auras are slightly renamed and retooled versions of D2 Paladin Auras. Warriors take a bit from from the Barbarian class with Whirlwind and their battle shouts. WoW's talent system itself seems to be very closely relate to D2's skill trees - but with wise modifications such as the ability to respec, and making most abilities available by default.
Even later revamps and additions have in part taken clear cues from Diablo 2. Seal of Blood is very similar to a Diablo 2 Paladin's Sacrifice ability, and the Death Knight's Corpse Explosion is one of the Diablo 2 Necromancer's trademark moves, while Warriors will be gaining the Barbarian ability to dual wield two handed weapons. Diablo 2's socket system was also modified for WoW with the Burning Crusade.
Is this a bad thing? I don't think so. WoW itself, as a game, was built on looking back on the MMORPG genre, taking aspects of what came before it in games like Everquest, and making it better, making these abilities its own. It's not too much of a stretch then to imagine it taking strength of other previous Blizzard games, and it's likely a better game for it
What looks to be interesting too, is that Diablo 3 itself may be taking at least some cues from World of Warcraft. The discussion of a "respec" ability is probably tied to being able to respec talents in WoW. Similarly, the new ability to use multiple skill hotkeys may have been inspired by WoW's hotkey bars. I know I'll probably be watching for more WoW inspiration as we hear more about the game.
It may seem "unoriginal" at first glance, but I think taking best practices like this can only serve to strengthen both games, and make a better playing experience for all Blizzard gaming fans. Who knows - maybe some of Diablo 3's innovations will be making World of Warcraft's future expansions better as well.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Belial Jul 12th 2008 8:10PM
I've been talking with friends about the similarties between D2 and WoW since I first started playing WoW. Though I look forward to seeing D3, I hope it's a bit more detailed and unique than
"Shift talent points to spells, decrease enemy health and damage and increase the number of enemies by a factor of 10 or so, do away with healing spells and tanking, and you're essentially done."
----Belial
Roflpanda Jul 12th 2008 10:06PM
I think by far the biggest difference between WoW and D2 is the PoV. World of Warcraft is meant to be just that, a world. D2 very much so gave me a disconnected, very much so 3rd person feeling over all (please don't take that the wrong way, I'm not saying it's bad). D2 is meant to be played as a story, WoW is meant to be a RPG (for the lack of a better word).
Roflpanda Jul 12th 2008 10:11PM
I think I failed in the way I explained it... here's a better way:
Diablo = a linear story
WoW = an open ended world (which is slowly, but surely, being killed, same plot line dungeons ftl).
durendul Jul 12th 2008 8:19PM
blizzard has never relay been a company that comes up with new things per say, i would say there greatest strength is the ability to take easting things and make them better
they did not invent the RPG the MMO or the RTS yet every time they relies one it concurs the market, there doing something right
wyrd Jul 14th 2008 9:07AM
this hurt my head to read.
Alexisonfire Jul 12th 2008 8:50PM
The first thing that popped into my head when I first played Wow was "Hey, this is like Diablo. But you don't have to click to move." Honest to goodness.
blazenor Jul 12th 2008 9:03PM
OMG, I was just talking about this subject with my friends and they thought I was crazy, but as I went back and started playing D2, I was the influence right away. This is not a bad thing.
sigmalmtd Jul 12th 2008 9:03PM
You could say that all of it stems from D&D, in a way.
Brasson Jul 12th 2008 9:22PM
I think it's all the "...of the..." items that strikes me as most similar. The most striking difference, I think, is how many people you can be playing with at any given time.
Of course, I never really got into Diablo II over Battle.net, so I might be off on the latter.
Bunkai Jul 12th 2008 9:34PM
8 players max in a D2 L.O.D. game
Balasan Jul 12th 2008 9:44PM
What's wrong with taking the best features of their best RPGs and swapping and switching and borrowing them?
Nothing wrong to me. As an avid fan of both games, yes, please, go ahead. As long as they're different enough that I don't notice I'm playing the same game twice, I'm happy. And blizz isn't that stupid. Maybe.
Heilig Jul 12th 2008 9:49PM
Not to be an ass here, but DUH.
The only thing that makes this game World of Warcraft and not World of Diablo is the lore. Of course WoW has more in common with a multiplayer action RPG than a RTS.
mrobin604 Jul 12th 2008 10:31PM
WoW influenced by D2? Of course! That's exactly why I started playing WoW :)
Canta Jul 12th 2008 11:42PM
Same reasoning here. Although I did quit WoW and still play DII...weird, I know.
Hansel Jul 12th 2008 10:54PM
Last two people above speak the truth.
I wasn't a huge fan of Warcraft 3 (or RTS games in general) but I loved the combination of Diablo and Warcraft into WoW. Probably liked D2 a little bit more, but hey, WoW has it's spot.
Namus Jul 13th 2008 12:18AM
For someone like me who's been following Blizzard games over the years it's just great to see how they grow and learn more and more with every new game they release, and the changes and improvements you find, like the abyss between Warcraft 2 and Starcraft, the more intrincated storylines, the AI, how the engine evolves, and how they keep reinventing every genre they focus on. Yeah, Blizz guys take their sweet time between games, (c'mon the add for sc2 was "it was about damn time") but you know its not time they waste, as awesome as starcraft was they took it one step further with warcraft 3, taking the best elements from the previous games and improving them even more, they even managed to take elements from a completely different genre like Diablo and implement features on it. So I know that we are not presencing a series of games from a company but the develop and evolution process of a company, they have learned a lot from rpgs with wow to create yet another abyss between Diablo2 and Diablo3.
Apadwe Jul 13th 2008 12:24AM
It would have been silly for Blizzard not to use ideas from their other game properties when creating a new one. It makes it a lot easier (and cheaper) than creating brand new ideas from scratch.
Luckily, they are great at using some ideas from their other games but keeping each game very unique.
I, for one, can't wait for D3.
Dregg Jul 13th 2008 12:50AM
WoW was influenced the most by Everquest. Quite a few of the main developers were all in one of the top EQ guilds before development began. They saw a good game that could be better and decided on the Warcraft lore to build on.
Diablo was influenced by rogue, and other roguelikes. D1 and D2 are at their very cores, real time roguelikes. The random levels, the scores of varying items and states, the set items, the unique items, etc. All roguelike.
Diablo 3 will hopefully have zero in common with WoW, other than some of the same art style. For it to remain Diablo, it will still need to be a roguelike, which revolves around randomization for replayability that can go on for infinity. Which is exactly why people are still endlessly playing D1 and D2 to this very day, as well as Rogue, Moria, Angband, Nethack, and others.
Au Jul 13th 2008 3:15AM
I picked up Diablo II to relive some nostalga (albeit at 800x600, which is brutal on a 30" display), and found myself trying to use the W, S, A, and D keys to move about until I remembered I wasn't playing WoW.
Coming back to it, it felt a bit like WoW Lite, but it does show where WoW got a lot of its pedigree from.
Au
dAnixx Jul 13th 2008 3:21AM
That's why there isnt goint to be a World of Diablo :P