Fans of "Diablo 3" have been waiting a long time now for Blizzard to add some player vs. player (PvP) options to the game, and on Tuesday the developer finally answered (some of) their prayers.
Blizzard confirmed that it will be adding PvP dueling to "Diablo 3" via the game's next patch, version 1.0.7. Writing on the title's blog, Wyatt Cheng went into some details about the new multiplayer mode.
In order to fight another player, users will have to speak to the non-player character Nek the Brawler at the New Tristram inn. Once that's done, players will be taken to the Scorched Chapel, an entirely new area built specifically for PvP. The chapel is home to four different combat arenas: a church, graveyard, river, and a lake.
"Our intent is to provide players a safe, opt-in location where they can fight one another for bragging rights (or maybe science) without the potential for griefing as it existed in Diablo II," wrote Cheng.
"The game doesn't keep score and there are no objectives. We wanted dueling to be as simple and straightforward as possible, so we created a minimalist system -- we know that even without rewards and objectives, some players just want to beat each other up. Some matchups may be one-sided, and we don't expect that battles will be necessarily balanced. But that's okay, because dueling in 'Diablo 3' is more about kicking ass and taking names in a no-holds-barred sort of way, and this design certainly allows you to accomplish that.
Perhaps because Blizzard isn't promising balanced gameplay, Cheng noted that players will be resurrected in the dueling zone if they die in a battle, and that death is not permanent for even hardcore players.
The new PvP will support two to four players in a free-for-all format, meaning there will be no specifically-sanctioned team play. Originally, there were plans to implement a Team Deathmatch mode, but Blizzard found the gameplay didn't live up to expectations. In December, the developer scrapped the idea and decided to pursue individual play.
"Simply fighting each other with no other objectives or choices to make gets old relatively quickly," said Director Jay Wilson. "We've brought a lot of people in to try out Team Deathmatch and, while some found it entertaining, most of our testers didn't feel like it was something they'd want to do beyond a few hours."
