I was never a Diablo fan; my position on it has always been, "Clickclickclickclickclick, yawn," so I'm largely ambivalent about the tidal wave announcement of Diablo III (complete with weird, strangely anticlimactic splash screen drama). I say "ambivalent" because now that I'm a game journo and feel obligated to maintain an open mind and a broad palate, I'll probably play it a bit.
Plenty of people are not ambivalent, however. You'd think, receiving a spanking-new sequel quivering newborn from Blizzard's methodical mastery machine (and magnitude of modern, millennial money), that longtime fans would be over the moon. Apparently, however, a petition objecting to what has been revealed of the game's art style has garnered close to 18,000 signatures from disappointed fans who feel the early screenshots depict a "Pooh world" that is too colorful and sunny for their dark gothic tastes. They also feel like Diablo III looks too much like WoW.
Hmm, a developer is launching a new PC title. They could take some stylistic influence from their unprecedentedly successful flagship product that has over nine million active users, or they could just overhaul the entire formula completely. How on earth could they choose the first option?
I wish we could get 18,000 signatures every time a politician decides he wants to introduce yet another unconstitutional anti-game bill. Preferably before it costs states, like, $65 million dollars.
It's passé by now to be especially amazed, fatigued, horrified or amused by how The Internet behaves (and passé to act jaded about it, too), but back when horror and amazement about The Internet felt to me like a new, exciting cultural labyrinth, I loved to read SomethingAwful. Fitting, then, that I return to its bosom for this fab article's sardonic analysis of the fan complaints, complete with fitting screenshots that show just how ludicrously color-vomited the old Diablo actually was.
