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Drama bomb: war of words erupts between Diablo 3 designer and original creator

diablo3

Members of the Diablo development team, including lead designer Jay Wilson, have responded furiously to an interview between IncGamers and Diablo creator David Brevik, whose team had no involvement in the latest game in the series. Brevik’s criticism of Diablo 3 inspired a profane four-letter outburst from Wilson on Facebook, which we’ve hidden away in the next paragraph. You don’t want to sully those innocent eyes of yours, do you?

Speaking to IncGamers of his personal opinion on some of the more negative reactions to Diablo 3, David Brevik revealed: “I am also a little happy, which I hate to say, it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was and how unique and special that group was. I am hoping that, as this happens very often in the industry, you see it with Call of Duty and things like that, when the people leave the game changes and it shows how critical people are in this industry.”

Brevik was a designerat Blizzard North. The studio was closed by Activision in 2005, after which Diablo 3 was handed to a separate development team in Irvine.

Blizzard developer Chris Haga posted the interview in full on his personal Facebook page, before various unhappy colleagues slammed and mocked Brevik’s work on Hellgate: London. It’s very likely the developers involved were not aware that their comments were viewable by fans. Click the image below to see the full conversation, which again comes from Incgamers – though the site now seems to have gone offline.
Jay Wilson, lead dev on Diablo 3, chimes in: “Fuck that loser.”

Whoops.

Watch that David Brevik interview. It’s a little bait-y, and it’s clearly understood that the interviewee will have less than glowing opinions of how Diablo 3 turned out following a Blizzard mutiny-of-sorts, but there’s hardly anything surprising or outrageous about Brevik’s remarks. He’s diplomatic enough, which makes it all the stranger that Blizzard’s response has been so vitriolic and personal.

Clearly however, the Facebook comments were believed to be private. And in private, perhaps lying in bed at night, it’s perfectly okay to mutter “fuck that loser” at the ceiling while mulling over an interview like Brevik’s. I don’t think Wilson’s comment speaks to a disdain for the original game or its creators, but more a frustration that this interviewupset his development team and made his professional life a little bit more difficult.

There we go. Balance, eh?

Still, whoops.