In a post by director Jay Wilson to the Diablo III website, Blizzard announced that they're shelving Team Deathmatch mode and exploring other options to replace it and provide PVP with depth. There are a few issues that make Blizzard feel that Team Deathmatch mode isn't good enough.
One of those reasons is depth. There's no objectives, lucrative rewards or something that will make gamers play it beyond a couple of hours. There's also the issue of class balance. They didn't think that putting a focus on class balance for PVP would be good for the game as a whole — and balance would need to be focused. Since Diablo III is a PvE-first game, they don't want to compromise player abilities in the name of future PvP balance, and they'd like to carry over the crazy items and skills without altering them. They compared it to World of Warcraft by saying, "In a casual PvP mode, something equivalent to a WoW Battleground, this would be fine, but Team Deathmatch felt very hardcore, and it put a laser focus on class balance in a way that we didn't think would be good for the game as a whole."
The gist of it is that they don't think Team Deathmatch is the experience it needs to be in order to ship, so they're going to shelve it and explore other options. Jay Wilson wrote:
Our core problem is that our Team Deathmatch mode doesn't feel like a great addition to Diablo III. It's not up to the quality that Blizzard gamers expect or that we feel you deserve, and it doesn't really fit with our goals for the rest of the game.
One of the ways they're going to fulfill their goal of supporting dueling is to add dueling to the game. Dueling is scheduled to be added with patch 1.0.7, which releases some time after the new year. That's not all, though. Team Deathmatch's development provided a valuable experience and foundation that they can build on. So instead of Team Deathmatch — which might be added in some form in the future — they're going to look at new modes that play off of the strengths of the classes, as well as focusing on objectives beyond just killing players.
There's no further information on any other PvP modes, but I feel like this is just another thing promised with Diablo III that Blizzard couldn't deliver on. What do you think of Blizzard's choice to scrap Team Deathmatch, and what would you like to see it replaced with?
You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at [email protected]
[Source: Diablo III Official Site]
