At the end of June, 2001, in the days when the Expansion Pack was reaching store shelves and shortly thereafter, the following exchange took place at the Lurker Lounge forum between Max Schaefer (Vice President of Blizzard North) and Sirian (host of this website), in a thread about the PK issue started by Sal Paradise.

The exchange is presented here in its entirety, unedited, at full length. I will follow up at the end with my current thoughts on this subject.

Sirian, my apoligies. Blizzard DOES encourage PK-ing.

I pre-ordered the Diablo 2 expansion set Official Strategy Guide from Bradygames and got it the same day as the X-pack. I am reading along the developer strategies, and what do I find....

Here is a direct quote from the book. Roger Eberhart gives a little "strategy" on page 198 when he talks about assassins.

"This class will undoubtedly have an impact on Player-versus-Player, especially with her traps. The trick is to lure people into the area you have trapped. For example, you could trap the area directly outside of town, and then hide you assassin nearby. As someone walks over the trapped area, you can turn on hostility for a nasty surprise!"

I bet this is going to make hardcore games really cruddy now. Now you have to get your adrenaline pumping every time you walk out of town now. HOSTILE!!!! BLAM!!!!

How fun is that?

- sal paradise

I had more than conjecture. Anyone familiar with the debate that raged when D2 was still under development, knows that Blizzard threw coop players a few bones but refused to back off their priority support for the PK option. Everything about that game feature was very carefully considered, and the official stance of Blizzard is that it's part of the game, they WANT it to be part of the game, and attacking unwilling players is actively encouraged.

But that's all right. Most of the people who visit my site with regularity are thoughtful players. Every time they stop by, that big old "Protest Page" link stares them in the face. Thousands of people get a regular reminder that, in a few regards, Blizzard is pretty callous, and unapologetic about it. My site isn't going anywhere, and neither is the protest, and I'll quite merrily bring it up now and then, or talk about it when others bring it up, on a regular basis for the forseeable future.

Since they stand behind that decision, let them be proud of it, of all its effects. Make sure that when people suffer the ruination of their characters, gaming experiences, or what have you, against their will, that they keep in mind that it's intentionally orchestrated by Blizzard, specifically to prey on them. Noble? Fair Play? Good clean fun? Nope. It's slimy, top to bottom. That's part of the game, says Blizz. So there you have it.

Conjecture? Hardly. The facts of the issue are self-evident.

- Sirian

Unexpectedly, Max Schaefer then posted an Official Response.

Click this link to Read Max's First Response

| Sirian's Diablo II Page | Sirian's Expansion Page |