IGN recently posted up a new interview with Diablo III's lead world designer Leonard Boyarsky. Take a look:
To check out the rest of this new interview, click here.
IGN: In terms of drawing people into the game, you've introduced voices for the player characters. What was the process behind that decision? On one hand, with a player character that doesn't talk, you embody that role, whereas there's a danger that the player is distanced from a character with a defined personality.
Leonard Boyarsky: We went back and forth a lot on that. First we wanted to do it, then we didn't want to do it, then we wanted to do it. The reason we decided we wanted to do it was because it really enables us to have your player drive the action more.
IGN: How much choice do you have as a player to shape your character's persona? Dialogue trees or anything like that?
Leonard Boyarsky: There won't be any dialogue trees per se, but we're working on ways of your player affecting things. That's all I'll really say about that right now. We do want your player to feel like he's driving the story, and we looked at it more like a character that you can watch develop and identify with, as if, a bit more like a book you're reading or a movie you're watching, you know, a character you can identify with and be fired up to be that character, be excited to be that character. And it remains to be seen whether people get behind that or not. It is a riskā¦
Leonard Boyarsky: We went back and forth a lot on that. First we wanted to do it, then we didn't want to do it, then we wanted to do it. The reason we decided we wanted to do it was because it really enables us to have your player drive the action more.
IGN: How much choice do you have as a player to shape your character's persona? Dialogue trees or anything like that?
Leonard Boyarsky: There won't be any dialogue trees per se, but we're working on ways of your player affecting things. That's all I'll really say about that right now. We do want your player to feel like he's driving the story, and we looked at it more like a character that you can watch develop and identify with, as if, a bit more like a book you're reading or a movie you're watching, you know, a character you can identify with and be fired up to be that character, be excited to be that character. And it remains to be seen whether people get behind that or not. It is a riskā¦
To check out the rest of this new interview, click here.

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