This article was written out of necessity back in 2005…  I was looking for a new gig and one studio asked for, as part of its application, a paper analyzing one of several possible games.  Diablo 2 was on the list.  Great timing!  I had gone from X-Men Legends, where I learned the ups and downs of action RPG’s to working on Lord of the Rings Online, where discussions of scope and the feasibility of various online choices was the topic of the day.  Both games set a lot of speculation stewing in my head about what could be done with the Diablo formula and why it was successful in the first place.

Analysis of Diablo 2