Diablo News

[B]Missing Time of an RPG Kind[/B] Circa, early 1990’s. It was about 4:00am on a cold Sunday morning when the door opened and startled me back into the real world. “Is everything OK in here?” came a voice. With the only light in the room coming from the monitor it took a couple of seconds … Read more

[B]Missing Time of an RPG Kind[/B] Circa, early 1990’s. It was about 4:00am on a cold Sunday morning when the door opened and startled me back into the real world. “Is everything OK in here?” came a voice. With the only light in the room coming from the monitor it took a couple of seconds … Read more

[B]A Vision of the Future[/B] Diablo was a revolution. Not only did it sell more copies than anyone thought it could, being as it was a game from a dying genre (my, how things have changed), but it took the internet utterly by storm. The online fan community that has grown up around Diablo (and … Read more

[B]A Vision of the Future[/B] Diablo was a revolution. Not only did it sell more copies than anyone thought it could, being as it was a game from a dying genre (my, how things have changed), but it took the internet utterly by storm. The online fan community that has grown up around Diablo (and … Read more

[B]A Patch or a Crutch?[/B] You’re at the movies, watching a film on the first day of its release. The projector isn’t really working well, and a lot of the special effects are simply missing. Instead you watch the actors perform against the blue screen. Due to delays, the effects won’t be there for about … Read more

[B]A Patch or a Crutch?[/B] You’re at the movies, watching a film on the first day of its release. The projector isn’t really working well, and a lot of the special effects are simply missing. Instead you watch the actors perform against the blue screen. Due to delays, the effects won’t be there for about … Read more

Garwulf interviewed about [I]Demonsbane[/I] [B]Interview with Robert Marks[/B] [I]Demonsbane[/I] Author Robert Marks is the author of [I]Demonsbane[/I], a novella set in the world of Sanctuary, around 800 years before the events in Diablo I.  The book is an official Blizzard product, written in cooperation with Blizzard and as part of the official canon of the … Read more

[B]Demonsbane Review[/B], by Flux [I]Demonsbane[/I] is an action-packed novella set in the Diablo world, with the events taking place around 800 years before the time of Diablo I, during the Sin War. In that era the forces of Hell were running amok in the mortal realm, encountering sporadic resistance from mostly bewildered humans who sometimes … Read more

[B]Interview with a Player Killer[/B] [I]Proviso: OK, no humor this time. This is serious business for serious people to discuss in a serious manner. I?m serious. No really, I?m not kidding this time. [/I] Format and explanation: Following submission of the first draft of this behemoth, Flux pointed that the format was pretty confusing, particularly … Read more

[B]Interview with a Player Killer[/B] [I]Proviso: OK, no humor this time. This is serious business for serious people to discuss in a serious manner. I?m serious. No really, I?m not kidding this time. [/I] Format and explanation: Following submission of the first draft of this behemoth, Flux pointed that the format was pretty confusing, particularly … Read more

[B]It’s Blizzard Bashin’ Time! [/B] [I]Proviso: I originally wrote this article without the intro paragraphs. But my column was not generating enough hate-filled invective in the forums, so I have added some controversy. It?s a Rush Limbaugh technique; lets see how it works for me.[/I] A phenomenally-popular pastime of D2.net forum members is to debate … Read more

[B]It’s Blizzard Bashin’ Time! [/B] [I]Proviso: I originally wrote this article without the intro paragraphs. But my column was not generating enough hate-filled invective in the forums, so I have added some controversy. It?s a Rush Limbaugh technique; lets see how it works for me.[/I] A phenomenally-popular pastime of D2.net forum members is to debate … Read more

[B]Diablos in the Mist[/B] [I]Editors note: The following excerpts are from Jane Goodall’s “Diablos in the Mist: A sub-cultural analysis of the psuedo-genus Homo Diablus” published in “Scientifica Arcanus” earlier this month.[/I] The psuedo-genus Homo Diablos (HD) has long been theorized as a probable evolutionary offshoot from our own genotype, but until recently we understood … Read more

[B]Diablos in the Mist[/B] [I]Editors note: The following excerpts are from Jane Goodall’s “Diablos in the Mist: A sub-cultural analysis of the psuedo-genus Homo Diablus” published in “Scientifica Arcanus” earlier this month.[/I] The psuedo-genus Homo Diablos (HD) has long been theorized as a probable evolutionary offshoot from our own genotype, but until recently we understood … Read more

I always shudder when some game company or magazine claims that the latest RPG is the “future of the genre.” Besides being remarkably pretentious, the number of times it actually proves true can be counted on a single hand. The most recent offender here is Dungeon Siege, Microsoft’s answer to Diablo II. I probably sound … Read more

The Guns of August, a book about the beginning of World War I, has just made it onto my summer reading list. As I begin writing, it is only a couple of days after the announcement that Vivendi/Blizzard had apparently committed the absolutely baffling action of suing their own customers by filing suit against the … Read more

As I begin writing, it is April 9th, and I am sitting on pins and needles, waiting for a package to arrive. It’s something I commissioned back in January, and I just can’t wait for it. It’s my new sword, a functional war sword that I’ve since then named “Nightfire.” (For those who just had … Read more

Before I get started, I want to take just one last look at Bnetd, which was discussed in Garwulf’s #36. I’ve received a flood of email, most of which disagreed with me, and I loved every letter. Some people got the point and disagreed, many stating that reverse-engineering was legal (I can’t speak to the … Read more

Sometimes, it is very easy to lose the forest for the trees. A great example is the current situation between Vivendi and Bnetd. The first time I took a close look at it, I didn’t understand what was going on either. For those just tuning in, let me give you a brief primer. Back when … Read more

Ahhh…another feedback column. It’s a bit odd, looking back at the list of installments…there are so many of them now. I have to say, when I started this column, I never expected it to hit the nerve it did. I was looking at a recent edition of Computer Gaming World just yesterday. Most of the … Read more

Is Diablo Dead? Time for a thought exercise: ask yourself for a moment why you are looking at this site. If it’s just to catch the latest issue of Garwulf’s Corner, you’re not the only one. I can’t count the number of times I’ve gotten letters that start like this: “I don’t play Diablo II … Read more

I’m pretty sure George Lucas is sweating right now. No doubt everybody reading this has seen The Lord of the Rings; personally, as I write, it is the end of January, and I have seen it four times. Finally, a modern mainstream fantasy movie that has depth and actually does justice to its source material. … Read more

Before I begin today, I have a bit of important administrivia: I will be at the Ad Astra convention in Toronto from February 8-10, the Guthbreoht sword at my side. With luck, I’ll be doing a reading from Demonsbane and the latest installment of Garwulf’s Corner. More information (along with registration forms) can be found … Read more

No doubt by now everybody is wondering why I’m not doing the old New Year’s thing of looking back at what happened over the past year in the column. Well, I’ve already done that with my one-year anniversary installment, and I’d like to do something far more interesting. So, I hope everybody had a happy … Read more

For a very long time, I have been fascinated by how language is actually used. It probably started back when I was in high school, and I noticed that some words just look and sound plain weird. It wasn’t too long before I started wondering where they came from. What can I say? I’m funny … Read more