A veritable Zarhym of WoW references in Diablo 3

While many of us on this site are avid players of both WoW and Diablo III, we should strive to remember that they're not the same game. They're just made by the same company. Without resorting to cries of "You got your WoW in my Diablo," though, it's pretty easy to spot some similarities -- as well as some pretty darn obvious direct references.

The Murlocket is probably my favorite reference, because rggglrlllrrlrlrlrl. Of course, other community personalities show up in Diablo III. Expect your world-saving adventurer to encounter Zarhym, and you'll take some spoiling vengeance out on those pesky Dataminers. We also find out what happened to the Lich King's helm after all that fuss in Northrend. It's sitting in a cave in Act III. No wonder it was such a mystery.

Check out our buddies at Wowhead for more WoW references in Diablo III. We're certain plenty of additional WoW references lurk in the dark corners of Diablo III, and we'd love to see them all.

MMO Roundup: Diablo 3 tips, Hamill returns as the Joker, and more

Sometimes, you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around -- past, present and future.

	Five top tips for your first few days of Diablo III Most of us are hip-deep in Diablo III already, but if you're one of the holdouts waiting for a rainy day to get started with the game, you might want to store these tips somewhere precious.
	ArenaNet: Guild Wars 2 a 'reaction' to sluggish MMO design Do you believe that the MMO genre has been stuck in a rut over the past few years? So does Christopher Lye, the global brand director for ArenaNet, who publicly denounced the post-World of Warcraft trend in the industry as stagnant.
	DCUO's Last Laugh features Hamill as the Joker Sony Online Entertainment is bringing out the big guns for its next DC Universe Online content patch. The Joker is set to return for The Last Laugh, and fortunately for everyone, his voiceover duties will be handled by none other than Mark Hamill.
	EVE talks smack about Diablo III's login woes EVE Online is letting the trash-talk fly at the newly launched Diablo III by displaying the message "37...3007...315300." It's code for "Play EVE. Servers are up, login is fine" on the game's login screen. This, of course, is making reference to the myriad error codes that Diablo III players experienced over the course of the game's launch.
	Massively's week in review Don't let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively's best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer in their own weekly roundup.

WRUP: Diablo 3 Diablo 3 Diablo 3 Diablo 3 Diablo 3

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Diablo III, man. Diablo III.

Diablo III Diablo III Diablo III Diablo III, Diablo III. Diablo 3? No, no, no: Diablo III.

So, Diablo III -- What aRe yoU Playing? This week's Diablo III: What's your preferred Diablo IIIclass?

Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) I'll be in the MoP beta, leveling with ease, since most people are D3ing it up right now. In Diablo III, I've got a wizard that just finished Act IV. Amazing stuff.

Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) Diablo III and some Diablo III. And maybe the beta. But mostly Diablo III. I'm playing a demon hunter at the moment because shooting the crap out of things is incredibly entertaining.

Basil Berntsen (@outdps) There's only time for one game in my life, and I'm not switching. I'm playing WoW.

Chase Hasbrouck (@alarondruid) (@alaronmonk) Barbarian solo, demon hunter duo with a friend. Maybe I'll think about that WarcraftWorld game; I hear it's pretty good.

Christian Belt I thought I might finally dig in to a little indie game I've had sitting around on my hard drive for some time now. Diablo, I think it's called? I believe this is the third game in the series, though this is the first I've heard of it. I got it free with my World of Warcraftsubscription, downloaded it but never played it. I hear there are loots, and demons, and such? I'll see if there isn't some kind of wizard class and try this game out. I love supporting the little guys!

Dan Desmond (@antigen_) Diablo III Friday. Diablo III Saturday. Diablo III Sunday. I'm playing a monk solo on my first playthrough, then probably joining up with some friends on a jaunt into Nightmare.

Daniel Whitcomb (@danielwhitcomb) Yeah. Diablo III. I'm playing a witch doctor because the combination of pets, sweet targeted AoEs, and crowd control is right up my alley. Plus the witch doctor is just a righteous dude, man.

Dawn Moore (@dawnwow) I was playing a monk, but I don't think it's quite for me. I think I'll try a demon hunter or a wizard next. Believe it or not, though, I've been playing more MoPbeta the past few days since most of my friends couldn't put in many hours on Diablo 'til this weekend.

Elizabeth Wachowski (@leeatwaterlives) I'm giving Diablo III a shot, because I love dungeon crawlers even if I never made it far in Diablo II. I started with a witch doctor but I wasn't really feeling it, so now I'm trying out a monk and wizard.

Fox Van Allen (@foxvanallen) My last weekend in Boston, so I'm checking things off my Boston bucket list: Newbury Street, Christopher's, Tealuxe, b.good, Harvard Square, and the South End. When I'm not living it up like a terminally ill patient, I'll be playing Diablo III, of course. I chose the witch doctor after asking my friend @windkeeper4 what class I should play. No regrets, but I'm totally over the sound of him shooting darts. Enough already.

Kelly Aarons (@Cadistra) It's the May long weekend over here in Canada-land, so I'm hoping to get some outdoorsy time in. My tendonitis is just too painful right now to play anything for long periods of time, so I'm going for little 30-minute chunks of Diablo III. I will be playing a monk. :>.

Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) Diablo III, Diablo III, and I'll be catching up on all my work that I missed for the last three days. Oy. I am playing a barbarian.

Matt "Matticus" Low (@matticus) Diablo III! Wizard, just because I like having different ways to blow things up!

Matt Rossi (@MatthewWRossi) MATT SMASH!

Matt Walsh (@Rhidach) I'll also be playing Diablo III. This is my first game in the series, and I'm really liking it. Currently playing a wizard, and channeling Emperor Palpatine while throwing out chaining Electrocutes and yelling "unlimited power!"

Megan O'Neill (@slowpoker) Demonology beta! Also rebuilding my live WoW UI after a corrupted file borked it. Playing on beta prepared me for default UI raiding, I swear. I have beta and alts to keep me occupied for a while, so I've still yet to fully download D3.

Michael Gray (@writegray) I really want to be contrary guy and buck the trend but ...Diablo III. I'm wizarding it up with my wife, the monk.

Olivia Grace (@oliviadgrace) I haven't even downloaded Diablo III. I really do play WoWthe vast majority of the time and barely have the time or inclination for other games. I might have a look at it after it's calmed down a bit, but for now it's PvPing on the priest and the mage, and a bit of really awful huntering on the Arena Pass!

Robin Torres (@cosmicgeek) Diablo III. Monk solo. Demon hunter with The Spousal Unit's Barbarian.

Diablo III Soundtrack Now on iTunes

Want the sounds of Sanctuary to accompany you wherever you go? The Diablo III Soundtrack is now available for purchase directly from iTunes! The new album features 23 tracks that score your journey through Sanctuary and beyond, from the familiar guitar that greets you in New Tristram to the epic orchestral arrangements that see you through your trials in the Burning Hells.

Also up on iTunes today: The Music of Diablo 1996-2011, a 17-track collection of some of the series' most memorable musical moments, put together to celebrate Diablo's 15-year anniversary in late 2011. Grab both of these albums, and bask in the hellish harmony.

Diablo III Soundtrack on iTunes
The Music of Diablo 1996-2011 on iTunes

Portrait of a Champion Winners

Throughout the months of March and April, you sent us entries for our Portrait of a Champion art contest. With prizes from Steelseries, NVIDIA, and Antec on the line, you submitted hundreds of breathtaking original works. It was a very difficult task, but at last, we have chosen the winners.

Winners

by Yam

by DylanP

by Tamplier

Runners Up

Thank you all for your participation, and congratulations to the winning artists!

The Heroes of Sanctuary

With all five classes now unlocked on the "Darkness Falls. Heroes Rise." launch site, we’d like to draw your attention to the short stories we’ve written for each class. While the heroes you play in Diablo III will have their own destinies, as guided by your hand, these rich and intense short stories will help you to understand what it means to be a barbarian, demon hunter, monk, witch doctor, and wizard.

Barbarian
Wayfarer – by Cameron Dayton

It was a man. A giant of a man who towered over even these hulking things. A man who stood dripping in hot blood that steamed in the cold morning air. He wore a bearskin cloak across mountainous shoulders, and his legs were girded with piecemeal armor of mismatched plate and mail. Heavy oxhide boots. Chest bare and scarred. Thick hands, knotted and rough, were wound around the haft of a terrible weapon that matched his size. It was easily three times the length of Aron's axe, forged of angry black metal and notched along both sides of its uneven blade. It was a coarse and brutal tool of death, held aloft as though it were part of the man's own arm.

This could only be a barbarian.

Demon Hunter
Hatred and Discipline – by Micky Neilson

There was a barely discernible, persistent hum. The only signs of life came from Josen and two other hunters, one searching the derelict structures, another standing near a rundown storehouse. Whatever had happened here, they were too late to do anything about it. Now it was a matter of looking for survivors. That was, after all, the second most important thing her people did: feed and shelter those left homeless in the aftermath of unthinkable catastrophe. Guide them, encourage them, heal them, educate and train them... to do the most important thing, should they so choose: become a demon hunter and annihilate the hellspawn responsible for evils like this.

Monk
Unyielding – by Matt Burns

"The Patriarchs ask a hard task of you, one reserved only for the most devout of our order," the Unyielding had continued. He stared at Zhota for a moment, furrowing his brow. "You have attained the rank of monk, but there are times when I wonder if you are truly ready. There are times when I think you are still that fool boy who first came to the monastery. More beast than man, really... a wild thing with eyes clouded by emotion and intuition and all those other fleeting feelings that change on a whim just as swiftly as the winds. Are you that boy, or are you a monk?"

Witch Doctor
Doubtwalker - by Matt Burns

Each season, after the Igani, the emptied husks of tributes were carefully sewn together in the shapes of dogs, their bodies filled with herbal composts and dried leaves. A boiled skull of a beast was used as the head, attached just above a mane of feathers. With the blessing of the spirits, these zombified beings served as loyal minions at a witch doctor's beck and call.

Wizard
Firefly - by Michael Chu

That was our first meeting, and I still remember it vividly. Isendra embraced her role in teaching Li-Ming. She became a mentor to the girl, and Li-Ming gained a deep respect for the sorceress. They were more alike than Isendra or I had suspected. But Li-Ming quickly exhausted the extent of Isendra's knowledge. Their relationship changed, and Li-Ming began to treat the sorceress as an equal rather than a teacher. Isendra was changing too, and that worried me as well. She was far too permissive with Li-Ming's behavior. With nothing to learn, Li-Ming followed the vein of curiosity that had always driven her, and that was when the trouble started.

Blizzard weighs in on Diablo 3 launch issues

Bashiok took some time off from being a Diablo III miniboss to hit the forums and provide some insight into recent issues with the servers. (And by "recent issues," I mean "more popular than free drugs in a crackhouse.") The sheer number of players trying to stay logged in has kept Blizzard working overtime to try to keep the servers stable. These problems have largely been ironed out, but we'll see continued maintenance in each region to make sure that stays the case. The North American servers had one such maintenance period for an hour this morning at 5:00 am PST/8:00 am EST, so it probably won't be too long when it does happen.

Two additional points of interest (you'll find the full post past the cut):

• The launch of the Real-Money Auction House on May 22 has been postponed.
• They're looking for potential fixes for early achievements that either weren't being recorded or were being lost between logins.

And Blizzard -- this is just throwing suggestions out here or whatever -- did you ever try making a game that sucked?

 Bashiok

Diablo Players:

We'd like to extend a very sincere thank you to everyone who joined the global Diablo III launch celebrations this week, as well as to everyone who was ready to jump into Sanctuary the moment the game went live.

To that end, we'd also like to say that we've been humbled by your enthusiasm -- and we sincerely regret that your crusade to bring down the Lord of Terror was thwarted not by mobs of demons, but by mortal infrastructure. As many of you are aware, technical issues occurring within hours after the game's launch led to players experiencing error messages and difficulty logging in. These issues cropped up again last night for the Americas and Europe servers. Despite very aggressive projections, our preparations for the launch of the game did not go far enough.

We've been monitoring the game 24/7 and have applied several optimizations to help our systems better weather the global rush. As of late last night, specifically 11:50 PM PDT on May 15, all systems have been online and running relatively smoothly. We're continuing to monitor performance globally and will be taking further measures as needed to ensure a positive experience for everyone. This includes some maintenance to implement additional improvements for each region.

In order to make sure everything is continuing to run as it should, we've decided to move out our target launch for the real-money auction house beyond our original estimated date of May 22. We'll post further updates on that in the near future.

Aside from the tremendous number of players simultaneously logging in to the game, one of the launch-day service issues was linked to the achievement system. Some players began to notice early on that achievements were either not being earned properly, or not being saved between multiple logins. We're investigating this issue and will provide a specific update as soon as possible.

We greatly appreciate everyone's support, and we want to sincerely apologize for the difficulties many of you encountered on day one. Please visit the Battle.net Support site or Support forums for the latest service-related updates or for help in troubleshooting any technical issues you may be having downloading, installing, or while playing the game.

Thank you again for your patience while we reinforce the gates of Sanctuary and further strengthen it for your onslaught.

Respectfully,
Blizzard Entertainment

Real-Money Auction House Reminder and Update

As we mentioned earlier this week, we’ve decided to move out our target launch for the real-money auction house beyond our original estimated date of May 22. Our new estimated date for the launch of this new system is Tuesday, May 29.

To learn more about the auction house system, have a look at the comprehensive Auction House Guideor check out the updated Auction House FAQ.

Diablo 3 world first scored by World of Warcraft raiding guild

Method, one of World of Warcraft's top raiding guilds, has decided to take their thirst for world firsts into the world of Diablo. A three-man team from Method scored the world-first Skeleton King kill on Inferno. For those wholly unfamiliar with Diablo, that means they killed the first boss of the game on the most challenging difficulty level available.

A WoW raiding team moving into competitive Diablo is something we found surprising. Dedicated gaming is in the blood of these players, so maybe it really shouldn't be surprising.

What we're really curious to see is how many hardcore WoW raiding teams will jump on theBlizzard All-Stars bandwagon when that game launches, too. Will Blizzard All-Stars support that sort of competition when it launches? Will we see a real e-sports scene grow from it, likeLeague of Legends currently supports? And if so, will the World of Warcraft community latch onto that, or will it be an entirely new audience?

Things to do while everyone in your guild is out playing Diablo 3

Is it just me, or are the realms kinda dead today? Well, that's probably because everyone in the known universe (with the possible exception of on-call firefighters and paramedics or surgeons who are not currently engaged in removing brain tumors) is off playing Diablo III. That's fine. I don't judge.

But sometimes you need something to do whenever other people aren't around to provide mental stimulation. Here are a few quick suggestions that will make your in-game life slightly more interesting until everyone gets back (and a lot more interesting afterwards):

1. Submit a GM ticket asking if WoW's orientation around gear upgrades constitutes a dismissive critique of the nudist lifestyle. (Editor's Note: Don't do this.)
2. If you have guild bank privileges, feng shui the contents.
3. If you don't have bank privileges, spam the officers with letters accusing them of betraying the proletariat.
4. Macro /y BOING to your space bar.
5. Edit guild ranks to more accurately describe members. "Officer" is a less descriptive term than "Untrustworthy Gurthalak-Stealing Suck-Up."
6. Run through Stormwind/Orgrimmar shouting that the Rapture has occurred.