14 DAY TRIAL // "As a lone hero attempting to save the town of Tristram from the Lord of Terror, the player (in the role of a warrior, rogue, or sorcerer) must venture underneath the town in search of Diablo's lair. However, the journey proves to be a dark and dangerous one, as Diablo and his minions are bent on far more than the destruction of just one town..."
Does this bring back some pleasant memories? I guess this is what Blizzard intended to, as they reflect over the past ten years and the most successful games they've released over these years on their official website. First of all, they mention Diablo, reminding that this game has created a new subgenre of RPGs, and that it is still a benchmark for this genre till this day.
A lot of Diablo's success was due to its online multiplayer features. The game was launched at the same time with Battle.net, Blizzard's multiplayer online gaming service. You could say that Diablo helped Battle.net grow and Battle.net helped Diablo become popular. This was due to some smart marketing on behalf of Blizzard, as they shipped every copy of Diablo with a version of Battle.net and made the service free to use. Gamers were allowed to create and join multiplayer games from a central hub, and many would say that this was the beginning of MMORPGs.
Blizzard did not have a moment's peace since then and released one hit game after another. Only think of Warcraft III, Diablo II, Starcraft and of course World of Warcraft, all of these games are mainly based on their multiplayer features, so I guess it's safe to say that Blizzard was a pioneer of online games. Who knows what the future might bring?maybe a new taste of Diablo?