Modding in Diablo II was something that was widely used, but mostly abused. Today’s announcement is encouraging to me. I played some of the “after-market” versions of D2, with respecs and other tweaks in them, including increased level sizes, new levels as well as graphical enhancements. Many things they fixed in Diablo II will already be in-game remedies in Diablo III. Kotaku has said that this policy of no mods will “certainly hurt its longevity.” I disagree. I played Diablo and Diablo II for nigh on 10 years and not until the last couple years, delving back into the game now and then, did I try modded versions for some new content.

Modding was mostly used to hurt the economy and community in Diablo II. Bots were rampant and almost necessary to get your character leveled. Piggy backing a Baal-bot for XP was one of the best ways to get to high level. I played with people who used bots and fundamentally I saw nothing wrong with it after you’d played through the game once. It was still cheating though and still hurt the economy. I am glad Blizzard seems to want to crack down on that. Yes, you may get much less modding of the campaign, but that’s a small price to pay in my experience.

Dwelling on this no-mod policy is pointless. Some people will no-doubt passionately fall on the other side of the fence. In this writer’s opinion, Diablo III is going to blow us away with or without mods. Blizzard almost never misses and I don’t think this will be any different.

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