I have things to do today, so I’m afraid this will have to be a quick post…
Blizzard has gone ahead and revealed Reaper of Souls as the expansion for Diablo III. The story features the lost angel of wisdom, Malthael, returning as the archangel of death. Reports are that he wishes to end the Eternal Conflict by annihilating demonkind, but I imagine humanity is going to end up getting caught in the crossfire somehow.
Cue awesome cinematic trailer:
It looks like a pretty interesting premise to me. I’d still like to see Imperius as a major villain, but Malthael could be interesting, as well. I’m just glad it’s not, “lol, Diablo resurrected himself for the forty-second time.”
There will be a new class: The crusader. It’s basically a paladin, so I don’t know why they bothered to give it another name. It’s backstory even has them as a member of the Zakarum, just like the paladins in Diablo II.
I’m not sure if I’ll play this class or not. I did really like playing a paladin in D2, and I was a bit sad they didn’t make it into D3, but I still like my wizard so much I’m not sure I want to bother playing anything else. Plus, if there’s one thing playing a monk taught me, it’s that this is not a good game to play melee in.
There will also be a number of new features. The Paragon system is being redesigned, and will now feature stat allocation. Loot is being redesigned to be less plentiful but more useful (yay). The Mystic artisan is finally being implemented as a way to further customize gear. There are two new endgame options: randomized loot runs and something called Nephalem Trials.
All in all, looks like it’s gonna be fun.
I’d ask what you think, but I know everyone hates D3, and I doubt the expansion announcement will change that.
Superior Realities 
I liked Diablo III as far as the graphics, story and game play went. What drove me away was the lack of options to control the “social” aspect (yeah, I need 50 “friend” requests from goldsellers every time I log in and no way to shut off friend requests forever) and the miserable drop rates/RNG designed to steer you towards the AH/RMAH.
I think the lack of control over the “social” options irks me more than the RMAH since I can in theory ignore the auction houses but I can’t escape the “social” thing.
If a single player game is really single player, I don’t need or want to deal with it. Just let me play and progress as you know, a single player.
I’ll probably take a look at the expansion but I won’t be buying it unless it’s on sale or another AP freebie.