At and around the time of 9/11, I was a Counter-Strike addict. It sometimes struck me as odd while I’d played the game, but it never felt wrong. Should it have? It was a game, it was a whole mess of fun, and it didn’t matter much to me how topical the game inadvertently was. I was a teenager. I wasn’t smart enough to see that yet.

During 9/11, Naomi Alderman wasn’t playing terrorists vs. counter-terrorists on de_dust. She was playing Paladins and Sorcerers vs. Mephisto and Duriel in the Durance of Hate. She was playing Diablo II, for 30 hours a week. It was her way of dealing with the tragedy surrounding her in the streets of Manhattan. And, looking back, she sees absolutely nothing wrong with that.

As gamers I’m sure we all know the therapeutic power of playing games. A good Gears of War session can leave us satisfied, fulfilled, maybe a little less grouchy than we were before we started. Games as stress relief, sure. But games as a method of grieving, or of dealing with absolutely earth-shattering tragedy? That’s another level. Alderman writes:

I remember surfacing from four-hour Diablo II sessions feeling as if I’d been on holiday, so grateful that I’d been able to blot out the images of genuine horror filling my city. The game was so mind-filling it left no room for the anxious brooding that I was experiencing the rest of the time. This was a tremendous blessing.

As life began to brighten up, Alderman says, her desire to play gradually waned off – proof that the game served her as therapy more than anything else.

I sympathize with Alderman – people read (and write) books, watch (and make) movies in response to things like 9/11. Playing a game is really no different, and it’s only a result of our culture’s disdain for the medium that we should feel compelled to think otherwise. But that’s my opinion. Is playing games an appropriate response to tragic events, both on a personal and a national level? What do you guys think?

Source: The Guardian via RPS

Blizzard wasted no time in updating their official site with a brand new trailer showcasing the newly announced Diablo III Wizard class. We will be hitting you with some talent tree info on this class shortly, so stay tuned for more of our BlizzCon 08 coverage. In the mean time, hit the jump for the new Wizard trailer.

Source: Blizzard.com

BlizzCon 08’s opening ceremony revealed the third of five Diablo 3 classes — the Wizard. Get a first glimpse of the sultry female as she hurls lighting, fire, and icy gobs of destruction at her would be enemies.

Ripten is so prepared!

Our swag is in hand, and we just got done watching the opening ceremonies here at the Anaheim Convention Center. The game plan was to live blog it all, but it was essentially over before we knew it.

The BlizzCon 08 opening ceremony was short, and to the point. A Diablo 3 Wizard class was revealed, and a brief demonstration was given. Lightning bolts took over the stage, and the crowd erupted with an overwhelmingly positive response.

“A wielder of the elements and a master manipulator of time, the wizard can hurl environment-shattering lightning bolts, channel explosive arcane energies, and create pockets of space outside the normal temporal flow.”

Blizzard founder, Michael Morhaime, closed out the ceremony by instructing everyone to “have fun”, and we plan to do just that. Step into our consecration and hang out for a while. We’ll be bringing you news as it happens throughout the day.

So much for a slow transition via the ice hole. Blizzard.com now features a fancy-shmancy flash animation announcing Diablo 3 — ice nowhere to be found. Who knows, maybe they had a good reason for all that frosty goodness.

Perhaps you will be able to ice your enemies with Sub-Zero like swiftness, or perhaps it was nothing more than a marketing attempt which, in the end, appears to have no logical connection to the fire filled reveal that was Diablo 3.

However, while we here at Ripten are a little miffed over the lack of connection between the two, we realize that things could have been worse. The reveal could have given birth to the monstrosity below. Enjoy a glimpse at what could have been after the jump.

Splash intro page aside, the official Diablo 3 webpage looks pretty cool in its own right and will surely have WoW players writing Blizzard asking for gigantic shoulder pads with white glowing tentacles shooting upward from them.

Kool-Aid Image Source: thiendo.blogspot.com (via: Penny Arcade Forum)

As my fellow writers and I discussed back and forth the possibilities for Blizzard’s upcoming announcement, we decided to hit up the Blizzard site again, and noticed that the image had been updated since our last post.

A few sites are reporting on a confirmation of sorts, from an unnamed source, stating that the mystery game is in fact Diablo 3. However, we have spent a few hours discussing and browsing reference images, all the while making comparisons to the slow reveal image on Blizzard’s site. While Blizzard very well may be announcing Diablo 3, we do not believe that the image on their site is necessarily directly related to that release.

From the image I tried to enhance in Photoshop a bit, you can see some additional detail above and below the eyes. In addition, if the effect Blizzard is going for from a creative standpoint, is a creature slowly moving out of the dark and into the light, then facial features that protrude further than ones brow would already be visible in this stage of the reveal. Therefore, we find it hard to believe that this figure has a nose.

Those looking for more wood to throw in the Diablo 3 fire however, will be happy to know that according to World of War, a book featuring the Diablo figure head (shown below) was included in their Worldwide Invitational grab bag.

While the case for Diablo 3 may seem as open and shut as the book above, conspiracy theorists can easily point to Kotaku’s grab bag reveal just moments ago on their site. The contents of the bag lay spilled in the image you see below, and while they mention a notebook (possibly the one shown above) they do not feature it in the spread. It is also important to note that the grab bag itself features many Blizzard branded items spanning titles such as World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and the Diablo.

As for now, it appears that those in hopes of receiving an official announcement will just have to wait for the Worldwide Invitational opening ceremony — less than 30 minutes away  — we think you can make it.