Julain Love:
"Every independent thing that we show in the game has to be put into a special package that we call a “draw call,” which is then delivered to the 3D card to be rendered on screen. It’s not too different from preparing xmas gifts in that everything you want your relatives to receive must be packaged up in some way and then driven across the country in order to arrive there on time. Your CPU does this packaging and delivery and it takes a lot of bandwidth, so it ends up being one of the most crucial expenses to manage. Now, the truly horrible thing is that from a draw call cost perspective, each individual splattering of blood on the floor is every bit as expensive as a character or a dead body: they both cost one draw call. Beyond that, the differences tend to be somewhat trivial.

So, that’s a lot of words just to say that blood splats can be every bit as expensive as, and in some ways, more expensive than dead bodies. It’s counter intuitive, but this is the way it actually works."

Bashiok:
"I don't think it's a surprise that chests aren't the highest of priorities at the moment, so final design on them is lacking, but personally I think requiring a key for them really only plays into a classical sense of what chests are in an roleplaying game. And... I think we're just sort of past that in terms of game focus and design. We can logically and realistically map out
how chests and their loot effects a game and its players, and design accordingly. There's no reason to require a key for what is essentially nostalgia.

You're already fighting against the odds. First did a chest even spawn at all? If it did what quality of a chest is it? If it's a high quality chest then let the game roll and see if anything even worth picking up pops out. Y'know? It's a lot of "ifs" and hopes to then also throw an item requirement on top of just to see what the dice show.

I won't disagree with the... ceremony (uh oh dangerous words) of having a key that then opens a lock. That's very tangible and real and fulfills a certain desire for work and reward. I carry a key, it opens a lock, good things are behind the lock. But we obviously want to impact inventory as little as possible, and carrying keys just feels like a punishment. Coming across a chest and not having a key, that doesn't feel fun, that's really aggravating. Another punishment. Having keys take up no space and be almost infinite in quantity to resolve both those problems and the reason to have keys disappears completely.

So is there any reason to have keys except to fulfill some sense of nostalgia that we know there are locked chests in games, and we need keys to open them.

I don't ask that rhetorically, sometimes keeping things identifiable and seeming "right", reminding us of the feeling of past games makes the experience better. So please discuss.

edit: What an odd flip/flopping ramble. Feel free to ignore any of that."

Bashiok:
"Regarding someone's question on getting into a battle on a cold start (no fury), there is Enrage, an ability that grants a bubble of fury and increase fury generation. Kind of similar to Bloodrage for Warriors in WoW if that helps you. So you can pop enrage (lolinsidejokelol?) and then be able to get in and start using at least one ability instantly.

Regarding fury cost and someone implying that everything is going to cost tons of fury, right now there's only one ability that costs more than a single bubble. Even still, if you're surrounded, you cleave, that costs a bubble but the damage you're taking while you cleave and the damage you caused with the cleave is usually enough to cleave again immediately."

Bashiok:
"There’s a ton of dynamic lighting going on…"

Bashiok:
"Potenziell ein guter Einwand, aber wenn es durch eine bestimmte Legislative behandelt wurde, bin ich mir nicht sicher, ob es noch wirklich eine Rolle spielt."