Having recently played Diablo 2 again and started playing Diablo 3 again as well, I finally realized why the story and the performance feel so much weaker in Diablo 3. One of the biggest complaints I've heard about Diablo 3 is how the story is so weak, especially compared to the previous games. It wasn't until my most recent play through that I think I figured out where Blizzard went so wrong, or, rather, what they tried to do differently, but failed. In Diablo and Diablo 2, all exposition and storyline is told to the player. It is very much a story-telling, a one-way conversation. This lends itself well to the mood of the games, I think, and leaves the personality of the player's character up for much interpretation and imagination. Additionally, since there were no real-time conversations in the game, there was no need for any character dynamic between the different characters of the game. Everything was simply prose, exposition, fed to the player bit by bit over time. Diablo 3 attempted to branch out. The story is told via conversations between the characters, including the player's character. In theory, this seems awesome and a natural progression to add more depth to the story and personality to the characters. Unfortunately, in reality, it fell through. I don't know if it can be blamed solely on the writing or solely on the voice acting. Both are pretty sub-par, to be honest. However, I really feel like this was Diablo 3's downfall. I applaud Blizzard for trying something new, and I hope in any future games, Diablo or otherwise, they are able to improve upon this technique. I like the idea of the characters all interacting and having conversations with each other and with the player. I think the somewhat novelty of that difference from previous Diablo games masked the terrible execution the first few times I played through the game. Anyway, this is just my two cents. The next time you play through Diablo 3, imagine if all the dialogue was one-way, and the next time you play through Diablo or Diablo 2, imagine if all the dialogue was a conversation. I think some, if not most, of you will agree with me.