While at this year's BlizzCon, the UGO Games Blog caught up with Rob Pardo, the EVP of game design for the latest game in the popular Diablo series: Diablo III. He goes over the big announcement, the custom 3D environments, and a lot more!

UGO: I have to ask this...since I’m a girl...I like the whole gender choice thing this time. How did that choice come about? Was it a fan request?

RP: That was something we just felt like we wanted to do. Another goal of Diablo III...I kind of jokingly said that we want to actually add RPG elements to it, because a lot of people always joked in the past that Diablo‘s not really an RPG. So it was something that, Ok. Can we add RPG story elements to the game and still keep the action totally fast-paced. So that’s been another goal of ours. And character customization is a key part of a role-playing game experience. How we continue to do that without giving you gender choices?

UGO: Well, RPG’s have been changing form anyway. Everything is sort of blending.

RP: Well that, and stretching. That’s one of the things that’s great about the gaming industry in general. The same things become very different from one another.

UGO: So we know Decker Cain is returning from Diablo II. Any other NPC’s returning?

RP: Decker Cain is returning and Tyrael, are the major characters from the previous series that are coming back.

Tyranitar24 via gamesblog.ugo.com »