Torchlight MMO Will Play Like Single-Player Game, Won’t Abuse Microtransactions

Posted 06/29/2010 at 11:59pm | by Nathan Grayson

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Torchlight may have borne quite the resemblance to Blizzard’s ultra-popular Diablo franchise, but its sequel’s taking after a different member of Blizzard’s stable. Well, kinda. The term “MMO” carries a certain set of expectations and… aw, screw it. Some bits of the bigger MMO picture are really boring. Fortunately, the Torchlight MMO is aiming to be a massive game – you know, with fun and stuff – and not a massive headache.

“Our vision is to have an MMO that plays as close to single player as we can get it. It will have the same focus on relatively fast action: carving your way through hordes of monsters with a large number of hugely devastating skills. The game has to be solo-able, but players will have to have skills that make them useful in a party and make them work together,” Runic Games president Travis Baldree told PC Gamer.

Ok, but how about the game’s business model? We’re not entirely sure how we feel about nickel ‘n’ diming in our hack ‘n’ slash.

“I will never, ever buy a microtransaction item,” Baldree said of his game’s microtransaction system. “I’m that kind of player. And the game has to be enjoyable for me, too. We don’t want our monetization stuff to offer ways to skip the game because the game is boring.”

It’s a shame Baldree’s only the president of Runic. At this point, we’re kind of wishing he was president of every MMO company ever. And also maybe the United States, because – let's face it – Obama’s monster horde-slaying policy leaves a lot to be desired.