Photo Credit: Getty

Darlene Price, author of Well Said! Presentations and Conversations That Get Results, concurs. “Words matter,” she says. “They are a key component of persuasive communication. Regardless of the audience, topic, or industry, or whether the setting is a stand-up presentation, sit-down conversation, telephone discussion, or an online meeting, a leader uses language to influence someone’s mind in order to achieve a certain result. That’s one reason they’re seen as leaders; their words compel people to follow.”

Therefore, if you want to be perceived as a leader in the workplace, a great place to start is by deliberately choosing to speak words and phrases that are empowering to yourself and others; to use language that captivates, motivates, and inspires; and to communicate a vocal image that conveys clarity, confidence, and credibility, she adds.

13 Things You Should Never Say At Work

Jacquelyn Smith

Forbes Staff
Business

Brazil is the ‘futebol nation’ and talk of a sixth star is never far away. It’s the legacy of the Seleção’s golden epoch in the 50s and 60s when it won the World Cup three times, often in glorious fashion, dancing its way past opponents with the dribbles of Garrincha and the speed of Jairzinho. Brazil became synonymous with the beautiful game and Pelé the greatest, but in the past two decades, Brazil’s position as the leading soccer nation has become fragile.

Last December, Croatia eliminated the South Americans in the last eight of the World Cup, the fifth consecutive time that Brazil fell to European opposition on the biggest stage. Normally, it’s the cue for a crisis, a new Brazilian coach, and reinforcements in the midfield, but not this time. Brazil is in limbo, with Ramon Menezes managing the team on an interim basis.

The team was even the underdog in Saturday’s friendly with World Cup semi-finalists Morocco. With a lot of new faces in the squad, the Brazilians were predictably underwhelming. In party mode after their historic run to the semi-finals of the World Cup and a fourth-place finish, host Morocco claimed a famous 2-1 in Tangier. Eight players from the last-four encounter against France featured, while Brazil had just Casemiro, Lucas Paqueta, Vinicius Jr., and Eder Militao from that doomed evening in Doha in their starting XI.

The result was largely academic: Morocco’s victory parade continued, reaffirming their status as Africa’s strongest team ahead of next year’s continental championship while there were a few bright performances for Brazil, notably from debutant Rony of Palmeiras on the right.

In the absence of the injured Neymar, the spotlight shone on Vinicius Jr., but he delivered only in glimpses and faded badly after the pause. However, the Real Madrid star might have to get used to the protagonism in the Brazil shirt. Injury-prone, Neymar is approaching the twilight of his career and it is questionable whether he can lead Brazil at the World Cup in 2026 when he will be 34.

With his stellar performances at Real Madrid, including that winning goal in last season’s Champions League final against Liverpool, Vinicius Jr. has become the face of Brazilian soccer. Tite didn’t always favor him and substituted the youngster in the second half against Croatia. After crossing the Atlantic as a teenager, it also took time for Vinicius Jr. to make his mark at Real Madrid, but he has been flourishing under Carlo Ancelotti, the manager top of the shortlist of the Brazilian FA, CBF, to succeed Tite.

His appointment would be revolutionary – Brazil has never had a foreign manager in command. Before the World Cup, a Datafolha survey found that 55% of Brazilians were against the idea but after the elimination by Croatia the CBF and its new president Ednaldo Rodrigues became intent on breaking with tradition.

The field of competent coaches in Brazil is very small. In fact, it is hard to find Brazilian coaches in South America, let alone in Europe, reflecting perhaps the paucity of ideas that they bring to the game. Now, they are also losing space at home following Jorge Jesus’ success with Flamengo in 2019. Currently at Fenerbahçe in Turkey, the Portuguese is second on the CBF’s shortlist.

However, cultural resistance is significant to a foreigner. Ultimately, the Seleção remains a national symbol. It remains a taboo and so Rodrigues, a novice in the role, has a crucial decision to take as the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup draw near: will he do what has never been done and trust a man born outside of Brazil’s borders or run the risk that the next Luka Modric eliminates Brazil again from the World Cup? Ancelotti is an elderly statesman in the game, but he is a pragmatist who goes from role to role to form winning teams. He is not a man of grand ideas or expansive philosophies. In that sense, he could be the wrong man for Brazil.

Rodrigues however can’t dawdle too long, his CBF is disorganized without a sporting director and an agency to organize friendlies. In September, the Brazilians kick off the World Cup qualifiers against Bolivia. By then, they need a coach for Vinicius Jr. and his generation to thrive on the road to the 2026 World Cup and the dream of a sixth star.

The Walking Dead has entered its hydra phase, where you cut off one head and it spawns three more. That’s actually exactly what happened now that the main Walking Dead series ended after 11 seasons, it has branched into three more spin-offs with its main characters, Dead City, starring Maggie and Negan, Daryl Dixon starring, I mean, take a guess, and then the Rick and Michonne series. They are airing in that order, and now we have an official date for the first one, Dead City.

Negan and Maggie’s Manhattan adventure will begin airing on June 18, 2023, barely over half a year since the last episode of The Walking Dead, which was at the end of November in 2022. We usually have to wait longer for a new season of The Walking Dead than we are its first spin-off here, which shows just how unwilling AMC is to let this gravy train go, even if TWD doesn’t have the cultural influence it had 4-6 years ago, certainly.

Dead City follows Negan and Maggie as they attempt to rescue an older, recast Herschel, Maggie and Glenn’s son, who has been kidnapped and taken somewhere in Manhattan, it seems. We know little else about the series besides that basic premise, only that when we last left Negan, he was about to have a kid himself, and by this point in the timeline, that kid is probably born. I’m also not clear if Maggie and Negan are forced to work together in this situation, or if Negan has volunteered to rescue Herschel as a part of his eternal quest to make things right with Maggie.

Some have grown concerned that the series may be setting up a Negan/Maggie romance, given the fact that they’ve been paired together for this show. While I want to say I doubt that’s the case, and that would never be allowed to happen, The Walking Dead has not exactly been a good decision-making factory these last few years, so I never want to say never.

I also remain unclear about the long-term plans for these new spin-offs, whether they’re supposed to be ongoing series or just miniseries. I think it’s been stated outright that the Rick and Michonne show is a limited series, but I haven’t heard the same about Dead City or Daryl Dixon, so who knows.

This release date announcement was paired with a new trailer where I guess in Manhattan, given all the skyscrapers, walkers now fall from the sky:

We’ll see how this goes. I’m a bit skeptical of really all these spin-offs, but we’ll have our first taste of them just under three months from now, it seems.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.

Do you remember the Great Cascadia earthquake and tsunami that hit the Pacific Northwest in 2001? Well, you shouldn’t, because it never happened. But there are now photos of this completely fake event circulating on the internet. And it’s a great case study in how images created with artificial intelligence tools like Midjourney can rewrite history with minimal effort.

Photo-realistic images of the fake tragedy were posted to the Midjourney forum on Reddit a few days ago, where people who experiment with AI art share their creations. The post became so popular that it was pushed to the so-called “front page” of Reddit, where some people who didn’t realize they were looking at AI-generated images admitted they thought it must be real.

“I was immediately convinced because I didn’t have my guard up at all. I use the software often, edit art & photography for my current job, and have a healthy dose of fear of the singularity and STILL, my brain gave off zero ‘This ain’t real’ signals,” one user commented.

The completely fake Great Cascadia earthquake registered as a 9.1, according to Reddit, and the photos of the devastation look terrible. The Reddit post has 20 images that could easily pass as a real historical event. But, again, these aren’t real photos. None of this happened.

The photos even have captions that explain the fake events, such as, “Rescue workers in Vancouver, BC, pull trapped survivor from the rubble of a collapsed bookstore.” The details give the whole thing an air of legitimacy, despite the fact that it’s all a complete fiction.

Some of the images are chilling just for how much they resemble the aftermath of the very real terror attacks on September 11, 2001. The AI image creators clearly drew inspiration from that day for these fake photos.

As countless internet sleuths have learned, the quickest way to tell if you’re looking at an image that’s been created with AI is to look at the hands and teeth. AI still struggled with creating hands for some reason.

For example, take a look at the fake photo below. Notice anything weird about the visible hand?

That person is facing away from the camera, but their hand is holding that Canadian flag in a way that would perplex even the most skilled circus contortionist.

As another commenter points out, for some reason these images aren’t being flagged by AI-detection software, like the site at Hugging Face. For example, I ran that Canadian flag image through the Hugging Face AI Detector software and it only came back with a 54% likelihood that it was fake. The second image in this post came back as 86% real, which it most certainly is not.

Midjourney lets anyone create incredibly realistic images by merely typing out text, and the photo-realistic images are created in mere minutes, which has led to confusion on social media in recent months. We’ve seen everything from Donald Trump getting arrested to Pope Francis wearing an enormous puffer coat.

Trump even shared a fake photo of himself praying, but it was actually generated using the same artificial intelligence tools that created the fake Cascadia earthquake of April 3, 2001. Another president—this time George W. Bush—got the AI treatment in his fake visit to Tacoma, Washington after the fake quake.

While it’s one thing to be creating fake news, creating fake history that humans may or may not remember is definitely a new wrinkle for those of us who live so much of our lives online. And as this technology proliferates, it’ll only get harder to tell which images are real and which are fake.

The machines will figure out how to create better human hands sooner or later. And when that day comes, we’ll all be left to wonder if we really trust our lying eyes.

We are less than a month out from the 2023 iteration of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. The annual extravaganza convenes in the Bay Area between April 13th through the 15th and the results of the judging will begin trickling out on its website shortly thereafter. But today we’re looking back at what the contest named as ‘Best In Show’ for 2021. Why? Because this particular scotch whisky hasn’t gotten any less awesome in the interim. And it somehow remains one of the best value buys on liquor store shelves to this day.

Allow us to reintroduce you to Glen Scotia 25 Year Old. This patiently matured malt from the storied producer out of Cambeltown is a classic example of its region’s prototypical profile: fruity on the palate, with a cloud of briny, coastal air hovering along the not-so-distant horizon. In other words, you’re enjoying some of the hallmarks of Speyside, with some of the touchstones of Island whisky, together in the same dram.

And yet it’s still a relative newcomer to the Glen Scotia range. Remember, this is a distillery that was founded 191 years ago. The 25 Year Old only hit shelves in mid-2017. But since then little has changed with the liquid. It’s drawn from an exceedingly small stable of superstar casks, pulled by master blender Iain McAlister, and then married in first-fill bourbon barrels prior to a bottling at 48.8% ABV.

To say he was tickled by the 2021 Best In Show award would be a monumental understatement. “[It] is an honor and a tremendous boost to the entire team here at Glen Scotia Distillery,” said McAlister after receiving news of the accolade. “The Glen Scotia 25 Year Old is a really outstanding liquid and has collected a number of the top industry awards over the years, but this has to be one of the proudest moments for the distillery to date.”

The bottling in question bested over 3,800 entries across 31 separate categories to earn the top prize. So it really was no small feat. Nevertheless, here in 2023 many casual scotch drinkers continue to overlook the rare blend of drinkability and complexity exhibited in Glen Scotia 25 Year Old. Which brings us to the best part of this recap: you can still find this stellar juice on shelves, right now, at or near its intended retail price—which hovers around the $500 mark. Here’s one shop in Vermont that hasn’t yet sold out of it at $415!

These sorts of occurrences are becoming frustratingly rare in the world of scotch these days; a beautiful bottle of well-aged malt sans secondary markup. Commensurately aged liquids from big names such as The Macallan, The Dalmore, and Lagavulin all run well north of $2000 a bottle. We’re actually hesitant to even bring up the discrepancy, lest we jinx the situation. But we’d be remiss to ignore it outright. Do with the information what you will. Just don’t say that we didn’t warn you.

The Dynamic Island was the standout hit from last year’s iPhone 14 Pro models. But for the iPhone 15 range, Apple is already planning a redesign.

First leaked by Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, then confirmed by reliable leaker Unknownz21, Apple will integrate the iPhone 15’s proximity sensor into the Dynamic Island. Kuo breaks the change down and how it will impact the company’s suppliers:

IQE is set to replace Landmark as the exclusive supplier of epi-wafer for proximity sensors in the iPhone 15 series. While all iPhone 15 models adopt a similar Dynamic Island design as the iPhone 14 Pro, the difference lies in the placement of the proximity sensor. In the iPhone 14 Pro, the proximity sensor is located under the display (outside the dynamic island). Conversely, in the iPhone 15 series, the proximity sensor is situated within the dynamic island, with almost no change to the Dynamic Island area.

Due to this change, Finisar (acquired by Coherent/II-VI) will shift to offering 940nm wavelength proximity sensors (compared to 1380nm for the iPhone 14 Pro), and the upstream epi-wafer supplier will transition to IQE.

Moving the proximity sensor from under the display to the Dynamic Island allows Apple to use a less powerful sensor, which should save the company money. The saving is unlikely to be passed on to customers, but rather put towards the cost of transitioning the entire iPhone 15 range to the Dynamic Island.

For me, the news brings mixed feelings. While adding the Proximity Sensor is said to make little difference to the size of the cutout behind the Dynamic Island, Apple could have kept the sensor under the display and made the cutout smaller, allowing the Dynamic Island to show more information.

On the flip side, retaining the same visual area provides consistency for third-party developers while saving Apple money. So it was probably a no-brainer for the company to take this route.

Will there be any performance benefits to moving the proximity sensor from under the display and into the Dynamic Island? There has been some speculation online that it could be used in conjunction with FaceID to improve its performance, but with Apple also downgrading the sensor, I would be surprised if this is the case.

All in all, this is likely to be one of those changes which took a lot of engineering effort but makes little difference to end users and will go unnoticed by most. The good news is a lot of other iPhone 15 upgrades won’t, including the aforementioned Dynamic Island for standard models and the range-wide switch to USB-C (with caveats).

In addition, iPhone 15 Pro Models will get solid-state buttons, a ballistic A17 chip, a super-sized new rear camera, upgraded LiDAR, record-breaking bezels, and — yes — price rises.

More on Forbes

MORE FROM FORBESNew Apple Exclusive Reveals iPhone 15 Price ShockBy Gordon Kelly

There have been a lot of leaks circling Destiny 2 lately, datamines for the current season, but also a lot of stuff for the rest of the year, including next year’s expansion, The Final Shape.

My general rule is that I do not cover big content leaks or specific story leaks. At this point, most of these haven’t been proven true or false yet because it’s too early, anyway. But for something like a list of supposed exotic reworks? I mean, I don’t really consider that spoilery in the same sense.

So, I wanted to go through a list of exotic nerfs/buffs/changes are that allegedly coming next season during Season of the Deep. Bungie has been going through and updating a lot of exotics to work with 3.0 subclass keywords, and others are just…bad and need help. So what do we have?

Salvation’s Grip – Charged shot forms six crystals. Uncharged shot shoots a normal grenade that shatters crystals. (easily the worst exotic weapon in the game, I don’t think this will be enough to save it, especially if it remains a heavy).

Eyes of Tomorrow – Killing four targets in one volley refunds 1 ammo (you are going to have a tough time selling a rocket mostly based on ad clear, which Eyes is supposed to be).

Graviton Lance – Increase rate of fire to match Revision Zero two-burst (20% decrease to burst delay). Difference in damage between the two bullets is reduced (sounds like a decent buff for an exotic that’s already solid).

Tommy’s Matchbook – The catalyst is updated so that when overheated, sustained fire scorches targets. Every 5 shots applies 14 (+7) scorch (if any exotic should work with scorch it’s probably this one, which badly needs help at baseline).

Worldline Zero – Tesseract can be chained into itself once. Damage slightly reduced (I have no idea what this will do. Help skating?)

Vesper of Radius – Rifts now emit an arc shockwave every 3 seconds that deals 200 PvE and 70 PvP damage. If these shockwaves kill an enemy, they explode on a delay for 100 damage. When on Stormcaller, these effects afflict blind (sounds like it could be good but a little surprise it’s doing blind instead of jolt here).

Chromatic Fire – Precision final blows with your kinetic weapon create an explosion that damages and applies status effects in the element of your subclass (now THIS could be cool, as presumably that’s scorch, volatile, jolt, unraveling and maybe slow?)

Dawn Chorus – Daybreak projectiles scorch on contact and deal increased damage to scorched targets. (I’m already a secret Dawn Chorus fan so any buffs here are welcome. Sounds like this will increase boss damage even further).

Ophidian Aspect – Remove melee range extension (our first nerf here, and something PvP players have been asking for. Currently has nearly a 50% usage rate among Warlocks in Crucible).

Astrocyte Verse – Blink further and more frequently, leaving behind a burst of Void damage that also suppresses (sounds pretty cool but I hate blink so I’ll never use it)

Sanguine Alchemy – Gives a small damage bonus to weapons that match your subclass when standing in a rift (swear to god they’ll never buff this thing enough to make it as good as it looks).

Claws of Ahamkara – Powered melee kills spawn an orb of power (saving you I guess…one mod slot? Eh).

Mantle of Battle Harmony – Change to a non-stacking damage buff (did this really need a nerf? I assume it’s a nerf, anyway).

Dunemarchers – Reduced chain damage range from 20m to 12m. Reduced chain PvP damage from 85 to 50 (pretty significant nerf here that also affects PvE unfortunately, at least in the range portion).

Point Contact Cannon Brace – Strikes added by this exotic now jolt targets as well. PvE damage buffed from 50 to 200. Being amplified now increases the damage of the strikes by 50%. Amplified no longer increases the range. (I hate this melee at baseline but these sound like genuinely significant buffs to an exotic that got absolutely butchered).

Second Chance – The second shield charge will now weaken (I assume both weaken?). When you stun a barrier champion, you regain the charge (I actually really like that idea).

Stronghold – After blocking damage, gain restoration on damaging an enemy (this is already crazy strong in many situations but restoration as a bonus effect could be huge).

Eternal Warrior – Arc kills grant an escalating bonus to arc weapon damage. After Fist of Havoc ends, gain the highest bonus to arc weapon damage (this is essentially a top to bottom rework of one of the worst exotics in the game, and it sounds pretty good).

Khepri’s Horn – Solar kills recharge your barricade and the solar barricade blast now scorches enemies (another easy pick for 3.0 application, and this sounds solid).

Path of Burning Steps – No longer stacks with Surge mods (boooo).

Sealed Ahamkara Grasps – Powered melee kills reload the magazine of all weapons matching your subclass. When buff is active, increased movement speed and jump height (sounds potentially fun but we’ll have to see).

Raiju’s Harness – Deactivating your super creates a blinding explosion and grants a buff that increases arc weapon damage 5% in PvP and 15% in PvE (no sorry this still sucks)

Arthrys’ Embrace – Rapid precision hits grant Weighted Knife energy (depending on how much, could be good).

Oathkeeper – The longer an arrow is drawn, the more damage it will do in PvE only (really curious what this buff can get up to).

Stompees – Bonus only active with full dodge energy, remove the AE penalty (okay that sucks, especially if it’s true in PvE as well. Pretty absurd).

Radiant Dance Machines – Kills extend the duration of its effect (not enough to make it actually viable)

Mask of Bakris – Increased damage bonus in PvE from 10% to 25% and in PvP i gets a 7% buff. Doesn’t stack with surge mods (eh, we’ll see. I still think they should change the bonus to Stasis from Arc as this was made before Stasis weapons even existed).

Again, no way of verifying any of this until they happen or don’t happen. Most sound good, I’m not sure which of these will actually be potentially gamechanging, however. Some of the nerfs also seem kind of shortsighted.

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Rubbing elbows with the Southern California coastline cities of Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach is the more relaxed community of Hermosa Beach. With a laid-back beach town vibe and an active nightlife scene, the city offers 94 acres of public beach along nearly 2 miles of oceanfront.

Sharing this strip of sand with swimmers, surfers and volleyball players are highly sought-after luxury homes that command a premium.

Among the prized properties currently on the market is 2340 The Strand. Priced at close to $12.6 million, this Mediterranean sits on an oversized corner lot with both front and side yards―a rarity for the area.

The richly landscaped lot is accessed by a wrought-iron gate set into a stone wall. A walkway bridge crosses over a boulder-surrounded water element to reach the wooden double front door. Adjoining the lawn, extensive patio space accommodates a sunken fire pit seating area sheltered by a windbreak, outdoor kitchen and ocean-facing lounging deck.

Arch-topped windows, balconies and a red tile roof underscore the villa-inspired design. The theme continues inside the 3,615 square feet of living space with spiraling wrought-iron staircases, dark wood trim and built-ins and an elegant center island kitchen. The stainless-steel appliances include two ovens, a six-burner stove and under-counter wine fridge.

A wood-paneled ceiling tops the two-tier home theater on the home’s lower level, which also contains a minibar.

The primary suite features a rounded bank of wood-trimmed windows, French doors that open to a balcony, raised hearth fireplace and wide-plank wood floors. The ensuite bathroom has dual vanities with vessel sinks, a stand-alone soaking tub and glass-enclosed shower. In all, there are five bedrooms and five bathrooms—three full and two half.

The home is ideally suited for a primary residence or an investor seeking to lease to long-term tenants. The current rent is $30,000 a month. Short-term rentals are not permitted in the city of Hermosa Beach.

Chris Corr of Strand Hill Properties is the listing agent for the ocean- and beach-view home. Downtown Hermosa and the Manhattan Pier are a 10-minute walk away.

Strand Hill Properties is an exclusive member of Forbes Global Properties, a consumer marketplace and membership network of elite brokerages selling the world’s most luxurious homes.

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Back in June of 2021 I reported on video game writer Chris Avellone’s libel lawsuit against two women who had accused Avellone of sexual assault on Twitter. Avellone publicly denied the accusations and announced he was taking both women to court over their statements.

When the initial case was dismissed by a California court on jurisdictional grounds, Avellone filed the lawsuit in Illinois (September, 2022).

Now, nearly two years later, the case has been settled. Avellone’s accusers, Karissa Barrows and Kelly Bristol, have signed a joint statement retracting their previous claims and clearing Avellone of wrongdoing, stating that their original claims were misinterpreted. “The settlement agreement provides for a seven-figure payment to Mr. Avellone,” Avellone’s attorney confirmed to me via email. The settlement is confidential and further details were not provided.

In a blog post titled “Joint Statement From Karissa Barrows, Kelly Bristol,and Chris Avellone” Avellone writes:

“The parties resolved the matter and claims were dismissed with prejudice pursuant to a confidential settlement that provides for a seven-figure payment that includes the return of the attorney fee award entered against Mr. Avellone in California.

“I understand that Ms. Barrows has requested to retract her comments to the media about me.”

I have received a copy of the below statement from Mr. Avellone’s lawyers.

The statement from Barrows and Bristol reads:

“After engaging with Mr. Avellone, we have prepared the following statement:

“Mr. Avellone never sexually abused either of us. We have no knowledge that he has ever sexually abused any women. We have no knowledge that Mr. Avellone has ever misused corporate funds. Anything we have previously said or written about Mr. Avellone to the contrary was not our intent. We wanted to support women in the industry. In so doing, our words have been misinterpreted to suggest specific allegations of misconduct that were neither expressed nor intended. We are passionate about the safety, security and agency of women, minorities, LGBTQIA+ persons, and every other community that has seen persecution in the video game industry. We believe Mr. Avellone shares a desire to protect and uplift those communities. We believe that he deserves a full return to the industry and support him in those endeavors.”

– Karissa Barrows, Kelly Rae Bristol

Avellone’s statement on the matter reads:

“I appreciate the willingness of Ms. Barrows and Ms. Bristol to work with us in addressing issues within the game community, and their advocacy is to be commended and supported.

There are still many very real challenges that we face but am confident we can face them together.

In the spirit of these goals, I would ask everyone to respect the privacy of Ms. Barrows and Ms. Bristol and use this opportunity as a means to listen to all voices in improving our culture and our communities.”

– Chris Avellone

Barrows had previously claimed on Twitter that Avellone was “an abusive, abrasive, conniving sexual predator” who had attempted to sexually assault her after getting her “black out drunk.” Barrows told Kotaku in 2020, “He’s f****** disgusting, but he did not rape me. He assaulted me, 100 percent, but I stopped him.”

Avellone was fired from his job working on Dying Light 2 when the accusations came to light and has been widely blacklisted from the industry after a decades-long career working on dozens of popular video games including numerous RPGs like Pillars of Eternity, Icewind Dale and Fallout 2.

This is a breaking story. Stay tuned.

This post was updated with the exact statement from Avellone’s lawyers in order to provide more detail on the payout. Further details from the confidential settlement agreement remain confidential.

You can follow me here on this blog for further updates and on Twitter or Facebook. I have further commentary on this story in this video.

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Before anyone screenshots my last two Diablo 4 headlines and puts them side by side, I think two things are true. First, I think for at least a decent portion of the playerbase, the Diablo 4 launch is going to be rough on the technical end, given the amount of problems I’ve seen in the beta even if this is a “stress test.” It’s not just server queues but disconnects, heavy lag, rubberbanding, crashes and more. But once those are resolved, the content of the beta has indicated to me that yes, this game really was as good as it looked in trailers and blog posts, and as such, it’s going to be a massive hit.

I think Blizzard nailed most things here, judging by how addicting Diablo 4 is already, even in early levels, even with nothing approaching endgame builds, even with barely scratching the surface of the story. If I had less self-control I would have maxed all five beta classes, and the only reason I didn’t is because I knew they’d all be wiped out with the game launches in June.

Technical problems aside, and my issues with the desire to make every aspect of this game online-only when after all these years I still just want a damn single player version I can pause, the rest of the game is shaping up to probably have a better launch than Diablo 3 itself, which took around until its Reaper of Souls expansion to truly “fix” itself and become the high-quality entry it was meant to be. I don’t think it will take Diablo 4 that long.

There is no obviously bad idea like the Auction House being launched with Diablo 4, which essentially ruined the loot chase of Diablo 3 as long as it existed. And even if legendary drop rates are boosted for the beta, they seem like they will probably not be as stingy at launch, and we’ve already seen much more interesting legendries than Diablo 3 had at release, many of which were little more than stat boosts alone with no special properties.

Gameplay feels great (when there’s no lag or rubberbanding). Environments are bloody (literally) gorgeous. The Diablo 2-like stat system looks like it will feel great with loads more skill points, adding the modern notion of easy respecing if need be. And the story? That’s been the biggest surprise of all to me, just how engaged I am with this Lilith plotline, far more so than any Diablo tale in the past, even through just a couple of early cutscenes.

In short, I’ve seen enough. If it can push past its obvious technical hurdles, Diablo 4 will be a massive hit. Perhaps even more so than Diablo 3, given the mistakes it does not appear to making at launch. I can’t wait for the final product.

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