Here's how Diablo 4's shared world works

In my preview of Diablo 4, I said I was concerned that frequently bumping into random other players would interfere with the desolate and desperate mood. While you can solo the game, you can't do so without seeing other players in towns and around the open world.

Diablo 4 lead designer Joe Shely and executive producer/Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham tell me that maintaining the right mood is important to them, too, even if an online world is part of the game's vision. Here are a bunch of details about the workings of that world, difficulty levels, and dungeons that came out of my brief interview with the duo: