Over the past month, several designers from the Diablo III development team had the opportunity to sit down with Diablo Fans, Diablo IncGamers, Diablo Somepage, and the folks from TwizzCast to discuss various topics ranging from how console is progressing to "hey, what's going on with that itemization update you first mentioned back in April?"

We've compiled all the links to those interviews for you below. To be taken to a specific interview, just click on the corresponding fan site logo. Simple!

While we highly recommend reading or listening to these interviews in their entirety so you can get a sense for tone, context, and the questions being asked, here are some of the highlights:

• Itemization changes will not be implemented in a standalone patch, nor is there a "patch 1.0.9" planned at this time. Rather, these changes will likely accompany similar improvements made to other systems, class tuning in particular. (Diablo Somepage)
   
• Player feedback is incredibly valuable, and the developers pay close attention to ideas being discussed in the forums and on fan sites. Did you read about that Talisman suggestion? Well, so did Travis Day! (Diablo Fans)
   
• Endless dungeons have not only been considered, but have also been prototyped and tested internally. It's not yet decided whether or not an endless dungeon will be added to the game, but the development team understands there is a desire for players to test their characters and face ever-increasing challenges. They're currently looking at a variety of different systems and features that could potentially fill that niche. (IncGamers)
   
• Expanding the Paragon system is definitely on the table. A few concepts currently being explored and/or worked on include decoupling level bonuses from individual characters and making them account-wide, incorporating some form of stat allocation alongside existing level bonuses, and increasing the level cap (eventually). Note that if any of these changes are implemented, they would apply retroactively as well. (Diablo Fans)
   
• The Mystic is likely to make a triumphant return, and with her the opportunity to modifty items. While it's not yet final what sort of services this particular artisan will provide, some possibilities include: adding a property to an item, exchanging one property for another, and/or re-rolling the stat range for an existing property. (IncGamers)
   
• Expect more Bind-on-Account items in the future! The developers are also looking into ways to incorporate item binding into the game, as a way to help keep items moving out of the economy. (Diablo Fans + Diablo Somepage)
   
• With respect to itemization improvements, the team understands that one of main problems with existing legendaries is that they're often relegated to "toy status" because, while the've got fun effects, they rarely offer comparable upgrades to efficiency-based stats like DPS and EHP. The goal is to make sure that future legendaries don't just look cool, but that they're also compelling to use and make your character feel powerful, both visually and mechanically. (IncGamers)
   
• BlizzCon is going to be pretty amazing this year, but prepare for some interesting news to be shared before then, too! (IncGamers)

And that's just the tip of iceberg. The developers also chatted about self-found mode, increased map diversity, single-target vs. AOE skill diversity (and how to improve it), guest monsters, whether or not having four separate game modes (Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno) is the best route to end-game, the possibility of translating improved boss and player mechanics from console to PC, guaranteed stats on specific items, ladders, the current status of PvP, and more. Be sure to check out the full interviews (linked above) for all the details!

After you're done reading/listening, let us know which interview was your favorite, and why it struck your fancy. We'd also love to hear what topics you enjoyed the most, and if there were any subjects not covered that you'd like to learn more about. (Follow-up questions are welcome, too!)