Awating: Diablo 3 (Gaming)

For quite some time now I have been keeping an eye on Diablo 3. For when this game eventually dose come out you may not hear from me for I will have no life once again. I do admit it when it comes to the D series I am something I hate...a fanboy. Unless if something takes a 180 turn and doesn't make sense at all with the story line then I prolly won't get pissed, and will keep supporting this upcoming title. Around two weeks ago I got really exited with the new Wizard class that was released. Somehow, they took the sorceress from Diablo 2 and made it even more l33t. The coolest spell so far I would have to say is the ability to slow time. It seems like it is going to be very useful in game and when in a party as well. Other than that the teleport skill is going to take the coolness factor for me. Not only dose the spell caster still have the ability to move fast but now whenever the Wizard teleports near an enemy the enemy takes damage from the respawn point of the tele, sorta like telefraggin' you could say which in my book is gonna be friggin' awesome. Hands down my favorite class released so far is the Wizard. Although the Witch Doctor and Barbarian look wicked cool and have lots of flashy new skills as well, I guess I can't get away from my good ol' spammin' caster class. Besides the classes Diablo 3 has been making me not only very exited, but curious as well. My biggest question thus far is. "How long has blizzard really been keeping this secret?" To my own investigation which I do not know if it is true or not concludes to a very long time. I go all the way back to Diablo when it comes to this series and here is what I have studied.
I have purchased all of the books based on the Diablo series, and the most interesting leading to Diablo 3 is "The Sin War". Towns that are not mentioned in Diablo 2 are mentioned in these books and events that happen AFTER D2 leading to D3 are also in this or so is what I believe. Anyways, as for the time of how long Blizzard has been working on D3 here is where I get this information. I am also a fan of Dungeon & Dragons so back before the expansion for Diablo 2 was released I purchased a D&D DM guide, and players Handbook. Published in 2000 by the way. At the back of the players handbook there is a map of the Diablo world so to speak. Well, on this map there are a lot of places needless to say that are not in Diablo, Hellfire, Diablo 2, or D2 exp, or for that matter are not even mentioned. (Keep in mind published in 2000) Then the Sin War trilogy came out and the Druid town as well as one or two more places were mentioned from that map which at this time I cannot remember. Now with Diablo 3 coming out and more and more information being released these locations that were on that map in the Players Handbook published in 2000 are popping up more and more. Could it be Blizzard has put nearly nine years into the making of this game so far or is it just a coincidence? Well if there are any Diablo fans out there lemme know your thoughts by answering the poll to the top right of the page. Other than that that's all I got for now all we can do now is wait.