Spurred by the whole D3 geared up in 1/4 the tiem debate, @Diablo spoke, then retracted a reply about the rate of item drops in Diablo III’s MP vs. SP play. Here’s the quote from the B.net forums, where Bashiok chimed in to correct himself.
[blue]”Playing with others works exactly like Diablo II. Enemies are tougher, and you have a better chance at getting nicer loot. –Diablo”
This is a little confusing. What exactly would qualify as “nicer loot”? Does this mean that loot has a better chance of having higher stats on them or having a higher chance of getting better quality items? For example, do games that have 4 people increase their chances of a legendary dropping as opposed to a game with only 1 person?
Bashiok: I’ve gotten this same question wrong in the past, I don’t know why it continues to confuse me.
Drops are not different in co-op. The fact that you’re killing faster (which you will) in a group means more items in less amount of time, means we don’t need to provide other incentives.
Your own drop modifiers will affect your personal drops, such as magic and gold find. But that’s the same while playing alone or in a group.[/blue]
So there you have it. All the other issues brought up in that forum thread are still applicable, and still make an apples to oranges comparison problematic — overall time for killing, end game differences between D2 and D3, frequency of bosses, MF effect in D3, etc.