WoW Insider - Activision/Blizzard is not Blizzard. By ex-employee Michael Sacco. Thanks Kxmode.
"You can choose to believe these answers or not, that I was fed a corporate line or that I was unaware of things going on in offices on floors higher than mine. This is your prerogative. Just remember that I no longer have a vested interest in defending Blizzard or lying to back them up."Negative Gamer - Things We Hate About Gaming- Innovation and Change. Thanks Slashdot.
"There seems to be this invisible pressure to create something that is highly 'intuitive' and incorporates the highest level of innovation that we have ever seen. The problem is that the 'newest' ideas put into games are either gimmicky, terrible in execution, or blatantly ripping off another title. On the other hand there are series that feel the need to completely revamp a game that played perfectly fine before into something completely new that falls flat on its face."GameCritics.com Podcast Episode 14: Do Game Developers Need to Grow Up?
"Is the game industry in a state of arrested development? We present our take on Heather Chaplin's incendiary GDC presentation. Plus, the proliferation of co-op, the viability of OnLive, and lessons learned from Leisure Suit Larry. With Chi Kong Lui, Mike Bracken, David Stone, and Tim Spaeth."
A 30-second intro theme and a presenter that emphasises every other word? Unbearable. This is exactly the reason I don't bother checking out most podcasts.
The "strategy" boils down who whomever can shave off 2-3 seconds by memorizing the build order and the hotkeys
You create a more streamlined and casual friendly experience, but you lose out on the depth and strategy of base building and defense.
Also you're pretty quick to put off SCII as "more of the same", especially since we have yet to see what Blizz is doing with the SP campaign.
Yes it sucks it takes "umpteen" years till we get to play Zerg campaign, but it IS blizzard we are talking about, name one game where they didn't deliver what they promised
I'd go so far as to say that the RTS genre can and in some cases has moved on beyond that. Company of Heroes is a perfect example, where base building, build orders, and zerg-style rushes aren't quite as necessary. If they could get Dawn of War 2 patched and working, it'd be an even better example.
So yes, I'm sure it's in the GAMER'S best interest that, in order to get to play all 3 races in a SP campaign, they now have to shell out 150 dollars over 3 years, rather than 50 bucks when the game comes out and it's done.
That should read "It's about delivering the player the best experience, at as much revenue as possible."
Activision will eventually fuck Blizzard up. It's as inevitable as the tides. A little change here and there at first, a few cost saving measures, and BLAMMO!, they're done.
Blizz is more than WoW. Maybe ActiBlizz should hire additional employees to work on other titles than just WoW. There are still some people who like single-player games and don't want to play each month for a game.