Let us talk, you and I, about Blizzard

[Inkidu]

Some people say, "I wish every company was like Blizzard. They refine their games, releasing only when ready so that it is perfect." Well, champ, I'm going to present to you the other edge of that sword. Refining is all well and good, but honestly if every game was like Blizzard I sincerely doubt we'd have 3-D gaming, I doubt we would have 2.5-D gaming either.

The irony here is that 3-d has severely limited both diablo 3 and starcraft 2. Neither of those games have any gameplay aspects that require 3-d and had blizzard opted for a 2-d, pre-rendered gameworld, they would look much, much prettier (and closer to their originals to boot).

Okay I would hate for this to go on: Not 3D glasses wearing 3D. 3D rendered worlds which are still technically 2D. Really, I thought that was clear because of the 2.5-D in the next sentence. I don't like the "3D" thing everyone's getting on these days either. I think it's just a gimmick from the 50s making it's cyclical round in fashion.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Honestly I'd hate Nintendo more than Blizzard for the problem of sticking to their old IPs and not making anything new.

Blizzard might not come up with too many new ideas, but at least their games are satisfactory. I'm still waiting for Diablo 3.

 

[theheroofaction]

First off you've got a self contradiction

Reason one: They've not produced anything new since 2001,

and yet Down here, oh, suddenly they DO have something new

I also hear tell of a new M.M.O.R.P.G. that Blizzard is working on

Now, down here you're just misinformed.

Blizzard on the other hand jams its fingers in its ears and says, "We don't need you we just need the Skinner Box!"

Have you even played their rts offerings, they don't use a skinner box at all.

Now then, here you distort what someone else is saying

I will cite Mr. MovieBob's "The Big Picture" episode "The P.C. Gamer is Dead--Long Live the P.C. Gamer" as supporting opinion.

What bob was saying actually had nothing to do with gaming itself, but rather the end of the giant metal brick computer.

and yay another quote

It's not a question of whether or not I like Blizzard games, it's not a question of are Blizzard's games good or bad It's a question of what is Blizzard doing to move the industry forward

Okay first off blizzard revolutionized the way rts' are made
Lastly, you act as if our industry is some kind of all encompassing blob When it's more like a bacteria filled pond.

 

[RA92]

Blizzard and Valve are both popular PC developers despite their long development cycles. Why?

It's because they don't try to shove down sequels down our throats annually that barely differ from their predecessors. Instead, they create games with long-lasting appeal and support them extensively all the way.

And I'm glad Blizzard isn't going multi-platform. Too many franchises have been ruined while trying to accommodate for the limitations of consoles. If anything, it only makes Blizzard's resolve stronger.

 

[Inkidu]

Honestly I'd hate Nintendo more than Blizzard for the problem of sticking to their old IPs and not making anything new.

Blizzard might not come up with too many new ideas, but at least their games are satisfactory. I'm still waiting for Diablo 3.

I would too, but at least Nintendo took a gamble on the Wii, and the new market.

Also from above,I honestly don't believe in the casual/hardcore fight. It's futile. It's like saying someone's a hardcore reader because they actually read two Shakespeare plays and fourteen sonnets.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Honestly I'd hate Nintendo more than Blizzard for the problem of sticking to their old IPs and not making anything new.

Blizzard might not come up with too many new ideas, but at least their games are satisfactory. I'm still waiting for Diablo 3.

I would too, but at least Nintendo took a gamble on the Wii, and the new market.

Also from above,I honestly don't believe in the casual/hardcore fight. It's futile. It's like saying someone's a hardcore reader because they actually read two Shakespeare plays and fourteen sonnets.

I understand what you're saying.

My complaint is that we can't really use the 'what game is most played?' thing to determine the best game, short reason: Farmville; long reason: games that are marketed to all audiences instead of people who have gaming experience.

It's somewhat annoying because I know there's probably more money to be made from making easier, player-friendly games rather than games that improve upon what we've been doing for the past 20 years(at least, the games that I played).

I don't hate it, but things like this aren't exactly improving games in general, I don't too many people are going to step out of their comfort zone and give games a chance because they play Farmville on the weekends.

 

[The Gnome King]

STUFF!

No 3D gaming? I don't think that would be a huge loss. Gives me a headache. Other people can enjoy it all they want as long as they still keep making games I can play on my nice 2D monitor.

As for your other points, Blizzard is a company. A hugely, hugely successful company. They don't answer to you unless you're a shareholder and - going out on a limb here - I'm going to assume you don't own any shares. So...

All you can do is vote with your wallet. Don't buy their games. Me, I'll keep playing WoW (along with other MMOs ranging from Dungeons & Dragons Online to Fallen Earth), Starcraft 2 which is hugely and amazingly fun, and waiting for Diablo 3 to come out along with millions of other people.

Somehow, I think Blizzard will survive your wrath.

 

[cicaba]

The sole purpose of a company is to make profits and appease their share holders. This does not alter if they are a gaming company. Blizzard are not different to other companies in regards to this philosophy, only in that they are more successful.

Saying "Blizzard, as with all other gaming companies producing samey games to make money rather than unique ones to make money, should somehow be allowed some kind of clearance from the capitalist world in which we live and instead make more unique games with just as much polish." would be something you could say.

And yeah, I'm a videogames consumer, so I'd like to live in a world where that were true also

 

[Inkidu]

STUFF!

No 3D gaming? I don't think that would be a huge loss. Gives me a headache. Other people can enjoy it all they want as long as they still keep making games I can play on my nice 2D monitor.

As for your other points, Blizzard is a company. A hugely, hugely successful company. They don't answer to you unless you're a shareholder and - going out on a limb here - I'm going to assume you don't own any shares. So...

All you can do is vote with your wallet. Don't buy their games. Me, I'll keep playing WoW (along with other MMOs ranging from Dungeons & Dragons Online to Fallen Earth), Starcraft 2 which is hugely and amazingly fun, and waiting for Diablo 3 to come out along with millions of other people.

Somehow, I think Blizzard will survive your wrath.

I don't have wrath. I had my opinion which because I'm suddenly on the unpopular side of things is invalid. I probably shouldn't have shared it but this is kind of what this website is for, isn't it?

I used a really edgy attention getter. Okay my bad. I don't actually want anyone to go out of business. However, do you really think any Blizzard employee can't find work at another studio or whatever?

 

[ex951753]

You seem to be lumping those "innovative" games together as if they were all developed by the same company. Come back once you can find a company that produces a "innovative" game once every couple years. Seriously, EVERY single company does this. You said individual developers have more "guts" than blizz? Remember Penumbra followed by Amnesia? How long, if ever, would it take for Mojang to create a completely different game than Minecraft? They have to right? Since they already made millions of dollars they OWE us a completely different game or else they are killing the industry. This whole thread just boils down to plain blizzard bashing, without anything to back it up.

 

[Squidden]

Blizzard is possibly the worst thing for the video Even if that leaves them with ten million dollars a year couldn't they push that into some kind of branch or independent label, a studio, something? So, yes they are the worse thing for the modern movements in gaming. EA at least has some small studios that occasionally produce something new and good. .

Blizzard has branches working for Starcraft 2, starcraft, diablo 3, and World of Warcraft with all of it's expansions and hotfixes.

They put a ton of work into what they do.

 

[B4DD]

I know I'm a little late and I haven't read any responses up to this point, I'm replying to the op's original post. The fact that they "only" have 3 ip's and have been using them for so long is because as a beginning development studio, they went right ahead and created 3 ip's. No one else has ever done that and been completely successful with every one. Besides the fact that most studios don't make it into their 3rd ip before going under or merging with someone bigger or coming under new management. Blizzard would still be largely successful had it never created Warcraft. It's not that WoW is taking over PC gaming and causing everyone else to switch to consoles, it's that no one is combating WoW correctly, everyone sees it as $$$ and decides to make their own knock off. MB's video on the subject of PC gaming is kind of defeatist, there is still a thriving community of people that play games other than WoW on the PC just on Steam alone, but it is hard to see the forest through the World of Warcraft.

Sorry my argument meanders a lot, just trying to cover all my bases.

 

[Inkidu]

The sole purpose of a company is to make profits and appease their share holders. This does not alter if they are a gaming company. Blizzard are not different to other companies in regards to this philosophy, only in that they are more successful.

Saying "Blizzard, as with all other gaming companies producing samey games to make money rather than unique ones to make money, should somehow be allowed some kind of clearance from the capitalist world in which we live and instead make more unique games with just as much polish." would be something you could say.

And yeah, I'm a videogames consumer, so I'd like to live in a world where that were true also

I'm saying they have the money to take the occasional risk. One bad game for Blizzard isn't going to turn the whole fanbase against them. For the love of of power mushroom the fans waited thirteen years for a sequel. I don't think I'm suggesting too much.

 

[Icehearted]

Blizzard is possibly the worst thing for the video game industry today

I sort of glazed over at abut that point. No offense, but Blizzard isn't nearly large enough to be "the worst thing for the video game industry" by any stretch. I gather, from skimming what I'm sure was a concise post that it's their methods of game development and distribution that have drawn your ire?

I'll keep it really simple here:
Microsoft was the first major player to implement a pay to play service for consoles. Among the popular systems, they are also the only ones to this day to use a pay to play system. PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Dreamcast, Nintendo DS (all versions), Wii, and PSP have free online play unless it's an MMO or some kind of thinly veiled pilfering.

Microsoft popularized micro-transactions, enforcing a strict (no free DLC) rule that went as so far that Epic and 2K Games were forced to charge what they wanted to release for free.**

Though Xbox Live charges, their service offers no genuine advantages over the competition, not even dedicated servers.

Microsoft want to turn away from the core audience that made them successful and embrace the fickle casual audience, openly stating this.

GFWL

My friend, there is a laundry list of things I could go on about, from deliberately cutting corners on system manufacturing to sell shoddy consoles, to their unnecessary and probably technically illegal MS Points program (invented to both disguise pricing ad at one time deliberately create a balance that could only be rectified by abandoning unused points or buying more when the things sold at intervals of 500 rather than 400).

A bad dev/pub is one thing, but a monopolistic empire is an entirely bigger fish worth frying.


**Edit: Thus DLC and withheld content (or on disc unlocked DLC) were born.

 

[Rayansaki]

First off, Blizzard did come up with the 3 IP's, there's no licensing or adaptation involved. How many developers actually have made 3 successful original IP's? You are talking as if other devs push new ips every month, but what you see generally is a Dev with 1 good IP, sometimes 2, and a few crappy ones. Blizzard has made 3 great ones (and is working on the 4th that YOU KNOW IS GOOD, because it's from Blizzard).

Secondly, what's bad with sticking with what you are good at? Blizzard makes excellent RTS', and excellent RPG's. Again, what do other developers make? Epic makes Shooters, Bioware makes RPGs or RPG based Shooters', Valve makes Shooters (Someone will mention Dota2, but that's not their original IP, and Portal is still technically a shooter, just like WoW is technically an RPG). So, when you look at it, Blizzard actually has more variety in genres than most big devs.

Also, why is Blizzard not embracing consoles a bad thing? It's not a step backwards to stick to a single platform. Nowadays everyone complains about consolization of games. Have you looked at the scale of a Blizzard game compared to a multiplatform game? The difference is massive. I'm not saying console games are bad, I'm just saying that platform specific games are bigger and better. This includes a console's exclusive game as well. Little Big Planet is on the same scale as most Blizzard games (excluding WoW), but it wouldn't be possible if it wasn't a PS3 exclusive.

Lastly, I like how you finish off by comparing Blizzard to EA. One is a developer, the other is a publisher with several developers working for them. If you want to compare with EA, you use Activision, which Blizzard is part of. If you want to compare something with Blizzard, compare a single developer from EA instead, and you will see how good Blizzard is.

 

[Gabbit]

if you have an issue with blizzard being unoriginal just look at most game companies. what about Cod fucking 19 coming out some time in the future. Blizzard has flagship IP that they focus on to develop rich story. Innovation isn't the only reason a games company can exist, at least blizzard release games that improve upon a IP rather then just stagnating the shallow pool of triple A titles with a seasonal release of generic shooter 5 or whatever.

If you are going to attack a developer for lacking innovation there is many much more guilty parties in game development then Blizzard.

Anti fanboys are as bad as fanboys

 

[Inkidu]

You seem to be lumping those "innovative" games together as if they were all developed by the same company. Come back once you can find a company that produces a "innovative" game once every couple years. Seriously, EVERY single company does this. You said individual developers have more "guts" than blizz? Remember Penumbra followed by Amnesia? How long, if ever, would it take for Mojang to create a completely different game than Minecraft? They have to right? Since they already made millions of dollars they OWE us a completely different game or else they are killing the industry. This whole thread just boils down to plain blizzard bashing, without anything to back it up.

I'm not saying they have to paint the Sistine Chapel with a toothbrush, and it's impossible for a team to totally break away from what they've done in the past, however. With the nature of MMORPGs they're all very samey to me. Blizzard's new one might be, but I sincerely doubt it. Maybe I'm being a cynic, but if Blizzard did something, something that wasn't StarCraft, WarCraft, or Diablo. That would be a step in a fresh direction. Like I said maybe Titan is it, maybe not.

 

[Inkidu]

if you have an issue with blizzard being unoriginal just look at most game companies. what about Cod fucking 19 coming out some time in the future. Blizzard has flagship IP that they focus on to develop rich story. Innovation isn't the only reason a games company can exist, at least blizzard release games that improve upon a IP rather then just stagnating the shallow pool of triple A titles with a seasonal release of generic shooter 5 or whatever.

If you are going to attack a developer for lacking innovation there is many much more guilty parties in game development then Blizzard.

Anti fanboys are as bad as fanboys

This is a matter of personal taste, but when I think story, Blizzard is the last place I look. Different issue though.

 

[ThorUK]

As much as I dislike WoW, and it's demon-spawn (ie "wow-clones"), it, Starcraft and Diablo I & II are without a doubt a part of video game history. Furthermore, using an existing intellectual property to bring in fans of the previous games is in no way bad providing you're adding a proportionate amount of gameplay without upsetting the themes and feel of the previous games. Blizzard are one of the few companies out there right now who are actually capable and prepared to do that. Even Bethesda, whom I respect for their technical achievements, stooped to the morally reprehensible approach of purchaseable DLCs.

I liked Diablo I, and II, and the (single) expansion to II! Am i going to buy no. 3? Almost certainly, am I going to get my money's worth? Again, almost certainly! As far as I'm concerned, Blizzard are key example of how to run a game development company both profitably and ethically.