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Alright I wasn't sure where to post this but I went with blogs.
I feel like Dustin Browder gets hated on a lot unfairly in contradictory manners often. Although it's natural, he is pretty much the face of Blizzard in regards of SC2 so many of its perceived shortcomings are often blamed on him.
Let's look at SC2 and the criticism it often gets. Usually it's the BW comparisons, that it's not as good. But what are those? Well basically many people say that BW is great because of epic macro games filled with things like PLAGYUUUUUU and REBOREBOREBO, you know what I mean, the excitement of all the OP shit being hurled around.
Now look back at SC2 for a second and pretty much all that is gone. The Reaver is replaced with the Colossus, an autoattack unit that doesn't really produce awesome "oh wow" moments. Defiler replaced with Infestor, the spells feel small and aren't as great as Defiler. By design the game have very few such elements and Blizzard had said this is because of balance.
So back to DB, the poor guy get hated on because he is from C&C, the game filled with broken OP units and spells. Then we have SC2 which is often criticized for it's lack of excitement and dynamic gameplay compared to BW. We also see interviews with DB saying that he basically wanted to add all sorts of things but Blizzard said balance takes priority, even to the point where things that were commonplace in BW are scrapped in order to have what in their eyes is manageable balance.
The dude would probably love to have Defilers, Science Vessels, Spider Mines, 2 supply tanks, Storm and Reavers and anything new they could come up with to replace or add to the "excitement aspect" of BW. But we see in interviews that it's the oldschool dudes at Blizzard that decided their idea of balance would trump having cool and exciting OP units that existed in BW or adding new ones. But poor DB gets all the blame yet he is probably the greatest proponent of having units like Reavers in the game.
I personally hope that he gets way more say in the development of the expansions and they really mix it up with more exciting stuff. I know balance is important but is it really worth sacrificing something so fun to watch like the things I mentioned and other things that we see in BW? I'm probably the only person on TL that likes DB.
 
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Canada2890 Posts
I think Browder's got more of a level head on his shoulders than most people here do, but I still can't forgive him for ruining the goliath portrait.
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Not so much on topic but with how fast this game and the units are, how easy control is compared to bw, having defilers would just be waaaaaaay OP. You could so easily get a defiler across the map and dark swarm the shit out of everything and win.
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On May 12 2011 23:13 Bebop07 wrote:
Not so much on topic but with how fast this game and the units are, how easy control is compared to bw, having defilers would just be waaaaaaay OP. You could so easily get a defiler across the map and dark swarm the shit out of everything and win.
You can do just that in BW, and the other races have ways to stop it.
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On May 12 2011 23:16 Potatisodlaren wrote:Show nested quote +On May 12 2011 23:13 Bebop07 wrote:
Not so much on topic but with how fast this game and the units are, how easy control is compared to bw, having defilers would just be waaaaaaay OP. You could so easily get a defiler across the map and dark swarm the shit out of everything and win. You can do just that in BW, and the other races have ways to stop it. Like I said, this game the units move a ton faster, and are way easier to control than BW, making it simpler to get across map. And there's no science vessels to stop it, or firebats, so I guess they'd need to be brought back? I'm not an expert but just imagining a defiler being dropped into sc2 I'd imagine it going this way.
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On May 12 2011 23:22 Bebop07 wrote:Show nested quote +On May 12 2011 23:16 Potatisodlaren wrote:On May 12 2011 23:13 Bebop07 wrote:
Not so much on topic but with how fast this game and the units are, how easy control is compared to bw, having defilers would just be waaaaaaay OP. You could so easily get a defiler across the map and dark swarm the shit out of everything and win. You can do just that in BW, and the other races have ways to stop it. Like I said, this game the units move a ton faster, and are way easier to control than BW, making it simpler to get across map. And there's no science vessels to stop it, or firebats, so I guess they'd need to be brought back? I'm not an expert but just imagining a defiler being dropped into sc2 I'd imagine it going this way.
Then you just deal with it the same way that most players dealt with it in BW, EMP/hellions/snipe for terran and feedback/psi storm/phoenix snipe for protoss. zvz rarely gets to hive tech anyways just like in BW.
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How do you know that?
Isn't it more likely, given completely free reign, Dustin would just make CnC with starcraft units (more so than he already did)
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On May 12 2011 23:43 floor exercise wrote:
How do you know that?
Isn't it more likely, given completely free reign, Dustin would just make CnC with starcraft units (more so than he already did)
Uhh yeah thats kinda the point. CnC series is known for ridiculously strong specialist units, imbalanced super weapons, massive areas of stealthed buildings, etc.
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The thing about BW is that the OPness of each race actually balance each other out.
There is an argument to be made that SC2 is what BW would have looked and played like if it were made now, back when BW was made alot of the technology that SC2 relies on, AI, gfx, MBS and unlimited control group size would have put way too much strain on your PC. Also SC1 and BW were never designed to be an esport, it happened organically so the OP units and balance were never such a hot topic when in the design phase.
I agree DB gets alot of hate, when he is just one man...... anyone who has ever worked on anything creative, music, games, films, TV etc know that one man, even if he is in charge, has little control over the finished product. Everyone seems to assume that DB made every decision, and designed every ability etc.... he isn't even in charge of game balance..... he is the lead designer, that means that while he may have alot of influence, he certainly didn't create very much of the game itself.
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On May 12 2011 23:51 xarthaz wrote:Show nested quote +On May 12 2011 23:43 floor exercise wrote:
How do you know that?
Isn't it more likely, given completely free reign, Dustin would just make CnC with starcraft units (more so than he already did) Uhh yeah thats kinda the point. CnC series is known for ridiculously strong specialist units, imbalanced super weapons, massive areas of stealthed buildings, etc.
So the point is CnC = BW so by remaking CnC he would be remaking BW? I'm not sure how we arrive at the conclusion that if we gave the guy who makes bad games even more free reign we'd have a better game as a result
It's more likely we'd still have dumb shit like this:
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/starcraft/images/c/c3/SoulHunter_SC2_Rend1.jpg)
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On May 13 2011 00:34 floor exercise wrote:Show nested quote +On May 12 2011 23:51 xarthaz wrote:On May 12 2011 23:43 floor exercise wrote:
How do you know that?
Isn't it more likely, given completely free reign, Dustin would just make CnC with starcraft units (more so than he already did) Uhh yeah thats kinda the point. CnC series is known for ridiculously strong specialist units, imbalanced super weapons, massive areas of stealthed buildings, etc. So the point is CnC = BW so by remaking CnC he would be remaking BW? I'm not sure how we arrive at the conclusion that if we gave the guy who makes bad games even more free reign we'd have a better game as a result It's more likely we'd still have dumb shit like this:
Did I just hear someone say command and conquer = bad?
Sorry, that doesn't compute. That shit was sick.
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On May 12 2011 22:59 Potatisodlaren wrote:But we see in interviews that it's the oldschool dudes at Blizzard that decided their idea of balance would trump having cool and exciting OP units that existed in BW or adding new ones.
Where does it say this?
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He is the hero starcraft deserves, but not the one it needs right now, so we will hunt him, because he can take it, because he is not our hero. He is the silent guardian, a watchful protector. A DARK KNIGHT
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Guy got a pretty ungrateful job considering the predecessor to SC2.
Honestly though the "perfect" balance of BW feels to have been more a case of luck than any elaborate balancing scheme on the part of Blizzard.
But then again who knows maybe SC2 was perfectly balanced at launch cause I remember certain races being quite "op" for a longer time in BW than the current intervals between balance patches in SC2.
Just BW players had to find a solution themselves since you couldn't spam whine Browder about it.
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On May 13 2011 00:34 floor exercise wrote:Show nested quote +On May 12 2011 23:51 xarthaz wrote:On May 12 2011 23:43 floor exercise wrote:
How do you know that?
Isn't it more likely, given completely free reign, Dustin would just make CnC with starcraft units (more so than he already did) Uhh yeah thats kinda the point. CnC series is known for ridiculously strong specialist units, imbalanced super weapons, massive areas of stealthed buildings, etc. So the point is CnC = BW so by remaking CnC he would be remaking BW? I'm not sure how we arrive at the conclusion that if we gave the guy who makes bad games even more free reign we'd have a better game as a result It's more likely we'd still have dumb shit like this:
This needs to be quoted 1000x over so everyone knows that this game, faults and all, could have been much worse!!
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I like Dustin as a person.
But not as a SC2 designer. I hope that he listens to the community for HOTS and LOTV, for the sake of the future of SC2.
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EPT
