|
Well, this Blizzcon has successfully made me want to play both Diablo 3 and HotS even more than I did last week. The main panels were great. On the other hand, it also led me to think about how Blizzard approaches their releases and games. Honestly, with minor changes and features, I feel both SC2 and D3 could be better than ever and it's disappointing to see that Blizzard knows this but fails to add them.
Story :
It's no secret that Blizzard has some good storyline in their games. Go play Diablo1/2, WC3 or SC:BW and overall, they are very engaging stories that make you interested in the lore.
Last year, we got WoL and a lot of people disliked the story. I actually enjoyed the single player game a lot. The gameplay is great and I can't fault it. But the story and just the overall cheesiness of it made the game less interesting than it could've been for me. I've been keeping up on HotS and I'm not sure how it will be yet since it's hard to really judge something from trailers. It looks like it's going to keep on the same track but I'm going to withhold judgement for now.
On the other hand, Diablo 3 has revealed a ton about the lore and that one is easier to judge. What we've gotten to know this weekend : the designers barely understand the lore from D1 and D2 and they retconned a ton of stuff for Diablo 3. They added some pretty ridiculous story elements to a story that really didn't need it. I understand that there are several books from several writers but at least don't retcon the stuff from the previous games.
Lore spoilers + a link to a transcript of their lore panel :
+ Show Spoiler +Like the fucking dragon. Really? The 7 lords of hell came from a dragon? Fuck off Blizzard. http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-iii-lore-panel-live-coverageOh, and the hero from Diablo 1 is suddenly Leoric's son? Give me a fucking break... GRRR. I'm not pissed of that Diablo will have a female host but I am pissed that their cinematic already ruins who it is without any build up. Also, soulstones making their way into the story again is highly disappointing. I really wanted and expected a better story than that.
Now, again, I'm positive I'll enjoy the game but this will slightly impair my enjoyment of it. It's not like I hate all of their story, but some of it is just universally disappointing. Even if the D3 story ends up being fucking amazing, it will still be done by destroying pre-established lore.
Overall, their story writing has decayed and they are also incapable of continuing their stories without messing with what's already been done. Better story writing would make all of their series more enjoyable (let's not even talk about WC lore... I loved it until WC3 but I've lost interest now obviously).
Minor gameplay features :
And the lack of them.
Look at this thread in the D3 forum about things that could make the game more interesting :
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=275060
Original stuff that would make the game so much more entertaining and honestly wouldn't change the normal game. It would give them some endgame content. It might take Blizzard a few weeks to a couple of months at max to implement these things if they really wanted to. So far, instead, we have Blizzard still debating how they plan to do 1v1 PvP... It seems it will be similar to Diablo 2 : little in terms of end-game content. Sure Inferno is going to be harder but it IS the same content. With max level being 60 (and not difficult to reach like 99 in D2) and the way skills work, we need something fun like those ideas to keep us interested in the game.
Their QA panel for Diablo 3 (contains spoilers) :
http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-iii-open-qa-panel-rough-transcript
Now, I'll give them credit for the AH and the hardcore graveyard they are going to add. That's a great start. But overall, there are several small features that Blizzard simply forgets or doesn't put in their games that could make them more enjoyable while having no impact on the gameplay itself (or the main game).
We can also see this with SC2.
This Q&A from TL with Blizzard shows this perfectly :
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=277989
Minor things (except LAN), yet stuff that would enhance their game to another level. There's no need to really elaborate since this is the SC2 community but we all know how their custom game menu is for example.
As for HotS stuff, I'm eager to see it into play. I find pretty much everything they've revealed interesting and awesome despite all the hate. I'm sure some stuff is going to be incredibly imbalanced but that's why the beta is there.
For both of them : Single player. Yeah, I understand their reasons why it's not there. I don't think they're stupid. I still hate it. I loved mods in Diablo 2 so I can only hope there will be a way to play them in Diablo 3 (although on a personal server I imagine) but it's going to be much harder no doubt.
Tournament hosting :
Well, this is just a side note; Blizzard is simply not that great at eSports. They improved upon last year's Blizzcon tournament (not hard to), but on the other hand, every big tournament improved continuously in the last year and Blizzard didn't really follow suit. It's unfair to except a game developer to be on the same level as say GSL or MLG as that isn't really their main goal, but it's very apparent when a company doesn't really follow suit.
MLG : Started badly -> did better but still didn't cast that many games; had a lot of downtime -> added more streams and casters and overall became enjoyable to follow. They did better everytime.
Blizzcon : Had an unwatchable tournament -> Had a watchable tournament but only casted a small % of the games played, as well as chose those games quite poorly. Had a lot of downtime.
Simply put, their improvement was like 1 MLG to the next instead of 1 year of MLG's improvements.
At the same time, they put down other tournaments by not offering LAN and taking some of their ad revenue. Overall, they are worst for eSports than if they just made the game and didn't get involved beyond that.
That said, I still enjoyed the tournament. I don't mind the "lesser" players because it's meant to be a global tournament. The quality is amazing and the auto adjust is great. Good job on that.
Conclusion :
Blizzard games usually end up being 8/10 for me and I'm fairly certain Diablo 3 will end up there as well. They are my favorite games overall besides a few classics (8/10 is great from me, nothing really gets 10/10 as that would mean it's perfect) and I highly enjoy them. Yet if they got their act together and made small changes that would leave the gameplay intact by adding a few features and stopped destroying their pre-existing stories to make worse ones, they could jump to 9 or 9.5/10.
I still enjoy their games but this Blizzcon really reinforced the idea that Blizzard's overall quality has decayed a lot over the past few years. Unfortunately, it doesn't have anything to do with the gameplay, but with small parts of everything else.
I know this is not really a revelation for anyone but I wanted to write my thoughts on it in a coherent manner.
 
|
Blizzard pisses me off sometimes. So I agree with what you're saying here.
|
I feel like Blizzard is "dumbing" down the story purposely to make their other games more attractive to the WoW audience and an increasing number of younger gamers that Blizzard attracts. Obviously to non-gamers it is acceptable to have a cliche love/revenge story, generic characters and overall cheesy dialogue. It is painfully clear the stories they are creating aren't meant to recapture the memories of those that played the previous titles and have a reconnection with them. They want to appeal to the mass audience and that means creating something that has been done over and over again.
|
From playing the D3 beta it seemed to me that the story is made as if nothing in Diablo 2 ever happened. Which is a major bummer. You know. Didn't read anything about great Helldragon or such, but the hero being the son of Leoric *cough* rogue *cough* female *cough* is... well, what do I expect from Diablo anyway, might just replay Baldur's Gate for story value. Diablo is a hack and slash first and a story-telling device second imo.
|
I thought this was going to be a massive Blizzard bitch-fest, but thankfully I was wrong. I think it's best to remember that Blizzard is a business. You can offer them suggestions, but, in the end, Blizzard will do what it thinks will maximize profit. That being said, I'm just glad Blizzard exists-- without it, Esports would rest in the hands of shit like LoL and Halo.
|
It's a huge business job without enough competetion. As a result Blizzard games end up being very professionally made, but nowadays they kind of lack that little bit of extra ambition and personality to stand out in artistic or emotional level. They're wonderful engineering products, but no way I'm going to fall in love with the personality.
|
Doesn't Blizzard have a high personnel turnover?
I'm assuming most of the people that were responsible for WC3, SC, WoW back in 2004 have moved on.
Like why is SC2 being led by a former Command and Conquer guy in Dustin Browder?
|
On October 23 2011 09:52 mbr2321 wrote:
I thought this was going to be a massive Blizzard bitch-fest, but thankfully I was wrong. I think it's best to remember that Blizzard is a business. You can offer them suggestions, but, in the end, Blizzard will do what it thinks will maximize profit. That being said, I'm just glad Blizzard exists-- without it, Esports would rest in the hands of shit like LoL and Halo.
LoL probably wouldn't exist as DotA was a wc3 map originally.
|
10387 Posts
Blizzard should just fire whoever's writing the stories, writing is fucking awful in Blizzard games nowadays
|
I agree with basically everyone else here. Blizzard does a very good job, however it's just like they have the wrong mindset of what they want (need) to accomplish, and so a lot of the little things and attention to detail slip by. You can see it in many aspects of the WoL release, such as a rather generic storyline (Though I don't think it is that sub-par, just not excellent like SC1 and BW), no chat channels, next to no ability for a name change on a permanent account that costs full retail price and no clan support. Then when patching they often focus on the wrong things at the wrong times, like the constant bunker changes, removal of abilities instead of working around them to create a more dynamic game and focus on nerfing rather than tweaking and subtle buffing.
These things by themselves are pretty minor, but they add up to the point where it is clear there is simply just something lacking in their creative department that would really make them literally the best game making company in existence. Whether it is that they are too large a company for their own good and bureaucracy holds them back or they really just don't have the right people on the job I don't know, but it just puts a dampener on the entire Blizzard experience.
It is an enjoyable experience but attention to detail in certain subjects is simply missing. It's like a construction crew building a magnificent giant golden statue, yet the inside is hollow.
|
Correct me if im wrong but wasnt the finals of the starcraft tournament a Bo3 ? I don't think a Bo3 should be in any big tournament finals. That's where I didn't like the tournament setting (also Close Positions we're hard to deal with TT;
Edit: nvm, guess I missed one of the bo3 xD
since I missed it, ill blame it on all the down time they had ^^
|
On October 23 2011 12:18 ArvickHero wrote:
Blizzard should just fire whoever's writing the stories, writing is fucking awful in Blizzard games nowadays
Yea it's really terrible. If their own writers don't even know what's going on how do they expect the readers to understand it. Maybe it's just me but it feels like they're trying too hard in the newer games and not just letting it all flow together.
|
If anything, I think that people's expectations of Blizzard have risen faster than Blizzard can meet them. Kind of like the American expectation towards their President, Blizzard has now become "the father who wants to love but doesn't know how".
Let's get one thing straight first. From a quality perspective, Blizzard has always been improving. You can clearly see from each succession of RTS that they make that the UI is sharper and cleaner, AI is better, etc. etc. In the specific realm of game making, which is the original single goal of Blizzard, they are still always improving.
It's just everything else that Blizzard is now expected to do they can't quite handle. New things like needing to run a serious e-sports tournament at Blizzcon, having to manage game lores that are growing in complexity, how to balance a game specifically designed for e-sports, how to manage a large company with a hugely passionate consumer base. and so on.
Blizzard is first and foremost a company that makes games. Their best claim to fame is that their games have some of THE tightest, cleanest, most fun gameplay in all of gaming. Beyond this specific task, people should really cut them some slack for not being completely perfect. If you look at other game companies that have become really famous, such as Id, Bungie, and BioWare, you will notice that they have the exact same problems handling the growing company size and fan pressure to put out bigger and better games.
All that being said, here's a few suggestions I can think of for Blizzard to improve their peripheral tasks:
For Balancing: Hire an entire team of gamers, an official Blizzard team that competes with other Starcraft 2 teams just like Team Liquid. David Kim can be the player-Coach and Blizzard liaison for the team. This team can be sponsored by other corporations to offset costs. It can also be partly sponsored by Blizzard in return for helping to provide significant input into the game from a competitive standpoint.
For Story: Hire professional writers! I know that there's one long-time Blizzard employee who's doing all the storyboard work, but to be honest he kind of sucks. He's overworked. He can't get all the stories straight any more. Warcraft 3 and StarCraft: Brood War had essentially the exact same storyline. He doesn't cut it compared to the likes of Bungie or Bioware. It's like the Command and Conquer cutscenes Westwood Studios used to do with their in-house part time director Joe Kucan. That shit was cool 15 years ago in the 90's when nobody expected anything, but times have changed.
For Blizzcon Tournament: I have two possible suggestions. One is to scrap the Blizzcon Invitational altogether and piggyback onto the GSL. In the month that Blizzcon takes place, GSL replaces their normal season with an international invite, 64-man Super Tournament, using Blizzard Invitational costs to sponsor the additional players. The top eight move to Blizzcon for the final tournament. Single elimination, Best-of-Five for the top 8 with the quarter finals all played on day one (4 Bo5 matches) and everything else played on day 2 (also 4 Bo5 matches, the semi finals, 3rd place decider, and Finals). Perfectly scheduled, no games are skipped. The second option is to have the Blizzcon Invitational be 8 players only, with same format as above. Main point being Blizzard doesn't realize what a big deal these players are to the fans and fans hate having massive showdowns like Sen vs Naniwa not broadcasted.
That's all for now.
|
On October 23 2011 14:02 Newbistic wrote:
If anything, I think that people's expectations of Blizzard have risen faster than Blizzard can meet them. Kind of like the American expectation towards their President, Blizzard has now become "the father who wants to love but doesn't know how".
Let's get one thing straight first. From a quality perspective, Blizzard has always been improving. You can clearly see from each succession of RTS that they make that the UI is sharper and cleaner, AI is better, etc. etc. In the specific realm of game making, which is the original single goal of Blizzard, they are still always improving.
It's just everything else that Blizzard is now expected to do they can't quite handle. New things like needing to run a serious e-sports tournament at Blizzcon, having to manage game lores that are growing in complexity, how to balance a game specifically designed for e-sports, how to manage a large company with a hugely passionate consumer base. and so on.
Blizzard is first and foremost a company that makes games. Their best claim to fame is that their games have some of THE tightest, cleanest, most fun gameplay in all of gaming. Beyond this specific task, people should really cut them some slack for not being completely perfect. If you look at other game companies that have become really famous, such as Id, Bungie, and BioWare, you will notice that they have the exact same problems handling the growing company size and fan pressure to put out bigger and better games.
All that being said, here's a few suggestions I can think of for Blizzard to improve their peripheral tasks:
For Balancing: Hire an entire team of gamers, an official Blizzard team that competes with other Starcraft 2 teams just like Team Liquid. David Kim can be the player-Coach and Blizzard liaison for the team. This team can be sponsored by other corporations to offset costs. It can also be partly sponsored by Blizzard in return for helping to provide significant input into the game from a competitive standpoint.
For Story: Hire professional writers! I know that there's one long-time Blizzard employee who's doing all the storyboard work, but to be honest he kind of sucks. He's overworked. He can't get all the stories straight any more. Warcraft 3 and StarCraft: Brood War had essentially the exact same storyline. He doesn't cut it compared to the likes of Bungie or Bioware. It's like the Command and Conquer cutscenes Westwood Studios used to do with their in-house part time director Joe Kucan. That shit was cool 15 years ago in the 90's when nobody expected anything, but times have changed.
For Blizzcon Tournament: I have two possible suggestions. One is to scrap the Blizzcon Invitational altogether and piggyback onto the GSL. In the month that Blizzcon takes place, GSL replaces their normal season with an international invite, 64-man Super Tournament, using Blizzard Invitational costs to sponsor the additional players. The top eight move to Blizzcon for the final tournament. Single elimination, Best-of-Five for the top 8 with the quarter finals all played on day one (4 Bo5 matches) and everything else played on day 2 (also 4 Bo5 matches, the semi finals, 3rd place decider, and Finals). Perfectly scheduled, no games are skipped. The second option is to have the Blizzcon Invitational be 8 players only, with same format as above. Main point being Blizzard doesn't realize what a big deal these players are to the fans and fans hate having massive showdowns like Sen vs Naniwa not broadcasted.
That's all for now.
But... the marauder....
+ Show Spoiler +j/king of course I wrote what I thought above and don't really think the marauder is that bad  I also agree completely with your post of course
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
