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Hey everyone. You're all most likely aware of the just released preview of Blizzard's new feature, leveling. With all the drama and negativity all over the place in the last few days (or has it been weeks already? I can't even tell), I felt like voicing my opinion on it.
Blizzard is introducing a change that's by all means positive. The new proposed system is in all aspects an upgrade over the old system in which portraits were unlocked based on the number of wins. To the casual gamer, the one not focused on "playing to win" and "becoming the best one can be" like a lot of us are, it gives every game, even a lost one, some worth, it redeems the time spent playing it. I know the game is supposed to be played for fun, and it gives me loads of it every time I fire it up. However, I can easily imagine people being angry for not earning points because the other guy, for example, "cannon rushed and that's retarded", "proxy gated and that's broken", "was terran and only people with no self respect play that".
I think the less anger the game causes for the player, the better.
Destiny has already spoken his mind about it, right here. To quote:
I'm not sure. I had the misfortune of speaking to a Blizzard rep, the same guy, coincidentally, that's going to give JP some "sick information". I'm pretty sure that I already know what information he's going to give him, and I know how the community will react. At first everyone will say it's pretty neat, because it gives players an incentive to play some more, but it's all still focused around "being competitive". After hearing him tell me about some of the problems that Blizzard has when dealing with some issues, I was 100% certain that nothing was going to change. Nothing significant will change with the Battle.net interface. I've been so torn over the past few weeks whether or not I should just dump the chatlog on screddit and peace the fuck out (which is what most of you would do if you honestly saw it), but I literally promised him at the beginning of the message that I would keep everything private, and I'd feel like a scumbag for leaking it (and maybe even costing him his job? if there's enough negative blowback).
Destiny is right saying that Blizzard is reinforcing the competitive aspect of the game. Of course, that does nothing to help the UMS community, which was a major aspect of SC:BW and WC3. I played UMS in WC3 myself, so I know what he means.
But do we really need a strong UMS aspect in SC2?
Look at our two biggest competitors (I dislike the words "opponents" or "enemies" in this case): LoL and DotA 2. As far as I know (and I might well be wrong, I have very limited experience with LoL and my only contact with DotA was the first one, in WC3), these don't even have a Use Map Settings feature. Yet people keep playing them. Why? My theory is that it's because the games are very accessible and can be easily enjoyed with a bunch of friends. I've been asked to play LoL by mine so many times that I don't even think many players actually start playing it by themselves. The social aspect pulls the most of them in: the game is where their friends are at. And you don't have to spend 60$ just to be able to play a ladder game with them.
UMS was important in BW, and in WC3 as well. I don't think it's necessarily needed for Starcraft 2's casual base. If the game itself could be more easily enjoyed with (or against) friends, like our competitors are, I'm sure the impact would be massive.
I also don't think we have reasons to believe that nothing positive will come from Blizzard in the near future. Perhaps; but we cannot be 100% sure, and I'd rather choose to believe in them. Otherwise, hey, we might as well all abandon ship and pick up some other passions.
Anyway, as I begin to ramble, I would like to move on to the original goal and give a shoutout.
Dear Blizzard, leveling is a mighty fine idea. Please go right ahead and add it in.
So is the impending "resume from replay" feature, as well as the global play you've said you'd add in for HotS. I also love that you've been increasingly open towards the community lately, I'd very much like it if you kept it up.
Please, do not stop at that, though.
The social aspect of the game can be improved a lot. The chats and the map pools are just two examples of things that can be made a ton better.
You also said you might consider free to play down the road... perhaps that might be the next step needed for the game - and for eSports - to grow? It's a bold one, I completely agree. It just might be the best thing possible, though.
Like many things in the world, StarCraft II, while being quite amazing, has a fair share of its problems. And when you look at the big picture, they look like a giant weight pressing down on the game's shoulders. One by one, however, they can all be identified, tackled and eventually eliminated. All it takes is effort and dedication. And if there's one thing I know about this community - and what I'm pretty sure is also true about Blizzard, which I consider a part of the community - is that there's plenty of it here.
That's pretty much all I have to say right now. Thanks a lot for reading this. I don't know if my will affect anything at all; but hey. #SaveHotS was an initiative formed by many individual voices speaking (and\or tweeting) as one. Perhaps it didn't change anything. But in this case, I choose to be a believer.
