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On March 21 2014 00:23 JimmyJRaynor wrote:Show nested quote +On March 20 2014 07:30 Mistakes wrote:On March 18 2014 11:00 JimmyJRaynor wrote:On March 17 2014 18:03 Endymion wrote:
i just dont think they give a fuck anymore and i think they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. they'll release LOTV, and then the executive team in charge of managing sc2 and the other standard IPs will be like "well sc2 fell out of competition with league and dota during its later stages, what went wrong?"
and some intern will be like "we didn't innovate, we fell behind and people stopped caring about the game and its client. the passion of a select few can only sustain a game for so long."
SC2 competes with C&C, AoE, CoH, and Warcraft3 because its an RTS game. Blizzard's official competitor within the LoL and Dota2 genre is Heroes of the Storm, not SC2. The team that made SC2 is the team assigned to Heroes of the Storm. Don't expect this team to return to the RTS genre to make another full "AAA" level RTS game. They will make LotV though. Any Team1 member working on HeroesotS can more easily transfer to other Blizzard projects because Heroes involves all 3 Blizzard universes. the RTS sub-genre of the Strategy genre has been slowly declining for a long while now due to changing consumer tastes. SC2 is the ultimo hombre of the genre. The Strategy genre ( which encompasses far more than RTS) is vibrant and thriving. SC2 and its esports scene will slowly decline for about the next 5 years or so and Blizz won't make another RTS game as both the genre and the platform (desktop PC computer) are engaged in less and less by consumers. if you like RTS games the next 5 years of SC2 will be fun, just don't expect explosive growth. what you see now is what you're going to get. in 5 years the SC2 eSports scene will probably be 1/2 the size of what it is now. expect slow decline. Relic is a shadow of its former self. EA has mothballed 2 RTS studios in the past 5 years. Microsoft closed down Ensemble and did not replace it. and now Blizzard has their RTS team making a "hero brawler". Don't expect Blizzard to put "AAA" development resources into resuscitating a sub-genre that consumers do not want. Blizz has done a great job in a declining genre that is developed for a slowly declining platform ( desktop PC ). Do not blame Blizzard for the eventual death of the RTS genre, and don't blame it on bad community building by Blizzard. The PC gaming platform has been growing over the past few years. And especially recently with the terrible release of the Xbox One. Although I do not expect a huge explosive growth of SC2 in five years, I do expect it to grow. I have been seeing my friends, and friends friends try StarCraft with the new free version, and even hearing and seeing people who do not play SC at all, tune into IEM, Proleague, and GSL. The game will not have 1/2 the viewers in five years, at the very least it will be where it is now. But I do expect growth based on what I have been seeing over the last couple years. i hope you are correct. the # of GSL seasons/MLG weekend events has already declined substantially over the past 3 years. IEM/ESL seems to be holding its own, much like WC3 held its own in Europe. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2014/01/09/2013-represented-worst-decline-in-pc-markets-history/" It’s no wonder we’re seeing Intel INTC +1.44% push a new Dual OS initiative at CES 2014. The chip maker confirmed that new processors will be capable of switching between Android and Windows instantaneously. " Mike Morhaime believes Windows8 is bad for PC Gaming. Blizzard's D3 and Hearthstone are clear moves outside of the PC/Win world. It'll be interesting to see what Blizz does with Heroes of the Storm in the next 2 years. More than 5 years ago, Blizzard was happy to put all its eggs in the PC/MSWin basket. No longer... and i can't say i blame them. Steam is introducing the SteamBox because Gabe is afraid of where the PC//Windows OS combo is going. Do you think Blizzard will ever make games for the Steambox? Maybe that is why they conceded the Dota2 dispute so easily. They want to keep their options open once the PC/Win platform bites the dust. I wouldn't be surprised if the "Arcade" ends up having "more life in it" than the SC2 ladder in 5 years. All the big guys are getting ready for the PC/Win market to implode and are making their contingency plans. I've given examples such as Intel, Valve, AMD, i could go on and on. People are spending less and less time with the "desktop PC".
Yeah, but I'll group it into PC gaming as long as you're using a mouse and keyboard and it has the same 'PC gamer community' feel it has now. I've never liked Windows or Microsoft, but with more games being released for Linux and whatnot, I don't expect computer gaming to be going down anytime soon. Will Blizzard make Linux releases of their games? Versions available for Steam? I'm not sure. If anything I feel Blizzard would make their own platform or 'steam box' for gaming since they really like to keep to themselves.
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I 100% agree with TB. I actually don't really understand why there is so much doom and gloom about the health of the scene, outside of ballance, which blizzard has been very proactive in fixing, the game has never been better.
While this might sound selfish, I dont really care all that much about vewier numbers, what I care about is awsome content and right now there is no lack of great sc2. We have shoutcraft clan wars, dreamhack, Iem, proleague, 3 wcs regions Acerteamstory, homestorycup I mean so much awsome content I don't hav etime to watch it all.
I will not have any worries about the health of the game untill we are down to a low number of tourneys. right now sc2 is better than it has ever been and seems to be growing slowly but steadily.
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On March 21 2014 04:57 SlammerIV wrote:
I 100% agree with TB. I actually don't really understand why there is so much doom and gloom about the health of the scene, outside of ballance, which blizzard has been very proactive in fixing, the game has never been better.
While this might sound selfish, I dont really care all that much about vewier numbers, what I care about is awsome content and right now there is no lack of great sc2. We have shoutcraft clan wars, dreamhack, Iem, proleague, 3 wcs regions Acerteamstory, homestorycup I mean so much awsome content I don't hav etime to watch it all.
I will not have any worries about the health of the game untill we are down to a low number of tourneys. right now sc2 is better than it has ever been and seems to be growing slowly but steadily.
Did they pay you to write that?
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On March 21 2014 04:57 SlammerIV wrote:
I 100% agree with TB. I actually don't really understand why there is so much doom and gloom about the health of the scene, outside of ballance, which blizzard has been very proactive in fixing, the game has never been better.
While this might sound selfish, I dont really care all that much about vewier numbers, what I care about is awsome content and right now there is no lack of great sc2. We have shoutcraft clan wars, dreamhack, Iem, proleague, 3 wcs regions Acerteamstory, homestorycup I mean so much awsome content I don't hav etime to watch it all.
I will not have any worries about the health of the game untill we are down to a low number of tourneys. right now sc2 is better than it has ever been and seems to be growing slowly but steadily.
SC2 is in slow decline. the guys saying the game is dead or will be dead in a year are incorrect. but, this does not mean "SC2 is growing". it is not growing.
planet earth is a big place. so somewhere on this blue marble there may be small pockets of growth for SC2. over all its down.
Blizzard has done a great job and made a great game. Of course Bally-Midway did a great job with Pacman Junior.. that game didnt save the dot eating maze game genre and Starcraft ain't savin' the RTS genre. fickle consumers tastes have changed. changing consumer demands put an end to the dot-eatng maze game genre. it didn't matter how cool and innovative new games were. people had moved on. this same process is happening wiht the RTS genre right now.
RTS games will always be around in some form or another just like dot-eating maze games will always be around.
But, the big hitters like Microsoft, THQ, EA and Blizzard no longer have any grand RTS games in their plans. RTS games were a focal point for big publishers 10+ years ago. This is no longer the case.
The next really good RTS games will come from Indy studios on shoe-string budgets. Unless you want to call Rome2:Total War a really good RTS game, 
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SC2 is in slow decline. the guys saying the game is dead or will be dead in a year are incorrect. but, this does not mean "SC2 is growing". it is not growing.
Do you have any facts or figures for that? Declining player numbers, declining viewer numbers, etc. ?
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would you like The Americas or Europe or Korea ?
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This has almost nothing to do with PC Gaming. The demographic that will trade in a desktop for a tablet or phone wouldn't even have machines that could run the latest game releases.
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Yeah, Jimmy, we know all your reasoning is completely circular.
No need to preface your posts to tell us what's following.
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This is beautiful.
I think with Jinro and now this we can finally get a wave of optimism or at least an end to all the pessimism I see in LR's and especially r/starcraft.
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I enjoyed listening. Our scene is at least healthy enough to warrant top players playing full time for the foreseeable future, so we should be quite happy about that.
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On March 22 2014 03:29 Big J wrote:Show nested quote +SC2 is in slow decline. the guys saying the game is dead or will be dead in a year are incorrect. but, this does not mean "SC2 is growing". it is not growing. Do you have any facts or figures for that? Declining player numbers, declining viewer numbers, etc. ?
So what, as things are going now we have at least a few more years of seeing games only get better.
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EPT
