There is a wind of change blowing through the gaming industry, and it has to do with the way companies interact with their fans. In the past, the traditional approach to video game promotion was though print media. Developers invited the big magazines to come and test games, get screenshots, and ask exclusive Q&A's. With the advent of the internet, this model of marketing is now being phased out. Game magazines are dying as people turn to the net to get their information quickly, and free of charge.
Video game companies have been slow to react to this change, but with the success of Blizzard's community projects in World of Warcraft, they are learning. In recent months Blizzard has created a new department specifically designed for community building. This division is headed up by two people: Karune, who has been responsible for giving us information through the Q&A posts, and Stephanie, who performs her job in Blizzard's European office.
On Thursday, Blizzard gathered 13 people from 12 different StarCraft and WarCraft community sites together for a meeting. Many sites familiar to you were present including myself and Meat from TL, as well as people from GG.net, sclegacy.com, MYM, and broodwar.de. The purpose of this meeting was to bring together the leaders of this community and discuss ways in which we can better interact with each other and Blizzard. This was a valuable opportunity for us as community leaders to meet face to face with one another, and bind us together for a common future.
It is no secret that when StarCraft 2 arrrives, there will be a torrent of new players and activity. It is impossible for us to overstate how large the the effect will be. Blizzard is now taking steps to ensure that when they launch their game, there will be a community ready to welcome these new gamers. The Community Summit put existing sites into a position to make the transition to StarCraft 2. In this transition, Blizzard will be our partner as they help foster a strong community that will support their game for another ten years.
What does this mean for you, our visitor? This means that not only will Blizzard be paying attention to site leaders, but they will be paying attention to site visitors. It means that the opinions you express on this website will be tabulated, summarized, and sent on to Blizzard. Already you have experienced your influence on the development team through the redesign of the seige tank and the removal of protoss units. This influence will only get stronger as TeamLiquid and other sites have a direct pipeline to Blizzard and their developers. With this new Community Division listening to us, you yourself can help craft the very game you are about to play. The leader designer and balancer of StarCraft 2 both read our site. Think about that when you post.
In terms of community leaders, our discussion generated many good ideas on how to better coordinate the goals of Blizzard with the goals of these many community sites. Blizzard has many plans in place on how to better integrate the sites into their overall SC2 plan. One I am at liberty to talk about include a revamp of the Blizzard fansite program. Under the new guidlines, active sites would be granted priviliges and perks normaly only given to pring magazines and the large online news sites. Sites which work hard at community building will be given support on their projects and official exposure by Blizzard. The stronger the site, the stronger the support.
The future of StarCraft is approaching at an amazing pace. With your continued efforts, you can help ensure TeamLiquid will be on top of the scene with the best StarCraft forums on the net.
Blizzard is listening. What do you have to say?
I'd like to take this space to thank Kevin (Karune) and Stephanie for being such gracious hosts today, as well as the entire Blizzard staff for allowing us to tromp through their headquarters. In addition I would like to thank the other members of the community whom Joy and I met; it was a pleasure to foster stronger ties between all of us.
that is awesome, the reason why starcraft is still such a great game in this day and age many years after it was created is the love and attention that blizzard spends on creating these games. they know that its not just about pretty effects and big machines, its about all aspects of the strategy.
One thing I like about blizzard is how they don't always focus 100% on money. It's true that they want their game to be successful, but they also actually try to make their fans like them. That's why patches have come out for bw for so many years, and why they are even looking to the community of gamers for ingenuity and advice. I hope they continue to be miles ahead of other video game companies in this regard.
the fact that they responded to fan request (like the tank being redesigned) gave me confidence that blizzard is really listening. that is a pretty rare and great attitude we get to see from other developers. GG Blizzard!
hmm i would say tl.net is the most "refined" source for fan feedback on things starcraft related, and even here there are 20 horrible ideas for every 1 good idea.
hopefully there is a plan to "listen" to the community without getting sidetracked by the noise, a process for weeding out the good suggestions from the bad.
however it's done, if knowledgeable, balanced people like FA are getting a chance to authoritatively whisper in blizzards ear, that would be a very crucial success.
Although Blizzard games are in general among the most thought-through, stable, and best maintained, I cheerish this development, where direct feedback from gamers is bound to improve games even further.
Great development. Of course also in terms of marketing, risk managment, and generally making even more money a smart move :-)
For a full complement of buzz word's I'd even go so far to call it a win-win-situation :-))
On August 02 2007 23:18 Manifesto7 wrote: Blizzard has many plans in place on how to better integrate the sites into their overall SC2 plan. One I am at liberty to talk about ...
I like how you always plant these hype-creating little hints that you are planning things for the site that noone knows about. good job.
This is great! Good to hear that Blizzard wants this to be community-centric. Just need to have quality posts that is inteded to help the game. I'm confident that you guys will do your job to make this game the best it can be. LETS GO!
How about some BW tournaments in North America and Europe so that people can get excited about playing StarCraft? Many people are returning to BW because of the announcement of SC2 and they just see a long-standing dry spell of Blizzard-supported competitive events. We recently received League Development Kits from Blizzard, but the only league to have popped up was taken down partly due to buggy league software. Another reason for its disappearance was its refusal to provide a competition without reliable anti-hack, something that we can all agree should be provided by Blizzard, especially when they are encouraging online-play via LDK.
Blizzard has given us a BW tournament as a part of BlizzCon, but it's more of a spectacle than an actual competition. This year, the two non-Korean players who were invited were just repeats from last year. When one of them said he can't go, Blizzard just asked the remaining player to recommend someone. As for the 6 Koreans, only half of them are currently good. The rest are just fan favorites. More of a spectacle than an actual competition. A series of tournaments to determine who gets to compete BlizzCon would have been the most important event for any non-Korean BW player. When all the Blizzard guys are watching the BW tournament at BlizzCon, instead of thinking of how cool it is that the Koreans love their game so much that they have mastered it to a level beyond the reach of any foreigner, they should be ashamed for the exact same reason. The only reason the Koreans got so good was incentives -- incentives we seriously lack in the US.
SC2 is the chosen one. It's the RTS that has a chance to make a huge mark in competitive gaming. With Blizzard's support, it can become the best game in the world to play competitively. Push for TV time in the US and for bigger prizes than any other game has ever had. When SC2 launches, its first year should be a blitzkrieg of events. The increased community relations can play an integral role for promotion, satellite tournaments, etc. View StarCraft community leaders as a legion of volunteer workers. They are already volunteering their time and money for BW sites, but when SC2 comes out, they can become an organized army under the leadership of Blizzard. It'd be every community leader's dream to play a role in making SC2 the hands-down best e-sports game. Plan ahead.
Excellent write up. It's a delight to hear that Blizzard is letting the community have their voices heard. This game will be at the top, 100% fact. Blizzard has gone a great job of creating the suspense and anticipation of this game. However, in order to get this game to truly revolutionize and take over the RTS scene, there needs to be that bond directly between the company and the community (which blizzard has taken intiative of). Again, great job and looking forward to more updates!
On August 03 2007 07:32 NonY[rC] wrote: How about some BW tournaments in North America and Europe so that people can get excited about playing StarCraft? Many people are returning to BW because of the announcement of SC2 and they just see a long-standing dry spell of Blizzard-supported competitive events. We recently received League Development Kits from Blizzard, but the only league to have popped up was taken down partly due to buggy league software. Another reason for its disappearance was its refusal to provide a competition without reliable anti-hack, something that we can all agree should be provided by Blizzard, especially when they are encouraging online-play via LDK.
Blizzard has given us a BW tournament as a part of BlizzCon, but it's more of a spectacle than an actual competition. This year, the two non-Korean players who were invited were just repeats from last year. When one of them said he can't go, Blizzard just asked the remaining player to recommend someone. As for the 6 Koreans, only half of them are currently good. The rest are just fan favorites. More of a spectacle than an actual competition. A series of tournaments to determine who gets to compete BlizzCon would have been the most important event for any non-Korean BW player. When all the Blizzard guys are watching the BW tournament at BlizzCon, instead of thinking of how cool it is that the Koreans love their game so much that they have mastered it to a level beyond the reach of any foreigner, they should be ashamed for the exact same reason. The only reason the Koreans got so good was incentives -- incentives we seriously lack in the US.
SC2 is the chosen one. It's the RTS that has a chance to make a huge mark in competitive gaming. With Blizzard's support, it can become the best game in the world to play competitively. Push for TV time in the US and for bigger prizes than any other game has ever had. When SC2 launches, its first year should be a blitzkrieg of events. The increased community relations can play an integral role for promotion, satellite tournaments, etc. View StarCraft community leaders as a legion of volunteer workers. They are already volunteering their time and money for BW sites, but when SC2 comes out, they can become an organized army under the leadership of Blizzard. It'd be every community leader's dream to play a role in making SC2 the hands-down best e-sports game. Plan ahead.
First let me just say that i love the post by Mani, just amazing.
Second i gotta agree with pretty much everything NonY said, SC2 has the potential to take progaming and gaming in general to a whole new level with Blizzards support, I hope with the help from Blizzard we can see some events or tournaments or anything here in Europe or North America. It would help in not only getting the rest of the world more interested in SC2 but help in getting the non-gaming crowd here to recognize how big this thing is. As mentioned above there is zero incentive to actually try hard in the US and even less in Europe, We will never get passed this stage if things remain as they are right now.
Played a 2on2 tournament - lost to Manifesto and Meat
We came there when BlizzCon was still being set up but the StarCraft 2 computers were up and running. All the representatives of the fan sites (14ish or so) got to play and together with Karune and Stephanie from Blizzard, we quickly started up a 2on2 tournament. I was playing with LordofAscension and we got beaten by Manifesto and Liquid`Meat the first game. Suprise?
But this goes against everyone saying not to criticize SC2 from the getgo and to suck the duck. Thanks fascist mental state, i could of made SC2 even greater than the first but its too late ^_^. Anyway i already wrote all my SC2 ideas out 2+ years ago, maybe there still floating around somewhere.
Played a 2on2 tournament - lost to Manifesto and Meat
We came there when BlizzCon was still being set up but the StarCraft 2 computers were up and running. All the representatives of the fan sites (14ish or so) got to play and together with Karune and Stephanie from Blizzard, we quickly started up a 2on2 tournament. I was playing with LordofAscension and we got beaten by Manifesto and Liquid`Meat the first game. Suprise?
I made a comment in an SC2 forum thread a while ago about how amazed I am at the patience and receptive nature of blizz in making this game. What you've shared with us here reinforces that feeling.
Blizz is a great company through and through, we can be certain of that.
I like them listening to fans in a way, but i'm also afraid they're succumbing to the requests of the general public. So far, i feel a lot of things that were spammed on tl were changed:
- soul hunter out - fast responses - tank redesign - medic back
It's good that blizzard listens, but they should not be afraid to say no to things either and go with the way they want things to be. They're the professionals, not us.
On August 03 2007 17:47 aseq wrote: I like them listening to fans in a way, but i'm also afraid they're succumbing to the requests of the general public. So far, i feel a lot of things that were spammed on tl were changed:
- soul hunter out - fast responses - tank redesign - medic back
It's good that blizzard listens, but they should not be afraid to say no to things either and go with the way they want things to be. They're the professionals, not us.
Fucking sweet, it was cool how they were walking around while players were playing the game at blizzcon, actually asking specific gamers what they think of the game. This game will blow away all of our expectations, it's going to be great.
On August 03 2007 07:32 NonY[rC] wrote: How about some BW tournaments in North America and Europe so that people can get excited about playing StarCraft? Many people are returning to BW because of the announcement of SC2 and they just see a long-standing dry spell of Blizzard-supported competitive events. We recently received League Development Kits from Blizzard, but the only league to have popped up was taken down partly due to buggy league software. Another reason for its disappearance was its refusal to provide a competition without reliable anti-hack, something that we can all agree should be provided by Blizzard, especially when they are encouraging online-play via LDK.
Blizzard has given us a BW tournament as a part of BlizzCon, but it's more of a spectacle than an actual competition. This year, the two non-Korean players who were invited were just repeats from last year. When one of them said he can't go, Blizzard just asked the remaining player to recommend someone. As for the 6 Koreans, only half of them are currently good. The rest are just fan favorites. More of a spectacle than an actual competition. A series of tournaments to determine who gets to compete BlizzCon would have been the most important event for any non-Korean BW player. When all the Blizzard guys are watching the BW tournament at BlizzCon, instead of thinking of how cool it is that the Koreans love their game so much that they have mastered it to a level beyond the reach of any foreigner, they should be ashamed for the exact same reason. The only reason the Koreans got so good was incentives -- incentives we seriously lack in the US.
SC2 is the chosen one. It's the RTS that has a chance to make a huge mark in competitive gaming. With Blizzard's support, it can become the best game in the world to play competitively. Push for TV time in the US and for bigger prizes than any other game has ever had. When SC2 launches, its first year should be a blitzkrieg of events. The increased community relations can play an integral role for promotion, satellite tournaments, etc. View StarCraft community leaders as a legion of volunteer workers. They are already volunteering their time and money for BW sites, but when SC2 comes out, they can become an organized army under the leadership of Blizzard. It'd be every community leader's dream to play a role in making SC2 the hands-down best e-sports game. Plan ahead.
I'm quoting this purely so that Dustin or Pillars might see it if they missed it the first time.
On August 06 2007 14:13 funKie wrote: If words were pictures, if those words, written by you (Mani) were a picture, it would be the most beautiful one.
Good one Mani.
Manlyfesto for the win, the guy is awesome.
thank god they took out soul hunters.
I want reavers back, nevermind that their abilites have gone to other units
Sometimes I worry about the problems that might arise when giving the masses what they believe they want.... just remember SC1 wasn't openly debated or designed to this magnitude and everyone here loves what was made and given to them. As the saying goes 'too many cooks spoil the meal' so I hope we dont argue too much about what the end product is going to be and allow for some creativness to have its chance.
On August 16 2007 01:12 aka_star wrote: Heres a Ney Say:
Sometimes I worry about the problems that might arise when giving the masses what they believe they want.... just remember SC1 wasn't openly debated or designed to this magnitude and everyone here loves what was made and given to them. As the saying goes 'too many cooks spoil the meal' so I hope we dont argue too much about what the end product is going to be and allow for some creativness to have its chance.
zzzz... Yea, Blizzard is trying to let the mindless masses design their game!...
For fuck's sake, they are the best at what they do--they know what to take from feedback and what is noob shit. We don't have to "allow" Blizzard to do its thing, how stupid do you imagine them to be?
Can i ask that blizzard devote more time to Chinese gamers? With the release of starcraft 2, the Chinese scene is going to be huge but the support is lacking.
I know it is difficult to integrate Chinese gamers with the rest of bnet but consider setting up a Chinese bnet gateway in China. Money is not an issue for blizzard and it will help alot of people.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Manifesto7/blizzcon_banner.JPG)
. Being in touch with each other can only benefit both Blizzard and us.
