This is going to be a bit like cursing in a church, but lately it feels like Blizzard is always playing "the safe cards" every time they develop a game. Now it has annoyed me to the point where I feel an urge to spread some light regarding the issue
Blizzard is generally viewed as one of the best, if not the best, game developer in the world. Lately though I started to question if they really deserve that title. For every year that passes they become a little bit less creative than the year prior. I mainly talk from a story perspective but also from a general game development point of view. I like to do a comparison with Blizzard Entertainment in the early 1990 and Blizzard today.
During the 5 year period from 1993-1998 the following games was released:
Rock N`Roll Racing – 1993 Warcraft: Orcs and Humans – 1994 Justice League Task Force – 1995 Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness – 1995 Diablo – 1996 The Lost Vikings 2 – 1997 Starcraft – 1998 Starcraft Brood War – 1998 Plus additionally 3 SNES games that are unknown to me.
I mean look at that list. That is some damn amazing stuff. An astounding variation and quantity of games. There is RTS, RPG, racing games, fighting games and a puzzle solving side-scrollers.
The quality is also second to none, Rock N` Roll Racing and TLV2 are both in my top 5 SNES list. Diablo: well one of the best RPG: s ever. Very innovative for its time as well, pretty much created the action RPG gender. Starcraft: was apparently pretty good also I heard. Still widely known as one of the best RTS of all times, not to mention what it did for the development of e-sport including the very existence of this forum. Not to mention Warcraft, great RTS and the foundation of WOW.
From a story perspective it is also interesting to ponder a moment on these games. The fact that the games Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft where all created in a 4 year period is almost surreal. The lore of each one of those games could individually rival the lore of any game in the world in manner of magnitude and popularity.
So if we jump at little closer to present and look at the 7 years period from 2005-2012 the following has been released by Blizzard.
World of warcraft – The burning crusade - 2007 World of warcraft – The Wrath of the Lich King - 2008 Starcraft 2 – Wing of liberty - 2010 World of warcraft – Cataclysm – 2010 Diablo 3 – 2012 + most probably World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria – 2012
From a creativity point of view, both game experience and story, I would say a comparison between the two is a bit like a show match between Total Biscuit and DRG. Rather one side. Sure there are definitely good games (or most of them at least )) but they are all similar to previous releases of Blizzard.
Okay there is Starcraft 2, the story progression from SC BW make sense and over all it is just a great game. Also I can give some credit to the 2 first expansions of WOW, as they tie up some of the loose ends from Warcraft 3 the Frozen Throne and over all expanded the game in a logical fashion. I cannot say I feel the same about Cataclysm. It had very little connection to previous warcraft games and did not make for a great story or expansion over all. Then there is Mists of Pandaria….. Well for the first hours I actually thought Blizzard was trolling. I know they have many WOW accounts and they need to release an expansion every second year to maintain it… but really?
Compare for a second the magnitude of story and atmosphere in the original Diablo game or previous warcraft, then you look at Mists of Pandaria, and you tell me that expansion has a good story.
To put it simple, how did we get from this - -
To this -
Then finally the game that really made all this come to mind. Diablo 3. To be honest I don’t even get the story in D3 yet. I tried to read about it but no. How do you continue the story from D2: LoD? There is no reasonable line of story progress. The 3 brothers of hatred where killed. Their souls where literally smashed. The original hero from Diablo is dead. The world stone was destroyed = the world as we knew it had come to an end, a new era starts, the last elfes have sailed to Valinor.
Of course you can always make another story, problem is that the story progressively gets worse every time you do it, and when you have done this for a very long time you go from Hellscream to dancing pandas on a floating turtle. I am sorry If this offends people but cannot for the life of me understand that this is a serious project. I don’t even dare to think about the expansions after this one is going to be like.
So was when the last time Blizzard made a new story line from scratch? Around 1997 in the development of SC if I am not mistaken. Roughly 15 years ago that is <-- a large number right there. Just think about it, all the games released in the last 15(!) years has all been sequels or expansions to those 3 games that was developed between 1994 to 1998.
Would it kill blizzard to make something new instead of over using/abusing their story lines over and over again. Stories need to have an end, even the once you like. Blizzards still make great games but there should be a lot more potential than this. I for one is not buying Mists of Pandaria :p
Hopefully Blizzard has already acknowledge this and project titan is not a code name for Mist of Pandaria standalone MMO!
Edit: Many misconceptions here regarding WOW. No releasing WOW was not a safe card, never said it was. That was back in 2004 however and releasing 4 expansions is very much playing it safe imo.
They lost Blizzard North and with them the passion for making games. They are just another big company now that are owned by the shareholders who wants money, not great games.
Creativity as a whole is declining. There really is no need for new ideas because the old ones redone sell just as well. Basically we've been conditioned to accept the mediocre without pushing for the extraordinary. It also goes beyond video games to movies (reboot of the reboot of spider man anyone?), books, and other forms of art. Basically art is not made for art's sake anymore, but to be sold, and companies look for profit not for greatness.
Theyve just become more and more professional, as has the game creation business in general. meaning more development time and money per title, less titles released. And games targeted at a larger more mainstream audience, and as a result, game content "cheaper" or "dumber" however you want to call it.
Blizzard has a huge lineup for a video game company as it is, the creativity is still there a bit. Titan is going to be their new addition to their line up and that is a big risk for them. Making video games today also requires more resources than it did 15-20 years ago. To me Blizzard is just playing it safe because they have to. I'd wait until TITAN comes out to judge them on their creativity.
A newer company has to take the risk because the video game industry is clogged with companies now, so you need to risk it all to stand out.
I usually try to stay out of these threads because the Blizzard hate is strong in people these days and it usually leads to people being angry at the company for not living up to their entitled expectations.
lol, I remember seeing the panda thing before, but just thought it was some bad fanmade joke or something. I can't believe they are actually going to do that.
I agree that they are far less creative than they used to be, but for different reasons. I think it is only smart to stick with the franchises that have gotten you this far, the ones that are that popular. However, when the only units you can think up company-wide are void rays and colossi, something is wrong. It seems the only cool and unique units we have in sc2 are the direct ports from broodwar.
I spent a long time giving them the benefit of the doubt when sc2 came out, saying things to myself like, "well, it is kind of cool and original that a colossus is so "tall" that it can be hit with air-only attacks and... a unit like the void ray is kind of obligatory if you think about it, you kind of have to have one of those kinds of units." But now, with the units they thought up in HoTS, ugh. The unit-producing lurker is cool, but c'mon, that's not exactly hard to think up. They did the same thing with the guardian. They ported it to sc2 and made it shoot units instead.
They need to get whoever in that company is creative and sit them all around a table and start thinking up some cool unit ideas, because right now they're all rehashed. The coolest thing about BW was the remarkable diversity in units and just how different the 3 races were. I've never played an rts that had more different races to play.
I'm not saying it's easy. I think it's probably pretty hard, but c'mon, do it big. If I had to sum up sc2's creativity so far in 2 words, it'd be reaver -> colossus.
Please blizz don't mess up. I like the game and want to see it succeed in a big way.
On April 13 2012 00:34 storkfan wrote: Theyve just become more and more professional, as has the game creation business in general. meaning more development time and money per title, less titles released. And games targeted at a larger more mainstream audience, and as a result, game content "cheaper" or "dumber" however you want to call it.
Well, normally you would think more money and less time for games. I thought they started losing out on the creativity part from war3, it felt as though you had seen/heard everything before, agree with the mainstream bit At the sametime, blizzard also have to walk a tight rope, satisfy newer fans, and also satisfy older fans of the games. So the amount of leeway they're given in terms of risk is pretty low, not an easy situation to be in.
Diablo was actually not by them in the first place, they bought the company that was doing it..and later fired most of the staff after d2.
You can't expect the same innovation as in that time since the gaming industry was iin its early stages back then. Now it has been a lot more developed with clear genre's in the industry ( I.E. RTS, RPG etc.) and 10's of titles who all try to differentiate themself from the rest.
Creating WoW wasn't really a safe card. Sure it had the warcraft name but it was a mmorpg something completly new for Blizzard and it was clearly an innovative product and still is seeing the success it had. Wc3 is also one of a kind in the rts genre I've never seen such a game it was full of innovations. Only sc2 looks a lot like it's predecessor but then again it's still one of the best rts games in recent years and maybe ever so I don't see the problem.
On April 13 2012 00:37 Kralic wrote: Blizzard has a huge lineup for a video game company as it is. Titan is going to be their new addition to their line up and that is a big risk for them. Making video games today also requires more resources than it did 15-20 years ago. To me Blizzard is just playing it safe because they have to.
A newer company has to take the risk because the video game industry is clogged with companies now, so you need to risk it all to stand out.
I usually try to stay out of these threads because the Blizzard hate is strong in people these days and it usually leads to people being angry at the company for not living up to their entitled expectations.
Yes that is definitely true but does not even that "truth" have a limit? You would think it would come back and bite them eventually. I mean is really everyone going to buy mists of Pandaria? It seems that at least a fairly big chunk of the community has the "I cannot believe they are actually doing this" approach to the entire project.
A bit like playing defensive in starcraft, good in the beginning but becomes a bit sad when you released that it is the enemy creep spread that is coming up your ramp
This isn't cursing in the curch. People should say, correctly, how they feel. I do agree with you. BW is much more smarter story wise than SC2 which feels like cheesefest sometimes. I really hope that pretty expensive D3 isn't gonna be a disappointment. If that's so, then I'm not buying HoTS or anything else coming from Blizzard.
On April 13 2012 00:43 RvB wrote: You can't expect the same innovation as in that time since the gaming industry was iin its early stages back then. Now it has been a lot more developed with clear genre's in the industry ( I.E. RTS, RPG etc.) and 10's of titles who all try to differentiate themself from the rest.
Creating WoW wasn't really a safe card. Sure it had the warcraft name but it was a mmorpg something completly new for Blizzard and it was clearly an innovative product and still is seeing the success it had. Wc3 is also one of a kind in the rts genre I've never seen such a game it was full of innovations. Only sc2 looks a lot like it's predecessor but then again it's still one of the best rts games in recent years and maybe ever so I don't see the problem.
Well I agree that WOW was not a safe card and was creative development. WC3 was also very unlike WC2 and brought new things to the RTS gendre. But then again those two games are 8 and 10 years old. 8-10 years is a pretty long time to come up with something creative imo
On April 13 2012 00:37 Kralic wrote: Blizzard has a huge lineup for a video game company as it is. Titan is going to be their new addition to their line up and that is a big risk for them. Making video games today also requires more resources than it did 15-20 years ago. To me Blizzard is just playing it safe because they have to.
A newer company has to take the risk because the video game industry is clogged with companies now, so you need to risk it all to stand out.
I usually try to stay out of these threads because the Blizzard hate is strong in people these days and it usually leads to people being angry at the company for not living up to their entitled expectations.
Yes that is definitely true but does not even that "truth" have a limit? You would think it would come back and bite them eventually. I mean is really everyone going to buy mists of Pandaria? It seems that at least a fairly big chunk of the community has the "I cannot believe they are actually doing this" approach to the entire project.
A bit like playing defensive in starcraft, good in the beginning but becomes a bit sad when you released that it is the enemy creep spread that is coming up your ramp
That is the hard part for Blizzard to tell. The large chunk of the community usually isn't vocal, the vocal minority are the ones bitching and complaining. I am not the biggest fan of Panda land but apparently a lot of people were for them to approach it.
WoW was a safe card? Are you out of your mind? You're justifying your argument of how things were back then with things you know now. That is absolute nonsense.
Back then Everquest and UO were the models of successful MMORPGs. WoW was absolutely innovative. They made up a huge chunk of storyline just for that, in addition to enormous gameplay changes compared to the other MMOs. And it was a successful gamble.
On April 13 2012 00:37 Kralic wrote: Blizzard has a huge lineup for a video game company as it is. Titan is going to be their new addition to their line up and that is a big risk for them. Making video games today also requires more resources than it did 15-20 years ago. To me Blizzard is just playing it safe because they have to.
A newer company has to take the risk because the video game industry is clogged with companies now, so you need to risk it all to stand out.
I usually try to stay out of these threads because the Blizzard hate is strong in people these days and it usually leads to people being angry at the company for not living up to their entitled expectations.
Yes that is definitely true but does not even that "truth" have a limit? You would think it would come back and bite them eventually. I mean is really everyone going to buy mists of Pandaria? It seems that at least a fairly big chunk of the community has the "I cannot believe they are actually doing this" approach to the entire project.
A bit like playing defensive in starcraft, good in the beginning but becomes a bit sad when you released that it is the enemy creep spread that is coming up your ramp
That is the hard part for Blizzard to tell. The large chunk of the community usually isn't vocal, the vocal minority are the ones bitching and complaining. I am not the biggest fan of Panda land but apparently a lot of people were for them to approach it.
I don't know if that's necessarily true. They just weren't going to lose a huge chunk of subscribers no matter what. Pretty much anything they came up with would've followed the same WoW trend.
That said, I do think WoW was a major risk and I think MoP is a major risk as well. Maybe not as much stylistically for the reason stated above, but the talent revamps and everything are.
On April 13 2012 00:34 storkfan wrote: Theyve just become more and more professional, as has the game creation business in general. meaning more development time and money per title, less titles released. And games targeted at a larger more mainstream audience, and as a result, game content "cheaper" or "dumber" however you want to call it.
Well, normally you would think more money and less time for games. I thought they started losing out on the creativity part from war3, it felt as though you had seen/heard everything before, agree with the mainstream bit At the sametime, blizzard also have to walk a tight rope, satisfy newer fans, and also satisfy older fans of the games. So the amount of leeway they're given in terms of risk is pretty low, not an easy situation to be in.
wat? You thought they were losing out on creativity from War3? Sure we've seen night elves (drow) and undead in other places, but making a relatively balanced 4Race RTS (poor undead ;_;), with HEROES, a unique mechanic that essentially spawned the MOBA genre is pretty damn creative if you ask me. Sure you've seen heroes and 4races in other games, but had you seen like War3 did it?
The point stands though that they haven't made anything wildly original in a while. I'm not too sad about that as I enjoy their games regardless, but if they made something innovative and awesome, I'm sure they would reap the benefits both critically and financially.
EPT
