On September 18 2025 15:39 RogerChillingworth wrote: Holy shit look how many people work at Bonfire. How many sales do they have to make to pay everyone? Is the strat these days just to have a big launch then not give a fuck after that? Just move onto the next thing? How is any of this sustainable.. Also like, with 49 billion games released every day, how much time is someone supposed to spend on a single game. Especially when it looks like a generic turdsplash.
Pardo was the creative mind behind WoW and Brood War. He was able to turn that track record into 87 bazillion dollars of venture capital cash. He used this money to back Bonfire Studios.
We have been finding out for the past 10 years that Pardo is not a very good CEO.
Look at Pardo's list of accomplishments before leaving Blizzard in 2014. Look at his list of accomplishments since 2014. He's making Bobby Kotick look like a genius CEO.
Haha I was thinking of making this very topic on the subreddit! May as well join in with some of mine.
The chick who wrote the Celestial music - S, An easy S. That theme is fantastic
The sound bloke/blokettes - F The core sound(s) often aren’t good, there’s little weight to them. But worse still, it is mixed horribly. Levels are all over the place and not consistent, and it’s incredibly jarring because that is rare. Like genuinely I haven’t played an RTS (or indeed anything that isn’t like, an amateur for-fun indie game) where the sound is so over the place. We’re arguably at the stage where enough people, myself included have said ‘sound is the most underrated part of game design’, that it’s no longer underrated, but hey. I can open a BW VoD, alt tab to something else, and still kinda know what’s happening, the sound is that distinctive, and not just distinctive, but good. The boom of an Arclite shock cannon is bloody crunchy even when I’m not looking at it. Zealots smacking things sounds crunchy, marines going ‘that’s the stuff’ before shooting things with their Gauss rifles, that also sound like a weapon. It’s good shit.
The engine folks - B- or D Some may feel the former is generous, but do bear with me, this will be the first of a pattern. I think its core feel ain’t bad, there some jankiness but as mentioned up the page, I think the game got prematurely exposed. My personal (unconfirmed) suspicion is that, especially in terms of performance, the game got hampered by a need to have flashy things like ‘the most responsive RTS ever’, and that wasn’t the engine folks’ call. If their work wasn’t made harder and gimped by requests from above to make those calls, and they themselves decided to gimp the game’s performance, then I’ll give them that D
Art Team - C I don’t care as much about it as many do, if the game was banging, I don’t think it’s that big an issue. Equally overall it’s not well, good either. I think there’s some genuinely good work there, amongst some that’s well, not. I’m being perhaps more generous than I should, but as per a pattern across a lot of my ratings, I feel the art team got railroaded from above to pursue a certain style and aesthetic, and it’s not necessarily one they’d have went with if they were trusted to you know, do the game’s art design as per their job spec.
Writing Team - C- I don’t care as much about others again, if the campaign blew my socks off with mechanical solidity and variety, I’m not that fussed if the story isn’t great. But man it’s, like insulting bad. It is genuinely just rehashes of previous Blizz RTS arcs, done worse. Another issue I have with the writing, and indeed the art is they don’t feel like they mesh at all. The art style kinda screams fun, irreverent campy goodness, like a Borderlands kinda tone, and the narrative tone is super, super serious business, it doesn’t even have the odd bit of light touches that Blizz would throw in to their classic campaigns, even when overall they were quite serious.
Monk - C (B- with caveats) The problem here is a real lack of tangible vision, things feel more like throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks, rather than iterating and experimenting around a real solid core, established set of ideas. However in mitigation, his and the team’s work was thrown out and showcased way before it needed to be. In further, and bigger mitigation, I think Monk has talent, but eventually everyone finds their ceiling. He’s not a massively experienced professional RTS developer, and you’re making him your guy to oversee basically the whole core game, and ambitions of multiple modes to boot? Salah is a bloody good musician but you wouldn’t get him to pen a full symphony orchestra piece like. I think he’s got good ideas, but maybe put him under a real storied RTS lead rather than have him having to have the final say on everything.
The Community Team - B Caveat, a lot of people complain about the Discord environment. I’m not on the Discord. From what I saw, they were pretty professional, enthusiastic and from where I’m sitting, they were continually tossed live hand grenades by their superiors to deal with.
Whoever OKed all the awful PR gaffes - F ‘Fully funded to release’TM, the Kickstarter is just for servers, biggest backers will get all content, the ninja edits. Every mistake made was then compounded by doubling down on them, and just shredded community goodwill. Community goodwill incidentally being the only reason a game miles out from release, with little tangible known about it ever got the funding, hype and eyes in the first place.
Tim Morten as a fundraiser and hype man - S Can’t really be argued he ain’t good at that.
Tim Morten the visible face of Frost Giant the actual games studio - T Can’t really be argued he is good at that
Writing Team - C- I don’t care as much about others again, if the campaign blew my socks off with mechanical solidity and variety, I’m not that fussed if the story isn’t great. But man it’s, like insulting bad. It is genuinely just rehashes of previous Blizz RTS arcs, done worse. Another issue I have with the writing, and indeed the art is they don’t feel like they mesh at all. The art style kinda screams fun, irreverent campy goodness, like a Borderlands kinda tone, and the narrative tone is super, super serious business, it doesn’t even have the odd bit of light touches that Blizz would throw in to their classic campaigns, even when overall they were quite serious.
Sorry, I'm going to have to downgrade the writing team's score to an E because of the F-tier dialog, the completely nonsensical and stupid plot developments (oh no, we lost the mysterious pyramid artifact off-screen, oh, it doesn't matter because Amara can just run at it really fast and then defeat every single Infernal on Earth instantly, etc, etc) and the complete lack of voice acting direction.
Writing Team - C- I don’t care as much about others again, if the campaign blew my socks off with mechanical solidity and variety, I’m not that fussed if the story isn’t great. But man it’s, like insulting bad. It is genuinely just rehashes of previous Blizz RTS arcs, done worse. Another issue I have with the writing, and indeed the art is they don’t feel like they mesh at all. The art style kinda screams fun, irreverent campy goodness, like a Borderlands kinda tone, and the narrative tone is super, super serious business, it doesn’t even have the odd bit of light touches that Blizz would throw in to their classic campaigns, even when overall they were quite serious.
Sorry, I'm going to have to downgrade the writing team's score to an E because of the F-tier dialog, the completely nonsensical and stupid plot developments (oh no, we lost the mysterious pyramid artifact off-screen, oh, it doesn't matter because Amara can just run at it really fast and then defeat every single Infernal on Earth instantly, etc, etc) and the complete lack of voice acting direction.
On September 19 2025 07:54 WombaT wrote: Haha I was thinking of making this very topic on the subreddit! May as well join in with some of mine.
The chick who wrote the Celestial music - S, An easy S. That theme is fantastic
The sound bloke/blokettes - F The core sound(s) often aren’t good, there’s little weight to them. But worse still, it is mixed horribly. Levels are all over the place and not consistent, and it’s incredibly jarring because that is rare. Like genuinely I haven’t played an RTS (or indeed anything that isn’t like, an amateur for-fun indie game) where the sound is so over the place. We’re arguably at the stage where enough people, myself included have said ‘sound is the most underrated part of game design’, that it’s no longer underrated, but hey. I can open a BW VoD, alt tab to something else, and still kinda know what’s happening, the sound is that distinctive, and not just distinctive, but good. The boom of an Arclite shock cannon is bloody crunchy even when I’m not looking at it. Zealots smacking things sounds crunchy, marines going ‘that’s the stuff’ before shooting things with their Gauss rifles, that also sound like a weapon. It’s good shit.
The engine folks - B- or D Some may feel the former is generous, but do bear with me, this will be the first of a pattern. I think its core feel ain’t bad, there some jankiness but as mentioned up the page, I think the game got prematurely exposed. My personal (unconfirmed) suspicion is that, especially in terms of performance, the game got hampered by a need to have flashy things like ‘the most responsive RTS ever’, and that wasn’t the engine folks’ call. If their work wasn’t made harder and gimped by requests from above to make those calls, and they themselves decided to gimp the game’s performance, then I’ll give them that D
Art Team - C I don’t care as much about it as many do, if the game was banging, I don’t think it’s that big an issue. Equally overall it’s not well, good either. I think there’s some genuinely good work there, amongst some that’s well, not. I’m being perhaps more generous than I should, but as per a pattern across a lot of my ratings, I feel the art team got railroaded from above to pursue a certain style and aesthetic, and it’s not necessarily one they’d have went with if they were trusted to you know, do the game’s art design as per their job spec.
Writing Team - C- I don’t care as much about others again, if the campaign blew my socks off with mechanical solidity and variety, I’m not that fussed if the story isn’t great. But man it’s, like insulting bad. It is genuinely just rehashes of previous Blizz RTS arcs, done worse. Another issue I have with the writing, and indeed the art is they don’t feel like they mesh at all. The art style kinda screams fun, irreverent campy goodness, like a Borderlands kinda tone, and the narrative tone is super, super serious business, it doesn’t even have the odd bit of light touches that Blizz would throw in to their classic campaigns, even when overall they were quite serious.
Monk - C (B- with caveats) The problem here is a real lack of tangible vision, things feel more like throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks, rather than iterating and experimenting around a real solid core, established set of ideas. However in mitigation, his and the team’s work was thrown out and showcased way before it needed to be. In further, and bigger mitigation, I think Monk has talent, but eventually everyone finds their ceiling. He’s not a massively experienced professional RTS developer, and you’re making him your guy to oversee basically the whole core game, and ambitions of multiple modes to boot? Salah is a bloody good musician but you wouldn’t get him to pen a full symphony orchestra piece like. I think he’s got good ideas, but maybe put him under a real storied RTS lead rather than have him having to have the final say on everything.
The Community Team - B Caveat, a lot of people complain about the Discord environment. I’m not on the Discord. From what I saw, they were pretty professional, enthusiastic and from where I’m sitting, they were continually tossed live hand grenades by their superiors to deal with.
Whoever OKed all the awful PR gaffes - F ‘Fully funded to release’TM, the Kickstarter is just for servers, biggest backers will get all content, the ninja edits. Every mistake made was then compounded by doubling down on them, and just shredded community goodwill. Community goodwill incidentally being the only reason a game miles out from release, with little tangible known about it ever got the funding, hype and eyes in the first place.
Tim Morten as a fundraiser and hype man - S Can’t really be argued he ain’t good at that.
Tim Morten the visible face of Frost Giant the actual games studio - T Can’t really be argued he is good at that
It's strange, but that's almost exactly how I would put it.
I'd give writing an F, because it's just trash. I agree with our writer friend here.
Distinction between Tim as a salesman person and the rest of his duties is very accurate. I'd also rate his abilities as an Internet troll separately as D or C. But maybe we should give it to Voidlegacy specifically? :D
Maybe I'd put celestial composer to A instead of S. It's not the same tier as "Children of Omnissiah" (Adeptus Mechanicus), or "In The Blood" (Hades) after all. My S+ Tier is "Scorched Queen" and "Monolith" (Against the Storm). There's also an obscure Japanese MSX-stylized puzzle game "La Mulana" with phenomenal music. Maybe the best chiptune music I've heard
On September 19 2025 01:53 NonY wrote: as competitive gamers, we get ranked by unfeeling and objective ladder systems. these brutal meritocracies put our true ability on display for the world to see. those who manage to rise to the top and venture into the career of a progamer are subject to even greater scrutiny as they attempt to perform better than the most insanely talented and hardworking players in the world
while most jobs are loosely a meritocracy, they are nowhere near the meritocracy that esports, sports, and other specialized careers are. lots of mediocre people can claim to be a professional in their field. some of them even build great resumes and rise to high levels of leadership. game dev is no exception
however, when you start a game studio and create its first game, you are entering a world of fierce competition. a brutal meritocracy
FGS had a huge advantage when entering this world. just like in the world of sport, some kids are given all the resources while others never even get a shot.
there's no way to judge every single employee FGS individually. i'm sure some of them were/are at least Masters level at their job, if not GM or pro.
but it's clear now that the overall performance of FGS is... not competitive.
these linkedin posts are sad like a gold player crying that something is imba. i feel bad too because of the personal sacrifice involved. like moving to korea with your own money hoping you get good enough to be invited to a team house before your money runs out. welp, money ran out, gg
The toxicity in this post. Attacking a man who's out there trying to carve a way for the future of RTS. SC2 and SC1 aren't getting updates anymore. Attacking FG doesn't help anyone.
On September 19 2025 17:40 NeedlerNoobRTS wrote: Attacking a man who's out there trying to carve a way for the future of RTS. SC2 and SC1 aren't
Marketing bullshit. SG never had anything to do with "saving RTS". It tarnished RTS genre much more than in tried to help. Because of Tim's hubris and incompetence, there will be less investors for RTS games.
On September 19 2025 01:53 NonY wrote: as competitive gamers, we get ranked by unfeeling and objective ladder systems. these brutal meritocracies put our true ability on display for the world to see. those who manage to rise to the top and venture into the career of a progamer are subject to even greater scrutiny as they attempt to perform better than the most insanely talented and hardworking players in the world
while most jobs are loosely a meritocracy, they are nowhere near the meritocracy that esports, sports, and other specialized careers are. lots of mediocre people can claim to be a professional in their field. some of them even build great resumes and rise to high levels of leadership. game dev is no exception
however, when you start a game studio and create its first game, you are entering a world of fierce competition. a brutal meritocracy
FGS had a huge advantage when entering this world. just like in the world of sport, some kids are given all the resources while others never even get a shot.
there's no way to judge every single employee FGS individually. i'm sure some of them were/are at least Masters level at their job, if not GM or pro.
but it's clear now that the overall performance of FGS is... not competitive.
these linkedin posts are sad like a gold player crying that something is imba. i feel bad too because of the personal sacrifice involved. like moving to korea with your own money hoping you get good enough to be invited to a team house before your money runs out. welp, money ran out, gg
The toxicity in this post. Attacking a man who's out there trying to carve a way for the future of RTS. SC2 and SC1 aren't getting updates anymore. Attacking FG doesn't help anyone.
Play their game, or don't. No need to dog pile.
Only thing Stormgate did was market their game and have cult-like fans invade every corner of RTS communities to shill their game to no end. Also didn't help a lot of those guys probably had financial stake/investment into SG lol.
On September 19 2025 01:53 NonY wrote: as competitive gamers, we get ranked by unfeeling and objective ladder systems. these brutal meritocracies put our true ability on display for the world to see. those who manage to rise to the top and venture into the career of a progamer are subject to even greater scrutiny as they attempt to perform better than the most insanely talented and hardworking players in the world
while most jobs are loosely a meritocracy, they are nowhere near the meritocracy that esports, sports, and other specialized careers are. lots of mediocre people can claim to be a professional in their field. some of them even build great resumes and rise to high levels of leadership. game dev is no exception
however, when you start a game studio and create its first game, you are entering a world of fierce competition. a brutal meritocracy
FGS had a huge advantage when entering this world. just like in the world of sport, some kids are given all the resources while others never even get a shot.
there's no way to judge every single employee FGS individually. i'm sure some of them were/are at least Masters level at their job, if not GM or pro.
but it's clear now that the overall performance of FGS is... not competitive.
these linkedin posts are sad like a gold player crying that something is imba. i feel bad too because of the personal sacrifice involved. like moving to korea with your own money hoping you get good enough to be invited to a team house before your money runs out. welp, money ran out, gg
The toxicity in this post. Attacking a man who's out there trying to carve a way for the future of RTS. SC2 and SC1 aren't getting updates anymore. Attacking FG doesn't help anyone.
Play their game, or don't. No need to dog pile.
WE'RE ALL JUST SHARING OUR POST-MORTENS. I should rlly dish some srs breakdowns on linkedin. Maybe even start a think-lab and gestate some innovation ideas. I just need 150 million dollars and 20 people who don't know what the fuck they're doing. Please heart this post and leave a comment to earn a 3% chance I click on your face.
On September 19 2025 17:40 NeedlerNoobRTS wrote: Attacking a man who's out there trying to carve a way for the future of RTS. SC2 and SC1 aren't getting updates anymore. Attacking FG doesn't help anyone.
Play their game, or don't. No need to dog pile.
How do you carve a way for the future of RTS with a failed big budget project when smaller budget RTS games look better and are more successful?
Barring the remastered versions of old IPs we've had some new ones added in the recent years and while they might not have as big of a following as SC2 they're doing fine. And you even get RTS that are actually doing new stuff and not just rehashing the same things over and over again (Northgard or Dune: Spice Wars for example).
On September 19 2025 01:53 NonY wrote: as competitive gamers, we get ranked by unfeeling and objective ladder systems. these brutal meritocracies put our true ability on display for the world to see. those who manage to rise to the top and venture into the career of a progamer are subject to even greater scrutiny as they attempt to perform better than the most insanely talented and hardworking players in the world
while most jobs are loosely a meritocracy, they are nowhere near the meritocracy that esports, sports, and other specialized careers are. lots of mediocre people can claim to be a professional in their field. some of them even build great resumes and rise to high levels of leadership. game dev is no exception
however, when you start a game studio and create its first game, you are entering a world of fierce competition. a brutal meritocracy
FGS had a huge advantage when entering this world. just like in the world of sport, some kids are given all the resources while others never even get a shot.
there's no way to judge every single employee FGS individually. i'm sure some of them were/are at least Masters level at their job, if not GM or pro.
but it's clear now that the overall performance of FGS is... not competitive.
these linkedin posts are sad like a gold player crying that something is imba. i feel bad too because of the personal sacrifice involved. like moving to korea with your own money hoping you get good enough to be invited to a team house before your money runs out. welp, money ran out, gg
The toxicity in this post. Attacking a man who's out there trying to carve a way for the future of RTS. SC2 and SC1 aren't getting updates anymore. Attacking FG doesn't help anyone.
Play their game, or don't. No need to dog pile.
You picked the one post of the past 20 pages that could not be considered toxic to make a point? If you didn't know, Nony actually tried to compete in Korea so his comparison is speaking from personal experience.
Anyways, if people here enjoy trash talking the game more than playing it, so be it. Venting after being involved in this mess for multiple years feels natural. I for one just enjoy Roger's random posts, which is enough of a reason for me to check this thread every once in a while.
On September 19 2025 01:53 NonY wrote: as competitive gamers, we get ranked by unfeeling and objective ladder systems. these brutal meritocracies put our true ability on display for the world to see. those who manage to rise to the top and venture into the career of a progamer are subject to even greater scrutiny as they attempt to perform better than the most insanely talented and hardworking players in the world
while most jobs are loosely a meritocracy, they are nowhere near the meritocracy that esports, sports, and other specialized careers are. lots of mediocre people can claim to be a professional in their field. some of them even build great resumes and rise to high levels of leadership. game dev is no exception
however, when you start a game studio and create its first game, you are entering a world of fierce competition. a brutal meritocracy
FGS had a huge advantage when entering this world. just like in the world of sport, some kids are given all the resources while others never even get a shot.
there's no way to judge every single employee FGS individually. i'm sure some of them were/are at least Masters level at their job, if not GM or pro.
but it's clear now that the overall performance of FGS is... not competitive.
these linkedin posts are sad like a gold player crying that something is imba. i feel bad too because of the personal sacrifice involved. like moving to korea with your own money hoping you get good enough to be invited to a team house before your money runs out. welp, money ran out, gg
The toxicity in this post. Attacking a man who's out there trying to carve a way for the future of RTS. SC2 and SC1 aren't getting updates anymore. Attacking FG doesn't help anyone.
On September 19 2025 01:53 NonY wrote: as competitive gamers, we get ranked by unfeeling and objective ladder systems. these brutal meritocracies put our true ability on display for the world to see. those who manage to rise to the top and venture into the career of a progamer are subject to even greater scrutiny as they attempt to perform better than the most insanely talented and hardworking players in the world
while most jobs are loosely a meritocracy, they are nowhere near the meritocracy that esports, sports, and other specialized careers are. lots of mediocre people can claim to be a professional in their field. some of them even build great resumes and rise to high levels of leadership. game dev is no exception
however, when you start a game studio and create its first game, you are entering a world of fierce competition. a brutal meritocracy
FGS had a huge advantage when entering this world. just like in the world of sport, some kids are given all the resources while others never even get a shot.
there's no way to judge every single employee FGS individually. i'm sure some of them were/are at least Masters level at their job, if not GM or pro.
but it's clear now that the overall performance of FGS is... not competitive.
these linkedin posts are sad like a gold player crying that something is imba. i feel bad too because of the personal sacrifice involved. like moving to korea with your own money hoping you get good enough to be invited to a team house before your money runs out. welp, money ran out, gg
The toxicity in this post. Attacking a man who's out there trying to carve a way for the future of RTS. SC2 and SC1 aren't getting updates anymore. Attacking FG doesn't help anyone.
Play their game, or don't. No need to dog pile.
You picked the one post of the past 20 pages that could not be considered toxic to make a point? If you didn't know, Nony actually tried to compete in Korea so his comparison is speaking from personal experience.
Anyways, if people here enjoy trash talking the game more than playing it, so be it. Venting after being involved in this mess for multiple years feels natural. I for one just enjoy Roger's random posts, which is enough of a reason for me to check this thread every once in a while.
<333 I fundamentally agree with you. If I could wave a magic wand and have fulfilling philosophical discussions about RTS, game design, what's fun, what's geud/bad, and actually engage in abstractions in a non-trivial way, I would. But turns out, for better or worse, THAT MAAA'AAM... THIS IS A DENNY'S. These are also the final bits of a 5 year journey of hype, sadness, anger, confusion, and ultimately disillusionment. I'd be surprised if people kept shitting on the game in 6 months after the zoo has fully pulled out of town. Even if they are, I won't be there.
On September 19 2025 17:40 NeedlerNoobRTS wrote: The toxicity in this post. Attacking a man who's out there trying to carve a way for the future of RTS. SC2 and SC1 aren't getting updates anymore. Attacking FG doesn't help anyone.
Play their game, or don't. No need to dog pile.
The man tried to carve out a way for the future of RTS. Past tense.
Now he's just doing postmortens and farming for sympathy comments on LinkedIn while he counts down the days before he has to shutter his studio.
But as we reflect on this terrible, terrible failure of an RTS, I'd like to point out that whenever I hear someone saying "Starcraft II isn't getting updates anymore" it raises my hackles a little bit.
Because we were all told by Artosis and Tasteless and Neuro and a bunch of other Starcraft II celebrities that everyone had to switch over to Stormgate. Artosis said it multiple times. Zombiegrub even noted that the general sentiment (not one that she shared, just that she observed) was that Stormgate would even replace Starcraft II at the Esports World Championship. Like this was just inevitable, and we just had to get on board, because Blizzard wasn't supporting Starcraft anymore. We all had to get with the program!
Well, I wasn't totally opposed to the idea. A new RTS game that was going to be fully supported and developed was appealing, I'll admit. I was willing to go along with it, at least at the beginning.
But then I saw the game itself.
And it was hot garbage.
But you couldn't criticize the game at all, because all the Stormshills would come out and attack you for not supporting "the future of RTS". Even now, with Stormgate basically completely dead, barring a final announcement, this argument still comes out. "Don't attack Frost Giant, they're the future of RTS!"
No. They're not. And they never were. They were pretenders and charlatans. And they were quite willing to dig a grave for Starcraft II and dance on it, before their game was even ready. They were keen enough to try and hurt the Starcraft II scene right as it was at its most vulnerable point, just so they could steal its spotlight.
Well, Starcraft II is still here. It just got a patch. Yes, it doesn't have the support from Blizzard that it used to, which sucks, but it isn't going anywhere. And competitive Brood War is better now than it has been in years.
In the end, great games endure. Bad games get forgotten.
On September 19 2025 17:40 NeedlerNoobRTS wrote: The toxicity in this post. Attacking a man who's out there trying to carve a way for the future of RTS. SC2 and SC1 aren't getting updates anymore. Attacking FG doesn't help anyone.
Play their game, or don't. No need to dog pile.
The man tried to carve out a way for the future of RTS. Past tense.
Now he's just doing postmortens and farming for sympathy comments on LinkedIn while he counts down the days before he has to shutter his studio.
But as we reflect on this terrible, terrible failure of an RTS, I'd like to point out that whenever I hear someone saying "Starcraft II isn't getting updates anymore" it raises my hackles a little bit.
Because we were all told by Artosis and Tasteless and Neuro and a bunch of other Starcraft II celebrities that everyone had to switch over to Stormgate. Artosis said it multiple times. Zombiegrub even noted that the general sentiment (not one that she shared, just that she observed) was that Stormgate would even replace Starcraft II at the Esports World Championship. Like this was just inevitable, and we just had to get on board, because Blizzard wasn't supporting Starcraft anymore. We all had to get with the program!
Well, I wasn't totally opposed to the idea. A new RTS game that was going to be fully supported and developed was appealing, I'll admit. I was willing to go along with it, at least at the beginning.
But then I saw the game itself.
And it was hot garbage.
But you couldn't criticize the game at all, because all the Stormshills would come out and attack you for not supporting "the future of RTS". Even now, with Stormgate basically completely dead, barring a final announcement, this argument still comes out. "Don't attack Frost Giant, they're the future of RTS!"
No. They're not. And they never were. They were pretenders and charlatans. And they were quite willing to dig a grave for Starcraft II and dance on it, before their game was even ready. They were keen enough to try and hurt the Starcraft II scene right as it was at its most vulnerable point, just so they could steal its spotlight.
Well, Starcraft II is still here. It just got a patch. Yes, it doesn't have the support from Blizzard that it used to, which sucks, but it isn't going anywhere. And competitive Brood War is better now than it has been in years.
In the end, great games endure. Bad games get forgotten.
attacking a man still recovering from an in-grown toe nail, head cold, and kidney stones is deplorable. be better.
the man is in pain; he is using every ounce of energy he has trying to find new suckers investors to continue his noble effort to resurrect a video game genre we all love. again, be better.
If Tim Morten can singlehandedly resurrect the Zork franchise he can resurrect RTS! Hopefully, he doesn't get eaten by a Grue. ...whatever a Grue is.
On September 19 2025 17:40 NeedlerNoobRTS wrote: The toxicity in this post. Attacking a man who's out there trying to carve a way for the future of RTS. SC2 and SC1 aren't getting updates anymore. Attacking FG doesn't help anyone.
Play their game, or don't. No need to dog pile.
The man tried to carve out a way for the future of RTS. Past tense.
Now he's just doing postmortens and farming for sympathy comments on LinkedIn while he counts down the days before he has to shutter his studio.
But as we reflect on this terrible, terrible failure of an RTS, I'd like to point out that whenever I hear someone saying "Starcraft II isn't getting updates anymore" it raises my hackles a little bit.
Because we were all told by Artosis and Tasteless and Neuro and a bunch of other Starcraft II celebrities that everyone had to switch over to Stormgate. Artosis said it multiple times. Zombiegrub even noted that the general sentiment (not one that she shared, just that she observed) was that Stormgate would even replace Starcraft II at the Esports World Championship. Like this was just inevitable, and we just had to get on board, because Blizzard wasn't supporting Starcraft anymore. We all had to get with the program!
Well, I wasn't totally opposed to the idea. A new RTS game that was going to be fully supported and developed was appealing, I'll admit. I was willing to go along with it, at least at the beginning.
But then I saw the game itself.
And it was hot garbage.
But you couldn't criticize the game at all, because all the Stormshills would come out and attack you for not supporting "the future of RTS". Even now, with Stormgate basically completely dead, barring a final announcement, this argument still comes out. "Don't attack Frost Giant, they're the future of RTS!"
No. They're not. And they never were. They were pretenders and charlatans. And they were quite willing to dig a grave for Starcraft II and dance on it, before their game was even ready. They were keen enough to try and hurt the Starcraft II scene right as it was at its most vulnerable point, just so they could steal its spotlight.
Well, Starcraft II is still here. It just got a patch. Yes, it doesn't have the support from Blizzard that it used to, which sucks, but it isn't going anywhere. And competitive Brood War is better now than it has been in years.
In the end, great games endure. Bad games get forgotten.
attacking a man still recovering from an in-grown toe nail, head cold, and kidney stones is deplorable. be better.
the man is in pain; he is using every ounce of energy he has trying to find new suckers investors to continue his noble effort to resurrect a video game genre we all love. again, be better.
If Tim Morten can singlehandedly resurrect the Zork franchise he can resurrect RTS! Hopefully, he doesn't get eaten by a Grue. ...whatever a Grue is.
I think Grue is an ugly twin brother of Warz.
Warz and Grue to destroy the world (and Tim's career).
no one really knows what a grue looks like. it remains an unsolved mystery from 1979. According to the Smashing Pumpkins that was a great year.
To be "eaten by a grue" is a phrase originating from the text-based adventure game Zork, meaning a player has been killed by a monster in the dark because they failed to find a light source in time. While grues are creatures of darkness that fear light, their true form is never seen by players, only implied by the chilling message that prompts the player to continue with the game or suffer the consequence of death. This phrase has become a well-known saying within geek and gamer culture
Without Zork, Activision might've never been resurrected.
The Zork games made by Activision in the early 1990s, notably Return to Zork, were a major commercial success, especially for Return to Zork which sold over a million units by late 1995. This success was significant because it helped to revitalize Activision after its acquisition and was a testament to the growing audience and technology of the graphical adventure game era
On September 20 2025 06:15 JimmyJRaynor wrote: no one really knows what a grue looks like. it remains an unsolved mystery from 1979. According to the Smashing Pumpkins that was a great year.
To be "eaten by a grue" is a phrase originating from the text-based adventure game Zork, meaning a player has been killed by a monster in the dark because they failed to find a light source in time. While grues are creatures of darkness that fear light, their true form is never seen by players, only implied by the chilling message that prompts the player to continue with the game or suffer the consequence of death. This phrase has become a well-known saying within geek and gamer culture
Without Zork, Activision might've never been resurrected.
The Zork games made by Activision in the early 1990s, notably Return to Zork, were a major commercial success, especially for Return to Zork which sold over a million units by late 1995. This success was significant because it helped to revitalize Activision after its acquisition and was a testament to the growing audience and technology of the graphical adventure game era
This is excellent gamer lore, but being a super nerd I'm compelled to push my glasses back up my nose and offer some unsolicited corrections. Not for the grue part, that's perfect, but sadly for Smashing Pumpkins, Zork was released in 1977.
The part about Zork saving Activision is also true, but the only incorrect thing here is that it isn't true enough. Yes, Return to Zork (the graphical adventure) was super popular and saved Activision, but they only had enough money to avoid bankruptcy and make Return to Zork in the first place because they had bundled up 20 Infocom text adventure games (which they owned thanks to a bunch of mergers and other corporate nonsense) on a single CD, entitled The Lost Treasures of Infocom. It cost literally nothing to develop (it was like, COPY C:\INFOCOM\*.* D:\) and only the cost of mass-produced blank CDs and a cardboard box to put into stores.
And they sold it for $100. In 1991. Which would be about $200 today.
The Lost Treasures of Infocom was a commercial hit.[3][4] Peter Doctorow of Activision reported in 1992 that The Lost Treasures of Infocom was "selling extremely well".[3] Jeremy Reimer of Ars Technica wrote, "Retailing for $99, it sold over 100,000 copies and was almost pure profit. The ashes of Infocom saved Activision from bankruptcy."[4]
Okay, I honestly didn't know that my quote was in Wikipedia before I copied and pasted, lol.
EPT
