Blizzard: "No plans for chatrooms, crossrealm play" - Page…

On May 29 2010 18:17 Ai52487963 wrote:


I agree that as far as a long-term business model, it is a very bad approach. But from what I can see, it feels more and more like Activison/Blizzard is becoming less and less concerned with long term business models. I feel that by centralizing BNET 2.0 as this megalithic thing around which SC2 is based, SC2 is basically serving at the whim of BNET 2.0. If they decide to axe the current bnet system for 3.0 or something (a la how xbox live for the original xbox just went down recently in favor of more support for the 360 platform's online service), then SC2 goes down with it unless they port it to 3.0.

The idea isn't so much as to pander to the fanbase much anymore I don't think. They'll take community feedback to some extent, but not business advice, which I can understand. If a majority of their income is going to come from the casual gamers, then designing SC2 in a manner similar to xbox live seems like a good investment. I've noticed a lot of similarities between 2.0 and the 360 version of xbox live and the outlook doesn't look spectacular, especially if former live people are working on the bnet 2.0 platform (I may be wrong on this, but I think that's right).

Casual gamers won't know what they're missing in SC2 probably and they won't mind buying SC4-5 or WC5-6 because of that I think. The flashy way of presenting something with little substance in an online gaming platform seems to be what sells, including achievements, marketplace (note similarities between live and BNET 2.0) and friends lists.

I almost think that Blizzard's reputation is so strong that Activision/Blizzard can get away with selling what we would deem a less than optimal product for short term profit and suffer little to no reputation-based damage.


It's such a shame, too, since there's nothing really wrong per se in SC2 as far as gameplay or customizability goes, it's just the online service that needs a significant retooling. The fact that SC2's core gameplay was delayed for so long is only so much more aggravating. Maybe Blizzard has invested too much in this to admit they were wrong, to redesign their online service model? I mean, they're dead set on the online service model they have, based off the purchasing plans for lower-income countries. I don't think BNET 2.0 is going away anytime soon. I can only hope that if it becomes more Steam-like (read: less restrictive) by DIII, then a lot of outrage will be quelled. However, I think that a lot more backlash will arise against BNET 2.0 if it's in its current state when DIII is released.

It's quite a conundrum and risky endeavor to centralize such a monumental game with so many features on a system like this. If BNET 2.0 is to become Activison/Blizzard's Xbox Live (without the subscription 'fee' ), then they're headed in the right direction for money street.