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Bisutopia19205 Posts
I attended a gdc lecture today called making Starcraft 2 an eSport. I arrived early and saw Dustin Browder just chilling at the front of the room. So I walked over and told him I love Starcraft and asked him some questions I will write below.!
Question: Who is your favorite SC:BW player?
Browder: I do not have one.
Question: Who is your favorite SC2 player?
Browder: I am a big fan of Micromanagement. I was able to watch a lot of Beta SC2. At that time I became a big fan of  TheLittleOne and also really like  MarineKing
Question: What is your favorite race?
Browder: I am a diamond league player but I do not have a favorite race. I am not allowed to have a favorite race. This being the case, at the office and in our tournaments I am only allowed to play random. This makes it hard to be good at any race because the game is so complex.
Question: Will there be a SC2 tournament at next years GDC?
Browder: I actually think that would be an amazing idea and will be suggesting it to the director of GDC later today.
Question: What is the current status of Heart of the Swarm?
Browder: We are about a year away from completing the game. Making the game to fit an eSport makes it difficult to make interesting campaigns while keeping the game balanced.
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/starcraft/images/2/2c/Heart_of_the_Swarm_SC2_Logo1.jpg)
Question: Did you know the mother ship would not be used by the pros?
Browder: From an eSport stance, I knew right away and hated the idea of the mothership. But the mothership is badass and thought it would be a great unit for non serious gamers to have available. But recently I have seen the mothership in play more and this makes me very happy.
Question: Why is the ultralisk smaller then it was in beta?
Browder: The artists hated me for making such epic units such as the Ultralisk so small. But in order to make SC2 an eSport, the units in the game needed to be scaled down. Large sizes make it hard for the audience and the gamer to see whats going on. The original size of the ultra used to be able to hide 20 lings under it.
![[image loading]](http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/113/1130195/starcraft-ii-heart-of-the-swarm-20101023024829871_640w.jpg)
Question: Why is the most broken strategy of all time, zerg rush, still in the game?
Browder: Because we want the player to be on their toes from the start. It's important to be engaged from the beginning of the game.
Question: How do you feel about leaving Goliaths out of multiplayer?
Browder: Goliaths are an awesome unit. However, we decided that the Thor should be given a chance. I still do not know if I regret this decision.
Question: What about the other units from WoL?
Browder: I really liked the units from the story. However, in order to make a good eSport we had to cut out the units. The diamondBack took away from the uses of the Maurader and Tanks and the Specter was to much of a clone to the ghost.
Question: Any last words?
Browder: I really was against making a game that only had roughly 14 units per race and that some of them would be reused from SC:BW. Coming from a CnC background, I always believed that the more units the better. Blizzard has taught me that an eSport does not need a 100 units to make the game good, but a good balance of less unit types. This allows players to be able to scout correctly and be able to react accordingly.
Browder is an amazing guy and hearing his speech was the best part of GDC! I really hope SC2 is brought to the conference next year. I hope you all enjoyed the read!!!!!
edit: moar questions i forgot to add! I was reminded when a post complained about maps. Here's what he said.
Question: How do you plan on dealing with tournaments for people of different skill level?
Browder: Well, in the various football leagues they make it easier to play at different levels of the game by having a different set of rules. Unfortunately, we can't just give the marine +60 hp for Bronze level players. The way we are going to solve this is by releasing a new set of tournament maps that are specific to each league tournament. In bronze league tournaments, these maps will have more destructible rocks so the player has more time to build without the threat of cheese. But we aren't only focusing on Bronze league maps. We want to release maps specific to each league. We are currently preparing new maps to be presented into the Pro tournaments as well. I am hoping that the new release of these different map styles will help facilitate the level of play for each rank of Starcraft 2 Players.
OP note:
Apparently many of you got upset at the legitimacy of the interview. I wrote those very quickly because I went to a dinner that in fact was with several blizzard employees on top of other professionals. Let me state this clearly. I was with him before the speech. We talked and made note of things he said. I then also recorded the important information from his speech and was one of many people to ask questions from the audience. I assure you my facts are genuine. I will however apologize for making the mistake of putting "me" instead of question since not all questions were mine and in fact some where ones he asked outwardly and then answered himself. I did not expect people to be offended by the format of this post. I meant only to bring information to the table. I proudly told him I was a TL member when we met.
On the issue of maps. I said nothing about new maps being brought to ladder. He stated in such a way, that if there are tournaments for people at different levels of skill, that there will be map specific pools for those tournaments..
Sorry again for anyone offended. My goal has always been to contribute to the TL community please don't knock me for the way I convey information. It was very hurried. I hope this clarifies things and yes that picture is legit.
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Awesome pics & questions... thanks for sharing.
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i love that response: "Not allowed to have a favorite race"
personally, i think it'd be cool if Browder liked Terran, Kim liked Zerg, and Cooper liked Protoss
then they'd have a sweet "Well this is how my race benefits" sort of discussions
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Very nice, thanks for sharing.
Browder & Blizz get too much flak around here, but I guess thats just because we as players are so passionate about the game.
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Wow. That is so cool you got an interview with him and a picture! :D
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On March 05 2011 09:40 BisuDagger wrote:Me: Who is your favorite SC2 player? Browder: I am a big fan of Micromanagement. I was able to watch a lot of Beta SC2. At that time I became a big fan of TheLittleOne and also really like MarineKingPrime.
Confirmed: Marines will never get nerfed
In all seriousness, awesome job man. Good stuff!
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sweet, Heart of the Swarm is only one year away from completion... but why do i get the feeling that its gona take longer than that to be released D:
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On March 05 2011 09:40 BisuDagger wrote:
Me: Why is the most broken strategy of all time, zerg rush, still in the game?
*BACKHAND*
Just kidding.
All in all, great interview and thanks for the interview with the Goliath himself. I live minutes away from the center and I wish I had the chance to go. 
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Browder actually sounded intelligent and "correct".
Cool. Nice pics
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"really like MarineKingPrime."
This gave me giggles.
I want goliaths in SC2 in next expansion.
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Some really surprising answers here. We all hate on him for his CnC background, especially when the mothership is discussed. Interesting to note he hated the idea of the unit in general, and also interesting for him to note what he has learned from Blizzard, not only about the concept of Esports but also towards the number of units and balance.
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too bad you didn't use neural parasite on him and convince him that no more balance patches are needed right now, and what the community really wants is decent maps for which to balance the game around.
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Not even Dustin Browder can avoid the charm of our lil Dario 
And maybe regretting the thor... interesting. Instinctually I would have thought about other units to possibly feel bad about, buy hey.
Charming interview overall, thanks!
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Wow a diamond player... That is really, really REALLY bad.
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Sweet interview, wish I could attend conferences like those
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glad to here that hots is a year away (in blizz time lololol)
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to the OP: marinekingprime as the name suggest is now terran. The correct link I believe is  MarineKing
That said nice interview, blizzard guys are pretty smart in their communication. It's nice to see them at the same time friendly and wanting to answer difficult questions while being restricted by company policy, makes for interesting answers :D
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On March 05 2011 10:00 MuTT wrote:
Wow a diamond player... That is really, really REALLY bad.
Yeah, but its really hard to get really high up in the ladder with 'random'. His job is to design the game, not aim for grandmasters league
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Prob the only interview of Dustin ive actually liked. Ive had a very biased/skewed view against him. But I did enjoy some of those answers.
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On March 05 2011 10:00 MuTT wrote:
Wow a diamond player... That is really, really REALLY bad.
Mate, you're exaggerating just a bit there. Diamond players are not that bad.
Thanks for the interview OP.
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"Me: How do you feel about leaving Goliaths out of multiplayer?
Browder: Goliaths are an awesome unit. However, we decided that the Thor should be given a chance. I still do not know if I regret this decision."
Wow, that's a pretty candid answer.
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and vids on this lecture?
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On March 05 2011 10:03 Kisezik wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 10:00 MuTT wrote:
Wow a diamond player... That is really, really REALLY bad. Yeah, but its really hard to get really high up in the ladder with 'random'. His job is to design the game, not aim for grandmasters league
I've always got the impression that David Kim is the principle decision maker on balance changes though. So I think any concern over a diamond level player being responsible for balancing the game would be misguided.
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On March 05 2011 10:09 Suc wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 10:00 MuTT wrote:
Wow a diamond player... That is really, really REALLY bad. Mate, you're exaggerating just a bit there. Diamond players are not that bad. Thanks for the interview OP.
Diamond players are horrible, its like the new plat.
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Bisutopia19205 Posts
No vids unfortunately. And anyone who thinks diamond is bad when he has to work every day and can only play random every time... is out of their mind. He did admit to sweating profusely and having huge nerves in office tournaments. But said he loves the rush. Browder is just like us! He's such a down to earth guy in person.
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On March 05 2011 10:13 TheNihilist wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 10:03 Kisezik wrote:On March 05 2011 10:00 MuTT wrote:
Wow a diamond player... That is really, really REALLY bad. Yeah, but its really hard to get really high up in the ladder with 'random'. His job is to design the game, not aim for grandmasters league I've always got the impression that David Kim is the principle decision maker on balance changes though. So I think any concern over a diamond level player being responsible for balancing the game would be misguided.
Plus they gather tons of progamer feedback as well.
Its not like Dustin plays a ladder game, loses to X and decides X will be nerfed in the next patch.
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These responses actually seem intelligent and make sense. It's pretty cool to see a bit of his thought process. Hopefully more of that shines through in any revisions HotS might make to the game.
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yeah although he is the lead developer, David Kim is the one whos sole purpose is to balance the game. That is why people like Maka send him the replays. I think its fine that Dustin Browder is only diamond.
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On March 05 2011 10:00 MuTT wrote:
Wow a diamond player... That is really, really REALLY bad.
Says the random forum poster. Diamond isn't that bad, esp. for a guy who plays random and has a full time job. Please post us your credentials so we may decide whether or not you're really really, REALLY bad.
As for the interview, thanks for taking the time to get this to us. He seems pretty cool and levelheaded. Thanks again.
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On March 05 2011 10:13 TheNihilist wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 10:03 Kisezik wrote:On March 05 2011 10:00 MuTT wrote:
Wow a diamond player... That is really, really REALLY bad. Yeah, but its really hard to get really high up in the ladder with 'random'. His job is to design the game, not aim for grandmasters league I've always got the impression that David Kim is the principle decision maker on balance changes though. So I think any concern over a diamond level player being responsible for balancing the game would be misguided.
He is the balance guy. And he also plays random. Likely forced by Blizzard. Random players typically have poor late game play. Explains a lot in terms of the maps we see... and possibly some of the balance changes *cough* amulet.
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United States12235 Posts
Me: Will there be a SC2 tournament at next years GDC?
Browder: I actually think that would be an amazing idea and will be suggesting it to the director of GDC later today.
GDC is not typically what you think of when you think of hosted tournaments. That would indeed be fantastic.
I'm actually surprised Dustin Browder is a Diamond player. Normally developers and designers aren't very skilled (since they don't have to be necessarily), I would have thought him to be a Gold or Plat player.
The bonus question at the bottom I think reveals more information than we realize. Dropped hints at automated tournaments in the future? I think the last thing we heard on that was "this is something we want to do", and we heard that answer for a whole bunch of things like multiplayer online replays =)
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He likes macro play and he likes TLO. What?
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MarineKingPrime protoss!!!!
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Poor guy is gonna get flamed for saying he likes marine king...
Good interview though.
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On March 05 2011 10:24 Excalibur_Z wrote:Show nested quote +Me: Will there be a SC2 tournament at next years GDC?
Browder: I actually think that would be an amazing idea and will be suggesting it to the director of GDC later today. GDC is not typically what you think of when you think of hosted tournaments. That would indeed be fantastic. I'm actually surprised Dustin Browder is a Diamond player. Normally developers and designers aren't very skilled (since they don't have to be necessarily), I would have thought him to be a Gold or Plat player. The bonus question at the bottom I think reveals more information than we realize. Dropped hints at automated tournaments in the future? I think the last thing we heard on that was "this is something we want to do", and we heard that answer for a whole bunch of things like multiplayer online replays =)
I think it might be hints at that, automated tournaments. I can't think of any reason to implement "Bronze league tournament maps", other than for tournaments over Bnet. I really hope this is true! :p
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On March 05 2011 10:00 MuTT wrote:
Wow a diamond player... That is really, really REALLY bad.
Speak for yourself sunshine.
Really cool interview btw!
It's cool when even Blizz employees can follow the pro scene!
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On March 05 2011 10:25 neobowman wrote:
He likes macro play and he likes TLO. What?
Micro, not Macro.
iiiiii
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Cool interview! It's always nice to read what the game designers have to say about their game in general. It provides nice insight, and Browder's a pretty honest guy.
I wish people wouldn't be so astonished that he's not the absolute best SC2 player in the world. lol.
They're busy listening to us whine about the game and patching it up... so we can play and then whine some more 
And HotS might be done in one year? So in Blizzard time, that's three years, right? I'm in no rush
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On March 05 2011 10:08 DyEnasTy wrote:
Prob the only interview of Dustin ive actually liked. Ive had a very biased/skewed view against him. But I did enjoy some of those answers.
He plays random. How can you find his opinions biased? I can't help but get the feeling that you're the biased guy here, feeling offended by a random-player who's developing the game's opinions about game-balance. Could you give any example quotes of him being biased? I can't imagine what it would be. "Random needs a buff"?
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On March 05 2011 10:29 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Cool interview! It's always nice to read what the game designers have to say about their game in general. It provides nice insight, and Browder's a pretty honest guy. I wish people wouldn't be so astonished that he's not the absolute best SC2 player in the world. lol. They're busy listening to us whine about the game and patching it up... so we can play and then whine some more And HotS might be done in one year? So in Blizzard time, that's three years, right? I'm in no rush
No no no no, You are thinking of Valve time here. Blizzard just never makes announcements, and rumors spread that it will be released soon, it is not, then disappointment.
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On March 05 2011 09:40 BisuDagger wrote:
Me: How do you plan on dealing with tournaments for people of different skill level?
Browder: Well, in the various football leagues they make it easier to play at different levels of the game by having a different set of rules. Unfortunately, we can't just give the marine +60 hp for Bronze level players. The way we are going to solve this is by releasing a new set of tournament maps that are specific to each league tournament. In bronze league tournaments, these maps will have more destructible rocks so the player has more time to build without the threat of cheese. But we aren't only focusing on Bronze league maps. We want to release maps specific to each league. We are currently preparing new maps to be presented into the Pro tournaments as well. I am hoping that the new release of these different map styles will help facilitate the level of play for each rank of Starcraft 2 Players.
This seems like a really weird solution. Bronze players will practise on the normal maps when they ladder and then suddenly in the tournament there's rocks everywhere. How does that make any sense?
Not a bad interview otherwise, thanks a lot
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This thread needs to be spotlighted.
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You should have asked when are we gonna see more than 1 reaper per game.
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i think that he's not allowed to have a favorite brood war player either =P
but it's interesting to see dustin's actual opinions on the game. i'm sure that as head of the dev squad he has strict orders not to say anything negative about the game and its design, but i think that it would be really interesting to hear what the devs really think about the units. i was under the impression that they had brainwashed themselves into thinking that all their units were brilliant, but it appears that that isn't the case.
also, if he loves micro so much, why are they constantly patching micro out of the game?
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Bisutopia19205 Posts
I'm on my way to an AI dinner but I have answers on the future of replays I will update tonight and answer other questions I know I can answer.
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"Me: Who is your favorite SC:BW player?
Browder: I do not have one."
That turned me off immediately
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lol, all the people who truly believed he was biased in his balancing really need to stop looking at those Dustin Browder picture memes and learn some common sense.
Nice interview! I'm glad that he isn't afraid to be so candid in his answers. Most people in the industry always have 100% neutral answers that don't actually answer anything.
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On March 05 2011 09:40 BisuDagger wrote:
Me: Any last words?
Browder: I really was against making a game that only had roughly 14 units per race and that some of them would be reused from SC:BW. Coming from a CnC background, I always believed that the more units the better. Blizzard has taught me that an eSport does not need a 100 units to make the game good, but a good balance of less unit types. This allows players to be able to scout correctly and be able to react accordingly.
Hear hear. 
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He hated the idea of the mothership :'(
sniff sniff ...
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On March 05 2011 09:40 BisuDagger wrote:![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/KP0gS.jpg) Pretty cool, I just have one question. Are you Jim Carrey?
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Why is it... in every picture. Dustin Browder looks exactly the same?
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On March 05 2011 10:57 (Spiff) wrote:
He hated the idea of the mothership :'(
sniff sniff ...
Dude, it's a glorified arbiter that moves slower than your grandmother.
I hate the idea too. Just bring the damn arbiter back lol
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Coming from a CnC background
Ya, I think that solves the mystery. We know now why they don't like BW, and why SC2 is nothing like SC:BW.
LETS DO SOME 2 BASE ALL - INS AGAIN AND AGAIN. We don't need good maps, we need sucky maps, cuz they DON'T know how to make a good one... We need KeSPA to help us out only with maps...
ohm...
User was warned for this post
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On March 05 2011 10:38 Bubble-T wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 09:40 BisuDagger wrote:
Me: How do you plan on dealing with tournaments for people of different skill level?
Browder: Well, in the various football leagues they make it easier to play at different levels of the game by having a different set of rules. Unfortunately, we can't just give the marine +60 hp for Bronze level players. The way we are going to solve this is by releasing a new set of tournament maps that are specific to each league tournament. In bronze league tournaments, these maps will have more destructible rocks so the player has more time to build without the threat of cheese. But we aren't only focusing on Bronze league maps. We want to release maps specific to each league. We are currently preparing new maps to be presented into the Pro tournaments as well. I am hoping that the new release of these different map styles will help facilitate the level of play for each rank of Starcraft 2 Players.
This seems like a really weird solution. Bronze players will practise on the normal maps when they ladder and then suddenly in the tournament there's rocks everywhere. How does that make any sense? Not a bad interview otherwise, thanks a lot
Maybe he was thinking about ladder in general? That would make the most sense. Bronze leaguers will have more of the Blizzard maps but as as you get higher up in the rankings to like Masters you'll encounter more maps from GSL and iCCup
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On March 05 2011 10:38 Bubble-T wrote:
This seems like a really weird solution. Bronze players will practise on the normal maps when they ladder and then suddenly in the tournament there's rocks everywhere. How does that make any sense?
I'm also confused as to when bronze players get matched up against players of a higher league. Will there be rocks or not? Won't that big kind of confusing to players to have rocks on one game, then no rocks on the next?
I have trouble believing that he wasn't fond of the mothership, being that he's from C&C and SC2 just so happens to have several similar unit designs to C&C, mothership included. I otherwise liked his answers.
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On March 05 2011 09:52 Mr. Nefarious wrote:
Some really surprising answers here. We all hate on him for his CnC background, especially when the mothership is discussed. Interesting to note he hated the idea of the unit in general, and also interesting for him to note what he has learned from Blizzard, not only about the concept of Esports but also towards the number of units and balance.
What's wrong with his CnC background?
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woww thats so sick!! thanks for the interview.
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On March 05 2011 10:00 MuTT wrote:
Wow a diamond player... That is really, really REALLY bad.
really man? it was a great interview and props to the OP.
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ALLEYCAT BLUES49884 Posts
I'm surpised you didn't grill him for balance suggestions lol.Thats what I would do though,but anyways cool interview man,I was upset for the first question but the last one was something to look at.
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Canada13386 Posts
On March 05 2011 09:49 KezseN wrote:
sweet, Heart of the Swarm is only one year away from completion... but why do i get the feeling that its gona take longer than that to be released D:
End of the world Hwaiting!
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Thanks for the interview. Gives us more perspective on the balancing situation. ^^
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"Browder: I really was against making a game that only had roughly 14 units per race and that some of them would be reused from SC:BW. Coming from a CnC background, I always believed that the more units the better. Blizzard has taught me that an eSport does not need a 100 units to make the game good, but a good balance of less unit types. This allows players to be able to scout correctly and be able to react accordingly."
I just hope zerg gets more than 9 combat units sometime. More variety and original units would be sweet.
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last question is pretty huge, definitely looking forward to seeing what maps they come up with when they have solely professional play in mind
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On March 05 2011 10:40 Elvin wrote:
You should have asked when are we gonna see more than 1 reaper per game.
Why don't you try to use reapers for something else than harrassment? Against Protoss, you can use 6 reapers mid-game to destroy robo facility/robo bay or templar archive in 7 seconds (real time, 5 attack for each reapers)
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Maps for each league, i think thats a wonderful idea. Interested to see how this whole thing develops.
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On March 05 2011 10:35 Healingproof wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 10:08 DyEnasTy wrote:
Prob the only interview of Dustin ive actually liked. Ive had a very biased/skewed view against him. But I did enjoy some of those answers. He plays random. How can you find his opinions biased? I can't help but get the feeling that you're the biased guy here, feeling offended by a random-player who's developing the game's opinions about game-balance. Could you give any example quotes of him being biased? I can't imagine what it would be. "Random needs a buff"?
Read his post again. Now realize that you completely misunderstood him. (He said he had (!) a biased view against (!) Browder - not that he thinks Browder has a biased view).
About the interview - I am most excited about the hinted changes concerning maps. That different skilllevels play on different maps.
I have some friends who are bronze - gold and they played on Taldarim Altar after I recommended it to them. It was horrible. They expanded fast (as they should!) but couldnt macro good enough. Everyone 5k mins+. Not one fun game (to watch).
Also I doubt that he has no favourite race
Every random player likes / dislikes one race more than the others (or feels more comfortable with it). But I'm glad he didnt tell - it would just lead to a shitstorm. Doesnt matter if he liked Z/T/P most
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This a nice post I guess, but I'm deeply confused why it is being framed as an interview.
This was not an interview by the OP! -- this is basically a summary of Browder's talk at the GDC (Game Developer's Conference) today and a compilation of questions asked by multiple people. Most of the "questions" above are actually slides from Browder's talk. I made a similar post over on sc reddit during the talk (sorry for the rough format):
http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/fxf8u/live_report_from_dustin_browders_gdc_talk/
Again, not that it matters, but I just found it bizarre the OP made this about him somehow and faked part or all of this interview (there's no way he strolled up to browder before his talk and happened to ask him questions that happened to be half of his slides in the game). So weird.
Some other points the OP didn't mention:
-Browder feels the reaper has been over-nerfed, but that it's unlikely to be fixed until HoTS.
-He basically said outright the GSL maps aren't likely to end up in the ladder since he feels they are too big for the general population to manage. He likes pros having pro maps is essentially what he said.
-He said they are considering unranked play on ladder as an option (was pretty funny, mentioned he hadn't played in 3 weeks and was scared of the 10 losses he was bound to get when he started again). He also said he was mid-diamond btw, if that's not common knowledge.
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On March 05 2011 09:40 BisuDagger wrote:
Me: How do you plan on dealing with tournaments for people of different skill level?
Browder: Well, in the various football leagues they make it easier to play at different levels of the game by having a different set of rules. Unfortunately, we can't just give the marine +60 hp for Bronze level players. The way we are going to solve this is by releasing a new set of tournament maps that are specific to each league tournament. In bronze league tournaments, these maps will have more destructible rocks so the player has more time to build without the threat of cheese. But we aren't only ocusing on Bronze league maps. We want to release maps specific to each league. We are currently preparing new maps to be presented into the Pro tournaments as well. I am hoping that the new release of these different map styles will help facilitate the level of play for each rank of Starcraft 2 Players.
Suprised this hasnt gotten more attention. Pretty sure what he is partially saying here is That masters\grandmasters(diamond?) League will eventually get more "pro" friendly maps and also them saying they are going to add atleast 1 GSL map to the ladder map pool soonish its looking good for pro's to be able to practice on ladder the same maps that are common in tournaments.
Edit:
On March 05 2011 11:34 malphigian wrote:This a nice post I guess, but I'm deeply confused why it is being framed as an interview. This was not an interview by the OP! -- this is basically a summary of Browder's talk at the GDC (Game Developer's Conference) today and a compilation of questions asked by multiple people. Most of the "questions" above are actually slides from Browder's talk. I made a similar post over on sc reddit during the talk (sorry for the rough format): http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/fxf8u/live_report_from_dustin_browders_gdc_talk/Again, not that it matters, but I just found it bizarre the OP made this about him somehow and faked part or all of this interview (there's no way he strolled up to browder before his talk and happened to ask him questions that happened to be half of his slides in the game). So weird. Some other points the OP didn't mention: -Browder feels the reaper has been over-nerfed, but that it's unlikely to be fixed until HoTS. -He basically said outright the GSL maps aren't likely to end up in the ladder since he feels they are too big for the general population to manage. He likes pros having pro maps is essentially what he said. -He said they are considering unranked play on ladder as an option (was pretty funny, mentioned he hadn't played in 3 weeks and was scared of the 10 losses he was bound to get when he started again). He also said he was mid-diamond btw, if that's not common knowledge.
He said outright that GSL maps wont end up on ladder? Quote from blizzard blog: ( http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/buynow?ref=/sc2/en/blog/2356440#blog )
"We're going to be watching these changes closely and reading your feedback, so let us know what you think. In addition to these changes, we also have a few more maps in the works to add to the ladder pool, including a player-created map currently being featured in the GSL. We’ll have more information on those as it becomes available."
Also, if what OP posted was from browders presentation at the GDC, and not questions he personally asked him, then wow. thats really...weird.
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Thanks for the read!
I find it interesting that he actually hated the idea of the mothership. I wonder what SC2 would be like if he was in control of it all. :-\
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On March 05 2011 11:39 Earll wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 09:40 BisuDagger wrote:
Me: How do you plan on dealing with tournaments for people of different skill level?
Browder: Well, in the various football leagues they make it easier to play at different levels of the game by having a different set of rules. Unfortunately, we can't just give the marine +60 hp for Bronze level players. The way we are going to solve this is by releasing a new set of tournament maps that are specific to each league tournament. In bronze league tournaments, these maps will have more destructible rocks so the player has more time to build without the threat of cheese. But we aren't only ocusing on Bronze league maps. We want to release maps specific to each league. We are currently preparing new maps to be presented into the Pro tournaments as well. I am hoping that the new release of these different map styles will help facilitate the level of play for each rank of Starcraft 2 Players.
Suprised this hasnt gotten more attention. Pretty sure what he is partially saying here is That masters\grandmasters(diamond?) League will eventually get more "pro" friendly maps and also them saying they are going to add atleast 1 GSL map to the ladder map pool soonish its looking good for pro's to be able to practice on ladder the same maps that are common in tournaments.
I don't believe Browder actually said that, honestly. Maybe he said that to the OP, but the OP is lying about other stuff so I don't know.
I was at the talk and what he said then was that he didn't think the GSL maps would go on the ladder. He thought it was a good thing that pro leagues were picking their own maps, but he didn't feel that these maps made sense for the ladder period. He said a map with 16 expansion might be great for pro players, but he wouldn't want it in the pool. He kind of went out of his way to say that he felt ladder play was distinct from pro play, and that even the highest level ladder players were "basically like AAA baseball" (that's an exact quote).
On March 05 2011 11:42 Gleve wrote:
Thanks for the read!
I find it interesting that he actually hated the idea of the mothership. I wonder what SC2 would be like if he was in control of it all. :-\
He didn't say he hated the mothership either. He said he thought it was a great unit for lower level players, but didn't see it having much of a role in most pro games.
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What tournaments is he talking about?
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On March 05 2011 11:39 Earll wrote:He said outright that GSL maps wont end up on ladder? Quote from blizzard blog: ( http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/buynow?ref=/sc2/en/blog/2356440#blog ) "We're going to be watching these changes closely and reading your feedback, so let us know what you think. In addition to these changes, we also have a few more maps in the works to add to the ladder pool, including a player-created map currently being featured in the GSL. We’ll have more information on those as it becomes available." Also, if what OP posted was from browders presentation at the GDC, and not questions he personally asked him, then wow. thats really...weird.
It's seriously weirding me out that the OP is lying about this, I can't explain it.
Like I said he danced around the GSL map thing, but my interpretation is that they were being dismissed and that he viewed pros having their own maps (and tournaments having their own maps) as being a good thing. He did not state anything as a final word though.
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NICE! I really enjoyed the interview. Thanks a bunch.
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Me: How do you plan on dealing with tournaments for people of different skill level?
Browder: Well, in the various football leagues they make it easier to play at different levels of the game by having a different set of rules. Unfortunately, we can't just give the marine +60 hp for Bronze level players. The way we are going to solve this is by releasing a new set of tournament maps that are specific to each league tournament. In bronze league tournaments, these maps will have more destructible rocks so the player has more time to build without the threat of cheese. But we aren't only focusing on Bronze league maps. We want to release maps specific to each league. We are currently preparing new maps to be presented into the Pro tournaments as well. I am hoping that the new release of these different map styles will help facilitate the level of play for each rank of Starcraft 2 Players.
This just feels wrong. Why? Because it's a part of the game if not then it's not an esport it's just sim city and i'll never play it again k. and damn i just realized my skill is the same as my tl post count... ok from now on evrybody starts with a 10000 posts so we can never know how much i know about the game..
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I'm pretty sure that just shattered the "Oh my god, Browder is so dumb" biases.
Very good! I would have been very happy if you got some balance questions squeezed out of him, like why khydarin amulet was removed. I would have preferred a living human being with a pulse answer over a robotic sounding post that doesn't answer all the questions.
In particular, I would have liked an answer to the question: "How hard is it to balance this game throughout all levels of play? Right down to the last build order?"
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On March 05 2011 11:02 wherebugsgo wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 10:57 (Spiff) wrote:
He hated the idea of the mothership :'(
sniff sniff ... Dude, it's a glorified arbiter that moves slower than your grandmother. I hate the idea too. Just bring the damn arbiter back lol
lol, they should change the name to Grand Mothership
Edit:
On March 05 2011 10:00 MuTT wrote:
Wow a diamond player... That is really, really REALLY bad.
You are so cool for trashing Diamond players man. Since you think diamond players are so horrible and are so vocal about it, you much be so pro. Everyone here thinks better of you now for trashing the entire diamond league.
Is it seriously still a fad here to call everyone below your level of play god awful at SC?
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That is really strange that he did not do the interview....seeing as every question is framed with "me". I also don't see how this would not come to light, as it is a pretty big event of which there will be coverage from in the future. Odd, just odd. Oh and I laughed pretty good when he admitted mkp was one of his favorite players.
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Pretty cool to hear his perspective on things, and to hear maps are still a work in progress.
He said something about league tournaments, did i miss something ro are they planning to do online tournaments like WC3 Bnet?
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Heh, that was an interesting read. Wish I could have been at that lecture, sounds awesome.
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That last answer shows a small glimmer of hope for the map pool, since he is saying (I think) different map pool by league.
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This isn't supposed to be a formal interview, right? Some of the questions like the "zerg rush" and the mothership question seem really loaded. I'd prefer more open ended questions if there are future interviews.
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On March 05 2011 12:50 exploding.godhand wrote:
I'm pretty sure that just shattered the "Oh my god, Browder is so dumb" biases.
I wouldn't say that. Not to say I think he's dumb, but these are things that have probably been covered and anyone in his position would know how to give safe answers.
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On March 05 2011 14:05 Newbistic wrote:
This isn't supposed to be a formal interview, right? Some of the questions like the "zerg rush" and the mothership question seem really loaded. I'd prefer more open ended questions if there are future interviews.
I hate to axe grind here but this is so messed up I feel obligated so, again:
The OP is lying, this was not an interview, this is somewhat distorted version of Browder's GDC talk rewritten as an interview for some bizarre reason
If anyone doesn't believe me, I'll post some stills from the talk once the GDC site puts them online. A mod should really edit the first post because this is really weird.
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On March 05 2011 14:43 malphigian wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 14:05 Newbistic wrote:
This isn't supposed to be a formal interview, right? Some of the questions like the "zerg rush" and the mothership question seem really loaded. I'd prefer more open ended questions if there are future interviews. I hate to axe grind here but this is so messed up I feel obligated so, again: The OP is lying, this was not an interview, this is somewhat distorted version of Browder's GDC talk rewritten as an interview for some bizarre reasonIf anyone doesn't believe me, I'll post some stills from the talk once the GDC site puts them online. A mod should really edit the first post because this is really weird.
Yeah, I'm getting kind of confused about the whole interview thing. It seems he just copied what Dustin was saying during his talk and framing it as an interview. Did he think no one on TL would call him for it and give him lots of credit and praise for his "interview"?
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that makes me curious, is the photo in the OP fake too? that would be hilarious (and a bit disturbing) if the OP photoshopped himself in place of Browder's press release guy or something.
good answers though.
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On March 05 2011 10:03 Kisezik wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 10:00 MuTT wrote:
Wow a diamond player... That is really, really REALLY bad. Yeah, but its really hard to get really high up in the ladder with 'random'. His job is to design the game, not aim for grandmasters league
Diamond League still represents the top 20% of players on each server I do believe. Hows that really, really REALLY bad?
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On March 05 2011 09:40 BisuDagger wrote:
Me: Who is your favorite SC:BW player?
Browder: I do not have one.
why not, browder?
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Hmm, diamond player eh? I am disappoint.
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Bisutopia19205 Posts
I replied to everyone's concerns!
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Dont know why people are trashing him, he just happened to randomly meet browder and got to ask some questions, of course its not a formal interview.
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Lol @ him loving MKP - that explains so much.
On a more serious note... I wish we still had Goliaths instead of Thors. Its so much easier to balance a unit when you need a bunch to achieve a critical mass, rather than just getting one (which is why you get annoying mass-repair strategies like PvT Thor rush. Its just bad for timings. Ground-based, AoE, long-range anti-air is also a pretty bold leap.
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KP0gS.jpg)
if jim carry and nony had babies... thats u
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On March 05 2011 15:54 Chairman Ray wrote:
Hmm, diamond player eh? I am disappoint.
David kim is masters and was in the top 200 at some point, so it's not like they're all terrible.
I find all Blizzard interviews kind of interesting because as much as we like to bitch, every one of them about balance just reminds me how really fucking hard balance is and although we all have ideas about how changes we'd implements would "fix" the game there's a lot more to think about than just the pro scene and whatnot.
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On March 05 2011 16:10 uSnAmplified wrote:
Dont know why people are trashing him, he just happened to randomly meet browder and got to ask some questions, of course its not a formal interview.
people were trashing him because he didn't interview browder. He took browder's talking points from a presentation and rewrote them into a fake interview, i guess to try and become internet popular? Now he's backpedaling because people called him out on it
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Thanks for the review
Yeah I wondered if you were weren't recording word by word or so, which makes sense if you're not, because his tone when he was talking about having to play Random sounded like he was secretly trying to convey the message that he doesn't wanna play Random and is sad ;(
And yeah, remember that is Random Diamond. Random Diamond is really good relative to the entire player base of SC2, and probably still better than half the players on TL. A Masters Random player would be quite good. (Speaking generally, of course you can just practice 9 rush builds so you have all MUs covered).
That would be sweet if there are tournaments directed at each league, although I would doubt 1 different pool for each league. Perhaps some of the maps would overlap, or etc., but I can't imagine them making so many maps for each league, even if it is just add a couple more rocks the lower the League gets or something. But a general pool with overlapping maps, for example, would be good. Like a Bronze League would have nooby maps like Agria, but perhaps also Lost Temple, a Gold player may have Lost Temple, Metalopolis, while Diamond and Masters might get a couple bigger maps like GSL's with.
Edit: Also, with so many people playing SC2 atm, once they get the auto-tournies to run, it probably wouldn't be hard to make league-specific tournies. I think that would be really awesome and really help the competitiveness of SC2 and add more interest across all leagues. And perhaps they could have some where all levels can participate too.
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edit: woops quoted instead of editing
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Bisutopia19205 Posts
On March 05 2011 16:35 BeefAvenger wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 16:10 uSnAmplified wrote:
Dont know why people are trashing him, he just happened to randomly meet browder and got to ask some questions, of course its not a formal interview. people were trashing him because he didn't interview browder. He took browder's talking points from a presentation and rewrote them into a fake interview, i guess to try and become internet popular? Now he's backpedaling because people called him out on it
I'm not backpedaling. I did interview with him. I"m sorry u feel like u have to keep trashing me. Just because I took questions from the general public and threw them in doesn't take away from the legitimacy of the content. Your posts aren't helping anyone and I hope a MOD will prevent this OP from becoming a flame war. This thread is meant for discussion on SC2. That is my last say on this matter, take it as you will. I love starcraft, that is all.
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On March 05 2011 16:21 brain_ wrote:Lol @ him loving MKP - that explains so much. On a more serious note... I wish we still had Goliaths instead of Thors. Its so much easier to balance a unit when you need a bunch to achieve a critical mass, rather than just getting one (which is why you get annoying mass-repair strategies like PvT Thor rush. Its just bad for timings. Ground-based, AoE, long-range anti-air is also a pretty bold leap.
I've always thought of the Thor as Browder's way of injecting a bit of C&C into SC2.
Think about it. Almost all the C&C games include the Mammoth Tank or a close derivative of it (such as the Apocalypse Tank or the Overlord Tank): a high hitpoint, high armor, dual barrel, anti-air missile shooting monstrosity.
The Thor is basically a Mammoth Tank in the world of SC2, which I enjoy considering that I also come from a C&C background. Nothing is more satisfying than massing a huge number of Mammoth Tanks or Thors and rolling over the enemy. Nothing is more tragic than watching your army of Mammoth Tanks or Thors somehow getting owned despite your expectations otherwise.
Also, I've always thought of the Viking as the true successor to the Goliath. In fact, I've always considered the Viking to be a flying Goliath with the anti-air power and range of the original Goliath, only with better mobility since it flies.
Anyways, it's cool to hear Browder's opinions about SC2. Interesting to see him have trouble including the Thor and Mothership into the game due to their questionable unit roles. It seems that because they unveiled the Thor and Mothership as major units early in SC2's development, Blizzard has tried really hard to somehow shoehorn them into the game despite their questionable roles in an e-sports focused game.
I also love how Browder waves around his C&C background proudly. C&C is an excellent series of games (except for C&C4, and to a questionable degree post-Westwood games like Generals and onwards). I still consider Red Alert 2 to be the most fun RTS I've ever played (sorry BW), and it's awesome to see Browder, lead designer of RA2, to still have his groove in SC2.
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On March 05 2011 16:43 BisuDagger wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 16:35 BeefAvenger wrote:On March 05 2011 16:10 uSnAmplified wrote:
Dont know why people are trashing him, he just happened to randomly meet browder and got to ask some questions, of course its not a formal interview. people were trashing him because he didn't interview browder. He took browder's talking points from a presentation and rewrote them into a fake interview, i guess to try and become internet popular? Now he's backpedaling because people called him out on it I'm not backpedaling. I did interview with him. I"m sorry u feel like u have to keep trashing me. Just because I took questions from the general public and threw them in doesn't take away from the legitimacy of the content. Your posts aren't helping anyone and I hope a MOD will prevent this OP from becoming a flame war. This thread is meant for discussion on SC2. That is my last say on this matter, take it as you will. I love starcraft, that is all.
That's fair enough, thanks for clarifying, it was a weird decision to frame the whole thing as an interview. I mean, no one asked him questions about usefulness of mothership, ultralisk size, and "zerg rush" before the talk -- those were his prepared slides during the talk -- just an odd decision to rephrase that as an interview or Q&A. Would be better served to be presented as points he brought up of his own accord during the talk.
In any case, seems to be basically cleared up now.
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I cant help ponder mech with Goliath instead of thor, always had a theory that it would help mech be viable because of the anti air.
Oh well we have thor i guess :>
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I wouldnt like a difference in maps between lower and higher leagues.
To bad if I would be playing fidderent maps then the maps in the tournaments I watch only because im plat.
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On March 05 2011 16:50 eviltomahawk wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 16:21 brain_ wrote:Lol @ him loving MKP - that explains so much. On a more serious note... I wish we still had Goliaths instead of Thors. Its so much easier to balance a unit when you need a bunch to achieve a critical mass, rather than just getting one (which is why you get annoying mass-repair strategies like PvT Thor rush. Its just bad for timings. Ground-based, AoE, long-range anti-air is also a pretty bold leap. I've always thought of the Thor as Browder's way of injecting a bit of C&C into SC2. Think about it. Almost all the C&C games include the Mammoth Tank or a close derivative of it (such as the Apocalypse Tank or the Overlord Tank): a high hitpoint, high armor, dual barrel, anti-air missile shooting monstrosity. The Thor is basically a Mammoth Tank in the world of SC2, which I enjoy considering that I also come from a C&C background. Nothing is more satisfying than massing a huge number of Mammoth Tanks or Thors and rolling over the enemy. Nothing is more tragic than watching your army of Mammoth Tanks or Thors somehow getting owned despite your expectations otherwise. Also, I've always thought of the Viking as the true successor to the Goliath. In fact, I've always considered the Viking to be a flying Goliath with the anti-air power and range of the original Goliath, only with better mobility since it flies. Anyways, it's cool to hear Browder's opinions about SC2. Interesting to see him have trouble including the Thor and Mothership into the game due to their questionable unit roles. It seems that because they unveiled the Thor and Mothership as major units early in SC2's development, Blizzard has tried really hard to somehow shoehorn them into the game despite their questionable roles in an e-sports focused game. I also love how Browder waves around his C&C background proudly. C&C is an excellent series of games (except for C&C4, and to a questionable degree post-Westwood games like Generals and onwards). I still consider Red Alert 2 to be the most fun RTS I've ever played (sorry BW), and it's awesome to see Browder, lead designer of RA2, to still have his groove in SC2.
There's a lot of Tiberian Sun similarities in SC2: Reapers and Jump Jet Troopers, Devil Tanks and Hellions, Cyborgs and Marauders, Titans and Immortals, it's mostly stylistic but most of the non-BW units have a C&C feel.
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Making the game to fit an eSport makes it difficult to make interesting campaigns while keeping the game balanced.
am i the only one who lol'd when you read this message? how is it making the game to fit an esports makes it difficult to make interesting campaigns?
did we have no stimpacks for marauders in wings of liberty campaign?
what?
????????
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On March 05 2011 14:43 malphigian wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 14:05 Newbistic wrote:
This isn't supposed to be a formal interview, right? Some of the questions like the "zerg rush" and the mothership question seem really loaded. I'd prefer more open ended questions if there are future interviews. I hate to axe grind here but this is so messed up I feel obligated so, again: The OP is lying, this was not an interview, this is somewhat distorted version of Browder's GDC talk rewritten as an interview for some bizarre reasonIf anyone doesn't believe me, I'll post some stills from the talk once the GDC site puts them online. A mod should really edit the first post because this is really weird.
lol, that is hilarious
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Bisutopia19205 Posts
On March 05 2011 17:40 lofung wrote:Show nested quote +Making the game to fit an eSport makes it difficult to make interesting campaigns while keeping the game balanced. am i the only one who lol'd when you read this message? how is it making the game to fit an esports makes it difficult to make interesting campaigns? did we have no stimpacks for marauders in wings of liberty campaign? what? ????????
In his presentation he addresses this whole issue. Basically, SC2 has been created for game flow that adheres to eSports game type. This means that the curve of interest in the game is handled differently then in a campaign. Dustin said that when the campaign levels were created that most people ended up turtling in their starting base and building up until they were strong enough to overrun the AI. The natural style of play online prevents people from turtling on one base and expanding outward. The example he gave was in the mission where infesteds attacked during the night. The day/night cycle encourages the player to go out and do raids while recovering from the night. Of course, even in this level, you can turtle and win eventually but the model for that level proved more people were motivated to take chances during the day. To summarize, coming up with ideas to keep the player activity high in missions is a difficult task and is the reason why HoTS is taking so long to be finished since the game was designed for an eSports styled game flow.
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Great read! Thanks for doing this
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On March 05 2011 17:54 BisuDagger wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2011 17:40 lofung wrote:Making the game to fit an eSport makes it difficult to make interesting campaigns while keeping the game balanced. am i the only one who lol'd when you read this message? how is it making the game to fit an esports makes it difficult to make interesting campaigns? did we have no stimpacks for marauders in wings of liberty campaign? what? ???????? In his presentation he addresses this whole issue. Basically, SC2 has been created for game flow that adheres to eSports game type. This means that the curve of interest in the game is handled differently then in a campaign. Dustin said that when the campaign levels were created that most people ended up turtling in their starting base and building up until they were strong enough to overrun the AI. The natural style of play online prevents people from turtling on one base and expanding outward. The example he gave was in the mission where infesteds attacked during the night. The day/night cycle encourages the player to go out and do raids while recovering from the night. Of course, even in this level, you can turtle and win eventually but the model for that level proved more people were motivated to take chances during the day. To summarize, coming up with ideas to keep the player activity high in missions is a difficult task and is the reason why HoTS is taking so long to be finished since the game was designed for an eSports styled game flow.
thank you for your work and clarification. my reply didnt mean to offend (you at least).
but then, it still has nothing to do with e-sports. and turtling is really like the first strategy ever come accross or be figured out by a RTS campaign player. i dunno how is that bad as this is one of the general strategy you would use in RTS games though it might be boring in a few games.
its very much like trying to make a player understand how to play RTS/starcraft in the practise leagues filled with destructible rocks. i dunno know what he is trying to achieve really.
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"Question: Why is the most broken strategy of all time, zerg rush, still in the game?
Browder: Because we want the player to be on their toes from the start. It's important to be engaged from the beginning of the game."
Yeah, then why is the BBS rush gone?
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more destructible rocks
The solution to every problem in blizzards opinionen.
OT: Thanks for the interview and I really hope we will get mech AA unit that is a litle bit more mobile then the thor(yes goliii!!!).
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Wow nice pic and interview. :D
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Thanks OP, don't listen to the hate, you're doing a good thing putting up the interview 
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where could i watcha video of "making Starcraft 2 an eSport." did someone record it>???
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Well, he plays better than I do. Random in Diamond is pretty good.
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The original size of the ultra used to be able to hide 20 lings under it.
I want a custom map for sc2 where all these alpha things are actually implemented; this would be hilarious
I knew right away and hated the idea of the mothership. But the mothership is badass and thought it would be a great unit for non serious gamers to have available.
I'm surprised he would admit hatred toward a unit. Buff mothership acceleration to make it viable in cometitive play plz :D
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EPT
