EPTAlthough his opinion is just patently wrong. PATENTLY WRONG HMUNKEY!!!! I spent several years bonding with my dad over games of BW. My middle aged father could figure out the BW interface. That example alone makes it brilliant.
UI still sub-par 2 years later. Why don't we care? - Page 31
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Klondikebar
United States2227 Posts
Although his opinion is just patently wrong. PATENTLY WRONG HMUNKEY!!!! I spent several years bonding with my dad over games of BW. My middle aged father could figure out the BW interface. That example alone makes it brilliant. | ||
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hmunkey
United Kingdom1973 Posts
On February 06 2012 15:27 KingPwny wrote: Well if you are sooo right, why do u even wanna discuss with us mere mortals? lol I think it's an interesting topic, but people just seem to think SC2 is a huge deal to the developers and they act shocked that Blizzard is so stupid they won't devote more resources to the game. Don't get me wrong, SC2 is awesome and it's probably my favorite game, but the Blizzard it's not that big of a deal. It's part of their portfolio and helps solidify their brand, but it doesn't bring in the money. Thx for implying that I'm immortal though. :D | ||
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Kenpachi
United States9908 Posts
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hmunkey
United Kingdom1973 Posts
On February 06 2012 15:28 Klondikebar wrote: As much as I HATE hmunkey for his post...and I do hate him, I think he has a point. Acti-Blizz probably doesn't have much of an interest in an esports scene. Skimming money off of tournaments if probably pocket change compared to what they could get if they turned this IP into the RTS version of COD. Although his opinion is just patently wrong. PATENTLY WRONG HMUNKEY!!!! I spent several years bonding with my dad over games of BW. My middle aged father could figure out the BW interface. That example alone makes it brilliant. Hehe, it's endearing yeah, but it wasn't really that great. SC2 has a pretty terrible interface too, but it's not like BW was amazing by any stretch. An ideal interface would incorporate every feature of BW and SC2, do it in a responsive manner ,and cater to both casuals and hardcore gamers. There should be a way to navigate through a mess of menus and options to set up and find whatever game you want, but there should also be a way to just see what other people are playing and join in one click. This reminds me of that thing where people remember the past as better than it actually was. Perfect example: I loved this N64 game called Donkey Kong 64. After I played it again this weekend for the first time in a decade, I realized how terrible it was.  | ||
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Klondikebar
United States2227 Posts
Something tells me you're confusing good design with pixel count. | ||
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hmunkey
United Kingdom1973 Posts
On February 06 2012 15:41 Klondikebar wrote: You're forgetting WC3. There was WC3 in between BW and SC2. BW was amazing, but I'll grant that the interface had flaws (although again, the fact that my middle aged father could navigate it speaks VOLUMES about its virtues). But then this game called WC3 came along. It was amazing. I actually spun my disk in the drive so much that it broke and Blizzard had a deal where you could get a new disk for $5 if you had a registered key cause apparently it happened so often. Something tells me you're confusing good design with pixel count. I guess there's a difference in what you and I consider to be "good" design. Personally, I prefer simplicity with hidden robustness. What I mean is, I like when UIs don't show everything possible, but when they show the minimum an average player needs and keep everything else "under the hood." If someone wants to enable something, they can, but the menus shouldn't be cluttered with a mess of options or game modes. I personally like the custom games popularity menu, so long as there is an alternative way to search for any game you want. And as far as the in-game UI goes, everything should be toggle-able. I don't want unnecessary distractions if I don't need them to play, so I'd prefer to turn them off. If the border of the zerg bar covers up part of the game screen, I want to disable it. But most of all, the UI needs to be responsive. The current Bnet 2.0 UI is laggy -- if I click something it can take a few seconds for that click to even register and make a sound, at which point I'm stuck with a blue spinning loading icon while I wait. This is especially annoying when I'm looking at profiles. | ||
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Klondikebar
United States2227 Posts
And yes, the current Bnet UI does seem to have an almost built in lag. It's one of the MANY obnoxious things about this UI. | ||
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Scarecrow
Korea (South)9174 Posts
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SoniC_eu
Denmark1008 Posts
But that doesn't mean I as a consumer agree or like what they are doing? Sc2 is like a flagship for blizz. Apart from Sc2 selling 4.5 million copies since Dec 2010, it might not that profitable (compared to COD series which has sold 55m copies so far), but much of their reputation rides on it. SC:BW creates so much fan following and customer loyalty, that Sc2 becomes the new flagship. Much like Diablo3 will because of D2's amazing success. Sc2 and D3 aren't that big moneymakers compared to the run of the mill COD series. But Sc2 and D3 & WC (I am hoping D3 is good ofc hehe) brings up the whole rep of blizz. If you compare it to the auto industry, SC2 is like the top end range model - you don't sell many units of that range, but it brings up the prestige and sparks interest in the brand. (I.e Not many units will be sold, but the units you do sell will bring "up" the rest of the brand.) Now this will not matter to the masses (or that 16 yr old kid who just wants to shoot shit), but it will matter to the ones who are big fans of the series. (Say maybe 10-15% of the ppl who actually buy blizz-activision games? That's just my speculation though, the percentage could be higher). Nerds like us who really care about the game and not just "shooting stuff" and look beyond dollars and cents. The loyal customer base segment who helps promote Esports and Blizz through media and exposure, creating forums and communities that gives life to much larger things (and why we are having this discussion in the first place). The point is some companies do things because they want the best possible game. And that business model makes sense to me and where I feel that blizzard can learn something in the long run. Their hands might be tied by Vivendi, (who owns them, Activision is their partner, and I'm not to happy about the merger but I won't write about that here) but what made blizz great & sell in the first place, was caring about customers. And although that might not be Vivendi's goals, if they don't realise this soon their, flagships could go down in 1-2 series, in the future. Blizz don't make "COD-like series", they make high end stuff. The sooner they realise this, the better. | ||
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hmunkey
United Kingdom1973 Posts
On February 06 2012 16:06 Klondikebar wrote: What I gathered from your post is that you're a console gamer... And yes, the current Bnet UI does seem to have an almost built in lag. It's one of the MANY obnoxious things about this UI. Nope, I don't play any console games. I just like simplicity and the ability to add/remove features as I see fit. It's the same idea large software like AutoCAD, MATLAB, and Photoshop use -- you can do pretty much anything with them, but it's not all in your face and you can remove things you don't want. | ||
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Shockk
Germany2269 Posts
On February 06 2012 15:58 hmunkey wrote: I guess there's a difference in what you and I consider to be "good" design. Personally, I prefer simplicity with hidden robustness. What I mean is, I like when UIs don't show everything possible, but when they show the minimum an average player needs and keep everything else "under the hood." If someone wants to enable something, they can, but the menus shouldn't be cluttered with a mess of options or game modes. I personally like the custom games popularity menu, so long as there is an alternative way to search for any game you want. And as far as the in-game UI goes, everything should be toggle-able. I don't want unnecessary distractions if I don't need them to play, so I'd prefer to turn them off. If the border of the zerg bar covers up part of the game screen, I want to disable it. But most of all, the UI needs to be responsive. The current Bnet 2.0 UI is laggy -- if I click something it can take a few seconds for that click to even register and make a sound, at which point I'm stuck with a blue spinning loading icon while I wait. This is especially annoying when I'm looking at profiles. Could you elaborate on why you think SC/BW's and WC3's UIs were lacking? Genuinely curious, since both iterations of Battle.Net were praised at their respective release, being leaps and bounds beyond anything the competition or previous Blizzard titles had to offer. And I think they fit your concept of "simplicity and robustness" quite nicely, with quick game access being available at any time and detailed configuration / communication there for anyone who takes the time to mess with it. Considering their success, a statement like "BW and WC3 did not have good interfaces despite what you keep saying" is bold to say the least; but it's your opinion, and I'd like to hear a more detailed reply as to why you think so. As for the financial part of things, with SC2 not being overly profitable - nothing to add there. Blizzard could rake in more by appeasing their userbase, but they don't have to - so they won't. Diablo 3, microtransactions and project Titan are where it's going, StarCraft is just a franchise for some additional revenue, but profits lie elsewhere, and so does the attention. | ||
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lazy-jay
10 Posts
statistics needed!!! | ||
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NightOfTheDead
Lithuania1711 Posts
On February 06 2012 09:52 NachiMe wrote: Something's been bugging me for a while. I'm at the blizzard ui atm, and it says there's 9780 sc2 games worldwide? Is this true?? O_O seems like a really small number to me Not pour salt on wound, but in the days of WC3 prosperity there much much more games played. I think 30k-40k of melee games PER REGION at the LEAST. Even though the gameplay and balance is supported like no other game, custom games took a huge hit. It was kinda the thing that that kept playerbase at the dawn of Wc3. Sure we have the scene now, but imagine it would have been really alot bigger with right features. Oh well, Blizz went overboard with their attempts to put all the resources into älways online feature, to keep the game at low latency. | ||
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Naphal
Germany2099 Posts
i had almost forgotten about the automated tournaments, that could even complement their leaguesystem, offering the winner promotion or whatnot. | ||
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bgx
Poland6595 Posts
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CutieBK
Sweden227 Posts
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Kommissar
Australia48 Posts
Adding shared replay viewing and fixing custom games would make this the game I hoped I would be getting when I bought SC2, a new, better alternative to wc3, with an even bigger custom scene. | ||
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woozie
Sweden53 Posts
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800800
Afghanistan64 Posts
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Riquiz
Netherlands402 Posts
The current battle.net is truly awefull and I hope that It'll get patched up a bit, to make it bearable. | ||
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