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On December 17 2014 06:37 maartendq wrote:
It's funny when you think about it. People spend hundreds on dollars on gaming peripherals (i.e. overpriced mice, keyboards and headsets) but don't want to pay for their games anymore.
Honestly, what is €40 for a game you'll get to enjoy for years to come?
Honestly, what is $40 for a game that turns out to be bad and never gets updated?
Honestly, what is $40 for additional content for a free to play game that you already know you enjoy and have no problems supporting the developers?
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Did they ever actually fix the custom game system?
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Destiny does bring up some very good points, but his tone and word choice are questionable.
I feel like he is trying to tell Blizzard "Hey I can do your job better than you can" or "Hey this is a good idea, and if you don't implement it you are all idiots"
Offering skins, voicepacks, and other options for micro transactions sounds like a good idea, but it might not be viable for LotV. That is something we don't know yet.
Destiny says other developers have managed to make micro transactions work, why can't Blizzard do this for LotV, and continues about "re-inventing the wheel". Perhaps the "wheel" he is referring to does not fit into SC2's model?
I mean a lot of vehicles use a wheel to help move forward, but not every vehicle uses wheels. The tank uses long tracks that are rotated along gears and motors.
What I am trying to say is, sometimes the success of one game/model will not scale/translate well to another game.
I agree, Blizzard needs to make SC2 more accessible so the casual player base grows. I don't know if the proposed solution would work though.
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Thought I would highlight an example of Blizzards seeming lacklustre community interaction. Along with those already mentioned in Destiny's article.
XMG made a post at the end of November about their future plans for the coming year. It's here. This is how good public relations look blizzard, it doesn't take much effort.
Another example. TotalBiscuit (the second most popular santa) Reviewed a game called Bombing Bastards, it's a bomberman clone. The review wasn't overly favorable. Did the developer hide in the ice palace? Or just let these concerns slip by without comment? No. The developer for the game took the time to reply to TotalBiscuits criticisms and posted it on YouTube.
The result?
+ Show Spoiler [ This] +
It doesn't take much effort blizzard.
+ Show Spoiler +
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Meh, I was expecting more. Voice packs and skins are a good idea, but I doubt they will save sc2.
A ladder redesign, a clan ladder, more social features. That might.
People who whine about balance will never be happy. While patching the game is important, I don't think it has anything to do with the player base.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
Good blog offering many interesting talking points. I for one think perception is incredibly important, and Blizzard still have the perception that they're living in a world of their own when it comes to sc2. For instance, look at how the economy change in LotV was perceived - it was largely hailed as a success not because the change is particularly good (I think there are better solutions) but because Blizzard looked like it was listening and prepared to make radical changes to the economy system to make the game better. I maintain that removing forcefield/colossus from protoss would do so much positive to the game purely because of the negative connotations those units/abilities invoke when players hear about them/see them. This is completely independent of the quality of the change, mind you.
It's also depressing when you look out to other popular games and you see their staff regularly interacting with the community regarding balance issues, even asking for opinions and advice on where they should take future developments. There are many people at Blizzard who do a great job (psione is more of a hero than anyone here would ever know or realise) but until the culture of the company shifts from it's early 00's mindset and adopts some of the changes that Valve has made (or Riot for that matter) in terms of responding to the community the game is doomed to continue slipping further down the popularity chart.
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imo, Blizzard has become a shadow of its former self. They just don't make great games anymore. Their action pretty says "yeah we listen to your feedback, but we don't agree with it because ego." While it may not be true, a lot of the times it looks that way.
When sc2 and D3 launched, i played them a lot, but my interest faded because not only was it not fun to play anymore, but both games have their fair share of problems that weren't addressed quickly, such as bnet 0.2, custom games, auction house, and the broken loot system.
I don't think adding microtransactions such as skin packs is a long term solution since it still doesn't fix the game's core problems.
Well at least Blizzard makes awesome cinematics. Maybe they should make feature films instead.
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On December 17 2014 06:24 OveRtheStarS wrote:
I have to be honest here, if it wasn't for TeamLiquid.net, I would have stopped caring about SC2 long ago. I have 0 faith in the direction Blizz has gone in recent years, especially when compared to other companies that have emerged.
For me, it's this site and community that has retained by interest in SC2 for so long,along with the pro-personalities, not even the game itself. And while that is a mjor high-five to such a wonderful site, it doesn't say much to me for the game as a stand-alone. How many of us would be so involved or interested in SC2 if this site had never existed?
Pretty much this. The sheer passion of community leaders and this site have done far more than Blizzard deserves for their shoddy support of this game. Still convinced the influx of money from its cashwow ruined Blizzard and turned its focus from making great games to making great profits.
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I still try to watch some of the big SC2 tournaments but I haven't even bothered to install Heart of The Swarm. Bought it around a year ago just to show some support for a great game but enough is enough for me. Not going to buy another Blizzard game for a while including LotV expansion.
I love SC and SC2 and think they are the greatest RTS games ever made. The expansions are still fun to watch. I still enjoy the tournament streams.
But getting my friends to play SC2 would be like pulling teeth. The game isn't fun for most people these days because the ladder just isn't fun for most people.
Destiny's ideas would help a lot by getting more people to play - but the root of the problem is that given the choice between League of Legends, Counterstrike, or even Candy Crush Saga - most people these days would play ANYTHING ELSE over SC2. Why? Not because everything else is a better game. It's because everything else is likely more fun.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
On December 17 2014 11:50 ilikeredheads wrote:
imo, Blizzard has become a shadow of its former self. They just don't make great games anymore. Their action pretty says "yeah we listen to your feedback, but we don't agree with it because ego." While it may not be true, a lot of the times it looks that way.
When sc2 and D3 launched, i played them a lot, but my interest faded because not only was it not fun to play anymore, but both games have their fair share of problems that weren't addressed quickly, such as bnet 0.2, custom games, auction house, and the broken loot system.
I don't think adding microtransactions such as skin packs is a long term solution since it still doesn't fix the game's core problems.
Well at least Blizzard makes awesome cinematics. Maybe they should make feature films instead.
Well I'd contest that they don't make great games. SC2 is easily the best modern RTS and D3 was fun to play (and apparently is even better after the first expansion and the (RM)AH was removed). The issue is they are competing against games are continually evolving and adding content while they themselves are slow to address issues (as you've noted). The outdated expansion model for games is also not doing them any favours - they're stuck making major changes a fixed number of times while other games can freely overhaul the entire game whenever they feel things are stagnant.
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unit skins are an obvious thing they could add in - face it who would love to do a 6 pool with the starcrafts zerglings skin?
Now afaik they would need to rework the engine as from my understanding its extremely inefficient - loading everything that may appear instead of what will appear (ie protoss units are loaded in ZvT) as that is one issue that has been brought up against having skins.
Then there is the players who don't like skins as it will potentially make it too hard to figure out what a unit actually is - imo this is solved by good design and/or option to disable the display of certain and/or all skins if you so choose.
They could steal the dota and cs:go system with crates and keys that hold upgrades.
Voice packs, taunts, music add ons etc
If they had 3D animated avatars during loading or start of match which you could customize that would be more potential to have custom items and it would also be cool to have your customised version of queen of blades taunt your opponent prior to the start of the match and upon your victory - similar to the old obs maps if anyone remembers them ^^
I have currently spent about $30 on CS:GO after the initial purchase and I am awful at the game (silver 3) just because its awesome running around with a skin I unlocked. Because any match I play I can be getting mission progress towards an eventual reward or I could get a random drop.
In SC2 I just feel like unit dances and portraits aren't really enough motivation
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Nothing new as per usual. Really up to Blizzard to step it up so their games dont fall behind in the popularity scale.
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On December 16 2014 17:09 fruity. wrote:Maybe one of our benevolent overlords could start a poll asking if we'd be willing to pay for ingame goodies like skins (LotV one is old  ). I'd be happy too myself. Though I know Blizzard have said in the past that skins are an issue due to the extra graphical load.. Just add a toggle to turn these paid-for-addons on or off blizz.. doh. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/kXMSRav.png) Give more please. EDIT: You know, they do this in WoW and apparently doing so there isn't an issue. So what's the real reason? CBA?
Seriously though
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Actually, the timing to request features and criticize things for the change cannot be later than now. It is the last time we are getting attention for sc2. Cause when LotV "project" is finished, blizzard will move on for next things in line; that's how resource allocation works. And unless LotV is HUGELY successful, even more so than anything before in stacraft, Blizz wont be coming back to add significant features in.
So being loud now, either in a good or in a bad way, is actually the best thing we can do for SC2.
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I would probably pay for a Day9 or smix voice pack.
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Czech Republic12129 Posts
On December 17 2014 15:30 NightOfTheDead wrote:
Actually, the timing to request features and criticize things for the change cannot be later than now. It is the last time we are getting attention for sc2. Cause when LotV "project" is finished, blizzard will move on for next things in line; that's how resource allocation works. And unless LotV is HUGELY successful, even more so than anything before in stacraft, Blizz wont be coming back to add significant features in.
So being loud now, either in a good or in a bad way, is actually the best thing we can do for SC2.
It is too late, they have planned beta already and they have a playable version now. Unless they have the support of microtransactions already done they are not going to listen. THey would have to rewrite the whole thing. I do not think they are willing to take back the alpha to rewrite the whole thing and test micro transaction.
Also you are all talking about skins and voice packs. How many skins per person do you expect? Or how many voice packs? I mean - seriously you all think this will be better model than selling whole game for 40 €?
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Achievements, trophies, collectibles... these are the things that keep casual gamers playing. Destiny is definitely on the right track!
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On December 17 2014 15:43 deacon.frost wrote:
Also you are all talking about skins and voice packs. How many skins per person do you expect? Or how many voice packs? I mean - seriously you all think this will be better model than selling whole game for 40 €?
Oh come on did you read the article? There's clear evidence that a F2P model can be way more lucrative than boxed sales.
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Yes, it feels like they are working on all those things. Just not for starcraft but for their 2 new games. Let's hope they add them sometime.
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Czech Republic12129 Posts
On December 17 2014 16:19 KeksX wrote:Show nested quote +On December 17 2014 15:43 deacon.frost wrote:
Also you are all talking about skins and voice packs. How many skins per person do you expect? Or how many voice packs? I mean - seriously you all think this will be better model than selling whole game for 40 €? Oh come on did you read the article? There's clear evidence that a F2P model can be way more lucrative than boxed sales.
I have read it and I want numbers. How many skins per unit, what is the estimated skin per player average, how many voice packs can you imagine, again, how many voice packs per player on average, because this is how you create a business model, you estimate the income. And wihtout any proper numbers this is just screaming at Blizzard "We want skins, because reasons!". Which simply doesn't work.
Also portion of players demands the "Skin off/on" option in details menu. Now, why am I supposed to invest in my skins when no other person will see them because they have skins turned off? Hm? And can you imagine completely redesigned Protoss deathball with skins where you cannot see what units are there exactly, because there are 20 skins per unit and some of the are ridiculous and change unit too much?
As much as I agree, I want to see numbers, not just wishes without any proof.
Edit> I also want to see a solution to the problem of too many skins in one army changing it to chaos.
And still - we are late. Ignoring the 1st part of the post doesn't change it. The game is done, now starts testing phase. Unless they built in the support for this, we cannot get this at launch and anything later is way too late(because money invested into supporting the current version & changing it to allow this)
I simply think, that if Destiny(or anyone other) provided proper numbers with this some time ago, maybe there was a chance. Now is too late. Unless we want to push the release date in the future(meaning staying on HotS longer)
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/nnzt2vy.png)
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