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This topic was created in italian and then translated to my, totally not perfect, english. So if you speak italian you can find a more complete, correct and formal version of the article at http://eu.battle.net/sc2/it/forum/topic/17610501383
In the previous topic (http://eu.battle.net/sc2/it/forum/topic/17289321810?page=4) which had a good and unexpected partecipation we spoke about the present (and the past with all its melancholy); Here I’d like to discuss the Future, or probably I should say the “Futuribles” (in Italian there is a special word to indicate the “possible future”, it’s sounds like “futurible”) that could appear on next months and, especially, on the years…
With Legacy of the Void’s release somebody seriously started reflecting on a potential “After-Starcraft” or, as we will see going on with the post, a possible “New-Starcraft”. This thoughts are due to fact tha LotV is the last title of SC 2 Trilogy, to the change in WCS structure, to the community “Identity Crisis” (see http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/503364-the-sc2-communitys-identity-crisis) and, last but not least, to those who speak of “last Starcraft game in history”.
Another essential precondition
It is also important to underline that I don’t wanna be pessimist, I love this game and I hope it will survive for a long time: I’m just talking about future possible developments (used the word “futuribles” exactly for this reason). At the moment Starcraft is alive and well; we don’t care about things like “exaggerated future disasters”, because this thoughts couldn’t help us.
How is the Topic Structured
I have divided the Thread into six issues (and a conclusion), because the article will be quite long so if you are interested to only one part or a few parts you can watch the index I put below, and speak about the isuues you have choosen leaving a comment.
INDEX
1) The First Isuue: Legacy of the Void Duration
2) The Second Issue: Brood War’s come back
3) The Third Issue: Cousin Warcraft
4) The fourth Issue: Starcraft 3?
5) The Fifth Issue: Other RTS Games
6) The Sixth Issue: The Sunset of the Family
7) Conclusion
At the end of every section, using expressions that indicate it’s just my Personal opinion (expressions that I’ve even underlined) i just show my final point of view on the Issue.
My idea was to make this so that everyone could leave Their Opinion about every part of the topic (Difficult matters like these can be correctly discussed only by the different point of view of each Player).
I hope that this work will be interesting for You that join this pages.
Thank You
1) The First Issue: Legacy of the Void Duration
I Think that in a Topic like this the starting point must be an estimation about LotV’s life lenght. Considering that Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm have been the “main game” respectively for about 31 months (from 27/07/2010 to 12/03/ 2013) and 32 months (from 12/03/2013 to 10/11/2015) we have to say that HotS defended the Title Honorably.
But the question is “Can the Protoss expansion endure as much?”. Adding also that Today the evolution of the videogame market is far more hyperdynamic than it was in 2010 (now there are competitors that at WoL times were hard also to be figured), that the RTS genre is not so apreciated by young players and that SC2 is becoming a quite old game, a lot of time has passed since that 2010 July…
About this first point my idea is partly negative and partly positive. Negative because I fear that Legacy of the Void will inexorably have a great decline loosing important numers more fastly than its two predecessors (We can see it even these days). Positive ‘cause a strong community as the sc’s one could bring on the game for a long time. It is always very difficult (if not impossible) to make prognostications of this kind, but with an optimistic mind i feel Starcraft will stand respectably for more than 3 years.
After Having said this my hope is not to be here after a couple of years with a dead game and people who just say me “epic fail!”.
2) The Second Issue: Brood War’s come back
At point 1) I wrote about SC2, from point 2) we are gonna discuss the possible competitors.
Let’s start we an apparently unbelievable option, which is actually really concrete: one of the strongest Starcraft 2 competitors could be its predecessor!
In Korea we can already see a certain approach, Starleague is regularly active, a lot of players leave sc2 and come back to play with their “first love” and often the Team Liquid’s Streaming column show us that Brood War streamings really can defeat Legacy’s ones: a title from 1998 which can compete with a game realeased on last November, pretty impressive.
But the fact is that, out of Asia the first sc seems be apreciated only by most nostalgic purist. That’s why it’s hard to imagine a global rebirth of BW.
Then we could make another distinction about this option: BW’s reproduction could happen with a new HD graphic too, some time ago an Arcade mod that reproduced BW (called Starbow, if I’m not wrong) had a good success (also with some dedicated tournaments). This choice could cause other problems too, based on the fact that lots of people actually love BW for what it is and for everything it is. And another doubt could just be if it is worth a move to renew SC by recreating an almost 20 yars old game. It is fascinating to me, but could potential “new” players apreciate that?
In my opinion A new Brood War is not totally impossible, but probably doesn’t answer to the necessity of the community (and not even of Blizzard).
3) The Third Issue: Cousin Warcraft
After speaking about SC2’s older brother, let’s talk about its cousin: Warcrfat.
During BlizzCon the software house expressed its point of view on this issues for the first time telling that the door for a possible Warcraft 4 is not closed yet (and the same could be for StarCraft 3)… The team will have a briefing when LotV (and its add-ons) will be completed and there they will decide what to do…
If we are seeing the RTS’ crysis on the other hand we think that Blizzard community could be still interested to the “traditional” games of the brand. Hearstone had a big success, it’s true, but Heroes of the Storm did not, showing both that it is not sufficient to “hail as a MOBA” to create a popular videogame and that Blizzard could still need its “strongholds”. If we talk about rts the strongholds are warcraft and starcraft.
If they opt for a new Warcraft (hypothesis which seems to be ahead) to SC2 will probably happen something similar to the alternation which gave him WC3’s place. That is a period in which both the two games are active (maybe with tournaments in the former and in the latter r too), but with a strong supremacy of the “successor”. In this case a lot of the sc2 players will move to WC4, others will leave the e-sports or even come back to BW which seems to have historical roots that none other game can count on.
Warcraft is waited by old fans, people who still play it, by those who play World of Warcraft and who know its real progenitor; maybe such a title could bring to the rts videogame also guys who didn’t know the genre. The flaw is that, from a position like ours, for a long series of reasons, is not easy to prefer War to Star…
In my honest opinion WC4 seriously could see the light (we are speaking about a certain number of years), making a bridge to an out of breath Legacy of the Void, maybe also recalling those who left sc2 a long time ago. Yes, we Blizzard could pass “from the Stars to the Wars”…
4) The Fourth Issue: “Starcraft 3?”
Few lines above you read well: someone mentioned even a completely innovative starcraft, this option is apparently very underprivileged next to a Warcraft 4. It is sufficient to think that the more wise choice is alternating the two titles.
So I think it will be really difficult to see a starcraft 3 release in a not-geological period…
I would really love to have the possibilty of discovering a complete restyling of a game that gave me, and gave us, so much, but I doubt this will happen in the next few years.
Anyway, like Blizzard, I still believe that one day, in a remote future, another StarCraft could arrive: not impossible…
New note: Somebody made me notice that Blizzard could also create a completely new universe for the setting (because the stories have been “squeezed” just too much). I had not thought about this opportunity, but I have to say it could be very cool!
5) The Fifth Issue: Other RTS games
Here I will do fastly. Other videogames of our genre do exhist, and some are also very young (probably because even to the game developers the magic and the cleverness which characterize this games is simply matchless). The problem is that they will never reach the level that sc2 showed us both in terms of e-sport and patchs/balancement.
Honestly, I think that folowing this way it is impossible to get more than a for-fun dimension. And the undersigned still plays Age of Empires 1 nowadays…
6) The Sixth Issue: The sunset of the Family
As I said RTS is not exactly the ideal game to modern boys. But don’t worry, we will survive, at least as a niche: Who has played and loved these games can’t forget and can’t stop apreciating them.
From my point of view, this hypothesis is almost unimaginable, because it is too bad to be real and because it objectively is an almost imopossible futurible.
7) The Seventh Issue: Conclusion
Let’s take the stock of this kind of travel in the future.
I hope somebody will apreciate my little work, don’t say I’m crazy, it has passed some time since I wanted to write my conjectures and share them with other people, also to get their opinion.
This is actually the first thread I open onTL, just because I’d like to get opinions from more people: the opinion I’m searching for is yours.
Just express your Idea about the various points or a single point which you specifically find interesting.
Have nice games, gl
mammuluk
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TBH I think LotV is quite good compared to HotS, at least now, and without the hope of Blizz patches, the Mods would be the "future", but it is kinda hard right now because LotV is in a good spot and Blizz is trying to make it work.
BUT, if it fails on a near future, it will be developed by mods to make a "New SC2", and only then those mods could go huge, because right now there are things like that, for instance StarBow is a good one, but it lacks of player base because LotV is popular and standard.
There are other RTS games but the closest to SC2 I think it is GreyGoo (which has added a new faction recently and I don't know how it is going to end), but again, the player base is not that big and seems to be dying.
Honestly SC2 is popular thanks to BW, and not meaning that SC2 is bad, but meaning that the genre itself is not one of the most liked by the majority of players, but even those who doesn't play it, are used to SC2 universe and that is why they play it increasing the player base, not mentioning they maybe play only team or something in arcade, CoOp, Archon, etc.
I know people get angry about calling "BW" the "Nostalgia factor", but honestly it is true, while not being a bad game, it is like those things we play over and over within the years because we are used to them, we like (because they are good) and ALSO we get that nice feeling for them.
TL:DR
- RTS is an almost dead genre
- SC2 has success thanks mainly to BW universe
- LotV is quite good and will improve
- There are and could be excellent mods for SC2
- Blizz will be always keeping LotV alive
- If LotV starts to die and/or Blizz abandon it, the Mods will save it
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I guess we will see a remake of SC:BW before they will do SC3
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But the fact is that, out of Asia the first sc seems be apreciated only by most nostalgic purist. That’s why it’s hard to imagine a global rebirth of BW.
ya, because only nostalgic purists and asians can enjoy scbw...
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On February 27 2016 23:25 ZeRoX_TV wrote:
God i would like wc4
i have been waiting for WC4 since i was preteen 
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RTS games are for me the most exciting to play. Shit some of the most popular games have spawned from RTS games. The whole MOBA genre owes itself to the RTS genre.
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To your end, as well as your fellow humans'.
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On February 28 2016 01:07 OtherWorld wrote:
To your end, as well as your fellow humans'.
Let's move on, the end is nigh
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On February 27 2016 23:04 Sogetsu wrote:
TBH I think LotV is quite good compared to HotS, at least now, and without the hope of Blizz patches, the Mods would be the "future", but it is kinda hard right now because LotV is in a good spot and Blizz is trying to make it work.
BUT, if it fails on a near future, it will be developed by mods to make a "New SC2", and only then those mods could go huge, because right now there are things like that, for instance StarBow is a good one, but it lacks of player base because LotV is popular and standard.
There are other RTS games but the closest to SC2 I think it is GreyGoo (which has added a new faction recently and I don't know how it is going to end), but again, the player base is not that big and seems to be dying.
Honestly SC2 is popular thanks to BW, and not meaning that SC2 is bad, but meaning that the genre itself is not one of the most liked by the majority of players, but even those who doesn't play it, are used to SC2 universe and that is why they play it increasing the player base, not mentioning they maybe play only team or something in arcade, CoOp, Archon, etc.
I know people get angry about calling "BW" the "Nostalgia factor", but honestly it is true, while not being a bad game, it is like those things we play over and over within the years because we are used to them, we like (because they are good) and ALSO we get that nice feeling for them.
TL:DR
- RTS is an almost dead genre
- SC2 has success thanks mainly to BW universe
- LotV is quite good and will improve
- There are and could be excellent mods for SC2
- Blizz will be always keeping LotV alive
- If LotV starts to die and/or Blizz abandon it, the Mods will save it
Ridiculous. RTS is not a dead genre nor will it ever be. It's called a niche genre and it is really no different than the FGC.
MOBAs just grew in popularity due to the fact it's a lot of fun to play with a group of friends.
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On February 27 2016 23:25 ZeRoX_TV wrote:
God i would like wc4
So would Lilbow considering all the practice he's been doing 
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On February 28 2016 01:40 StarStruck wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2016 23:04 Sogetsu wrote:
TBH I think LotV is quite good compared to HotS, at least now, and without the hope of Blizz patches, the Mods would be the "future", but it is kinda hard right now because LotV is in a good spot and Blizz is trying to make it work.
BUT, if it fails on a near future, it will be developed by mods to make a "New SC2", and only then those mods could go huge, because right now there are things like that, for instance StarBow is a good one, but it lacks of player base because LotV is popular and standard.
There are other RTS games but the closest to SC2 I think it is GreyGoo (which has added a new faction recently and I don't know how it is going to end), but again, the player base is not that big and seems to be dying.
Honestly SC2 is popular thanks to BW, and not meaning that SC2 is bad, but meaning that the genre itself is not one of the most liked by the majority of players, but even those who doesn't play it, are used to SC2 universe and that is why they play it increasing the player base, not mentioning they maybe play only team or something in arcade, CoOp, Archon, etc.
I know people get angry about calling "BW" the "Nostalgia factor", but honestly it is true, while not being a bad game, it is like those things we play over and over within the years because we are used to them, we like (because they are good) and ALSO we get that nice feeling for them.
TL:DR
- RTS is an almost dead genre
- SC2 has success thanks mainly to BW universe
- LotV is quite good and will improve
- There are and could be excellent mods for SC2
- Blizz will be always keeping LotV alive
- If LotV starts to die and/or Blizz abandon it, the Mods will save it
Ridiculous. RTS is not a dead genre nor will it ever be. It's called a niche genre and it is really no different than the FGC. MOBAs just grew in popularity due to the fact it's a lot of fun to play with a group of friends.
And you don't need handspeed nor a brain to enjoy MOBAs.
User was warned for this post
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On February 28 2016 02:20 Garnet wrote:Show nested quote +On February 28 2016 01:40 StarStruck wrote:On February 27 2016 23:04 Sogetsu wrote:
TBH I think LotV is quite good compared to HotS, at least now, and without the hope of Blizz patches, the Mods would be the "future", but it is kinda hard right now because LotV is in a good spot and Blizz is trying to make it work.
BUT, if it fails on a near future, it will be developed by mods to make a "New SC2", and only then those mods could go huge, because right now there are things like that, for instance StarBow is a good one, but it lacks of player base because LotV is popular and standard.
There are other RTS games but the closest to SC2 I think it is GreyGoo (which has added a new faction recently and I don't know how it is going to end), but again, the player base is not that big and seems to be dying.
Honestly SC2 is popular thanks to BW, and not meaning that SC2 is bad, but meaning that the genre itself is not one of the most liked by the majority of players, but even those who doesn't play it, are used to SC2 universe and that is why they play it increasing the player base, not mentioning they maybe play only team or something in arcade, CoOp, Archon, etc.
I know people get angry about calling "BW" the "Nostalgia factor", but honestly it is true, while not being a bad game, it is like those things we play over and over within the years because we are used to them, we like (because they are good) and ALSO we get that nice feeling for them.
TL:DR
- RTS is an almost dead genre
- SC2 has success thanks mainly to BW universe
- LotV is quite good and will improve
- There are and could be excellent mods for SC2
- Blizz will be always keeping LotV alive
- If LotV starts to die and/or Blizz abandon it, the Mods will save it
Ridiculous. RTS is not a dead genre nor will it ever be. It's called a niche genre and it is really no different than the FGC. MOBAs just grew in popularity due to the fact it's a lot of fun to play with a group of friends. And you don't need handspeed nor a brain to enjoy MOBAs.
neither you need for an RTS, BW through hamachi while all of us sucked a bag full of balls was a lot more fun for me than some of the laddering sessions I've had in SC2
I've also played in a BW tournament at school where everybody was awful as well and we all had a ton of fun
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Shortly said:
- SC2: LotV is a rather bad game and did not deal with issues that were raised by the community long time ago (eg. economy)
- WCS is a joke and actively fucks the Korean scene
Sc2 will be a niche esports and that's it.
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On February 27 2016 22:40 mammuluk wrote:
3) The Third Issue: Cousin Warcraft
After speaking about SC2’s older brother, let’s talk about its cousin: Warcrfat.
During BlizzCon the software house expressed its point of view on this issues for the first time telling that the door for a possible Warcraft 4 is not closed yet (and the same could be for StarCraft 3)… The team will have a briefing when LotV (and its add-ons) will be completed and there they will decide what to do…
"The team" does not make money decisions. "the team" is paid with.. ummm .. you know.. money.
Chris Sigaty, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER , stated repeatedly that nothing coming from Blizzard will interfere in the SC2-space for 10 years.
do you have any Blizzard employee above Sigaty contradicting this ? Tim Morton is not above Sigaty and does not make money decisions.
ATVI is not funding another RTS game.
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On February 28 2016 02:52 JimmyJRaynor wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2016 22:40 mammuluk wrote:
3) The Third Issue: Cousin Warcraft
After speaking about SC2’s older brother, let’s talk about its cousin: Warcrfat.
During BlizzCon the software house expressed its point of view on this issues for the first time telling that the door for a possible Warcraft 4 is not closed yet (and the same could be for StarCraft 3)… The team will have a briefing when LotV (and its add-ons) will be completed and there they will decide what to do…
"The team" does not make money decisions. "the team" is paid with.. ummm .. you know.. money. Chris Sigaty, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER , stated repeatedly that nothing coming from Blizzard will interfere in the SC2-space for 10 years. do you have any Blizzard employee above Sigaty contradicting this ? Tim Morton is not above Sigaty and does not make money decisions. ATVI is not funding another RTS game.
Sorry, I got influenced exactly by the Morton's interview. But what you say makes perfect sense, even if it's quite sad. =(
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On February 28 2016 03:20 mammuluk wrote:Show nested quote +On February 28 2016 02:52 JimmyJRaynor wrote:On February 27 2016 22:40 mammuluk wrote:
3) The Third Issue: Cousin Warcraft
After speaking about SC2’s older brother, let’s talk about its cousin: Warcrfat.
During BlizzCon the software house expressed its point of view on this issues for the first time telling that the door for a possible Warcraft 4 is not closed yet (and the same could be for StarCraft 3)… The team will have a briefing when LotV (and its add-ons) will be completed and there they will decide what to do…
"The team" does not make money decisions. "the team" is paid with.. ummm .. you know.. money. Chris Sigaty, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER , stated repeatedly that nothing coming from Blizzard will interfere in the SC2-space for 10 years. do you have any Blizzard employee above Sigaty contradicting this ? Tim Morton is not above Sigaty and does not make money decisions. ATVI is not funding another RTS game. Sorry, I got influenced exactly by the Morton's interview. But what you say makes perfect sense, even if it's quite sad. =(
i wish it were not true.
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"Kevin Cloud and Adrian Carmack, two of id Software's owners, were always strongly opposed to remaking Doom. They thought that id was going back to the same old formulas and properties too often. However, after the warm reception of Return to Castle Wolfenstein (which was originally a remake of Wolfenstein 3D) and the latest improvements in rendering technology, most of the employees agreed that a remake was the right idea and confronted Kevin and Adrian with an ultimatum: "Allow us to remake Doom or fire us" (including John Carmack). After the reasonably painless confrontation (although artist Paul Steed, one of the instigators, was fired in retaliation), the agreement to work on Doom 3 was made."
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The Blizzard RTS team of 80 people could make this ultimatum and then just go work for EALA or Victory Games or Ensemble Studios. Plus , I'm sure Relic can hire 80 people with the snap of a finger and a nod from Quinn Duffy.
in less than a year an ultimatum will be made. ATVI will give 70 of the 80 employees the chance to work on a different ATVI project or leave the company.
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EPT
