Blizzcon 2009 Wrap-Up 297
Last year's Blizzcon was tremendously popular. So much so that their servers were unable to handle the strain of fans competing for 15,000 available tickets. This year, Blizzard was more prepared; they made an additional 5,000 tickets available and set up a queue so that the transaction servers weren't overwhelmed. CEO Mike Morhaime said during the keynote address that if you weren't able to get into the queue within 30 seconds of its opening, the tickets were sold out before your turn came. Tens of thousands more chose to order the pay-per-view coverage, demonstrating the extraordinary enthusiasm felt for Blizzard's games. Their presentations didn't disappoint. Read on for details on the status of StarCraft II, Diablo III, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and the new Battle.net. It's divided into sections by game in case you're only interested in one or two of them.
The big StarCraft II news this year wasn't so much about the first installment, Wings of Liberty, as it was about two of the major features shipping with the game: the editor and Battle.net. Both look to be extremely powerful, and they're being given the same level of care and polish you'd expect from the game proper. Still, the devs spoke a little bit about their philosophy and vision for the game. One of the major themes is making sure the player has options. When selecting missions in the single-player campaign, players can choose from several different paths to advance the main plot. There are also optional missions; you can choose to skip them if you want, or you can finish them to open up new units that you wouldn't have access to otherwise.
Even within missions themselves, Blizzard wants to give you different ways to get the job done. One example they gave was an escort mission where you're shown the path some escaping civilians will be taken, so you can plan out how you want to prepare for attacks and decide how many resources to commit at a particular time. Another mission features high terrain surrounded by low terrain. Zerg attack frequently, and every so often, lava rises out of nearby crevasses and floods the low terrain. The goal of the mission is to build up a certain amount of money, which puts a new spin on resource planning. Spending a lot of money to fight off the Zerg goes contrary to the mission objective, but spending too little has its own risks. You can also decide to be as aggressive or as cautious as you want when playing chicken with the lava. Harvesting those extra few minerals can make a huge difference if you time it well enough.
This leads into another major theme: keeping all the missions unique and interesting. Even with the brief look at the single-player campaign that we've already seen, there are several cool new mechanics that make the game more than "build up an army and smash the other army" thirty times in a row. It'll do great things for replayability, and I think it will make the single-player portion of the game stand on its own more than in the original StarCraft. Solo-play in RTS games is often referred to as "training" for multi-player, but Blizzard doesn't look at it this way; the missions are far too unlike PvP to be useful in that regard. Instead, they've added what they call "Challenges," which do train you for common PvP scenarios. There will be mini-missions for things like maximizing your economy, learning how to counter particular units, or using micro-management skills to take out a superior force. You'll be able to keep trying, improve your scores, and track your performance — thanks to the new Battle.net.
Battle.net is shaping up to be a really impressive addition. Match-making is at the heart of it, but calling it simply a match-making system doesn't really do it justice. Communication, stat-tracking, and mod-sharing are also central to the new platform. Players will be able to create friends lists that span the different games, allowing somebody in World of Warcraft to talk with somebody playing Wings of Liberty. They're rolling out what is essentially an integrated IM client with all the features you'd expect for keeping track of people and conversations — multiple frames, online/offline notices, setting an alias for somebody, etc. I think it'll be an incredible boon for multi-player when people are able to look for groups in one game while playing another. Blizzard also made sure to mention that they were aware of the privacy concerns involved in such a system, and they'll be implementing controls to let you limit the amount of information you share.
The new system also supports looking at your performance in myriad ways. When reviewing a game, you'll be able to see how the players' economies developed, what their build orders were, unit production, battle details, and more. What's more, you'll get a much more useful replay system, allowing you to fast-forward, rewind, jump to particular points in the game, view from different places, and look at stats as they're being accumulated. In addition to this is a full achievement system with a ton of things to unlock and show off. One of the coolest parts is the ability to unlock and choose artistic decals which will then be rendered on your units in-game.
But, of course, the matchmaking system itself can't be overshadowed. Their goal when designing it was to give a competitive experience to as many people as possible, and it looks like they've found a way. As you play against other people and start to accumulate wins and losses, you are put in a League with players of a similar skill level. There are seven Leagues: Pro, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper, Practice. The Leagues are broken down further into Divisions, which include opponents even closer to your skill level. Divisions are limited to 100 people. Players will be ranked against others in their Division, and there will be seasons of play. Tournaments held at the end of the season will determine Division winners, who can complete for the League championship. The idea is that everyone should be paired against people of their own skill level as much as possible, and everyone should have a reasonable chance of winning their division — even the most hopeless of casuals. Speaking of which — for the truly new (or truly terrible), there will be a few maps designed specifically to be "anti-rush" so that they can learn the basics without fear of being immediately crushed.
Another significant fact to keep in mind is that these ratings will be tied to Battle.net accounts, which will require the purchase of a Blizzard game to use. This allows for two great new controls: first, people will be much less likely to try cheating, since they can't just register a new account for free. Second, your game rating is tied to your account, so the problem of "smurfing" — when highly-skilled players make a new account for the sole purpose of being matched against (and then demolishing) newer players — is neatly eliminated. Providing meaningful, interesting matches to every player will go a long way toward a thriving, sustainable PvP community. Also, the rating system will apply to co-op match-making as well. Each team of players has its own rating, so you don't have to worry about dropping in the standings if you want to goof off with your friends in 3v3. Speaking of co-op, the match-making and game creation system has been streamlined in that regard as well. It's simple to, for example, join up with one friend and then drop into a 3v3 or 4v4 game as a group of two. You also don't have to jump through hoops to get your friends in a game and select settings before letting random people in to fill the extra slots.
The last major feature of the new Battle.net is the support for custom maps and mods. They're making it very easy to browse custom games and download maps without having to repeatedly get booted from a server or visit a third-party site. The Blizzard developers were extremely enthusiastic about what they called the StarCraft II Marketplace — essentially an App-Store-like interface for browsing and getting maps and mods. You could feel the wariness from the Blizzcon audience when this was announced; people were wondering if they would be required to pay for custom maps. But, for the most part, this won't be the case. The capacity for premium mods does exist, but the devs said that even a massively-popular mod like DotA would probably be too simple to expect people to pay for. The ability to charge was put into place so development teams that were interested could plan for a budget, in order to build extremely detailed or complex maps and mods. You can expect free access to all the great fan-made maps and mods that are typical of Blizzard games.
This naturally leads to questions about the editor that will be coming with StarCraft II. From what we've seen so far, the Blizzard devs are going out of their way to include a ridiculous amount of flexibility in the tools they are providing. They seem to have a tremendous respect for what fans have done with their previous games; fully one-third of their design staff has come out of the mod community, and they have every intention of contacting people who make incredible creations for StarCraft II. Put simply, everything in the single-player campaign can be done with their editor. Many things not in the single-player campaign can be done with the editor. They gave a few simple examples: nothing in StarCraft II makes use of an inventory, but the code is there to support it. One of the powerful Zerg units, an Ultralisk, was modified with spiny grafts on its back that rapidly shot back and forth to destroy smaller units. When the Ultralisk was surrounded, it gave off a huge circular flame wave, destroying what was, literally, a screen full of enemies.
Most impressive, though, were the two complicated examples. Using just the editor, they were able to transform the game into a third-person shooter. You took control of a unit (a Ghost, of course), and ran around the map (even underground) shooting Zerg, complete with a shooter UI, keyboard movement controls and mouse-look. They were also able to turn the game into a top-down scrolling space shooter. Take a look. And they're still adding features. They're looking for ways to create libraries that can be passed around — they want to give mod-makers the ability to work on different tasks at the same time. They're also very aware of the possibility that people might grab somebody else's custom map, make one minor change, and re-submit it as their own — Blizzard is making it very difficult to do this, and they're already working on a report and review system for objectionable content. The editor will be available during the beta, but probably not right away.
With all of this in development, it's easy to see why Blizzard is so focused on getting people to use Battle.net. The oft-repeated suggestion that it's just DRM to fight piracy isn't the case. Hearing them talk about it and finally seeing what Battle.net has to offer makes it plain that they really do think the gaming experience will be better for it. That said, the door to LAN play doesn't seem to be closed. Rob Pardo acknowledged that there are a number of fringe cases where access to the internet isn't available or networking concerns prevent decent gameplay, and they're still looking into ways to give people what they want. They're also continuing to look into ways to optimize for situations where people are playing with each other from the same location.
Diablo III
The big reveal for Diablo III this year was the new Monk class. It's the game's second melee character, after the Barbarian, but manages to have a completely distinct style and feel. The inspiration for the Monk came from rather disparate sources; pen-and-paper RPGs and arcade-style fighting games (think Street Fighter). Since a Monk is holy by nature, Blizzard felt he should have access to a bit of holy magic to enhance his martial-arts style of fighting. Interestingly, they drew on a more Eastern European background, rather than the archetypical Southeast Asian variety, and the departure works well; the character seems to have the discipline and focus expected of a devoted adherent while concealing a craziness that would make him try to kill a bear with his teeth. And win.
When designing the Monk, they wanted a fragile fighting class with more depth than just running up and smashing something. They looked at World of Warcraft's Rogue and Diablo II's Assassin, but decided each was ultimately unsatisfying for a game like Diablo III. They wanted something with a limited amount of skills but many ways to have those skills work together. Thus was born the combo system. Many of the Monk's major attacks have three different stages. Clicking on an enemy once gives you the first stage, clicking again (within a short period of time) gives you the second stage, and another click for the third stage. For example: Exploding Palm. The first stage hits for 35% of your weapon damage. Second stage hits for 50%. Third stage puts a damage-over-time bleed effect on the enemy, exacerbated by movement. If the enemy dies from the bleed effect, it explodes, causing a huge amount of damage to nearby enemies. This happens quite often, and it's a very powerful area-of-effect attack. Another example: Way of the Hundred Fists. The first attack is a quick dash, striking one enemy. The second stage is a rapid series of low-damage attacks. The third stage is a powerful area-of-effect damage and knock-back effect around the player.
Now, the most interesting part about these combos is that you can mix and match. You can take the first stage from one ability, second stage from another, and the third stage from still another. This lets you tailor the way you attack to fit whatever situation you're in. These combine with more typical single-stage abilities, although some of the abilities themselves are anything but typical. An attack called Seven Sided Strike makes the Monk zip around part of the screen, teleporting between enemies to attack them. It's great fun to use, and very reminiscent of combo attacks in arcade fighting games. It's not something you'd expect in a Diablo game, but it fits perfectly. Everything feels like an impact.
There were hands-on gaming areas set up throughout the convention, so we got to sit down and play through a level using the brand-new Monks, and it was probably the most entertaining time I spent there. Figuring out interesting ways to weave the abilities together is fun. Plus, one of the coolest things I noticed was how well two players could complement each other, even playing the same class. As I got comfortable with the Monk's skills and began to watch what my partner (also a Monk) was doing, I found that if I planned my attacks to play into his, we could tackle much stronger groups of monsters than we could otherwise. I could use my knock-back to bump a few monsters in to his area-attack or to give him a little space when he was vulnerable. We could layer our disorient spell so that monsters had less time to hit us. It gave me great hope for group synergy.
Blizzard had some neat tidbits on display within the level itself, too. Several boss monsters, and even some regular ones, required strategic movement and ability use — not just blindly running in the opposite direction waiting for our heath bars to fill up, as was often the case in Diablo II. By playing smart, we could avoid a lot of the damage, which is how it should be. There was also an interesting side-dungeon; upon zoning in, we were warned that the place was collapsing, and a timer began ticking down. As we moved further inside, the ceiling would periodically drop rocks on us, forcing us to dodge quickly or take damage. But here's the rub: the further you go into the dungeon the more and better loot you get from chests. So it becomes a race — a challenge. How far can you go before you can't get back? When the timer expires, everything collapses, and you die.
Several quests were available in the demo level as well. They all operate in a very smooth and story-driven manner. Several lessons have obviously been taken from World of Warcraft in that regard, but not in a way that undermines the Diablo style. They succeeded in showing a very dark thematic tone in a visually bright level. The developers spent some time talking about their design process and philosophy, and showed some examples of what they had in the works. They're trying to do interesting things with the monsters without making an individual monster too complex. Difficulty and complexity is achieved through combining different types of monsters. They have a variety of archetypes, such as swarmers, ranged attackers, enemies that weaken you in some way, monsters that alter or constrict your movement through area-effect spells, and many others. Knowing how to prioritize your targets will be a valuable skill.
Diablo III is a game that's already impressive, but very much still in development. Blizzard isn't ready to talk about many things; major decisions for the PvP system haven't been made yet, Battle.net integration is something for the future (though they will have cross-game communication, like the others), and the much-anticipated rune system for customizing skills is on hold until they finalize the skills themselves. Even things like the Barbarian's resource system and graphical effects are still going through new iterations, and they're trying to smooth out the bumps in monster design. They mentioned a sand-shark which would become much more powerful in the open desert (think Tremors), making the sand feel less safe to stand on than nearby rocks. Unfortunately, in playtesting, they found that it was hard to balance and confusing for the players, so they're tinkering with the design. I wouldn't expect this game before 2011.
A few more random snippets: the stash will be "gigantic," and there will still be endgame loot runs, but they will most likely be "diversified" such that you'd actively want to kill multiple bosses rather than the same one over and over. There will be some method for transferring items between your characters, and they're working on ways to prevent item duping/hacking. They want Diablo III to have a more meaningful economy than Diablo II. They don't feel like modding or map-making provides any substantial benefit for the game, and they don't plan to support it. They like the idea of using the Horadric Cube to craft items, but wouldn't be satisfied duplicating the way it was implemented.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
The unveiling of World of Warcraft's third expansion was perhaps the biggest hit of the conference. It was clear since the launch of The Burning Crusade that Blizzard has gotten much better at quest and zone design since the original two continents were created. Wrath of the Lich King only emphasized that point; comparing the landscape of Howling Fjord to that of Desolace made you wonder that they were part of the same game. Players had been asking for a better leveling experience for years, and their demands did not go unnoticed. Cataclysm is easily the biggest expansion, and is sure to further solidify the game's place at the top of the MMO food chain.
So, what do we know about Cataclysm? Well, it'll affect every zone on Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, some to greater extent than others. Northrend will be affected too, though not as much. The Outland, being separate from the world of Azeroth, won't undergo significant physical change, but quests and dialogues will be updated to reflect such a major event. In addition to the remodeling of the two major continents, several entirely new areas will be available to players as well, including an underwater zone. The phasing technology introduced in Wrath is being upgraded to affect terrain, and players will be able to use their flying mounts in Azeroth.
That's a lot to digest, but the WoW developers just kept piling on more information throughout the convention. There are five new high-level zones for taking players from level 80 to 85. Two of them, Mount Hyjal and the Sunken City of Vashj'ir, are starter zones. Vashj'ir is the underwater zone. The devs promised to "make sure it won't be annoying." From what they described, most of the combat will be done on the bottom of the ocean, with characters able to move around and fight much like normal. They'll also be able to detach themselves from the bottom and swim through the water above them. Underwater mounts will be introduced that move as quickly as flying mounts, and there may even be some areas at the bottom of the sea that will be enclosed, containing air. They showed some concept art that was very bright and colorful, what you might expect from a documentary on a lively reef on the Discovery channel. Hyjal will be under siege by an old enemy — Ragnaros. He's not too happy about what happened to him the last time around, and he's trying to take out his anger on the World Tree.
Deepholm was termed the "hub" of the new 80-85 areas; it will facilitate quick transport to any of them. A temple in the center of the zone is where the expansion's villain, Deathwing, broke through and caused the cataclysm. It's designed to feel like an enclosed space, and the art we've seen makes it look like a giant cavern, which will definitely give it a different feel from any zone we've seen before. Uldum is a long-awaited addition to Azeroth. As it turns out, it was always "there," but Titan-created machines prevented anyone from seeing it. The cataclysm broke those machines, so it's open season on this Egypt-inspired zone. Twilight Highlands is home to the Twilight's Hammer cult, the ones who helped to free Deathwing. It'll have Grim Batol, one of the new raids, as well as new port towns for both the Horde and the Alliance.
The cataclysm will have political ramifications as well, resulting in two new playable races. The Goblins will be forced from their neutrality into partnership with the Horde, and a break in the Greymane Wall puts the Worgen squarely on the side of the Alliance. They each get their own starting zone (levels 1-15), and both will have fairly powerful racial abilities; Worgen get a sprint ability, slightly increased damage, and a bonus to skinning — which they don't require a knife to do. Goblins get price discounts regardless of reputation, engineering abilities (one launches them at their target, another fires rockets, but they share a cooldown), and a bonus to their alchemy skill, which includes increased effects from potions. You don't need to worry that these are more powerful than the old races — all of them will be updated to a similar level of usefulness when Cataclysm launches. Oh, and race changes will become available at some point as well.
More big news: rated battlegrounds will be arriving with Cataclysm. They will function differently from arenas in that you won't have particular teams, and your rating will never go down — only up. Every week a particular battleground can be used for rated matches. If you win, you gain rating determined by your current rating and the quality of your opponents. If you lose, your rating stays the same. Winning also awards you a number of arena points per game. Arenas will be shifting to this system as well. Your rating will determine the maximum number of points you can earn in a week. You won't have rated teams for battlegrounds, but you will need to queue as a group. A variety of new bonuses and awards are being introduced, including epic ground mounts and the return of honor titles, like Grand Marshal.
Also on the PvP front, a new world-PvP zone will be opening: an island called Tol Barad. The intent is to combine the battles in Wintergrasp with the daily quest hub of the Isle of Quel'Danas. When the battle isn't active, players from both factions can do daily quests and choose whether or not they want to rumble on their own terms. When the fight is underway, daily quests shut down until there is a victor. The winner gets access to an instance and a few more daily quests. The action will be spread out over a larger area in order to avoid some of the crippling lag that plagued Wintergrasp on some servers, and different areas will have different types of combat. There will be a new battleground too, the Battle of Gilneas, which will have players trying to capture districts of a city. There will probably be new arena maps as well.
Perhaps as significant as the physical changes to World of Warcraft are the changes to itemization that are in the works. Mana per 5 is being rolled into Spirit. Attack Power will be abandoned for Strength and Agility. Spell Power will be rolled into Intellect. Defense and Armor Penetration are going away (almost) entirely. Block value is gone too; blocks now absorb a flat percentage of the damage, making it a useful stat against bosses. The intent is to streamline gear so that players don't need giant spreadsheets to figure out whether something is an upgrade. Most of these stats will be replaced by a new stat called "Mastery," which "makes you better at what you do best." The talent trees are being revised to remove talents that give a passive bonus to your character, since that's kind of boring. Instead, simply spending points in a particular talent tree will give you appropriate passive bonuses. The further you go, the better the bonuses are. It will allow for more meaningful choices in how the characters is played. The system will be smart enough to know what weapon specialization you use, and if you go all the way down to the bottom of a tree, you'll see some really interesting bonuses. One they showed for Paladins granted a percentage reduction in cooldown duration.
Some big class changes are underway too; Hunters will no longer use mana, but instead adopt the Focus system used by their pets. This lets them ignore Intellect gear and reduces the need for cooldowns on their abilities, since that can be handled by their resource system. Warlocks are seeing a substantial change in the way Soul Shards work. No longer will they have to carry around a few dozen in their bags; instead, they'll acquire a max of three, held in a UI system similar to Death Knight Runes. They won't be easily recharged during combat, but grant substantial boosts to spell effects. For example, one might be used to make a long summoning spell or their biggest, slowest damage spell instant-cast instead.
It wouldn't be an expansion without a new profession, and once again Blizzard is doing it in a way they haven't done before; Archaeology is a new secondary profession, so everyone can get it without taking up one of their primary profession slots. It's also the key to a new max-level character progression system called "Paths of the Titans." This will be a way to gradually improve your character once you've hit the level cap. Progress will be limited; they don't want people to feel obligated to grind it out, so it'll become available slowly. There are 10 ranks to each Path, and you get bonuses to your character at every rank. The bonuses are not class specific, so it's feasible for a warrior and a priest to pick the same one; it just depends on what abilities you'd like. The examples they gave included a passive damage reduction to your character and an activated ability that reduced damage to nearby allies. It uses the glyph system, but the glyphs come from Archaeology rather than Inscription. Another way to customize will be an ability called Reforging. It will let you exchange part of one stat on an item for another. For example, a ring with 10 Intellect could be changed to a ring with 5 Intellect and 5 Spirit.
That's not all with regard to customization, however. Cataclysm will be introducing a Guild leveling system. Almost everything you do — boss kills, level-ups, skill-ups, PvP, etc. — contributes toward your guild gaining levels, to a maximum of 20. Guilds will have their own talent trees, which only apply to its members. Blizzard showed a few of the possible talents; one reduced repair costs, and another granted a mass resurrection spell. They also talked about talents for removing reagent costs and having extra gold drop from monsters. There will also be Guild Achievements and Guild Heirlooms. Heirloom recipes can be purchased, allowing anyone of that profession within the guild to craft the item. If a person with one of those items leaves the guild, the item is put back in the guild bank.
It was an eventful two days for the WoW team. They mentioned a variety of other news, too. They're doing away with spell ranks; they all just scale with level now. Incidentally, this opens the door to a mentoring system, which they may decide to implement at some point. They're making "big changes" to fishing so it will be "more fun." Players with two gathering professions will be able to track both simultaneously. The terrain phasing system will let you see entire coastlines change as the cataclysm progresses. There will be a guild news feed, not to mention cross-faction, cross-realm, and cross-game communication through Battle.net. Cross-server instance groups (aimed at PUGs) are planned for the next major patch. The revamped leveling zones will lead to each other in a more contiguous manner, so expect some high level zones to become low-level zones, and vice versa.
All in all, it looks like the WoW devs have been busy cramming every cool feature they could manage into this expansion, while simultaneously addressing some of the game's biggest weaknesses. It's getting hard to see how new MMOs will ever be able to compete against something like this. Blizzard wants new players to have this experience, so it's likely they'll integrate Cataclysm into the base game. It'll be interesting to see whether the development cycle takes longer than the previous expansions, since it seems like Cataclysm will require a lot more work. I'm sure we'll have a better idea after the next Blizzcon!
What about...? (Score:2)
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Re:tl;dr (Score:4, Informative)
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Blizzard will be losing sales.
An insignificant amount.
People who would have bought it will still have it, but will chose to get the version that enables LAN play, which will only be available as a pirate version.
So you claim, but the real life stats show that most people aren't going to care because they will play multiplayer on Battle.net.
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...yes, except for the people *do* care (you may have noticed that more people are commenting negatively in slashdot comments about the omission of LAN play than those who approve of the idea).
What real-life stats are you talking about? From what I've seen from the folks around here so far, only about 10% of people with an opinion on LAN play are planning on buying a copy of SCII that doesn't include it.
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only about 10% of people with an opinion on LAN play are planning on buying a copy of SCII that doesn't include it.
The other 90% plan on pirating it?
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Maybe 20% of that 90...the rest will probably shake their heads and move on, or continue to play SC I.
Pirating a copy isn't the *only* option aside from buying the game.
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People who would have bought a copy will get the full LAN feature pirate version instead.
The people who do that will almost certainly get the banhammer on battle.net. The way they described their planned ratings system along with rated leagues sounds rather cool.
Re:tl;dr (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:tl;dr (Score:5, Informative)
We play with our friends. Reasons may include:
-Don't enjoy playing with anonymous strangers as much as friends.
-Friends don't cheat, or friends who are watching them cheat can smack them.
-If friends DO cheat (or packet flood each other at critical moments), it's probably all in good fun.
-Trash talk is interpreted as friendly ribbing, not anonymous fuckwadery
-You can drink, break for movies, meals, etc with your friends if they are in the same place
-Bizzare custom rule sets that greatly enhance the fun of the game for you and your mates are not so easily enforced on line.
Etc etc.
Re:tl;dr (Score:5, Insightful)
They know you're out there. You've been taken into account and factored into their bottom line. The sales they lose on you are made up by the revenue gained by forcing everyone else to see banner ads on battle.net.
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Re:tl;dr (Score:4, Funny)
I'm guessing you'll want to play the Barbarian.
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I don't have enough time to become a serious player, and don't have the desire to do so
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Re:Cheating (Score:5, Informative)
No, they haven't. You can't have 2 of the same keys online at the same time, but you can log into your own "account" from someone elses computer, with someone elses key.
This is wholly different. One account, one key.
Re:Cheating (Score:5, Insightful)
Which absolutely sucks if you have more than one person in your household that plays the game, now you'll need to have a separate copy of the game for each person.
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Re:Cheating (Score:4, Insightful)
I remember when entertainment media was effectively licensed for use within a person's house and/or on their person.
Now it appears that this media is now being limited to individual people (at least individual people online at the same time).
This is what happens when you don't have consumer protection agencies, or if they turn a blind eye to consumer rights for things they don't understand.
First they tried to stop resale, now they're stopping fair use within your own house. Making EULAs even more complex, stripping away user rights. Instead of simplicity, they go for penny-grabbing complexity and confusion. Consumers are not businesses, their common purchases should not require license agreements. I buy games more often than I buy furniture, but I don't get furniture usage agreements to agree to apart from 'you damage it, you pay for replacement'. Simple, short, to the point, understandable.
Someone needs to step in and sort this problem out, otherwise scummy companies like Blizzard will continue to rape the consumer.
(Of course we've accepted this for a long time for 'major' software like operating systems, where Windows is valid for one install. Arguably I would say that it is a different situation from entertainment media where you have traditionally had some rights before.)
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This situation is even worse though, this would be like requiring a separate purchase of Windows for each login account on the computer.
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I remember when entertainment media was effectively licensed for use within a person's house and/or on their person.
The key word you're using is "effectively".
effectively != actually
Just because you could doesn't mean you were licensed to.
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I remember when entertainment media was effectively licensed for use within a person's house and/or on their person.
Since when was that ever the case? This seems to be something you dreamed up.
Re:Cheating (Score:5, Insightful)
StarCraft I opening menu: Single-player game -> choose your name or add new one...
That seems an awful lot like they expected multiple people to be playing the same copy of the game.
I was initially just irritated about the lack of LAN play...I absolutely won't buy a copy if my son has to log on as me in order to play on the one machine I own that's capable of actually running the game. He's good, for an 8-year-old, but not *that* good...and if they correct *that* situation, I'm not buying a second copy if we have to do multiplayer over my current internet connection via battle.net
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... or just play on the same account (unless you both want to play in tournaments).
But really, "one copy per household" never was a goal of game companies.
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*sigh* I was referring to PC game companies.
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If each person doesn't need their own copy of the game, why do they need their own account?
You log into the game with your account. Only one login at a time per account is allowed.
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Bnet accounts have been tied to CD Key since 1998.
It's a bit different this time around from what I understood. Each battle.net account will need a unique license, like World of Warcraft, so it's entirely possible that you'll only have one identity per CD key. Maybe they'd let you create multiple profiles to have multiple names, but if one of their goals is to stop lowbie stomping in rated matches, then that makes the inclusion of such a feature unlikely.
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I can tell you that I would be quite angry if I were banned because their server could tell I wasn't running under a 'normal' Windows install, especially if my legally purchased copy suddenly became useless to me.
Cheers
I thought clones were a good thing (Score:2)
In fact, this whole thing is blizzard's attempt to ape steam.
So? The whole Linux thing is Linus Torvalds' attempt to ape UNIX, and the whole Diablo series is Blizzard's attempt to ape roguelikes.
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I have steam, i don't need another. Work with valve and use their steam, it works great...
...On a Mac?
Re:Cheating (Score:4, Funny)
Water textures updated! (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps I'm being silly, but I'm actually excited that they've finally updated the terrible water texture with WoW: Cataclysm. It wasn't announced, but check out the screenshots. The crappy old texture has pretty much been the weakest part of the game, visually speaking.
My Markting Shill-O-Meter Just Exploded!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow. Just... wow.
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Wow. Just... wow.
Actually, it is Wow, SC2, and Diablo 3. If it was just Wow then there wouldn't be as much in this article ;-).
Re:My Markting Shill-O-Meter Just Exploded!! (Score:5, Funny)
No, they advertise Starcraft II and Diablo III in the article too...
This is a Feature? (Score:5, Funny)
Just what every SC player has been waiting for.
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Summary (Score:5, Funny)
Cash Cow II, Sure Thing IV, and Same Game Again III are all exciting and innovative and you should buy them.
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Re:Summary (Score:4, Insightful)
Cash Cow II, Sure Thing IV, and Same Game Again III are all exciting and innovative and you should buy them.
Many people never played Cash Cow I, Sure Thing I, and Same Game Again I, this is why those games are so popular. For the rest of us, who are past the 30 and still play games it's the same shit with a new shiny box.
Re:Summary (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh please. Diablo and Diablo 2 were nothing alike. Ditto Warcraft II -> StarCraft. Blizzard is now releaseing sequels...more than ten fucking years after the predecessors. This isn't EA releasing Madden Whatever, and it's vastly superior to Some Random Company releasing Yet Another FPS which does absolutely nothing new. WoW garbage aside, Blizzard does a damn good job of releasing excellent games.
Re:Summary (Score:5, Interesting)
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I can see you saying many people never played Sure Thing I and Same Game Again I, but Cash Cow I (AKA StarCraft) had a huge following.
Also, Sure Thing I really depends on if that means World of Warcraft original (since the third expansion would be the "fourth" game) or Warcraft 1 (since World of Warcraft is the fourth Warcraft game).
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Meh (Score:2, Interesting)
Frankly, I'm completely burned out on WoW. Since October '06 I've paid a total of 13 months, so I probably played about 12, and I got one character to 80, no raiding. Ever. And since I was a Warlock, my entire existance in PvP basically boiled down to blowing up a whole bunch of Ally as destro until someone noticed I was tearing huge holes in the group, at which point I became a sitting duck for whichever OP melee class decided it was time for me to die. Booooring.
However, I do enjoy the events Blizzard add
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Check out PlanetSide.
Rewards skill, tactics, strategy and cooperation rather than having no life and money to spend on sweatshop gold. Old and new players can compete against each other fairly due to the shallow power curve.
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And, I'm sorry... but D3 and SC2? Same game as the ones I already own from the series, it looks to me.
... except for the eye candy.
I played D2 for an hour or so last night. 800x600 scaled up on a 1920x1080 LCD monitor? Not very pretty. And the whole "we're not fixing bugs anymore" thing is sort of a damper... I only stopped playing because I got stuck on the environment and couldn't move.
Point is, D2MultiRes aside, if Blizzard were to release a patch for D2 and SC allowing higher resolutions, then you might have a point, but the problem with owning a high-end computer is that ten year old low-end games s
What I get from this: (Score:4, Informative)
Have there been even any ballpark estimates on the release date? Next year? 2011? 5 years after the heat death of the Universe?
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No guesses on a release date. The official word is "when it's done".
Battle.net (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds amazing. Its like they've taken the good parts about X-box live matchmaking (specifically trying to line up people with similar skill levels) - with the Overlay UI that Steam uses in its PC platform games (which is also awesome) while also having the grouping mechanisms of any regular online chat system (MSN messenger).
My question is - will it be a seperate component similar to the Steam overlay. The great thing about the Steam overlay is that it'll essentially run in any game, because its a seperate component and is exactly what it says it is, "An overlay".
Basically what I'm getting down to is - will the new Battle.net work with original Starcraft and Diablo 2? Will those games be patched to work seamlessly with the people who have the newer games?
That would be even more awesome.
Also - as a side note, pretty stoked for SC2 editor.
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What I don't get is why we can't have Automatic Matchmaking AND the search4host system both operating in one game.
Which I'm hoping the new battle.net does.
But also, L4D's matchmaking doesn't pair you up with people of equal skill level. Simply because L4D doesn't have a system in place to track your skill level.
Battle.net will have lots of Stat Tracking, something Steam doesn't have. I forgot to mention it, but Stat Tracking is also not something new (See Unreal Tournament) but its still nice and handy to h
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Steam doesn't have Stat tracking?
Well, OK, it does but only to some extent. You can see this in Team Fortress 2, where it keeps track of specific stats, but usually only the top ones.
Flying Mounts in Azeroth? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Flying Mounts in Azeroth? (Score:5, Funny)
Goldshire isn't a contested zone.
Redridge would be a DFA zone.
And may the twisting nether have mercy on any new alliance warlocks trying to do their quest in the Barrens.
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And may the twisting nether have mercy on any new alliance warlocks trying to do their quest in the Barrens.
They normally give up on that quest anyway vs having to face Barrens chat.
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Alliance players don't see Horde Barrens chat... :P
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And may the twisting nether have mercy on any new alliance warlocks trying to do their quest in the Barrens.
Considering that Barrens is getting a complete makeover, I'm sure something is planned to replace it. Likewise with the Druid shapeshifter quest in the soon to be flooded Darkshore.
Come to think of it though, this may be part of Blizzard's Evil Plan(tm) to get people to renew old accounts. If the Barrens is being annihilated, that means we'll never be able to raid Crossroads again. How many people do you suppose will renew their accounts in order to get in those last few raids on Crossroads before the Ca
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That would be Astranaar or Crossroads, except that Crossroads is right in the crosshairs of the Barrens zone split up.
Monk = Assassin (Score:4, Interesting)
They looked at World of Warcraft's Rogue and Diablo II's Assassin, but decided each was ultimately unsatisfying for a game like Diablo III.
Is that so? Because everything else listed sounds exactly like what the Assassin was in Diablo II (By the way, I really liked the Assassin).
Thus was born the combo system. Many of the Monk's major attacks have three different stages. Clicking on an enemy once gives you the first stage, clicking again (within a short period of time) gives you the second stage, and another click for the third stage. For example: Exploding Palm. The first stage hits for 35% of your weapon damage. Second stage hits for 50%.
Three charges? "Exploding palm".. I guess that's more original than exploding kick, right? :-)
Now, the most interesting part about these combos is that you can mix and match.
Remind anyone of the combo system for the Assassin?
An attack called Seven Sided Strike makes the Monk zip around part of the screen, teleporting between enemies to attack them.
An interesting twist on Dragon Flight, I suppose?
Blizzard seems to be borrowing a WHOLE LOT from themselves on Diablo II.
Re:Monk = Assassin (Score:4, Interesting)
Blizzard seems to be borrowing a WHOLE LOT from themselves on Diablo II.
Borrowing from one game to the successor is alright, but they've borrowed a good deal from Diablo II for the original WoW. As long as it's all in good taste, I say let it.
Also, when thinking of the monk, I think of the official expansion for Diablo 1 that added the Monk class originally.
Monk = Assassin... kinda (Score:3, Interesting)
Blizzard is not only good at borrowing from themselves, but also revamping the look and feel of whatever they are borrowing, and presenting it as something entirely new.
Now in Blizzard's defense, borrowing exactly from yourself and creating something wholy new are at opposite ends of a spectrum. To paraphrase an older well known quote, there are really only 7 original plots in computer games, and the rest are just copies. Same goes for the most part with skills, interfaces, graphics etc.
The Monk is simila
So... Blizzard is making the new Steam? (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder if they should change it's name then, instead of Bnet maybe they can call it "Condensation". (And before anyone claims otherwise, remember Steam was orginially exactly what the summary described Bnet as becoming.)
Well, while I don't see myself getting any of the games discussed (at least not till they've been out for a good bit) it'll be interesting to see if Blizzard has the chops to go toe to toe with Valve with a Steam-a-like.
It's just too bad that Blizzard's misteps with DMCA trials have left a bad enough taste in my mouth that I'm not interested in cheering them on this time.
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Its Steam and then some. Steam doesn't support a matchmaking system for players of similar skill levels. Steam also is a little finicky when it comes to joining games. I mean, you've all heard the joke, whats the different between Steam and a Bee-hive? Steam has more bugs.
I'm hoping that its polished to a shine like all Blizzard products - that its an UPGRADE from steam and not just a steam rip off.
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Yeah but some people want BOTH.
It doesn't seem like that should be impossible.
Geez (Score:2, Insightful)
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"DIII was a lot of the same, mindless clicking and lots of killing - for some reason it never loses it's appeal"
It's not the clicking it's the rules, the animations, the art, the music, the mood, etc. The item/loot system in diablo is so well designed is part of what makes it so fun and addictive to begin with. Contrast it with wannabe's like dungeon siege 1 and 2, they tried to copy the diablo system and I always found games that tried to copy Diablo's item system as lame, they never put the spit and pol
Monk != Assassin? Are you sure? (Score:4, Informative)
From the summary: "When designing the Monk, they wanted a fragile fighting class with more depth than just running up and smashing something. They looked at World of Warcraft's Rogue and Diablo II's Assassin, but decided each was ultimately unsatisfying for a game like Diablo III. They wanted something with a limited amount of skills but many ways to have those skills work together. Thus was born the combo system. Many of the Monk's major attacks have three different stages. Clicking on an enemy once gives you the first stage, clicking again (within a short period of time) gives you the second stage, and another click for the third stage. For example: Exploding Palm. The first stage hits for 35% of your weapon damage. Second stage hits for 50%. Third stage puts a damage-over-time bleed effect on the enemy, exacerbated by movement. If the enemy dies from the bleed effect, it explodes, causing a huge amount of damage to nearby enemies. This happens quite often, and it's a very powerful area-of-effect attack. Another example: Way of the Hundred Fists. The first attack is a quick dash, striking one enemy. The second stage is a rapid series of low-damage attacks. The third stage is a powerful area-of-effect damage and knock-back effect around the player.
Now, the most interesting part about these combos is that you can mix and match. You can take the first stage from one ability, second stage from another, and the third stage from still another. This lets you tailor the way you attack to fit whatever situation you're in."
Sounds EXACTLY like most of the Diablo II Assassin's Martial Arts skills... maybe someone writing articles about Diablo 3 should actually have PLAYED the predecessor(s)?
Someone at Blizzard plays CoH... (Score:2)
The guild leveling stuff, lack of ranked spells, sidekicking... Not straight out of City of Heroes but definitely related. Not that it is a bad thing at all -- sidekicking is the best feature of CoH bar none. Interestingly enough, CoH is making sidekicking better too, so I wonder if we'll see WoW duplicate that or the old sidekick system.
Simplified stats is probably good, too much gear was utter junk due to wrong stats landing on it.
No modding for a Diablo game? (Score:2)
Reforging (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder how much changing is possible can you go from +30 spirit to +15 agility +15 Stamina for instance.
How often can I do this reforging, can I reforge my PVP gear into raiding gear and back again?
Enchanters DEing gear that doesn't have much in the way of usefulness changes because all gear will be much more useful
and if its not what you'd like you can just reforge it into more of your liking.
It'll be interesting to see how all this plays out.
Re:Only One Account (Score:5, Insightful)
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I'm sure they thought of that and don't care.
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I'd be more concerned about how this would effectively ban resale of the game.
How so? You sell the CD and the associated login along with it. Think man! Think!
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Not quite - IIRC, the new Battle.net has one unified account for ALL your Blizzard games. This does indeed sound like effective banning of resale.
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Welcome to the realm of EA (Score:4, Informative)
This is exactly the problem I'm having with Electronic Arts right now.
Old account with old email/password and some games
Newer account with newer email/password and some other games
There is NO way to transfer a game from one account to another, and also no apparent way to change the email address/account the game itself is locked to. Not only does this make it a huge PITA to remember the accounts/emails used, but it also means that you cannot consolidate if you have two accounts, a lost email-address and/or password means a boned account (and lost licenses) and you CANNOT transfer a game you have legally purchased because the account is tied to the CD-Key, which cannot be untied.
Key tied to account, account un-transferable = game cannot be resold. Lame.
Re:Only One Account (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, yes, that's the point.
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That would appear to be the case, if they want to play against each other. I would imagine that the "family plan" will be something like what they do now for WoW. You cannot share an account with your spouse. You can share an account with your kids. You cannot have more than one instance of an account logged in at the same time.
Gamers who breed may be rare, but we do exist.
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Actually, SC1 would allow you to spawn clients (5? 6? I forget...) for multiplayer LAN games. Sure, if you wanted Battle.Net or the single player campaigns, you'd need your own copy, but NOT for purely local multiplayer.
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Yes some people may be like this but not everyone. I for one play WoW a lot. I have two level 80's. I did NOT go to BlizzCon or even pay to watch it over the TV/Net. Other the other side I also work 40 hours a week. I pay all my bills. I don't get government help at all and never have. I have no debt other then my car which will be paid off in 3 months. Own my condo with no payments. The place is clean and in fact I spent the weekend shampooing carpets.
Some people can multitask and others can't.
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See? If you hired someone to shampoo your carpets you could've spent that time to go to Blizzcon instead.
Re:Survival of the fittest (Score:5, Funny)
There's a real world out there, people! You won't find the meaning of life at level 80.
Well duh, you have to wait until you reach level 85.
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Re:Survival of the fittest (Score:5, Funny)
No, but farming eternal life is a lot easier in Wintergrasp at level 80...
Re:Survival of the fittest (Score:5, Insightful)
You won't find the meaning of life at level 80.
Neither will most people find the meaning of life down at the local bar. WoW players are doing what everyone else is doing on this ride: trying to fill in the time before they die with something they enjoy doing. Unfortunately for them their choice simply isn't "socially acceptable" and hence they are subjected to ridicule based on how they want to spend their free time.
Re:Survival of the fittest (Score:4, Insightful)
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You won't find the meaning of life at level 80.
Neither will most people find the meaning of life down at the local bar. WoW players are doing what everyone else is doing on this ride: trying to fill in the time before they die with something they enjoy doing. Unfortunately for them their choice simply isn't "socially acceptable" and hence they are subjected to ridicule based on how they want to spend their free time.
Yes, people get very attached to their hobbies. I personally find it shocking the number of people who spend half the year watching other people chase a black rubber disk [nhl.com] around.
I don't understand the thrill, but that doesn't matter. Similarly it doesn't matter that anyone thinks I wasted my evening yesterday melting people's faces in AV. Nobody really got hurt and I enjoyed it and that's all that matters.
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You won't find the meaning of life at level 80.
Neither will most people find the meaning of life down at the local bar. WoW players are doing what everyone else is doing on this ride: trying to fill in the time before they die with something they enjoy doing. Unfortunately for them their choice simply isn't "socially acceptable" and hence they are subjected to ridicule based on how they want to spend their free time.
So was Hitler.
HAH! I bet no one thought we could bring Hitler into this discussion.
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If you've used the Friends system with Steam its supposed to be no different from that, really. Essentially, if I hit a breakpoint in my game, like respawn time or whatever, you can hit Shift Tab and it brings up the community screen and friends stuff so I can IM my friends while playing my game, because I don't have to alt tab out to talk.