Blizzard Doesn't Care About Innovation for StarCraft II

[Tom Goldman]

Blizzard Doesn't Care About Innovation for StarCraft II

Blizzard doesn't care much about innovation, it just wants to make games that people enjoy.

With Blizzard's Gamasutra [http://www.amazon.com/Starcraft-II-Wings-Liberty-Pc/dp/B000ZKA0J6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1278527556&sr=8-1-catcorr] that gamers should expect a quality game, but not necessarily an incredible amount of innovation over the first.

"We're not trying to be innovative," Browder said in a forthcoming interview. "We're not trying to change for change's sake. We're just trying to make quality, and we definitely felt there were some things in the previous game that were high quality, that we weren't super confident we could do much better."

This doesn't mean that the members of Blizzard have been sitting on their hands and staring at Magic Eye pictures trying to make boats and clowns appear for the past decade, as the developer has been trying new gameplay ideas, but some just didn't work out. As an example, Browder detailed a cover system that Blizzard prototyped, similar to that from Relic Entertainment's Dawn of War series. "It wasn't a perfect cover system, but the early indications were poor," he revealed.

Browder believes that every developer should look at its game to determine what it does right and to iterate on it for improvement, and should not innovate on gameplay that doesn't necessarily need it. Still, he emphasizes that while the goal for the multiplayer portion of StarCraft II wasn't to innovate, the single-player game is very different from what has Blizzard has done before.

"For the guys who say, 'I just need something new,' we've created a whole solo play experience which we feel really scratches that itch. It's a brand-new experience. ... We have a very high-quality version of a non-linear experience in an RTS game, and we think that's an area where players who are bored of [traditional] RTS will have a lot of fun." This might help to allay the fears of some gamers that aren't finding the StarCraft II multiplayer beta innovative enough for them. For those that haven't played the beta yet, don't forget you can get easy access with a simple pre-order [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/100161-Preorder-StarCraft-II-Get-Beta-Access].

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28180/StarCraft_II_Designer_Browder_Were_Not_Trying_To_Be_Innovative.php]


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[Jared]

I suppose thats a good message to go with. As long as people are happy, who cares whats new...as long as its good, enjoyable and worth every second,.

And, from what I have been hearing it will be

 

[ffs-dontcare]

Well, that's certainly good. At least they're smart about the whole "change for change's sake" thing.

 

[AceDiamond]

Well that's good seeing as how Starcraft I wasn't about innovation either.

 

[samsonguy920]

Quite the opposite sermon from what Crytek was recently feeding us. Can trust I will be sitting in my Protossian pew come release day, praising the will of the Xel'naga. As I blast the heathen Terrans and the monstrous Zerg from my view.

 

[Jennacide]

Well it makes sense to not change Starcraft for numerous reasons, like being the national past-time of South Korea. =p

The cover system only really lent itself to Dawn of War anyway, because it made sense for that series. The marines, orks and eldar all would use it, while in Starcraft only the terrans would make sense doing it, so why bother?

 

[Dexiro]

Innovation isn't needed but not everyone should take this as an example. We really don't need another 100 iterations of "grey shooter"

It's good that Blizzard saw not changing stuff worked better for them though.

 

[randommaster]

Kudos to Blizzard for knowing when to stop introducing features. Hopefully they'll be able to refine some of the ideas they came up with over the next ten years for SCIII.

 

[microhive]

Dustin is lying. Just watch the galaxy editor they just released! Wouldn't surprise me if we got FPS games similar to Counter-Strike before the end of the beta if this goes on.

 

[Richard Allen]

Dustin is lying. Just watch the galaxy editor they just released! Wouldn't surprise me if we got FPS games similar to Counter-Strike before the end of the beta if this goes on.

Just because they built a super powerful engine and sdk doesn't mean they are going to use it for an fps, thats not to say someone outside of blizzard can't (and that's really the point of having a powerful engine and kit)

 

[Weaver]

This is a really fancy way to say they didn't want to piss off the e-sport crowd

 

[Booze Zombie]

As long as it's good, why would anyone care if it reinvents the genre or not?

 

[Jaded Scribe]

I love that they didn't go the route of "change for the sake of change". I haven't played StarCraft, but I've seen a number of other games and other media/tech that gets too heavy with the innovation, and the product gets hurt by it.

Doing something "safe" and doing it very well is much better than trying to over-innovate.

 

[Nimbus]

Excellent. Every industry needs to maintain a balance between innovation and refinement.

 

[Xanadu84]

Good for them. Iteration and refinement is a lot harder then innovation. Ask a random gamer to come up with an innovative idea, and they will give you a huge list: Ask them to make a prototype and refine that idea repeatedly, and you will be met with blank stares. Innovation may be the breath of fresh air for the industry, the thing whose constant influx keeps it vital and alive, and something that the industry appears to desperately need of late, but refinement and iteration are the lifeblood. Blizzard is one of the few companies who can say this, and everyone will explain why its a good thing.

 

[Twad]

as long that they dont follow the trend like nintendo's pokemons series (wich is more or less "stagnation - the game" IMHO), i dont mind.

 

[Notthatbright]

I think the gamers will be the ones to decide if the game's changed too much or not enough. That being said, Blizzard has always focused on "Polish" which is different from quality, but not much different. They don't rush titles, they pay attention to details, and while they may miss bugs from time to time (thats the quality aspect) they do make great games in the end.

 

[alittlepepper]

Honestly I find this sort of candidness kind of refreshing coming from a game developer. It's one of the first instances that I can recall where a dev basically invoked the old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".
Maybe a couple of new things would be nice, but I always enjoyed Starcraft for what it was and tend to spend most of my time with sequels and continuations comparing them to how much worse they are than the original because of the "innovations" that went into them. Mercenaries 1 and 2 being a prime example of this.
I kind of wish more developers would just make "more of the same" without feeling this express need to incorporate a whole boatload of new things or completely change old formulas for new ones. I understand full well that that isn't how new games and engines get made, but at the same time, sometimes it's nice to take what works and just go with it.
In this case, graphical upgrades and all that goodness are just icing on the cake so long as we get more crazy starcraft action.
Of course maybe I'm older than my years and just resistant to change, but I'm pretty happy to hear this, especially from a heavy hitter like Blizzard...arguably one of the most successful video game developers out there.

(Edited for clarity and rewording.)