Blizzard Considers Creating Its Own "Pixar University"
- Thread starter John Funk
- Start date
The popularity of CoD and Halo is more analogous to Michael Bay films.Freechoice said:
And frankly, as much as I love StarCraft, I don't like the idea that Blizzard will be shaping up tomorrow's creators. They've stuck with the same formula for StarCraft, WarCraft and Diablo for over a decade, without really putting anything new on the table even though they've unlimited resources. In fact, it's Blizzard who is now more about polishing than creativity.
And Valve, a much smaller team with only around 250 employees, ventures further than Blizzard. HL2 was nothing like HL1, while setting a benchmark for physics engine, enemy AI (checkout HL2 Deathmatch), facial animation, environmental storytelling etc. Then they redefined Physics puzzles with Portal. And L4D's innovation lied in its coop gameplay, not the fact it was a zombie shooter. They made a complete overhaul of TF's artsyle with TF2. Meanwhile they've been supporting the modder community extensively, and not just the ones using Source. Alien Swarm was a UT2004 mod. DotA was a WarCraft mod. They're willing to take risks and make extensive changes to their engine for both. And they make sound choices by hiring the best from the industry and the modding community.
And I'm not even going into Steam, which effectively saved PC gaming in the days the XBox was launched, when retailers refused to stock PC titles.
And talking of creativity? For Cthulhu's sake, StarCraft and WarCraft were basically recycled from the cancelled Warhammer 40k game...
*Thanks <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/view/Nouw>Nouw!*
As for the popularity contest, I was referring to March Mayhem.
Valve doesn't even make the attempt to promote creativity in this degree. They only look to reap talent, not to sow it.Raiyan 1.0 said:
And some of the new content in Cataclysm is downright gorgeous. It's been a trend for Blizzard to have at least one compelling questline in each expansion, one great piece of music in each game.
That makes me think of Avatar. It was a technical achievement. It wasn't good for anything beyond the 3D and creating another otherkin community. That's basically all you're listing. And for all the good their technical achievements are, Source is not the most widely used engine. For all its perks, it obviously has a quality that makes it undesirable to work with. Supporting the modding community is just good business sense.Raiyan 1.0 said:
"These guys made decent stuff. Let's take it and hire them."
No loose ends.
And what risks are you talking about? They're taking concepts that were already popular. Mirror's Edge was a risk. MGS back in the day was a risk.
Extensive changes to their engine? You mean actually having modular software that can adapt to and be changed to suit a need? Is that supposed to be some kind of big setback for them? It was a bigger risk for Riot Games (the guys who made DoTA) to make League of Legends. Valve has Steam and their reputation to fall back on.
Dude, Starcraft 1 and Brood War were very well done pieces of storytelling. Every character was a very well detailed, well constructed piece of work. The plot itself was mildly intriguing because of the steps taken. And we're comparing them to Valve.Raiyan 1.0 said:
Valve has made no character that moved me more than a Blizzard character. I felt damn sorry for Raynor and Zeratul at the end of Brood War. Kael'thas was a sympathetic little bastard in TFT. And I really did think that Kerrigan was the queen ***** of the universe.
And in regards to March Mayhem. The Escapist has more of an elitist trend than most people would think. Artistic trends may get praised and popular things get bashed, but do people ever analyze the studios they flock around? Short answer: no.
I think the program will be like the nursing program at the local hospital. You can be a fulltime student and work part time but get the pay and benefits of being fulltime in return after you graduate you work for the company so many years.
Blizzard do you have any room for someone going into Oracle and mySQL?
Blizzard do you have any room for someone going into Oracle and mySQL?
Modders are some of the most creative people around, and extensive mod community support means nurturing creativity. As for Blizzard, they're simply creating an education system to train people to Blizzard's specific needs.Freechoice said:
You can't teach creativity.
And some of the new content in Cataclysm is downright gorgeous. It's been a trend for Blizzard to have at least one compelling questline in each expansion, one great piece of music in each game.
Couldn't care less about grind fests.
That makes me think of Avatar. It was a technical achievement. It wasn't good for anything beyond the 3D and creating another otherkin community. That's basically all you're listing. And for all the good their technical achievements are, Source is not the most widely used engine. For all its perks, it obviously has a quality that makes it undesirable to work with. Supporting the modding community is just good business sense.
Environmental storytelling, cutscene-less narratives, unique physics puzzles, perfecting level designs, the dark humor of GLaDOS - they're not technical achievements. If you have to compare something to Avatar, compare it to Crysis. And Source has probably the best modularity, backward compatibility and scalability of any engines around. Couldn't care less that other devs do't use it - Valve games always ran smoothly and beautifully even on low-end PCs.
As for popularity of game engines - see the list of games made using CryEngine2 and the list of UE3 games. CryTek has a lot less customers, but their engine set the benchmark.
And what risks are you talking about? They're taking concepts that were already popular. Mirror's Edge was a risk. MGS back in the day was a risk.
Extensive changes to their engine? You mean actually having modular software that can adapt to and be changed to suit a need? Is that supposed to be some kind of big setback for them? It was a bigger risk for Riot Games (the guys who made DoTA) to make League of Legends. Valve has Steam and their reputation to fall back on.
By risk I meant trying out different genres and game mechanics and treading on terra incognita. Can't say the same for Blizzard, even with their obscene amount of money backing them up.
Dude, Starcraft 1 and Brood War were very well done pieces of storytelling. Every character was a very well detailed, well constructed piece of work. The plot itself was mildly intriguing because of the steps taken. And we're comparing them to Valve.
Valve has made no character that moved me more than a Blizzard character. I felt damn sorry for Raynor and Zeratul at the end of Brood War. Kael'thas was a sympathetic little bastard in TFT. And I really did think that Kerrigan was the queen ***** of the universe.
You're talking about the game made back in 1999. I enjoyed it tremendously as well.
But did you enjoy the cheesy cheese-fest that is the Texan Raynor and his shitty one-liners in SC2?
Hmmm?
Also, please see my previous post on the designs of the Terrans, Protoss and Zergs being blatantly ripped off from Warhammer. Some creativity...
On the other hand, I can't wait for GLaDOS and Wheatley. That's some good characterization right there.
And in regards to March Mayhem. The Escapist has more of an elitist trend than most people would think. Artistic trends may get praised and popular things get bashed, but do people ever analyze the studios they flock around? Short answer: no.
At least better than those idiots who elected CoD:BlOps as GotY for BAFTA...
As for analyzing the studios they flock around... have you been around her lately? This place has a large BioWare fanbase as well, and you didn't see them rip the studio apart for DA2? Just wait till Valve makes something sub par, they'll be shredded as well...
Here's the thing about Elitists - they are not passive.
Wow, that sounds awesome! Unfortunately for me, I live in Florida while Blizzard in based in California... Curses!!! Oh, well, at least we have good beaches and nice weather. 
Damn, I thought Pixar was going to see some more competition for animated films...
I suppose it's good if it helps aspiring game designers, but as others have noted, there is the Activision/Kotick/Greeeeeeeed factor. At the very least, that will bring about a lot of cynicism about such an endeavor. Truthfully, I cannot blame anyone that does so, either. I do not find Blizzard really that special in its own right like a sort of creative tour de force (if anything, I find many Blizzard titles too restrictive in offerings for my own tastes), but more to the point, I also do not see this as exactly the most forward opportunity because of Activision.
Nurb made a good point; I would be wary of the company behind this special university and any risks regarding a student's ideas or creations.
pessimism aside, I can't wish ill will against those who this might help at least.
I suppose it's good if it helps aspiring game designers, but as others have noted, there is the Activision/Kotick/Greeeeeeeed factor. At the very least, that will bring about a lot of cynicism about such an endeavor. Truthfully, I cannot blame anyone that does so, either. I do not find Blizzard really that special in its own right like a sort of creative tour de force (if anything, I find many Blizzard titles too restrictive in offerings for my own tastes), but more to the point, I also do not see this as exactly the most forward opportunity because of Activision.
Nurb made a good point; I would be wary of the company behind this special university and any risks regarding a student's ideas or creations.
pessimism aside, I can't wish ill will against those who this might help at least.
Blizzard have about 200 developers as well in 2008. Each team is very small expect the WoW team which took up about 100. Now there is probably more since they have been hiring for the new MMO project for some time, and they are start another team working on something unknown.Raiyan 1.0 said:
Valve is still just taking. Blizzard is at least trying. You can also coax creativity out of people that don't have programming skills.Raiyan 1.0 said:
In order:Raiyan 1.0 said:
-Yeah, a lot of other games had that. It never can carry a narratively driven story and usually only tangentially helps.
-That irritates me to no end. "Cutscene-less narratives" is a bunch of bullshit.
Wiki defines a cutscene as:
"A sequence in a video game over which the player has no or only limited control, breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot, present character development, and provide background information, atmosphere, dialogue, and clues."
Half Life has them despite what anyone thinks. And they're some of the most jarring things I have ever seen. What kind of situation has people talking up a man that has no voice? They give Gordon Freeman so much damn praise in the cutscenes and all he does is shoot things, bludgeon people and plug stuff in. That's it. There is absolutely no narrative depth or characterization present within that man and it irritates me that I cannot stick the fucking crowbar in Alyx's head. She's like what Tali is in ME2: an ingame fan girl for the lead character.
-Physics puzzles are part of the technical achievements. They are made by physics objects and well developed physics coding.
-Perfecting level designs is also somewhat of a technical feat, but it's subjective (long ass car rides for supply caches that you will probably only get a single thing from ftw!). The subjectivity makes it an invalid point.
-Dark humor of GLaDOS I will cede, but I do so grudgingly because I didn't think it was that amusing, but everyone else seemed to think it was.
I have! It works very well.Raiyan 1.0 said:
Wonderful, a benchmark. And someone will set it further down the line. The list for UE games is staggering. Source has more mods than it does IP's. That may be a testament to mod confidence, but doesn't say much in professional developer confidence.Raiyan 1.0 said:
Your pretentious Latin phrase aside, were you not reading that they hired the original developers?Raiyan 1.0 said:
Nope.Raiyan 1.0 said:
That's an arse way to ask a question.Raiyan 1.0 said:
Oh, boo hoo. They ripped off some artistic designs for a few things. They still had to do a little bit more than the basic units of the races.Raiyan 1.0 said:
Yes, GLaDOS in no way resembles SHODAN. Also, 3 minutes is plenty of time to understand a character. What if he's a manipulator just like GLaDOS? What if he wants to kill Chell after he's done escaping? You don't know anything about him or what he intends to do.Raiyan 1.0 said:
I was actually going to avoid Bioware, but let's create a hypothetical. What if someone offered a genuine critique on Mass Effect 2, explained why some dialogue is stilted or cliched and offered some improvement? That poster would have a shitton of fanboys raining down on them. Elitism was the wrong term, but the point was to be that the Escapist has enough fanboys to inundate any good, cerebral discussion with pointless defense of people that don't give a shit.Raiyan 1.0 said:
OH GOD YES!!!!! (sorry for those so annoyed)
Finally Blizzard opens up its pearly gates!
(Jim would actually be Raynor from Starcraft on his vulture)
Finally Blizzard opens up its pearly gates!
(Jim would actually be Raynor from Starcraft on his vulture)
I thought Blizzard had three of these already. And a few nuclear submarines.
These developers, as well as other major corporations are so incredibly wealthy that it's difficult to understand how much power they actually have. Breaking one down intelligently, like Blizzard, and using all the resources for something humane, could improve a whole continent's well-being or help cause other phenomenal things.
Doing constructive, and intelligent, in a longer period of time, moves like this, should be very clear if they have any sense in them.
These developers, as well as other major corporations are so incredibly wealthy that it's difficult to understand how much power they actually have. Breaking one down intelligently, like Blizzard, and using all the resources for something humane, could improve a whole continent's well-being or help cause other phenomenal things.
Doing constructive, and intelligent, in a longer period of time, moves like this, should be very clear if they have any sense in them.
Yeah, it's good to see that irrational paranoia is as prevalant as it ever was.Nurb said:Bobby sees the profit in this:
-The costs equalling an expensive private college
-"Students" come up with ideas and games for free that Activision can exploit. I guarantee you there will be some contract somewhere that will allow for that.
Come on, where did you see that this would be an actual college? Did you actually read about the Pixar studio? If anything, it's a work/study program.
You're ridiculous.
And so everyone who thinks they would like to do games goes to Blizzard, only to come out as a self-entitled prissy little spoilt kid.
They'll complain about Dev software crashing when they do something stupid.
They'll complain about how long a game takes to be created.
They'll complain about how they don't have bleeding edge PC's to make something good.
They'll complain about optimization.
They'll complain about not getting a job.
They will make a game, publish it, and in interviews, drop the name Blizzard at least a bajillion times to show off that they know their stuff, and as soon as it's gets booted for being a crappy game, everyone from the team will either disappear off the face of the Earth and merge into Mobile Games or keep on being 'proud students of Blizzard and Co.' whenever they send their portfolio around.
God, I hope Blizzard has a good plan for this, or else they're not different then other Schools for Games...
They'll complain about Dev software crashing when they do something stupid.
They'll complain about how long a game takes to be created.
They'll complain about how they don't have bleeding edge PC's to make something good.
They'll complain about optimization.
They'll complain about not getting a job.
They will make a game, publish it, and in interviews, drop the name Blizzard at least a bajillion times to show off that they know their stuff, and as soon as it's gets booted for being a crappy game, everyone from the team will either disappear off the face of the Earth and merge into Mobile Games or keep on being 'proud students of Blizzard and Co.' whenever they send their portfolio around.
God, I hope Blizzard has a good plan for this, or else they're not different then other Schools for Games...
A) It'd cost money to be thereJerrytheBullfrog said:Yeah, it's good to see that irrational paranoia is as prevalant as it ever was.Nurb said:Bobby sees the profit in this:
-The costs equalling an expensive private college
-"Students" come up with ideas and games for free that Activision can exploit. I guarantee you there will be some contract somewhere that will allow for that.
Come on, where did you see that this would be an actual college? Did you actually read about the Pixar studio? If anything, it's a work/study program.
You're ridiculous.
B) I put students in quotation marks
C) Any ideas or games anyone develops or works on there would automatically be property of Activision.
You think they're doing this out of the goodness of their hearts and love of making video games? Bobby said he wants to take the fun out of making them, and this is obviously a potential profit making venture since he'll have a lot of free concept work and development of ideas. In fact, they'd pay him for the privilage of giving them ideas
And you call me paranoid and recockulous