Tom Goldman said:
Actually, no we can't. Blizzard talks a good game here, but then again they are a world class company and doubtlessly put a lot of thought into how they were going to sell this desician after the fact.
The truth is still that Blizzard is charging people three times for one game. They can get away with it, and make more money, so why not from their perspective. Given the fanatacism that drives things like "Blizzcon" they probably figure that even if this backfired they could "take the hit" so to speak.
See, the big thing is whether or not you believe what Blizzard is saying. This is a "by the numbers" response and as someone who didn't believe that this was nessicary to begin with, what they said here hardly does much to convince me.
Given that I very much doubt it is going to take them 10-12 years to release the entire trilogy I am also perfectly willing to call "BS" on the claims of them doing this to avoid a 10-12 year development cycle. Especially if they plan to use the same engine and keep everything "Starcraft 2" as opposed to changing the balance and gameplay each time so we're dealing with Star Craft 2 through 4 for all intents and purposes. With the game engine developed we're mostly looking at a question of them building maps, recording dialogue,
and making short, fancy movies. Not what I'd call a decade's work. I'm sure in the end it comes down to it being expensive, and the big differance being that they can make more money by stretching it out into three games, than doing everything in one game and seeing a much smaller profit margin.
Blizzard also has a lot of stuff on their plate right now, having bit off more than they can chew. I do not consider them getting greedy and splitting up so much to be a viable excuse. Blizzard has Cataclysm on the way, which is presumably not the last intended WoW expansion, along with apparently a second MMORPG, and Diablo 3. This coming from a company that pretty much seemed to focus on one project at a time. Doing all of this simultaneously to try and make as much money, as fast as possible, does not exactly tug at my heartstrings.
I'm sure we won't agree, but this is my opinion. I see nothing there that is going to convince me that this was nessicary or in the best interests of anything but Blizzard's pocket book. I say "we" in the sense of those who have been making these criticisms because I'm pretty sure most people who were being critical of Blizzard are going to be thinking the same way because what they are saying isn't exactly persuasive.
Now if the next "parts" of the game are provided entirely for free (which I don't see happening) that would change my attitude somewhat. I wouldn't recant what I've said so far, or what I think of the current attitude as I see it, but I would give them credit for doing the right thing in the end and deciding to side with their fans rather than the bottom line in the final equasion.
