Blizzard Wins April Fools'
Popular PC developer Blizzard took April Fools' '09 by storm - unleashing not one, not two, but five pranks this year including uber-massive StarCraft mecha, a new Diablo class, and PvP Dance Battles.
Yes, yes, we have a general April Fools' Roundup [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90621-April-Fools-2009-Roundup] post. But this level of commitment to messing with people deserves special recognition on its own.
First, there was the WoW Europe "Pimp My Mount" [http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/mount-p1mpage.html] page, which teased players with the chance to turn their standard horse, giant cat, or hawkstrider into a truly epic mount. Amusing, sure, but not quite up to the standards of a company that has repeatedly demonstrated a love for elaborate April Fools' pranks.
Naturally, they were just getting started. The Diablo III site was updated with a look at the game's new character class: massive Radial Dialogue Tree [http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/characters/archivist.xml] - personal favorites include, "In my day, there were no colors," and "Tyrael and I go way back."
StarCraft II was the next game to be tricked out, with the brand-new Terran Terra-Tron [http://www.starcraft2.com/features/terran/terratron.xml] unit - a more-than-meets-the-eye (*cough*) robot comprised of an entire Terran base - capturing the heart of mecha fans (and StarCraft fans) worldwide. "Dr. Ron Volt," eh? Yeah, I see what you did there.
Well, that covered all three of their franchises. Funny stuff - let's call it a day, right? Wrong. Not to be outdone by their EU counterparts, the North American WoW page gave Azerothians a sneak peek at the new Dance Battle PvP System [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/dance/index.xml], replacing the tired old swords and sorcery of modern WoW PvP with something brand new - and significantly more stylish. This new leg armor gives me +50 to funk, baby.
As for the fifth joke ... well, unless you're a regular on the WoW forums, you might well have missed it. Every single post on the forums has complaint thread [http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/04/01/the-forums-have-been-rpd/] seem like an epic adventure. Or, well, making it seem much more amusing, anyway.
There's a certain poetry to these [http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=16101960909&sid=1], now:
Well, that about does it - Blizzard wins this year's April Fools'. Whatever else you might want to say about the team in Irvine, you can't say that they don't have a sense of humor.
Permalink
Popular PC developer Blizzard took April Fools' '09 by storm - unleashing not one, not two, but five pranks this year including uber-massive StarCraft mecha, a new Diablo class, and PvP Dance Battles.
Yes, yes, we have a general April Fools' Roundup [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90621-April-Fools-2009-Roundup] post. But this level of commitment to messing with people deserves special recognition on its own.
First, there was the WoW Europe "Pimp My Mount" [http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/mount-p1mpage.html] page, which teased players with the chance to turn their standard horse, giant cat, or hawkstrider into a truly epic mount. Amusing, sure, but not quite up to the standards of a company that has repeatedly demonstrated a love for elaborate April Fools' pranks.
Naturally, they were just getting started. The Diablo III site was updated with a look at the game's new character class: massive Radial Dialogue Tree [http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/characters/archivist.xml] - personal favorites include, "In my day, there were no colors," and "Tyrael and I go way back."
StarCraft II was the next game to be tricked out, with the brand-new Terran Terra-Tron [http://www.starcraft2.com/features/terran/terratron.xml] unit - a more-than-meets-the-eye (*cough*) robot comprised of an entire Terran base - capturing the heart of mecha fans (and StarCraft fans) worldwide. "Dr. Ron Volt," eh? Yeah, I see what you did there.
Well, that covered all three of their franchises. Funny stuff - let's call it a day, right? Wrong. Not to be outdone by their EU counterparts, the North American WoW page gave Azerothians a sneak peek at the new Dance Battle PvP System [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/dance/index.xml], replacing the tired old swords and sorcery of modern WoW PvP with something brand new - and significantly more stylish. This new leg armor gives me +50 to funk, baby.
As for the fifth joke ... well, unless you're a regular on the WoW forums, you might well have missed it. Every single post on the forums has complaint thread [http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/04/01/the-forums-have-been-rpd/] seem like an epic adventure. Or, well, making it seem much more amusing, anyway.
There's a certain poetry to these [http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=16101960909&sid=1], now:
Oh, and the actual RP forums [http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=15864848470&sid=1] have been given a change of their own: Punctuation has been removed, and every sentence now ends in a random variation on "lol." I lol'd IRL, guys. Good show, good show indeed."lol", she stated, as she liberally applied her custom fragrance, which was made with bits of real nightsaber.
Well, that about does it - Blizzard wins this year's April Fools'. Whatever else you might want to say about the team in Irvine, you can't say that they don't have a sense of humor.
Permalink