Issue 48 - Exodus

[The Escapist Staff]

Shannon Drake"After WoW, I wanted to focus on content, especially original content. There were many people, like myself, who had been there eight or 10 years and really wanted a change." Shannon Drake looks at the development studios and games created by former Blizzard developers.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Chris
http://lpao.org
Well written article, I enjoyed it a lot considering I wish to be a game designer. Thanks Shannon!

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Kevin
http://www.plaync.com
Just for clarification, NCSoft OC is *not* working on Dungeon Runners. The 15 people from the original WoW team that formed the studio are working on an entirely new and unannounced MMO.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Mishotaki

Wow... i loved the ending... so true... and that's what is happening in the gaming world in these past few years....

a game works... they make it a franchise... we like it a bunch... they make only that and nothing else.. and we get bored of the same of the same... might be why Spore is guetting so much hype... it's refreshign in a place where everything want to be a sequel and make millions like the first was... and it looks a lot like the movie industry these past few years...

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Dagon

I'll love to see designers walk out of Blizzard and start their own company. I think it can be done; a small team of enthusiasts can create the basis for a game that'll blow existing games away. A small fringe game can catch on spectacularly the next year and wipe the dinosaurs from the stage.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Hiran

But since WoW is generating so much revenue, surely Bliz can sink some money into developing new content? Either Bliz has the staff right now to spread them over multiple projects, including a non-Warcraft/Diablo/Starcraft project, or they have the money to hire more staff. At least, they should have the money based on the revenue from WoW. Otherwise, they face the problem where they'll burn out as a company in a few years (10 or less probably) on the pure fact that people will eventually get sick of the Warcraft/Diablo/Starcraft franchises. Mind you, I'm not an intense gamer, so I can't speak for the truly devoted, but if Bliz is just sticking only to the tried and tested, eventually another company will come out with some new idea that will make it big as a franchise and possibly replace the current Bliz franchises, and yes, that includes WoW.

If you need convincing, just look at musicians - the same thing applies to them. They either expand their sound and audience if they want to keep going or they die out.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: ialas

Blizzard should follow Pixar's example, straying away from sequels in favor of creating new IP. It's risky, but it can also pay off big-time and strengthen Blizzard's reputation as an innovator in this risk-averse business.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Brother Laz
http://modsbylaz.planetdiablo.gamespy.com
IIt should be noted that all was not quite as well and good at Blizzard as the article makes it appear to be.

- Warcraft 3 may have been a commercial success, but its lasting value was minimal. The expansion was very unsuccessful for Blizzard standards, and the third-party map/mod 'DOTA' is actually more popular than the real game on Battle.net. Even good old Starcraft is more popular than regular Warcraft 3.

- Starcraft Ghost was a huge blunder, and Blizzard is now quietly admitting their mistake and has pretty much cancelled the game.

- We can be fairly sure that a Diablo 3 is in the works, between the suspicious job ads last year and the fact that Bill Roper accidentally confirmed it in an interview about Hellgate London. So where the hell is it?

Diablo 3 has been in the works ever since Diablo 2 was released, and it was nearly cancelled when most of the team left for Flagship, then cancelled again, allegedly because it didn't meet Blizzard standards, when Blizzard North was shutdown. It is now being remade from scratch by the incompetents at Blizzard (South) who made the bugged Diablo 2 1.11 patch. Five years and it hasn't even been announced yet. Abandon all hope.

- Blizzard confirmed they're working on 'multiple unannounced titles', but whatever the other unannounced title is, it has also been under wraps since pretty much forever. A Starcraft 2 seems likely, considering Blizzard snatched some people from the Command & Conquer team a few years ago. However, a Blizzard rep asked in the Starcraft forum last year why the players preferred hard counters (Starcraft style) over soft counters (Warcraft 3 style). Think about it. A developer asking the players how to make a good strategy game.

Things are not looking good.

 

[Russ Pitts]

>Blizzard should follow Pixar's example, straying away from sequels in favor of creating new IP. It's risky, but it can also pay off big-time and strengthen Blizzard's reputation as an innovator in this risk-averse business.

In my interview with Mark Kern he actually cited Pixar as a strong influence on his team-building/project management philosophy. It would seem that the individuals see it your way even if the company as a whole doesn't (or can't).

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Mustasio

I really enjoy the writing here, and is it just me or did this issue make anyone else add www.red5studios.com to their bookmarks? Once again, very enjoyable reading.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Iliya

"Think about it. A developer asking the players how to make a good strategy game."

YOU should really think about it. How much other companies ask the players what they want(they were not asking not how to make the game, but what people want)? How much other companies have games as successifull as Starcraft, Diablo or WoW(3 games that are best in their genre by far). Let me give you a hint: both answers are a big round zero.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Brother Laz
http://modsbylaz.planetdiablo.gamespy.com
'YOU should really think about it'

When Diablo was made, they didn't ask the users whether they wanted it to be turn-based or real time. For Diablo 2, they didn't ask the players whether rares, sets, uniques or (in the expansion) runewords should be the best items and how rare they should be. They just followed their sixth sense and made two very successful games.

But when a dev asks the players how they want Starcraft 2 to be, to me this means they don't actually know anymore what the players want and have to explicitly ask them.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Bjoern H

Some things i disagree with:
I guess Blizzard has a great name, so the fan base (not to mention the fan bois) would be excited to hear of an original and totally new BLIZZARD game. It would work. That doesn't mean that it'll happen but people would trust the name.

The heavily anticipated and much talked about Hellgate:London is, to my opinion, nothing more than a "Diablo 3" which is not allowed to use this name. So the author says that people leave the company and want to create something which is not Diablo or WoW. And what do they do? They claim to be "the creators of diablo2" and make a game which people talk about as "diablo-FPS in 3d". That much about originality.