Poll: Is Blizzard an overrated game developer?
- Thread starter Proskub
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Blizzard is one of the few developers who have the ability to say "it'll be there when it's done". They are also the GODS of RTS and dungeon crawlers. Warcraft and Starcraft gave birth to half the RTS genre by themselves, the other half were either Total Annihilation's or C&C's lovechildren.
On the Dungeon Crawler side of things, NONE of that stuff would have happened without diablo paving the way. Heck some of the crawlers literally copy everything about Diablo and throw a new skin on it (see Titans Gate).
WoW has IMHO been somewhat of a downfall of Blizzard, It brought them success and made them a household name, but it also caused their other franchises to pretty much die for 6 years before they got picked back up. It also cause blizzard to take something that's usually been an inherent quality of their games (the story telling) and redefine it so that it can fit with retcons and manipulation so that the players have a more complete story.
I'm hoping that the "good" dev team is working on Starcraft and Diablo franchises, while WoW is in the hands of the newer code monkies. The problem is that some of the creators of Diablo and Starcraft ran off when WoW was created and formed several of their own design studios (the guys who did Goblin Commander were behind Starcraft I think) and have been using the "I worked on X blizzard project!" to try to sell mediocre games.
On the Dungeon Crawler side of things, NONE of that stuff would have happened without diablo paving the way. Heck some of the crawlers literally copy everything about Diablo and throw a new skin on it (see Titans Gate).
WoW has IMHO been somewhat of a downfall of Blizzard, It brought them success and made them a household name, but it also caused their other franchises to pretty much die for 6 years before they got picked back up. It also cause blizzard to take something that's usually been an inherent quality of their games (the story telling) and redefine it so that it can fit with retcons and manipulation so that the players have a more complete story.
I'm hoping that the "good" dev team is working on Starcraft and Diablo franchises, while WoW is in the hands of the newer code monkies. The problem is that some of the creators of Diablo and Starcraft ran off when WoW was created and formed several of their own design studios (the guys who did Goblin Commander were behind Starcraft I think) and have been using the "I worked on X blizzard project!" to try to sell mediocre games.
*eyebrow raise* Okay then, I'm gonna be a bit of an odd duck here and say 'no'
As a game DE-VE-LO-PER. Read title here clearly, not in the slightest. I think they have very nice idea's building on others even if it is just in Warcraft for a time being, eventually they'll get bored of their favorite child and do some other projects down the line. Artwork peices are simply sublime from them and when is anyone on this forsaken spinning dirt clod going to get over their:
'Orginality-whine' phase. Everything influences everything else, I'm really really sorry but it's true. If you're someone in the Art industry you have to get over that little originality kink pretty quick, because it's technique (copying) first, then you can try and squeeze out somthing slightly different from the millions of things come before it.
So Rip off shcmip off I say. They made a solid idea, and it sold, let em roll with it and go do somthing else if you're that ticked off about it. They're a good developer, because I can list quite a few companies alot worse than what they produce.
As a game DE-VE-LO-PER. Read title here clearly, not in the slightest. I think they have very nice idea's building on others even if it is just in Warcraft for a time being, eventually they'll get bored of their favorite child and do some other projects down the line. Artwork peices are simply sublime from them and when is anyone on this forsaken spinning dirt clod going to get over their:
'Orginality-whine' phase. Everything influences everything else, I'm really really sorry but it's true. If you're someone in the Art industry you have to get over that little originality kink pretty quick, because it's technique (copying) first, then you can try and squeeze out somthing slightly different from the millions of things come before it.
So Rip off shcmip off I say. They made a solid idea, and it sold, let em roll with it and go do somthing else if you're that ticked off about it. They're a good developer, because I can list quite a few companies alot worse than what they produce.
I wasn't trying to state that WoW was necessarily a bad thing. Actually I view it as a sort of good thing because it gave them enough money to be as eccentric about how to put their games together as they wanted to. By this I mean it allowed them to pretty much be their own publisher rather than having to having to shop around for people to purchase their idea.
I like WoW and am an avid player, but I'm sad that they focused so heavily on that one product that they left the others in limbo for a long time.
I think Diablo III and Starcraft II will be very telling about how the company is operating Post-WoW in terms of quality control, and content. One of blizzards best attributes in the course of their career was that in general they had VERY balanced games. WoW kinda bucks this trend but that's mainly because the Class system and how it pigeon holes characters into roles and makes them act as counters to each other.
I like WoW and am an avid player, but I'm sad that they focused so heavily on that one product that they left the others in limbo for a long time.
I think Diablo III and Starcraft II will be very telling about how the company is operating Post-WoW in terms of quality control, and content. One of blizzards best attributes in the course of their career was that in general they had VERY balanced games. WoW kinda bucks this trend but that's mainly because the Class system and how it pigeon holes characters into roles and makes them act as counters to each other.
Sure they rip off everything they can, but in terms of quality it's like comparing a gem that just came out of the mine, and a ring with a giant polished diamond. They refine what they can get till it's so good it's easy to think that the plain goodness counts for originality, and in case you haven't been paying attention to games recently but this hasn't exactly been the year of originality(for mainstream, indie is a whole other barrel).
Blizzard IS one of the most solid game studios there is, no doubt about it. One of the few gaming studios that still is around and havn't released anything that dissapointed me so-far..
And kinda off topic... god damn i miss Bullfrog... and Lucas Arts Adventures studios >_> They knew (like blizzard) how to make good games (fun games that is).
And kinda off topic... god damn i miss Bullfrog... and Lucas Arts Adventures studios >_> They knew (like blizzard) how to make good games (fun games that is).
Blizzard made a game that 11 million users play.
Sure there are quality issues with it but if they can get that many people to constantly keep forking out money to play it they must be doing something right.
But if your question is can blizzard still make games with good plot and varied game play then (as was stated in previous posts) I guess we will have to wait for SC2 and Diablo 3 to be released and decide for ourselves.
Sure there are quality issues with it but if they can get that many people to constantly keep forking out money to play it they must be doing something right.
But if your question is can blizzard still make games with good plot and varied game play then (as was stated in previous posts) I guess we will have to wait for SC2 and Diablo 3 to be released and decide for ourselves.
Warcraft and Starcraft may be excellent examples of the genre, but they are not original. They took and modified ideas from all the other lores and games of the day to create them. They may have been copied since, but their games are themselves copies.Calax said:
As above. Diablo is simply an excellent example of the genre, it did not do anything that wasn't done before, simply did what it did well.Calax said:
10 million subscribers and 2/3 of the global MMO market...if that is their downfall I'd hate to see what happens if they succeed :-\Calax said: