Unfortunately little talk about improving mapmaking for the community, and it's almost backhanded how rosy they paint the current custom map scene, choosing instead to talk about ranked play in SC2, something standard since warcraft III, but whatever we're just the little guys so we gotta expect that.
An interesting read if you want to get a hint at the future of battle.net from one of the suits at blizzard. Looks like the two biggest PC companies are facing off for dominance in the future of PC gaming, with Valve looking to maintain survival against the big boys and Blizzard looking to take over the whole shebang.
"Just for StarCraft II, there are over 50,000 maps" and less than 100 of that played.
"the matchmaking system is probably the single-best thing we've accomplished in the whole new Battle.net" true, nothing else have been accomplished with it.D
An interesting read that sheds some light on their design philosophy. A highlight or two:
Quote:
GC: This perception of this suspension of reality that people seek out in certain online multiplayer gaming experiences like World of Warcraft, I think, is a very interesting thing from a sociological standpoint. Why they're interested preserving their anonymity there but yet throwing themselves out there for everyone to see in the social networking space, that has been a very interesting thing for us to wrap our heads around at Blizzard.
This explains that whole foray into the real ID bit (which is also discussed in more detail in the article). But I, for one, don't find it the LEAST bit hard to understand. People join facebook / twitter / myspace for the express purpose of having a social experience - of enhancing their social lives. Gamers do not play games for the same motivation at all - at the end of the day, many gamers do not play games to have a social experience. They play games to have fun (or take up time).
Quote:
GC: Sure. Well, look at our own StarCraft marketplace. We talked about it at last year's Blizzcon. That's still on the roadmap. We do plan to put out a whole marketplace for our content. We've got a huge vibrant map community - maps and mods for StarCraft II. We have our Galaxy Map Editor... Just for StarCraft II, there are over 50,000 maps just in the U.S., maps and mods. There are puzzle game mods, first-person shooters, tower defense games, you name it. Maps, mods. We have this huge vibrant community.
50,000 maps! Of which 0.1% are played with any regularity. I feel as if this fellow actually believes what he's saying and he's not all wrong. But I, at least, don't feel that the community is vibrant. I would describe it as largely disgruntled and disillusioned. Am I wrong?
This is probably the first time I'm saying something bad about Blizz on these forums, though on the other hand that only shows how long it took for someone to come up with an interesting point regarding all the criticism towards them for me to respond to.
50,000 maps! Of which 0.1% are played with any regularity. I feel as if this fellow actually believes what he's saying and he's not all wrong. But I, at least, don't feel that the community is vibrant. I would describe it as largely disgruntled and disillusioned. Am I wrong?
No, I don't think you are. In what ways the net battle.net is bad or good is still very subjective and open for discussion, but I would definitely say that the community right now is disgruntled and isillusioned. I remember joining the community for Warcraft 3 mapping, and it was nothing like this. People were enthousiastic, hosted up their own maps and there was in fact very little criticism. What criticism there was was people complaining about the somewhat limited functions of the world editor. Regardless of your opinion on Blizzard right now, both the statement that they've changed at least somewhat and the statement that right now the mapping community is unhappy in general seem undeniable.
I just cannot understand how can you fail so hard with bnet 2.0....
You could just take a look at wc3 bnet. Think about pros and cons, and then try to make it a bit better....BUT THEN...you remove everything that is important and add some lamebook support?!? seriosly I doubt many people give a shit about the facebook support....
I cant understand the mindset of the man who designed the bnet 2.0....maybe he is the biggest troll in the world and is just trolling us all....
So true. I think it's just reflective of our level of expertise but also what we have faced in sc2. In war3, everything was kind of new and fresh. It's like the growing metropolis where everyone makes money and cool things come out. But now, everyone knows the DOTA thing that happened, and so perhaps we have a lot of preconceived notions. It's like working at your first job, everything is so 'cool', but after a while you lose that spark... and then couple that with popularity and how it has affected so many people.
Think back on April when you first opened the editor. I don't think we were disgruntled or disillusioned back then; I think we were all exploring this amazing tool. But now, there's a lot of pressure and stress. Your map gets popular? Great, now you have to support it to 5000 players all wanting X feature or Y thing fixed, but then a week later, BAM it dies out of nowhere. Then you go home and yell at your wife, slamming the door and cutting yourself in the dark, chanting rhythmic bible verses... wait I swear I didn't do that.
War3's editor was really limited initially, no custom abilities lol. But now everyone is hostile and up in arms about bnet etc... Well, I have a feeling when once Bnet gets updated a bit, even if it takes until HOTS... then there'll be a big attitude change. It's amazing how quickly something positive can turn an entire community around. Just takes patience.
And I'm sure Greg is aware of our problems, elsewise he wouldn't be doing his job right. We're basically the lifeblood of this game, unless eSports picks up. War3 was left behind in general, aside from the DOTA world. He has to have 'press talk' so the game sounds good!
I almost dislike that we aren't paying monthly like WoW; they don't really have to give us anymore since they got our money already... aside from the fact we might not buy HOTS... but people will always buy Blizzard games.
The future of Battle.net
Unfortunately little talk about improving mapmaking for the community, and it's almost backhanded how rosy they paint the current custom map scene, choosing instead to talk about ranked play in SC2, something standard since warcraft III, but whatever we're just the little guys so we gotta expect that.
An interesting read if you want to get a hint at the future of battle.net from one of the suits at blizzard. Looks like the two biggest PC companies are facing off for dominance in the future of PC gaming, with Valve looking to maintain survival against the big boys and Blizzard looking to take over the whole shebang.
"Just for StarCraft II, there are over 50,000 maps" and less than 100 of that played.
"the matchmaking system is probably the single-best thing we've accomplished in the whole new Battle.net" true, nothing else have been accomplished with it.D
@crazyfingers619: Go
An interesting read that sheds some light on their design philosophy. A highlight or two:
This explains that whole foray into the real ID bit (which is also discussed in more detail in the article). But I, for one, don't find it the LEAST bit hard to understand. People join facebook / twitter / myspace for the express purpose of having a social experience - of enhancing their social lives. Gamers do not play games for the same motivation at all - at the end of the day, many gamers do not play games to have a social experience. They play games to have fun (or take up time).
50,000 maps! Of which 0.1% are played with any regularity. I feel as if this fellow actually believes what he's saying and he's not all wrong. But I, at least, don't feel that the community is vibrant. I would describe it as largely disgruntled and disillusioned. Am I wrong?
This is probably the first time I'm saying something bad about Blizz on these forums, though on the other hand that only shows how long it took for someone to come up with an interesting point regarding all the criticism towards them for me to respond to.
No, I don't think you are. In what ways the net battle.net is bad or good is still very subjective and open for discussion, but I would definitely say that the community right now is disgruntled and isillusioned. I remember joining the community for Warcraft 3 mapping, and it was nothing like this. People were enthousiastic, hosted up their own maps and there was in fact very little criticism. What criticism there was was people complaining about the somewhat limited functions of the world editor. Regardless of your opinion on Blizzard right now, both the statement that they've changed at least somewhat and the statement that right now the mapping community is unhappy in general seem undeniable.
I just cannot understand how can you fail so hard with bnet 2.0....
You could just take a look at wc3 bnet. Think about pros and cons, and then try to make it a bit better....BUT THEN...you remove everything that is important and add some lamebook support?!? seriosly I doubt many people give a shit about the facebook support....
I cant understand the mindset of the man who designed the bnet 2.0....maybe he is the biggest troll in the world and is just trolling us all....
@Mozared: Go
So true. I think it's just reflective of our level of expertise but also what we have faced in sc2. In war3, everything was kind of new and fresh. It's like the growing metropolis where everyone makes money and cool things come out. But now, everyone knows the DOTA thing that happened, and so perhaps we have a lot of preconceived notions. It's like working at your first job, everything is so 'cool', but after a while you lose that spark... and then couple that with popularity and how it has affected so many people.
Think back on April when you first opened the editor. I don't think we were disgruntled or disillusioned back then; I think we were all exploring this amazing tool. But now, there's a lot of pressure and stress. Your map gets popular? Great, now you have to support it to 5000 players all wanting X feature or Y thing fixed, but then a week later, BAM it dies out of nowhere. Then you go home and yell at your wife, slamming the door and cutting yourself in the dark, chanting rhythmic bible verses... wait I swear I didn't do that.
War3's editor was really limited initially, no custom abilities lol. But now everyone is hostile and up in arms about bnet etc... Well, I have a feeling when once Bnet gets updated a bit, even if it takes until HOTS... then there'll be a big attitude change. It's amazing how quickly something positive can turn an entire community around. Just takes patience.
And I'm sure Greg is aware of our problems, elsewise he wouldn't be doing his job right. We're basically the lifeblood of this game, unless eSports picks up. War3 was left behind in general, aside from the DOTA world. He has to have 'press talk' so the game sounds good!
I almost dislike that we aren't paying monthly like WoW; they don't really have to give us anymore since they got our money already... aside from the fact we might not buy HOTS... but people will always buy Blizzard games.