Things that make you go Hmmm...Craft

Indelible — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:16:16 GMT

Last night I logged on to my friends IRC channel to speak to some people about the mammoth that is Blizzard Entertainment and all I could get out of them was…

omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg […]

So on and so forth.

I think that has something to do with Drysc and his rumour mill. He only went and revealed that the New MMO is not a WoW title on the US forums and thus, sent the whole world into a spin.

In true me style, I have theories… and they aren’t demons.

1 World(s) of (Hmm)Craft
2 World(s) of (Star)Craft
3 World(s) of Diablo
4 World of… aww… I really can’t be arsed

World(s) of (Hmm)Craft

I was bored with the term TheoryCraft so I renamed the entire concept of TheoryCraft to HmmCraft as A) It sounds cooler and B) It’s easier to type. The type of HmmCraft I like has nothing to do with maths or numbers and doesn’t focus around what skills I’m supposed to be using and where I’m supposed to be using them. It focuses around what we may be seeing from Blizzard in the next few years.

Many have discredited the idea of a StarCraft MMO set after the events of SC2 because, “the fans don’t want it,” but let’s be entirely honest here. Who in their right mind thought about and wanted a Warcraft MMO? I certainly didn’t and it certainly wasn’t the most logical franchise for Blizzard to pick as their debut MMO title considering Diablo had already made a pretty good story for an MMO environment. Despite this, it was and there is nothing we can do to change that now. All we can do is sit back and think about what the next one is going to be.

We know for a fact that Blizzard plans to MMO-ise all of their major franchises. They’ve said as much on multiple occasions. We also know that they plan to continue the other side to those franchises as well. Blizzard brass has already commented that Warcraft 4 is on the cards and they are making StarCraft 2 so it is apparent they don’t want to limit those franchises to the MMO world. So Blizzard wants to utilise all of their titles as best they can.

World(s) of (Star)Craft

Let’s role-back to Warcraft 3. Warcraft has always been an RTS title ever since its inception but things were blatantly going to change after the third title. Warcraft 3 neatly tidied away major bad guys and left Azeroth pretty much clean of any shite that may have hindered the transition from RTS to MMORPG. The expansion to the title, The Frozen Thrown, sorted out the Lich King and Illidan as well, putting one of them in seclusion and the other one on another planet behind a big, closed gate, which meant that the rest of Azeroth didn’t have any major antagonists to deal with for a few years.

At the moment, we’ve got StarCraft 2 in the works and it is suspected that it will be released next year. We have yet to hear what the storyline will be about but I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. Metzen is working his magic again, cleaning away some of the antagonists and major characters to make the franchise more MMO friendly. In fact, I would hazard that that is going to occur, irrespective of whether the next MMO title out of Blizzard has anything to do with StarCraft.

Another fact that I think roles in favour of a Science Fiction StarCraft based MMO out of Blizzard is the current state of the MMO market and what other companies are looking to. Let’s face it. The fantasy arm of the MMO market has been milked for year and years. Fantasy has become the dominant area associated with MMO gaming thanks to titles such as World of Warcraft, Ultima Online, EverQuest 1+2 and so on and so forth. In fact, the only major Science Fiction based title I hear about on a regular basis is Eve Online. Even titles like Star Wars Galaxies and The Matrix Online have faded into oblivion.

Stargate Worlds, Star Trek Online, Firefly Online, A new Star Wars MMO – look how many major franchise titles are either debuting or reinventing themselves in the MMO market. Whilst some may think that Blizzard wouldn’t want to compete with such brutes, I don’t think that is the case at all. If a StarCraft based MMO were to be released and were to see off franchises like Star Wars and Stargate, think of the implications for Blizzard. Think of the money involved. In a situation like that, StarCraft could make more money for them than World of Warcraft has.

World(s) of Diablo

It’s been a while (see: nearly 10 years) since a Diablo title was released and recently, things have started to indicate that a new Diablo title is in the works. Seeing as Blizzard is working on StarCraft 2 and possibly an expansion (they like their expansions) we could assume that any StarCraft MMO is few years away.

Diablo presents some interesting ideas for an MMO environment. Firstly, World of Warcraft is very comical and immature in its presentation, as was Warcraft, as was StarCraft. Diablo, on the other hand, is a very mature and well developed, late-teen/adult orientated title. We have yet to see an MMO title that tries to appeal to people who want to be scared all the time. Hellgate arguably tried this a little every now and again but the game was more of a hack ‘n’ slash with as little emotion as possible (and it lacks the bodies on spikes that you got in D2). I personally feel that the Diablo storyline is far, far more epic than any other gaming storyline I have ever subjected myself to and as such, an MMO would have to be equally as epic.

There have been little hints here and there that have kept the Diablo spark alive and I think almost all of these, “accidents,” were intentional. From the beta keys at BlizzCon that weren’t for a WoW title, to the mysterious happening with the Diablo3 domains that Blizzard own. Comments by a famous Diablo author, in which he stated he was not writing for a dead game and other more prophetic speeches by Blizzard employees have really done well to keep the fire burning quite furiously but all of a sudden…

Silence has befallen the Diablo community.

For the last few years there has not gone a day where something has not been generating Diablo hype specifically. I know you are sitting there saying, “What about the Next Gen MMO Matt?” and all I have to say is that is far too impersonal for my liking. For the last 3 years we’ve had specific Diablo hype occurring. All of a sudden; nothing; not a hint; a few comments about a couple of novels about 6 months ago and then… silence.

I admit that is a weird impression to derive from such an occurrence but I genuinely believe that there has been no hype because Mr. Blizzard is far to busy focusing on the franchise in a development way rather than, “har har let’s wind the fan base up,” way.

World of… aww… I really can’t be arsed

All of this speculation and conjecture is making babies cry. We’re all an impatient bunch of hippies really, aren’t we? There are only two ways we are going to know what the next title is and we can theorise all we want but that isn’t going to change.

1)Organise a picket. Head to Blizzard. Sit outside Blizzard HQ and chant, “What do we want? Clarity. When do we want it? When it is ready,” for the next 3 or so years. 2)Wait.

I think I’ll stick with the latter.

Yes, I know this looks oddly like me bailing out.

Diablo 3 - A Pipe Dream

Indelible — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 15:02:21 GMT

I’m an avid Diablo 3 supporter and I frequently check to see if there is any news on a development project for the title but time and time again I have been shot in the face (metaphorically) by Blizzard who seem to like messing with my mind. It’s sad that a game company has the power to do such a thing but we all accept that Blizzard isn’t just any old game company.

Diablo, Diablo 2 and Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction are three of the best RPGs to ever be made. Lord of Destruction added more to Diablo 2 than most expansions do to games. The only other example I can think of is Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark (which just made that game for me). Despite having this massively successful title sitting on the desk at Blizzard HQ, they don’t seem to want to throw us a bone…ever.

New artwork has been appearing on the Blizzard website of Diablo. Legendary Pictures had a brief moment of Diablo on their homepage. There was that business with the Diablo 3 Europe domains. All designed to create hype even though Blizzard knew they weren’t going to be announcing anything. It is probable that they won’t announce anything Diablo until BlizzCon next year. All we know is that there is a third title in production and also that they are working on a Next Gen MMO. World of Diablo anyone?

So let’s look at this. World of Warcraft is getting old. Its graphics are dated and even MMOs only have so much playability. Once they get to a certain point you have to say, “Right! That’s it! Let’s move on!” Despite this however, Blizzard say they will be releasing an expansion per year until they feel it is not economical to do so. Could this be a hint from Blizzard that they are fully capable of and will be ending World of Warcraft at some point? Again, possibly. You never know with Blizzard.

So, we have one dated MMORPG that has a finite life span and one massive RPG title that Blizzard haven’t touched in the last 6 years. We also have job adverts for the team behind Diablo 1 and 2 and a team working on a next gen mmo. One and the same? Pfft. Don’t want to think about that. Have to but don’t want to.

Another interesting comment by Blizzard was that Warcraft 4 could be made after Starcraft 2 has been released. Could this be another hint that they are preparing to shut down World of Warcraft and move on? They could set Warcraft 4 far enough in the future to allow for WoW to continue or even set it during the events of World of Warcraft.

Ah the possibilities. Pointless speculation always makes me want to cry. It will be interesting to see what happens but there are plenty of things to think about over the next coming months.

The Daily Quest : nextgen