Man, this sounds like it would have been really cool. I am so tired of all the games as a service multiplayer games out there and would love to have a more in depth single player experience in the...
The project, which was code-named Ares, was described to me as “like Battlefield in the StarCraft universe” by one of those people, all of whom spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to talk about the project. The team had built prototypes in which the player, as a Terran marine, could gun down Zerg aliens, and there were plans to experiment with playable Zerg as well. Although one person who saw builds of the game last year told me that it seemed like development progress was slow, a second said it came as “a massive shock” when Blizzard canceled it a couple of weeks ago. A third person said it was “looking quite good.”
Man, this sounds like it would have been really cool. I am so tired of all the games as a service multiplayer games out there and would love to have a more in depth single player experience in the Starcraft universe.
I don't really see why Blizzard needs to sell an Overwatch 2. I look at a company like Ubisoft who plan to continue Rainbow Six Siege basically indefinitely without having to put out a new game to keep it going.
Ah, interesting. I saw this tweet getting a fair amount of attention last night, so I guess this would explain it: https://twitter.com/PoodleTime/status/1136308245893566464
He probably just decided to quit in response, instead of being moved onto something else. Working on something for years and then having it thrown away without anyone outside the company ever...
He probably just decided to quit in response, instead of being moved onto something else. Working on something for years and then having it thrown away without anyone outside the company ever getting to see it is hugely demoralizing.
Probably for the best. Brood War and SC2 are among my favorite games, but nothing that makes those games interesting would translate into an FPS. The universe and characters matter less in...
Probably for the best. Brood War and SC2 are among my favorite games, but nothing that makes those games interesting would translate into an FPS. The universe and characters matter less in StarCraft than in any other major Blizzard IP, so this would've felt like just trying to exploit the name recognition.
If doing something completely new isn't something they're looking at, then I think Overwatch 2 has the most potential. If they really learn from the successes and failures of OW, they could make a near-perfect FPS. They weren't that far off, all things considered.
Never thought that online games could have sequels. It just seems weird to me since they could just update the main game how they want and make it "new". Imagine if we had a League of Legends 2...
Never thought that online games could have sequels. It just seems weird to me since they could just update the main game how they want and make it "new". Imagine if we had a League of Legends 2 instead of the major update in 2014.
I guess it makes sense from a marketing pov since launching a new game is better to attract new players.
Not if they want to completely redesign key game mechanics or trim down the roster. The balance and design of Overwatch clearly emerged out of a lot of trial and error. I imagine they have a lot...
Not if they want to completely redesign key game mechanics or trim down the roster. The balance and design of Overwatch clearly emerged out of a lot of trial and error. I imagine they have a lot of new ideas for how things should work now that they’ve seen stuff applied in practice.
Starcraft is just not meant to be anything but an RTS, I guess. This is the second time this has happened, albeit for a different reason. Sidenote, I wish they'd give us a Warcraft 4. Warcraft has...
Starcraft is just not meant to be anything but an RTS, I guess. This is the second time this has happened, albeit for a different reason.
Sidenote, I wish they'd give us a Warcraft 4. Warcraft has so much fascinating lore and while WoW has done an amazing job of exploring it, I'd love to see what they could do in a modern RTS. Although RTS as a genre is essentially dead, so fat chance of that happening.
Another, more minor issue with RTS games is the ways online matchmaking work now. When I was younger playing Starcraft was mostly something I did with friends or within a group of gamers that I...
Another, more minor issue with RTS games is the ways online matchmaking work now. When I was younger playing Starcraft was mostly something I did with friends or within a group of gamers that I knew. This made it more social and, since we all played together we mostly converged to arrive at comparable levels of skill.
With matchmaking online it’s basically just designed to set you up with a 50/50 win-rate. This might keep you playing, but it’s not really fun at ranks most of the player base is at. You mostly either blow the other person out or get blown out yourself. The matches themselves just aren’t that thrilling though.
The internet has also kind of converged everyone to optimized play styles and canned build orders too, so if what you enjoyed about old Starcraft was reacting to things and exercising some creativity in your strategy there is a lot less scope for that now unless you’re at Grandmaster level. The canned build orders are so well refined that your amateurish reactions that haven’t been methodically plotted out and fine tuned won’t amount to anything.
A different way to put it would be to reference the Timmy, Johnny, and Spike typologies Wizards uses for Magic. This game offers nothing for a Timmy and the game knowledge and mechanical skill necessary to be a Johnny is so high that only a vanishingly small percentage of players will ever reach it. It’s way over-optimized for Spikes because of the focus on esports and the way they designed matchmaking and multiplayer. But even Spikes will get bored once they plateau on executing canned build orders indefinitely.
This is kind of a problem any RTS will have now. When the strategies are all known because of all the resources online the games get kind of “solved” in a way that makes it harder to goof around and have fun with it.
Exactly! I briefly played Age of Empires III online and the carefree fun playstyle I had from single player where I was just kind of figuring stuff out as I went did NOT work. There was basically...
When the strategies are all known because of all the resources online the games get kind of “solved” in a way that makes it harder to goof around and have fun with it.
Exactly! I briefly played Age of Empires III online and the carefree fun playstyle I had from single player where I was just kind of figuring stuff out as I went did NOT work. There was basically a single strategy for each empire, and it was a race to see who could complete it before the others. That's certainly challenging, but I don't find that to be fun at all.
It's a problem in MMOs too. In the early days of WoW there was just so much less known and there were so many options for skills and everyone just kind of had a hodgepodge build until you figure out what worked, or someone told you, or you came across some stray article with tips. But now you've got 1/4 of the skills to choose from, the game basically points you in the right direction, and there are sites like Icey Veins that basically just tell you what your optimal skills, attack rotation, etc. are. It's so boring.
Why do you think the series has to be pigeon-holed as an RTS? There is plenty of history of games jumping across genres to show new areas of a world lore or tell a new story in different game...
Why do you think the series has to be pigeon-holed as an RTS? There is plenty of history of games jumping across genres to show new areas of a world lore or tell a new story in different game universes.
Metroid Prime took 2D metroid games to 3D. Metal Gear Rising took the traditional sneak heavy game to a action thriller. Fallout 3 took the isometric RPG to a first person shooter.
Didn't mean to suggest that I personally believe it should always be a RTS, just that it seems like every time Blizz tries to make the jump the project falls apart for one reason or another. They...
Didn't mean to suggest that I personally believe it should always be a RTS, just that it seems like every time Blizz tries to make the jump the project falls apart for one reason or another. They were able to do it very successfully with Warcraft -> WoW, so I'm not sure why Starcraft has resulted in two canned projects like this.
Man, this sounds like it would have been really cool. I am so tired of all the games as a service multiplayer games out there and would love to have a more in depth single player experience in the Starcraft universe.
I don't really see why Blizzard needs to sell an Overwatch 2. I look at a company like Ubisoft who plan to continue Rainbow Six Siege basically indefinitely without having to put out a new game to keep it going.
Ah, interesting. I saw this tweet getting a fair amount of attention last night, so I guess this would explain it: https://twitter.com/PoodleTime/status/1136308245893566464
That is interesting since the article I linked says that there were no layoffs as part of this announcement.
He probably just decided to quit in response, instead of being moved onto something else. Working on something for years and then having it thrown away without anyone outside the company ever getting to see it is hugely demoralizing.
Probably for the best. Brood War and SC2 are among my favorite games, but nothing that makes those games interesting would translate into an FPS. The universe and characters matter less in StarCraft than in any other major Blizzard IP, so this would've felt like just trying to exploit the name recognition.
If doing something completely new isn't something they're looking at, then I think Overwatch 2 has the most potential. If they really learn from the successes and failures of OW, they could make a near-perfect FPS. They weren't that far off, all things considered.
Never thought that online games could have sequels. It just seems weird to me since they could just update the main game how they want and make it "new". Imagine if we had a League of Legends 2 instead of the major update in 2014.
I guess it makes sense from a marketing pov since launching a new game is better to attract new players.
Not if they want to completely redesign key game mechanics or trim down the roster. The balance and design of Overwatch clearly emerged out of a lot of trial and error. I imagine they have a lot of new ideas for how things should work now that they’ve seen stuff applied in practice.
I guess it makes sense. Starcraft is not as strong as it once was, but I bet there’s huge anticipation for the other two games.
Blizzard has learned that we have more than just phones.
Starcraft is just not meant to be anything but an RTS, I guess. This is the second time this has happened, albeit for a different reason.
Sidenote, I wish they'd give us a Warcraft 4. Warcraft has so much fascinating lore and while WoW has done an amazing job of exploring it, I'd love to see what they could do in a modern RTS. Although RTS as a genre is essentially dead, so fat chance of that happening.
Another, more minor issue with RTS games is the ways online matchmaking work now. When I was younger playing Starcraft was mostly something I did with friends or within a group of gamers that I knew. This made it more social and, since we all played together we mostly converged to arrive at comparable levels of skill.
With matchmaking online it’s basically just designed to set you up with a 50/50 win-rate. This might keep you playing, but it’s not really fun at ranks most of the player base is at. You mostly either blow the other person out or get blown out yourself. The matches themselves just aren’t that thrilling though.
The internet has also kind of converged everyone to optimized play styles and canned build orders too, so if what you enjoyed about old Starcraft was reacting to things and exercising some creativity in your strategy there is a lot less scope for that now unless you’re at Grandmaster level. The canned build orders are so well refined that your amateurish reactions that haven’t been methodically plotted out and fine tuned won’t amount to anything.
A different way to put it would be to reference the Timmy, Johnny, and Spike typologies Wizards uses for Magic. This game offers nothing for a Timmy and the game knowledge and mechanical skill necessary to be a Johnny is so high that only a vanishingly small percentage of players will ever reach it. It’s way over-optimized for Spikes because of the focus on esports and the way they designed matchmaking and multiplayer. But even Spikes will get bored once they plateau on executing canned build orders indefinitely.
This is kind of a problem any RTS will have now. When the strategies are all known because of all the resources online the games get kind of “solved” in a way that makes it harder to goof around and have fun with it.
Exactly! I briefly played Age of Empires III online and the carefree fun playstyle I had from single player where I was just kind of figuring stuff out as I went did NOT work. There was basically a single strategy for each empire, and it was a race to see who could complete it before the others. That's certainly challenging, but I don't find that to be fun at all.
It's a problem in MMOs too. In the early days of WoW there was just so much less known and there were so many options for skills and everyone just kind of had a hodgepodge build until you figure out what worked, or someone told you, or you came across some stray article with tips. But now you've got 1/4 of the skills to choose from, the game basically points you in the right direction, and there are sites like Icey Veins that basically just tell you what your optimal skills, attack rotation, etc. are. It's so boring.
Why do you think the series has to be pigeon-holed as an RTS? There is plenty of history of games jumping across genres to show new areas of a world lore or tell a new story in different game universes.
Metroid Prime took 2D metroid games to 3D. Metal Gear Rising took the traditional sneak heavy game to a action thriller. Fallout 3 took the isometric RPG to a first person shooter.
Didn't mean to suggest that I personally believe it should always be a RTS, just that it seems like every time Blizz tries to make the jump the project falls apart for one reason or another. They were able to do it very successfully with Warcraft -> WoW, so I'm not sure why Starcraft has resulted in two canned projects like this.