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Starcraft Ghost Update

Posted by Zonk on from the nuclear-launch-detected dept.

GamesIndustry.biz has an interview up with Blizzard creative director Chris Metzen and VP of business operations Paul Sams, where they discuss the status of the Starcraft Ghost title. From the article: "Basically the status of that is that we've kind of gone back and reassessed certain of the elements of the game that we felt needed to be refined. I think E3 was a big influence to us - we looked at other products that were in that genre, and felt as if we were quite competitive in many ways, but maybe there were some other things that we weren't getting to where we needed to go."

53 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. The Duke? by Tepshen · · Score: 2, Funny

    The development team has an unstated desire to compete with Duke Nukem: Forever's development cycle. Teasing people with little updates seems to be part of the plan. Am I the only person who doesnt care to hear about a game until its out?

  2. Somebody's got to count the money! by hab136 · · Score: 3, Funny
    Penny arcade said it best:

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-09 -20&res=l

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2004-06 -23

  3. Re:Shut up and.. by rogabean · · Score: 1

    Well luckily my principles never stopped me from just playing a game and having fun. Does a companies ethics make a game any less fun?

    I'm enjoying WoW (servers issues aside) and I will buy Starcraft Ghost when it releases... (well after it gets Cedega support...)

    --
    "why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
  4. Re:Shut up and.. by rogabean · · Score: 1

    I'm not trying to start a fight here.. so keep that in mind...

    I'm just trying to put a spin on this... that people are going to talk... but when it comes time to either play a game they may enjoy alot... principles are prolly going out the window...

    as to my principles.. i should prolly rephrase that sometimes principles do keep me from playing games... I really wanted to play EQ2... despite the fact that after 4 and half years of EQ1 I REALLY hate S.O.E. but EQ2 looked fun... so principles out the window on that... BUT EQ2 isn't supported by Cedega... I'm not going to install Windows just to play a game... so principles stuck on that... I chose WoW instead being supported.

    Now if you read the above you'll see I'm a walking contradiction. You would be right about this. To tell the truth *MOST* people are. So they can complain all day about what Vivendi/Blizzard did the bnetd, but when it comes down to it, if the next game they really want to play happens to be Vivendi/Blizzard they are still going to play, principles aside.

    besides, we are both offtopic at this point :P

    --
    "why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
  5. Re:Yeah, like other games completely? by keyne9 · · Score: 1
    You're almost right. Almost. 20 out of 88 realms are having problems. 23% is pretty close to 7%.

    Linky

    Text:

    The overwhelming success of World of Warcraft has brought hundreds of thousands of people together to adventure in Azeroth, and concurrency numbers are well beyond what we expected or even hoped for. Unfortunately, this high concurrency, especially when concentrated on a small number of realms, initially caused issues with our hardware infrastructure. We were able to streamline our code to increase performance in the weeks following launch. However, the holiday season nearly doubled our player base, and it quickly became apparent that in order to handle not only the current player base, but all future players as well, we needed to make some upgrades to our infrastructure.

    Last Thursday we made our first such upgrade. 20 of our 88 realms were moved off of the original hardware and placed on a new hardware configuration. These 20 servers initially performed very well, up until we reached our maximum concurrency Friday evening. The high population numbers uncovered an issue in the new backend shared infrastructure. This issue caused some players to experience severe lag and disconnects on a few of the realms, making them virtually unplayable.

    In order to stabilize the affected realms and allow as many players as possible the ability to continue playing, we lowered the population caps by 30%. This stabilized the realms to the point where 70% of the players on the realms in question could play, but it also resulted in large queues.

    The problems were attributed to high concurrency numbers on individual realms putting extreme stress on the backend infrastructure. We were able to address this problem by implementing additional hardware into the infrastructure this afternoon. This additional hardware has allowed us to stabilize the affected realms, and thus increase the server caps. We will continue to monitor the performance throughout the evening. If we notice any of the performance issues starting up again we will lower the population cap level enough to stabilize performance.

    We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this caused our players this weekend. This process coincides with our constant efforts to improve the current performance of World of Warcraft, and sometimes issues can arise when implementing these improvements. We will do our best to prevent similar situations from happening in the future, and we once again thank you for your patience and understanding.


    So yeah, there aren't, weren't, and never will have been any server problems that people are complaining about. Of course, you could verify the link, but their forums are down (again; for the fifth time today)--but there are no problems!
  6. Re:Shut up and.. by rogabean · · Score: 1

    You are correct. I could have sworn I saw it was getting a PC release as well, but upon further reading I see I was wrong. Still looks like a great game to me and I'll get it for my Xbox.

    --
    "why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
  7. Release Dates and Growing Up by superultra · · Score: 1

    I find it interesting to compare the movie industry and game industry. Movie studios are generally able to predict the date of a release as soon as production begins. Dates do change, but this is rare. But in the game industry, it's rare when a game publisher is actually doesn't change the date. Is it that there are more people involved? No. Money? No. Are games just more complicated to make than a movie? I can't see why. So what is it about games that makes it so difficult for publishers

    Why is it that the best studios are the ones who often claim the mantra "when it's done" as their release date? It seems to me that a truly great studio ought to not only craft great games, but do them in a timely manner. I don't think this would bother me so much, except that in every E3 they imply and act as if the game is coming out that year. They're taking advantage of the press and fans, and eating their cake too: they get to put out whenever _they_ feel like it. Seems like a raw deal for us.

    Someone needs to kick the game industry in their pants and tell them to shape up and act like, oh you know, every other professional industry.

    1. Re:Release Dates and Growing Up by Mr.+Sketch · · Score: 1

      I guess the fact that movies have been made for almost 100 years and that software production in it's current form has only been around 20, maybe 30 years, is irrelevant? The fact is that software is still not very mature as an industry, and in about 40-50 years or so, it should be comparable to the current movie industry.

      --
      Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
    2. Re:Release Dates and Growing Up by RsG · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That is a false comparison. Movies are an established form of entertainment, and have a fairly well laid out production arc. Hardware considerations are a non issue, and neither are alpha and beta testing (and yes, I know about test screenings, and they just don't compare for difficulty). When was the last time you saw a "bugged" movie? Design in a movie is what's done before production; you don't write the script after you've started filming. Conversly, game design is what take up much of the production time, meaning that the number of variables you need to take into account is greater.

      Finally, I would rather _not_ see the game industry become the next hollywood. Games are already too formulaic for my taste, and speeding up production in order to give a predictable product faster, *cough* EA *cough*, does not sound like an improvement.

      --
      Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
    3. Re:Release Dates and Growing Up by bskin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think anybody who's ever coded anything of even a moderate size, much less a giant project of the scale of what Blizzard would be taking on, knows that the unexpected just happens sometimes and it can set you back weeks, or more. Predictions of how long software projects will take are usually more accurately called "guesses". And trying to get a project out by a deadline no matter what usually means "Ship it with the bugs, we'll patch it later." I don't think Blizzard should be criticized for *not* taking this approach.

      Of course, it's not like Blizzard products have never shipped with a bug in them. But I think the entire idea of polishing a product until they're sure it's worth putting out is a good one. Lots of good games have been ruined by being pushed out too early. And while Blizzard's development cycle is quite long, they don't seem to have a vaporware problem, either.

      Course, Blizzard seems to have almost nothing to do with this game, so we'll see if they hold it up to the same standards since their name's gonna be on it.

      --
      hot foreign sheep.
    4. Re:Release Dates and Growing Up by tc · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't think it is true with movies either.

      The predicatable part of the schedule for movie production happens after the script has been written and directors and actors signed. Predicting how long it will take for all of the steps after that is a relatively straightforward business.

      However, before you get to that stage there are a number of steps which are not predictable. Someone writes the script. Perhaps it goes through re-writes. You need to retain the right director. Casting for principal characters needs to be done. All of those steps are highly variable, and are not easy to predict accurately.

      Think of all of those movies you've heard about being "in development" for years. Remember back when the rumour was that James Cameron was going to direct Spiderman? How long has the Hitch-Hiker's movie been talked about? How many attempts at scripts for various movies are abandoned before the final version is settled on?

      If you count all of that time, I would argue that while the "production" phase of movie making might be highly predicatable, the whole process, start-to-finish, of making a movie really isn't.

      It's the same thing with games. You can have a long "pre-production" phase where you are nailing down all of the core mechanics and getting key systems and pipelines working. This is less predictable because of the iteration required. At some point, you're into "production", where you're just churning out content, and that phase is much more predictable.

      Granted, movies are more predictable than games, but it's not quite such a big gap as you might first suppose.

    5. Re:Release Dates and Growing Up by Deliveranc3 · · Score: 1

      The end of movie production is in studio editing, something that can be rushed.

      Also it can be considered complete more readily than say, a video game bug.

      You've seen the effects, scars moving to opposite cheeks, timing that isn't funny, all kinds of stuff.

      Artists are passionate and need time to create what they envision.

    6. Re:Release Dates and Growing Up by Flunitrazepam · · Score: 1

      "When was the last time you saw a "bugged" movie?"

      Starship Troopers!

      --
      1) Your analysis is based on bad assumptions so your result is way off. 2) You're a sick bastard for fucking a horse.
    7. Re:Release Dates and Growing Up by RsG · · Score: 1

      The monsters? Or the quality acting? :-)

      --
      Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
    8. Re:Release Dates and Growing Up by Jormundgandr · · Score: 1

      So, what I'm hearing is, you think those games are great and all, but you want them on the original release date. So I suppose it might not have mattered to you had Half Life 2 been released in fall 2003 with less than one playable level.

      Would you like a playable game?

      No no no, I'm being obtuse, you say. You want the game playable AND on time. Right. Well, in THAT case I suppose those game developers should have gone back in time and changed the original release date. Or maybe slipped in and extra month or two in spring, maybe, I dunno, Thermidor or April 2 to get that done for you on time.

      Oh, they can't do that? Why not? REALITY INTERVENES. Which is why they had to push back the date.

      Oh, and BTW, what do you do about this injustice? Bitch about it on Slashdot. Stick it to the man!

      --
      -sig removed for tax purposes-
    9. Re:Release Dates and Growing Up by cgenman · · Score: 1

      Are games just more complicated to make than a movie?

      Yes. For one, problems with movies generally don't snowball. For example, if you can't shoot the scene where Harrison Ford jumps out of the helicopter and lands on the top of the state building because it is raining too much every day you have available, you quickly film a shot where he's taking off in a helicopter, then cut to an interior of the state building with Harrison Ford sneaking around and the helicopter flying off. On the other hand, if you're reusing code and you discover that while your graphics subsystem can easily handle 1,000,000 polys it can't deal with the 1,000 units of 100 polys you were planning on throwing at it, you're screwed. You may have to redo your graphics engine, you may have to re-do your in-game graphics, you may have to re-author your worlds to compensate. Or you may discover that your idea for an RTSRPS, while seeming great, is actually boring in practice (Anyone else remember the revisions to Warcraft 3?). A lot of these things a competent director on film can tell by looking at dailys, but videogame developers have to wait until running code is in front of them to know. And unfortunately for code to run all of the support code has to be in place, etc, etc... generally for half of the project all people can do is hope that things will work out. Furthermore the painful debug period can last anywhere from as long as you think it will until infinity. You can't ship a game if it is buggy: the publisher won't let you. But you can ship a crappy movie. You can also fix many problems with movies during the editing phase, whereas games can't just be re-cut.

      If you consider a game in development to be like a script in development, the cycles are similarly predictable. Nobody knows how long the latest Superman movie will be passed around from author to author before it's done with revisions and ready to go, but it could be a long while. Likewise, nobody knows how long it will be before Starcraft Ghost is ready for prime time, but it could be a while.

      On the other hand, I haven't always seen the correlation between "when it's done" and greatness. Some companies have games that aren't done because they want to polish it to perfection. But quite frequently you have games that aren't done because it just isn't fun, and while the spark of insight is great enough to avoid putting it to sleep, nobody can really make it work. Sometimes you just have to get it out the door so that you can start over.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
    10. Re:Release Dates and Growing Up by bugbread · · Score: 1

      When was the last time you saw a "bugged" movie?

      Depends what you consider "bugged". Do "glitch" style bugs count? If so, every time I've seen a boom, or a reflection of a camera man, or a continuity problem, I've seen a bug.

      That said, they're all really minor bugs compared to the kinds of bugs that can happen in games, and while I've seen a movie crash (or, rather, melt), that was entirely the fault of the projectionist, not the movie itself.

    11. Re:Release Dates and Growing Up by king-manic · · Score: 1

      Why is it that the best studios are the ones who often claim the mantra "when it's done" as their release date?

      Doesn't that more or less tell you that movies are nothign liek video games. While a tiny glitch in a movie (say the mike was in a scene or a car was parked int he back ground of a fantasy movie) doesn't matter. But a tiny glitch in a game can ruin the whole game.

      Somone needs to kick you in pants. The ones who follow their schedules religiously do so at the expense of the game. EA is one good example of time over quality. Delays hurt the company more then they do the fans. with each delay the fans expect more. With each delay the company burns money. They would love nothing more then to get the product out on time but the ones who wants somethign that lasts and shines spend extra time gettign it right.

      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
    12. Re:Release Dates and Growing Up by king-manic · · Score: 1

      Course, Blizzard seems to have almost nothing to do with this game, so we'll see if they hold it up to the same standards since their name's gonna be on it.

      Actually Blizzard fire nihilistic and took over themselves. Now that WOW is out they have the man power. I think they initially out sourced it so they can concentrate on WOW. But nihilistic didn't do the gameplay up to blizz expected level of quality so they gave them the boot (paid them out) and took over.

      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
  8. Re:Unrelease, just in case by KeeperS · · Score: 1

    No, if it turns out to be crap, they don't release it in the first place. See Warcraft Adventures, the game Blizzard eventually scrapped because it wasn't good enough. Ghost has been in development a while, and by most accounts it's shaping up to be a mediocre game. I'm honestly sort of surprised it hasn't met the same fate by now.

  9. Interesting story by Pan+T.+Hose · · Score: 3, Funny

    Even if completely irrelevant for loyal Slashdotters.
    Because we are still boycotting Blizzard, right? Just checking.

    --
    Sincerely,
    Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
    "Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
    1. Re:Interesting story by pezpunk · · Score: 1

      since when does everyone who reads a certain website have to act in the same manner? obviously some feel blizzard's actions warrant a boycott and some don't. there's no hipocracy, jsut a difference of opinion.

      --
      i could live a little longer in this prison
    2. Re:Interesting story by Deliveranc3 · · Score: 1

      But we have access to the same arguements which converted the others.

      If you're not convinced then you are probably interpretting them diffrently.

      Or you're stupid... but we'll forgive you.

    3. Re:Interesting story by pezpunk · · Score: 1

      not everyone draws the same conclusions from the same information. to call someone who disagrees with your stance "stupid" is just you being an asshole.

      --
      i could live a little longer in this prison
  10. Re:Yeah, like other games completely? by keyne9 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Of course, because problems affecting 138,000 players are a NON ISSUE, right? That's assuming, conservatively, that those 20 servers hold proportionnate amounts of people as working servers, which is false (as the ones not working properly are among the most populous ones).

    It's good to know that 138,000 people don't have anything to worry about. The game is working as intended.

  11. Re:Yeah, like other games completely? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Nice try, genius.

    All my friends happen to be on the one of the 18 servers that got nuked yesterday for hardwaare maintenance...maintenance that could have happened at any other point in the day, but they decided to go ahead and perform at 6PST, i.e. MMO Rush Hour.

    The 2 hours it was supposed to take went over 5.

    "Simply playing" on one of the other serves means absolutely nothing when you lose your character. You don't spend 3 weeks levelling a character up to level 30 or so only to jump ship and start up a level 1 guy on a server you're never going to be playing again...until the next server outage.

    Stop being a tool and realize for those people on the 20 servers encountering these issues that IT IS A FREAKING PROBLEM.

  12. Anyone read the article? by Alkaiser · · Score: 2, Informative

    The "relevant" part about Ghost is 1 question, and it's in the post. Fairly useless post if you want to know anything about Ghost. I have to say that she looks better in Gabe's drawings, too.

    As far as another 3rd person stealth action game on the console...YAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWN.

    Seriously...what could this game possibly do that would be markedly different than other games out there? Have you infiltrate Zerg bases? Whoopty doo. If it comes out, maybe I'll care at that point, until then, I file all Ghost news along with the Duke Nukem Forever news.

    --
    Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
    1. Re:Anyone read the article? by PedanticSpellingTrol · · Score: 1

      DNF? That's a tad optimistic, I've been tossing all the Ghost news in my "Perfect Dark Zero" file.

    2. Re:Anyone read the article? by Bluetick · · Score: 1

      Could've just as easily said the same thing about WoW. Another MMORPG? YAWWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNN. And now they've got a license to print money. Don't get me wrong, I'm skeptical of Ghost, and I didn't like WoW at all, but just because a genre seems saturated doesn't mean there isn't room for improvements there.

  13. Old article? by johankohler · · Score: 1

    Inspired by E3?

    E3 was in May last year, is this article old?

  14. And just cause the quote's funny... by bskin · · Score: 2, Informative

    From the article, about WoW:

    That's one of the other things that I think is interesting about this product. It's really the only MMO that has an extremely long history, where there are millions and millions of people that are already dedicated to that franchise. They're already tied into the storylines, the characters and what have you, and as a result of that we think that we have a built in audience that is going to be interested in checking it out.

    Uhm, I don't suppose you've ever heard of Star Wars Galaxies? There are, apparantly, people who are just a tiny bit attached to this "Star Wars" franchise as well. And that made it such a great game, too...

    And, y'know, while on that subject...isn't talking about Warcraft in terms of its grand plot about on the same level as talking about the original Doom that way? I've played the games since the first one, and I haven't gotten much more out of the plot other than "Orcs kill humans, and then humans kill orcs." Admittedly, that may be because I filtered most of it out, but I still hardly think it's a crowning achievement that people are extremely attached to, character-wise or plot-wise...

    --
    hot foreign sheep.
    1. Re:And just cause the quote's funny... by Darkmane · · Score: 1

      The Warcraft series had a huge mythology behind all the happenings in the game. But most of it was kept away for those that wanted it.. Mainly in the cutscenes and manuals.

      Admittedly, that may be because I filtered most of it out

      And for those that were not interested, it was easy to just filter it out, making it just a no-brainer fantasy-themed war game.

      --
      The Zeitgeist Movement
  15. Sexually Transmitted Diseases by tid242 · · Score: 1
    Well luckily my principles never stopped me from just playing a game and having fun. Does a companies ethics make a game any less fun?

    Do STDs make unprotected sex with prostitutes any less fun?

    -tid242

    --

    With a few exceptions, secrecy is deeply incompatible with democracy and with science. --Carl Sagan

    1. Re:Sexually Transmitted Diseases by bar-agent · · Score: 1

      Do STDs make unprotected sex with prostitutes any less fun?

      Nope, they sure as hell don't! It's still fun!

      Um...or so I've heard.

      --
      i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
  16. Re:Unrelease, just in case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    See Warcraft Adventures, the game Blizzard eventually scrapped because it wasn't good enough.
    Do you believe everything you read in interviews? WA was canned because it was horribly over-budget and adventure games were a dead genre. Quality is a secondary consideration at best; Warcraft III is proof of that.
  17. Blizzard Puts Foot In Mouth by SirBruce · · Score: 2

    Quoting Paul Sams:
    "That's one of the other things that I think is interesting about this product. It's really the only MMO that has an extremely long history, where there are millions and millions of people that are already dedicated to that franchise. They're already tied into the storylines, the characters and what have you, and as a result of that we think that we have a built in audience that is going to be interested in checking it out."

    Umm, hello, McFly?!? How about a little game called ULTIMA ONLINE? Perhaps you've heard of it.

    Sheesh.

    Bruce

  18. Re:Shut up and.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because I had no problem with Blizzard controlling their own fucking product in the first place, particularly given that the sole purpose of Bnetd beyond letting people use pirated copies of the game. War3 and WoW are brilliant games, the fact that Blizzard wanted to control a previous property (in order to prevent piracy, no less) is no reason to not play them.

  19. Re:Shut up and.. by Blublu · · Score: 1

    You might have to wait a long time for Cedega support. The game will only be released on the consoles (PS2, Xbox, GameCube).

    Starcraft: Ghost FAQ

    --
    meh
  20. Re:Shut up and.. by Blublu · · Score: 1

    Ugh, I feel stupid now. I should have known someone else had already posted this. Oh well.

    --
    meh
  21. Ghost != 2 by istewart · · Score: 1

    Nothing to see here. Move along.

  22. Personally by Krakhan · · Score: 1

    I'm hoping this will continue the SC storyline in a decent way. I do have some doubts though, since a lot of the people that developed Starcraft and Brood War are now long gone. I'll just have to wait and see.

  23. Re:Shut up and.. by Drantin · · Score: 1

    Another reason it was around was to let people play in a large LAN using the battle.net matchmaking features and ladders in the games... If they had had the code to verify that the CD Keys were in fact legit, there would have been worse problems than people playing pirated games using bnetd...

    --
    Actio personalis moritur cum persona. (Dead men don't sue)
  24. I say... by Taulin · · Score: 1

    I say just let them take their time, and do what they want. However, just don't tell us about it until you are almost done.

  25. Re:Yeah, like other games completely? by moonbender · · Score: 2, Funny

    Woohoo, the Iraqi information minister is posting on Slashdot!

    --
    Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
  26. Uh... by Inoshiro · · Score: 1

    "When was the last time you saw a "bugged" movie? "

    Lots of movies have bugs...

    Even this one..

    It happens all the time!

    --
    --
    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
    1. Re:Uh... by RsG · · Score: 1

      Those are things like costume slipups and continuity errors. In the context of a game those are not "bugs"; they're rarely even noticed.

      If, in a game, someone's clothing changed between two levels with no plausible explanation that didn't violate continuity, would it count as a bug? That's the sort of thing you linked to in IMDB, and it doesn't fit the definiton of a software bug. "Bug" in the context of software means something that prevents the program from executing properly, like a crash bug, or a rendering anomaly.

      The equivalent in a movie would be a random BSOD in the middle of a fight scene, or a character's body clipping into a wall and getting stuck. Obviously this is a rare occurence :-)

      --
      Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
    2. Re:Uh... by Inoshiro · · Score: 1

      " Those are things like costume slipups and continuity errors. ...."Bug" in the context of software means something that prevents the program from executing properly, like a crash bug, or a rendering anomaly."

      Sounds like one and the same to me.

      I go by the dictionary definition of bug:
      2: a fault or defect in a system

      A fault or defect in a movie.. hmm!

      --
      --
      Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
  27. Re:Yeah, like other games completely? by realdpk · · Score: 1

    "That leaves 84 servers that are working ABSOLUTELY PERFECTLY that Tycho and Gabe could be playing on but won't."

    Won't? Can you move your characters from server to server at any time?

  28. for starcraft fans by Flunitrazepam · · Score: 1

    Patch 1.12 is coming out 'soon' now.

    It has some interesting new features, like mini-map ping (like Warcraft3) and some alterations to current ladder maps (Lost Temple included.

    Check Blizzard's main page for more details.

    Pretty neat they are still supporting this game.

    --
    1) Your analysis is based on bad assumptions so your result is way off. 2) You're a sick bastard for fucking a horse.
  29. Re:Yeah, like other games completely? by DarkZero · · Score: 1

    There are a very few vastly overcrowded servers that are suffering issues. There are 88 servers total. Something like four are having issues. That leaves 84 servers that are working ABSOLUTELY PERFECTLY that Tycho and Gabe could be playing on but won't.

    According to the average /played, once you reach around level 30 and have your profession suitably leveled-up as well, you've played the game with that character for at least 48 hours. Therefore, moving to a new server is the equivalent of having your memory card save file corrupted in the last hours of Final Fantasy VII. If my save file was corrupted after 48 hours of an RPG, I would be pissed off, and probably so would you.

    I don't know about you, but I don't think that the normal operation of one game (an MMORPG, specifically WoW) should be equivalent to a total fucking disaster in another game.

  30. Real Translation: You are clueless by orthancstone · · Score: 1

    You do realize Blizzard gave over the majority of control in making this game to a studio, right?

    1. Re:Real Translation: You are clueless by Psykechan · · Score: 1

      Yes, but that studio is Swinging Ape Studios. (warning flash) They already have a superb multi platform game called Metal Arms which is one of the best party games ever.

      It's a budget price right now. Go pick it up!

  31. But by obeythefist · · Score: 1

    This game will be just like C&C renegade. Cute for a few minutes, because you see all the buildings you built in the first game but from first person perspective! And they're huge and they look really cool! Then you play the game a bit and it's pedestrian and there's nothing new. Some players might dig out an old copy of Starcraft and play that.

    What they really need to do is make the Starcraft 2 we're all waiting for. How big was Starcraft? It was *huge* for its time. How much does the games biz like to rehash old popular titles to scrape a bit more cash out of the general public? Loads! (See DooM3, HL2).

    I feel like a need a tinfoil hat. Why isn't there a Starcraft sequel in an age of sequels? Something is not right.

    --
    I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.