I think that Blizzard is now nothing but a name. As far as I know all the founders that made the really good Blizzard games have left and all thats left is a bunch of programmers that think their working for a company that knows what its doing.
Yet the games are good, it's recent breakaway from (blizzard-north was it?) made little effect on the company. However, since Ghost is being made mostly by annother company, it's being made really slowly.
I still think they will make good games <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Hey now it's only ugh because of all the people who made those bugged items and Blizzard ruining D2 with that 1.10 patch which owned the brains out of my sole purpose on D2, dueling.
or maybe because Dialbo 2 was mindless clicking then watching numbers do things in a giant wheel of levelling monotony?
looking back over their games, sure they gave me some fun but I don't really rate blizzard higher than anything else unless we're talking about starcraft =P
I wonder if it actually does speak to blizzards capablity at constructing a solid RTS. Am I the only one who found it strange that all their recent games are pulling away from the RTS platform? (although it goes without saying that blizzard did alot of stuff before warcraft)
<!--QuoteBegin--Geminosity+Jan 18 2004, 12:03 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Geminosity @ Jan 18 2004, 12:03 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> or maybe because Dialbo 2 was mindless clicking then watching numbers do things in a giant wheel of levelling monotony?
looking back over their games, sure they gave me some fun but I don't really rate blizzard higher than anything else unless we're talking about starcraft =P <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Took the words out of my mouth, Gem.
SC was only okay in my book. Same for all the Warcraft games. Diablo doesn't rate above crap.
to be honest, outside of ghost all their existing games are pretty much RTS games... Diablo feels more like an RTS game with a single unit than an action/adventure game. If you've played the Starcraft 'RPG' maps then you'll know exactly what I mean =3
I've loved pretty much every one of their games from WC2 on forward, and I doubt this is going to cripple them in any way, shape, or form. They're still going to have high quality artwork, still going to take forever to put games out, and still going to come through with an overall good product.
one thing I kinda find funny in the differences between eastern and western game companies is the lack of figureheads =o
If you look to the west the most many people can probably pull out are maybe john romero (famous for all the wrong reasons) and mr carmack. They're not actually famous as such for making amazing games, more for really bringing a genre to the fore and creating nice engines. But could anybody say a name for the western games industry that's so renouned for being the brain behind good gaming that almost anyone would recognise? I can think of warren spectre maybe but that's about it.
Meanwhile if you look to the east...
Nintendo: Shigeru Miyamoto Sega: Yuji Naka Konami : Hideo Kojima
There's also the lead designer of Final Fantasy and the guy in charge of resident evil (I forget their names but I'd know them if I heard them).
Point is, these people are famed for making <b>games</b>. If 'shigsy' left nintendo a lot of people would suddenly and quite rightly lose faith in nintendo's future. Games under 1 guiding vision. You've all heard at least some of the japanese names but unless you're a super-amazing-avid fan of some western company it's usually a struggle to name the main person behind a western chain of good games. Heck, I don't even have the first clue who came up with fallout, just the company's name. Point is, I don't know who this guy who left blizzard really is in the great scheme of things. Sure I'm not a huge blizzard fan but I don't exactly drool over konami either and I know who hideo kojima is without having to even look it up.
uh... i guess it's a lil offtopic but I felt like bringing it up anyways =3
<b>edit:</b> and no, I'm not someone who blindly thinks oriental stuff is cool. I just like looking at how things differ, especially as I have more memories of good games without bias from non-western companies than anything else. Also, I had to actually sorta compare the two industries while doing my silly university course and differences are often kinda shocking; the eastern companies usually build games from scratch every time and sega has an average development cycle of a mere 5 months at most, while western companies tend to build on existing engines and take 1-2 years. Who knows... maybe things are changing but based on the records of the past it's interesting stuff.
Well, there <i>are</i> such figureheads - Bill Roper was Blizzards, for example. Or take Peter Molyneux - Black and White was a dissapointment, but we pretty much all bought it, and Molyneux reputation played a major role in that. Warren Spector, you already cited, additionally, I'd name Sid Meier, and Valves Gabe Newell isn't exactely a nobody, either... Western gaming has its figureheads, as well.
I guess, couple of names there I'd completely forgotten =3 lol 'spetcre', I knew I'd mispelled that one XD
What did Gabe do anyways? All I know is that he's big because he's in valve and everyone keeps chasing him for HL2 =P
I guess I just discounted a lot of them on personal taste... if you check the names you mentioned the only ones not involved with RTS/God games are spector and newell =/
Comments
So far the response to that was highly negitive :|
Hey now it's only ugh because of all the people who made those bugged items and Blizzard ruining D2 with that 1.10 patch which owned the brains out of my sole purpose on D2, dueling.
looking back over their games, sure they gave me some fun but I don't really rate blizzard higher than anything else unless we're talking about starcraft =P
looking back over their games, sure they gave me some fun but I don't really rate blizzard higher than anything else unless we're talking about starcraft =P <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Took the words out of my mouth, Gem.
SC was only okay in my book. Same for all the Warcraft games. Diablo doesn't rate above crap.
I've loved pretty much every one of their games from WC2 on forward, and I doubt this is going to cripple them in any way, shape, or form. They're still going to have high quality artwork, still going to take forever to put games out, and still going to come through with an overall good product.
If you look to the west the most many people can probably pull out are maybe john romero (famous for all the wrong reasons) and mr carmack.
They're not actually famous as such for making amazing games, more for really bringing a genre to the fore and creating nice engines. But could anybody say a name for the western games industry that's so renouned for being the brain behind good gaming that almost anyone would recognise? I can think of warren spectre maybe but that's about it.
Meanwhile if you look to the east...
Nintendo: Shigeru Miyamoto
Sega: Yuji Naka
Konami : Hideo Kojima
There's also the lead designer of Final Fantasy and the guy in charge of resident evil (I forget their names but I'd know them if I heard them).
Point is, these people are famed for making <b>games</b>. If 'shigsy' left nintendo a lot of people would suddenly and quite rightly lose faith in nintendo's future. Games under 1 guiding vision. You've all heard at least some of the japanese names but unless you're a super-amazing-avid fan of some western company it's usually a struggle to name the main person behind a western chain of good games. Heck, I don't even have the first clue who came up with fallout, just the company's name.
Point is, I don't know who this guy who left blizzard really is in the great scheme of things. Sure I'm not a huge blizzard fan but I don't exactly drool over konami either and I know who hideo kojima is without having to even look it up.
uh... i guess it's a lil offtopic but I felt like bringing it up anyways =3
<b>edit:</b> and no, I'm not someone who blindly thinks oriental stuff is cool. I just like looking at how things differ, especially as I have more memories of good games without bias from non-western companies than anything else. Also, I had to actually sorta compare the two industries while doing my silly university course and differences are often kinda shocking; the eastern companies usually build games from scratch every time and sega has an average development cycle of a mere 5 months at most, while western companies tend to build on existing engines and take 1-2 years. Who knows... maybe things are changing but based on the records of the past it's interesting stuff.
Western gaming has its figureheads, as well.
lol 'spetcre', I knew I'd mispelled that one XD
What did Gabe do anyways? All I know is that he's big because he's in valve and everyone keeps chasing him for HL2 =P
I guess I just discounted a lot of them on personal taste... if you check the names you mentioned the only ones not involved with RTS/God games are spector and newell =/