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April Fools: Blizzard nails it, as always
For like, the hundredth year running, Blizzard has kicked off this most dishonest of days with an overwhelming salvo of fake additions to its current and pending titles. Take, for instance, the Diablo 3 "Horadic Cube" app, which possesses the power to combine your phone's applications into super applications. Or how about the new Kinect functionality for StarCraft 2? Not since Dance Central: The Krump Imperative have we seen such feverish flailing. The best of the bunch is clearly the World of Warcraft update, which not only adds a new, pitch-black dungeon, but also a "Dungeon Helper" named Crabby, who assists you in navigating the game's instances. Go get acquainted with your new crustacean cohort -- but we wouldn't suggest letting Clippy find out. That dude's jealous as all get-out.
StarCraft 2 open beta begins in China on March 29
Just as we experienced here in the United States, mainland China is about to undergo a beta testing period for StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty. Ever since striking a deal back in 2008, Blizzard and NetEase have been working to bring the game to the country -- on March 29, that deal will come to fruition. Anxious gamers in the region can pre-load the beta client -- provided they have a Battle.net account or at least a willingness to register -- which will grant access to all of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty's multiplayer modes. Upon the conclusion of the unspecified beta period, Blizzard and NetEase will launch the game commercially, allowing players to buy 30-day access passes to the game for a suggested price of RMB 20 ($3.04). It's in line with a pricing structure that Blizzard outlined a year ago. To pre-load the Chinese beta client, head on over to Blizzard's site.
Blizzard: StarCraft 2 'marketplace' still coming
During BlizzCon 2009, Blizzard revealed plans to put a shopping interface inside StarCraft 2, which would allow players to purchase user-created maps, with revenue shared between Blizzard and the creator. The game came out in July 2010, sans marketplace, and that feature is still missing. During an interview with MTV Multiplayer, Blizzard's Frank Pearce asserted that the feature is still on the way. "But it's not necessarily something we have a specific timeline for," he said, "which is unfortunate because one of the things that we've found is, especially from our learnings from World of WarCraft, is that these audiences that play these games are very, very passionate and want to experience lots and lots of content. With the StarCraft 2 client and the StarCraft 2 map editor and the Battle.net platform, it creates an opportunity for the community to serve itself with content, if the mechanisms are there." To be fair, if it did have a timeline, it would be a Blizzard timeline, and therefore could only be specific to the year. Approximately.
Predicting Battle.net's social future
If you think we've scratched the surface of Battle.net cross-game implementation with Real ID, you are going to be amazed at what is coming next. Do I know any of this for sure? No, of course not. I base my predictions on three simple facts: Blizzard has created an account-based loyalty program that has encapsulated each and every one of its games; Blizzard is chock-full of smart individuals who understand community, as illustrated by the new community website; and Blizzard has made your account mean something into perpetuity. If you think Battle.net is sharp at 2.0, you can't even imagine 3.0.
'World of StarCraft' mod reborn as 'StarCraft Universe'
Ryan Winzen's dream of using the StarCraft 2 mod tools to create his own full-fledged MMORPG wasn't crushed by Blizzard -- rather, it was only renamed. Winzen's "World of StarCraft" mod, which saw its video demos pulled from YouTube by Blizzard (citing copyright violations), is now known by a much less infringing title: "StarCraft Universe." (We just hope the Lego Universe folks don't take umbrage with the new moniker. Yeesh.) It seems the modders that are working on StarCraft Universe with Winzen have also adopted a much more realistic set of goals to go along with the new name. For instance, they're adhering to the 12-player cap that's applied to all other player-made StarCraft 2 mods. We guess that makes it just a "MORPG," now -- though that also sounds like the name of some kind of exotic alien species. But hey, that's kind of appropriate too!
Activision: At least two Blizzard titles coming in 2012, if none released this year
Speaking during a financial earnings call today, Activision COO Thomas Tippl said that if we don't see any games from Blizzard this year, the publisher expects to see them next year. "Because Blizzard Entertainment has not yet confirmed the launch date for its next global release," Tippl told investors and press, "our outlook at this time does not include a new game from Blizzard in 2011." But don't worry, Blizzard fans, Activision's got a whip it's not afraid to crack: "Should we not release a major title from Blizzard this year, we would expect for planning purposes to launch a minimum of two Blizzard titles in 2012." Presumably, those two titles would be Heart of the Swarm (the Zerg-based expansion for Starcraft 2) and the long-awaited Diablo 3. Blizzard president Mike Morhaime joined the call after Tippl spoke and promised that more information was coming about both. Blizzard's developers, he said, are hard at work on Heart of the Swarm, and we'll hear more "in the coming months." Additionally, Morhaime said that he would talk about Diablo 3 "and the upcoming beta on the next call," in about three months. "Until we get to beta and have the community help us test the game," he later said, "we're not going to lock in a release date." Blizzard is also working to get both World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and Starcraft 2 out in China, but had "no specific updates to share at this time" about those releases -- or the "Titan" MMO, for that matter. Morhaime did plug both the upcoming BlizzCon and Blizzard's twentieth anniversary this year, and closed by saying that "the games we have in the pipeline represent the best and widest slate of games we have ever produced."
Get your BlizzCon on Oct. 21-22
Blizzard has announced the dates for this year's BlizzCon, the annual gathering of fans who want to celebrate the fact that they got tickets to BlizzCon (and also celebrate Blizzard games). The event will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center on October 21 and 22. Blizzard hasn't announced any specific content yet, so we don't know who will fulfill the Ozzy or Tenacious D role. However, chances are you know enough about your relationship with Diablo, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft to know right now whether or not you want to go.
StarCraft 2 now testing new ladder maps, Blizzard mods
Blizzard has updated the Public Test Region for StarCraft 2 and, along with a few bug fixes (they should call them Zerg fixes, get it?), there are some new ladder maps to play around with. Test server players also have access to the mods announced at BlizzCon last year, which include the StarJeweled minigame, Aiur Chef and the Blizzard DotA mod that players are looking forward to. Anyone can download and install the test server, and of course when testing is done, the new maps will all make their way out to the live servers as well.
MMO Roundup: World of StarCraft, RIFT news, and more
Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around -- past, present and future. StarCraft II turned into World of StarCraft by enterprising fan World of StarCraft is, by all indications, high on the list of desirable games that have never been announced or even hinted at. It's certainly a universe ripe for development, and it's not as if Blizzard doesn't know anything about running an MMO. But why wait for an official release when you can put the game together yourself? The latest RIFT news If upcoming MMO RIFT has caught your attention, the past week had a number of RIFT-related news stories that might strike your fancy. New beta additions? PvP details? New class reveals? Massively has it all. First Impressions: Battlestar Galactica Online Last year, developer Bigpoint announced that Battlestar Galactica Online was being developed as a free-to-play browser MMO. Just last week, Massively was able to get its hands on the game and take it for a spin. The Guild Counsel: What every leader should know about recruiting Do you like WoW Insider's Officers' Quarters? Then you might like Massively's Guild Counsel. This week, The Guild Counsel tackles the topic of guild recruitment, discussing the right and wrong ways to do it. Hello Kitty Online meets Manhattan Hello Kitty Online is near and dear to our hearts here at WoW Insider. We were all excited to hear about the latest HKO update. Hello Kitty Online visits New York City, where the locals have gone missing for mysterious reasons. Find out what happened, and cheer up the victims! Week in Review: It's all about souls Don't let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively's best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer in their own weekly roundup.
Blizzard plays nice with World of StarCraft modder
Gaming giant Blizzard Entertainment has officially weighed in on the World of StarCraft controversy, and the verdict is something of a happy ending for fans of the MMO-flavored mod and its mastermind Ryan Winzen. Gamasutra reports that Winzen has been invited to meet the StarCraft II development team, and his hard work won't be for naught despite the removal of his YouTube preview videos. "It was never our intention to stop development on the mod or discourage the community from expressing their creativity through the StarCraft II editor. As always, we actively encourage development of custom maps and mods for StarCraft II, as we've done with our strategy games in the past," Blizzard said in a prepared statement. The company went on to explain that issuing a take-down order for the offending videos is part of its standard procedure when dealing with fan mods and possible copyright infringement and that it is "looking forward to seeing development of the mod continue," according to Gamasutra.
Ask Massively: It's my birthday and I'll devote a column title to it if I want to edition
Yes, 28 years ago, something very special (to me, anyway) happened. That means that while I'm going to spend the day on my usual cocktail of whatever the heck I do, I get the opportunity to make Ask Massively's opening even more of a non sequitor than it normally is. Here, have a screenshot from one of the worst-animated episodes in all of the original Transformers cartoon. I swear that looks bad even in a still frame. It was either this shot or the one of Blaster and Ultra Magnus getting married. (That's what it looks like, anyway.) Now that I've gotten that out of my system for another 10 minutes or so, we can move on to this week's column, which is sadly devoid of giant robots. It does have questions about DC Universe Online and the sad story of World of Starcraft's rise and subsequent fall, so I still get to indulge in things that I like. And birthday or not, questions can be left in the comment field or mailed along to ask@massively.com.
Blizzard comments on World of StarCraft, invites creator to HQ
Blizzard has released a statement regarding the pulled YouTube videos of a StarCraft 2 mod by Ryan Winzen that turned the RTS title into a game more closely resembling World of Warcraft. While the developer admits that YouTube was asked to kill the videos because of the trademarked name "as part of our routine procedure," the mod itself will live on. "As always, we actively encourage development of custom maps and mods," Blizzard says in the statement, and it is "looking forward to seeing the continued development of this mod." In fact, the company sought out the mod's creator and has "extended an offer to the developer to visit the Blizzard campus and meet with the StarCraft 2 development team." If it wants to hire him, though, they'll have to hurry -- Blizzard isn't the only dev that wants to meet the guy. You can read the full statement, send out by Blizzard's Bob Colayco, after the break.
World of StarCraft modder offered interview by Riot Games
Despite World of StarCraft mod creator Ryan Winzen having videos of his work removed from YouTube after Blizzard requested as much, the ingenious gentleman was offered a job by League of Legends developer Riot Games this past week. Pixelated Geek picked up on the back and forth in its own comment section between Winzen and a Riot Games employee identified as "epak", in which the Riot Games employee said, "Ryan, I'd like to speak with you about potentially working for Riotgames (League of Legends). You can contact me directly at [redacted] since I think you're awesome." The interview offer was confirmed by Riot Games design director "Zileas" on the developer's forums, where he notes, "I shot him [Ryan] an email recently asking if he was interested in exploring an opportunity here. As to what comes of that, who knows -- that depends on the mutual fit and his own goals." Mr. Winzen, for his part, is ecstatic. " I've waited my whole life for something like this. I feel like I'm in a dream man ... been up for 36 hours straight with all this craziness going on ... How did this even happen?" If you'll excuse us ... we've just ... there's something in our eye.
[Updated] Starcraft MMO modder wins the internet with a job offer from Riot Games
Modifying video games is nothing new. Most mods are overlooked by game developers because a good chunk of them are not malicious and the modders themselves aren't looking to break the game; they just want to improve it in some way. However, yesterday, we reported that a talented modder named Ryan created an MMO mod using the Starcraft II engine calling it World of Starcraft. Blizzard had the trailer for the mod pulled from YouTube citing copyright infringement, but no other contact was made. Ryan attempted to make contact with Blizzard regarding the issue, but was directed to another department leaving the issue unresolved for the moment. There is, however, a silver lining in all of this. The popularity and quality of the mod caught the attention of Riot Games, the creators of League of Legends. A developer from Riot contacted Ryan via Pixelated Geek offering him a job. This was later confirmed as an actual offer on the League of Legends official forums. Lead Designer Tod "Zileas" Cadwell said this: "When I see a modder with a lot of drive that has done something cool, I tend to contact them. I shot him an email recently asking if he was interested in exploring an opportunity here. As to what comes of that, who knows -- that depends on the mutual fit and his own goals." Cadwell believes the legal issues do not extend beyond the name of the mod, so it is very possible Ryan will be living out his dream as a game designer. Sometimes dreams do come true. [Update: We want to clarify that Riot Games is only talking with Ryan at this point, and no actual job offer is pending (despite previous reports).]
'World of Starcraft' mod Zerg rushed by Blizzard lawyers
Apparently, that crack we made about Blizzard's mighty cease-and-desist hammer in yesterday's post about the World of StarCraft mod project (which uses StarCraft 2 tools to attempt to create a standalone MMO) was a tad prophetic. Though the developer hasn't actually slapped the team with the dreaded C&D (yet), it did petition YouTube to have the mod's demo videos removed, citing a copyright violation. It's unclear what further action Blizzard will take, but it would be irresponsible to assume that its actions are indicative of the existence of a real World of StarCraft game. It's entirely possible that the company simply wants to protect its "StarCraft" name, or reserve the title for possible future use -- though it would be a shame if their squatting ended up shutting down these modders' impressive efforts. Especially after they asked so nicely for permission.
World of StarCraft modders clash with Activision Blizzard
Last night, we brought you the news that a talented StarCraft II modder had begun developing a full MMO based in the StarCraft II engine. World of StarCraft, as the mod came to be known, used the game's open modding and map-editing tools to produce some pretty impressive MMO-style mechanics. But the project has not been officially endorsed by Activision or Blizzard Entertainment, who own the rights to the StarCraft intellectual property. Given the huge popularity of both StarCraft and StarCraft II, an MMO based in that setting would be a sure bet to attract a lot of interest. There has even been speculation that Blizzard may be planning to develop an official StarCraft MMO in the near future -- a move that, after the rampant popularity of World of Warcraft, would seem like a no-brainer. Today brings some bad news for fans of the World of StarCraft mod and its development, as Activision has finally taken notice. The alpha trailer released on YouTube has been removed at the request of Activision, the reason being cited as copyright and intellectual property violations. This may pertain to the use of StarCraft II material in a game trailer, the similarity of the name to World of Warcraft's, or something else entirely. Whatever the reason for it, it's clear that it won't be plain sailing for the development of this popular StarCraft II mod.
StarCraft II turned into World of StarCraft by enterprising fan
World of StarCraft is, by all indications, high on the list of desirable games that have never been announced or even hinted at. It's certainly a universe ripe for development, and it's not as if Blizzard doesn't know anything about running an MMO. But why wait for an official release when you can put the game together yourself? That's what's behind the rather intuitively named project making the rounds today -- an effort to use the powerful map editor in StarCraft II to create a full MMO within the existing game's framework. While development is still in the very early stages, and of course the project is wholly unofficial, it's a fascinating use of player-edited gameplay as well as a display of just how much people want to play in the world as an MMO. Take a look at the trailer past the cut to see the surprising amount of work that's been done on converting the RTS into a more familiar genre -- although bear in mind that the official forums have been getting rather hammered before you go nuts.
'World of StarCraft' finally a reality, created by modders
Though it's slightly lacking in originality, a StarCraft-themed version of Blizzard's World of Warcraft always seems to come up while fans are discussing the company's possible upcoming projects. One group of modders got sick of the speculation, and made this dream a reality: Using StarCraft 2's powerful user-generated content tools, the team created a surprisingly beefy World of StarCraft game mode, a video demonstration for which is posted after the jump. Sure, it's unlikely that the mod will ever obtain the player networking features required to merit the "Massively Multiplayer" moniker ... but it still looks really neat! We just hope that it's not "really neat" enough to garner a cease and desist from Blizzard. Hopefully, it's just the right amount of "really neat."
Blizzard launches StarCraft 2 Master League, plans for Grandmaster League
Have you found competition in StarCraft 2's online multiplayer "Diamond League" to be unrewarding? Do you hang, effortlessly, from the very highest rungs of the tallest competition ladder? It's time for you to shed your burdensome chrysalis and ascend to your next challenge: the recently launched "Master League," which pits the top two percent of players from each region against one another for true StarCraft supremacy. If you're eligible for the new league, you won't have to do anything special to join; Blizzard automatically elevates top-two-percenters to the Master bracket. Of course, the raw exclusivity of this new ladder will lose a bit of its luster when Blizzard launches the "Grandmaster League," which will only invite the top 200 players from each region to battle. There's no timetable for the release of this ladder, though we imagine it'll come well before the arrival of the Great-Grandmaster League, which forces the very best player on the planet to play against an evil clone of him or herself all day, every day, for twenty years. You get a T-shirt if you win that one, though, so it's totally worth it.
StarCraft 2 user-created map takes the fight into space
While most of us would consider StarCraft 2 to be a space-themed strategy title, very little of the game actually takes place in the outer parts of space -- you know, the parts where no one can hear you scream. A custom map by the name of Star Battle fixes that oversight, pitting two teams of six players against one another in a massive, DotA-esque encounter. Only, instead of controlling fantasy archetypes, you control gigantic spaceships, which we think we can all agree is way cooler. The map has proven to be the most popular custom gametype on the European Battle.net servers, and is now available on the U.S. servers as well. Check out the tutorial video posted after the jump to learn the rules the game before jumping into it -- a smart move, considering player death in Star Battle is permanent. (BUH BUH BUUHHHHH)
