Category Archives: Blizzcon 2010

The funnest part of building a sandcastle? Knocking it down.

With World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm expansion, Blizzard appears to be taking that philosophy to a whole new level. After letting players frolic about in its multi-million dollar sandcastle for nearly six years, the developer’s decided to shatter Azeroth into tiny little pieces and then put it back together again. The result? Suddenly, old is new, up is down, and Stranglethorn Vale doesn’t royally suck anymore. Needless to say, it’s an exciting time to be a WoW player.

Perhaps even more exciting, however, is being a WoW developer. To see years-upon-years’ worth of blood, sweat, and tears finally manifest into a complete experience has to be immensely satisfying, and speaking with lead world designer Alex Afrasiabi during BlizzCon, that was more than evident. It was kind of amazing, if we’re being honest, to see a developer so fired up over his own game – a game that’s been around for more than half a decade, no less.

Click past the break to hear Afrasiabi’s thoughts on the future of WoW expansions, why Cataclysm doesn’t have its own Hero Class, why MMOs and consoles don’t mix, why Cryptic’s wrong to call MMO content “mediocre,” moving the MMO genre forward, and tons more.

[Interview by Nathan Grayson]

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StarCraft II finally dropped into the hands of more than three million eager fans this summer, and Heart of the Swarm probably won’t see the light of day until long after we’ve locked horns with an actual race of hiveminded aliens. So, in the meantime, why even bring the game to BlizzCon? What’s left to talk about?

Tons, as it turns out. This year, Blizzard took the wraps off four brand new games it’s developing within StarCraft II – each of which look equal parts excellent and bizarre. Oh, and let’s not forget the “waves and waves” of free content that will continue to zerg rush the game until Heart of the Swarm finally comes out. Also, cheating! That’s always fun to deal with. And what about the fallout from the forum tweak that was heard around the world, Real ID?

We sat down with game director Kaeo Milker to discuss all of the above topics and more. Also puns, briefly. Read the full thing after the break!

[Interview by Nathan Grayson]

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Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime’s told GT the company’s second MMO is one that can co-exist with its current massive multiplayer title World of Warcraft.

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Diablo III’s recently announced PvP battle arenas have a “Call of Duty-style” progression, senior design Jason Bender has told VG247.

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BlizzCon has come to a close. We came, we saw, we conquered.

OK, no we didn’t. We actually spent the whole time playing Diablo III. But then, the game’s mix of hack ‘n’ slash demon-dicing and subtle strategy is already – near as we can tell – polished to perfection – even though Blizzard’s still keeping any sort of release schedule so tightly under wraps that we wouldn’t be surprised if there were exploding collars involved. And of course, let’s not forget the Demon Hunter and PVP arenas. Both made incredibly strong debuts at this year’s show, putting new and disturbingly addictive twists on the classic Diablo formula.

Put simply, Blizzard’s Diablo team’s still got it, so we took a couple of its members hostage and demanded a pre-release copy of the gam- er, we mean, we sat down for a nice, polite chat with senior designer Jason Bender and art director Christian Lichtner, and there was no duct tape involved. Read on for their thoughts on why Diablo III still has no release date, the origins of the Demon Hunter, what it’s like to balance a game where each class has 97 billion potential builds, female characters in games, why Diablo III isn’t on consoles, and more.

[Interview by Nathan Grayson]

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Kid? You rule.

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Blizzard boss Rob Pardo has given clear indication that he expects full game PC downloading to become more important in the near future, saying we’re now seeing a “shift” away from brick and mortar retail.

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Blizzard EVP of design Rob Pardo’s told Edge the company is open to sharing insight with Bungie if the developer is making an MMO.

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Well. That was a whole lot of fun.

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So. Diablo III looked hot before Friday’s opening ceremony at Blizzcon. By the end of the weekend, it would be looking “hawt”.

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Did you think Blizzard had the whole StarCraft II story arc sorted out a long, long time ago? You thought wrong, friend.

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Third expansion Cataclysm isn’t even out the door yet, but already, Blizzard are chatting up a fourth World of Warcraft expansion.

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It might be at least another two years out, but Blizzard’s started teasing the second StarCraft II expansion Heart of the Swarm.

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Blizzard’s confirmed at Blizzcon there will be a beta for Diablo III.

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This honestly looks awesome. Now, about that date, Mike.

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Look, consoles, it’s not you. It’s Blizzard.

Well, ok, it’s also kinda you.

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Another BlizzCon, another year without a concrete date for Diablo III.

But hey, here’s the next best thing.

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Next year? Next year?! Not a chance, Watson.

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StarCraft II’s done and dusted. Time to settle in for a long, cold 18-month winter before Heart of the Swarm, right?

Wrong.

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Did you think we were going to get some crappy tie-in for World of Warcraft with Sam Raimi at the realm? This is Blizzard we’re talking about.

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