If you’re wondering what you might have missed from Blizzcon 2010, you need only turn your attention to the developments for World of WarCraft, StarCraft 2, and Diablo 3. Unless, of course, a completely new title was announced!
…which didn’t happen. And no Lost Vikings or Rock and Roll Racing revival, either. But let’s be honest, the three aforementioned games are quite the three-course meal to sink your teeth into by themselves. Check out our Blizzcon 2010 recap.
There weren’t a great deal of details about the upcoming two StarCraft 2 titles, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void, other than that they are both in progress and take place chronologically after the events of Wings of Liberty. The biggest StarCraft headline was about four new custom maps that were released at Blizzcon, and will soon be up for download.
Each of the maps amounts to a StarCraft 2 minigame, and reflects some sort of outside reference. “Left 2 Die” borrows Left 4 Dead’s logo and zombie horde concept for a team-based base defense game. “Auir Chef” sends players scrambling their Protoss zealots about the map to collect items that will help them to construct a dish based around a theme ingredient. “StarJeweled” is what it sounds like: use Bejeweled gameplay to build units and defenses, and conquer your enemies who are doing the same. Finally, Defense of the Ancients has come full circle with Blizzard’s own take on the famous WarCraft 3 mod, this one starring recognizable characters from all Blizzard IPs.
There was also a panel devoted to discussing multiplayer ranking and ladder philosophy, as well as some upcoming changes to their rankings systems. They delved into the nuts and bolts of how the AI that manages the ladders performs its matchmaking duties. However, some interesting upcoming changes will include a two new worldwide, best-of-the-best leagues, custom chat channels, and replay recording that will be stored by Blizzard and viewable to all.
WoW news was rightfully dominated by Cataclysm, the upcoming third expansion to the most ridiculously successful MMO game ever. They had a new cinematic trailer for the new Worgen race, and it shows off the Victorian stylings of their characters and settings:
I know someone out there wants me to make a Twilight reference joke right now, but I refuse.
Most of the WoW news was about Dungeon and Raid philosophy, and the takeaway is that they want group content like that to be more accessible to more people, and that means breaking it up into more bite-sized chunks. They don’t want the dungeons to be simpler or easier, but they do want them to be quicker so people are less daunted by the time sink required for top-level raiding. Toward that end, they are reworking older, lower-level dungeons to break them up into smaller, mini-dungeons. Also, some of them will be getting a complete “heroic mode” face-lifts in loot and difficulty to make them destinations for high-level players.
Now, even if you consider yourself a WoW geek, you still might find the sheer magnitude of enthusiasm emenating from the Live Raid video too intense for you to handle. An entire panel was devoted to broadcasting a high-powered raiding guild taking on a custom raid scenario in which an all-star cast of bosses from the game’s many existing raid dungeons were sent in waves at the players in squads of four or five. I concede I get a chuckle out of the crowd going ooo and aah at things that they just recognized happen onscreen, while a casual WoWer like me can’t see through all the flashing colors and action on screen to identify what just prompted the crowd’s reaction. Apparently, after a few wipes and with the world watching, the guild was able to make it through the entire encounter – only to be obliterated at the end by a Blizzard rep-controlled version of the expansion’s final boss, the evil dragon Deathwing. Fitting.
The fifth and final Diablo 3 class as been revealed to be the Demon Hunter, an ominously-toned ranged type that depends on a combination of gadget gimmicks and dark magic.
The developers have also revealed a complete revamp of how the skills and talents will work. Gone are talent trees. Instead, every few levels opens up a skill slot that can be filled with the players choice of en extensive list of abilities or passive attributes. Each level gained affords the player a point which can be used to improve an existing skill or add a completely new one to the character’s arsenal. The developers hope that this system will provide for a broader range of customization, providing nearly limitless ways to tweak the details of a class’s performance.
The downside of expanding customization like that is that it makes perfect balance between abilities and classes impossible. The Diablo 3 PvP panel admitted there’s just no way to make sure each of the possible millions of character builds is perfectly balanced against all the others. Their PvP system will therefore focus on group battles and the balancing therein, rather than on duels. That’s good news to me. Maybe it will prevent Diablo 3 from being as afflicted as WoW is with butthurt players whining about class balance in duel situations, although…I wouldn’t bet on it.
The panel also painted a more detailed picture about what the routine gameplay in Diablo 3 will be like. Quest information is delivered during the action, rather than with large and easily-forgettable paragraphs beforehand. Lorephiles no longer need to stop everything to read a 10-page, in-game book. The book can be set to be read out loud to the player while he or she kicks down the door to the next roomfull of monsters and jumps into the fray. In addition, the panel revealed NPC “artisan” characters, which are a means to convert loot items that are inapplicable to your class into something more usable. While I’m sure that idea will be booed by the hardest of core as “welfare epix,” it will likely cut down on your frustration over coming up on the short end of random drops.
What’s a gathering of geeks without a geeksplosion of geekdom? The first day ended with a live concert by Tenacious D, starring Jack Black’s presumably voluntary Nacho Libre ‘stache. Outstanding.
Jay Mohr returned to MC the annual costume and dance contests. If you watch no other video of either of those, watch this one:
Bless his heart.
And finally, a guy who looks and sounds like he just stepped out of every TV or movie scene poking fun at nerds cements his status in the Nerd Hall of Fame by one-upping Blizzard head writer Chris Metzen in knowledge of WarCraft lore details.
Honestly, this doesn’t surprise me. For every sci-fi or fantasy universe out there, the fanbase will inevitably become far more obsessively encyclopedic on the details than the very creators. Still, my hat’s off to you, kid. This was both the the biggest and least obnoxious stage possible for you to demonstrate your incredible WarCraft trivia knowledge.
