#1 - March 22, 2013, 9:08 p.m.
With the (very successful) release of StarCraft HoTS and also Blizzard's Project: Blackstone story I assumed/hoped/speculated that the "big reveal" would be some re-incarnation of StarCraft Ghost, or more simply a hugely story-driven FPS based on the StarCraft universe, akin to Half Life (which I never played but always hear great things about).
I was disappointed that they revealed... a card game. I'm not big into TCG's, though many, many of my friends are. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that I never got into them. ... Still curious though, I delved into the website and watched the cinematic and behind-the-scenes videos.
I noted a few things that I would like to share with you. First of all, please keep in mind I'm a novice in this genre, so if any of my comments are off the mark please take them with a grain of salt.
My first observation is that I love that this is a virtual card game. If it were a physical deck, which Blizzard has done before, I would not at all be interested and would most likely never play. Blizzard has gone that route in the past, and I am so glad they are bringing it to the realm of PC and mobile gaming.
This alone says a few things about Blizzard, all of which I admire, and which leads me into my second observation. This is that Blizzard is still willing and even aspires to try new things. This is actually a huge point, and is very important to us as the fans. For all we have seen Blizzard has really only been interested in supporting its existing franchises and models. To their credit, these are amazing franchises, tried-and-true models, and ultimately games that players and fans want.
But, with this new game, Blizzard is getting into new territory, very much like it did when it first created World of Warcraft. If you remember, nearly everyone said that WoW would fail. The arguments were that Blizzard was getting into unfamiliar, murky waters, and that they were best left to old RTS games that no one had any interest in anymore. Add in the fact that practically no one played MMO's. Even if they did, it wasn't a game they talked about (with exception of course). Blizzard not only succeeded with WoW, but they succeeded big, and those doubters were left with an amazing game that they or someone in their family played for many years. Blizzard, once again, is getting into something new.
Not only is Blizzard getting into something new, but Blizzard is finally easing one of my biggest critiques about them, and that is they are finally making a game with a small footprint. Historically, at least since probably Warcraft III* was released, Blizzard's games have been really big. Huge tilesets/environments, an epic and meticulously created story-line, amazing cinematics, wonderful and like-able characters (even the villains for crying out loud; who doesn't like Arthas or Illidan or Kerrigan?), an amazing QA experience, and the list goes on. All of these items or features take a very long time to craft and to "get right"; Warcaft III was in development for about 4 years, StarCraft II for 7, Diablo III for 11. Even the expansions to these games are multi-year endeavors. My critique was that if Blizzard didn't start making games quicker and put them in the hands of their fans, then they would slowly decline out of the market as fans and players spend their time playing new indie releases every week. Even within my limited gaming network of friends I see that becoming true.
With that said, Rob Pardo's statement that he wanted to create a smaller development team intrigued me a little bit. Maybe I misunderstood him, but it sounded like he said this team would develop multiple games, not just this TCG. Whether that's correct or not, I think this is 100% the right choice for Blizzard to make. I love that I could get into a virtual TCG, even if just for a few minutes a month, and play with my friends and family who might not even play other Blizzard games.
And what if the game isn't successful (successful here meaning wildly crazy played-all-over-the-entire-world genre-changing-and-defining popular)? Big whoop. Get over it. It's a small investment, and it's a small team.
Let me address a concern I've seen some others post about Blizzard decision to go with a TCG. In one sentence, they are surprised that Blizzard went this route, and that they did not expect it at all (who did?). In the next sentence they criticize Blizzard for jumping on the bandwagon and going with every other developer out there. I just want to say that first of all that's an oxymoron sentence; you can't both be surprised (and then disappointed) and then obnoxiously state that Blizzard is just following the market, which would imply a logical, sensible, and therefore an unsurprising move. Also, this is a factually incorrect statement; while some developers have gone the route of TCG, not many have, and not many are very successful. How does that change with Blizzard? Just look at their track record; they'll take any existing game or genre and simply make it better in nearly every way. The mere fact that one could be truly surprised (and I think we all were) by this announcement clearly tells me that this is a creative decision (all things in context). To those who critique this decision;... why? It's a small development team, with largely free reign, to create a game that many people will like. Why stop that?
With all of that said, I would just like to say:
@Blizzard, thank you for doing what you do. Seriously.
@Team 5, thank you for choosing a completely new model, medium, and gameplay. Oddly enough, thank you for choosing a virtual TCG, as this will probably be the one that gets me into TCGs in general. Also, thank you for making it accessible and appealing for everyone to play; I'm looking forward to playing with a lot of different people (who probably don't even know they're going to play it yet). Specifically, it's hard to get some of my friends into a game like StarCraft or one as established as WoW; I'm looking forward to meeting someone at school or at work or at church and saying "hey, download this app and try this game out". It's as simple as that.
@Fellow fans, I look forward to gaming with you!
*I chose Warcraft III as the starting point here because I think that's probably when Blizzard realized that they were getting big, were on to something, and consistently produced great titles. SC1 was still experimental and completely new, and no one recognized how successful it would or could be, Diablo was still relatively new, and even Warcraft II was a simple (but important) improvement over Warcraft Orcs and Humans. By the time Warcraft III came out, I think that Blizzard was starting to see just how impfactful they'd become, and how big their fan-base was growing, and it was at this time that production entered what I like to call version 3 (i.e. Blackthorne, RaDo Superman, Lost Vikings = v1, Warcraft Orcs and Humans = v1.5, Warcraft 2, Diablo 1 and 2, and StarCraft = v2. Arbitrary, I know :) )
