So I think by now everyone knows I hated the story, but what about gameplay?

Oh my ... so much I want to say ... but so many spoilers ...

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Originally Posted by Nissa

Ew, that would be awful. Granted, I've always imagined that at least part of the Xel'naga approved of the Protoss. After all, Tassadar's words in SC1 were something like "continue the experiments" set in place by the Xel'naga. Of course, that was probably not so much the Xel'Naga wanting to put a cycle of some sort in place, but rather them being somewhat indifferent about their creations, more like "Eh, I wonder what happens when you mix these two things together?"

Of course, that's all speculation. We know nothing of any worth about the Xel'Naga from the real, original sources.

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That's hard to say. The Xel'Naga felt the Protoss were a good candidate for their next generation upon arriving on Aiur. This seems to imply that the Xel'Naga would have had to uplift plenty of other species before, which ended in failure. Maybe even some of the merges they THOUGHT would work ended in failure in the past...

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Originally Posted by TheEconomist

It's going to be a tremendous spoiler for a series of books that will take some time to get through. Knowing this will ruin most of the surprise and enjoyment, you sure?

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So long as it's not the DT Saga, go for it. Warn me if it is, though.

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Originally Posted by Nissa

Ew, that would be awful. Granted, I've always imagined that at least part of the Xel'naga approved of the Protoss. After all, Tassadar's words in SC1 were something like "continue the experiments" set in place by the Xel'naga. Of course, that was probably not so much the Xel'Naga wanting to put a cycle of some sort in place, but rather them being somewhat indifferent about their creations, more like "Eh, I wonder what happens when you mix these two things together?"

Of course, that's all speculation. We know nothing of any worth about the Xel'Naga from the real, original sources.

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The way I understood the Xel'Naga back in the day, they were just amazing bio-engineers out to create the ultimate species because that would be the masterpiece of their craft. I kinda like the fact that they got their arses handed to them by both the Protoss and the Zerg, demonstrating that the Xel'Naga did their experiments without ever really giving any thought to what they would do if they ever did succeed in their ambitions. In other words, I imagined the Xel'Naga being very smart, but not very wise. I mean, they did create the Zerg, after all.

In the Protoss, they found the species that was closest to attaining perfection, and they believed that through their intervention, they could excise the flaws and finally triumph, but they were ultimately disappointed when the Protoss civilisation collapsed from within. Basically, they viewed the Protoss as being perfect in nearly all things, but marred by a 'flaw of essence'.

So with the Zerg they started there, by ensuring that above all else, the Zerg would have purity of essence. That's why they created the Overmind. The advantage of the Zerg is that they could endlessly adapt and evolve, and the Xel'Naga thought that trait would inevitably lead them to the desired perfection. In other words, the Zerg would succeed where the Protoss had failed, because even though they might not have 'purity of form' yet, they surely would eventually, by evolving to overcome all obstacles and assimilating every advantage that they yet lacked.

What the Overmind figured by invading Aiur was that since the Protoss were already perfect in every aspect except essence, and that the Zerg were defined by purity of essence, assimilating the Protoss would bypass ages of evolution and get them to perfection directly. In that way they would complete the Xel'Naga's experiments and become the perfect lifeform.

That was my understanding of it, anyway.

^ +1. This is exactly what I think, too. What's more, it's simple and makes sense! That's why it's so hard for me to fathom all this stuff that came later in the EU/books and then in Sc2.

Yeah, that was more or less mine, as well. It was that idea that the Xel'Naga were super smart, but entirely irresponsible that made them so dangerous and interesting. That's why I never bought talk of a playable Xel'Naga race. They don't care enough about their experiments to get into a war over them -- if the Protoss and Zerg fight, well, that's just another stage to the experiments.

I always did add a bit of headcanon that the Xel'Naga were manipulated by Duran, and he was ultimately responsible for allowing the Zerg to destroy the Xel'Naga, but that's just my own speculation.

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Originally Posted by Nissa

Yeah, that was more or less mine, as well. It was that idea that the Xel'Naga were super smart, but entirely irresponsible that made them so dangerous and interesting. That's why I never bought talk of a playable Xel'Naga race. They don't care enough about their experiments to get into a war over them -- if the Protoss and Zerg fight, well, that's just another stage to the experiments.

I always did add a bit of headcanon that the Xel'Naga were manipulated by Duran, and he was ultimately responsible for allowing the Zerg to destroy the Xel'Naga, but that's just my own speculation.

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That's their problem. So far it's hard to see the Xel'Naga looked at the COST of matters. I'm more than willing to bet plenty of other experiments ended horribly.

That's why LotV better have a good explanation for WHY the Xel'Naga cycle has to continue, and not just "because it's necessary for their survival." That doesn't count.

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Originally Posted by ragnarok

That's why LotV better have a good explanation for WHY the Xel'Naga cycle has to continue, and not just "because it's necessary for their survival." That doesn't count.

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Really, it's kinda pointless to ask why the Xel'Naga are trying to have sex and procreate. The cycle is there "just because". As to why they seem to be causing so much trouble when they do it, well you see, the secret ingredient they were missing all along was love. And because Raynor and Kerrigan have this unconditional love, they can teach it to the current cycle's Xel'Naga potentiates thereby defeating Amon ("Nooo! My secret weakness!!") and making the galaxy a nice place to be around. Cue rainbows.

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Originally Posted by Turalyon

Really, it's kinda pointless to ask why the Xel'Naga are trying to have sex and procreate. The cycle is there "just because". As to why they seem to be causing so much trouble when they do it, well you see, the secret ingredient they were missing all along was love. And because Raynor and Kerrigan have this unconditional love, they can teach it to the current cycle's Xel'Naga potentiates thereby defeating Amon ("Nooo! My secret weakness!!") and making the galaxy a nice place to be around. Cue rainbows.

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Love saves the day again. :')

Let's all join hands and love away all unpleasantness.

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Originally Posted by Turalyon

Really, it's kinda pointless to ask why the Xel'Naga are trying to have sex and procreate. The cycle is there "just because". As to why they seem to be causing so much trouble when they do it, well you see, the secret ingredient they were missing all along was love. And because Raynor and Kerrigan have this unconditional love, they can teach it to the current cycle's Xel'Naga potentiates thereby defeating Amon ("Nooo! My secret weakness!!") and making the galaxy a nice place to be around. Cue rainbows.

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That meant SQUAT in my book. You can't have a cycle there just for the hell of it to fit the story which can't be explained in any detail.

If this is not explained in VIVID detail in LotV, Blizzard better have novels ready for more explanations.

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Originally Posted by ragnarok

That meant SQUAT in my book. You can't have a cycle there just for the hell of it to fit the story which can't be explained in any detail.

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Now you're catching on, Rag. I believe this style of writing is called "throw stuff on the wall, see what sticks and make some stuff up about how it was always meant to be like that much later".

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Originally Posted by Turalyon

Now you're catching on, Rag. I believe this style of writing is called "throw stuff on the wall, see what sticks and make some stuff up about how it was always meant to be like that much later".

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I knew this long ago. Look, the point here is delay between the game and the expansions. If Blizzard released WoL, HotS, and LotV ALL AT ONCE, then it'd be better.

But since LotV won't be out until spring 2015 at the soonest, a lot of people are frustrated in that they revived Tassadar JUST for the sake of convenience back in 2010, and we have to wait at least 5 years before we get a better reason from them.

The delay in releases only serves to prolong the illusion that something could change.

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Originally Posted by TheEconomist

The delay in releases only serves to prolong the illusion that something could change.

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Originally Posted by TheEconomist

The delay in releases only serves to prolong the illusion that something could change.

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Unless Blizzard has actually learned something, which I don't see happening in LotV. Maybe in SC3, if they choose to do one.

Oh, SC3 will come in time. Blizzard only has 3 IP's, 4 if you count whatever the long delayed "Project Titan" might be.

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Originally Posted by DemolitionSquid

Oh, SC3 will come in time. Blizzard only has 3 IP's, 4 if you count whatever the long delayed "Project Titan" might be.

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They have at least one more, if not 2, new IP's. There's Mike Booth's project and then there's Overwatch, but they can always be the same game.

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Originally Posted by DemolitionSquid

Oh, SC3 will come in time. Blizzard only has 3 IP's, 4 if you count whatever the long delayed "Project Titan" might be.

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What makes you so sure? Blizzard is about the money, and they're still raking in the dough from WoW.

Because a business venture of any kind must be diversified and they've already cracked all the other eggs in the other baskets.

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Originally Posted by ragnarok

they're still raking in the dough from WoW.

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They will always rake in dough from WoW...which is sad, because WoW is what killed any attempt for Blizzard to actually make a great game with at least a passable story. Too many casuals nowadays want their quick fix of entertainment over actually taking the time for the game to settle in and discover the epicness behind it all. Blizzard knows that as long as that quick-fix gameplay is there to satisfy the casual gamers for a few months before dishing out the next batch of game material, they wouldn't have to put work in anything else, and still end up making tons of money off this faction of people.

I tried returning to WoW last year...couldn't even last a week it's become so streamlined/easy/boring.

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Originally Posted by RetlocLive

They will always rake in dough from WoW...which is sad, because WoW is what killed any attempt for Blizzard to actually make a great game with at least a passable story. Too many casuals nowadays want their quick fix of entertainment over actually taking the time for the game to settle in and discover the epicness behind it all. Blizzard knows that as long as that quick-fix gameplay is there to satisfy the casual gamers for a few months before dishing out the next batch of game material, they wouldn't have to put work in anything else, and still end up making tons of money off this faction of people.

I tried returning to WoW last year...couldn't even last a week it's become so streamlined/easy/boring.

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WoW has a brighter future with Ghostcrawler gone. I exclusively PvE'd because PvP became a joke.

I do think pumping out content every few months for 10 years has tapped out Chris Metzen's ability to come up with a sensible storyline, too. But I also want to believe that the criticism of his work hasn't been seen yet because of how long Blizzard takes to actually make a game. I think the internet really started pouring it on him with the comical death of the Lich King, yet when you look at the Heart of the Swarm leaked ending, dated April of 2009, it would appear that by 2010 (when that wing of ICC was released) that HotS was pretty much finished anyway. Of course he could've gone back to edited the dialogue a bit, but there isn't much you can do when there's already so much budget that went into the production of things like cinematics.

Yet, if I continue to wait for a Blizzard story that isn't cosmically embarrassing, I might have to institutionalize myself.

One of my coworkers keeps trying to make me play WoW. I played it free until level 20 when that first started years ago, and haven't touched it since. It was terrible. I actually quoted TotalBiscuit to him and said, "why would I pay to play WoW when I can play the best parts of WoW as a free card game?" And quite frankly, while I'll admit Hearthstone is fun, I'm still 100 times more excited for Magic 2015 next month.

I played WoW on private server with 4-5x the experience rate. I can't imagine people playing with less. Even at that speed, it was mindless grinding for hours and hours with my main reward being ONLY (albeit very beautiful) new scenery. Got tiresome fast. I would much rather grind in a SP RPG than an MMO.

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Originally Posted by TheEconomist

Because a business venture of any kind must be diversified and they've already cracked all the other eggs in the other baskets.

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Last I checked, despite the wear and tear of the WoW series, that series is still FAR from dust in the ground...

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Originally Posted by RetlocLive

They will always rake in dough from WoW...which is sad, because WoW is what killed any attempt for Blizzard to actually make a great game with at least a passable story. Too many casuals nowadays want their quick fix of entertainment over actually taking the time for the game to settle in and discover the epicness behind it all. Blizzard knows that as long as that quick-fix gameplay is there to satisfy the casual gamers for a few months before dishing out the next batch of game material, they wouldn't have to put work in anything else, and still end up making tons of money off this faction of people.

I tried returning to WoW last year...couldn't even last a week it's become so streamlined/easy/boring.

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That's the problem with HotS. For me, the story concepts themselves had potential, even the Zerus arc that shouldn't have worked so well, in accordance to the SC1 manual. But it could have been made to be much more acceptable, and Blizzard refused to carry it out the proper way.

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Last I checked, despite the wear and tear of the WoW series, that series is still FAR from dust in the ground...

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Did you even read what I said?

Well, WoW will probably survive as a cult game, but it is no longer played as much as it was before. Newer, adaptive RPG MMOs are pulling the modern take on the genre and most are F2P. However, I fear the world doesn't want an MMO anymore, as much as it did WoW back in the day. Players are dedicating "less" time to games that give you the RPG but not the MMO in the MOBA/Brawler genre.

Guild Wars II is probably the best example. It's refreshing it's gameplay constantly and it's content shifts without allowing players to go back. However, each server became specialized in a single thing and there's few things to do that actually feel epic anymore. New players are sucked into Zergs for months and WvWvW will never be won by the server where the good PvP players have migrated to.

RIFT is the most promising MMO atm IMHO. Yet it fails to build a proper PvP experience.

WoW still has 8 million subscribers, far ahead of anyone else. As someone who used to really keep up with Activision stock, it always made me laugh when people kept saying that the end of WoW was nigh and that because WoW had lost a couple of million subscribers, it's days were numbered. I've been hearing since since, like, 2010 or even earlier. Yet, it still reigns supreme (by far) and still makes a ridiculous profit. Losing a couple of million is nothing when that's only about 20% of your player base and the costs associated with the game go no where close to matching revenue from eight million subscribers.

WoW will be around for a really, really long time. There's been MMOs that have been up since the late 90's that didn't have 1/10th of WoW's player base at their peaks. No, sadly, and for reasons I can't comprehend, my children will probably still be hearing about the dominance of WoW but has its going to end any day now. <semi-exaggeration>

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=A...=ATVI;range=2y

If I were still investing in the stock, I could've doubled my investment easily simply by not listening to the doomsayers.

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I'd be shocked if plans for a transition to F2P wasn't announced at Blizzcon.

^^^

Seeing Team Fortress 2 on that list really saddens me...its not surprising at all why Valve feels it's unnecessary to announce the next Half-Life let alone...actually complete the HL2 episodes when TF2 is such a goldmine for them. I'm sure Dota 2 will one day be on that list as well for them.

The Old Republic being on there surprises me though, I knew they were still making loads of money off micro-transactions, but I never would have thought it was above 100 million. Good save I guess since the game was such a bomb originally.

As for WoW, last I remember, it was down to 7.6 million subs a few months after MoP was released, but it got a huge boost when the Siege of Org patch came out so...8 million sounds about right. I will only truly think that WoW's time is starting to fade away the moment Blizzard starts closing off some of their servers. I have yet to hear of them actually closing off a server for WoW up to today, but I know they've been stalling the bleeding with the lesser populated servers with cross-realm zoning and whatnot.

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Originally Posted by NikoMyCousin

I do think pumping out content every few months for 10 years has tapped out Chris Metzen's ability to come up with a sensible storyline, too. But I also want to believe that the criticism of his work hasn't been seen yet because of how long Blizzard takes to actually make a game. I think the internet really started pouring it on him with the comical death of the Lich King, yet when you look at the Heart of the Swarm leaked ending, dated April of 2009, it would appear that by 2010 (when that wing of ICC was released) that HotS was pretty much finished anyway. Of course he could've gone back to edited the dialogue a bit, but there isn't much you can do when there's already so much budget that went into the production of things like cinematics.

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Half the content they don't even properly get into WoW before the expansions even release. I just remember Cataclysm being a clusterfuk of a bunch of "new" quest-lines that seemed cool and interesting at first, but were then left hanging halfway through a storyline because Blizzard released the game unfinished. I think the only one that I actually felt was a compete story was the remake of Stonetalon Mountains. Who ever remade Stonetalon is probably the only guy I'd pay to continue writing lore for Blizzard. At least when it comes to WoW's standards. From what I hear though, Mists of Pandaria's lore wasn't that bad apart from the Alliance lore after the patches started rolling in...then again, the Alliance has had little to no lore at all ever since WOTLK. And most of the lore they do get is nothing but Varian Wrynn wank...or the continued attempts to turn Jaina into the next Garrosh. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Jaina becomes a raid boss somewhere down the line.

Eight million was what they put on their last quarterly earnings so I'm going with that. I don't know when or how they calculate that but I assume they've been using the same methods since the beginning.

I doubt WoW will become F2P anytime soon. There's just too much money being made. They make about twice as much as League of Legends off subscriptions alone and that doesn't include all of the other monetarizations and other things. I do think, however, (not that that's a leap since Blizzard's own statements confirm) they'll be making more F2P games like Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm. Although, I'm not sure that Blizzard can compete in that space as well as it used to, since, well, you know, arrogance is killing them.

-- Just noticed WoW on that list. They must be including the revenue from China and other F2P areas as the F2P earnings for that year because their own quarterly earnings rocket past that.

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Originally Posted by TheEconomist

Eight million was what they put on their last quarterly earnings so I'm going with that. I don't know when or how they calculate that but I assume they've been using the same methods since the beginning.

I doubt WoW will become F2P anytime soon. There's just too much money being made. They make about twice as much as League of Legends off subscriptions alone and that doesn't include all of the other monetarizations and other things. I do think, however, (not that that's a leap since Blizzard's own statements confirm) they'll be making more F2P games like Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm. Although, I'm not sure that Blizzard can compete in that space as well as it used to, since, well, you know, arrogance is killing them.

-- Just noticed WoW on that list. They must be including the revenue from China and other F2P areas as the F2P earnings for that year because their own quarterly earnings rocket past that.

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I don't think its a coincidence that within a year's time, Hearthstone's popularity explosion (before it has even launched on Android of all places) has coincided with Blizzard adding a lot of items to WoW's in game shop.

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I could be wrong, but I think these decisions point to F2P for WoW pretty soon. Granted, giving up the subscription model would be an admirable thing to do because it does net them an incredible income, but I honestly think that standalone expansion packs and more mounts and cosmetics on the store would make the decision easier to make in this F2P heavy industry.

I still find it hilarious that Blizzard seems intent on adding options for WoW players to spend their money on, yet for StarCraft 2 they haven't added any options (even something as simple as paid name changes) when SC2 players are the ones that want it the most to help the scene out.

They may do it but it won't be a financial decision. Maybe as a way to regain favor or something, I don't know. It's been over a year since I even looked at Activision as an investment, and I definitely don't play the games, so I really have no grounds to argue, just saying I've beard it before and I'm jaded.

I doubt I'd play WoW even if it were free though.

Here are my predictions for Blizzard's financial future:

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Originally Posted by DemolitionSquid

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I suggest someone tell the guy all the money around him is counterfeit.

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The guy? The guy? I think you mean THE guy.

You know, the one the prophecies spoke of.

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Originally Posted by TheEconomist

The guy? The guy? I think you mean THE guy.

You know, the one the prophecies spoke of.

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The prophecies of "He Who Shall Ruin Computer Gaming Forever and Run Away with Vast Sums of Money"? I've heard that one. It ends with him getting bludgeoned to death by nerds with obsolete computers.

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