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Mike Morhaime Interview
Fox Business interviews Mike Morhaime
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/mar...mike-morhaime/
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Blizzard Entertainment is one of the world’s largest PC game makers, known to the public primarily for developing the massively-multiplayer game “World of Warcraft,” which has upwards of 11 million subscribers.
Michael Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard, sat down for an interview with FOX Business while at the E3 video game expo to discuss a variety of topics ranging from upcoming products to potential competition from other developers.
Massively-multiplayer games, also known as MMOs, continue to attract interest from video game industry executives and developers because the games have ongoing subscription revenues long after the game hits store shelves.
Now in its sixth year and second expansion, “World of Warcraft” remains the dominant MMO in the business, with a 70% market share by some estimates. The game is essentially Activision-Blizzard’s (ATVI: 11.36, 0.21, 1.88%) cash cow, bringing in more than a $1 billion in revenue annually. A third expansion called “Cataclysm” is expected later this year.
See FOXBusiness.com's full 2010 coverage.
Blizzard will release a sequel to its “Starcraft”” franchise next month, nearly 12 years after the first game was released. “Starcraft” remains one of the most popular real-time strategy games in the world, selling nearly 10 million copies since release.
Question: “Starcraft” is essentially finished at this point. How does it feel to get that first installment out to the general public after 12 years?
Morhaime – “Starcraft” continues to be one of my personal favorite Blizzard games. I’m thrilled with how “Starcraft 2” came out; the team did such a phenomenal job. They really kept that original “Starcraft” feel when it comes to multiplayer that made the original game great; but what they have done with the single-player experience, it is the most epic single-player experience Blizzard has ever done.
Q – You seem to be breaking the game up into three pieces.
Morhaime – We’re releasing “Starcraft 2” and following it up with two expansions. Normally we would not pre-announce expansions, but we decided to do it this time because we decided to tell the story as a trilogy. This time, we felt we could tell a better story and deliver a more epic experience by focusing each installment on a particular race.
Q – Did you plan on breaking it up that way or did the development process lend itself to a main game and two expansions?
Morhaime – As the development process went along, we realized we could scale back the type of ambitions we wanted to do. [We talked with our player base] and told them ‘we could scale back or we could go with this expansion plan.' It’s always sort of dangerous asking our player base because you don’t know what they are going to say.
Q – Was there any pressure from [Activision] to break the game up to increase revenues?
Morhaime – Activision doesn’t tell us to break up a game or to release a game on a particular day. One thing you have to understand is ever since we launched the “Brood War” expansion to the original “Starcraft,” players have been asking for a second expansion. We decided to make two expansions for the sequel, it was just a matter of if we tell players or not.
One other point, unless you plan to do two expansions, it’s very difficult to go back. The developers working on the original game become experts at that game. Working on an expansion, you want your experts working on that. If our developers move from “Starcraft” to “Warcraft,” it’s very difficult to move them back.
Q – “World of Warcraft” has the largest market share of the massively-multiplayer genre, but there are two major franchises under development: “Star Wars” and “Final Fantasy XIV.” When you see these new franchises, are you concerned?
Morhaime – [MMOs] are a very complicated genre to compete in, there’s so many variables that go into making a game feel polished. You polish certain parts of the game but then run into aspects of the game that leave players stuck or not knowing what to do. It’s a very challenging genre to compete in and that’s why you haven’t seen that many MMOs. There’s the back-end infrastructure which is very expensive and very risky.
We’ve never been afraid of competition, we welcome it; it might be good for the MMO industry to have more than one successful MMO that’s attracting players.
Also, regarding Star Wars, this isn’t the first Star Wars MMO we’ve had to compete with. Star War Galaxies came out three months before World of Warcraft.
Another challenge for Star Wars is that they are working with a licensed property, which makes it more difficult. We have flexibility with our own canon that Star Wars does not.
Q – A broader industry question: We saw Microsoft’s (MSFT: 26.37, 0.05, 0.19%) Kinect this week, which has players use their whole body to play a game. You guys are a PC game company, but what are your thoughts on this fully-interactive push on the console side of things?
Morhaime - I think that type of interaction works in certain types of genres. It doesn’t work in every type of game. It does open up the door to new innovative ideas that we haven’t thought of yet.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
i expected more. i guess i shouldnt have.
its fox business.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
Fleshed out main post for reading ease. Remember, just LINKING isn't a sufficient post here man >.< Thanks for sharing it though (The appreciation for the share is what motivated me to flesh it out actually)
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
Gifted
Fleshed out main post for reading ease. Remember, just LINKING isn't a sufficient post here man >.< Thanks for sharing it though (The appreciation for the share is what motivated me to flesh it out actually)
Good point, I'll remember for next time.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Q – Was there any pressure from [Activision] to break the game up to increase revenues?
Morhaime – Activision doesn’t tell us to break up a game or to release a game on a particular day. One thing you have to understand is ever since we launched the “Brood War” expansion to the original “Starcraft,” players have been asking for a second expansion. We decided to make two expansions for the sequel, it was just a matter of if we tell players or not.
One other point, unless you plan to do two expansions, it’s very difficult to go back. The developers working on the original game become experts at that game. Working on an expansion, you want your experts working on that. If our developers move from “Starcraft” to “Warcraft,” it’s very difficult to move them back.
I find it interesting that Fox would ask something like this. Either the guy doing the interview is a Starcraft player, or he has done his homework in concerns with the Activision-Blizzard merge.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
I'm actually happy they asked that question and put down the fears that Activision is controlling Blizzard's actions.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
Triceron
I'm actually happy they asked that question and put down the fears that Activision is controlling Blizzard's actions.
Because lying is unpossible, especially when dealing with millions of dollars.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
I love how StarCraft is one of his personal favorites - how many franchises has Blizzard really made? 4, 5? :p
~LoA
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
StarCraft
Diablo
WarCraft
RPM/Rock'N'Roll Racing
Lost Vikings
Blackthorne
I think that's all the IP's Blizzard has made.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
DemolitionSquid
Because lying is unpossible, especially when dealing with millions of dollars.
Think we got it all figured out , don't we Demolition Squid? He isn't lying, if you look into the merger details and corporate governance, he gets the word on Blizzard's internals. But that doesn't mean he wants to make money just as much as Bobby Kotick, he just has a low profile.
Did it ever occur to you that Blizzard maintains a certain level of autonomy and stake in the holdings because they are good at bringing in cash? Mike Morhaime is the CEO of the Blizzard side and he still has to keep the company fiscally responsible and profitable. If they can draw in more revenue, create more content for the players, and generally make the capitalism machine work as it's intended - why all the disgruntled talk?
Do you seriously want a generic brood war campaign again? Go destroy this, go do that. Blah blah. The WarCraft 3 campaign was pretty stale from a gameplay perspective. Asides from a few cinematics and etc, I remember I spent most of my time just massing an army to destroy the enemy base. That sort of gameplay doesn't fly well today. Look at Modern Warfare 2, it was only 5 hours - but 5 solid damn good hours - not a minute wasted.
Like they have said before, each game has more than enough content to warrant it's price. The other two expansions have the equivalent single player content and at expansion pack pricing.
Look on the otherside of the beast, Activision charged 15$ for 5 maps on modern warfare 2. I'm looking at 49.99$ for an expansion + an entire campaign. And I think everyone knows Mike Morhaime is looking out mainly for himself, then Blizzard. Do you think he wants to see his company he help bring up end up like the mess Infinity Ward became? No.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
Clearly my sarcasm is beyond you.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
DemolitionSquid
Clearly my sarcasm is beyond you.
It might help if you read past my first sentence. I addressed your witty sarcasm (though I don't blame you, since it is FOX) and gave you a reasonable reply.
I didn't enshrine Mike Morhaime on a pedestal or equate him as a savior.
But hey if you don't want to possibly consider that the CEO of Blizzard, Mike Morhaime, doesn't have stock options or bonuses in hand with reaping in success with Blizzard - that's okay. Just keep blaming Kotick, that's what Mike probably wants.
Source:
Michael Morhaime
Chief Executive Officer of Blizzard Entertainment and President Blizzard Entertainment, Activision Blizzard, Inc.
ANNUAL COMPENSATION*
Salary $514,814
Bonus $451,580
Total Annual Compensation $966,394
STOCK OPTIONS*
All Other Compensation $40,648
Exercisable Options 170,000
Unexercisable Options 630,000
Total Number of Options 800,000
TOTAL COMPENSATION*
Total Annual Cash Compensation $3,616,293
Total Short Term Compensation $966,394
Other Long Term Compensation $40,648
Total Calculated Compensation $4,706,941
Jeez, lets do some math.
630,000 X 11.36 Stock price as of today = $7,156,800
So considering StarCraft 2 and WoW catacylsm comes out this fall, along with Call of Duty Black ops , that stock price is probably going to go up.
Even if he and Bobby Kotick can raise that by 50 cents or a dollar, we're talking about a lot of easy money.
Ensuring investors Blizzard has a stable pipeline for releases like StarCraft expansions and their Next Gen MMO - I can only see Mike Morhaime's pockets getting bigger...and bigger.
http://investing.businessweek.com/re...ticker=ATVI:US
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
What's being argued here? He's earned his pay.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
Wankey
What's being argued here? He's earned his pay.
I'm arguging with Demolition Squid.
I thought...he thought...that Mike Morhaime is lying and is implying that he's an Activision Puppet. And it was indeed Activision who wanted to split StarCraft 2 into three retail products.
I threw out the notion that Mike Morhaime is a CEO and likes money too, and is probably as evil as Kotick in regards to trying to make money (Come on, they fired a lot of Blizzard North people and shut the studio down).
I'm just trying to shine the light on everyone here...
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
Wankey
What's being argued here? He's earned his pay.
No one has earned almost a million dollars a year. No one needs more than 250,000 to live in comfort.
1% of the population with 99% of the wealth is not an acceptable system.
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Originally Posted by
hyde
I'm arguging with Demolition Squid.
He thinks Mike Morhaime is lying and is implying that he's an Activision Puppet. And it was indeed Activision who wanted to split StarCraft 2 into three retail products.
I threw out the notion that Mike Morhaime is a CEO and likes money too, and is probably as evil as Kotick in regards to trying to make money (Come on, they fired a lot of Blizzard North people and shut the studio down).
I'm just trying to shine the light on everyone here...
I do not think that. I pointed out he COULD be.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
DemolitionSquid
No one has earned almost a million dollars a year. No one needs more than 250,000 to live in comfort.
1% of the population with 99% of the wealth is not an acceptable system.
I do not think that. I pointed out he COULD be.
I don't want to argue with you Demolition Squid. I agree with you actually.
I just wanted to show the possibility that Mike Morhaime is actually the evil bastard who is making all these changes at Blizzard.
For the longest time I thought it was all Bobby Kotick, but wouldn't that just be great? I mean partition all the retail cuts, the invasive DRM (24/7 connected to B.net and no LAN), etc on Kotick?
That way, it doesn't tarnish the established "Indie Gamer Developer" image Blizzard has crafted over the years (Though don't get me wrong, they've been owned by "suits" for a long time, just been sold and shifted). But Mike Morhaime has been at the top for a long time, and I really do not think the title "CEO" has much to do with game developing.
(Why else would Bill Roper, and tons of Blizzard North high-up's just mass exodus Blizzard? Back then they answered to no one, they had to occassionally say hi to Vivendi Universal but that was about it. It's Mike Morhaime who is evil too, not just Bobby Kotick )
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
Yes, he is so evil and greedy that he waits 12 years to put out a sequel to what is probably their most famous and beloved game (before WoW)
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
He's so greedy he lets you play online for free
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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(Come on, they fired a lot of Blizzard North people and shut the studio down).
Blizzard North was shut down because they missed production deadlines for a year straight, then they released a buggy unfinished game that had half its promised features missing that they ran out of money to implement. D2 is objectively the worst Blizzard game released. Which is saying a lot on the quality of other Blizzard games of course.
Nobody was fired, developers left on there own accord because they wanted more creative freedom. Previously they were an independent studio before being bought by Blizzard, and I guess after being bought a lot of developers wanted to work on there own again.
I can't any of them who left were particularly successful, half of them going to Flagship Games (lol) and the other half making a studio that went bankrupt before it even unveiled what it was working on.
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(Why else would Bill Roper, and tons of Blizzard North high-up's just mass exodus Blizzard? Back then they answered to no one, they had to occassionally say hi to Vivendi Universal but that was about it. It's Mike Morhaime who is evil too, not just Bobby Kotick )
They still maintain a positive working relationshig based on the fact that it was announced Bill Roper got flown over to sort of "guest star" in Diablo 3 as Diablo himself, because that's whos it always been traditionally VA'd by.
I know we're on a video game forum, so people are expected to be a bit liberal lol, but whats up with assuming everybody who makes more money then you do is evil?
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
LordofAscension
I love how StarCraft is one of his personal favorites - how many franchises has Blizzard really made? 4, 5? :p
~LoA
You think as i do :D
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
newcomplex
D2 is objectively the worst Blizzard game released.
Whoa. D2 may have had rough spots but its a fantastic game.
Now Warcraft, there's a shitstorm. :D
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
DemolitionSquid
Whoa. D2 may have had rough spots but its a fantastic game.
Now Warcraft, there's a shitstorm. :D
I hope you don't mean Warcraft 3. Best single player....
ever.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
newcomplex
I hope you don't mean Warcraft 3. Best single player....
ever.
I lothe WarCraft in every incarnation.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
newcomplex
Blizzard North was shut down because they missed production deadlines for a year straight, then they released a buggy unfinished game that had half its promised features missing that they ran out of money to implement. D2 is objectively the worst Blizzard game released. Which is saying a lot on the quality of other Blizzard games of course.
Yeah they missed the deadlines, because they kept wanting a revamp on the game. I think they wanted to go in a different direction on Diablo. Judging by the screens and videos of Diablo3 , it looks like Diablo2 on HD graphics.
Objectively the worst Blizzard game? Ermm.....
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Nobody was fired, developers left on there own accord because they wanted more creative freedom. Previously they were an independent studio before being bought by Blizzard, and I guess after being bought a lot of developers wanted to work on there own again.
Don't spin my words.
I said Bill Roper and etc left. When they shut down the studio, they fired the overlapping positions but with nice fuzzy words on their PR statement.
That's business but considering Blizzard North helped create Blizzard to what it is today (They did invent Battle.net, didn't they?) , I expected a bit more than just canning them.
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I can't any of them who left were particularly successful, half of them going to Flagship Games (lol) and the other half making a studio that went bankrupt before it even unveiled what it was working on.
Yeah, I have to agree with you on this. Bill Roper is a bit of a hack.
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I know we're on a video game forum, so people are expected to be a bit liberal lol, but whats up with assuming everybody who makes more money then you do is evil?
Nice spin, so suddenly people who make more money than me is evil?
Ok, you got me. I'm actually a 21st century modern marxist who dwells in his basement posting literature on SCL. I'm gonna raise a rag tag group of working class programmers and storm the Blizzard Campus armed soley with Apple II computers to hack their securities and liberate chat channels for all!
:rolleyes:
If you knew the context, I was just saying Mike Morhaime could also be a bastard like Bobby Kotick. Come on "Oh StarCraft 2 is my favourite franchise"
That's why they completly stopped production on StarCraft 2 to focus on the prodigal child/cash cow of Blizzard, World of WarCraft.
I don't want to think of myself as an expert on who or what is evil, but I've worked a year in the corporate environment in a large oil company. The only difference between them and Kotick/Morhaime is that their products are video games. You don't think they go on golf trips, sip vodka, eat oysters and discuss how to further monetize their products?
15$ Map packs (MW2) ? 25$ Mounts (WoW) ? Premium Maps on SC2?
My beef is that they continue to act like your friendly neighborhood game developer, this is no different than BP or Chevron making their ads on how green/fuzzy wuzzy their companies are.
Come on, 5-6 years in development and they've just barely finished the SC2 Terran campaign with a half assed B.net 2.0.
Just going around these forums and Battle.net forums, anyone can gather that SC2 hasn't lived up to it's anticipated hype.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
newcomplex
I hope you don't mean Warcraft 3. Best single player....
ever.
Best single player ever? LOL
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
hyde
Come on, 5-6 years in development and they've just barely finished the SC2 Terran campaign with a half assed B.net 2.0.
Just going around these forums and Battle.net forums, anyone can gather that SC2 hasn't lived up to it's anticipated hype.
You haven't played the Terran campaign, and from what I'm hearing it's vastly superior. The entire campaign of SC1 was 30~ missions, there are going to be 27 missions in SC2 with 30 minutes of CGI
That's as huge, if not bigger than SC1 since CGI now takes millions of dollars to make and games no longer cost pennies and nickles. To make a unit probably costs them around 60,000USD (the time it takes to pay the artist, the time for the modeller to model and animations, then texturing, then sound design) and considering they model and remodel over and over you can't even begin to imagine the amount of time and effort they've spent into the game.
You talk as if games are cheap, and that they should do whatever they an to make them good and not bother about making money.
WoW allowed them to make SC2, if wouldn't have been able to sit on it for such a long time, have it grind through the process for such a long time if they didn't have a massive cash flow.
Comparing Blizzard to Activision is like comparing Apple to Microsoft. You're completely bonkers to do so. They've released how many games in the last year? None? The games they released back in 2003, heck 1999 are still being played today. What does that say?
They're obviously going to focus on World of Warcraft first, which brings them in nearly 100 million dollars a MONTH in revenue.
Battle.net 2.0 isnt such a flop that you think it is, and it's stupid how people are complaining about b.net2.0
What's going to happen is Blizzard will cater to the pro scene far better than anyone can imagine they have, introducing pro editions to enable lan like latency, global.. etc
I couldn't care less about LAN or global play. I just want to play with my friends, whom all have facebook and easily put on my friends list. I want to get into games with my friends, and the party system works very well.
The small problems such as custom games, chat channels, are going to be patched.
The fact of the matter is, nothing can't be done with B.net 2.0 right now.
Starcraft 2 will be a service, much like WoW has been. There will be countless patches and fixes for things to come.
So stop whining and just enjoy it.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
Wankey
Best single player ever? LOL
I could write a essay detailing the narrative techniques mixed with just the right amounts of kistch and immanence combined congruently onto a storyline without overnarration paced to very well designed and creative missions should warrant it a place among the best single player experiences in gaming, right there alongside Fallout, Thief, Deus Ex and HL 2.
But I dun feel like it.
SC2 looks promising, but they have a lot of pitfalls to overcome. One fear I have is it'll be too character driven without the gameplay structure to make character driven narrative meaningful. SC2 needs to tell its story through interaction and plot conventions, not an individual, and its current mission format is slightly worrying.
The new added features of customizable armies and upgrades have to do a lot of heavy lifting if they want to fill the gap that hero driven exploration added to Wc3 single player experience.
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Yeah they missed the deadlines, because they kept wanting a revamp on the game. I think they wanted to go in a different direction on Diablo. Judging by the screens and videos of Diablo3 , it looks like Diablo2 on HD graphics.
Objectively the worst Blizzard game? Ermm.....
Diablo 2s main criticisms were its graphics were out of date and didn't improve from its predecessor.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/diabl...%3Bread-review
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However, in exchange for the additional complexity and size, you'll have to tolerate low-resolution graphics and a few more gameplay problems than you might have come to expect from Blizzard games.
D3s main criticisms is its graphical style divulges too much from its predecessor making excessive use of cartoonish exaggeration and bloom lighting.
http://penny-arcade.com/images/2008/20080806.jpg
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Nice spin, so suddenly people who make more money than me is evil?
Ok, you got me. I'm actually a 21st century modern marxist who dwells in his basement posting literature on SCL. I'm gonna raise a rag tag group of working class programmers and storm the Blizzard Campus armed soley with Apple II computers to hack their securities and liberate chat channels for all!
woah. I wasn't really trying to be argumentative with that.
Actually I was kind of thinking about Squids comment when I said that.
I'm sure Morhaime could be evil and money grubbing, but I <3 him cuz he plays Bass. I play Bass too11!11.
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So stop whining and just enjoy it.
Unlike whenever you whine Wankey he actually has legit concerns :/.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
DemolitionSquid
Whoa. D2 may have had rough spots but its a fantastic game.
Now Warcraft, there's a shitstorm. :D
Actually, it was horrible. It was just a senseless clickfest, that couldn't even save the game state when you went out of the game, so when you played back, it will populate everything with random monsters.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
DemolitionSquid
StarCraft
Diablo
WarCraft
RPM/Rock'N'Roll Racing
Lost Vikings
Blackthorne
I think that's all the IP's Blizzard has made.
Of those, only the top 3 matter. Still, I think I heard him or Chris Metzen say it was their absolute favorite before... Maybe it was Micky Neilson? Either way, StarCraft is loved :D
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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"Star War: Galaxies" came out about a year and three months before "World of Warcraft."
But who's counting? :P
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
Norfindel
Actually, it was horrible. It was just a senseless clickfest, that couldn't even save the game state when you went out of the game, so when you played back, it will populate everything with random monsters.
SC has much more senseless clicking. In D2 almost every click actually counts in keeping you alive no matter who you are.
And the re-population of monsters was designed on purpose to make sure the world wasn't overly crowded with monsters at any given time, causing severe lag, and to let players repeat areas with friends.
It was all designed on purpose. What's horrible, is you.
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Originally Posted by
TychusFindlay
Of those, only the top 3 matter. Still, I think I heard him or Chris Metzen say it was their absolute favorite before... Maybe it was Micky Neilson? Either way, StarCraft is loved :D
I think its fairly clear Metzen loves WarCraft more.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
Well, Morhaime is one of Blizz's founders and (if I'm not mistaken) worked as a programmer before becoming CEO. So there is somewhat more credit due to his name than Kotick's (in fact, what has he done for the furtherance of PC games?).
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DemolitionSquid
SC has much more senseless clicking. In D2 almost every click actually counts in keeping you alive no matter who you are.
And the re-population of monsters was designed on purpose to make sure the world wasn't overly crowded with monsters at any given time, causing severe lag, and to let players repeat areas with friends.
It was all designed on purpose. What's horrible, is you.
Oh, wait. I never played MP on D2. The single player sucked, and the random monsters were spawned everywhere. Maybe in MP they keep the numbers down to avoid lag, and that does the game a favor.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Norfindel
Oh, wait. I never played MP on D2. The single player sucked, and the random monsters were spawned everywhere. Maybe in MP they keep the numbers down to avoid lag, and that does the game a favor.
Maybe you just aren't good at dungeon crawlers.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DemolitionSquid
Maybe you just aren't good at dungeon crawlers.
I just found the game boring. A lot of boring, needless clicking on random monsters. And that's it, that's everything the game's about. Why would i play something like that?
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
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Originally Posted by
Norfindel
I just found the game boring. A lot of boring, needless clicking on random monsters. And that's it, that's everything the game's about. Why would i play something like that?
You never played Diablo 2 MP, of course you wuold find it boring.
Diablo 2 is ALL about MP, it's like WoW playing singleplayer. It's boring completely.
Diablo 2 is about trading items, from items you get randomly in the game to items you want on your character. It's abou tundertanding the game's economy so you can do trades well, ripipjng off people etc. It's about getting parties together and going on Baal runs and then everyone jumping on that gold item because it's just simply funny that way (I don't like the new "equal" system where everyone gets their own items, that's stupid)
You missed out on the biggest part of Diablo 2's gameplay, and by saying it isn't fun because you were alone clicking on monsters all the time is the same as saying WoW is boring because you grinded the forest by yourself.
I loved Diablo 2 because you go into a room and kill EVERYTHING. WoW sucks because you have all these stupid ass "gameplay mechanics" that prevent you form doing so. You have to kite heroes, tank heroes, heal heroes etc. Pointless, I want to go into a room, and annihilate.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
You played SP (or MP without friends) didn't you :D
Your impression of the game, imo, can only come from playing a short time alone.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
Hey, i had dial-up by then. I wasn't going to be connected for hours to play a game whose SP dissapointed me.
Anyways, if MP was good, that's no excuse for the SP to suck.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Norfindel
Hey, i had dial-up by then. I wasn't going to be connected for hours to play a game whose SP dissapointed me.
Anyways, if MP was good, that's no excuse for the SP to suck.
I think everyone had Dial up back then. I remember I had dialup until Lord of Destruction came online, that's when I started getting rogers high speed.
You can't really put it that way. Diablo 2 was about trading items, finding items, doing quests with you friends. How exaclty do you expect Blizzard to offer you a single player only version that has trading, chatting, guilds, and others? For D3, they don't even have a singleplayer mode, it'll just be a MMO like overworld online.
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Re: Mike Morhaime Interview
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DemolitionSquid
SC has much more senseless clicking. In D2 almost every click actually counts in keeping you alive no matter who you are.
And the re-population of monsters was designed on purpose to make sure the world wasn't overly crowded with monsters at any given time, causing severe lag, and to let players repeat areas with friends.
It was all designed on purpose. What's horrible, is you.
I loved Diablo, but you have to be kidding me if you want to argue that repeatedly clicking a monster to cast spells is different from just holding it down.
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I think its fairly clear Metzen loves WarCraft more.
Have you seen WoW lore? Doubtful. Lore is gameplays poor dumb bitch in that game.
WC3 lore was fucking awesome tho.
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and the random monsters were spawned everywhere
lol. thats the point.
