SC2 now officially on life support

[Mislagnissa]

https://www.pcgamer.com/a-decade-aft...-winding-down/

I am not surprised. I don’t know if this is the end of the StarCraft IP, although I wouldn’t be surprised either way. I don’t think Activision will make another RTS unless the genre somehow comes back from limbo. I think the most likely outcome will be mobile shovelware, as happened with Command & Conquer.

[Turalyon]

May SC hopefully and finally rest in the peace that it has, for many years now, been denied. Haha.

[Nissa]

This is a sad day. Not as sad as SC2's release dates, but there you go.

I hope they let the IP rest for another decade before doing anything with it.

[Mislagnissa]

This is a sad day. Not as sad as SC2's release dates, but there you go.

I hope they let the IP rest for another decade before doing anything with it.

Why should that make a difference? Nothing short of a reboot is going to fix the problems with the writing. Any SC3 or FPS spin-off will be a soft reboot anyway given Blizzard’s disregard for continuity.

What new apocalyptic threat would Blizzard pull out of the woodwork next time? More xel’naga? The UED? Amon’s ex-girlfriend? Another overmind? Another protoss empire? A new fourth race? A race even more advanced than the xel’naga? An enemy race of the xel’naga? The creators of the xel’naga?

Anything is possible where Blizzard is concerned. It will alienate anyone who invested in prior lore, but who cares right?

[Mislagnissa]

https://venturebeat.com/2020/10/27/e...-game-company/

Metzen is running a tabletop game company. Oh joy.

Unless he has actually developed as a writer in the last three decades, which he shows no signs of having done, I fully expect that this new effort will be just as much of an incoherent mess as his last ones.

[Turalyon]

Show us on the doll where Metzen hurt you, Misla. Lol

I must say, your enduring petulance is somewhat cathartic. I never feel the need to behave overtly negative or cynical here with you around because you assuredly do it all for me. Haha.

[Mislagnissa]

Show us on the doll where Metzen hurt you, Misla. Lol

I must say, your enduring petulance is somewhat cathartic. I never feel the need to behave overtly negative or cynical here with you around because you assuredly do it all for me. Haha.

If you must know, then it’s a combination of jealousy and disappointment. I’m jealous that Metzen was so successful despite his clear lack of talent/skill (he’s a much better artist than writer) when so many better writers languish in obscurity. I’m disappointed because his work is littered with the rudiments of potentially good stories that are never explored.

I read through the old Starcraft website on the internet archive. I read through what little we know about the development of Warcraft 3’s story. I find myself more intrigued by the ideas that were discarded than by the premises of the final games. That’s not a feeling that any writer wants to evoke in their reader.

Metzen is clearly passionate and has the potential to be a good writer. What he needs is structure and oversight to cultivate that potential. He cannot be left to his own devices. He needs an editor.

On the bright side, video game communities nowadays are more discerning when it comes to storytelling. If Metzen makes the same choices again, as I reluctantly predict he will, then I hope people will call him out for it.

Although he is working with a new team who might not give him the same leeway that Blizzard did, so who knows what could happen? Maybe he’ll finally receive the oversight he needs to produce a well-written story.

Fingers crossed.

[Turalyon]

Eh. I could care less about what Metzen did, didn't do nor what he's going to do next these days. Not sure why you'd bother to still obsess over him (or rather your resentment of him) and his goings-on after all this time, especially when you're seemingly aware of it being such a negative influence on you already.

You should also be aware that Starcraft's success is only partly attributable to Metzen. The game was put together by other people, too, you know. It's also arguable whether Metzen's contribution is really what what made Starcraft endure/memorable over the years since the solely lore/story fans of Starcraft represent only a small number of the total fans/advocates of Starcraft. These days, the people who clamour for quality story and lore in the games are considered to be the minority given the data collected on those who play the games (not many people have even finished the campaigns) and online purchases (people seem to pay more for cosmetic or gameplay options like Commanders - which also take less effort to produce - than the Nova Covert Ops campaigns - which also take more effort to produce).

Also, the success of anything is somewhat and usually independent to the supposed "quality" of a product. The potential success of almost anything is really just due to timing and proper marketing - the quality of the product itself is unimportant unless it can be twisted into something marketable. You can have a bonafide perfectly fine product (or not as the case may be...) but it ain't anything if you can't find a way to sell it. Like all "successful" stories just really being elaborate and compelling illusions to engender suspension of disbelief for you to buy into the fiction/themes/characters (contrary to what it objectively really is - something that was made up in someone's/some peoples mind/s), the success of almost anything has nothing to do about the product itself but how well something is marketed to create willing suspension of disbelief of the superior quality of that product (contrary to what it objective really is - just a "thing"). In short, story-telling quality ain't worth anything in and of itself (sadly) unless you make it a selling point. Because that wasn't what the original Starcraft was about, it kinda gets a free pass on this front (I think why it became memorable is because the story was initially unsung and unexpected - a timing thing where games weren't known for story depth then)... unlike Sc2, where there was marketing focus on it and modern games having more standards of "quality" than before which meant it was more legitimately open to scrutiny and criticism. That's my take on it anyways...

[Mislagnissa]

The story being mediocre wouldn't annoy me as much if the fanboys didn't constantly praise it and chase me out of the fandom for not worshiping Kerry.

The Confederacy, Conclave, and Cerebrates (or the three Cs if you'd like) were perfectly serviceable as governments/cultures representing their respective species and had plenty of room for exploration/expansion. Instead Metzen killed them all off shortly after their introductions in order to propel the careers of his personal favorite shallow characters.

One of the recent short stories was about that nameless zergling from the Heart of the Swarm cinematics. That was the best idea that the writers could come up. Apparently the fanboys loved it.

I once briefly thought that without Metzen, Blizzard could engage in course correction. Instead, they're doubling down on the stupid.

Several thousand pages of lore on the wiki as of right now, and all of it wasted because of this utter lack of care for the verisimilitude of the setting and its inhabitants.

I wish I didn't care, but I can't stop watching this trainwreck.

[Turalyon]

Blizz is too large now to consider going back to being "creative". It's all about money now and appeasing the lowest common denominator to sustain itself. Why you should think otherwise even with Metzen leaving is beyond me...

I can (and often) consider SC as standalone and doing well/acceptable enough on it's own merit really(even without BW). As such, I don't mind huge status quo changing things like what you described since I usually engage most things with the expectation there isn't going to be more, that it's a one and done sort of thing. Having things change hugely and giving a sense that "shit is real!" and "happening" rather than some languidly imposed status quo that defies reason seems to work better for game stories when they can't guarantee the possibility of future entries. I know you like the prospect of this sprawling protracted thing that can go on for considerable time but the momentum of Starcraft's fictional universe didn't really lend itself to that imho. The fulcrum of the story is the three races colliding and having lasting consequences arising from that and Sc1 does that well enough on it's own.