The Analysis of StarCraft II Beta's Source of Hype [Editorial]

[Gifted]

*nods* But think about it this way. If the plan for a Summer release was real (which all sources point towards) then doing the recording in June would be in preparation for a July or August Beta release.

As it wasn't happening, instead of pulling off a "special summer episode" the held the footage to season 3, where it would be more relevant to the original intent. I think our speculations are compatible.

[Sydarm]

*nods* But think about it this way. If the plan for a Summer release was real (which all sources point towards) then doing the recording in June would be in preparation for a July or August Beta release.

As it wasn't happening, instead of pulling off a "special summer episode" the held the footage to season 3, where it would be more relevant to the original intent. I think our speculations are compatible.

That's also another possibility. They held it until now, and decided to release it on co hertz with beta release this week?

Either way it has significance to beta launch in my opinion! I just don't see what would be funny if there actually was no beta LOL.

[0neder]

Lol, I wonder what Dustin would think about SC fans monitoring his body weight for clues to Beta!

[Eligor]

Lol, I wonder what Dustin would think about SC fans monitoring his body weight for clues to Beta!

He'd arrive to the scary conclusion that celebrity status of game designers isn't THAT different from the celebrity status of fashion models after all...

But seriously, the editorial is a great summary of all there is to keep in mind (besides sundry cyptic posts made of yore by certain forum members).

[Pandonetho]

What happened to the news forum anyway? It just suddenly disappeared.

[Aldrius]

What happened to the news forum anyway? It just suddenly disappeared.

They reverted it back to comments on the main page.

Personally I prefer the other system.

[RedPineApple]

OK I am strapped in and awaiting the news....
T-minus 14 minutes...

If the news is depressing, I am breaking out my Death Note.

[Genopath]

Greetings Gifted.

More than actually address the question if indeed it is Blizzard’s fault, I personally think the question to be discussed here is did Blizzard went a little too far with regards to creating hype?

Speculation is one of the best marketing tools out there since the foundations of trade and arbitrage. Creating hype is definitely in the best interest of the developer. That’s why films have trailers, products have advertisements and so on before the actual product is released. So did they go too far with SC2? Not quite. Chris Sigaty in one of the first interviews he did for StarCraft 2 said “we normally take from 3 to 4 from when a game is announced years until it is done” (remember that SC2 was announced May, 19, 2007). That’s how it has worked for other Blizzard titles. However on December 2008 Chris said “we really want to put SC2 in the hands of players this year”. If Chris hadn’t say that and Blizzard hadn’t went on with that ambitious goal then the community perhaps would have been better off (not disappointed) but there wouldn’t have been so much hype.

People seem to forget there was an economic crisis somewhat recently and the fact that Blizzard had serious problems with World of Warcraft on China. From a serious standpoint (no feelings involved) it was easy to think a 2009 release would be unlikely. However it was until late 2009 that it was confirmed to be postponed to 2010.

A good proxy measure of hype can be seen with Google trends:



Notice from the above picture how mildly the news reference volume behaves with good news “A” and bad news “B” and “C”. Blizzard is obviously better off making false promises then not making promises at all (remember this is the case of an unreleased video game, not the stock market). Is this going to be reflected on sales? Only time will tell but as far as hype goes it is sure going well for them.

One thing I would add to your opinion is that hiring staff doesn’t necessarily mean a move to increase budget. We know they want people to go in but we don’t know if people are being relocated or fired. I regularly check the Blizz job’s site and I don’t remember seeing those positions as urgent. Well, that's how I see it at least.

I’m thinking a start date for beta is possible, the start of beta less possible, and a release date even less possible.

I sincerely think Beta could start right now but for company’s internal purposes it will be delayed until the time is just right.

I also hope it’s sooner.
Hope this adds a little more flavor to your editorial.

[Gifted]

Woland, solid points I will ultimately admit. Some of which might even add well to the overall tone of our thoughts. I would answer your thoughts now (which I feel are rather compatible to my own thoughts, even if they're not presented well on the editorial) and had an entire section (2 pages) regarding the community and the effect of good and bad publicity on the product as a whole but felt it was a large digression.

I'll touch on it later with you... as right now I'm in IRC waiting for the Conference call. I welcome others to join (check the mainpage)

[Gifted]

Random note... while I understand that much of this is fluff.. it's nice to know that the record blue responses in a day has been broken as well.

within the last 20 hours we've had 21 (I think) blue responses.