Beta Link Repository

[Gifted]

The intent of this thread is to create a selection of links to help people new and old to SClegacy to find information quickly. If you would like to contribute to this thread, please feel free to post a link and I'll do my best to keep the main post updated. Please keep the posts clean and brief so I can keep up with it. Thank you for any help ahead of time:

Global Information:

Starcraft Legacy Related Content

Starcraft legacy Video Content: www.youtube.com/starcraftlegacy

Blizzard Related Content

Fansite QA Collection: http://bit.ly/bgy83
Starcraft 2 QA Archives: http://bit.ly/kYe2w

Official Battle Report 3: http://bit.ly/MdzB9
Death Animations: http://bit.ly/2oAYN
Battle Report 2: http://bit.ly/yOTRF
April Fools "New Unit Terratron": http://bit.ly/kI6FS
Battle Report 1: http://bit.ly/xQzs

Starcraft II Beta Gameplay:
The following links are channels which has either stated they will provide beta videos or good links to find SC2 footage.

HDstarcraft: http://www.youtube.com/user/HDstarcraft
PerfectionistEmblem: http://www.youtube.com/user/PerfectionistEmblem
MaskedGamer: http://www.youtube.com/maskedgamer
HuskyStarcraft: http://www.youtube.com/user/HuskyStarcraft
SC2films.com: www.sc2films.com

Useful Links

SC2 info search on youtube, ordered by date: http://bit.ly/20EhQq

Recently Added Information:

November 7th

Hidden Content:

New gameplay video from Youtube, live from Ingromir 2009 (Russian Game Expo): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av9DGpvpMF8


Article featuring the above article. Spanish: http://bit.ly/2U1wIY - English Translation: http://bit.ly/3utLV8

... more to come.

October 26th

Hidden Content:

gamasutra.com

The Design of Starcraft II

• Interview with Dustin Browder
• Provides a lot of personal insight to the design decision making and discussions related to how they make choices in the process.
• Discusses the nature of Blizzard as a company versus other RTS developing companies he's worked for.
• Briefly touches on how Blizzard has come to the decision to require internet connectivity.
• Overall, no statistical updates, merely a discussion interview.

October 20th

Hidden Content:

gamasutra.com

The Man Behind Battle.net: Greg Canessa Speaks

• A lot of very good information on how he percieves Blizzard's Battle.net differently than other projects he worked with, such as PopCap Games and XBLive.

ausgamer.com

Battle.net Greg Canessa Interview

• Some of the same points as above, though he elaborates a bit on certain aspects that the other article doesn't elaborate on. Both a good read as a combination.

omgstarcraft.blogfaction.com

omgStarCraft picks dustin browders brain on StarCraft II battle.net at BC '09

• Video interview
• These two videos seem to have "out of sync" moments. Though some of the information seems to be interesting. Uses relations to WC3 to help describe parts of the game's improvements.
• Addresses Beta Decisions (such as the pushback) a bit
• Near the end, addresses how he feels protoss is an easier race to play, including the lack of energy tension of the macro mechanic, they plan to work on that further.

ablegamers.com

Ablegamers Sits Down with Chris Sigaty

• This is an interesting read, Ablegamers.com is a website for gamers with disabilities.
• Questions relate to major accessability features, such as color-blind, deaf and other forms of support.
• Colorblind support will not be in the game at launch, but is on the wish-list for future patches.
• Chris Sigaty is colorblind.

Blizzcon 2009

Hidden Content:

Starcraft Legacy

Blizzcon 2009 Critical Mass

• Contains almost all the information relating to Blizzcon.
• Due to the nature of how extensive this coverage is, over 150 other articles/stubs/videos were deemed duplicate information

Blizzcon 2009 Fansite QA

• 50 minute video QA specifically with Dustin Browder answering questions related to Starcraft 2.
• Highly recommended for any Starcraft 2 enthusiast.

Kotaku.com

101 ways to decorate your Starcraft II space marine

• Provides an interesting gallery of images of all the Raynor Noobz in decoration.

Lack of Starcraft LAN is no big deal

• Part of Rob Pardo Interview
• Overall backlash has calmed down, feels that it should not be a big deal
• We won't know how big a deal it is until the game is out though

Starcraft II can be played offline

• Part of Rob Pardo Interview
• While you can play the game offline, he doesn't understand why you wouldn't want to experience more features if you had the option to.

Starcraft: Ghost lives on in Starcraft II

• Part of Samwise Didier interview
• Part of Starcraft Ghost's resources contributed to the singleplayer campaign of SC2

Cosplay shodown: Gamescom vs Blizzcon

• Interesting article showcasing cosplay from both blizzcon and gamescon

Keeping things fresh in the Starcraft II expansions

• Interview with Samwise Didier
• Discussion about how things can change over the expansions, where the story in a previous story can impact later visits to the same worlds

IncGamers.com

Blizzcon: Frank Pearce interview

• Video interview with Frank Pearce
• Information about WoW: Cataclysm
• Premium cost mods will be only SC2 at this time

Starcraft.incgamers.com

Blizzcon 2009: Art Panel

• Good written summary of the panel
• Panel focused on destruction effects and single player tilesets and doodads
• There are many single player tilesets and doodads that will not be in multiplayer maps due to balance concerns
• Expect around 5 death animations per unit
• Expect around 2 destruction animations per building
• Many death animations, such as the interceptor, will almost always be unique due to physics integration
• Expect enough easter eggs to "fill a henhouse" per Samwise Didier

Chris Metzen talks more single player and lore

• Opinions shared on the beginning of the single player campaign
• When asked about hybrids, Chris Metzen avoided the subject while saying "It will be bitching when you figure it out!"
• Heroes are more forgiving in single player. "Instead of letting him just blow up and die he takes a knee, he's hurt, and you got to get a Medic there to get him back on his feet."
• Tychus will be available in some missions
• There is a "Thor mission" he's unable to elaborate on.
• Notable quote: "We have never been able to build a story that is, I think, this emotional. This human. To some degree that is a weird word to use, but like: I feel these characters in a way I did not feel my WarCraft characters."
• The Xel'naga are the "spine of the overarching story" that may not be evident in the first chapter.
• His favorite newcomer character is Tychus and explains how he was a very fun character to write for.

Incgamers Liveblog

• Confirmed that they watched and unreleased battle report for SC2 during their Blizzard tour.

Several new gamescom 09 screenshots

• New screenshots from gamescom '09

Gametrailers.com

Mike Morhaime Interview

• Video
• Projects in production: Starcraft 2, Battle.net, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Diablo 3
• Also mentions the new MMO IP can be something that's not been done and could "evolve the genre"
• When speaking on battle.net, reiterates the "Always connected expirience"
• Confirms that Starcraft: Ghost is only frozen and they can revisit it in the future as teams free up if teams free up
• Feels that 2010 is going to be an extremely exciting year for Blizzard.

Battle.net Interview with Greg Canessa

• Video
• Interview with Greg Canessa, Project Director / Battle.net
• Goal is to create the "ultimate competitive arena for everyone"
• "Always connected expirience" that's deeply integrated with Starcraft
• Creates an avenue to connect future Blizzard titles
• Inspiration from social networking to create the Real ID to bring people connected on a real life level
• They wish to unify the Blizzard community together in a single community that will carry across all games
• Will help with matchmaking community by many of it's features
• A lot of focus on the leagues and ladder system that allows for everyone to enjoy, not just niches.
• Admits previous systems had major issues with inaccuracies, wanting to fix it
• Examples: Auto-matchmaking system that he feels is the most accurate system out there today.
• There is a "one way door" for the practice league, which means expirienced players are not able to find a way to get into the league and people can "exit" it.
• Co-op skirmish mode is for more casual fun against the computer.
• Marketplace is post-ship, not available right away
• Vision is about enabling distribution to get their works out efficiently.
• Can be available "Publically" or "only for your friends"
• Marketplace can handle all maps, be it multiplayer, singleplayer or campaign based
• Premium services are theoretically available for people to make back money that they've invested into creating solid mods.

Dance Contest Highlights

• Video
• For those who enjoy, this is a quick overview of the majority of the good dances in a summarized format.

Battle.net 2.0 Reveal Trailer

• Video
• Recorded footage of the Battle.net 2.0 reveal.

Chris Metzen shows off voicework

• Video
• Show's off Chris Metzen's voicework from the previous games including Starcraft.

Showing off the Starcraft 2 Map Editor

• Video
• Basic explanation of the achievements of the previous map editors
• Footage of the data editor's demonstration of the "Uberlisk", "FPS Ghost" and "Lost Viking" demonstrations.

Starfeeder.gameriot.com

Pre-Blizzcon updates and reflections

• Has pictures of Karune

The new Battle.net 2.0 revealed

• High Quality pictures of all of the panels/screenshots

Blizzard Planning Pseudo LAN Support for Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 to follow suit

• Elaboration on the types of technology that could assist in replacing LAN technology
• Notable Quote: "Maintaining a connection with Battle.net, I don't know if it's once or periodically, but then also having a peer-to-peer connection between players to facilitate a very low-ping, high-bandwidth connection.. those are the things that we're working on."
• Sourcing shacknews

Blizzplanet.com

Gallery: My blizzard tour on July 20th

• Some interesting pictures from the July 20th single player event

Starcraft-Source.com


Rob Pardo on new MMO

• Good explanation of how Blizzard develops early concept for a game

WoW Dethroned as Largest Gaming Community

• Battle.net has 12 million to World of Warcraft's 11.5 million

Community QA

• Good opinions on singleplayer gameplay balance.

Zerg Suck - Dustin Browder on Race Identity

• They are underwhelming at this time, they are aware
• A core issue is that the zerg iconic units are hard to change (Zerglings, Hydralisk, Mutalisk)

6 new screen shots

• Single player related

Beta by end of year

• Confirmed by Mike Morhaime

games.on.net

Games On Net chats about StarCraft 2 with Dustin Browder

• Touches on the match making system and how it effects everyone
• Gives a better explanation of the "Practice League" and confirms it's not planned to be ranked
• Speaks on how accounts would prevent smurfing
• Mentions that accounts will have a limited amount of "characters"
• If you've been away for a while, within 10 games you should be able to be aligned with your new rank/class.
• Touches on how battle.net will be a better service for mapmakers
• Much of the marketplace is up in the air, being figured out. They released early information specifically to help mapmakers prepare and get started
• Reconfirms that the editor will be released sometime in beta
• Very good paragraphs worth of information relating to LAN itself.
• They are examining how LANs are in other countries and will attempt to provide for them.
• They are examining and testing the ability to play "on your local LAN" when connected to Battle.Net
• They are working to provide information on who's slowing a game down.
• The example provided actually suggests the game would tell someone they have too high of settings selected to play the game well on battle.net.

Joystiq

Joystiq Interviews Greg Canessa on Battle.net

• Unable to confirm if there is a standalone battle.net client.
• Had to delay information to uphold blizzard commitment to quality
• Cross Platform integration (WoW) will be integrated at ship
• "Real IDs" is something you can choose to participate in. No further details
• At ship, Voice chat is going to be for "parties" in Starcraft.
• Parties in Starcraft will be "allies" to avoid cross game communication/conspiring by voicechat.
• Explains the difference between the optional "Real ID" and the "characters".
• Default is to have "Read ID" off, so you can ensure from frist day that your anonymity is preserved.
• "Name" is the only part of your Real ID that would be shared, might add other information (Such as email) in the future. Would require opting in.
• There will be a way to disambiguate multiple people with the same name if you search for them.
• There will be different levels of avatar to show off skill levels. Some rarer than others.
• Decals you have not achieved will be greyed out, Right clicking on them gives the option "View correlated achievement" so you can research how to get options you want.
• Stat tracking is indepth and will span across your individual play, pickup play, co-op skirmish play, campaign, challenges, etc. "Pages of stats".
• Partnership/integration with social networking sites like facebook or myspace isn't ruled out. Nothing confirmed yet. In discussion
• Number 1 priority is making sure Starcraft 2 has the best battle.net expirience possible.
• Next, ensure it's integrated well with Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft
• Integrating the new battle.net into older games is on the list, they don't know where on the list though.
• When asked about battle.net being ready for the beta: "The goal is for Battle.Net to be there in some form for the beta.

ShackNews
Battle.net Interview: Blizzard's Greg Canessa on the Marketplace, LAN Plans, and Console Potential

• Proud that Battle.net does not need to be a "platform" like steam or xbox live. This allows fully integration into the games, allowing features and integration otherwise not possible.
• They want to ensure that if they made a console game, it would be a "console game" and not "retroing" a game into the console from a pc environment
• Want to elimate greifing, smurfing
• Want to give a persistent character and "attachment to that character" to reduce misbehaving people.
• Regarding Battle.net Psuedo LAN: Does not know if it maintains a connection to Battle.net once or periodically. Goal is to maintain a "peer-to-peer connection between players, so that it'll facilitate a very low-ping, high-bandwidth connection between two players."
• They have solutions for location-based tournaments and other related articles. They can not reveal the specifics for those solutions yet.

gameindustry.biz

Frank Pearce on Battle.net 2.0

• Blizzard's philosophy on mistake making involves being open publically and learn from them
• Mentions that Clans/Guilds will be a part of battle.net 2.0
• Will provide better support for leagues "whether they're Blizzard leagues or third-party leagues"
• will provide better support for play-by-play commentary and replays
• Activision's CEO, Bobby Kotic, gave the inspiration to Blizzard "We're going to leave you guys alone to do what you want to do and we're not going to change it"
• Being under Activision's "Corporate Umbrella" is not new. Before they were under Vivendi Games "Corporate Umbrella".
• Much of the lead Blizzard leadership is still emotionally invested in Starcraft and Brood Wars.
• Some good information about WoW, corporate exposure/standpoint, Activision influence.

Ign.com

Story and StarCraft II: Interview with Andrew Chambers

• Andrew Chambers is StarCraft II's Lead Writer
• Found it interesting adapting from Games Workshop's "Book writing" method to PC gaming's method of dialogue and characters.
• Chris Metzen had a big overarching storyline for Starcraft 2 made while they worked on the original Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood War.
• Wings of Liberty will feature 45 minutes of cinematics
• They don't want to leave the games with cliffhangers. They'd rather make it feel like "victory" with unanswered questions
• Teams in charge with story and level design work together constantly back and forth.
• Interesting internal process article overall

GameSpot
Crosshairs: Single player discussion

• Provides no new information
• Interesting because one of the reporters has never experienced Starcraft before and speaks on how friendly it is to new players.

Video interview with Greg Canessa

• Recaps information relating to Battle.net and the online marketplace.

JeuxVideo.com
Razor confirms they will be making Starcraft 2 themed gear - [English Translation]

• Will create SC2 themed materials such as mice, keyboards, headsets, backpacks, pouches, etc

[Gifted]

Archived Information:


August 2009

Hidden Content:

Placeholder Image! I will fix it!

- Main Article: The full event coverage
- Sub Article: Metzen Interview with Transcript
- Sub Article: Sigaty & Browder Interview with Transcript
- Movie: Single Player Demonstration
- Movie: Character Portraits
- Movie: Chris Metzen Interview Part 1 - Part 2
- Movie: Dustin Browder & Chris Sigaty interview
- Movie: High Definition - Zeratul & Kerrigan

GameTab

- Main Article: Single Player Impressions
- Sub Article: Lead Producer Talks LAN, Expansions, Editor Features and More (Very good unique interview)

Blizzplanet

- Main Article: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Single Player Hands-On Preview
- Sub Article: Single Player Hands On: Menu Tab and Help Tab
- Movie: Chris Metzen Interview (Lore/Novel/Manga Related)

incgamers.com/StarcraftWire

- Main Article: Coverage: StarCraft II Single Player Reveal
- Sub Article: Single Player Hands-On
- Sub Article: Interview with Dustin Browder
- Sub Article: Mission Guide/Preview
- Stub: Starcraft 2 gets basic DRM
- Stub: Piracy not a big deal for Blizzard
- Stub: Rob Pardo: PC Gaming is NOT dying
- Stub: DLC and Demo after release
- Stub: Digital Distribution confirmation

Starcraft-Source

- Main Article: Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty Preview
- Sub Article: Blizzard on the LAN controversy
- Sub Article: Interview with Rob Pardo (B.net info, Lan/Piracy replies/AMM confirmation/SP connectivity explanation)
- Sub Article: Interview with Dustin Browder(SP explanation/no SP co-op/no items or hero levels in SP)

vg247.com

- Main Article: StarCraft II single-player event - everything in one place
- Sub Article: Hands-On SP Starcraft 2(Good editorial for personal opinions/feel)
- Sub Article: Interview - VG247 Vs Blizzard’s Rob Pardo (Same as Starcraft-Sources, same group)
- Stub: Starcraft 2 gets new logo
- Stub: Trial versions to be released
- Stub: A blizzard console game would dominate (Only thoughts if they did go console)
- Stub: Lan will be a "great footnote" in our history
- Stub: Addon content well above 50% (Referring to people buying expansions)
- Stub: Rob Pardo: Natal may struggle with “spatial recognition” (Relates to strategy games)
- Stub: StarCraft II: “There is no co-op campaign”
- Stub: StarCraft II has online verification, but Battle.net connection not necessary for single-play (Other articles refer to this as DRM)

kotaku

- Main Article: Single Player Editorial/Walkthrough (Spoiler free alternative!)
- Sub Article: The Unit Upgrades that make Single-Player Shine (Statistical)

Examination in progress:

Starcraft-ESP (Spain)
Judgehype (France)
Starcraft2.hu (Hungary)
Starcraft2.net.pl (Poland)
Gamona (Germany)
starcraft-2-mecca.de (Germany)
Scarea.pl (Poland)

No info/Redirects?

sc2pod
joystiq
sc2armory
Starcraft2forum
Starcraftzine

August 5th

shacknews: Blizzard: Diablo 3 Unaffected by StarCraft 2 Delay, Two Releases Coming Next Year

July 2009

Hidden Content:

July 20th SC-related Articles

jeuxvideo.com: the community reportage

June 2009

Hidden Content:

Starcraft II Related Interviews:

06.2009 - Browder & Sigaty @ Dreamhack 2009: http://bit.ly/UFIy6 (Video)
06.2009 - Artosis and Tasteless discuss SC2: http://bit.ly/AjObX (Video)
05.2009 - Browder German "Gamestar" Interview: http://bit.ly/DERcJ (Open spoiler tag)

Starcraft II Beta Release Rumor information:
For sake of investigation I'm gathering sites who have confirmed they received the email and links that could provide speculation/consideration for the beta release. All information here should be considered "rumor" until Blizzard confirms anything.

New Beta Icon shows up on Korean b.net

SC2 Icon: http://bit.ly/LjVnQ (Source: http://bit.ly/LjVnQ)

Received emails:

www.kotaku.com
www.cnet.com
www.ign.com
www.gamingshogun.com
News: Top Foriegners get beta emails on June 10th [This has been confirmed rumor]

Press event on 22nd

News: OCRegister mentions a Blizzard Press Event- er.. sorry! Blizzard told us to delete that!!
News: Blizzplanet recognizes OCRegister speaking about a Press Event on June 22nd.

June 22nd Video Interviews:

incGamers - Rob Pardo Interview: http://bit.ly/10fnt0
starcraft.net.pl - Chris Sigaty Interview: http://bit.ly/DNpQI
starcraft.net.pl - Dustin Browder Interview: http://bit.ly/HOrK8
G4tv - Dustin Browder Interview: http://bit.ly/14wc4J
Gametrailers - Dustin Browder Interview: Part 1 http://bit.ly/Y0iJs Part 2 http://bit.ly/ydusd
Ign.com - Chris Sigaty Interview: http://bit.ly/zyraC
incgamers - Dustin Browder: http://bit.ly/1xLzF
sc2gg.com - SC2GG podcast about Press Event: http://bit.ly/QzI6l

June 22nd Interviews and content:

The Escapist: Update: StarCraft II Will Not Support LAN
Joystiq: Interview: Starcraft 2 lead producer Chris Sigaty
Destructoid: Destructoid interview: StarCraft II's Dustin Browder
Shacknews: StarCraft 2 Bonanza: Beta Still Not Dated
Shacknews: StarCraft 2 Interview: Reaction and Reflection
1up.com: StarCraft 2 Wings of Liberty (PC)
Ign.com: StarCraft II Multiplayer Mayhem
SC2GG: Breaking News Starcraft 2 Updates
Kotaku: StarCraft II Hands-On: Round Three
incgamers: StarCraft II Developers Talk
incgamers: StarCraft II Hands-On
incgamers: StarCraft II's Design Philosophies
starcraft-source: Gamer-Source at Blizzard HQ: Dustin Browder Q&A Part 1
teamliquid.net: [SC2] A Thorough Examination
SC2armory: My day at Blizzard and the NDA
Starcraftzone: June 2009 Press Event Coverage

WarCraft III Regional Finals @ Cologne, Germany

SClegacy: Happymint answers questions about Cologne build
starcraftwire: Coverage: WarCraft III Cologne Finals 2009
incgamer: --> Youtube: The SC2 showroom floor
incgamer: --> Smalltalk with Blizzard’s Xordiah
incgamer: --> Protoss Late Game Experience
incgamer: --> Terran Late Game Experience
incgamer: --> Zerg released soon...
Teamliquid: [SC2] Reunderstanding the game

Before June 2009

Hidden Content:

Interesting SC2-related Articles

Geek.com: Pushing Buttons: StarCraft 2’s LAN party potential
Gamespot: Starcraft II jettisons LAN support
Gamespy: Is StarCraft II Still Pegged for 2009?
Starcraftwire.net: No LAN In StarCraft II Confirmed
Starcraftwire.net: StarCraft II On Consoles: Zero Chance
Starcraftwire.net: 21 New StarCraft Unit Renders
esreality.com: Starcraft 2: a gameplay carcrash?
geek.com: StarCraft II mega-preview: An (endlessly tweaked, stats-filled) intergalactic bloodbath

[ChaosSmurf]

I'd recommend either bit.lying the links or embedding them.

[Hammy]

Alright, what do you think of adding some Q&As?
Here are the exclusive fansite ones: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html...62156&sid=3000
And here is the Karune Q&A Batch Archive: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html...=3000&pageNo=2 (it's updated with recent batches as soon as they are un-stickied from the Bnet forums).

[Gradius]

Good work.

[LordofAscension]

I love it when a member of our community takes charge likes this and helps out! Great work so far!

~LoA

[sandwich_bird]

Should be sticky.

[ChaosSmurf]

Should be sticky.

Ye shall receive.

[Gifted]

Ye shall receive.

Fantastic guys! Now we only need more links as they come. That's going to be a community effort. Much oblidged

[Gifted]

Added:

Leaked Battle Report 3: http://bit.ly/J2RzH *NEW!!

This is higher quality from what I've seen than the ThisIsGame website.