A few words from Dustin about Battle Reports

[n00bonicPlague]

This reply was posted by Dustin "Cavez" Browder a few days ago concerning Battle Reports.

Source: Blues, why no battle reports more often?

Ok, the beta will start in the months ahead... but we understand that it will start in north america first and in the other regions afterwards. Im from Europe and we are bored (well, americans are too). Why don't u release some other matches for us to watch? Dustin Browder said they were waiting for the "perfect game". Was the last battle report a perfect game in your opinion? And even if it was.... why dont share with us a game which isn't perfect? I'm sure we all won't mind it. It's just we'd like too see some other unit or how the game is evolving... what's the reason for not showing us some new random matches?

Here's how it works.

1) We find a good game. This may take hours or it may take a week or two. Depends on how lucky we get. We don't have thousands playing the game, just a few guys who are skilled enough, and they have other things they are doing, they aren't just playing 24/7.
2) We schedule time to record the voice-over. This may take days or a week before we can get into the booth. Our sound guys are busy.
3) We capture the game footage from a replay into a movie format. This takes a few hours. If any mistakes occur it takes longer. The guy who does this has another job of course, so he gets to it when he can.
4) The footage gets compressed. The people who do that are busy. It takes them a short time to do, but it may be a day or two before they get to it.
5) Once we have the footage, we go into the sound booth, we do the voice-over, then the voice gets edited and put back into the movie (a day or two).
6) Then the translators get involved and we do the text summaries for our non-English-speaking fans. That takes a couple of days once they get to it.
7) Then the web guys set everything up and it finally goes live.

So the whole thing takes a while. And in the middle of that we are all working on the actual game. When we are working towards something important (Beta) this whole battle-report thing takes a back seat. That's why you don't get them as often as we would all like. It's not something we are working on all the time. It's something various departments do after hours so you guys can see some cool stuff.

We aren't "withholding" battle reports to be mean. I swear. =)

how do voice overs take a day or 2?

"Oh! and its looking like the tttzzzprotoss player is moving around hes able to get just enough shields back"

Sorry, the voice over takes an hour, it's the editing and linking the audio back to the video that takes the time.

So, it looks like we will not see a BR before Beta, and it looks like that even after Beta starts we will be depending heavily on fan-made content to fuel our unquenchable thirst for Blizzard media. The bad news is that the quality of info will be severely lacking. The good news is that the quantity of info will be enormous and that the devs will be spending their time developing SC2 based off our input through Beta and the forums.

[unentschieden]

Well, once beta goes live we will either see fan-Battlereports or the grumbling will stop since people see how hard it is to make them...

[Freespace]

Well, once beta goes live we will either see fan-Battlereports or the grumbling will stop since people see how hard it is to make them...

Couldn't agree more.

[areese87]

Battle reports are definitely really hard to make- no question about it. I wouldn't mind, however, if they just released gameplay videos from the staff, from someone watching it. Needs no voice-overs or big editing. Seeing gameplay would be nice.

[SpiderBrigade]

I am looking forward to the first Klazart audio commentary on a SC2 game.

[TheEconomist]

There will be tons of fan commentary once the beta starts (Klazart FTW!!!). They will also most likely even be better in every regard and more entertaining while actually being informative

I think they should focus on making the most of the beta and the time before it. That focus would last and have a true effect.

[The_Blade]

actually it would be much easier as a fan made br can have a lower quality blizzard wouldnt tolerate as a br of themselves.

ppl will just sit and watch a replay while they do comments into a microphone.

[n00bonicPlague]

Hmm............

Tell me about this "Klazart".

actually it would be much easier as a fan made br can have a lower quality blizzard wouldnt tolerate as a br of themselves.

ppl will just sit and watch a replay while they do comments into a microphone.

Yeah, and languages won't really be a problem as there will be a wide range of testers from many different countries who will do their BRs in their native tounges.

[TheEconomist]

http://www.youtube.com/user/KlazartSC

StarCraft Commentator Extraordinaire!

(I'm sure you were joking though. This is for those who actually don't know.)

[Aldrius]

I don't know about knowing the game better and I'm more of a Cholera fan than a Klazart fan (though he's good too!), but yes, there will definitely be PLENTY of battle reports to watch after the beta starts.