BlizzCon 2010: Give Us Your Lore Questions!

[mr. peasant]

My 3rd question but I reckon this should get a few chuckles as well as some interesting insight into Blizzard's creative process, regardless of which part they choose to answer:

Are there currently any plans for a Starcraft movie/TV series and can we get Joss Whedon to make it?

[Kacaier]

-Yes, there are other colonized protoss worlds. Off the top of my head, Ehlna and Ash'Arak are among them.

Ehlna is a Dark Templar world, I'm looking for the Khalai. Although Ash'Arak appears to be one, so thanks. If there appears to be several others, then I would like to amend my question:

- How much do the Protoss population number into?

[Shadow Archon]

- How much do the Protoss population number into?

Billions thousands of years ago. An unknown amount now.

[drakolobo]

Siege tank will we see the classics by Firebat Arclite or (at least in the editor)?

would be good to see featured in WoL, because Raynor was poor

[broodmywarcraft]

1. Why is Kerrigan NOT Kerrigan?

2. Why don't the side missions affect the main storyline, in a sense that the main storyline acknowledges the results of what you did?

3. Was the Overmind Retcon REALLY necessary?

4. Following question 3, was the Xel-Naga retcon REALLY necessary?

5. How do you justify adding prophecy to a universe that previously had no shred of prophecy whatever!?

6. Why does Zeratul act like he never saw a hybrid before?

7. Following question 6, isn't that a slap in the faces of those who bought twilight since the campaign doesn't acknowledge Zeratul's conversation about Duran and the Hybrids?

8. Following question 7, isn't that a slap in the faces of those who played Brood War since Dark Origins is not acknowledged either?

9. Why, despite that fact that you had 12 years, 7 of those in development, does the campaign feel rushed?

10. Considering the fact that half the missions are filler that doesn't effect the main storyline, couldn't you have just given us 13 or so missions involving the Terrans, and 6 or so missions each for the Protoss and Zerg? Or better yet, just have given us 10 strong missions of EACH race in ONE game instead of us dishing out more money for the 'expansion' campaigns?

[Gradius]

Couple answers:

2. Will decisions made and/or mission played in WoL affect events in HotS or will they be independent of one another?

IMO it'd be too much work for not enough gain to program this.

1) Will Kerrigan be 'good' in Heart of the Swarm? That is to say, will we be playing as Zerg and be the goodguys at the same time?

There's some leaked HoTS artwork that might shed more info on this.

2) Even though it says that Tychus is dead in the menu, I'm still kinda hoping that that's not necessarily the case - is he definitely dead?

He has to be. :P

4) (Bonus question if you guys wouldn't mind ^^) Did you guys [Blizzard] come up with a background story for Annabelle Thatcher? She is probably the single best character in StarCraft .

Second only to Mr. Malmsteen.

-Tassadar...I'm reciprocal overall to WoL's campaign and would call it a good one, but Tassadar coming back is still iffy for me. Now maybe I'll become reciprocal to his reincarnation by the ending of LotV, but can any insight be given into his current status/history and what the rationale was for reviving him?

They needed to shoehorn the prophecy into WoL and Tassadar was one of the few existing characters with "life-after-death" potential that could come back and warn everyone about what he learned in his time in "the beyond".

-Will we ever actually SEE other sapient species in some form or another? Yes, they've been alluded to numerous times, sometimes even named (e.g. the kalathi) but to date we've never really seen them. I understand that adding a fourth playable species would be difficult and I think three races in an RTS sense is sufficient, but even if it's only in EU material, is there ever a chance that more alien cultures could be fleshed out?

Metzen did acknowledge other races in one SC:L interview, so I'm hopeful that some other races will appear.

1. Why is Kerrigan NOT Kerrigan?

There's lots of variations of Kerrigan.

3. Was the Overmind Retcon REALLY necessary?

Depends on what the rest of the background story will be like, and what the Dark Voice's real motivations are.

4. Following question 3, was the Xel-Naga retcon REALLY necessary?

Which one?

5. How do you justify adding prophecy to a universe that previously had no shred of prophecy whatever!?

There was a prophecy in one of the battle.net SCC maps.

6. Why does Zeratul act like he never saw a hybrid before?

He doesn't. Zeratul knows there is more than one entity making hybrids - he wants to know which one.

9. Why, despite that fact that you had 12 years, 7 of those in development, does the campaign feel rushed?

It had nearly 2x the amount of dialog of both brood war & SC combined.

[Arous]

There's some leaked HoTS artwork that might shed more info on this.

Link available?

[broodmywarcraft]

There's lots of variations of Kerrigan.

BW Kerrigan...or even Kerrigan from the Dark Templar novels (She read alot like BW Kerrigan.)

Which one?

Where the Xel-Naga were scientists trying to perfect their science of evolution instead of finding species to merge and transfer their bodies. Which in my opinion, was super lame.

There was a prophecy in one of the battle.net SCC maps.

Really? Which one?

He doesn't. Zeratul knows there is more than one entity making hybrids - he wants to know which one.

Not the way it's written. It makes it sound like he has no clue.

It had nearly 2x the amount of dialog of both brood war & SC combined.

That does not stop it from making it feel rushed.

For instance, after only two clicks with Hanson, she's already pleading with me to basically share my deepest, darkest secrets

Or when Matt confronts Raynor over how he's supposedly screwing up when up to this point I've done NOTHING that leads to that assumption.

Or again, the fact that the side missions have no effect, either substantial, or superficial on the main storyline of the Terran campaign.

Oh, another one. The whole speech that Raynor gives to his crew that basically turns them back to his side after his brawl with Tychus. Really, a few sentences and it's all good?

[Hawki]

-Um, Kerrigan was de-infested? Guess she 'ain't Kerrigan anymore.

-If some side missions affected the main storyline...well, it's been awhile since I did statistics, but when looking for a certain combination of numbers in all the no. of numbers' orders, the ammount of possibilities grows exponentially. The side missions work well as mini-sagas IMO, but bar dialogue in the story mode space, main mission acknowledgement would be difficult to cover every possibility. Besides, in regards to the main storyline, I think only Horner's missions would have any relevance to the Mengsks...you know, Arcturus being even more peeved when he confronts Raynor via hologram.

-The Overmind 'retcon' is, IMO, the same kind of 'retcon' that applies to Luke's parentage in the original Star Wars trilogy. We've never seen anything from the Overmind's POV, the idea of outside manipulation was put forward back in Twilight and its actions/thoughts in the manual are after the Dark Voice's interaction. Its personality was hijacked a long time ago. To me, the Overmind's origins have had cast light on rather than altered.

Whether this makes for a better villain or not is of course subjective. Calling it a retcon however, is something I objectively disagree with however.

-Prophecy...brought up in SCC, brought up in Retribution, brought up in Queen of Blades, concept kind of brought up in Firstborn...um, what was that about no prophecies earlier?

-I guess that's a good point about Tassadar, that getting info from him might be more compelling then that of a corpse. Still, I can't help but be reminded of Medivh, the difference being that he came back to account for his past sins. Tassadar however, died a hero. He's without a compelling redemption aspect. Course that's subjective.

-Kerrigan link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ddsnet/4924487809/

(Shown at Blizzard's art display in Taipei).

[broodmywarcraft]

-Um, Kerrigan was de-infested? Guess she 'ain't Kerrigan anymore.

Um yeah, she's disinfected AT THE END!! But she's still NOT Kerrigan most of the time DURING the campaign

-If some side missions affected the main storyline...well, it's been awhile since I did statistics, but when looking for a certain combination of numbers in all the no. of numbers' orders, the ammount of possibilities grows exponentially. The side missions work well as mini-sagas IMO, but bar dialogue in the story mode space, main mission acknowledgement would be difficult to cover every possibility. Besides, in regards to the main storyline, I think only Horner's missions would have any relevance to the Mengsks...you know, Arcturus being even more peeved when he confronts Raynor via hologram.

Bioware managed to pull it off, quite well I might add.

-The Overmind 'retcon' is, IMO, the same kind of 'retcon' that applies to Luke's parentage in the original Star Wars trilogy. We've never seen anything from the Overmind's POV, the idea of outside manipulation was put forward back in Twilight and its actions/thoughts in the manual are after the Dark Voice's interaction. Its personality was hijacked a long time ago. To me, the Overmind's origins have had cast light on rather than altered.

Whether this makes for a better villain or not is of course subjective. Calling it a retcon however, is something I objectively disagree with however.

Yeah, and look how that turned out with the Prequels

And it's still a retcon, you basically changed all the motivations of the Overmind from a supreme Lovecraftian villian to a slave with an unexplained (And quite lame) abiility for visions.

-Prophecy...brought up in SCC, brought up in Retribution, brought up in Queen of Blades, concept kind of brought up in Firstborn...um, what was that about no prophecies earlier?

My wording was bad, I should have said, How can you justify adding prophecy, THROUGH OUTSIDE MATERIAL (Books, and outside campaign scenarios) to a universe, THE STARCRAFT AND BROODWAR CAMPAIGNS, that really science fiction, not science fantasy?