Blizzard Sale (!?)

[Ingmar]

Just got an email that SC2 and D3 are $20 off this week. That puts SC2 at $20 and D3 at $40.

[Cadaverine]

WoW is on sale as well.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7916590?utm_content=offer-banner&utm_medium=launcher&utm_source=internal&utm_campaign=wow

Still $20 for the Warcraft 3 Battle Chest, though.   

[waffel]

Eh, Amazon has D3 for the same price with free shipping (Blizzard charges for shipping)

[murdoc]

They still ship games? On DISCS!?

[Chimpy]

Starcraft II is tempting at $20.

[Malakili]

Starcraft II is tempting at $20.

I'm not sure how long the sale lasts, but if there is time, you can check out the first few single player missions via the starter edition: https://us.battle.net/account/sc2/starter-edition/
and then pick up the full version if you like what you see.

[Chimpy]

I played the demo when it was new. The thing keeping me from ponying up is mainly that I don't like the whole "blizzard account" and "no offline play evar" things. I would only be interested in it for the campaign. But I have like a dozen games I bought on Steam this summer that I need to play plus I am sure I will end up picking up a few cheap Xbox games to play on my couch once my 360 arrives on Monday.

Blizzard's hooks have been out of my flesh for close to four years now, I like the idea of not letting them get them back in.

[Malakili]

I played the demo when it was new. The thing keeping me from ponying up is mainly that I don't like the whole "blizzard account" and "no offline play evar" things. I would only be interested in it for the campaign. But I have like a dozen games I bought on Steam this summer that I need to play plus I am sure I will end up picking up a few cheap Xbox games to play on my couch once my 360 arrives on Monday.

Blizzard's hooks have been out of my flesh for close to four years now, I like the idea of not letting them get them back in.

For what it is worth, you can in fact play the single player campaign offline (it is usually what I do if my internet goes out for some length of time).  However, you don't gain achievements when playing offline.

[Ingmar]

The campaign is totally worth $20, IMO. The story shit is cheesy as hell, but the actual missions are a lot of fun, and there's even a decent amount of replay value if you like chasing after achievements.

[Kageru]

Blizzard who? The problem with only selling through your own store, when you only release a game every couple of years, is you aren't going to get passing traffic.

[Segoris]

Blizzard who? The problem with only selling through your own store, when you only release a game every couple of years, is you aren't going to get passing traffic.

Um, what? Since when have Blizzard only sold through their own store? Their games are available at just about every major retailer including Amazon, Walmart, and their worldwide counter parts who are probably getting the most traffic during the holiday shopping season than anyone

[Malakili]

Blizzard who? The problem with only selling through your own store, when you only release a game every couple of years, is you aren't going to get passing traffic.

Um, what? Since when have Blizzard only sold through their own store? Their games are available at just about every major retailer including Amazon, Walmart, and their worldwide counter parts who are probably getting the most traffic during the holiday shopping season than anyone

The dangers of only ever buying games through Steam.

[Kail]

Blizzard who? The problem with only selling through your own store, when you only release a game every couple of years, is you aren't going to get passing traffic.

Um, what? Since when have Blizzard only sold through their own store? Their games are available at just about every major retailer including Amazon, Walmart, and their worldwide counter parts who are probably getting the most traffic during the holiday shopping season than anyone

Actually, I went through an EBGames on Friday, and they had two Blizzard boxes on the shelf: one was the Warcraft 3 Battle Chest, and the other was Cataclysm.  No StarCraft 2, no Pandaria, no Diablo 3, nothing.

Not that this establishes any kind of pattern, I just thought it was funny.

[waffel]

FWIW Diablo 3 was 10 bucks today. For a few minutes/hours before it sold out:
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/pd/Diablo-III-PC-Game/productID.245853100/vip.true?&ClickID=cfqaw4asliex4v4xf4nk7asiz7eisvq7nzzk

[Segoris]

The dangers of only ever buying games through Steam.

Yeah, but the silver lining is that you probably don't buy EA games either then. A trade-off in your favor

Actually, I went through an EBGames on Friday, and they had two Blizzard boxes on the shelf: one was the Warcraft 3 Battle Chest, and the other was Cataclysm.  No StarCraft 2, no Pandaria, no Diablo 3, nothing.

Not that this establishes any kind of pattern, I just thought it was funny.

Yeah that is kind of odd. While not at all what I've seen lately, but that's probably because I haven't stepped foot into a Gamestop or anything in a while, just Walmart and Bestbuy

[Malakili]

Does EBGames even stock new PC games anymore?

[Trippy]

Does EBGames even stock new PC games anymore?

Yes they do.

[Kail]

Does EBGames even stock new PC games anymore?

In a sense, yeah, but in our local store their inventory management is hilariously out of touch.  They had a few copies of Guild Wars 2 there, next to a copy of some expansion for Ultima Online (something to do with samurai?) which has been sitting there unsold for years at least.  They had a copy of Fury as recently as September, though I didn't notice it this time.  I really hope nobody bought it.  I know they had copies of Diablo 3 at least back at launch, I assume it sold and they don't bother restocking it so they can give more shelf space to their unsold copy of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

[eldaec]

Blizzard who? The problem with only selling through your own store, when you only release a game every couple of years, is you aren't going to get passing traffic.

Um, what? Since when have Blizzard only sold through their own store? Their games are available at just about every major retailer including Amazon, Walmart, and their worldwide counter parts who are probably getting the most traffic during the holiday shopping season than anyone

The dangers of only ever buying games through Steam.

Is it really a danger?

SC2 was decent but derivative. D3 didn't work out.

You have to go back years for a blizzard game that you'd miss.

[angry.bob]

Yes, Blizzard should really rethink how they develop, market, and sell their games. It should be obvious to them considering how they're huting for money and players.

[Malakili]

Blizzard who? The problem with only selling through your own store, when you only release a game every couple of years, is you aren't going to get passing traffic.

Um, what? Since when have Blizzard only sold through their own store? Their games are available at just about every major retailer including Amazon, Walmart, and their worldwide counter parts who are probably getting the most traffic during the holiday shopping season than anyone

The dangers of only ever buying games through Steam.

Is it really a danger?

SC2 was decent but derivative. D3 didn't work out.

You have to go back years for a blizzard game that you'd miss.

I play both regularly.  Sc2 mutliplayer is probably the best competitive title out right now, maybe with DOTA 2.

[eldaec]

I don't think anyone was arguing that blizzard are hurting for monies or that SC2 isn't a decent game.

[Fabricated]

SC2 may be the "best competitive" title out right now along with DOTA2, but LoL is completely eating both of those games' lunches.

[Ingmar]

D3 didn't work out.

For f13, I guess that's true.

[Lakov_Sanite]

SC2 may be the "best competitive" title out right now along with DOTA2, but LoL is completely eating both of those games' lunches.

DOTA2 is to LOL what EQ2 is to WoW.

[eldaec]

SC2 may be the "best competitive" title out right now along with DOTA2, but LoL is completely eating both of those games' lunches.

DOTA2 is to LOL what EQ2 is to WoW.

DOTA2 is LoL's underappreciated and ultimately less successful predecessor, and the only game in the genre with sufficient buttons to press?

[Simond]

SC2 may be the "best competitive" title out right now along with DOTA2, but LoL is completely eating both of those games' lunches.

Clearly this means Valve needs to add hats to DotA2.

[Lakov_Sanite]

SC2 may be the "best competitive" title out right now along with DOTA2, but LoL is completely eating both of those games' lunches.

DOTA2 is to LOL what EQ2 is to WoW.

DOTA2 is LoL's underappreciated and ultimately less successful predecessor, and the only game in the genre with sufficient buttons to press?

EQ2 went hyper-realism when wow was doing cartoony fun.  DOTA2 from all I've seen seems to be the "gritty" version.

[Chimpy]

I took it to mean "take the 'hardcore' parts of the archetype game and turn it up to 11" versus "make it accessible to 'noobs' or 'casuals' while still making it palatable to the more hardcore of the original's audience".

[Ingmar]

There's really nothing gritty about DOTA2 in terms of presentation at all.

[Teleku]

I just took the comparison to mean DOTA2 sucks.

[Rasix]

I think there's some merit to the comparison, but really in the way some are putting it out there. 

In a way, LoL is a lot like WoW.  It took an already successful game, refined it for the masses, and proceeded to print money hats. 

I'm not sure, however, if EQ2 and DOTA2 are fair to compare with one another.  But, I don't know enough about EQ2 or DOTA 1 to really speculate.  DOTA2, afaik, is reskinned DOTA.  The core game has not changed.  EQ2, I believe ( I didn't play a whole lot) was significantly different than EQ1, but made the mistake of going up against WoW with less forgiving system requirements and a graphical style that didn't make up for the added machine needed.

I know I'd like DOTA2 a lot more if made some concessions to casual play.  But, it's not for me, it's for DOTA fans.  (It's still pretty good, IMO.)

[Lakov_Sanite]

EQ2 may have had different mechanics than EQ1 for the most part(how could it not? eq1 being as old as it was) but the core "grindiness" of it was the same, only for 'teh hardcore'

[Kageru]

Blizzard who? The problem with only selling through your own store, when you only release a game every couple of years, is you aren't going to get passing traffic.

Um, what? Since when have Blizzard only sold through their own store? Their games are available at just about every major retailer including Amazon, Walmart, and their worldwide counter parts who are probably getting the most traffic during the holiday shopping season than anyone

The dangers of only ever buying games through Steam.

Retail stores here have a +60% price penalty for being Australian so are only for the console owners and people who don't know about online game sales.

So yes, I went into an EB sometime last year... but only to point and laugh.

[eldaec]

Rift is probably a better example than eq2.

It attempts to build on the success of wow, aims at people with more experience of the genre and interest in complex mechanics (for better or worse).

But ultimately it won't be as commercially successful.