Blizzard is the internet. Or rather, Blizzard owns the internet.

[schild]

I'd prefer cutesy anime styled shit because then they can get super outlandish with the armor. But then, if it was dark and gothic enough, I'd prefer that to anime shit. But it'd have to be really fucking dark AND gothic. Or at least weird victorianesque shit. I like the art style in Grenada Espado btw.

[HRose]

They exhumed Rob Pardo from the grave to deny everything:

Nothing in that rumor is true in regards to Blizzard. If I had to guess, there was some confusion between what Vivendi has planned for its game division versus what Blizzard has planned. While Blizzard is owned by Vivendi, their game division operates seperately from Blizzard.

-Eno

Since WOW shipped, we have lost some artists, and a few other folk, none of which were designers. As to faction grinding...I agree that it is way too "grindy" and we are looking to overhaul the way faction works in the expansion. It was one of those features that was put into the game in late beta and never really received the polish and refinement that it deserves.

-Eno

He does not convince me, though.

[schild]

See, the problem with this is What VUG has done is not in Blizzard's style. Blizzard normally announces one huge title at a time and doesn't do it in such a lame way. There's press all over the place when Blizzard (officially) has something to say. Simply put, they'll deny it until they at least have screenshots they want to show off. People dealt with WoW's graphics because of how Warcraft 3 looks. They won't except that simpleton shit for Starcraft or (especially) Diablo.

[Ironwood]

Yes they will.

And you'll bitch and moan that they do so.

[schild]

I would be pretty shocked if Blizzard went the cartoony way with Diablo and SC as they are, to say the least, about 1000x more dark than anything warcraft had to offer. Hell, even the angels in diablo were sinister. And Starcraft always had an air of apocalyptic future. The warcraft series has had none of these things. Hell, Warcraft 2 was a goddamn cartoon.

[Signe]

I like that word "cartoony."  It makes me want to drink martinis and eat macaroonies while dancing the Macarena!

[Soln]

there was that trauma earlier in the year when they lost a lot of artists and that went public.  Near then they cancelled Starcraft.  Maybe they were already gearing up for this.  Whatever "this" is.

[WayAbvPar]

I like that word "cartoony."  It makes me want to drink martinis and eat macaroonies while dancing the Macarena!

Oh crap. Signe's having gin for breakfast again.

[Morat20]

I would be pretty shocked if Blizzard went the cartoony way with Diablo and SC as they are, to say the least, about 1000x more dark than anything warcraft had to offer. Hell, even the angels in diablo were sinister. And Starcraft always had an air of apocalyptic future. The warcraft series has had none of these things. Hell, Warcraft 2 was a goddamn cartoon.

I would bet that if Blizzard were to make a Diablo or Starcraft MMO that they would stick to the (relatively) low-polygon model concept rather than go for uber-realism. I'd also bet, however, that they'd find artists who could make that shit look good and dark and sinister.

So 'cartoony' in one sense (not even attempting for realistic models, but instead choosing easier to render and less-resource intensive models) but not 'cartoony' in the "Happy fucking go lucky panda hour' sense.

[stray]

The angels will look like Varimathras.

[HaemishM]

WORLD OF MOTHERFUCKING DIABLO BITCHES.  FUCK YEAH.  FUCK.  YEAH. 

WoW + (The lessons they've learned since release) + (a much bigger budget) - (cutsey, anime inspired shit everywhere)  = omgwtfbbq.  OMG.  WTF.  BBQ.    O.  W.  B.

Seconded.  If they make something with the production values of WoW but which tastes less like Everquest and more like Diablo 2, holy shit.

OWB!!!

Why would they do that? A stunningly vast amount of people have shown they'll play exactly that, and just as many have shown they'll play Diablo despite it never being anything to write home about other than clickety-click random loot dispensing WITH DEVILS! If anything, it'll taste more like EQ.

[Hoax]

Diablo MMO:
WoW Talents on crack = character development.
Huge amount of levels but very fast level gain.
Quest system that generates its own random location and random dungeon entrance (ala AO but sans the crappy implementation).  Very minimal world spawns, zero static dungeons.
Clickity-click combat + hotkeys.
Loot lewtz l3wt and lootz0rs
Small towns for player gathering
Several types of item refinment via player crafting, perhaps even going the L2/Ragnarok route of making vital crafting classes that everyone needs but nobody really wants to level up.
High level of character "look" options, the best dress up MMO evar!@!!


Starcraft MMO:
Really I just dont see this as being doable pre-2015 so lets not talk about it.  Blizzard will wait and see if there is anything worth stealing from RvR v2.0 when Mythic releases WAR.

*shrug*  I felt like posting something...

[schild]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=24710907&sid=6152718

lol internet.

Edit: I should clear up this post. If I labeled that sort of stuff on the frontpage as rumor instead of FACT would it be taken as gospel? Could Gamespot have rumor-rumor controlled? Could Tor Thorsen, with his obvious capacity for deep investigative work, have maybe dug a little deeper than MODERATORS. Or does Blizzard treat all press like shit?

Bogus or not bogus?: With no official response from Blizzard PR, it's tough to say if the F13.net rumor is a misquote or the forum posts are just counterspin. That said, the chorus of Blizzard mod denials is growing...

WTG.

[HaemishM]

Diablo MMO:
WoW Talents on crack = character development.
Huge amount of levels but very fast level gain.
Quest system that generates its own random location and random dungeon entrance (ala AO but sans the crappy implementation).  Very minimal world spawns, zero static dungeons.
Clickity-click combat + hotkeys.
Loot lewtz l3wt and lootz0rs
Small towns for player gathering
Several types of item refinment via player crafting, perhaps even going the L2/Ragnarok route of making vital crafting classes that everyone needs but nobody really wants to level up.
High level of character "look" options, the best dress up MMO evar!@!!

So DDO, except with less polygons and more style?  

[WayAbvPar]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=24710907&sid=6152718

lol internet.

Heh. Watch out...you are on Blizzard's list now.

[schild]

Fuck that, I want to be on IGE's list. Check plz! DING. Shoe money tonight!

[Morfiend]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=24710907&sid=6152718

lol internet.

Edit: I should clear up this post. If I labeled that sort of stuff on the frontpage as rumor instead of FACT would it be taken as gospel? Could Gamespot have rumor-rumor controlled? Could Tor Thorsen, with his obvious capacity for deep investigative work, have maybe dug a little deeper than MODERATORS. Or does Blizzard treat all press like shit?

Bogus or not bogus?: With no official response from Blizzard PR, it's tough to say if the F13.net rumor is a misquote or the forum posts are just counterspin. That said, the chorus of Blizzard mod denials is growing...

WTG.

Your like, famous and shit. Ding grats.

Anyway. Does anyone really take anything the mods on the WOW forums say serously? If they do, they shouldnt. It is very obvious that at Blizzard the left hand isnt informed about what the right hand is doing.

[Slyfeind]

I really don't see much difference between a Warcraft MMO and a Diablo MMO. Add necromancers, replace the monster graphics to make em all look like demons, and rename the zones. Done. Skill trees, socketed and set items...druids and paladins and mages and, yeah, all the character classes are in place too. We gots Diablo MMO already. *shrug*

Starcraft might be a little more interesting, with a third realm. But we all know by now Blizzard won't make a PvP-centric game; otherwise WoW would have delivered. It'll be quest-based up to 60, then raid raid RAID!!!

It does make sense to split their playerbase between three games though, because them that get tired of Diablo Online might go straight to Worlds of Starcraft. And you can bet yer booties that their entire fanbase would pay $25 a month for access to all three.

[Lionhunter]

Diablo MMO:
WoW Talents on crack = character development.
Huge amount of levels but very fast level gain.
Quest system that generates its own random location and random dungeon entrance (ala AO but sans the crappy implementation).  Very minimal world spawns, zero static dungeons.
Clickity-click combat + hotkeys.
Loot lewtz l3wt and lootz0rs
Small towns for player gathering
Several types of item refinment via player crafting, perhaps even going the L2/Ragnarok route of making vital crafting classes that everyone needs but nobody really wants to level up.
High level of character "look" options, the best dress up MMO evar!@!!

And cows.....lots of them

[stray]

Fuck that, I want to be on IGE's list. Check plz! DING. Shoe money tonight!

Screw the shoes. You need a new computer.

[Slayerik]

The hits are doubling baby!

[solcott]

Honestly, the only thing by Blizzard I would ever want to see transformed into a MMO world would be Blackthorne

[Nebu]

You guys are WAY too easily entertained.  Diablo and Diablo II held my interest for perhaps a total of 4h.  I'm guessing that some of that stems from the fact that I had already played the game when it was called Rogue and/or Nethack. 

Personally, I'd love to see Blizzard create something with a bit more depth to it than all that superficial glitz. Sadly, I know that I'm in the minority.  

[bhodi]

You hit slashdot frontpage. Hold onto your socks! The bad news is sirbruce is also in the same paragraph.

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/14/1558217

I still can't bear to read the comments. Not even at 4+

[Morfiend]

You hit slashdot frontpage. Hold onto your socks! The bad news is sirbruce is also in the same paragraph.

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/14/1558217

I still can't bear to read the comments. Not even at 4+

Damn, now we are all like famous and shit. ding grats us.

[schild]

You guys are WAY too easily entertained. Diablo and Diablo II held my interest for perhaps a total of 4h. I'm guessing that some of that stems from the fact that I had already played the game when it was called Rogue and/or Nethack.

Personally, I'd love to see Blizzard create something with a bit more depth to it than all that superficial glitz. Sadly, I know that I'm in the minority.

All Blizzard does is shallow games and superficial glitz. You don't want them to try and make otherwise. As for you not liking Diablo I/II, you're not a lewtwhore. Therefore not the target demographic.

You hit slashdot.

They refuted me with HRose, SirBruce and a guy who doesn't control the money at Blizzard - Rob Pardo.

So that brings the tally up to at LEAST 5 people who are ignoring what was said to a live audience at a presentation - that is, depending on how many moderators think they can manipulate the press.

Zonk, you know better.

[Soln]

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

How do I get a piece of the cheescake?

From:

http://www.warcry.com/

Blizzard says there is no Cash Cow Level, no more MMOs planned
Using words like "there was some confusion" and "this was a misquote" Blizzard Community Reps and even Rob "Sly One" Pardo have come out of their cubicles to shout down the rumor started yesterday by schild. All I have to say is these are the same Blizzard puppets that denied up and down that the Dranei were the new Alliance race, even forcing a magazine to cover-up all mention of them in a foreign issue. Meaning, I trust them as far as I can throw a cheesecake underwater. At least I trust schild to bring me the cheesecake. An Epic [Cheesecake].

[Righ]

You mean an epic [Cheesecake].

[Hoax]

@Haem and others:
Why my pretend Diablo MMO is nothing like DDO...

First of all, we're talking randomly generated dungeons, not static missions with voiceovers and lots of levers!one!  That alone makes the replay value about 10,000 times DDO's.

Secondly I said tons of levels, Blizzard has shown time and again that you can never have too many dings.  There is no such thing as a ding that pisses off the player.  So you've got tons of levels, fast paced leveling and the loot system that makes EVERY SINGLE DROP interesting, if it is magical+.  So now we have 10,000 times more replay value and 10,000 times more DING!GRATZ.

DDO = owned by my pretend MMO that consists of 8 obvious bullet points.  We can therefore conclude what we all knew already DDO sucks monkey balls.

Anyways, Schild grats on all this when I first came back from a short hiatus I thought someone had bought the site, what with having a front page that works and tells me things.  It was sort of scary.

[Nija]

I look forward to more well done MMO games, even if they aren't exactly what I want to play. You can't please everyone.

You please a hell of a lot of people by releasing a complete game. Mythic, Turbine, SOE, I hope you've been studying.

[HRose]

They refuted me with HRose, SirBruce and a guy who doesn't control the money at Blizzard - Rob Pardo.

I guess I can expect the cops at my door tomorrow. I was already on Vivendi's black list when I posted the screenshots from the expansion the last year and got menacing phone calls from them.

[Hoax]

(and walk out en masse if it happened)

I see this as the end of an OLD story, in fact.

Blizzard is evaporating at a rather fast speed. I think in the next years this process of Vivendi taken over will accelerate till they will be able to DESTROY everything they found.

Vivendi does have a history of doing that--see Dynamix.

Thank god someone around here isn't an RPG only whore.  God I hate Vivendi.  By the way Stephen whats going on with Tribes Vengeance?  Did it turn out ok?  I hate going to TribalWar some people there make f13 seem like a hello-kitty themed 6 yr-old girl sleepover party.

[stray]

Thank god someone around here isn't an RPG only whore.

I thought a lot of us weren't. This is the gaming community that wants RPG's to not be RPG's.

[Nebu]

I look forward to more well done MMO games, even if they aren't exactly what I want to play. You can't please everyone.

You please a hell of a lot of people by releasing a complete game. Mythic, Turbine, SOE, I hope you've been studying.

I'm not sure I'd consider WoW a "complete game" at release though it was closer than many that have come before it.