Blizzard starting work on 'Next-Gen MMO'?

[schild]

What the hell? When did I put Blizzard down? I merely stated a fact. Starcraft Ghost was trash, so much so that they canned it and bought the dev team. And Diablo Online would rock. As such, they should stick to what they know.

Get your hand off the trigger there, partner.

[Endie]

Blizzard will develop a Diablo/Starcraft MMO up until the point someone in the board room remembers their degree in economics and says "Hey, might this hurt the solid gold toilet producing MMO we have now?"  Thus, two years in, the project will die.

History always repeats itself.

And then someone else will remember the degree in marketing that everyone laughed at when he got it and say "hey, what about when IBM tried to protect their existing cash-cow product line of minicomputers against their own growth-star personal computer line and they lost billions for half a decade?"

A wise company is its own best competitor.  Or something else equally Tom Peters-ish.

[Typhon]

Yes, but it's BELIEVABLE that Blizzard could make an MMORPG. They've shown nothing that proves they can make an FPS, let alone a farmed out failed action game that's nothing like an fps.

henh?  do you forget what this board was like pre-WoW launch? ya, NOW it's believable, cause they did it.  Pre WoW-launch this board was flooded with folks saying things like "Blizzard has no experience making MMOs, and MMOs are HARD, they're gonna fall on their ass."  There was a minority of people saying that WoW would be a success.

Pre-WoW I would have to say that Blizzard would have an easier time making an FPS then a MMORPG.  The fact that they give different game types a try, and can them if they aren't happy says to me that if they decide to try FPS, anything the public sees would be successful to some degree (simply because they don't launch crap).

[edited for crappy sentence structure]

[Ironwood]

Indeed.

[UnSub]

Blizzard will develop a Diablo/Starcraft MMO up until the point someone in the board room remembers their degree in economics and says "Hey, might this hurt the solid gold toilet producing MMO we have now?"  Thus, two years in, the project will die.

History always repeats itself.

Endie's already put it very well, but to reiterate: better that Blizzard releases the WoW-killer than a competitor.

Besides, spending the revenue stream they have coming in right now isn't a bad idea. And the attraction of having players having not only multiple WoW accounts but multiple WoW and Starcraft Online accounts is just too attractive.

[Miasma]

Nerf Protoss dark templars.

[bhodi]

There is nothing more terrifying than the wizzomph...wizzomph.... and seeing little blurs around your base but being unable to do anything as they take your main structure out.

I did like templar drops, but they were tough to do.

[McCow]

Nerf Protoss dark templars.

Why nerf when you can just "balance"  Terran Dark Templars and Zerg Nukes OLOL.

I can't imagine how the Starcraft unit/race design would lend itself to being an MMO.  I doubt it's enough to prevent them butchering prior art to make more money hats.

[Ironwood]

Perma Death Zerg.  You come back as a drone again.  It'd be genius.

[Nonentity]

I strongly believe they will pull a Warcraft 3 prior to releasing a Stracraft MMO.

What I mean by that is, release Starcraft 2, and go balls out on the lore and backstory. Add even more with an expansion pack.

Once all that has been said and done, then use the new lore and data to flesh out an MMO.

[Miasma]

I can't imagine how the Starcraft unit/race design would lend itself to being an MMO.

I want to be able to choose zergling as my race and run around as a cloud of six all under my control.

[Furiously]

MMO-Wise Starcraft would be a reskinning of Warcraft.

Not necessarly. They could expand on what they did for SC: Ghost and make it an MMOFPS.

I would kill all of your pets for a good Starcraft MMOFPS.  But given the state of the genre (Planetside and Flying Tanks Online) I can't see the Blizzard suits going that way. 

Yea, cause the people at blizzard that wanted to make a FPS all left to make one??

[Morfiend]

I said it before, and I will say it again.

World of Starctaft plz now thx!

[Yegolev]

Yea, cause the people at blizzard that wanted to make a FPS all left to make one??

I thought it was so Roper could sit at his desk and eat the whole box of donuts himself.

[Rithrin]

I said it before, and I will say it again.

World of Starctaft plz now thx!

Isn't someone already doing a Warhammer 40K MMO? THQ or somesuch? Is it possible that someone may actually beat Blizz at their own game?

Yeah, probably not.

[Megrim]

Nerf Protoss dark templars.

"Dark Templar are cowards." - Heartcutter.

[El Gallo]

Word of Diablo would mark the end of my social and professional lives.  I would only venture out of my one-room, 6-PC hovel long enough to suck enough dick to pay next month's fee and dsl bill.  While botting. 
 
Considering how much better TBC is than vanilla WoW, and the much better (to me) ambiance of the Diablo universe, thinking about WoD on release day 2 5 12 years from now....umfumfumf.

[Furiously]

I would only venture out of my one-room, 6-PC hovel long enough to suck enough dick to pay next month's fee and dsl bill.  While botting. 

I think you might be able to sell your plasma instead.

[McCow]

I would only venture out of my one-room, 6-PC hovel long enough to suck enough dick to pay next month's fee and dsl bill.  While botting. 

I think you might be able to sell your plasma instead.

Cooldown is horrendous though.

[El Gallo]

I would only venture out of my one-room, 6-PC hovel long enough to suck enough dick to pay next month's fee and dsl bill.  While botting. 

I think you might be able to sell your plasma instead.

I wonder if I could get them to come into my place and steal my platelets while playing.

[Trippy]

I would only venture out of my one-room, 6-PC hovel long enough to suck enough dick to pay next month's fee and dsl bill.  While botting. 

I think you might be able to sell your plasma instead.

I wonder if I could get them to come into my place and steal my platelets while playing.

Now there's a thought. As long as you can play just by moving your wrists while keeping your arms still you should be able to do it even with a needle stuck into each arm.

[Daeven]

Perma Death Zerg.  You come back as a drone again.  It'd be genius.

Yeah But I still say it is really stupid that Mytic is doing *ANOTHER* blizzard knock off with their Warhammer 40,000 crap. I mean. Come on. How many times can they clone Blizzard and get away with it? Have you Seen the Ultramarine model? It's JUST LIKE the Marine. How lame can you get?

[bhodi]

Oh come on, for FPS knock-offs, There Can Be Only One.

[Teleku]

As well as frenetic clicking instead of hotkey based skill-less "combat." That's not to say click click click click takes skill, but at least it doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't.

Seriously, where the hell do you come up with this?  There's actually alot of skill and depth involved with combat in WoW (particularly for PvP) when it comes to effective use of your skills.  Using the right counter attacks, timing, waiting to blow cooldowns at the right point, and using the best chain for what ever particular situation your in are just some of the things you have to think about.  People who are good at this will easily destroy you if you suck at it, regardless of your gear.  Granted, its better for some class's than others, but its a gigantic step above the click click from Diablo (And I loved the Diablo games).  I dont know why you are constantly attacking the damn hotkey combat as skill-less.  It isnt.

Yeah But I still say it is really stupid that Mytic is doing *ANOTHER* blizzard knock off with their Warhammer 40,000 crap. I mean. Come on. How many times can they clone Blizzard and get away with it? Have you Seen the Ultramarine model? It's JUST LIKE the Marine. How lame can you get?

Mythic isn't working on the 40k mmo, its THQ.

[Daeven]

Mythic isn't working on the 40k mmo, its THQ.

Like *that's* even remotely relevant.

[eldaec]

Yeah But I still say it is really stupid that Mytic is doing *ANOTHER* blizzard knock off with their Warhammer 40,000 crap. I mean. Come on. How many times can they clone Blizzard and get away with it? Have you Seen the Ultramarine model? It's JUST LIKE the Marine. How lame can you get?

Mythic isn't working on the 40k mmo, its THQ.

You replied seriously to a post that suggested Blizzard is being ripped off by *anyone*. I think your trollfullness meter is on the blink, give it a shake and see if you get a better reading.

Mythic isn't working on the 40k mmo, its THQ.

Like *that's* even remotely relevant.

Now you aren't being fair to the poor chap. Stop fishing.

[Teleku]

See, the thing is, I actually understood exactly what he was trolling at.  I just figured I would respond by correcting a mistake in his post to be snarky and derail away from the intended troll.

Oh the subtleties of message board posting!

[Faust]

Blizzard took something like 5 years and a boatload of money to develope WOW.  It's quite possible that the "What are you going to do next" team is looking that far into the future.

[Miasma]

It would take a hell of a lot less time for them to make a Starcraft MMO since they can reuse so much of the WoW code.  They've got all the infrastructure down, that's the hardest/buggiest part.  They would need to reskin the world, make new items, and code up new races/classes/raids.

[eldaec]

See, the thing is, I actually understood exactly what he was trolling at.  I just figured I would respond by correcting a mistake in his post to be snarky and derail away from the intended troll.

Oh the subtleties of message board posting!

Who knows, maybe I was trolling the troll troller. I think I'm confused now.

As you say, this is a dangerous business.

[Jobu]

The idea of an MMO Diablo seems to be redundant. I can't imagine why they would bother with all the overhead and headaches if they could simply just make Diablo 3 with multiplayer, like the previous two. What am I missing? What could they add to Diablo to make it MMOawesome?

There's always a chance they could be making an original IP... they are about due to make a new universe.

[Morat20]

Endie's already put it very well, but to reiterate: better that Blizzard releases the WoW-killer than a competitor.

Besides, spending the revenue stream they have coming in right now isn't a bad idea. And the attraction of having players having not only multiple WoW accounts but multiple WoW and Starcraft Online accounts is just too attractive.

Do a Blizzard Station Pass. World of Warcraft + World of Starcraft subs for 20 dollars a month. It's a solid win for Blizzard -- you still have to buy the Starcraft box, but you can only play one at a time. And two MMORPGs is pretty much the most normal gamers are going to want to sub for at the same time.

If you make WoS different enough -- if you don't just do a reskin job on WoW (which I doubt they'd do), then you've got something people will be able to move back and forth from when they get bored with one.

If I was Blizzard, I'd be a bit torn -- I'd want to offer something different enough from WoW to stand out as an alternative to those who might be burnt out on WoW, but not too different -- you want current WoW players to feel it's worth the extra money to play both. On the other hand, I might want something radically different -- yank in yet another segment of non-MMORPG players.

Maybe something like a cross between an MMORPG and, say, Galactic Civilitations. Or a cross between an MMORPG and an FPS or RTS -- give it a totally different feel than WoW, so that the 4X players or the RTS players view it as "Hey, it's like what I like, only with a hell of a lot more players".

[Murgos]

Given Blizzards track record an MMO announced now won't actually be released for a couple of years.

This is a four, or more, year gap between releases.  I don't see ANY cannibalization of the market in that.

edit: Also, the core of your argument is that there is a limited pool of MMO players that Blizzard can tap, that it has already been seriously over mined and that this is a zero-sum game where anyone elses gain must be WoW's loss.  I think that your entire premise there is flawed.

[Miasma]

The idea of an MMO Diablo seems to be redundant. I can't imagine why they would bother with all the overhead and headaches if they could simply just make Diablo 3 with multiplayer, like the previous two. What am I missing?

You are missing the fact that they want to charge you $15 a month instead of giving you free access to b.net for ever and ever.  The only way they can justify a monthly charge is by making it a full-fledged MMO.

Now that I think about it I wonder if the announcement will be an MMO instead of starcraft 2.  If I was making ludicrous amounts of money off of monthly fees why would I ever want to go back to selling a stand alone game?  Either that or they'll try to charge $5 a month for b.net...

[Morat20]

The idea of an MMO Diablo seems to be redundant. I can't imagine why they would bother with all the overhead and headaches if they could simply just make Diablo 3 with multiplayer, like the previous two. What am I missing?

You are missing the fact that they want to charge you $15 a month instead of giving you free access to b.net for ever and ever.  The only way they can justify a monthly charge is by making it a full-fledged MMO.

Now that I think about it I wonder if the announcement will be an MMO instead of starcraft 2.  If I was making ludicrous amounts of money off of monthly fees why would I ever want to go back to selling a stand alone game?  Either that or they'll try to charge $5 a month for b.net...

I'm trying to think of how I would transition Diablo to a MMORPG. It'd be WoW with the loot-whoring turned up to max, the entire crafting game being personalized gem-crafting -- no Auction House, everything BoP.

PvE Combat would be entirely instanced, with multiple levels of difficulties -- max group size of five, with no real healer class. You'd have self-heals, but everyone would really be in hack-and-slash mode all the time. Combat and rewards would scale to group size, so solo-ability is easier. I'd thrown in top-end LFG tools, and easy replacement if someone has to drop out.

 PvP would be done with Arena style, with a combination of equipment + ladder rankings determining where and who you fight -- and it includes the shit in your pack, so no equipping crap just to gank newbies. If I was feeling really fucking crazy, I'd spawn instanced worlds that lasted for perhaps a month and had constant combat -- real deformable world. Let you fucking take it over, torch the enemy, that sort of thing. Give you shinies for winning, and shinies for sticking it out. Shinies for most kills, fewest deaths, most damage -- fucking make it worthwhile for everyone involved so you stuck out your tour of duty.

And I fucking wouldn't charge 15 bucks a month for it. Maybe 10, if I added some really feeling I'd added something. I'd bundle the sub fee with WoW for a huge discount so that WoW players wanting even MORE mindless hack and slash and loot whoring would swap over when they were bored with the complexities of WoW. :)