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Geek Is... BlizzCon 2010 |OT| October 22-23, 2010 - New Heights Of Awkward

If I order the live cast can I watch parts of it later? I have work tomorrow and will miss most of the day.

EDIT - Nevermind, read the thread and I can.
 
Nirolak said:
While I see where you're going with this, I'm pretty sure the story quality was just caused by their descent to being terrible, god awful writers that's been going on for about the past ten years.

It's best to just assume zero plot quality going into their games these days. It's far more enjoyable that way.

Blizzard's writing has taken a serious nosedive since... well, since Diablo 2.

I actually went back through the Starcraft 1 story and it's surprisingly well-done and the characters aren't all generic douches. I particularly hate how they turned Jim Raynor from

"balding nice-guy biker with a pencil moustache and a sarcastic streak"
to
"good ol' boy to the maximum ol' boy good" (courtesy Chris Remo)
 
Bisnic said:
If, IF, there is some secret teaser for Heart of the Swarm today, when will they show it? Opening Ceremony or during the Starcraft II Cinematics's hour? From what i've seen in the OP, the SC2 Cinematics is about showing us how they made the cinematics more than anything else.

It will have to be in the Opening Ceremony. No sense in waiting it out for their panel. Then again, that's what they did when they announced the campaign split when I attended in 2007.
 

Jackl

Member
Corky said:
So ya'll think anybody will stream blizzcon via ustream / justin ?


Some are, they're getting broken mighty quick though. Don't feel like paying official stream, and don't feel like combing through garbage links for unofficial stream.

Think I'll just wait till the dust settles and the recorded vids show up later.
 
Forkball said:
So are the times EST or PST or what? Also, is anyone else having trouble with the live stream? The site won't even load.

They're in PST and I think the stream just died because it's not moving for me. Looks like it'll be the same as last year. Problems ahoy!
 
FieryBalrog said:
Blizzard's writing has taken a serious nosedive since... well, since Diablo 2.

I actually went back through the Starcraft 1 story and it's surprisingly well-done and the characters aren't all generic douches. I particularly hate how they turned Jim Raynor from

"balding nice-guy biker with a pencil moustache and a sarcastic streak"
to
"good ol' boy to the maximum ol' boy good" (courtesy Chris Remo)

I know what you mean. First time I played through SC campaign, Kerrigan's conversion from a compassionate Ghost into the Queen of Blades just blew me away. Using the same trope in Warcraft III with Arthas was a disappointment and the campaign of SC2 so far is just all over the place.
 
But the SC2 Protoss mini Campaign was totaly awesome.

traveler said:
I paid for the stream and all I keep getting is server is busy. Hope this settles down after opening ceremonies. :/
At least we have VOD on all events / panels ._.

€: Time to collect live blog links
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
Jackl said:
Some are, they're getting broken mighty quick though. Don't feel like paying official stream, and don't feel like combing through garbage links for unofficial stream.

Think I'll just wait till the dust settles and the recorded vids show up later.

I see, guess I'll wait for the montage-clips on tomorrows gametrailers. bo'h
 

B-Dex

Member
So glad I got my Virtual Ticket so that I can get Server to busy messages. :lol

EDIT: Seems to be working better now. I actually got logged in!
 

DonasaurusRex

Online Ho Champ
Draft said:
It's easier to get 25 geared/skilled people than it is 40. The raid team is already designing content that scales from 10 to 25, now they have to scale it to 40 as well?

25 guys working in coordination is still pretty massive, IMO.


well first of all in a 40 man you didnt have to have 40 fully geared people, heck when it was all about MC no one was "geared" we all had dungeon loot and crafted items. Once a guild made it past the first 2 bosses you needed more like 30 people that were in raid gear and could move in 1 noob per class group. Was it harder? that depended on the players and communication but it could be just as hard with 25. But it didnt stop many guilds from running alt runs and newer members into those same 40 man instances weekly.

Atleast with heroics theres that extra layer of gear to ease into raids. I dont mind the 25 man model but i do miss 40 man. Honestly the same problem exists SOME guilds fully man a 25 or even 2 or 3 but alot of guilds now still have loaner chars from other guilds or use the LFG tool to look for prospective players. And then some servers are just a mess that even 25 mans are too much to man consistently save for a small percentage.

The root of this problem is still partially blizzards design of pre end game, where the game is utterly soloable to the final level and still enjoyable with some dungeons thrown in, and of course envy. A game that doesnt force the player in any way to be social early on will have growing pains when they reach end game, thats the game design. Players who dont get into raid guilds or organize and start their own dont want to admit they want the same epics as those who suffer thru the preparation, the FAILS, and time it takes for everyone to get on the same page to successfully get the gear thats the players.

The problem is a two headed monster, players get sucked in but its all centered around their char and that works for a long time, i had a blast getting quests and running all over azeroth solo while leveling and progressing at a brisk pace. However, in the end game its all about what you can bring to the table as a team member that will help you progress, helping to buff up the tanks with crafting items and consumables, learning to use your class to keep healers and tanks alive in encounters etc instead of doing what you've always done to be successful because your char alone is not enough. You might have to learn how to kite something , or FINALLY use a skill that applies that has been buried in your skill book, accept that fact that your dmg or healing is nothing but your debuff or buff is the groundwork of an encounter. Furthermore for your hours of prep and practice you might not get a thing as far as drops go, might not ever get the drop your after.

On one hand MMO's are supposed to be massively SOCIAL games, but at the moment in many ways WoW is a massively POPULATED game where people dont have to use teamwork ( thats fine) but it causes backlash when people who dont make the transition to the endgame which is totally interdependent on players as opposed to there being another quest.
 

Tenks

Member
Bisnic said:
If, IF, there is some secret teaser for Heart of the Swarm today, when will they show it? Opening Ceremony or during the Starcraft II Cinematics's hour? From what i've seen in the OP, the SC2 Cinematics is about showing us how they made the cinematics more than anything else.


From what I understand HotS is still in very early development phase. I think Blizzard realized they released a game that was devoid of many features the general population actually wanted. I believe there was much more post-release support than they were initially banking on. I'd be surprised to hear much about HotS, but I'd be pleasantly surprised ^^
 

traveler

Not Wario
Yeah, I've actually got the page with the player up now. Still loading the video though. Should it be on the preview vid or has it cut to the actual stage yet?
 

Snow

Member
FieryBalrog said:
Blizzard's writing has taken a serious nosedive since... well, since Diablo 2.

I actually went back through the Starcraft 1 story and it's surprisingly well-done and the characters aren't all generic douches. I particularly hate how they turned Jim Raynor from

"balding nice-guy biker with a pencil moustache and a sarcastic streak"
to
"good ol' boy to the maximum ol' boy good" (courtesy Chris Remo)
I played through the entirety of SC1 and BW just before I started with SC2. I honestly don't think the general level of writing is massively different. I think they got quite a lot of mileage out of the 'switch races every 10ish missions' format, which prevented them from spending too much time with any particular character and gave the game more scope with less effort. But a lot of characterization in SC1 is paper thin and both games have standard generically generic space opera story writing. The jumping around in SC1 just managed to hide it better. I also think that's why the one spot that SC2 uses the same trick (the Protoss mini-campaign) is one of the stronger parts, despite none of the dialogue or plotpoints there being particularly fresh science fiction writing.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Tenks said:
From what I understand HotS is still in very early development phase. I think Blizzard realized they released a game that was devoid of many features the general population actually wanted. I believe there was much more post-release support than they were initially banking on. I'd be surprised to hear much about HotS, but I'd be pleasantly surprised ^^

Yes, but we need a good surprise this year. Wings of Liberty is out, Cataclysm is in 1½ month and there is nothing new to learn(they already spoiled their CG intro sooner this week), and we already know quite a bit about Diablo 3. I need more than Diablo 3 news to make this Blizzcon worthwhile. :(

They should have waited a few more days for the Cataclysm CG intro and saved it for today instead.
 

Tenks

Member
DonasaurusRex said:
lots of stuff


I agree with mostly everything here. In fact many times while leveling throughout the world it is actually a hinderance to have a ton of people. Organizing the groups to go into a mid level dungeon, making sure everyone knows how to play, making sure you have at least SOMEONE who can reasonably tank was always a huge timesink. If you wanted to hit 60 fast (my friend and I were amongst some of the quickest on our server to reach 60) you really just needed to be independent. Luckily since I had a background in EQ and DAoC I knew what it meant to party and accomplish things (since EQ and DAoC force you to party even at the mid levels) so I could easily squirm my way into a LBRS/UBRS guild then transition into an MC guild.

Last time I played many of the social aspects of MMORPGs I enjoyed were gone. Thats fine. Blizzard clearly made the right decision because their coffers are swelling with cash that hardcore MMORPG players couldn't provide. However simply pointing out "WoW has 12 millions subs therefore it's the best MMORPG out there" is a false assumption. It is the most populated MMORPG out there (it also is probably the best but that is because of complete trash MMORPGs coming out lately) but simply having the subs doesn't make the game. It's the community and your guild that make the game.
 

Tenks

Member
Bisnic said:
Yes, but we need a good surprise this year. Wings of Liberty is out, Cataclysm is in 1½ month and there is nothing new to learn(they already spoiled their CG intro sooner this week), and we already know quite a bit about Diablo 3. I need more than Diablo 3 news to make this Blizzcon worthwhile. :(

They should have waited a few more days for the Cataclysm CG intro and saved it for today instead.


They'll probably drop megatons about the current SC2 multiplayer. The hot rumor on TL is that they'll announce the tier above Diamond and they'll probably put a date down for when we finally get chat chan functionality. I honestly wouldn't expect much from this BlizzCon unless they decide to unveil their new MMO (which they won't.)
 

ultron87

Member
So do they usually announce stuff during the opening ceremony? Or does that happen at the panels?

(Considering whether I want to tune in from work.)
 

Trickster

Member
I'm sitting at the player demo and test video thing. But I can only get it to show black with loading written in the top right corner. Anyone know why that is ?
 

Jackl

Member
Trickster said:
I'm sitting at the player demo and test video thing. But I can only get it to show black with loading written in the top right corner. Anyone know why that is ?

Either they're prepping the stream, or the servers crashed.
 

Snow

Member
Tenks said:
They'll probably drop megatons about the current SC2 multiplayer. The hot rumor on TL is that they'll announce the tier above Diamond and they'll probably put a date down for when we finally get chat chan functionality. I honestly wouldn't expect much from this BlizzCon unless they decide to unveil their new MMO (which they won't.)
Both of those (chat and a pro division) have been confirmed for 1.2 a while ago, they're not rumours.
 

traveler

Not Wario
Trickster said:
I'm sitting at the player demo and test video thing. But I can only get it to show black with loading written in the top right corner. Anyone know why that is ?

Same for me. Hopefully, it's because there is nothing to show yet and not because of technical issues, but I'm not holding my breath. Everyone is tuning in right now since the opening ceremonies are free. The traffic is probably extremely high.
 
Trickster said:
I'm sitting at the player demo and test video thing. But I can only get it to show black with loading written in the top right corner. Anyone know why that is ?

same here
they have some problems atm
 
DonasaurusRex said:
well first of all in a 40 man you didnt have to have 40 fully geared people, heck when it was all about MC no one was "geared" we all had dungeon loot and crafted items. Once a guild made it past the first 2 bosses you needed more like 30 people that were in raid gear and could move in 1 noob per class group. Was it harder? that depended on the players and communication but it could be just as hard with 25. But it didnt stop many guilds from running alt runs and newer members into those same 40 man instances weekly.

God, I cannot believe how many people got brain damaged because of TBC and WotLK. Alt runs in Vanilla? For who? 1-2 guilds per server? Vanilla was a massive grind, massive mats farm, bosses were dying not to skill but due to player farming the hell out of thrash pulls in MC and crafted items (which took 1-2 months of grinding alone). It was worse than an Asian MMO. To make damn flasks you were farming herbs for 3 hours a day.

No one was "geared" in MC? Do you even remember how much effort it took do get Dungeon Set 1? That UBRS, LBRS, BRD, Strat took 4-5 fucking HOURS each?


I quit WoW and I truly hope that for one time only Blizz puts back a raid on par with Vanilla so that Ensidia, and other top guilds can go back to whinning to tune it down. Then the rest of "hardcore" will come whinning to nerf content as well.
 

FLEABttn

Banned
Tenks said:
Sounds like your guild was bad back in vanilla. We had a direct hierarchy with direct call outs and no excuses if it kept happening. I was DPS leader / rogue class leader for my guild and we were quite successful back in vanilla. If DPS screwed up (this generally happened on Vael) they could expect to hear a word from me about why it happened. If it kept happening they'd get switched out. This is even without being able to have the best of the best since we were on Medivh which featured Ascent which was the #1 guild in the world for quite a while.

The challenge of getting a ton of people coordinated (Thaddius says hello) was part of the challenge and part of the fun.

Second/Third on our server (including horde) but it was a backwater server. However, in the grand scheme of things, we were probably more progressed than your 95% of your WoW population at the time.

My thoughts on vanilla generally aren't fond as my general experience throughout it was that you were raiding 30+ hours a week, or you weren't raiding. Even the worst of guilds on my server that could muster 40+ people were requiring 5 days a week raiding, and if you couldn't make that, you weren't in.

If the expac after Cata went back to endgame in the exact same vein as vanilla's, I'd be done. I've done it once, it was shit, I won't do it again.
 

Snow

Member
jett said:
Are there any rumors about any crazy announcements?
They already said that they wouldn't say much about Heart of the Swarm, so apart from Diablo 3 the only thing that could be big is the new MMO (with new IP). Doubt we will hear anything about it though.
 

jett

D-Member
New MMO huh. Universe of Starcraft confirmed!


edit: heheh they make you pay for a stream of the conference? lulz.
 
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