Seal of Blood

Remember, a Horde Paladin's opinion doesn't matter.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

What is Blizzard Cooking?

We all know what I'm talking about here, hopefully. On May 19th some ground breaking news is going to occur at a Korean gaming convention in uhh... Korea, because that's where they have those things. All that anybody knows is that Blizzard is going to drop a bomb, whether this bomb will indeed be ground breaking is entirely up to the fan base I suppose. I'll list things in the order of importance, and which one is most likely to occur.

The Lost Vikings/Blackthorne/etc.
The least important thing Blizzard could announce is some sort of console oriented game based off of some of their old properties like the Lost Vikings. While I would personally be excited to some degree, I doubt the community as a whole could care about such old console games.

World of Warcraft Expansion
Almost the least important announcement Blizzard could make would definitely be an expansion. Like we didn't see this coming. It's not ground breaking, and maybe like... a handful of people would actually explode over the concept of an expansion. These same people probably have WoW listed as the first MMO they've ever played. This seems unlikely however since on Blizzard's main page, they do not have The Burning Crusade listed and count it just as 'World of Warcraft'.

Starcraft: Ghost
It's Korea and they like Starcraft, so... it's a semi-good assumption. Perhaps they've been working in secret on this game and it's prepared to make it's debut on the new generation of Consoles or perhaps as a PC game. It'd be a nice surprise if they pulled this out of the ashes, but I don't think it's what people are hoping for.

Diablo III
This is by no means a bad announcement, in fact it's somewhat expected, and I think a LOT of people would be excited about this. Diablo II was pretty much everyones Blizzard addiction for RPGs prior to WoW. Creating your Hardcore character and then dying losing hours upon hours of work. This is where it was at folks, this was where men were separated from boys. I'd definitely be excited about the prospect of a Diablo III, however there are a few things that would top this list.

Remake
Remember WC1 and WC2? Yeah, those 2D RTS games that sometimes even have pains running on the newer operating systems and such because they're so old? What leads me to believe this is a possibility is that on Blizzard's main page, WC1 & WC2 are highlighted, along with a time line of other Blizzard games on the bottom. Perhaps with each passing day they will highlight new games as they near the day of May 19th (this seems very likely), however, wouldn't it be a blast to play WC1 & WC2 on a WC3 engine with updated graphics, voice overs, cinematics, and all other sorts of neat things? Perhaps they could even retcon some lore things so that it would fit in with WoW perfectly. I think this would be a completely awesome announcement that would catch people off-guard (Hell, even a Starcraft or Diablo 1 remake would be cool too!)

Warcraft 4
So... how can they make WC4 if WoW is there? Fairly simple actually, they just craft up a new world/area and tie the storyline of WC4 into their next WoW Expansion IE Emerald Dream. I'm fairly sure this one won't occur, but it's still a possibility that I don't think ANYBODY expects. It definitely would carry a lot of 'shock' factor, whether people will be happy or simply say "Just Blizzard trying to capitalize on WoW's popularity and make more money." is yet to be determined.

World of Starcraft
This is the one everyone is banking on. There has been information leaks here and there have been April Fools jokes about it on Gamespot that can be seen mentioned here. Also, Blizzard has recently been hiring on people for a "next-gen MMO". If this truly is what they're cooking up, let's hope it's going to be separated from WoW enough that it feels like a different game. I just know that I'm prepared to start my CGF business regardless of the outcome.

Starcraft 2
Now, this is what the Koreans are waiting for. With such a HUGE following to the RTS Starcraft (even over WC3), it's the Korean gamers game of choice. If this is what they're announcing, I'm fully prepared to explode with happiness, and perhaps even lose control of all my bodily functions for a moment. If this is what Blizzard has cooking up, I can hardly see anybody complaining about this. Starcraft also came in at #18 during GameFAQs' Top 10 Games of All Time, and if I remember correctly it was Smash Brothers Melee who ended up putting this game in it's place.

So... which option are you guys banking on? I'd personally be happy with any of the top 3 I've mentioned.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Lamthara said...

World of Starcraft would be great.
After two factions (horde and alliance) we'd have 3 factions probably more pvp oriented.

Maybe create a whole new mmorpg would be easier than "fix" the old one... but i don't know if there is enough space for another mmorpg bit as wow right now ^^

May 15, 2007 at 9:35 AM  
Blogger Sylvina Solaris said...

Yeah, if WoS was to be a possibility, they'd have to make it such a different type of MMO from WoW that it would warrant us Blizzard addicts to fork out double the monthly fee instead of just canceling one game and switching to the other. It's why I think a game more based around abilities & levels & specs/type would play out a LOT better than a gear oriented game like WoW.

Take City of Heroes for example, that's a game that is not gear dependant. You make your character, level him up, PvP in arenas and stuff, and run instances. Granted it's repetitive at times, but if Blizzard took the basic idea of "No Need for Equipment" and turned it into an MMO with 'stat boosting/gem slot/enhancement' type of abilities it would work out so much better for a PvP balanced game.

May 15, 2007 at 11:19 AM  

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