MTV Multiplayer » BlizzCon 2008

Producer: 'StarCraft II' To Be Mom-Friendly

Tracey John — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:00:56 +0000

When I spoke with lead "StarCraft II" producer Chris Sigaty at BlizzCon earlier this month, he talked about all the things they're doing to make sure pro gamers like the game.

But he also told me that he's also trying to make "StarCraft II" playable for his mom.

"It's definitely a very challenging tight rope walk," he said of trying to make the game for both e-sports players and a broader audience. "We've trying to make sure that it's perfectly balanced for e-sport, but look -- I'm going to try to get my mom to play this game. I mean, I know she can't [micromanage] at the level that these pro gamers can, so we're actually experimenting back in the opposite direction... so that even the layman can come in and get a grasp of these cool things in the game."

Sigaty explained that "StarCraft II" is in its alpha stage and is being tested by two former pro gamers on staff as well as pros at the conventions. However, his mom hasn't gotten to try the game yet. But he said, without going into specifics, that they're trying different things for more casual players.

"[Real-time strategy games] at this level -- there's a lot more there to think about and it gets really frantic really fast, and so it's definitely off-putting to somebody that's totally new to video games," he said. "But we want to make it much easier for people to explore whether it would interest them."

He added, "And yes, I want to try to get my mom and my wife to take a look and see if they like it. My wife has come to a lot of these events, and she loves watching [people play] but she says, 'I could never do it.' Well, I want to try and change her mind. I think that would be awesome if we could."

So what do you think? Do you want your mom to be able to play "StarCraft II"? And would she play Zerg, Protoss or Terran?

Blizzard: Economic Downturn Won't Hurt 'World of Warcraft'

Stephen Totilo — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:30:43 +0000

Use less gas these days? Of course. Play less "WoW"? No way.

As you can see in the segment that aired on MTV2 last night, Rob Pardo, executive vice president of game design at Blizzard Entertainment, told our Tracey John at Blizzard headquarters last week that he doesn't think "World of Warcraft" -- which has more than two million paying subscribers in the U.S. -- is going to be hurt by the faltering U.S. economy.

(Videos not viewable by users logging in from Canada or the U.K. -- But see below for Pardo's full quote.)

Rob Pardo, Executive Vice President, Blizzard Entertainment: Historically for us, the game industry hasn't been affected by recessions like a lot of other businesses. I think the reason for that is [that] games really offer some of the best entertainment value on the market. People might not want to go out to the movies and spend $100 for a couple of hours and then go to a restaurant. You can go home and pay $15 a month for 100 hours of entertainment if you're staying at home more -- and I think that's one of the reasons why you don't see games really go in the same recession as the rest of the economy a lot of times.

Allegedly Blocked From Beta, 'World Of Warcraft' Designer Plays 'Warhammer Online' Anyway [UPDATE]

Tracey John — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:00:50 +0000

[UPDATE 12:15pm: The story has been updated with comments from EA Mythic's Mark Jacobs.] When I spoke with EA Mythic head Mark Jacobs earlier this year about developing MMORPG "Warhammer Online," it was inevitable that we talked about the competition -- namely a little game called "World of Warcraft."

"They've been paying attention, and I know they're in our beta even though they don't like to tell us they're in our beta," Jacobs said of Blizzard staffers during the game's beta period in August.

So during BlizzCon this past weekend, I confronted "World of Warcraft" game director Jeff Kaplan about this. Had Blizzard employees really tried to sneak into the beta for "Warhammer Online"?

"I tried to get into the 'Warhammer' beta, but I didn't try to sneak in!" Kaplan said with a laugh. "I became friends with [Mythic creative director] Paul Barnett at Leipzig two years ago. Paul, [Mythic executive producer] Jeff Hickman and I were hanging out because we were all stuck in a small booth for three days straight."

"I tried to get into the 'Warhammer' beta, but I didn't try to sneak in!"

Kaplan explained that he and Barnett became such good friends that he invited him to Blizzard's offices several times. And when the beta for the "WoW" expansion "Wrath of the Lich King" was ready to go, he asked Barnett for a list of Mythic staffers to send beta keys to. "And then I'm like, 'Hey if you got any beta keys for 'Warhammer,' that'd be awesome,'" Kaplan said. "But [Barnett] said that Mark Jacobs wouldn't let me into the beta."

[UPDATE: After this story went to press, we heard from EA Mythic's Mark Jacobs, who said Blizzard employees had asked to join "Warhammer Online"'s closed beta. However, it was Mythic's company policy to not allow competing games' developers into "Warhammer"'s closed betas. Jacobs also said he would've been happy to have any Blizzard staffers join the open beta but was unaware of a specific request to do so.]

I asked Kaplan why he thought he and other Blizzard employees weren't allowed into the "Warhammer" beta. "That's a great question," he said. "I'm always fascinated by betas in general and [non-disclosure agreements] and how tight-lipped they tend to be. It's Blizzard philosophy that if you're really confident in your game, then you have nothing to worry about. So I guess that would be my big take away from that."

"It's Blizzard philosophy that if you're really confident in your game, then you have nothing to worry about."

When it comes to other games' betas in general, Jacobs had told me that his employees are not allowed in betas if it violates the terms of the non-disclosure agreement. Kaplan explained that Blizzard is the same way. "We don't prohibit our employees from joining other games' betas unless it violates that beta's rules," he said, "but we don't really prohibit other developers from being in our betas."

Now that "Warhammer Online" has been out for almost a month, I wondered if Kaplan had gotten a chance to try it. Even though he's been busy working on "Wrath of the Lich King," he revealed he has spent a little time with it.

"My character is like level 13 right now, and I'm playing Destruction on a server that's imbalanced," he said, referring to the factions in the game. He also said leveling his character has been going a bit slowly. "I'm at the point where I'm thinking about quitting because it feels like the best way to level up is in the battlegrounds," he explained.

"But it takes me 30 to 45 minutes to get in the battleground queue. And then when I'm not in the queue, I'm trying to do the Public Quests. But I find that I'm either griefing other people in the Public Quests to try to get influence, or that there's just nobody there." Kaplan said he'd switch servers but all his friends were on that server. "I just feel like we picked wrong, unknowingly."

"The 'WoW' interface did a lot of things, and I think people would be silly not to learn lessons from it."

I also wondered what Kaplan thought of the game's user interface; it's undeniably similar to "World of Warcraft." "I think game developers just want to evolve systems, and people take a lot of inspiration from other games that have existed," Kaplan said. "The 'WoW' interface did a lot of things, and I think people would be silly not to learn lessons from it. Any savvy game developer is going to play a lot of other games and pick from the best. It definitely looks very familiar."

With "Warhammer Online" now up to 750,000 subscribers, was Kaplan concerned about losing throngs of "WoW" players? "We would obviously be concerned with losing people to ["Warhammer Online"] but at the same time, the game stands to bring new people to the MMO market," he said. "I think if anything, we can stand to benefit. If you happen to come into that game as your first one, and you've never played 'WoW' before, I think 'WoW' is going to be really exciting when you try it out and feel how different the combat is and just the general [Player Vs. Environment] systems of the game."

He added, "We don't want a scenario where there's no other MMOs and 'WoW' is the only kid on the block. I don't really think that's healthy for games in general."

A little competition certainly couldn't hurt "WoW," could it?

[UPDATE 5pm: EA Mythic's Mark Jacobs responds to the criticism.]

MTV's Video Tour Of Blizzard Entertainment's Well-Guarded Headquarters

Tracey John — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:00:00 +0000

Last week just before the start of Blizzard Entertainment's big fan convention, we got to stop by their offices for a video tour.

Watch as executive vice president of game design Rob Pardo walks us through all the amenities of Blizzard's swanky Irvine, California offices -- everything from the front gate down to the sand-laden volleyball courts.

(Videos not viewable by users logging in from Canada or the U.K.)

Related Posts:
MTV Multiplayer's BlizzCon 2008 Coverage

In Crafting 'Diablo 3' Class, Blizzard Risking Harry Potter Comparisons Instead Of 'World of Warcraft' Ones

Tracey John — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:01:58 +0000

Following the controversy surrounding "Diablo III"'s Witch Doctor, fans weren't sure what other classes to expect next.

During BlizzCon this past weekend, the company unveiled the new Wizard class, a magic caster whose powers are based on the forces of the universe and who would replace the Sorcerer/Sorceress from the previous games.

While at the event, I spoke with lead designer Jay Wilson who gave me some details on the new Wizard class, why the team chose to go in that direction, the other names they considered, and whether or not we'll see the Sorcerer in an expansion.

"We knew that one of the classes needed to be the magical, blast-y type, but we didn't want to rehash the Sorcerer," Wilson told me in a closed-door meeting room at BlizzCon. "It's the same reason for any class we choose; we really want to be able to improve upon it. And we felt like the elementalist approach has been done so much, we weren't sure we could add a lot to it."

The alternative was to do something a little more old school, drawing from pen-and-paper RPGs. "In [pen-and-paper RPGs], you run into magic users that do all kinds of crazy stuff," he explained. "Like elemental is actually the least of their abilities -- acid clouds from their hands, disintegration beams... we were really removed far away from [those kinds of things] so we wanted to explore a character who can do a broader array of stuff. I can't remember a game that had a disintegrate spell! But we still wanted to have the option to pull into the bag of Sorcerer tricks so we could bring back favorite spells."

"If we picked 'mage,' people would compare it to 'WoW,' and if we picked 'wizard,' people would compare it to Harry Potter."

Wilson said he hadn't yet heard an outcry from players whose favorite class was the Sorcerer or Sorceress, but he also knows that not everyone will be happy. Even those on the "Diablo III" team disagreed on just the name of the class. "Every class we do there's an internal debate about it," he admitted. "I don't think anybody had a problem with the [class' skill set]. But there were a few people who didn't really like the name."

I asked if the disdain for the moniker was because it evoked images of a certain set of children's books and movies that star a wand-toting wizard with a lightning bolt on his forehead. Wilson told me they considered "mage" as well but wanted to avoid the term because they were worried about being compared to "World of Warcraft," which has a mage class.

"If we picked 'Mage,' people would compare it to 'WoW,' and if we picked 'Wizard,' people would compare it to Harry Potter," he said of choosing a name. "If we picked 'Sorcerer' and we changed the [the skill set] as much as we did, I think people would be like, 'This isn't the Sorcerer.' And we felt like the Harry Potter comparison was not as hurtful as the 'WoW' one because the 'Diablo' players are really sensitive to [the game] not being too much like 'World of Warcraft'... and I like Harry Potter okay. We just wanted a name that was descriptive. We've got Wizard, Sorcerer, Mage -- 'Magic User' sounds kind of stupid -- so there's only so many we can really go for."

"'Diablo' players are really sensitive to [the game] not being too much like 'World of Warcraft.'"

Though there was some internal debate on the Wizard's name, Wilson revealed the class wasn't as contentious as other classes. "Some of the classes that we haven't announced are actually the bigger debates," he said. "There was one class in particular that we had a lot of debate on, and it wasn't because people didn't like the idea. It was because there were other ideas that people wanted to do more."

For now, those yearning to play the Sorcerer or the Sorceress shouldn't hold their breath. Wilson said that he wouldn't expect the ousted class to show up in expansions, unlike the possible Necromancer. "I think it's harder in this case because the Wizard and the Sorcerer are much closer than the Witch Doctor and the Necromancer," he explained. "There are some similarities [between the Witch Doctor and the Necromancer] that people can pull, but in gameplay, the classes don't play at all like one another. Whereas the Wizard plays a lot like the Sorcerer."

But for the most part, the "Diablo III" team tried to re-create most of the Sorcerer's signature skills in one form or another. "For example," Wilson offered, "there's no fireball, but there's arcane orb and arcane orb kind of works like a fireball."

"Diablo" fans, does that appease you?

'World Of Warcraft' Game Director Working On New MMO, Hints At Console Game

Tracey John — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:30:40 +0000

It's no secret that Blizzard is working on a "next-gen MMO," as evidenced by job listings on their website.

But during BlizzCon this past weekend, "World of Warcraft" game director Jeffrey Kaplan confirmed to MTV Multiplayer that he's "definitely involved" in the project.

"I think the great part about a new MMO from Blizzard is that it doesn't have to be 'WoW'," he said. "There are a lot of lessons we learned in making 'World of Warcraft,' and some of those you can take and do things better than you ever did before."

I asked if he was concerned about the new MMO potentially cannibalizing "WoW" subscribers. Kaplan said he wasn't worried at all, and that the company was going to great lengths to make sure that the new game doesn't directly cannibalize "WoW."

But with the huge success of "WoW," and now "Warhammer Online," I wondered if there was any room for MMOs that weren't inspired by high fantasy. "Oh yeah," Kaplan said. "I only think [non-high fantasy MMOs] have a harder time because of the past games that have tried and the game design decisions that they made, not because of the [intellectual property] or the setting that they chose."

"I'm shocked we haven't seen more MMOs... beyond the traditional high fantasy ones."

He thought the secret to success was making a game that was both tailored to hardcore players and accessible to a broad audience. "Once people figure that out, your game world is going to attract a lot of people," he explained. "But a lot of it has to do with art style, too. Are you going for realism or an inviting world? And once you learn those lessons, I think any type of [intellectual property] can survive. I'm shocked we haven't seen more sci-fi, near-future, post-apocalyptic, historical MMOs; there's all these completely different fantasy settings beyond the traditional high fantasy ones."

So is Blizzard's new MMO going to be sci-fi, near-future, post-apocalyptic or historical? "All of those combined!" he said, laughing.

I also mentioned to Kaplan that I recently spoke with Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley, who said that he hopes that the company will become number one in the console MMO space. I asked if he thought Blizzard was behind by not making console MMOs.

"Well, we definitely aren't adapting 'World of Warcraft' to the console at this time," Kaplan replied. He explained that people think Blizzard developers only play and like PC games, but that's not the case; the games they chose to make just happened to work better for the PC.

"We have a pretty savvy group of console developers... so we might have a few tricks up our sleeves in that regard."

"So I don't think 'World of Warcraft' would really work that well on the console," he continued, "but that's not to say that other MMOs couldn't. And we have a pretty savvy group of console developers -- a lot of the guys we inherited from Swingin' Ape really know what they're doing on next-gen consoles. So we might have a few tricks up our sleeves in that regard."

Kaplan also added that the next-gen MMO is very early in development and, like all Blizzard titles, it's "going to be a while" before we see it.

BlizzCon 2008: 'StarCraft' Fans React To Game Being Split Into A Trilogy

Tracey John — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:00:56 +0000

On the show floor at BlizzCon today, I caught up with a few "StarCraft" fans and asked them what they thought of yesterday's announcement that the game would be split up into a trilogy.

In my interview with lead producer Chris Sigaty, he explained that the games are based on each of the three races -- Terrans, Zerg and Protoss -- and will feature extensive storylines in the single-player campaign. Thus, the company decided to release it in three parts.

Here's what a few BlizzCon attendees, who all claimed to be big "StarCraft" fans, thought about Blizzard's decision:

Bill, 34, from Seattle, WA

When I told him that it could be a year or more between the games, he said, "F--k!"

"I'll buy the first one, and then I'm probably not going to buy the other two," he said while waiting in line to try "StarCraft II"'s single-player game. Bill said he's too busy to wait a few months for the other ones since he's married and has two kids, and would rather have everything at once. When I told him that it could be a year or more between the games, he said, "F--k!" He said he'd consider buying the other two eventually -- "Zerg" and "Protoss" -- depending on "how good they are."

John, 24, from Salt Lake City, UT

A Zerg player all the way, John thought splitting up the games into three parts was "a little lame." "We all have our favorite races to play, and it sucks and I have to wait for Zerg," he said of his favorite race, which will be the second release in the trilogy. "But it's not going to stop me from buying the games," he added. "I like and don't like [the trilogy] because of the wait, but they'll be awesome games. I'm more excited for the multiplayer features than the single-player. I guess I don't care when it comes out as long as it's good."

Alex, 24, from Pasadena, CA

For a player who favors the Terran race (the game that's coming out first), Alex had a lot of gripes about the trilogy. "What made the original 'StarCraft' so legendary wasn't the single-player mode," he explained after his "StarCraft II" multiplayer session. As someone who never completed the single-player campaigns in the past "StarCraft" releases, he thought that Blizzard might have gotten "carried away" with the trilogy of single-player storylines.

He thought that Blizzard might have gotten "carried away" with the trilogy of single-player campaigns.

"[The single-player mode] is fun and exciting and cool, but you do that once or twice and that's it," Alex said. "Splitting it into three different games, it may be too much for single-player; it's a lot of story. The story is neat but what's really fun is the gameplay." In the end, he thinks that he would've preferred "a more elegant, slimmed-down game" with all three races at once. "If you're an avid fan, it's not a deal-breaker; a lot of people will still like it and buy it. I have mixed feelings about it."

Brian, 21, from Portland, OR

Brian has no preference for a particular race, so splitting the game into three pieces doesn't bother him. "I play it to enjoy it, and I'm going to buy all three," he said. "It's more profit for the company and more entertainment for everybody. Everybody wins."

As for the wait between each game, that irritates him a little bit. "I'm not going to jump for joy that I have to wait a huge chunk of time between the races but beyond that, it's still going to be a great game," he said. "I'm patient, and I can cope. Regardless of what they do, I'll be buying them."

***

Readers, what about you?

Producer Breaks Down Key 'StarCraft II' Trilogy Details, Defends Decision For Split

Tracey John — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:30:36 +0000

Following yesterday's announcement at BlizzCon that "StarCraft II" will be split into a trilogy -- three different products released separately -- I spoke with lead producer Chris Sigaty about the decision and what we can expect.

Here are the basics:

Each product is a full-scale title that contains between 26-30 single-player missions per game.
The timing of the releases could be a year between each game -- or longer.
Though each game will make references to the others, it's not necessary to own all three to enjoy the single-player experience.
However, if you want particular units for the multiplayer portion, you'll need to buy the product that has those units.
Sigaty maintained the decision wasn't made to make more money or due to pressure from the Activision merger; the decision was made at the end of last year.

Read on for the full explanation and more details from Sigaty.

MTV Multiplayer: Why split the game up into three products?

Sigaty: We were running up against basically having a huge story with big scope. And we do this with all our games, where we start out probably too big and then carve back; we do it with the design, how many races we want, all these things. This is from the story front, so we were quickly heading down this path of cut, cut, cut, cut. And it didn't feel like the other options were really viable to do what we wanted to do, which was tell a story from a new perspective. So a player can explore as much or as little as they want, but have the ability to talk a little bit about the motivations of the characters and why they're doing what they're doing and what universe that they're in -- just let the player really get up close and personal with it.

So as we started heading down that path, we were realizing that it would be much better to be able to give the player that. And we realize that there are players out there that love a particular race and really want that story first, but knowing that you're going to get them all, be able to experiment in each and have your own story -- we thought it was worth doing it with the scope that we originally intended. And because it wouldn't affect multiplayer at all, and that each product would have upgrades to multiplayer -- expanding and improving upon multiplayer -- we thought it was a positive move.

MTV Multiplayer: What's the story line for each game -- "Terrans: Wings of Liberty," "Zerg: Heart of the Swarm" and "Protoss: Legacy of the Void"?

Sigaty: I can't really go into what's happening with ["Zerg" and "Protoss"]. The first one ["Terrans"] is focused on Jim Raynor and the Terran struggle, basically. It picks up about four years after where we left off in "Brood War" [expansion]. There, you're going to be focused on purchasing Terran technology to help Jim Raynor and you have a star map where you pick what planets you go to. The second one ["Zerg"], we want to focus a lot more on Kerrigan herself and making her more powerful. We're still talking about what that means exactly.

And then the third one is Protoss-focused, and the intention there is currently we're talking about diplomacy. And this may be the most hardcore of [the trilogy], in that we can cut off what happens to the player by either not helping a particular faction or helping a particular faction, and not having another side not be happy about it -- that sort of thing. We're still ironing out the specifics, but that's the basics. And then storywise, I mean as you saw from the video, there is a greater threat out there that the final video eluded to. But you can see with the movies themselves that we were really focusing on Jim Raynor and his side of things.

MTV Multiplayer: What's the timing for the releases? How long do we have to wait for each one?

Sigaty: We don't know for sure, because with story mode, the whole thing that we're doing right now is new to us. It's definitely a new medium for us. The in-game cinematics take a considerable amount of time. It's not as long as pre-rendered, but it does take some time to get that done so we're exploring that right now. With "Warcraft III," we hit a year for the expansion. We'd love to hit that [for "Starcraft II"], but honestly, with how story mode goes and with the pre-rendered and in-game cinematics, I don't know how long it's going to take, so it's hard to answer that question. We want to hit the shortest amount of time possible.

The fact that we already know where we're headed with them, and we kind of know the over-arching story and how it's going to be, that's a great first start. Our intention is -- as we're finishing up the first product "Wings of Liberty" -- to actually begin working on the next one, but we'll see how well we're able to execute with regards to those plans.

MTV Multiplayer: So you're saying it could be a year or more between each one?

Sigaty: Yes, it could be. But let's spin that in a positive light! [laughs]

MTV Multiplayer: You could say it will be worth the wait...

Sigaty: [laughs] Well, "Frozen Throne" ["Warcraft III" expansion] is an example of a year between expansions, and each one of our "World of Warcraft" expansions, they're big in scope and they add a lot. So we're definitely not going to skimp on that.

MTV Multiplayer: And to be clear, the order that the games were presented, is the order that they'll be released?

Sigaty: Yeah, well right now that's it. With us, [the games] always working titles and working intentions, but right now that feels pretty solid.

MTV Multiplayer: Will these be full-priced products?

Sigaty: You know, we haven't even talked about that yet. I don't know. They're definitely full-sized games. I mean, the scope will be big; it's going to be 26 to 30 missions in the first one, and we intend to have at least that much in the next after that. By the end, I'd say up to 90 missions. Definitely full-scale. And again, multiplayer will be upgraded the same way we have with other expansion-like products.

MTV Multiplayer: Have you discussed how the games will connect with each other? Let's say for some reason I want the Protoss game but I don't want the Zerg...

Sigaty: Well, more than likely -- and this is not in stone yet -- for the multiplayer portion of the game, if you want the things that get introduced in the second one, the Zerg portion, you're not going to be able to have... Let's say we introduce a couple of new units per side in the second one. You would need to buy the expansion ot have those units, that's the whole point of the expansion or the second part. But as for single-player, we expect a person that's only interested in the Kerrigan focus could pick up and start plaing from her perspective. We would probably reference things that happened in the first campaign, but you wouldn't be required to play through that to go on and play this.

MTV Multiplayer: Has it been challenging to balance the games?

Sigaty: It definitely is. It's definitely coming up with things that are fun that are new mechanics. I mean we try the first product and make sure we have the complete answer right there. So then we think we have it, and we come up with the expansion and we go "Okay, now what things are missing here?" And making sure we're not going to overwhelm the players who have become used to and love this, but enhanced it to make it even more enjoyable. So it's definitely a huge challenge, that's from the multiplayer aspect. From the story aspect, our single-player aspect, it's definitely challenging as well, but I feel a little better because I know where we're headed with it. We haven't actually figured out definitively what we're going to do from a multiplayer angle on the second or the third product, but we have with the story for the most part.

MTV Multiplayer: What do you say to critics who think this decision was made because of Activision, or that it's just a way to make more money?

Sigaty: Already? Well, I can assure you from being on the inside, this decision actually happened before we even knew the Activision thing was there. This was something that took us a lot of time. We were seeing the danger signs at the end of last year. We were like, "You know what, the scope is so big and if we continue done this path and don't make a decision, we're going to end up cutting it back so much that it's not going to be a good thing." We were not even going to be able to do this more up-close-and-personal examination of Jim Raynor or Kerrigan and all the chracters involved.

So from our perspective, this is not a money decision anyway. We definitely intended to do expansions for this project, one or two. Now we've just said we're definitely doing it, basically. And then what happens within the story mode, we're not cutting the scope with the story mode, we're just changing the perspective. Which I mean, if people would be angry it would be the people that love Zerg so much that they want to play the Zerg story element now. Well, you can't and we're really sorry about that. But we feel like we're giving huge scope there, and we're not changing anything with regards to multiplayer.

Even the number of missions and that sort of thing within the story mode. In fact, for the Zerg player, they're now going to have that 30 missions all kind of together. And we're still trying to add some -- it just didn't make a lot of sense for us to have the story from Jim Raynor's perspective and have you play as Zerg. But we have thrown some Protoss missions into there. So the straight answer to your question is: this was not a monetary decision. This was a lot more about what we could continue to provide from this new angle of storytelling, which is the story mode.

Blizzard: Rainbows Could Appear In 'StarCraft II,' Still Looking For New 'Diablo III' Art Director

Tracey John — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:16:38 +0000

During the first day of BlizzCon 2008, I got to chat with Blizzard's executive vice president of game design Rob Pardo. When I arrived for the interview, I couldn't help but notice he was donning a colorful T-shirt in lieu of the typical company garb.

"We decided to have a little fun at this BlizzCon, and we did a run of specialty shirts just for the ['Diablo III'] team," he explained of his baby blue tee with a design that looked inspired by "My Little Pony" and "Rainbow Brite."

"We came up with the cool rainbow domination logo of 'Diablo III,'" he continued, "and we just thought it'd be kind of funny to poke some fun at the big controversy that's going on. ... I think it's so important that you can have as much fun making games as ultimately your fans have playing them. We're just having fun with the game."

Pardo added, "I think we even talked about starting to put some rainbows in 'StarCraft II,' just because of the catch phrase that 'Diablo III' is the 'rainbow game.'"

But seriously, will there be in rainbows in "StarCraft II"? "I don't know, maybe we'll do an Easter egg level that's the rainbow level," Pardo replied with a laugh. "I cannot confirm or deny at this particular point."

Speaking of rainbows, I also asked Pardo if the company had found a new art director for "Diablo III." "We actually have not filled that position yet," he said. "We're actively interviewing right now, and I'm hoping within the next month we'll fill that position." And no, the person doesn't need rainbows in their portfolio. "But if they did," he said, "we wouldn't knock them for it."

BlizzCon 2008: The First Day's Photos -- Cosplay, Panels, The Show Floor And More

Tracey John — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:42:25 +0000

The first day of BlizzCon 2008 has come to a close. If you couldn't make it to the Anaheim Convention Center, take a look at our collection of photos from the day's events, including the over-the-top costume contest. (Surprise: The girl riding the turtle won the contest and the prize was her very own Frostmourne sword!)

Related Post:
A Photo Tour Of Blizzard Entertainment's Offices