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Just in case you're somehow unaware, "StarCraft" is big in Korea. No, I mean really big. Look at it this way: if "Saturday Night Live" ran a comedy sketch on next week's episode that featured the Terrans versus Protoss, probably about 2% of the country would have any clue as to what in the hell is going on. But in Korea, where Blizzard's real-time strategy game is practically a national pastime, everyone's pretty much in on the joke.

I have no clue what they're saying, but I enjoyed the sketch you'll see after the jump so much, I would watch an entire show devoted to this – in Korean.

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Tags blizzard, korea, starcraft, starcraft 2

Today is April Fool's Day. The bane of reporters everywhere. An average day is already filled with too much "fake" news, in the form of rumors and incorrect reporting. On April Fool's Day though, we add flat-out falsehoods to the equation. And one thing that is true of just about all video game developers and publishers: These are people who make their living creating fictional worlds filled with oversized chickens and create-a-hostess minigames. This year's top prankster in the gaming world is "World of Warcraft" dev Blizzard Entertainment, for basically just going all-out on its website.

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Tags activision, blizzard entertainment, diablo, diablo 3, starcraft, world of warcraft

We're still nine months away, but Blizzard Entertainment today confirmed the dates and details for its annual BlizzCon gaming convention, which will be returning again to the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. The festivities will run across Friday and Saturday, October 21-22, with looks at what is going on in the worlds of "Diablo," "StarCraft" and "Warcraft."

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Tags blizzard entertainment, diablo, diablo 3, starcraft, starcraft 2, warcraft, world of warcraft

"StarCraft" is insanely popular for a reason. Developer Blizzard crafted what many consider to be the perfect real-time strategy experience, with three perfectly balanced factions waging war and a robust AI engine that is capable of effectively juggling the array of options available to human players. That's how most of us see it anyway. The AI is no match for the world's top players, and that's where the StarCraft AI Competition comes in. This year, a group of students at UC Berkeley took the top prize for giving top human contenders a non-human foe to sweat about with their ominously named Berkeley Overmind.

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Tags blizzard, starcraft

Last night Blizzard released a beefy new patch for "StarCraft 2," 80MB worth of fixes and tweaks in all. The list of changes is fairly staggering (and available after the jump), but the major bullet points include: a re-tooled editing suite, an "extreme" graphics mode, Battle.net chat channels, a Master League representing the "highest tier of players" and more balancing tweaks than you can shake a broken Zerg corpse at. Check out the mammoth list of changes after the jump... or just boot up the game and try them out for yourself!

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Tags blizzard, starcraft, starcraft 2

For a game with "star" right there in the title, "StarCraft 2" has surprisingly few stars. Sure, you see a few of them in cutscenes and some of the interstellar maps, but it's usually only for a few brief seconds as you're maneuvering from one rock to the next. Seems that fans of the game wanted a bit more on the gaseous cosmic entities front, as some of them have created a new, custom mode called "Star Battle." Played entirely in the depths of space, the mode features no land-based units and, wouldn't you know it, has become incredibly popular!

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Tags blizzard, star battle, starcraft, starcraft 2

Can you believe another BlizzCon is already upon us? Yes, in just a few moments, Blizzard will kick off their annual festival with an opening ceremony that's sure to include plenty of surprises. A release date for "Diablo 3"? "World of WarCraft" coming to consoles? "Lost Vikings" getting its own MMO? Who knows what Blizzard will have in store! Well, we all will very shortly, and this liveblog will keep track of all the exciting comings and goings. So here we go!

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Tags blizzard, blizzcon, diablo, diablo 3, starcraft, starcraft 2, world of warcraft, world of warcraft: cataclysm

Blizzard was already at work on their "StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty" follow-up release "Heart of the Swarm" in August, but at that point it was "too early to estimate" when it might ship. A little over a month later, there's no official date set, but a Blizzard team member reportedly felt comfortable enough to mention an approximate window in public which would put the game's launch date somewhere in 2012.

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Tags blizzard, starcraft, starcraft 2, starcraft 2: heart of the swarm

You can't say they didn't warn you. After warning players to respect the Terms of Use agreement that they probably didn't read (because really, who reads that thing anyway?), Blizzard has acted and banned 5,000 accounts from playing "StarCraft 2" over Battle.net. Even if they could claim ignorance about what was in the Terms of Use Agreement, those banned likely deserved what they got, as there's nothing that ruins the competition in a community more than people with an unfair advatange. Heck, that's why I stopped playing "Modern Warfare 2." That, and I didn't particularly like people shooting me in the face.

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Tags blizzard, starcraft, starcraft 2

Blizzard's welcoming a few changes to "StarCraft 2" via a version 1.1.0 patch that is now live, and though Battle.net will continue to allow its users to exchange their own custom maps, Blizzard's in-house team is still focused on mod production. The chance for English-language editions in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand to compete on North American Battle.net servers is probably the most notable gift inside their new patch. It also includes a batch of balance-oriented updates. Here's what Blizzard had to say:

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Tags blizzard, starcraft, starcraft 2