What Blizzard Teaches Us About Games

[Zelc]

Well, 4E's designers don't have the benefit of being able to implement into the game a drop-down menu that could the revert the mechanics to an earlier incarnation, like Blizzard could easily do with Starcraft II. The solutions to these problems tend to be much more eloquent when the work falls upon the unseen programming of game, rather than upon a DM and pages of variant rules.

They have slides for that .

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Basically, the problem with this is it'll fragment the playing community. While playing with variant rules is universally accepted in D&D, having a fundamentally different game for tournament vs. beginner play could fragment the community and really hurt the game's reception.

 

[Doug McCrae]

TWO-THIRDS OF THE SPECTATORS ARE FEMALE.

OMG, the nerds have finally beaten the jocks.

 

[Mistwell]

Interesting post Zelc!

I do still love and play Starcraft. And I think auto-building would harm the game. A little of it might be OK, like auto-mining on build. But too much and a huge aspect of the game goes away.

 

[The Little Raven]

Work for SoE huh? =P

Not since 2003.

 

[MaelStorm]

off-topic remark

I hope (after StarCraftII) that they will one day release Diablo 3. There are a lot of people out there waiting for Blizzard to move their ass a 'lil bit and get to work! Diablo 2 was (aside HoMM 3 and 5) my favorite computer game of all time.

 

[Wolfspider]

off-topic remark

I hope (after StarCraftII) that they will one day release Diablo 3. There are a lot of people out there waiting for Blizzard to move their ass a 'lil bit and get to work! Diablo 2 was (aside HoMM 3 and 5) my favorite computer game of all time.

Amen.

 

[Hussar]

Fascinating stuff. Truly, there are some significant differences between tabletop and computer games, obviously. But, the similarities do bear examination. Take the too many options concept. You could easily implement that in D&D - and to some degree with d20 publishers, it has been implemented. If you want simplified rules - go True 20 or C&C. You want extra helpings of simulationism? Not a problem.

But, at the end of the day, it's the middle of the road that has carried sales.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

They have slides for that .

Fewer! Fewer buckets is better!

Say it with me. "I have fewer dollars. I have less money."

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

This kind of player-psychology stuff is of limited application to D&D. First off, the obvious: in D&D, you (usually) don't have two competing factions, but rather a cooperative group and a DM whose job is to both challenge and help them.

On another level, D&D players are usually more directly aware that they're not "really" playing for the loot. The whole reason WoW is often held up as a bogeyman on these boards is that it's COMPLETELY gamist. In some ways, it HAS to be, because everything is adjudicated by a simplistic computer program rather than a human DM with an appreciation of storytelling and roleplaying.

"Change is bad" also means something different in WoW and in D&D. In WoW, if Blizzard "nerfs" an item, YOUR character's item is affected, because all the data is stored and processed on their servers. In D&D... there's nothing like this. There's not a single change WotC can make that will affect my campaign if my group doesn't want it to.

 

[Frostmarrow]

OMG, the nerds have finally beaten the jocks.

You think? No it's the jocks who have mastered a tiny fraction of geekdom.