• Pixar: Blizzard is the Pixar of the gaming world
    268 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Quo Vadi;23237151]don't even try to tell me ANY of the warcraft games were better than Half Life 2 (and episodic content, by extension)[/QUOTE] Imo, Half Life 2 was fucking great, no question about it. The Warcraft Series isn't comparable to any other game series in existence.
not exactly Pixar's area of expertise is it? yeah, blizzard has the best animation team hands down. but valve is infinitely better at making games.
[QUOTE=POLOPOZOZO;23238595]No it's just up to how you can justify paying monthly for shitty games. Also LOTRO is free now isn't it?[/QUOTE] Shitty games? Last i checked preference is up to the player, not to you.
Blizzard actually did make good games. Warcraft was all the rage on the RTS scene for years, as was Starcraft. Not to forget, the Diablo franchise is a rather awesome dungeon crawler, especially the second one, and I greatly anticipate Diablo 3. World of Warcraft was basically taking Diablo and Warcraft, putting them in a Horadric Cube along with an MMO Rune, and hitting the Transmute button. What came about was one of the biggest and allegedly most popular MMO on the gaming scene, with LOADS of things to do, and it's gathered millions of players around the world. Collectively it's probably garnered billions of playing hours from it's millions of players in the past 5-6 years, maybe even enough to rival the age of the known universe. All those hours from all those people, all goes to show how popular a simple idea can be. It's also been a massive moneyspinner for Blizzard, not only keeping them LOADED, but also permitting them to fund projects that they probably weren't able to do before, such as hosting a massive convention year after year. Without World of Warcraft, Blizzard probably would've faded into relative obscurity over the last 6 years, and we would never have heard anything about any of their other projects. So even if WoW is a money-sponge, it's at least absorbing monies to fund their other great projects. Without WoW, Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 would've probably remained just dreams, and the Blizzard fanbase would've remained comprised of Koreans and retro gamers, whereas nowadays, loads of lads AND lasses are followers of Blizzard. So to say it in the worst possible way, no holds barred, as negative a viewpoint as I can get concerning Blizzard Entertainment, World of Warcraft could be seen as a "necessary evil", to power Blizzard through the past decade and into the media spotlight, and to produce some amazing games for the new decade. But one question still eludes me; they mentioned they were working on a next-gen MMO, a completely new franchise. What have the guys at Blizzard been cooking up alongside their other, well-known projects? Perhaps this year's BlizzCon will reveal to us this new project...
[QUOTE=Zleesh;23238772]Imo, Half Life 2 was fucking great, no question about it. The Warcraft Series isn't comparable to any other game series in existence.[/QUOTE] it was good, it wasn't a letter from god. WoW is amazing, no question about it, but that's due more to the exploitation of human instinct than any finesse on the part of the makers. Half Life 2 was distilled creativity and quality.
[QUOTE=Sir_takeslot;23236906]I'll have to disagree, When I see Half-life 1 I go, Oh that was a good game When I see Warcraft two or three, I go, Holy fucking shit that game was awesome and have to play it again.[/QUOTE] The opposite
This is all moot however, as now that activision and Kotick have their claws in Blizzard it's going to rot like a festering pustular wound. Muhc like Disney and Pixar.
[QUOTE=Llivavin;23238817]Shitty games? Last i checked preference is up to the player, not to you.[/QUOTE] You're going to argue to me that APB isn't shit? Ok we're done here.
[QUOTE=POLOPOZOZO;23239161]You're going to argue to me that APB isn't shit? Ok we're done here.[/QUOTE] It is shit for a full 15/mo game But it's not a full 15/mo game :downs: Also it just came out.
[QUOTE=BAZ;23236879]Valve are the pixar of gaming world[/QUOTE] but pixar doesnt take like a million years to make something
[QUOTE=trent_roolz;23239240]but pixar doesnt take like a million years to make something[/QUOTE] it takes four years on average to make a CG animated film that is an hour and a half to two hours. It took Valve, a far smaller team of people, 6 years to make a nine hour game.
I'm not disputing that Blizzard are successful or popular, but Pixar? No. That honour should go to Valve.
It's an obvious similarity too. I mean just look at John Lasseter and Gabe Newell. [img]http://www.collider.com/wp-content/image-base/People/J/John_Lasseter/john_lasseter_image.jpg[/img] [img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ePSaZ0hFm5Q/SuOqL0p51GI/AAAAAAAAAF4/qMStgDTGR0s/s320/GabeNewell.gif[/img] [B]Fucking clones.[/B]
In my opinion, Starcraft is the best of the 'conventional RTS', which is to say the build armies and send them off to fight and die. I buy only 'unconventional' RTS from other companies. Some new twist or entirely new concept. Things like Homeworld (in my opinion the best of the unconventional RTS). Edit: those guys look like they were seperated at birth. Damn.
[QUOTE=Memobot;23239283]I'm not disputing that Blizzard are successful or popular, but Pixar? No. That honour should go to Valve.[/QUOTE] I disagree. As much as I love VALVe, I really do think this should go to Blizzard.
[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;23238890]it was good, it wasn't a letter from god. WoW is amazing, no question about it, but that's due more to the exploitation of human instinct than any finesse on the part of the makers. Half Life 2 was distilled creativity and quality.[/QUOTE] The world has not one tongue, but many. Each has it's own tastes and qualms, and always shall. The four Bartle Types come to mind here; the Diamond, the Spade, the Heart and the Club. The Diamonds are the Achievers, those that wish to achieve greatness in the game, be it gold, gear, or just plain accomplishment. The Spades are the Explorers, those that dig around in the game to find that which few know about, obscure secrets that aren't known to many. The Hearts are the Socialisers, those that enjoy the company of others, playing together for the social experience of it all. The Clubs are the Killers, those that thrive on competitive gameplay, revelling in combat with other players. Some people like to socialise, others like to kill. Many FPS players tend to be Killers, though we all have our fair share of Socialisers, Explorers and Achievers. For example, Sandvich parties in TF2 were a sort of Socialiser-oriented activity before Valve fucked up the Sandvich. Heavies would gather around an area and simply eat their Sandviches, basking in the company of their fellow Heavies, be they RED or BLU. Dispenser parties are also an aspect of Socialisers, with Engineers both RED an' BLU building their Dispensers alongside one another, dancing the hoedown whilst someone micspams Cotton-Eyed Joe. There's plenty of Achievers in TF2 as well, those that go after the objectives, grabbing the intel, capturing the points, pushing the cart, all of these things are, in their own way, small personal achievements of fulfilled duty. Not to forget there's also the Achievements. However, I haven't really seen many Explorers around TF2. I guess the semi-linear paths to the objectives aren't exactly enough for hardcore Explorers, their type are usually more at more in Left 4 Dead, since there's quite some places to explore in that franchise. Plenty of Killers in TF2 though, most of the players in the game are definitely Killers, since the FPS genre is pretty much a "killing floor", even when there's no Patriarch stomping around or cheesy Cockney voice-acting filling the air with quips about money and zombies.
[QUOTE=ironman17;23239612]The world has not one tongue, but many. Each has it's own tastes and qualms, and always shall. The four Bartle Types come to mind here; the Diamond, the Spade, the Heart and the Club. The Diamonds are the Achievers, those that wish to achieve greatness in the game, be it gold, gear, or just plain accomplishment. The Spades are the Explorers, those that dig around in the game to find that which few know about, obscure secrets that aren't known to many. The Hearts are the Socialisers, those that enjoy the company of others, playing together for the social experience of it all. The Clubs are the Killers, those that thrive on competitive gameplay, revelling in combat with other players. Some people like to socialise, others like to kill. Many FPS players tend to be Killers, though we all have our fair share of Socialisers, Explorers and Achievers. For example, Sandvich parties in TF2 were a sort of Socialiser-oriented activity before Valve fucked up the Sandvich. Heavies would gather around an area and simply eat their Sandviches, basking in the company of their fellow Heavies, be they RED or BLU. Dispenser parties are also an aspect of Socialisers, with Engineers both RED an' BLU building their Dispensers alongside one another, dancing the hoedown whilst someone micspams Cotton-Eyed Joe. There's plenty of Achievers in TF2 as well, those that go after the objectives, grabbing the intel, capturing the points, pushing the cart, all of these things are, in their own way, small personal achievements of fulfilled duty. Not to forget there's also the Achievements. However, I haven't really seen many Explorers around TF2. I guess the semi-linear paths to the objectives aren't exactly enough for hardcore Explorers, their type are usually more at more in Left 4 Dead, since there's quite some places to explore in that franchise. Plenty of Killers in TF2 though, most of the players in the game are definitely Killers, since the FPS genre is pretty much a "killing floor", even when there's no Patriarch stomping around or cheesy Cockney voice-acting filling the air with quips about money and zombies.[/QUOTE] Uh. . . Intriguing?
[QUOTE=Llivavin;23239216]It is shit for a full 15/mo game But it's not a full 15/mo game :downs: Also it just came out.[/QUOTE] All you gotta do is ride with it, pay the fees and await the content updates that increase the game's value-for-money. TF2 was similar in the old days, just a few maps, no unlocks, no hats, very small. And look at the Fortress now, it's CHOC-A-FUCKING-BLOCK with content, tons o' guns, loads of hats, way more maps, a bristling thriving community simply alive with awesome. Given enough time, with enough funds trickling in, even this All Points Bulletin could become as bristling with life...
[QUOTE=ironman17;23239719]All you gotta do is ride with it, pay the fees and await the content updates that increase the game's value-for-money. TF2 was similar in the old days, just a few maps, no unlocks, no hats, very small. And look at the Fortress now, it's CHOC-A-FUCKING-BLOCK with content, tons o' guns, loads of hats, way more maps, a bristling thriving community simply alive with awesome. Given enough time, with enough funds trickling in, even this All Points Bulletin could become as bristling with life...[/QUOTE] yeah but you didn't have to pay 15 bucks a fucking month for progress in TF2 and TF2 was fucking badass to begin with anyway, it just got better.
[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;23239670]Uh. . . Intriguing?[/QUOTE] I researched Bartle Types as part of my college coursework. I'm aiming to become a games developer, y'see, and my college just so happens to have a media course based around video game design. I did well on the First Diploma in the last couple of terms, and I begin the two-year National Diploma course in September. Man, I should probably go to sleep already...
Blizzard makes great games, so does Valve. Jeez, you guys make it seem like this makes Valve a shit company according to Pixar.
I know I'm going to get disagrees and boxes for saying this, but Half-Life 2 was a good game. Not great, but good. I don't know, maybe it's because I'm not into those type of games where you wander around mindlessly killing everything you see. The few characters shown during the whole series were hardly relatable and only showed primitive human thought and emotion. There were only "good" guys and "bad" guys. However in Starcraft, the story for me was much more interesting. The "good guys" showed independent though and didn't mindlessly fight "the good fight". Jim Raynor, the protagonist, had to make difficult decisions and felt loss, pain, and betrayal. This made me relate to him much more than Gordan Freeman, who's "silent protagonist" character did not let me feel like I was in his shoes, only like I was remotely controlling a shell. If I were to follow the four Bartle Types that ironman17 mentioned, I would pretty much equally fit into all of them.
I like both styles. The predefined story is very good indeed if done well, as blizzard habitually does. I do like the heroic mime a lot as well. Lets me thrust myself into the world.
How you guys can compare two completely different things sometimes amazes me. Blizzard - specialized in RTS/RPG genres. Valve - specialized in FPS genres. Both are great companies, without them the gaming industry would surely fail and the reason why Blizzard is nominated is because they have a bigger fan base, they have millions and millions fans playing WoW almost everyday and don't forget that Starcraft is a fucking sport in Korea. Anyway, all I am saying is don't make this into a huge Valve vs Blizzard shitstorm.
Pretty much what I was thinking.
Yeah I'm sure we can agree that both companies are among the best in the games industry. I enjoy games from both of them, it doesn't really matter what Pixar says at the end of the day.
[QUOTE=Nelth;23240100]How you guys can compare two completely different things sometimes amazes me. Blizzard - specialized in RTS/RPG genres. Valve - specialized in FPS genres. Both are great companies, without them the gaming industry would surely fail and the reason why Blizzard is nominated is because they have a bigger fan base, they have millions and millions fans playing WoW almost everyday and don't forget that Starcraft is a fucking sport in Korea. Anyway, all I am saying is don't make this into a huge Valve vs Blizzard shitstorm.[/QUOTE] How about comparing these two: Blizzard - specialised in RTS/MMO genres Pixar - They make films.
key difference is that after pixar made cars they didn't try to change all the other movies' styles to be more like cars because of how popular it was.
[QUOTE=Jund;23239941]If I were to follow the four Bartle Types that ironman17 mentioned, I would pretty much equally fit into all of them.[/QUOTE] I think there's an online test to see which catergory you fit into. Try looking up the Bartle Test for Gamer Psychology, and you'll find where your heart lies. Although a simple questionnaire isn't exactly a substitute for hands-on experience... Besides, the test's more oriented towards MMO players. Also, Nelth's post about specialisation is very true; both companies specialise in different genres.
I don't get RPG's and RTS's. I find them incredibly boring.
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