But they still are having the indy games thing, arent they?

So.  How many "I told you so" posts are appearing on the Warcraft forums to go with this news?

Blizzard have been overrated since they begun to solely develop sequels, and the abomination to Mmo gaming that is WOW..... meh. They have been coasting along on their past successes for awhile now. I doubt anyone is really left who made those classic Blizzard games in the 90's

Yep. This Kotick tool box is going to flush the customer goodwill of the Blizzard brand like a foot-long deuce down a toilet.

EDIT: Thankfully, Stardock still exists unhindered by high level executives who know as much about gaming as my mother does about quantum chromodynamics.

I just feel like saying this (mostly because I think it's funny)- but the validity of the point you make in your edit depends on how much your mother knows about quantum chromodynamics.

I fail to see how the console can in any way limit a Diablo type game aside from memory footprint. Analog controls are perfect for a game like Diablo in fact even better than mouse keyboard when done right. I'm really tired of reading posts about Diablo and console. WTF are you afraid of. Looking at the Diablo footage currently available that can easily be done on a console WITH better gameplay then a mouse and keyboard. Christ you cant even face a direction without holding a modifier key on a keyboard mouse combo. If they had to dumb down what they already have then yes I agree don't make it for console. However if it can be built from the ground up and optimized for it then the PC version would only stand to benefit from improvements made to the technology.

D3 is the only game over at Camp Blizzard that I even care about. The PC version looks fantastic. Probably going to be 2 million or more slamming bnet on launch day and it will be Diablo 2 all over again. Now assuming Blizzard aren't idiots and we know for the most part they aren't There is no reason that game of that kind can't be on console. There is also no reason that the game in it's current form could not run as well or better on the current consoles with proper optimization. It's map size and memory limitations that scare me the most. All of which seem to be overcome with proper streaming technology. If it ran poorly or had sloppy controls then screw it. However if someone actually put some effort into it Diablo 3 on console could be the next biggest thing. I've been saying this for years and the only thing I have to show for it is Arkadian Warriors. Which if anything serves as a template or foundation for the analog control scheme.

Explain to me why exactly WoW is an abomination to MMO gaming. 

'Endless grinding', clearly you haven't played any mmog's pre WoW.

'All games try to mimic WoW because of its succes', most games fail trying to copy WoW anyway. WoW is a good example on how to create a MMORPG of that type. I do agree that companies should try to look outside the box. Ah well, perhaps in a few years, after I'm done with my studies and started my own company, I might actually fill in that gap

'MMO players only want to play WoW', this one does bother me a bit. Warhammer Online for example was great fun, it's just that there aren't enough players to populate the leveling areas. Finding people for PQ's was a chore. Still, Blizzard 'took inspiriation' from Warhammer Online and now it seems that WoW has a lot of functions Warhammer Online has as well (queing for Battlegrounds for example at any time, quest helper). 

What more?

I dont see the controller an any innovation in gaming input over the keyboard and mouse. The keyboard and mouse aren't the "holygrail" either, they are just convenient and open.  The controller wasn't made an an innovation, it was something shoehorned into gaming, forced by console companies since it's their interest to sell more 360s and ps3s. 

I have used an S controller quite a bit. It works really great for certain types of games and the best part is it simply becomes an extension of your desires. Yes, I like controllers where they work with a game designed for them.

And yet ... way back there I played Halo 1 on an XBox, and then later on got the PC version. For some reason, I found that game much easier to play on PC with a mouse and the keyboard.

Borderlands ... watched a lot of videos of the game also and the only short coming of the controller with that game seemed to be driving the vehicle, perversely enough. Maybe those players did not adjust the sensitivity or something.

The best thing we could hope for is that all the talent that made Blizzard great will leave to form their own studio and Give Activision the finger. Assivision seems to be doing all they can to forever tarnish a once great company.

Thanks Tridus. Doesn't need much salt because it is about what I would expect. Activision will continue to extend their control over Blizzard and morale will decline even further. And I think DethAdder is 100 percent correct.

The only good news I've heard about StarCraft 2 is the Brother Laz of Median XL fame is thinking about doing a big mod for SC2. This would be single player only, but Brother Laz is a creative genius whom I respect a lot.

SC2 prices for the basic game should fall rapidly, so a good deal on the game plus a free mod from Brother Laz might turn out well.

Break my heart, ZehDon!

The following ties in to what Ravenstrike said above about Blizzard coasting along on past successes, in a left hand sort of way. And Diablo 3 is at stake in all this too. Plus I've written about Median XL above as well.

Median is popular and technically proficient enough that it was commented on by some of the Diablo 3 designers during an interview at Blizzcon 2009. [2]

GamePlanet: Have you guys ever played any of the mods that you get for Diablo II, the likes of the Median XL mod? Have you heard of that?

Kevin Martens: Oh yeah, I played that like crazy! I love it!

GamePlanet: So have you taken any sort of inspiration from some of the changes he has made at all?

Kevin Martens: You bet! It kinda hit us a few months back, people started playing a lot of it and brought it in and we took a look at it. There's some things that people have done with that game that I think are exemplary. He's done an awesome job actually of monster placement and creating combat scenarios where monsters tend to 'bleed in' from the outside, and take a combat situation that at first seemed like it was something you could handle, and then suddenly grows into something that is way out of hand! And it creates these really awesome moments. He came up with some really novel monster abilities and skills and stuff. It's a terrific example of a mod.

A lot of people will look at Diablo changes that we make sometimes and say "if you do that you'll ruin the game!", and then here's an example of somebody who's changed almost everything about Diablo II, but somehow preserved the game, you know, it still feels a lot like Diablo II! Even though lots of things have changed, including the health system -- things that are like, totally taboo, don't change that or it's over! And yet they did it. So that's a terrific example of exactly the kinds of forward thinking that we like. I don't know how he got half that stuff in there! In fact I went back and I asked one of the original artists on the game, how did he do that?! And they were like, I don't know! (laughs)

1. The following comment is by Brother Laz on StarCraft 2 Beta, but taking into account currently announced changes for the retail release. Custom maps are a big part of StarCraft competitive gaming. Apparently you still need 3 copies of the game, 3 CD keys to have worldwide coverage for maps, mods, or to play in international competition.

2. Blizzard has apparently given up on their requirement that people post on their forums with their real world, legal, first and last name. The BBC, MSNBC, and I think CNN among others hung them out to dry on that violation of privacy!

Brother Laz:

After a few months of wasted time, I came to a conclusion:
Starcraft 2's custom map interface is complete and total trash!

It is impossible to find maps or make yours popular.

- In Warcraft 3, the list showed only the maps with people waiting for a game. Here it shows all maps, potentially thousands of them.
- Sort is by popularity and there is no way to change this.
- You cannot see how many people are waiting in a given map.
- There is no map search.
- You need to click click click to scroll down the list.
- Newly created maps have 0 popularity and end up in dead last place.

Conclusion: the vast majority of maps will never, ever, ever be played by anyone. If you do want to play an unpopular map you'll be alone, drowned in a sea of empty lobbies.

And if you don't publish your map very soon after release day, it will appear so far back that you might as well not have bothered.

You do not have freedom of distribution.

- Maps are region locked: to publish your map worldwide you need 3 CD keys.
- It is however trivial to pirate maps due to poor protection.
- It is possible to name squat or create maps with a similar name.

Conclusion: if you even want to participate in the above madness you need to pay €180 for 3 copies of the game, otherwise your map will be published to only a third of the world. And if it actually succeeds, someone could easily steal it and upload it elsewhere.

Unless major changes take place, Starcraft 2 is not viable for map creators.