4 ms·

Heroes of the Storm is nowhere near the popularity of Dota or Dota 2 yet, let alone the leading game in the genre (League of Legends). And it's still too early

• ericdykstra 11y ago
  The jury is still out on Heroes of the Storm, but it has simplified the game to a point where new players to the genre are getting into it. It may be a case where League of Legends already hit close enough to that sweet spot and built enough of a fanbase that HotS doesn't stand a chance, even if it is better executed. I would not call Diablo 3 a flop, by the way. The game has sold over 30 million copies, and the console releases and post-real-money-auction-house balance changes have supposedly made the game great (I'm not a fan of the genre so I don't know first-hand). Anyway, no need to get into too many details on the particulars. They've had enough breakout successes and "unicorn" level games that there's something about the strategy and execution that sets Blizzard apart. From what I can observe, it's some mix of the following: - Simplifying down the core gameplay to something that players can grasp quickly, without compromising complexity (that can be safely ignored for the initial stages). - Making the core gameplay loop fun and repeatable without being repetitive. - Making players feel rewarded for playing and purchasing. (see Hearthstone's "won the game" screen and opening pack animations) - Keeping the games deep enough so that even top, professional players never hit a skill cap.
  • henry_vonfire 11y ago
    I wouldn't be that quickly talking about Blizzard success. The only games with which they are taking a bit of risk are HS, HotS and Overwatch (and it seems that the only successful one is HS by now, the rest are popular just by the name of the company behind them and the effort advertising them). Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 sold themselves just by their names.
  • Pyxl101 11y ago
    > [Diablo 3] game has sold over 30 million copies, and the console releases and post-real-money-auction-house balance changes have supposedly made the game great Diablo 3 is an excellent game on both PC and Console. The balance changes that they made were a significant improvement, and I'd consider the current D3 one of Blizzard's great successes as gameplay goes. It greatly expanded on Diablo 2 with completely new and fresh mechanics that have been an absolute blast to explore as a gamer. It was a little too unforgiving before those balance changes, with bumpy progression and a difficult skill cliff, and overly reliant on the auction house (not intentionally in a gimmicky way; it's just how it turned out when AH prices dropped ridiculously low due to surplus supply). It's great now though. Diablo 3's artwork is beautiful, and to achieve it they developed an innovative new style which they presented at GDC 2012: http://gdcvault.com/play/1015306/The-Art-of-Diablo http://gdcvault.com/play/1015306/The-Art-of-Diablo (This is what I mean by "fresh" by the way: something new and interesting that you haven't seen before, even in an industry that tries it all. The painterly style was definitely fresh, and even in the years since then I haven't seen an imitation. I suspect it's too technically challenging, requiring a custom engine and a different way of designing environments.) I guess you can tell that I'm a fan. I think you hit on all the things that Blizzard does well: repeatable without repetitive, simple but deep with high skill cap, where you discover new things about the game mechanics yourself over time. Diablo 3 is especially fun because of its multiplayer coop. It's great to get the S.O. or friends in the same room and collaborate, especially on console. Diablo 3 has continued to trickle out new content over time for free after its expansion, Reaper of Souls, which has further helped to improve balance and make it interesting. I wish they would release more content though, since the game by its nature is ultimately repetitive. (Hard to justify financially with no recurring subscription. I would be very happy to pay for one if it meant more content!) There are rumors that Blizzard will release another expansion, which I will be super excited to explore if they do. I personally feel it's one of the best games ever made, and definitely the best action RPG. I don't think this quality of design can be boiled down just to a list of things they do well. It's definitely something more than that. They have an internal compass of what it takes to make awesome games, and they're willing to wait and iterate on their development as long as it takes to get there. Heroes of the Storm I'm skeptical of. It's much more directly a rip-off than any other Blizzard game, and I haven't seen much fresh or new come out of it yet.
• Houshalter 11y ago
  >World of Warcraft is especially an interesting case, seeing that all the 2nd most popular MMO has never came anywhere near the popularity of WoW That doesn't seem to be the case. Wow has 5.6 million players, but it's followed by a few games with 4-5 million players, and a number with >1 million. I'm not sure if that's just current players, or a running total. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_games#Statistics_table https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_massively_multip...
  • NhanH 11y ago
    Those numbers in that chart are misleading. At its peak, WoW had up to 12 millions subscribers monthly,the current 5.6 millions are still monthly subscribers, which is much different than the other millions figures on the chart (total registered account or total sales -- not all of them are on a subscription model, and some like MapleStory are free to play). To put it in perspective, WoW had 5 expansions, selling at $40-60 each at average of 10millions sales each (and you have to buy some of the previous one too), on top of the subscriptions and it's probably pulling in the minimum of $1-2 billions yearly revenue. It's not even a close call to the 2nd place ...