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Blizzard really tried to make Starcraft 2 "a thing" and, while it has a devoted following, I don't think it ever got to the level of success Blizzard was seekin

Blizzard really tried to make Starcraft 2 "a thing" and, while it has a devoted following, I don't think it ever got to the level of success Blizzard was seeking. I can understand why, from a business perspective, Blizzard decided not to pursue Starcraft for the foreseeable future. I think it's worth saying that, on some level, the social phenomenon of Starcraft 1 and Warcraft 3 came from the user-created content that came out of the games' full-featured map editors. Now, it feels like that creative energy is flowing through Minecraft-like games and massively improved freely available game engines.

blibble 8y ago
for starcraft 2 they essentially killed the ability for third parties to build any sort of mod community via their crappy battle.net chat/custom games system then they were surprised that no mod community popped up
hnick 8y ago
Definitely. Even on the more competitive side, Quake 3 got something like the CPMA mod to tweak the balance and rules to make it better for competitive gaming. Zero chance of that for SC2. Lack of LAN mode for competitions was just such an obvious indicator they spoke about esports but didn't really understand it.
arcticfox 8y ago
> I can understand why, from a business perspective, Blizzard decided not to pursue Starcraft for the foreseeable future. I know they didn't mention it, but Blizzard's support for Starcraft seems as good as it has been. The tourney viewership numbers are better than ever in recent memory. So it's not like they're shutting it down like they did to Heroes of the Storm, they're just keeping status quo.
deleted 8y ago
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sbov 8y ago
> Now, it feels like that creative energy is flowing through Minecraft-like games and massively improved freely available game engines. Is it really? I play a lot of strategy games on steam (civ, stellaris, crusader kings 2, eu4) and they seem to have a wealth of mods available.
- aeturnum 8y ago
  I think we continue to see a broad, general interest in modding using traditional tools. I'm thinking about the products that rarely get distributed - the MOBA map my friends and I made for WC3 where each one of us got characters. I think a lot of people who might have gotten into the SC2 map editor are now building 4-bit adders in Minecraft.
imtringued 8y ago
Dota 2 seems to have eaten the custom map lunch.

blibble 8y ago

for starcraft 2 they essentially killed the ability for third parties to build any sort of mod community via their crappy battle.net chat/custom games system then they were surprised that no mod community popped up

hnick 8y ago

Definitely. Even on the more competitive side, Quake 3 got something like the CPMA mod to tweak the balance and rules to make it better for competitive gaming. Zero chance of that for SC2. Lack of LAN mode for competitions was just such an obvious indicator they spoke about esports but didn't really understand it.

arcticfox 8y ago

> I can understand why, from a business perspective, Blizzard decided not to pursue Starcraft for the foreseeable future. I know they didn't mention it, but Blizzard's support for Starcraft seems as good as it has been. The tourney viewership numbers are better than ever in recent memory. So it's not like they're shutting it down like they did to Heroes of the Storm, they're just keeping status quo.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

sbov 8y ago

> Now, it feels like that creative energy is flowing through Minecraft-like games and massively improved freely available game engines. Is it really? I play a lot of strategy games on steam (civ, stellaris, crusader kings 2, eu4) and they seem to have a wealth of mods available.

aeturnum 8y ago
I think we continue to see a broad, general interest in modding using traditional tools. I'm thinking about the products that rarely get distributed - the MOBA map my friends and I made for WC3 where each one of us got characters. I think a lot of people who might have gotten into the SC2 map editor are now building 4-bit adders in Minecraft.

imtringued 8y ago

Dota 2 seems to have eaten the custom map lunch.