Blizzard must not be up to the traffic. I tried to purchase the digital download. It errored out. Tried different browsers. Same thing. Tried calling Account and Billing support. Busy signal. The one thing you absolutely do not want to fail on a popular product launch is your digital purchases. I'm going to venture to guess that this is their largest product launch ever.
Why? Has there been a shortage problem with Gamestop?
My little brother pre-ordered with Gamestop so he could get it at midnight, and there seemed to be more than enough copies for everyone when we went last night.
I actually pre-ordered my own copy from Amazon (Conveniently, it shipped from the Amazon warehouse in Nashua, NH to my house in Nashua, NH)
It feels strange to consider myself a hardcore gamer, with gaming PC, Xbox 360, PS3, etcetera, and to have never played the original Starcraft. Not a big RTS fan, I suppose, but I love most other genres. And yet here I am with a Wings of Liberty box sitting at my desk.
Read through the manual, especially the nine (!) pages they devote to the plot in teeny tiny text. For a newcomer it's extremely confusing. The Zerg make sense, but the constant shifting of Terran allegiances and Protoss character names make my head swim. IGN's five minute video summary helped, though I had to watch it three times.
I take it Kerrigan is the anti-hero everyone loves, vaguely like FFVII's Sephiroth. And there appears to be some slight debate as to whether there's any humanity left in her, though her temporary alliances appear to be more for strategic convenience than any real compassion.
What I'd like to know from my fellow HN gamers is the emotion of it. What were the shocking moments? The tearful bits? Were there any? What would I feel about Jim Raynor if I played through Starcraft and Brood War? Am I supposed to think Kerrigan as the Queen of Blades is sexy, or am I supposed to be repulsed by the... things growing out of her back?
The transition from the terran campaign to the zerg campaign in the original was the only real genius of the plot I felt. Leaving Kerrigan to die was one of the last things that happens before you start playing as the zerg. As the zerg, you have to guard this mysterious chrysalis for the first several missions without having any idea what it contains. It was a real "Oh Wow" moment when out pops zerg-Kerrigan.
The story was never the strong point of StarCraft. It's a fairly generic cowboys in space run into Aliens and Vulcans type plot.
What made StarCraft stand out was the incredible depth of its competitive multiplayer that allowed for emergent strategies to be discovered. The map editor was also brilliant and let people create incredible new variants.
$60 for this particular release - I believe this release only includes the 'Terran' missions - subsequent releases, each $60, will include the 'Zerg' and 'Protoss' specific missions.
Thats what got me...I would have purchased it but the pricing out for each set of missions and removal of LAN play has made me postpone purchase...Shoot, I'll try to wait till it comes out in a 'combo' release in a few years...I'll try!
I have been thinking for some time: is 60 US dollars sort of price limit for a game or have there been more expensive games? I'm more interested in the cases where the price of the game is determined by the merits of the game itself and not by the price of the necessary stuff (controllers, pricey distribution media etc.) that the game needs to operate, so I'd like to factor that out. But It's still interesting to know: how much did they sell for those games that need special controllers to run (i.e. guitar) or those games distributed on cartridges with pricey ROMs and ASICs?
When iPhone App Store came along, it brought with it its own price conventions i.e. it's normal to sell games for $0.99, or $9.99 tops. Does anyone sell games for $60, or at least $30 on iPhone? Form a developer's point of view I see no reason for iPhone games to be priced cheaper than PC or console counterparts. Development of any game doesn't become 10x cheaper because it is for iPhone, does it?
The reason I'm interested in it is the following: I am thinking about how can indie game developers get compensated for their work? There's the notion that if the game is "big and good" ("AAA" titles released by major publishers) it deserves to be paid top dollar for ($60 currently, I assume; though $60 seems to be "very top" by todays standards); indie games from obscure developers deserve much less. I don't see why the opposite couldn't be true; "big" games, though require big budgets for their production, will sell many copies anyway, while indie ones appeal for much narrower audience (that needs them nevertheless), for which they have to compensate with higher price, which said audience will have to pay. Does history have any examples of this kind? If not, maybe, as PG noted[1], we're not actually paying for content in games, not just in music and print?
Actually, I'd say games are getting cheaper. In the mid-80s, it wasn't uncommon to see $50-$60 dollar Nintendo games, and inflation has cut the value of a dollar approximately in half since then. Today's equivalent of SMB3 would be a $120 game.
why is an oil spill related to hacker news? or why we buy airplane tickets? or wikileaks?
hell, if anything starcraft 2 is a factor of 10 more relevant than any of those, you know, because starcraft 2 is on a computer
not only will starcraft 2 reiterate what a big deal video games are, it's going to shape popular culture, it's going to be played by millions of players each and every day for the next decade or so.
starcraft 2 is a game that values practice is thinking out of the box more than anything else, I know far more starcraft players amongst startups/hackers than settlers of catan, or anything else.
hell, nothing unites startups more than a good old lan party. (i'm aware of the irony of this point)
but most importantly, its related to Hacker News because over 30 people have said it is (upvotes)
Are you more or less confused that the apple trackpad is sitting at number one? Actually, somewhere around a year ago, Hacker News became less "all startups, all the time" and more "news for nerds, startups featured."
A rare game that gets even those that have put their gaming years behind them back into it.
It would be hard for any other company to have the ability to spend this much time and put this much polish into a game. Given the long development time and the relatively few changes being made from the original and thus far only the one campaign. Guess that's the luxury you get from developing the cash cow that is WoW.
But why? Surely you read about all the neat things the producer added to the game to make it more profitable. To monetize it in a better way?
- Tournaments only allowed if you ask Blizzard kindly
- LAN play is gone
- Integration with 3rd party social network partners
This is a good example for having a good idea, a (as far as I can tell from reviews) decent implementation but you try to overarchive on the monetizing part and ruin it for some.
I guess there's a lesson in here for startups somewhere..
Maybe you're not a hacker. Maybe your opinion is different from others. Maybe it doesn't really matter. Maybe you don't have to click the link and comment.
[+] [-] teilo|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] moultano|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MikeCapone|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mlinsey|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mfukar|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fizx|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MikeCapone|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jcromartie|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simonsarris|15 years ago|reply
My little brother pre-ordered with Gamestop so he could get it at midnight, and there seemed to be more than enough copies for everyone when we went last night.
I actually pre-ordered my own copy from Amazon (Conveniently, it shipped from the Amazon warehouse in Nashua, NH to my house in Nashua, NH)
[+] [-] Qz|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonpaul|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jordanroher|15 years ago|reply
Read through the manual, especially the nine (!) pages they devote to the plot in teeny tiny text. For a newcomer it's extremely confusing. The Zerg make sense, but the constant shifting of Terran allegiances and Protoss character names make my head swim. IGN's five minute video summary helped, though I had to watch it three times.
I take it Kerrigan is the anti-hero everyone loves, vaguely like FFVII's Sephiroth. And there appears to be some slight debate as to whether there's any humanity left in her, though her temporary alliances appear to be more for strategic convenience than any real compassion.
What I'd like to know from my fellow HN gamers is the emotion of it. What were the shocking moments? The tearful bits? Were there any? What would I feel about Jim Raynor if I played through Starcraft and Brood War? Am I supposed to think Kerrigan as the Queen of Blades is sexy, or am I supposed to be repulsed by the... things growing out of her back?
[+] [-] moultano|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] albertsun|15 years ago|reply
What made StarCraft stand out was the incredible depth of its competitive multiplayer that allowed for emergent strategies to be discovered. The map editor was also brilliant and let people create incredible new variants.
[+] [-] Qz|15 years ago|reply
That's a rhetorical question right? :)
[+] [-] Oompa|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sabj|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bsiemon|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thecircusb0y|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adamilardi|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrinterweb|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sprout|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] GrandMasterBirt|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sgoraya|15 years ago|reply
Thats what got me...I would have purchased it but the pricing out for each set of missions and removal of LAN play has made me postpone purchase...Shoot, I'll try to wait till it comes out in a 'combo' release in a few years...I'll try!
[+] [-] listic|15 years ago|reply
When iPhone App Store came along, it brought with it its own price conventions i.e. it's normal to sell games for $0.99, or $9.99 tops. Does anyone sell games for $60, or at least $30 on iPhone? Form a developer's point of view I see no reason for iPhone games to be priced cheaper than PC or console counterparts. Development of any game doesn't become 10x cheaper because it is for iPhone, does it?
The reason I'm interested in it is the following: I am thinking about how can indie game developers get compensated for their work? There's the notion that if the game is "big and good" ("AAA" titles released by major publishers) it deserves to be paid top dollar for ($60 currently, I assume; though $60 seems to be "very top" by todays standards); indie games from obscure developers deserve much less. I don't see why the opposite couldn't be true; "big" games, though require big budgets for their production, will sell many copies anyway, while indie ones appeal for much narrower audience (that needs them nevertheless), for which they have to compensate with higher price, which said audience will have to pay. Does history have any examples of this kind? If not, maybe, as PG noted[1], we're not actually paying for content in games, not just in music and print?
[1] Paul Graham: Post-Medium Publishing http://www.paulgraham.com/publishing.html
[+] [-] MikeCapone|15 years ago|reply
Still doesn't beat getting a good book at the public library, though...
[+] [-] Magneus|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pclark|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xiaoma|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ptomato|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] incomethax|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pclark|15 years ago|reply
why is an oil spill related to hacker news? or why we buy airplane tickets? or wikileaks?
hell, if anything starcraft 2 is a factor of 10 more relevant than any of those, you know, because starcraft 2 is on a computer
not only will starcraft 2 reiterate what a big deal video games are, it's going to shape popular culture, it's going to be played by millions of players each and every day for the next decade or so.
starcraft 2 is a game that values practice is thinking out of the box more than anything else, I know far more starcraft players amongst startups/hackers than settlers of catan, or anything else.
hell, nothing unites startups more than a good old lan party. (i'm aware of the irony of this point)
but most importantly, its related to Hacker News because over 30 people have said it is (upvotes)
[+] [-] fizx|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robryan|15 years ago|reply
It would be hard for any other company to have the ability to spend this much time and put this much polish into a game. Given the long development time and the relatively few changes being made from the original and thus far only the one campaign. Guess that's the luxury you get from developing the cash cow that is WoW.
[+] [-] pixelbath|15 years ago|reply
Also, http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
[+] [-] darklajid|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adamilardi|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _pi|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DeusExMachina|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sown|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] francoisdevlin|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jw84|15 years ago|reply