Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program • Hacker News Board

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#131

Post by BlueTemplar » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 1:41 PM UTC

bluescrn wrote: post #90

0dayz wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, it started waaay before that. * The sexual misconduct most likely happened way before it came out publicly as all the sleezebags stayed until it was public * real id debacle * Diablo 3 * shutting down blizzard north, despite working on d3 * spending 10 years on trying to make starcraft 2, when the rts genre was in a major slump * x years on the project titan, only to get cancelled * spent years trying to create…

> Spending 10 years on trying to make starcraft 2, when the rts genre was in a major slump Was worth it though. SC2 was the last of the old, great Blizzard

Nah, as you can see with its online-only requirement (and ActiBlizz being greedy about custom made maps), it was already the new Blizzard, after merging with Activision and the changes that WoW brought.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#132

Post by Thaxll » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 1:45 PM UTC

0dayz wrote: post #48

smolder wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blizzard started down the path to failure when they merged with Activision, though I'm not sure they would have lasted much longer outside of that. It's apparent to me the only way "make quality stuff" survives as a strategy long term is to stay private like Valve. Public ownership ruins companies. They grow into inefficient messes and lose any edge they had while alienating their customers in the interest of short t…

Nope, it started waaay before that. * The sexual misconduct most likely happened way before it came out publicly as all the sleezebags stayed until it was public * real id debacle * Diablo 3 * shutting down blizzard north, despite working on d3 * spending 10 years on trying to make starcraft 2, when the rts genre was in a major slump * x years on the project titan, only to get cancelled * spent years trying to create…

This is just a bad take on Blizzard.

- x years on the project titan, only to get cancelled

Overwatch came out of that and it was one of the biggest game in the last 15years. It sold over 50m copies, an insane number.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#133

Post by hhjinks » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 1:55 PM UTC

0dayz wrote: post #48

smolder wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blizzard started down the path to failure when they merged with Activision, though I'm not sure they would have lasted much longer outside of that. It's apparent to me the only way "make quality stuff" survives as a strategy long term is to stay private like Valve. Public ownership ruins companies. They grow into inefficient messes and lose any edge they had while alienating their customers in the interest of short t…

Nope, it started waaay before that. * The sexual misconduct most likely happened way before it came out publicly as all the sleezebags stayed until it was public * real id debacle * Diablo 3 * shutting down blizzard north, despite working on d3 * spending 10 years on trying to make starcraft 2, when the rts genre was in a major slump * x years on the project titan, only to get cancelled * spent years trying to create…

I'm confused, you say it started before the merger, and go on to list a bunch of events that happened years after the merger.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#134

Post by BlueTemplar » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 2:10 PM UTC

proc0 wrote: post #8

Well I bought WC2 already and have the files. That's the best part of GOG, you can just make your own backup. I think with hard copies going away, the ability to make backups of what you buy should be protected by law, at least for software that is no longer supported (of course one side effect is that all games become services, but there have been single player games recently that prove it's still a good business mo…

Ideally DRM would be banned, as it's in fine a danger for liberal democracy. But there are very powerful interests (including at the state level) that consider DRM worth having even to 'protect' something as trifling in comparison as commercial leisure products.

So I guess we're stuck with personally avoiding DRMed (including online only) media, and supporting the likes of EFF, GoG, and https://www.stopkillinggames.com/

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#135

Post by krageon » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 2:11 PM UTC

bluescrn wrote: post #90

0dayz wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, it started waaay before that. * The sexual misconduct most likely happened way before it came out publicly as all the sleezebags stayed until it was public * real id debacle * Diablo 3 * shutting down blizzard north, despite working on d3 * spending 10 years on trying to make starcraft 2, when the rts genre was in a major slump * x years on the project titan, only to get cancelled * spent years trying to create…

> Spending 10 years on trying to make starcraft 2, when the rts genre was in a major slump Was worth it though. SC2 was the last of the old, great Blizzard

starcraft 2 was really cool when it came out, but it is not good now. And you can't play an old patch because it's always online

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#136

Post by montagg » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 2:16 PM UTC

Majromax wrote: post #128

0dayz wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, it started waaay before that. * The sexual misconduct most likely happened way before it came out publicly as all the sleezebags stayed until it was public * real id debacle * Diablo 3 * shutting down blizzard north, despite working on d3 * spending 10 years on trying to make starcraft 2, when the rts genre was in a major slump * x years on the project titan, only to get cancelled * spent years trying to create…

I hate to just drop a book recommendation, but Jason Schreier's Play Nice covers the history of Blizzard in comprehensive detail. The overall situation was multifacted, but my takeaway is that Blizzard's recent failures come down to two main themes: * World of Warcraft's success gave the company unrealistic expectations of what a successful "normal" game looked like, and * "When it's ready" covers up the sins of a co…

As someone who’s seen the inside of a game company, this thesis reads true. Success really warps expectations, and warped expectations create perverse incentives that are different than make this particular game good.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#137

Post by Macha » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 2:16 PM UTC

hipadev23 wrote: post #5

I’m really confused what venn diagram they think exists with sizable overlap of “wants to play war1 and war2 again” and “doesn’t mind a greedy company killing off old products to funnel users to re-releases” No thanks Blizzard, my soundcard works perfectly.

WoW seems to have passed its local minimum, partly due to no longer being a single game anymore with classic and the seasonal editions. I can see them thinking remasters are a way to get a few more tie in franchise sales from those players, maybe somewhat cheaply. Throw in a tie-in mount/whatever for WoW and you'll have players buy it without any intention of actually playing it.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#138

Post by Macha » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 2:17 PM UTC

xandrius wrote: post #107

spiritplumber wrote: post #12

Well that's $15 that are going to GOG instead of Blizzard.

Do you think GOG can sell anything without a license of sorts? Otherwise what's the difference of paying for piracy?

I'm sure GOG are legally covered in what they're doing (it's also not the first time, they had a dispute with bethesda over unlisting the classic fallout games for years). Blizzard's given them a termination date of the 13th, so they're allowed sell until them, and probably contractually Blizzard had to give them some amount of advanced notice.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#139

Post by SketchySeaBeast » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 2:18 PM UTC

Thaxll wrote: post #132

0dayz wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, it started waaay before that. * The sexual misconduct most likely happened way before it came out publicly as all the sleezebags stayed until it was public * real id debacle * Diablo 3 * shutting down blizzard north, despite working on d3 * spending 10 years on trying to make starcraft 2, when the rts genre was in a major slump * x years on the project titan, only to get cancelled * spent years trying to create…

This is just a bad take on Blizzard. - x years on the project titan, only to get cancelled Overwatch came out of that and it was one of the biggest game in the last 15years. It sold over 50m copies, an insane number.

And somehow modern Blizzard managed to convert even that success into a debacle.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#140

Post by schmookeeg » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 2:19 PM UTC

0dayz wrote: post #48

smolder wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blizzard started down the path to failure when they merged with Activision, though I'm not sure they would have lasted much longer outside of that. It's apparent to me the only way "make quality stuff" survives as a strategy long term is to stay private like Valve. Public ownership ruins companies. They grow into inefficient messes and lose any edge they had while alienating their customers in the interest of short t…

Nope, it started waaay before that. * The sexual misconduct most likely happened way before it came out publicly as all the sleezebags stayed until it was public * real id debacle * Diablo 3 * shutting down blizzard north, despite working on d3 * spending 10 years on trying to make starcraft 2, when the rts genre was in a major slump * x years on the project titan, only to get cancelled * spent years trying to create…

The Warcraft Adventure was terrible. I was working at Bliz at the time. Imagine the worst LucasArts-style fan art with no real story behind it. The true believers would have loved it and anything else released in the Warcraft universe, but.. it was very very "not good"

No argument with your other points though :)