The New Battle.net
I have a bad feeling about this new B.net. Graev has been saying for years now that Blizzard is going to merge everything into B.net and turn it into their platform where they start charging. I think it’s going to either go the way of Steam or it’ll become a true nightmare and slowly convert into a Xbox Live sort of deal with “gold memberships” . I can see it now: playing StarCraft 2 online will require a B.net gold membership or something but it’ll be “worth it” [they’ll say]. You’ll recall that Jay Wilson said that they don’t have a “great desire†to charge for the B.net service. Battle.net Premium Services. Just wait, it’ll happen.
Starcraft 2 UI
It’s ugly. I’m waiting for the “April fools!” or the “It’s just a beta UI” announcement.
SWTOR Bounty Hunters
I like Bounty Hunters. Who doesn’t? At first I thought everyone would be a Jedi, now I think everyone will be a Bounty Hunter. I’m waiting for the “Dancer” or the “Chef” classes to be announced just so that I can be one of those people who purposely avoid playing something popular because the cool thing to do is not to do the cool thing.
Or maybe I’ll just play a Jedi.
I too hope they have some interesting classes. I loved that about SW:G – chefs, dancers, pikemen… it was so unique at the time.
I have a feeling that SW:TOR will be quite low on class selection but instead encourage people to specialise within them.
That SCII UI sucks! Gotta be a joke.
SWTOR I must say, looks like it will be a very visually pleasing game at the very least. I must say I am a fan of the stylized realism art direction they got going there, it looks REAL good to me. I will definitely be building myself a new PC for it if I like how the game plays.
The Bounty Hunter looks like it can be loads of fun. Lots of people will play them. I don’t think they will make Dancers and Chefs like Sony did. I too think they will be low on classes to choose from. I still believe they will make it so you either choose a Jedi or Sith and then you specialize, ie: Guardian, Scout etc. like in the KOTOR games. Everyone wants to play a Jedi. And a Bounty Hunter.
SC2 looks like SC1 in HD.
The starcraft II ui is actually the “replay” ui for watching your games and esports casters. Blizzard also said, explicitly, that the UI was constantly changing so I wouldn’t take what you see here to be final.
Actually, most gaming licenses with Lucas Arts require games to be very Star Warsy, which means they will be action packed and feature the iconic Star Wars character types. No more games for the wanna-be moisture farmers of the world 🙁
No Image Designer? 🙁
Seems as if Blizzard is trying to sell the same game to the next generation…^^ but I would at least have expected some improvements to the UI.
Interesting thing, this “replay ui”, as Sean called it. I wonder how long it will take them to come up with the final UI.
After all, they did not have to re-invent their own wheel with SC2… 😉
I am sure a lot of SC players would not mind that version of UI going live 🙂 It is supposed to be simple and do its job.
It will get pretty at the end – you do not do things like that at this moment of development because you change it often so all artist work would just go to hell all the time.
New battlenet is more against piracy and honestly I don’t give a damn about being charged if something is actually worth it – Blizzard games tends to be damn worth it.
That’s what worries me. I know Blizzard games are always worth it… so I know I would get the ‘gold membership’ or whatever premium services they offer. The fact that they can usually means that they will when it comes to a business like this.
@Keen
I pretty much agree. With Blizzard being one of the few reliable developers left they have the ability to nickle and dime the consumer to death and we will pay.
I don’t know if I would keep a gold membership over time but I know I would atleast try one out.
By “replay UI” he meant that the UI you saw in that picture is what you see when you watch a replay. I would assume, though, that the gameplay UI will be the same, and that it won’t change much, if at all, as Blizzard isn’t known for its extraordinary creativity, just its ability to actually finish a product that’s fun to play before it’s shipped, which alone is enough to make Blizzard stand out from the crowd.
That kind of sort of says something about the rest of the industry, doesn’t it? That making sure a product works and is fun before shipping it is all it takes to be considered one of the best developers out there?
If it’s the replay ui, great. It’s still ugly. If it’s not the normal UI then it’s just an ugly UI we won’t have to see all the time.
I don’t think they would be legally allowed to force you to start paying a subscription to play games you purchased years ago for a one off payment.
I think it will go the way of Steam.
Keen can you edit your post or something so it doesn’t spread any more false rumors than it already has.
And why is my previous comment, that brought up what the UI really looks like and how awesome it is, still stuck on “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” Can people see my posts when it’s in that mode?
Thanks.
I see no reason to change the post. Blizzard stated it’s an early version and shows things that we from the replay UI. It’s still ugly – early or not. Your post being stuck in moderation is probably because you posted links or said something that my spam filter caught. I check that queue every couple of days.
Oh okay, thanks for clearing that up.
However your main post leads on sounding like that’s the real UI that people actually see while playing the game, when it’s actually not.
SC2 UI looks fine to me.
I really don’t understand how that is ugly. It worked for SC. I would be more than happy to have the exact same UI. It gets the job done without silly frills.