Tag Archives: Warcraft

BlizzCon 2014: Overwatch and More

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Opening, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone:

The opening to this year’s BlizzCon was interesting. They began with a retrospective video covering the entire history of the Warcraft franchise, and I have to say I found it thoroughly nerdgasmic. Was like being ten years old again… though it was an odd choice for a convention that seems to have little news on the Warcraft front.

The official logo for Blizzard EntertainmentSomething else that I thought was very interesting was that Mike Morhaime took some time out of his opening speech to address the great shame of the gaming community, Gamergate, and encourage people to stop being pricks and act like human beings.

Now, I could pick some holes in this action. He didn’t actually name what he was talking about, and overall, his language could have been stronger. But he didn’t have to address it at all, and it raises my estimation of Blizzard somewhat.

They then moved on to some announcements for Heroes of the Storm. The main news is that Thrall and Jaina are on the way (about time), as well as the Lost Vikings and two new battlegrounds: Sky Temple, and Tomb of the Spider Queen.

I’m a bit disappointed in the lack of Sylvanas, as well as the lack of a StarCraft map, but still, this is good news.

Closed beta will begin in January. I’m going to assume they’ll allow you to buy access through founder packs, because otherwise I don’t see the point of a closed beta. That’s pretty much what the technical alpha is already.

A screenshot of Jaina Proudmoore in Heroes of the StormThey then announced the first Hearthstone expansion, Goblins Versus Gnomes, which will be launching next month(!). It doesn’t seem like it’s adding much other than new cards.

StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void

This was the most exciting announcement so far for me, even if it was also the least surprising. Legacy of the Void is nearly done, and they showed a truly fantastic trailer for it.

I had such a raging nerdgasm watching this. The Protoss fan in me is just delirious with joy.

The final battle with Amon! Purifying Aiur! Artanis and Selendis! Zeratul and Kerrigan! Death and ruin!

It’s all so epic I can’t even be coherent. All I can tell you is that when the trailer was finished, I threw my arms into the air and shouted, “YES! YEEEES!”

Gameplay details are sketchy at this point, but it sounds like the campaign will feature something like the god powers from Age of Mythology in the form of orbital strikes from your mothership. I can get behind that.

As I predicted, there will be new multiplayer units, though the only one announced at the time of this writing is the lurker.

Overwatch:

But probably the biggest news out of this BlizzCon is the announcement of Blizzard’s first game from a new IP in nearly two decades: Overwatch, introduced with both cinematic and gameplay trailers.

It’s a quirky, sci-fi shooter. Seems somewhat inspired by Team Fortress, but also with some MOBA elements. There seems to be quite a large cast of characters, and it looks like they all have pretty unique abilities and playstyles. So a large twist of RPG in this FPS, it seems.

I can already hear legions of angry nerds howling about Blizzard going to the kids, because Overwatch does seem incredibly “Pixar.”

That said, it seems reasonably well done for what it is. It’s silly, but it’s charming.

Something I found interesting is that the majority of the first few characters they previewed were female, of ethnicities other than Caucasian, or both, and only one of the female characters seemed overtly sexualized. Perhaps I’m reading too much in, but maybe Blizzard is finally getting the message about inclusiveness.

Another surprise is that Overwatch is apparently not years down the road. Beta is planned for 2015, and it’s already playable at BlizzCon.

I’m not sure what I make of this just now. A competitive online shooter is not a genre I’ve ever had any interest in, and I’ve got somewhat mixed feelings on the whole “Pixar does X-Men” vibe of the universe. If they had a single player campaign, I’d be all for it, but this sounds like a purely PvP game. I’d also feel a lot better if they had a third person perspective option, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Tracer, a playable character in Blizzard's new Overwatch shooterThat said, it is Blizzard, and they’ve succeeded in getting me interested in genres I didn’t care about before (see: Heroes and MOBAs). The graphics are very cool, and Tracer does look like a pretty fun character to play.

I am gonna sign up for the beta.

If nothing else, I commend Blizzard for trying something new.

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There has been no word of anything related to Eye of Azshara, perhaps not surprisingly. There’s always the remote possibility they might announce it later, but I seriously doubt that.

I am a bit disappointed there’s still no news of any updated versions of old Warcraft games. With all the hype they were doing about this being the twentieth anniversary of Warcraft, I’m kind of surprised there was no news on that front. Feels like a wasted opportunity.

Overwatch previewAside from that, though, this is shaping up to be an interesting BlizzCon. No doubt there will be much more details on Overwatch, Legacy of the Void, the new Heroes content, and more over the coming days. Stay tuned to this blog for further updates and my thoughts.

Blizzard Trademarks “Eye of Azshara”?

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Here we go again.

So it beginsAccording to a post on MMO-Champion, Blizzard has trademarked the title, “Eye of Azshara.”

Now, there is an excellent chance this is a hoax. After the “Dark Below” fiasco,* I’m not going to jump to any conclusions. There is some evidence it may be legit — as far as anyone can tell, someone had to spend a few hundred Euros to register this, which is a lot for a hoax — and the fact that Blizzcon is only a few days away is also suspicious. But I do think there is at least a 50/50 chance this is a hoax.

*(It is however interesting to note that The Dark Below may not have been a hoax after all, though it definitely wasn’t related to World of Warcraft. The first expansion for Activision’s Destiny is called “The Dark Below.” It seems very strange to me that Blizzard would file the first trademark application for a game published by their affiliate, but it’s also hard to believe these two things are totally unrelated.)

But speculation is fun, so for the sake of argument, let’s think about what this could mean.

I desperately want this to be a WoW expansion, or maybe even Warcraft IV.

Azshara is by far the expansion concept that most excites me. Azshara is perhaps the last great Warcraft villain left undefeated by players, barring godlike beings such as Sargeras that really aren’t suited to be raid bosses.

Art of Queen Azshara from the Warcraft trading card gameShe is one of the most powerful individuals in Warcraft lore — a mage of incalculable power and skill who has also been empowered by the Old Gods and may now control the elemental of water. She is also one of the most selfish, twisted, and cruel individuals in the Warcraft universe.

An expansion featuring Azshara as the main villain and the Great Sea as its setting could bring in all sorts of long-overlooked locations and ideas in Warcraft lore. We could finally go to Kul Tiras. We could visit the Tomb of Sargeras. We could journey to Zandalar and have our long-overdue reckoning with Zul. We could come face-to-face with N’Zoth, the Drowned God. Want to visit the Emerald Dream? This would be the ideal time to do it.

Furthermore, Blizzard has been foreshadowing something terrible brewing in Azeroth’s oceans since Warcraft III. That’s how we wound up with Murlocs; something drove them from the depths. And they’ve been dropping more hints ever since.

I think an expansion based on Azshara would be the first and perhaps only expansion to rival Wrath of the Lich King in its epic grandeur and significance to the ongoing Warcraft story.

It’d also be a great chance to finally give Tyrande the attention she deserves. As Azshara’s most obvious rival, Tyrande is the ideal choice to be the protagonist of such an expansion. Although knowing how Blizzard is going lately they’d probably make her play second fiddle to Malfurion or resurrected Illidan or maybe just make the protagonist someone else completely random for no reason, like Velen.

Art of Tyrande Whisperwind from the World of Warcraft trading card gameAll that said, I think the odds of this being a WoW expansion are very low. A lot of people are guessing they’ll announce the next expansion at this year’s BlizzCon, but as I’ve said before, I think that’s very improbable.

Yes, Blizzard keeps going on about how they want to do yearly expansions. But they’ve been saying that since Wrath, and the wait between expansions has actually been getting longer.

Even if they were far enough along to have something to show from 7.0, it would be a monumentally foolish PR move to unveil it before Warlords of Draenor is even released, thus stealing their own thunder.

The odds of Eye of Azshara being a new Warcraft RTS are even more abysmal. Blizzard’s RTS team is already splitting its attention between StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm, and I don’t think we’ll see another Warcraft RTS while WoW is around, much as it pains me to say that.

One intriguing — though, again, highly improbable — possibility that I haven’t seen mentioned is that Eye of Azshara might be a new expansion for Warcraft III.

Sounds crazy — and it probably is — but it’s not entirely outside the bounds of possibility. There’s a lot of talk of an HD re-release of WC3, and it’s concievable that Blizzard might want to sweeten the pot by including some new content. A short new campaign set around the time of the Frozen Throne — either a prequel dealing with how the Naga joined Illidan or a sequel dealing with the aftermath of their defeat in Northrend — probably wouldn’t tax the RTS team too badly.

Interesting to think about, but again, it doesn’t seem likely.

If Eye of Azshara isn’t a hoax, I think it’s probably a Hearthstone expansion.

A game of HearthstoneWe know Blizzard is working on a big Hearthstone expansion, and there’s a pretty good chance they’d announce it at this year’s BlizzCon. Now would be the right time to trademark its title. So it makes sense.

So I think Eye of Azshara is probably a hoax, but there’s also a fairly strong chance it’s a Hearthstone expansion. It could be related to WoW — I hope it is, and I won’t rule it out — but it seems improbable.

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It’s also worth noting that the same post on MMO-Champion mentions that “Overwatch” has continued to proliferate across trademark databases, so there’s a good chance that’s legit. I have no further thoughts on the matter beyond what I’ve already said, though.