Sampy

Blizzcon 08: Frank Pearce on random instances, Wow Mobile and more

Sampy — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:58:00 GMT

Channel 10 interviewed Frank Pearce, Executive Vice President of Product Development for Blizzard Entertainment on what's coming after Wrath of the Lich King, random instances in Wow, Wow outside of Wow, class balance, destructible cities, armor dyes, and more.

Note: Due to the audio quality, the transcript of this interview is included below.

Transcript

Channel 10: We're here, Channel 10 with Frank Pearce, Frank, why don't you quickly introduce yourself?

Frank Pearce: Sure, my name is Frank Pearce; I'm an Executive Vice President of Product Development for Blizzard Entertainment.

C10: We've been looking at the Blizzcon announcements, what are some of your favorite features, what are the things that didn't make it into Wrath of the Lich King that you all are talking about for, say, future content packs?

FP: Wow, the laundry list is pretty long; at the top of my list personally is improved guild support. The little guild window we have to manage a list of 500 names has grown infeasible. So, one example for me would be better guild features, but we have a big laundry list, we want to continue the storyline, there's more stuff that we want to tell as far as the story goes, we've got different options there. We actually, after we ship Wrath, we'll get the development team together, take a step back, and brainstorm some of the features that everyone is thinking about so we can lock down the feature set for the next expansion.

C10: There's been a number of announcements around Diablo 3, random instances, adventures, and we see the Diablo 3 team talking about some of the features that they borrowed from World of Warcraft. For World of Warcraft players, are there going to be, say, random instances or random encounters, or random zones where the zones could change...

[Video breaks as Frank's phone rings]

C10: Random instances or random areas, anything that you see borrowing from the Diablo world, or maybe even destructible things where your spells could actually destroy things, people seem to love that.

FP: Blowing sh*t up is always fun (laughter). Random instances is something that came up as a potential for something that we'd do in a future expansion. It really depends on the guys that put together the raid dungeons and the five-man dungeons handcraft those to make sure the experience is of a specific level of quality so it's something that we'll have to evaluate whether we can deliver the experience when it's random versus hand crafted.

C10: In February 2008 a number of people got really excited when you started talking about Warcraft outside of Warcraft, specifically it was an interview you had done on Warcraft Mobile.

FP: That was at Dice (laughter).

C10: So what things can you talk about, are you all working on Warcraft Mobile and what's the current situation and I've got some follow up questions on that.

FP: Okay, yeah, we'd like to be able to some stuff with Mobile devices, we don't have any development resources in house devoted to that as of yet, but we are looking for Mobile developers so we can start to go down that path. You know I mean the laundry list of things we could potentially do is pretty long, the things that I think would be pretty cool include like character profiles or being able to view your in-game mail, view your auctions, or guild chat, stuff like that. We're not talking about Mobile in the context of creating mobile games but as you mentioned in the context of enhancing the existing game experience that we've delivered to our players.

C10: A lot of people love some of the new stuff you all are doing on the Web site, having armory, having my guild, being able to look up what the latest stats and changes (to characters) and really supporting the community as well by making that available as XML and sites like SK-Gaming that do regular polls (of the armory). Are you all looking to add Guild Calendar to the Web which is a classic thing where you're organizing people...

FP: We've got guild calendar slated for, yeah, it's in the Lich King...

C10: But outside the game, meaning through the Web site.

FP: Definitely something that we're talking about, when we would be able to launch that depends on the resources available on the Web team as they have a lot of stuff going on. If you go up to the Armory, it's still listed as being in Beta (laughter); it's been live for a while. It's definitely a really cool idea and definitely something that we'll want to do at some point.

C10: The other ones, just to rattle these off are presence - so you can actually see when your friends are online and actually see which of my guild mates are online without having to log into the game.

FP: From the Web and/or mobile?

C10: Yeah.

FP: That would cool. Friends list.

C10: Yes.

FP: I can dig that.

C10: And achievements, which is another thing you see in like say Xbox where you have your, you know your "bragging card".

FP: Yeah achievements on Mobile and Web is another really good idea too.

C10: Okay, so it's something you all are...?

FP: So I'll point the designers to this interview (laughter).

C10: And actually you had mentioned in-game mail as well (on mobile). So there's always discussion on class balance, and I think there's always fights, but the reality is that when you all build those, when you try and do that, you all use spreadsheets, is that correct? You have actual math, it's not throwing darts.

FP: Yeah, yeah, there are spreadsheets behind it, the balance designers have mathematical backgrounds, more of the hard science backgrounds compared to the creative backgrounds, which you'll see in a lot of the designers that are doing lore and quests and stuff. Yeah, we definitely have guys on it full time and that's why we're always iterating on it, there job is to make sure that the classes are well balanced and not just well balanced but also viable in all of the different gaming experiences that we provide whether its outdoor PVE or raiding or battlegrounds PVP or arena PVP and they are committed to making sure that all of the classes are balanced and viable. It's an iterative process and fortunately WoW is an online experience that gives us the luxury of being able to iterate pretty frequently.

C10: Right and you know a lot of people say or argue about, say my class doesn't do enough damage. Have you all looked at or considered releasing some of those numbers in some way that is digestible, so you're not, a number of people are taking the target dummies in the beta to do damage calculations for spells. Sort of helping the hardcore gamers that really want that in-game data or to respond to people that are saying we don't have enough damage when the reality is that you all have calculated it and you have, in fact balanced the classes.

FP: I think even if we provided those spreadsheets and some more concrete numbers, I think at the end of the day it would still be subjective right, since at some point someone's going to have to make an argument about whether a hunter should have higher DPS than a rogue or vice versa and under what circumstances that should be. So even if we gave them concrete data I still think that there would be a lot of people out there going with their theory craft arguments and it's probably more controversy then we're interested in creating.

C10: I don't know if there could be more controversy (laughter).

FP: You'd be surprised.

C10: PVP, you all added the Havoc physics engine to Diablo and we've seen some of the destructible things in Wintergrasp, are you all looking to either revisit old content to get World PVP going? This is another thing where people remember the Tarren Mill battles, are you all doing anything to make it so that you could actually have siege weapons destroy Stormwind for example?

FP: It's something that we'll probably want to take a look at after we've seen how Wintergrasp plays out because Wintergrasp is the PVP zone in Wrath of the Lich King that's going to have siege weapons and destructible buildings and so once we see how that plays out and we see how fun that is and seeing what kind of popularity it has we'll look at whether or not we want to do something like that. It's definitely a cool and ambitious idea.

C10: Speaking of Lake Wintergrasp this is one of the things where people love to be in Alterac Valley and there were a number of things learned from that and even the addition of destruction with destructible objects and buildings and siege weapons, the only thing is it seems to be only a limited time. In other words you have 40 minutes to take Lake Wintergrasp and then you can't take it again (for 2.5 hours). What was the reasoning behind sort of making it that versus just having it, you know the people that love PVP and just stay in there and continuously battle? It seems to go more PVE once it's captured.

FP: You asked a really specific question that I wouldn't be able to do justice by even trying to answer. Tom Chilton is the game systems designer and he's got a big focus on PVP and maybe we can have you guys follow up with Shon afterwards and get you some answers to that via email or even later in the show. I don't want to butcher the answer as that's pretty specific.

C10: The last question is armor dyes are you all thinking of
even potentially doing just simple stuff with the tier sets so the Paladin's who don't like pink for example could dye it maybe, darker red.

FP: Yeah that's definitely something that comes up in discussion periodically. There's arguments for both sides of it. Right now we're sitting on the side of the fence that says that we want the tier x armor set to be very distinguishable. We don't necessarily want people changing the color palette of it, but it's definitely something that comes up as a discussion topic and we'll have to see.

C10: Okay, excellent thanks.

FP: Thank you.

Blizzcon Costume, Silly, & Dance contest winners

Dan — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:28:00 GMT

At Blizzcon 2008, attendees get a chance to win fabulous prizes (like a Frostmourne sword) by dressing up in costumes, thinking up witty one-liners, and of course busting a move in the dance contest. Check out this year's winners:

Costume Contest
Third Place: Alexander Gross, Tyrael
Second Place: Thrall, orc chieftain
First Place: Amanda Hoster, female shaman riding turtle mount

/Silly Contest
Third Place: Steven Ross
Second Place: Steve Morales
First Place: James Taplin

Dance Contest
Third Place: Vincent Lewis, ogre/moonkin
Second Place: Edwin Jung, troll male
First Place: Katie Stirman, undead female

BlizzCon 08: Diablo III Class Design Panel

Sampy — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:08:00 GMT

One of the first panels I attended was the Diablo III Class Design talk featuring Jay Wilson and other members of the D3 team. We had just witnessed the unveiling of the brand spankin' new Wizard class so this panel promised to give us a sneak peak behind the newest defender of Sanctuary as well as other behind the scenes information. They talked about the skill system and how animations and graphics feed back into making a class shine.

The D3 designers want to give players that glass cannon that so many of them love. Sure it can blow things to pieces but get in their face and they aren't exactly the sturdiest of heroes. The Wizard is for that player who looks at the character selection screen and says, "I want to blow stuff up." For those Diablo 2 fans out there, this is an iteration on the fan favorite Sorceress class but with a different focus. Rather than summoning the elemental powers of Fire, Ice, and Lightning, a Wizard uses what Blizzard is calling "High Magic." This involves channeling the raw forces of the universe. The designers described the powers warping the laws of physics, weather control, and even time control to lay waste to foes. They even went into detail of the history of the Wizard. "She didn't study for her Conjuration class... but she aced it," one developer joked. "Her teachers said, 'Don't study that, it's forbidden.' So she said, 'That's what I want to learn.' We'll have to see if that gets her into trouble down the line." Take a look at how she looks in the preview video and you can see how this plays into character design.

They showed off a few skills for the Wizard. Magic Missile, a fantasy classic and very useful for shooting into the darkness, is the first spell a Wizard uses. In raw numbers terms, it's not much different than a Fireball or Ice Bolt but the designers explained that even a simple choice like this has design implications down the road. Players expect a Fireball spell to upgrade into burning damage or an explosion, an Ice Bolt slowing foes or freezing them. A Magic Missile, however, fires more and more bolts as it increases in power or starts homing in on targets. By starting from here, more skills start to come into view as the design evolves.

The other Wizard skills detailed were:
Electrocute - Part of the weather control power set, it's like a beefed up Chain Lightning spell that bounces electricity from target to target.
Slow Time - This is the bubble that the Wizard uses in the preview video. Time control isn't something you see often in RPG games, especially multiplayer. They originally wanted the slow to be gamewide but the implications for multiplayer seemed pretty un-fun. As it stands, it's a great defensive power that really makes the Wizard feel powerful.
Disintegrate - Another pen and paper RPG classic, this powerful spell rarely makes it into computer RPGs. It began it's life as a Barbarian skill called great swing. The idea was for the player to hold down the mouse button and build up a big attack. For the barbarian though, it ended up not being very fun. Monsters would shoot the player from range, well meaning friends would kill the foe before he got too close, etc. On the Wizard, however, holding down the button and sweeping firey death across the battlefield is pretty fun. As the spell hits a single target, it "heats up" doing more and more damage.

The next bit of the panel was about the skill system. They went through a ton of iterations. I chose one of the craziest above to show you that they really considered everything. They have a saying at Blizzard though, "Different but worse isn't better, better is better." This brought them back to something a little closer to those who've played Diablo II. Check it out:

On the left of each tier, you can see active skills. These are just like the kind of abilities you spend points on in Diablo II. To the right, you can see passive skills that allow you to beef up your abilities without adding too many actions to your bar. They want to keep that Diablo feel of fast clicking action rather than something like World of Warcraft where you need at least a dozen skills. Now what are those little circles under the active skills you ask? Why, those are Rune slots of course!

For those who can remember way back to the original Diablo, skills dropped from books. They liked the way this mirrored the random drop feel of items but it was too random. Runes are a middle ground between D1 and D2. The runes aren't class specific and can be put in any skill. The trick is that each skill changes differently depending on what rune you put into it. A lethality rune makes Electrocute cause foes it kills to explode and damage everything around it. Also as pointed out many times, explosions are cool; cheers showed that they were right when they said, "we have our finger on the pulse of the Diablo community." Multi-strike causes the Witch Doctor's Flame Skull to skip across the ground before exploding and the Wizard's teleport spell to create duplicates of the caster to confuse foes.

After covering classes, the technical effects designer talked a bit about player skills and monster deaths. Each class has their own feel: Barbarians display great physical power, Witch Doctor's use various voodoo items and swarms to damage foes, and the Wizard was described in two words: Light Show. All of these help add a visceral feel to playing Diablo. Of course one of the best parts of Diablo is watching hordes of monsters die before you. They added basic physics to monsters so they would fall as they were cut down but didn't stop there. Critcial deaths can occur with crushing swings, exploding with blood. Different damage types leave monsters in pieces or glowing with purple energy. Disintegrate leaves nothing behind and swarm leave only bones. All of this plays into the fun of Diablo: battling the minions of the Lord of Terror and mowing down his hordes.

All in all, Diablo III is looking like a great edition to the Diablo series. It still looks a ways off at this point but what I've seen so far makes me quite excited.

Are you excited about Diablo III? What class are you going to play? Let us know what you think!

BlizzCon 08: Sampy and Dan at the show!

Sampy — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:54:00 GMT

Hey all you PC gamers out there, didn't get tickets to BlizzCon? Don't have DirectTV Pay Per View? Don't worry! Dan and I are on the case!

We're here right now in the BlizzCon convention hall recording and blogging the even just for you (well, and Channel 9 too). We just witnessed the opening ceremonies with Blizzard's Mike Mordheim kicking things off. He showed off the Wrath of the Lich King opening cinematic on the big screen as well as revealed the third Diablo III playable class: the Wizard!

We'll be taking lots of video and pictures of panels and fans and pushing them up as soon as we can tear ourselves away from the action. Stay tuned!

Natural language search in Vista

Jesse — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 18:09:00 GMT

One of the most time-honored traditions for geeks is the setup process of a new machine, and with Vista only days away millions of people are readying themselves for this ceremony. Mike Torres has found one to add to our lists: the Natural Language Search option in Windows Vista.

This brilliant little option gives Vista the ability to understand more human search queries like, "Pictures of Sampy," or "email about nerf weapons from last week." For some reason this little gem is turned off by default, so be sure to get into your control panels and enable it.

MC Chris Rocked the house

Sampy — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:01:00 GMT

Awesome show last night from MC Chris.

capitalSteps opened the show with some rocking techno played only on GameBoys. He had an SP, a Micro and a super old school original GameBoy complete with LightBoy. You gotta see to rock.

Next up was Optimus Rhyme. These Seattle boys were the only act that night to use a non-computer based instrument. I think that this "guitars" could catch on with the kids.

Chris rocked the house as always. He's not only rap-tastic but educational as well. Here's what I learned about Rap Hands (one hand in the air boucing to the beat):

1. Do not do Rap hands throughout the entire song. You will get a cramp and will be unable to play video games.
2. If you find that Rap hands do not adequately express how hardcore you are, bend your elbow a bit. Now you are very hardcore
3. Do not at any time stop doing Rap hands. If you stop, you will be a bad guy from Wolfenstien. Keep your hands going at all times.

Soon we'll have some footage for you guys and you'll be able to practice your Rap hands along to the phat beats.

So many blogs...

Sampy — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 18:59:26 GMT

You can also find me at my personal site sampy.com. I have a blog there for more personal matters.

I also have a Windows Live Space that should have all of these feeds in one spot for you to check out.

PAX Day 3: In-depth coverage from the Sampy Cam

Sampy — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 18:05:32 GMT

While PAX has great games on display, awesome panels, and great speakers it's first and foremost about the fans. I took a camera into the crowds, the gaming rooms and even all the way out to the tabletop gaming to show you what it's like to be a fan at PAX. Pop open a bottle of BAWLS and hone your Smash Brothers and Halo 2 skills because this is PAX from a fans eye view.