| trifecta United States. July 26 2012 13:26. Posts 834 | Profile # |
Patrick Wyatt, co-founder of ArenaNet, COO of the company developing TERA, and one of the early programmers at Blizzard wrote a great post (first of a series) on the early days of Blizzard and the development of Warcraft I. There's a lot of cool tidbits on the inspiration and design of Warcraft I, the origin of the name "Blizzard", and the old guard at Blizzard (he worked on WCI, WCII, and Diablo I). He also discusses why pre-SC2 Blizzard RTS games had limited unit selection, including this key quote about Warcraft I:
"we decided to allow players to select only four units at a time based on the idea that users would be required to pay attention to their tactical deployments rather than simply gathering a mob and sending them into the fray all at once."
One could argue that he and the early team at Blizzard are the origin of the debate on this now controversial topic. While the consensus was that single unit selection a la Dune was too limited, the team settled on limited selection even though Patrick had coded for unlimited selection at first. It's interesting to note that the first game to have unlimited selection was the original Command and Conquer (he notes that he may write a post on the consequences of this decision).
Finally, there are some details on the key people at early Blizzard, including current CEO Mike Morhaime, who wrote the original modem code for multiplayer in WCI.
http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/the-making-of-warcraft-part-1 |
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| endy China. July 26 2012 13:38. Posts 6233 | Profile Blog # |
Super interesting post.
People saying that unit selection in BW was capped to 12 only for technical reasons and not by design can shut their mouth now.
Thanks a lot for sharing. |
| | ★ SK Telecom T1 ★ MSL Forever ★ SonicBJ is my hero ★ Kim Taek Yong ♥ I took a photo with Bisu before it was mainstream | |
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 Barrin United States. July 26 2012 13:57. Posts 4206 | Profile Blog # |
I always knew BW's awesomeness wasn't an accident.
I assure you the rate of mining per worker with 50 minerals per worker, etc, was also no accident.Last edit: 2012-07-31 22:53:16 |
| | "It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong." -Voltaire |
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| Pufftrees July 26 2012 14:00. Posts 2322 | Profile # |
| Thanks for sharing this is sure to be quite interesting. |
| | Chance favors the prepared mind. |
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| sluggaslamoo Australia. July 26 2012 14:03. Posts 3603 | Profile Blog # |
On July 26 2012 13:26 trifecta wrote:
"we decided to allow players to select only four units at a time based on the idea that users would be required to pay attention to their tactical deployments rather than simply gathering a mob and sending them into the fray all at once."
Hah! see I told you guys [edit: that it was a design decision not a limitation] but you wouldn't listen! now I have proof!Last edit: 2012-07-26 14:09:44 |
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| Imbajoe United States. July 26 2012 14:08. Posts 482 | Profile # |
| That was really interesting, can't wait for the next part |
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| Doraemon Australia. July 26 2012 14:11. Posts 9700 | Profile Blog # | |
| | Do yourself a favour and just STFU |
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| Infernal_dream United States. July 26 2012 14:18. Posts 1850 | Profile # |
On July 26 2012 13:38 endy wrote:
Super interesting post.
People saying that unit selection in BW was capped to 12 only for technical reasons and not by design can shut their mouth now.
Thanks a lot for sharing.
Of course it was a decision on the design team. Aoe 2 had a huge unit selection range and was in the same era. Very interesting read though. |
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| endy China. July 26 2012 14:28. Posts 6233 | Profile Blog # |
On July 26 2012 14:18 Infernal_dream wrote:
Show nested quote +On July 26 2012 13:38 endy wrote:
Super interesting post.
People saying that unit selection in BW was capped to 12 only for technical reasons and not by design can shut their mouth now.
Thanks a lot for sharing.
Of course it was a decision on the design team. Aoe 2 had a huge unit selection range and was in the same era. Very interesting read though.
It seemed obvious to me as well, but I also heard countless times that unlimited selection had not been implemented in BW because of technical limitations... |
| | ★ SK Telecom T1 ★ MSL Forever ★ SonicBJ is my hero ★ Kim Taek Yong ♥ I took a photo with Bisu before it was mainstream | |
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| Brett Australia. July 26 2012 14:35. Posts 3297 | Profile Blog # |
| Nice, thanks for providing the link for this! |
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| snotboogie Australia. July 26 2012 14:38. Posts 3500 | Profile Blog # |
I've honestly been waiting for the transition to Starcraft 2 for a long time, simply because I want to see the KeSPA pros elevate the game to a new level.
But now that it's happening, more and more I am thinking, "why does this game have to die...?" |
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| castled United States. July 27 2012 07:10. Posts 288 | Profile # |
| Awesome read! I can't wait for the next parts. |
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| Grend July 27 2012 07:46. Posts 1553 | Profile Blog # |
| This is hilarious. The typical argument about unit selection being a technical limitation and having nothing to do with gameplay proven to be a lie. |
| | ♞ Against the Wind - Bob Seger ♞ |
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| ShaLLoW[baY] Canada. July 27 2012 07:49. Posts 10564 | Profile Blog # |
On July 27 2012 07:46 Grend wrote:
This is hilarious. The typical argument about unit selection being a technical limitation and having nothing to do with gameplay proven to be a lie.
Oh god, this. QED. Game set match. Checkmate, the dominos have fallen like a house of cards. |
| | what liquid use in fuck? (sAviOr for life) | |
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| sc4k United Kingdom. July 27 2012 08:00. Posts 4572 | Profile Blog # |
| THANK fucking god for this. I want to go back a few years in time and RAM this down the throats of the people who were saying that 12-unit groups were 'outdated'. |
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| FinestHour United States. July 27 2012 08:12. Posts 7056 | Profile # |
too bad the greatness is not as prevalent in its sequel  |
| | BUNCH OF KIDS THAT DONT BUILD WIDOW MINES CANT PLAY PHANTOM LANCER THINK ZED IS UNDERPOWERED rip puck my waifu |
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| L3gendary Canada. July 27 2012 09:14. Posts 1247 | Profile # |
It's interesting how they knew the pit falls of unlimited selection so long ago, yet that message seems to have been lost in the current generation of rts games.
On July 26 2012 14:18 Infernal_dream wrote:
Show nested quote +On July 26 2012 13:38 endy wrote:
Super interesting post.
People saying that unit selection in BW was capped to 12 only for technical reasons and not by design can shut their mouth now.
Thanks a lot for sharing.
Of course it was a decision on the design team. Aoe 2 had a huge unit selection range and was in the same era. Very interesting read though.
Actually, AOE 1 was released closer to SC1 and it had a 24 or 25 unit selection cap (depending on how you select the units). Numerous other rts games I've played have had caps as well such as Empire Earth and Rise of Nations. Newer games always had larger selection limits. |
| | Watching Jaedong play purifies my eyes. -Coach Ju Hoon | |
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| sluggaslamoo Australia. July 27 2012 16:51. Posts 3603 | Profile Blog # |
| I guess this article also proves that we may as well treat Blizzard as a completely different company to Blizzard of 10 years ago. |
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| cozzE Australia. July 27 2012 17:12. Posts 333 | Profile # |
On July 27 2012 16:51 sluggaslamoo wrote:
I guess this article also proves that we may as well treat Blizzard as a completely different company to Blizzard of 10 years ago.
This couldn't be any more accurate. Blizzard have undoubtedly gone backwards in terms of quality/innovation as the years have gone by. I could give many examples but the two that stick out the most (which were executed far better in the past) are the absolute attrocity that was D3 and how BNet 2.0 was allowed to exist in comparison to what was offered in WC3/SC:BW.Last edit: 2012-07-27 17:13:57 |
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| BookTwo July 27 2012 17:29. Posts 1953 | Profile Blog # |
On July 27 2012 16:51 sluggaslamoo wrote:
I guess this article also proves that we may as well treat Blizzard as a completely different company to Blizzard of 10 years ago.
Yup. They are on the stock exchange now. Gotta make dem $$$ now right? |
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