Starcraft 2 and Infested Blizzard

Like a lot of old school gamers, I’ve been eagerly following news pertaining to Blizzard (now Activision-Blizzard) and Starcraft 2.  My background as a gamer has dovetailed with my business degree to give me some seriously conflicting opinions on this subject, as well as a lot of others.  I have an additional conflict of interest here as a stockholder in the company.

So when I learned last week that the decision had been made to cut LAN play from Starcraft 2 entirely (steering players to Battle.net), my immediate response of righteous indignation was tempered by the knowledge that as a publicly traded company, the entire management and design team from Bobby Kotick on down is responsible to the shareholders.  The era of goodies like “spawning,” the feature of the original Starcraft title that allowed you to install versions of the game on your friends’ computers which could only be used for multiplayer with the original version, is over.  While those little features contributed to Starcraft’s success as one of the most popular PC titles ever, the brand and the company have such recognition now that the features are not as necessary.  People will buy the game; they don’t need to try it for free, so there is no reason for a for-profit company to offer it that way in any way, shape or form.

I’ll buy the game, and I’m glad that the management is watching the bottom line on my (and their own) behalf.  However, I’m sad as a gamer that new IPs are few and far between, and that something of Activision-Blizzard’s respect for the gamers themselves is drying up as the company churns out disk after useless disk in their Guitar Hero franchise, and publicizes its disdain for IPs that can’t be serialized and milked for a decade rather than letting great stories end honorably and well.