BlizzardEntertainment

Last edit May 22, 2012
The games Blizzard released includes: and before they were Blizzard, they released: currently in development

Oh, and while we're at it, let's give credit where credit is due, eh? Blizzard sued the Freecraft folk to kill Freecraft, a freebie, OpenSource real-time combat strategy game along the lines of Warcraft, KKND, War Inc., Total Annihilation, WarWind, Command and Conquer, ...

Blizzard is listed on CompaniesDoingXp. Anyone care to shed some light on the subject?

Well, as an avid player of WorldOfWarcraft, I can say the following:
  • The engine uses Lua - a lightweight scripting language.
  • The realm/world setup is very modular, with a strong update system.
  • Blizzard releases updates to keep the gameplay mechanics balanced. Players tend to use the following lingo:
    • "nerfing" - when a class/spell/talent is weakened to bring it back in balance with other character types
    • "balancing" - when a class/spell/talent is given new or improved capability
    • It's a matter of perspective - if one's class is weakened, that class says "they nerfed us!" - i.e. being made unfair, but when improved, people think of it as being made fair.
  • The updates are fairly frequent (but not too frequent), I'd say Blizzard is using an agile approach thre
    • Updates are always tested on special servers before widespread release - Closer to testing "interfaces" than pure bug testing.
    • Some updates are purely for fun - around christmas special gift-wrap and snowballs could be bought - i.e. for giving presents or having snowball fights
  • Blizzard maintains and monitors user forums:
    • and actually read what players are saying about the game! (but always with a skeptical eye, since players favor improvements to their class, and nerfs to others)
    • the biggest complaints seem to be what make it into the next patch.


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