How good is Blizzard?

As I go around the internet looking at reviews of DIablo III, I am confronted with nothing but 5 stars, 9 points..etc,and clearly I think those of us who have played it can agree that the game is truly exceptional. As I was watching / reading the reviews, I began to wonder, what did other Blizzard games get, so I checked for WoW. All the WoW expansions have pretty much consistently gotten 9's and 5 stars on all websites. I then look at Starcraft II, same thing 9's and 5 stars. Warcraft III, same. Diablo II, same. Starcraft I same. Diablo I, same. It's just a testament to the company that looking over their history, you see a consistent trend of high quality polished, near perfect games, that are well received both critically and financially. Where do you think Blizzard ranks in terms of game developers (the Activision component aside)?

While Blizzard's actual ability to evolve and do new things may come into question, one thing I consistently notice from them is they have a knack for creating games that are extremely polished. Diablo 3, in my opinion, does things that plenty of other games do well but the game is so damn polished. I still don't know why it took them as long as it did to come out, but that's another thing. I would say their biggest flaw, in my eyes, is originality and creativity. I see more of the same but they do make extremely polished products. The real test will be when they release a new IP for the first time in ages in the form of the new MMO they are working on. If it ends up being just a WOW clone then they've pretty much dried the well at that point.

How do they rank? I don't know and I don't care honestly.

Blizzard has been consistently good, if uninspired to buck the sequel trend for new IPs. They're essentially like Bioware, before bioware nose-dived into shit.

They are one of the top five developers in the business.

I prefer the amazing janky games from Bethesda over the tame yet very polished games from Blizzard. That said I always enjoy playing Blizzard games but they don't get me as excited as I do for a brand spanking new Bethesda game.

EDIT: Oh man if those two companies joined forces, they would make godly games! But they would never come out being the drawback I guess.

number one IMO.

especially as a mac user.

No question they are one of the top developers in gaming history. So many iconic titles and it just seems as though they keep getting better. I would have to say that in terms of high quality products, in my opinion, you can say that Valve, Blizzard, and Rockstar are in a league to themselves.

In my opinion, they make boring games(SC2/WOW) and shitty DRM(D3).

So good.

Blizzard is good in taking an idea and polishing it to perfection. I never ever expect anything original out of them though. A game like ... Portal/Portal 2 would never come out of that company.

Rock'n'Roll Racing.

They're giving me what I want, let others innovate.

Pretty good.

Mediocre.

@Kaiserreich said:

In my opinion, they make boring games(SC2/WOW) and shitty DRM(D3).

How is SC II boring, and have you actually played D3 or are you just hating on "big bad" corporations.

@2HeadedNinja said:

Blizzard is good in taking an idea and polishing it to perfection. I never ever expect anything original out of them though. A game like ... Portal/Portal 2 would never come out of that company.

I agree with you to an extent, specifically with games like WoW expansions, and D3, however, the single player in SC2 was incredibly groundbreaking for an RTS (IMO). The non-linnear mission structure. The concept of having an actual choice, the ability to interact with characters to expand the story, and the armory / lab upgrades. Those to me were very unique, stuff I've never seen in an RTS ever before. I didn't get that into WoW, because MMO's aren't my thing, but it was also pretty unique in the world of MMO games. No studio has really ever been able to top it. Maybe Star Wars ToR, but it's too soon to tell. You are right on about Portal / Portal 2 though. It would be way too risky for them. I will say though, if you had 3 amazing franchises (ie, Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo) would you really care about originality. You have no idea what I would do for a Warcraft 4 right now lol.

Their games are polished, sure, but I think it's all utter crap. Their RTS' are so barebones and basic and they're made for competetive gaming. Their MMO is barebones and basic, made for simpletons and people who can't handle EVE Online or Star Wars Galaxies pre-NGE. Sure, all of their games are polished, but that alone can't make a good game. Not to mention they're so arrogant they think their games are worth 60 bucks even a year or two after release. I wouldn't pay 60 dollars for a game even on day one, let alone Starcraft 2 two years after it was launched. Not worth the money, not worth the time. People like their games and I can see why, but they're not for me. Too simple, too basic, not enough meat. Keep in mind when you try to argue "Everyone likes it!" that American Idol has been the most watched TV show of the 2000s, and Jersey Shore is popular as all get out amongst the masses.

How is Diablo 3 new and re-inventive? Answer me that.

People still buy their games in the millions so I would say pretty good.

Tie between Blizzard and Valve for first.

Blizzard are tops. Blizzard, Valve, and Bethesda are some of my favorite devs of all time.

I can't even play most of Blizzard's games and they seem pretty top tier to me, they seem like a company devoted to making sure a game is just right. It feels a little calculated, but it always seems like that company puts 100% of themselves into their games.

Also, I freaking love the art direction from that studio. At least from Warcraft 3 on.

@Dany said:

How is Diablo 3 new and re-inventive? Answer me that.

It's not, particularly. It's a loot-driven character action-RPG among many similar ones. It just so happens that Blizzard made several of the best ones, if not the best one (which I believe an argument could be made between Diablo 2 and 3). Even if you don't like this sort of game, it's probably the best one out there on the market right now, because of its level of polish and accessibility to just about everyone with an Internet connection and the damn addictive feeling it can cause. It's much the same as every game they've put out in the last decade. So yes, Blizzard is up there among the best right now, even if I think Valve is better and doing more interesting things for gaming as a whole.

I don't mean to sound like I'm having a go at you, I realise I've let my opinion run wild. Such is the Internet.

@giyanks22: I said in my opinion. And I haven't played D3 because I refuse to support Blizzards shitty DRM.

I haven't ever liked a Blizzard game. I think they are 1 of the top 3 developers of all time.

@JBG4 said:

No question they are one of the top developers in gaming history. So many iconic titles and it just seems as though they keep getting better. I would have to say that in terms of high quality products, in my opinion, you can say that Valve, Blizzard, and Rockstar are in a league to themselves.

I would swap out Rockstar for Nintendo in that league.

@Kaiserreich said:

@giyanks22: I said in my opinion. And I haven't played D3 because I refuse to support Blizzards shitty DRM.

Seems like a pretty dumb reason to miss out on a great game. So in say 5 years you are just going to be done with gaming?

Number 1 or 2. Easily my favorite RPG developer.

Decent games, awful everything else.
 
Edit: Oh, on the games. Chris Metzen really needs to stop writing or find someone who can to help him. (Not Knaak.)

They're incredible, and I haven't even played any of their games since Warcraft: Orcs and Humans (none really appeal to me). They aren't the most creative developer out there (at least within the past decade or so), but they're just so incredibly good at making games. There aren't many games that mange to be as fully realized and honed down as theirs are.

I personally see Blizzard as Lawful Neutral myself. They're a bit too corporate now to really earn the alignment of "good".

Oh, their games? Pretty good. Diablo III is pretty good. I wouldn't call it earth-shattering (it's far too conservative in its design for that), but I had fun.

@Kaiserreich said:

@giyanks22: I said in my opinion. And I haven't played D3 because I refuse to support Blizzards shitty DRM.

Seems like a pretty dumb reason to miss out on a great game. So in say 5 years you are just going to be done with gaming?

@david1890: Totally understandable, the choices there were nothing but personal taste for me. I can absolutely see why someone would see why Nintendo belonged on there and even though they are not in my personal top 3 they are still pretty high on the list.

My favorite, and only company, I claim fanboyism for with pride.

@Ben_H: @laserbolts: Ah jeez I'm sorry guys. All hail the glorious Blizzard! Dissenters will be shot! That better?

@Kaiserreich said:

@Ben_H: @laserbolts: Ah jeez I'm sorry guys. All hail the glorious Blizzard! Dissenters will be shot! That better?

No actually it's a pretty shitty response and only proves that you aren't worth responding to anymore.

They're alright I guess. Some awful business and design decisions, but their games are good enough. If often very simple.

Blizz has a pretty amazing track record of well made games.

Even as someone who does not like Diablo III, I can't deny that. IT's nice to have someone carrying the PC gaming flame.

I don't know, How good is your local crack dealer?

@Rohok said:

Their games are polished, sure, but I think it's all utter crap. Their RTS' are so barebones and basic and they're made for competetive gaming. Their MMO is barebones and basic, made for simpletons and people who can't handle EVE Online or Star Wars Galaxies pre-NGE. Sure, all of their games are polished, but that alone can't make a good game. Not to mention they're so arrogant they think their games are worth 60 bucks even a year or two after release. I wouldn't pay 60 dollars for a game even on day one, let alone Starcraft 2 two years after it was launched. Not worth the money, not worth the time. People like their games and I can see why, but they're not for me. Too simple, too basic, not enough meat. Keep in mind when you try to argue "Everyone likes it!" that American Idol has been the most watched TV show of the 2000s, and Jersey Shore is popular as all get out amongst the masses.

What's wrong with being bare bones, basic or popular?

Chess is basic, yet it's a great game, most sports are basic and they're good for that reason. Making something basic, but leaving large areas for complexity is what has made many things great.

The popularity argument is stupid.

Also I've played over 200 hours of Starcraft and barely even used custom maps which within it self is a big draw to some people. Just because something isn't worth x amount of money to you, doesn't mean a product isn't worth it's selling price.

@Kaiserreich: Yea I take enough of crap in life, I don't see how taking more from video games is helping me. As for the question, even though I'm not really into their games, I believe they're top tier. They basically run Korea and many pc gamers hold them in high regard. they're doing something right.

@laserbolts said:

@Kaiserreich said:

@giyanks22: I said in my opinion. And I haven't played D3 because I refuse to support Blizzards shitty DRM.

Seems like a pretty dumb reason to miss out on a great game. So in say 5 years you are just going to be done with gaming?

Well, that the reason why i didn't buy the game, you can insult it if you feel the need to make yourself feel better, but it doesn't change how i feel about the issue. And to answer your second question, no, i won't be done with gaming in five years.

@Ben_H said:

@laserbolts said:

@Kaiserreich said:

@giyanks22: I said in my opinion. And I haven't played D3 because I refuse to support Blizzards shitty DRM.

Seems like a pretty dumb reason to miss out on a great game. So in say 5 years you are just going to be done with gaming?

Just what I was thinking when I read that, since always-connected DRM will be the future. Given that probably 75% of my game playing time is devoted to Blizzard games, I would say they seem pretty good. They support their games better than any other company, even if it sometimes can be a bit slow. They have fixed a huge number of complaints in SC2, and continue to almost 2 years into the game's life. HOTS basically fixes every major issue people have with the game.

I can only speak for my self, and I have no problem with DRM. And in some cases always on DRM. But this game isnt a good enough game to get me to buy into their system.

@laserbolts: Ok how about this, I'm not going support a company that makes moves I see as bad for the industry. The fact that you can lag out of a single-player game is unacceptable and seeing so many people blindly support it because the game is good is sad. They haven't stopped the pirates and they aren't gonna.

As a developer I'd say you'd have to consider them among the very best.

Yeah originality may not be their strong suit, but their execution, consistency and polish is rarely rivaled. They make some really fun games.

Personally I don't get their games at all, the only game I enjoyed was The Lost Vikings and I was 8....they personally don't rank high for me but putting bias aside one of the best, most important companies ever. As much as I hate Activision who they are associated with (but the seem like very different companies, very weird relationship) and I personally don't get or enjoy their games, they know what they are doing and I am very impressed by it, wish some companies treated. But you got to minus points for taking fucking forever to release a game, and then there are are problems, that is fuckin ridiculous.

Blizzard are an amazing company, certainly one of the most impressive in the whole industry. They're not perfect, but they do so much for their fans, and are able to inject so much talent and production value into their games. They've managed to make themselves the kings of about three different game genres and there's not many companies who can say that.

They are really, really, really, REALLY good at what they do.

I don't know about Top Tier comments. The games they put out do seem polished but then again take into consideration how long their development times were. SC2 and Diablo 3 both had over 6 years of development time. Most games these days are done in 18 months or so. If Epic could work on a Gears of War for 7 years it would probably also be a lot more polished. Their WoW money is certainly affording them all this extra dev time but let's all be honest - Diablo 3 while a fun game to play, does not show all those years of development. Just the other day they rolled out a balancing patch for the monk and demon hunter characters. I find it kind of bewildering that after all those years of development they still need to do balancing patching, on a mostly single player game against NPC mobs. This is a good time to mention that despite all those years they were still unable to release the retail game with PVP.

So considering how little they pushed the genre, and the many small, yet recognizable bugs the game has, after years and years of development by a huge studio I find that not really the mark of a Top Tier company anymore.

Blizzard is certainly one of the best developers in the industry. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of their games. I've played Warcraft III and Starcraft II and obviously Diablo II. And while i enjoyed all those games, i wouldn't count them among my favorites. With that said, Blizzard is a great developer, regardless of my opinion of their games.

But Black Isles will forever be my favorite developer, closely followed by Bethesda.

Super good?