Battle of the Inside Sources
An Update to “A Handful of Facts, A Spoonful of Reason”
Recently, as you may already be aware, we here at WanderingGoblin.com conducted an analysis of the recent rumors about Blizzard’s next game. The new title is scheduled to be announced at Blizzard?s World Wide International (WWI) tournament in Seoul, South Korea, on May 19th. Both Elvyra and I will be present to cover the event in real time. Sure, everything will probably be in Korean, and we won?t understand a thing that?s being said, but we?ll cover it in real time anyway.
Anyway, in our previous article ? A Handful of Facts, A Spoonful of Reason ? we tried to be as thorough as possible. We made note of the slew of information that was spinning around the net about the topic but, in the few days since that article was published, the spin hasn?t stopped. In fact, it has increased. A substantial amount of new information has come to light — many of it from sources described as “working for Blizzard” or “inside the company” and we thought you?d want to hear all about it. Here goes:
Problems with the CVG ?Announcment?
CVG is a substantial gaming news portal. On May 5th, they reported that they had a ?well-placed source? that told them the WWI announcement would be for a Starcraft MMO. Every gaming journalist in the world would have loved to be able to get that kind of inside information and write that article, but CVG scooped everyone. Plain and simple, this set the intertubes on fire with their announcement.
In our previous article, we pointed out that there were actually a few problems with the CVG article. First, it was very small ? only a few sentences long. Second, though they touted it on their front page, it didn?t get the big billing you?d expect. Remember, this is a major announcement. Blizzard?s World of Warcraft is, according to our estimates, the most financially successful game in history. A Starcraft MMO would very likely be equally successful. And yet CVG chose to give much bigger billing to updated patches for minor shooters and for driving-game screenshots. That, my discerning readers, is a funny way to handle a huge scoop like the one they were claiming.
There were other problems. The article had contained spelling and grammatical errors, again indicative that CVG had, perhaps, not given the article the necessary editorial oversight. Worse yet, the author included several factual faux pas, referring to World of Warcraft as ?arguably the biggest game around today? with a player base of ?6 million subscribers?.
If the CVG editor let that kind of thing get past him, do you think he verified the ?well-placed source??
But hang on a second, there are other problems. A guy who clearly doesn?t know jack about World of Warcraft is the one guy to get this kind of scoop? There?s a thousand gaming journalists who?d love this kind of inside information, and the one guy to get it doesn?t check his facts and can?t be bothered to use his spell-checker when he writes it up?
Since that time, other interesting developments have taken place. When we first read the CVG article, the author of the piece was named. (Though I don?t recall his name, I did see a name at the bottom of the article. I even considered trying to contact him for additional information, and now I wish I had?because now I?d have his name on my email client). CVG now indicates that authorship of the piece is ?CVG Staff?. Second, CVG has taken the article completely off their front page. It?s no where to be found. Instead, as of this writing, it?s eclipsed by pieces like the attention-grabbing interview of the director of Forza Motorsport 2 and the riveting announcement of Mario Party 8?s UK launch date.
One really has to ask: why would CVG do that?
Of course, an answer creeps to mind: They?ve had second thoughts. They?re backing away from their article, and/or their source. They?re also attempting to protect their writer. One thing is for certain: If CVG is having doubts about their own story, we at Wandering Goblin are developing some very serious concerns about it. In fact, we are downright suspicious.
Some Old News — Now Reborn as New and Interesting
Itzik ben Basset, a senior business guy at Blizzard, said some very interesting things earlier this year.
I’m a StarCraft player myself and I hope it’s not a decade, and we launched StarCraft in 1998, before I’m standing here again, celebrating the next game in the series.
Many, when reading his comments, assumed that a new Starcraft title was in the works.
Ah, Starcraft, how we miss you!
However, his comments strike us as a simple statement of opinion, and not hint-dropping. Of course, his statements weren?t forgotten. Hence, they?ve been resurrected since the speculation has begun to run rampant. Interesting? Yep.
While on this subject, lets consider this:
We are very committed to StarCraft: Ghost as a major part of our lineup. As a result, we plan to build additional time into the schedule to polish the game until it meets the high standards that our customers have come to expect from Blizzard products. We are sorry to disappoint players with a delayed launch but are confident that we will deliver a great game with the additional development time.
Who said it? None other than Blizzard?s grand pooh-bah, Mike Morhaime. This, too, has been resurrected recently. Could the upcoming announcement be for a new, updated Starcraft: Ghost?
We have a thing for hot, deadly twins.
We don?t know, of course. The fact that this announcement is close to two-years old gave us a bit of perspective. A lot can change in two years.
Tips and Counter-Tips
On another front, the seniormost editors at WorldofWar.Net have been tracking the various rumors floating around, and have received some tips of their own, some making claims of “inside” knowledge of various kinds. They acknowledge this is rampant right now; balanced as they are, they are advising it all be taken with a grain of salt. Elly writes:
Some of you may already know that at Blizzard’s WWI event in Korea next week, they plan to make a major announcement. While we don’t know exactly what that is, we have been tipped off by numerous connected people it will be StarCraft 2. We had another tip-off yesterday from a source close to Vivendi, who wishes to remain anonymous, that Diablo III is still in development. As with all rumours you need to take them with a pinch of salt but wouldn’t it be nice to finally hear some news on a new Diablo title 
You can read the stories in the original on either WorldofWar.Net, or on their Diablo II site.
As Elly advised in the above piece, keep all things in perspective, friends.
More Conflicting Claims
The Korea Times wrote an article about the upcoming WWI event, with particular emphasis on the new game to be announced. Their source is only described as someone ?familiar with the issue?. Their article claims that the next Blizzard game will, in fact, be an RTS. You can read a translation of the piece here.
When trolling for additional information on this issue, we came the below post, interestingly enough, in the comments directly below the CVG announcement:
I just spoke with my friend @ Blizzard and while there is an announcement happening on the 19th, he confirmed that “it’s no World of Starcraft” =) Thanks god!
Personally, we sometimes feel that we’re the only people without an inside source at Blizzard.
What I dont follow is why everyone seems to jump to the conclusion that its going to be a RPG. MMOFPS is more like what I would be expecting from Starcraft.
This got us thinking, especially in light of Mike Morhaime?s statement, above. In fact, a number of forum posters across the net have been speculating on the same thing. Is something different possible? An MMOFPS, perhaps? A Tablula Rasa clone? A Hellgate clone? A RTS with a first person element (highly innovative!), or an RTS with some role-playing elements? An RTS/MMO/FPS hybrid? In short, a game using Starcraft Ghost technology/software, but taken to the next level?
While mulling on that, mull these over:
Hmmmm. It’s a shooter…with a Starcraft feel to it.
And another, from the Zerg perspective.
And this, of course, is a third screenie featuring the same game.
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