hiya guys. Epicinsanity here from the Frozen Nerdz podcast. I plan on writing up the transcript, just wanted to get the audio out for everything. Since the panel was right next to the Overwatch trailer, its extremely loud in the background and hard to hear. I can even talk to Traysent and see if he has the summary too. I'm just still in Anahiem, so I haven't had much time for anything. I was gonna work on the transcript on my flight home.
Sorry for the audio quality, I'll see if I can clean it up more once I get home. I don't have all my programs with me, and I didn't realize they were doing this panel until Thursday night.
Thanks for covering it (also thanks to Traysent for hosting a mini-talk to begin with)! Arcade developments sounds pretty promising. Looking forward to the full transcript when you have the time.
Thanks for understanding. Trying to enjoy the last part of the vacation and I have listened to this Q&A probably 3 times thru plus live. I will work on it and put it into the link. I will just edit that blog post and add the info as i get it so it will be updated with the link above. I will also comment here to keep everyone in the loop.
thanks, a-lot of this information needs to get out to as many modders as possible, we cling (a little to hard at times) to any behind the scenes information that blizzard happens to reveal, and blizzcon is one of the big events we look forward to each year to get our updates, and any more information to dissect and discuss.
note/warning - this summary does not embody the entire discussion and is a very broad and general interpretation of the conversation that does not include all of the points made in detail. It is an early inturpritation I wanted to get out to the community before a more fully fleshed out more and accurate summary is posted by others. (parenthesis represent my own little snarky commentary or clarification on my summary)
------------------------------
(now that the disclosure is out of the way) So a summary of what I got from that, since the launch of heart of the swarm, 5 million unique users have played the arcade, and every week 35% of the players who load up starcraft go to the arcade. basically, modding is a very relevant thing to starcraft (for some of us, that is actually news we needed a few years ago), and while not as active as the start, is no where near from dead. Unfortunately (for some unknown reason...) they have not been able to share those numbers with us until now. Their most recant promotions of maps have been successfully giving them more exposure and people have been playing whatever is featured more, (despite the lack of reviews I guess?? (we need more info!)).
They mentioned a lot about the blizzard supported marketplace, and apologized for taking so long to clarify this (cuz they durped Hard letting people hang on that... :| ), but basically behind all the talk was (in my own words) "we don't know the details, but we really want to do it.", The idea is still out on the table, but they still have yet to flesh out all of the details, and when (or if) they start experimenting, they will tread lightly to test the waters. They do not anticipate an "app store" type thing, and would work with specific people with really good games, any monitization they would be involved in setting up. They in short want to reward us for great content, and give us more rewards and recognition, and ANOTHER rock the cabinet contest with a specific theme. (it is still highly advisable to map for fun, passion, and personal enlightenment...)
Server side banks has been heard, and is being brought up, but they first want to hear what we would use any new feature for before just implementing something that we might not have wanted. They also want to do a lot more documentation and they need our help to document the editor. That does not necessarily mean we would be writing the documentation ourselves, but even an interview would be much appreciated over something like skype. They want videos, maps that show how to do things, the whole lot, and need our help to see how far they can take this idea. (they can start the project using our wiki if they would like ;) )
As of late they have been attempting to empower their community people a bit more and go up the chain of command when they need help with a question or something, and are attempting to become more involved with talking with the modding community. OH AND AND, warcraft 3 models are going to be in the lotv expantion available for modders to play with, and since the heroes of the storm works off of the same engine, most of the models from that game will be available as well for us to use. (as an asset pack, I believe they are working with the asset pack here on sc2mapster and could release it next year in its entirety) But there is some sort of PTR in really really late January they want to do with that I believe. < (leaked stuff apparently.)
Also, any plans of the arcade being separated from the starcraft client entirely have not been made, and will most likely never happen. (no surprise personally, that's a big ass project) one other thing they said they would not be supporting is games like fps shooters, it would take too much work on the engine itself.
------------------------------
In closing Hope that information is accurate enough and my snarky comments don't take away from the accuracy, but at least entertain (and sharpen the pointy stick of truth). You can listen to it yourself on the website, a summary from our wonderful Traysent blizz community manager would still be much appreciated, I am sure that there was more talked about outside of this, and the transcript from the wonderful EpicinsanityFN will help those who for the life of them cannot understand the recording.
I also got the feeling like, there had to be more questions, more important information said off on the side, because there are so many more burning questions that the community as a whole has wondered, and wants clarification upon. Don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciated them starting to take the time to talk with us directly, and that you recorded the conversation, but I was left with the feeling of, there had to be more, and that there had to be more questions asked after the presenters did their presentation. I personally loved the little idea someone on this forum brought up of showing mappers how many people play their game on a daily or weekly basis for how long (maybe something to come with server side banks? :) )
Edit: I listened to the recording a little more and added some cool announcements that people would be interested in. Any corrections to something I am wrong about would be greatly appreciated, or adding onto any important things I missed, or may have misrepresented.
Edit 2: I will continue to update this post with more accurate information as time goes on if necessary.
Edit 3: moved any conversation to a new thread, I will try and explain any changes in that thread.
I wonder what they mean by theme for Rock the Cabinet, like a general concept (replayability, accessibility, etc.) or a genre (puzzles, rpg, etc.)? I hope not genre.
@greythepirate: Go
I am thinking of doing it tonight, i got a spare 3 hours lol
hiya guys. Epicinsanity here from the Frozen Nerdz podcast. I plan on writing up the transcript, just wanted to get the audio out for everything. Since the panel was right next to the Overwatch trailer, its extremely loud in the background and hard to hear. I can even talk to Traysent and see if he has the summary too. I'm just still in Anahiem, so I haven't had much time for anything. I was gonna work on the transcript on my flight home.
Sorry for the audio quality, I'll see if I can clean it up more once I get home. I don't have all my programs with me, and I didn't realize they were doing this panel until Thursday night.
@EpicinsanityFN: Go
okay thanks, I was 4 minutes in the audio and I was already starting to get frustrated typing up the transcript lol
you also have the advantage of memory while I was just going off what I was hearing.
@EpicinsanityFN: Go
Thanks for covering it (also thanks to Traysent for hosting a mini-talk to begin with)! Arcade developments sounds pretty promising. Looking forward to the full transcript when you have the time.
@PirateArcade | I make games | Ask me things on Discord
Thanks for understanding. Trying to enjoy the last part of the vacation and I have listened to this Q&A probably 3 times thru plus live. I will work on it and put it into the link. I will just edit that blog post and add the info as i get it so it will be updated with the link above. I will also comment here to keep everyone in the loop.
This post was moved to a new thread to be discussed here here (Thanks Bibendus!): http://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/general/general-chat/72064-summary-of-the-recorded-blizzcon-q-a/#p1
feel free to use the new thread to comment on, or talk about the recording in general until we get the official summary from trysent.
@EpicinsanityFN: Go
thanks, a-lot of this information needs to get out to as many modders as possible, we cling (a little to hard at times) to any behind the scenes information that blizzard happens to reveal, and blizzcon is one of the big events we look forward to each year to get our updates, and any more information to dissect and discuss.
note/warning - this summary does not embody the entire discussion and is a very broad and general interpretation of the conversation that does not include all of the points made in detail. It is an early inturpritation I wanted to get out to the community before a more fully fleshed out more and accurate summary is posted by others. (parenthesis represent my own little snarky commentary or clarification on my summary)
------------------------------(now that the disclosure is out of the way) So a summary of what I got from that, since the launch of heart of the swarm, 5 million unique users have played the arcade, and every week 35% of the players who load up starcraft go to the arcade. basically, modding is a very relevant thing to starcraft (for some of us, that is actually news we needed a few years ago), and while not as active as the start, is no where near from dead. Unfortunately (for some unknown reason...) they have not been able to share those numbers with us until now. Their most recant promotions of maps have been successfully giving them more exposure and people have been playing whatever is featured more, (despite the lack of reviews I guess?? (we need more info!)).
They mentioned a lot about the blizzard supported marketplace, and apologized for taking so long to clarify this (cuz they durped Hard letting people hang on that... :| ), but basically behind all the talk was (in my own words) "we don't know the details, but we really want to do it.", The idea is still out on the table, but they still have yet to flesh out all of the details, and when (or if) they start experimenting, they will tread lightly to test the waters. They do not anticipate an "app store" type thing, and would work with specific people with really good games, any monitization they would be involved in setting up. They in short want to reward us for great content, and give us more rewards and recognition, and ANOTHER rock the cabinet contest with a specific theme. (it is still highly advisable to map for fun, passion, and personal enlightenment...)
Server side banks has been heard, and is being brought up, but they first want to hear what we would use any new feature for before just implementing something that we might not have wanted. They also want to do a lot more documentation and they need our help to document the editor. That does not necessarily mean we would be writing the documentation ourselves, but even an interview would be much appreciated over something like skype. They want videos, maps that show how to do things, the whole lot, and need our help to see how far they can take this idea. (they can start the project using our wiki if they would like ;) )
As of late they have been attempting to empower their community people a bit more and go up the chain of command when they need help with a question or something, and are attempting to become more involved with talking with the modding community. OH AND AND, warcraft 3 models are going to be in the lotv expantion available for modders to play with, and since the heroes of the storm works off of the same engine, most of the models from that game will be available as well for us to use. (as an asset pack, I believe they are working with the asset pack here on sc2mapster and could release it next year in its entirety) But there is some sort of PTR in really really late January they want to do with that I believe. < (leaked stuff apparently.)
Also, any plans of the arcade being separated from the starcraft client entirely have not been made, and will most likely never happen. (no surprise personally, that's a big ass project) one other thing they said they would not be supporting is games like fps shooters, it would take too much work on the engine itself.
------------------------------In closing Hope that information is accurate enough and my snarky comments don't take away from the accuracy, but at least entertain (and sharpen the pointy stick of truth). You can listen to it yourself on the website, a summary from our wonderful Traysent blizz community manager would still be much appreciated, I am sure that there was more talked about outside of this, and the transcript from the wonderful EpicinsanityFN will help those who for the life of them cannot understand the recording.
I also got the feeling like, there had to be more questions, more important information said off on the side, because there are so many more burning questions that the community as a whole has wondered, and wants clarification upon. Don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciated them starting to take the time to talk with us directly, and that you recorded the conversation, but I was left with the feeling of, there had to be more, and that there had to be more questions asked after the presenters did their presentation. I personally loved the little idea someone on this forum brought up of showing mappers how many people play their game on a daily or weekly basis for how long (maybe something to come with server side banks? :) )
Edit: I listened to the recording a little more and added some cool announcements that people would be interested in. Any corrections to something I am wrong about would be greatly appreciated, or adding onto any important things I missed, or may have misrepresented.
Edit 2: I will continue to update this post with more accurate information as time goes on if necessary.
Edit 3: moved any conversation to a new thread, I will try and explain any changes in that thread.
this should be a separated thread for everyone to notice :)
I wonder what they mean by theme for Rock the Cabinet, like a general concept (replayability, accessibility, etc.) or a genre (puzzles, rpg, etc.)? I hope not genre.
@Charysmatic: Go
I imagine it'll be more like "Protoss Themed" > legacy of the void
@PirateArcade | I make games | Ask me things on Discord