Blizzard Wants StarCraft 2 to be Mom Friendly

Producer explains that SC2 will please the hardcore, but he wants his family to play it too.

By Kris Pigna, 11/02/2008

It's the way of the world these days, and it seems even a famously hardcore real-time strategy series is no longer safe -- the simple fact is casual gamers are on developers minds. Speaking to MTV Multiplayer, Blizzard producer Chris Sigaty said that while StarCraft 2 is certainly being made to appeal to pro gamers, he also wants it to appeal to his mom.

"It's definitely a very challenging tight rope walk," Sigaty said about bridging the divide between hardcore and casual gamers. "We've tried to make sure that it's perfectly balanced for e-sport, but look -- I'm going to try to get my mom to play this game. I mean, I know she can't [micromanage] at the level that these pro gamers can, so we're actually experimenting back in the opposite direction... so that even the layman can come in and get a grasp of these cool things in the game."

Sigaty said they currently have former pro gamers testing StarCraft 2 (which is in alpha phase) at Blizzard, but part of the goal is to allow gamers less familiar with the real-time strategy genre to have an inroad to see whether it could appeal to them. "[Real-time strategy games] at this level -- there's a lot more there to think about and it gets really frantic really fast, and so it's definitely off-putting to somebody that's totally new to video games," he said. "But we want to make it much easier for people to explore whether it would interest them. And yes, I want to try to get my mom and my wife to take a look and see if they like it. My wife has come to a lot of these events, and she loves watching [people play] but she says, 'I could never do it.' Well, I want to try and change her mind. I think that would be awesome if we could."

It sounds like a worthy enough goal, but we have to wonder... is StarCraft 2 really the right game to experiment with in attracting casual gamers to the RTS genre? You have to figure there's only so much you can do to make a game of this type easy to get into, but still deep enough to obsess over for another 10 years. It'll be interesting to see how Blizzard balances this equation as development progresses.

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What... The... F*ck.... I hate micromanagement as much as the next guy in RTS games, but making it appeal to a braoder audiece? This and the trilogy thing are really making me wonder if Blizzard is losing their touch. After all they haven't had a game release in  years. Are they really losing their touch?

Heh, I don't like starcraft much.. I'm going to get Diablo 3 and try to get my mom to play it :)

The first SC didn't need micromanagement to get through all of the missions...

If you want E-play, then you'll have to micromanage, that's true.

But if one didn't need micromanagement, then I don't see the problem with the sequel.

And I don't think it's because of the complexity, it's because of the speed and the fact that killing, maiming and constant shooting that "mommy" isn't playing the game imho.

Well, isn't that a good thing? You don't need to have a 5000$ computer to enjoy a fun game, example: Diablo 2, BAD graphics, .. F***ing awesome game, I used to play that from when I woke up until I wen't to sleep.

Blizzard are awesome developers.

Every Blizz game is very quick to learn and play and hard as hell to master. That said, why would they want to make things even simpler? The games are already easy enough to pick up and enjoy that I don't know what they will start cutting.

Blizzard have always followed their "Easy to learn, Hard to master" mantra. Even if they were making it more accessible that would only mean it would be easier to learn, and no depth would be lost because Blizzard has dozens of Korean pro-players testing Starcraft 2's gameplay ALL THE TIME.

Did you read the article? They brought up the exact same point as you did. How can they make SC even more approachable than the first one? You didn't have to have ANY skill of any sort to get through the campaigns. Now they wanna make that even simpler?

Edit: Warcraft 2 was my first RTS and that was just as simple too, and they didnt even have hot keys back then.

As Starcrafts Alt account I find the article insulting.

I think you are overreacting just as the "snobcores" about the Wii and the "casual boom" :P

Not really. The games were already simple as F***, there is no reason to make them even more accessible at all, and very little room for making it so. An RTS is an RTS and you can't get simpler than SC and WCIII when it comes to RTSes. You can pass by without using any abilities at all even. Just drag a box, drop it around the units you need, and right click on a location and you would finish the campaign.