Is Blizzard the Best in the industry?

[Scisca]

Azzanation said:

Scisca said:

But in your replies you keep on going about ND.

I think it's debatable whether they are crowning much. They are making good games that work, but really when was the last time they made a truely great game? Not one that sells well, but one that is truely great? Best in the genre? WoW? Everything after that was only very solid, but nothing has been spectacular or worth remembering down the line. To me it always seems like they are taking the path of least resistance and are mixing the ingrediences that have already been proven to work by other companies or their previous games. The time when they actually pushed the industry is long gone. When I was younger I was waiting for another Blizzard game with anxiety and between StarCraft, Broodwar, Diablo 2, WarCraft 3, WoW - these were all legendary games with many unprecedented aspects. When these games were released, it was something special. Nowadays, nothing like that can really be said about their games. StarCraft 2, HearthStone, Diablo 3, Heroes of the Storm or Overwatch... Good games, but they don't really mean that much to the industry and neither one will become a legendary staple.

Let's face it, a lot of the incredible sales come not from these games being that great, but because of them being sequels to legendary games.

Theres alot of bait that happens in threads on VG which cause articles to get closed down. I am no longer responing to those who want to troll my article with off topic or no understanding on whats written. I did debate the facts however this only leads to off topic decussions. I didnt bring it up, and i will no longer continue with it.

As for best in the genre, let me give you some examples. What RTS game is better then the current StarCraft 2 series? Whats a better Hero based shooter then OverWatch? Whats a better MMO then WoW? Whats a better Hack and Slash, Loot and grind game then Diablo 3? Thats kind of my point, all of these games are top of there food chain, i am sure there are games that come close like Assemble Studios with there Total War series and Guild Wars 2 however Blizzard has not only made the best possible games in those genres, they continue to create newer experinces. There very first attempt at a FPS game beat Valve on there first go, and Valve specialise in the FPS market.

That leads to an amazing company, when they focus on something it becomes a game that not only sells extremly well, it will also last for years. There games are filled with so much value and qaulity. No company i know today delievers like what Blizzard do when it comes to makeing modern games and testing newer genres with the exception of Nintendo because they are truely amazing aswell. Blizzard and Nintendo are far from 1 trick ponies that many keep comparing them too.

I love StarCraft, I follow the progaming scene, etc. But in all fairness, I have to admit that SC2 never would have achieved its position, had it not been the second part of a legendary phenomenon. It took Blizz very, very long time to turn this game into something that could finally replace Brood War. Lets face it, Wings of Liberty multi was terrible, I found it totally unwatchable for years. HotS was finally fine, LotV is interesting, but currently the game needs a lot of serious work, cause it's painful how obvious the lack of balance is. So... They are trying, but the only reason they can do what they are doing is because they are taking advantage of the success of SC:BW. Unfortunately, classical RTS games are dead nowadays, so Blizz has no competition in this field anymore There is only Total War. But I think it can easily be said they dominate a dead genre and only because of their legacy, not because the game was that good. They are riding their previous success.

Diablo 3 - it was a mess on release. The graphics were universally criticised, the weird mechanics were... weird. The marketplace... Ok, they've managed to turn it around, but just like in the case of Starcraft 2 - the only reason they ever had the opportunity and had the sales they had was because it was Diablo. The new part to the game that created the whole genre and that dominated it for over a decade. Moreover, I think that many people consider Torchlight 2 to be better than Diablo 3. I don't think that this game is anywhere near to where Diablo 2 was.

WoW is the best, but it's so old already...

I don't know if Overwatch is that good, time will tell. It sells like crazy, but will it have a lasting impact? I've heard that on a technical level it's underwhelming and doesn't have what it takes to turn it into an e-sport (even though Blizz will no doubt push it). They've managed to beat Valve's 9 year's old game - lets not read too much into it There is no way they even touch CS:GO.

I know they are amazing. I love their old games, starting with The Lost Vikings, all the way through Warcraft 2&3, Diablo 1&2, Starcraft (which is on my top5 ever list), even Starcraft 2, but after that... I am about to finally try Diablo 3 out, but Blizz lost the magic in my eyes, and as you can read from many people here, others feel the same. They make very, very solid and well polished games and they are great at selling them. But they lost the magic. And there still are companies that have that magic, that are pushing the industry forward. Unfortunately, Blizzard is no longer among them and that causes many people to not put them on the top spot. They surely are on the shortlist, but it would help their cause if they finally released something groundbreaking.