by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

I have been excited about Heroes of the Storm for quite awhile, for a lot of very superficial reasons. I love MOBAs. I love Blizzard franchises. I didn’t need more to get hyped about the game, and then Dustin Browder took the stage and made me fall in love with title.

The actual panel itself was fairly straightforward. The team on stage told us about mounts, skins, the Nexus, the various maps and accompanying mechanics, and peppered in all of that was an idea that this game would not be a clone of the other games on the market because, frankly, it didn’t have to be. Other, smaller companies might need to color within the lines, but Blizzard doesn’t have to, and won’t.

A lot of us got the message without it needing to be spelled out, but apparently some didn’t and that led to the Q&A phase. Some of the individuals became visibly confused by the fact that Heroes of the Storm would not be another clone in the MOBA genre, and Browder took a hard stance, explaining quite clearly that Heroes of the Storm would be its own title, and seek to do things differently.

When asked if Heroes of the Storm would offer a platform for individual players to show off their skills, Browder posited that the Dragon Knight mechanic would be substantially more powerful in the hands a skilled player, but otherwise, no. The game would be geared towards a team dynamic, and that teams would either win or lose together.

When asked who the core audience of the game was, Browder replied unflinchingly that the core audience of Heroes of the Storm is people who enjoy Heroes of the Storm, and that the design team was just not worried about it, and that they try to make the games they want to play. Browder elaborated that, they believe that if they make something fun, it’ll find an audience.

When asked if there could be a map more similar to existing ones, he basically said no. Browder explained that the team had tried it over the years, it wasn’t what they wanted, and they weren’t going to do it. Other games could do their thing, but their model isn’t what Blizzard needed.

Browder never got rude in his responses, but never tried to pander, either. He, and the rest of the team on stage stood firm in their conviction that, at the end of the day, it should be fun. Eventually, the potential for the game as an eSport was brought up, and Browder said absolutely, that they’d make the game and see what the community did with it, and support them all the way. As a longtime MOBA player, all of these stances combined is amazing.

Blizzard, because of its position in the market is absolutely able to a risk like this and, make no mistake, it is a risk. Making a MOBA that does not put a lot of emphasis on farming, solo play and winning no matter the cost totally deviates from the market right now, and that’s what, in my opinion, makes it essential. There has to be someone willing to stand up and say, ‘hey, this market can be whatever it wants to be, not just a series of clones’. I was on board with Heroes of the Storm before all of this, but now I want this to succeed as not just a game, but as a statement to the genre.